Saudi Arabia has produced more peer-reviewed research in the past 10 years than ever before (El-Showk, 2016). The country is leading its Arab counterparts in the annual number of both published scientific research and obtained patents. A review of the published research across topics and fields of study, the research designs used, and the populations targeted, is needed in various fields to move related scientific research forward. The current review addresses the Saudi Arabian research related to special education during a 32-year period; that is, between 1984 and 2016. This review identified 3,381 relevant publications, yielding 499 publications that met the criteria for inclusion in the analysis. These studies were analyzed to determine any trends of publication, language used for publications, use of interventions, research design, participants, settings, research topics, and affiliation of the authors. The discussion notes drawbacks and highlights areas for further consideration by special education researchers in Saudi Arabia.

The presence of students identified as English Language Learners (ELL) and Special Education Students (SES) in mainstream settings is growing. However, representation of these populations within language testing research remains unknown. This is important because language testing scores are increasingly used to evaluate student learning, teacher quality, and school quality. This meta-synthesis examined the representation of these two exceptional populations within the mainstream language testing literature published in two language testing journals. This meta-synthesis utilized inductive analysis and descriptive statistics. Findings indicated highly skewed representations of ELL and SES within the research corpus of the reviewed journals. Further analysis of participant demographics, research settings, test formats and test modalities are reported and discussed. Results highlight critical needs for the fields of exceptional education regarding the language testing of ELL and SES populations. The paper closes with suggestions regarding such needed research.