This article presents recent findings from several long-term qualitative investigations of co-teaching in science and social studies content-area classes, in which collaborating teachers and students with and without disabilities were observed and interviewed regarding effective practices and challenges associated with inclusion. In some sites, collaborating teachers were provided with research-based effective strategies and materials for including students with disabilities in specific activities. Results were equivocal in that in some cases, collaboration was extremely effective and conducive for promoting success for students with disabilities in inclusive classes. In others, challenges remained that presented barriers for successful collaboration and inclusion for students with disabilities. Important mediating variables were identified as academic content knowledge, high-stakes testing, and co-teacher compatibility. Findings are discussed with respect to both successes and remaining challenges.

This article describes research on reading comprehension instruction with secondary students with learning disabilities. Specific difficulties for the struggling reader at the secondary level are described, followed by a review of reviews of the reading comprehension instruction research. Specific details from the most promising practices that have scientific evidence are highlighted. These practices include peer tutoring that incorporates comprehension strategy instruction and elaborative strategies in history and science classes. Research using Inspiration software to generate spatially organized graphic organizers to facilitate comprehension of content-area instruction is presented. Finally, implications for practice and for future research are discussed.

The authors describe findings from a research synthesis on content area instruction for students with disabilities. Seventy studies were identified from a comprehensive literature search, examined, and coded for a number of variables, including weighted standardized mean-difference effect sizes. More than 2,400 students were participants in these investigations. Studies included interventions involving content areas, such as science, social studies, and English, and employed a number of different interventions, including study aids, classroom learning strategies, spatial and graphic organizers, mnemonic strategies, hands-on activities, classroom peers, and computer-assisted instruction. The overall effect size was 1.00, indicating an overall large effect across studies. Implications for future research and practice are described.

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In this project, a partnership between school and university personnel addressed, in a systematic, research-oriented fashion, a classroom problem. A young child with autism exhibited excessively loud screaming, yelling, humming, and other distracting noises during class activities in a special education setting. These disruptive behaviors were a serious concern and also hampered the teacher's efforts to place the child in more inclusive environments. The partnership members first systematically assessed the target behaviors and then consulted existing research interventions addressing those behaviors. Basing their efforts on previous research, the partnership members developed social stories and implemented them through a single-subject research design. Ongoing observations and consultations, as well as input from all partnership members, formed the basis for any changes made to the intervention. At morning circle time, data on inappropriate behavior (yelling) and appropriate sitting were collected during baseline, Intervention Phase 1, Intervention Phase 2, and return-to-baseline conditions. The intervention yielded positive behavioral changes for the target student. Findings are discussed with respect to effective social story interventions for young children with autism and establishment of effective partnerships through which teachers may become active researchers.