• Corpus ID: 54042847

Exceptional Childre Determining Evidence-Based Practices in Special Education

@inproceedings{Cook2009ExceptionalCD,
  title={Exceptional Childre Determining Evidence-Based Practices in Special Education},
  author={Bryan G. Cook},
  year={2009}
}

• Bryan G. Cook
• Published 2009
• Education

Determining evidence-based practices is a complicated enterprise that requires analyzing the methodological quality and magnitude of the available research supporting specific practices. This article reviews criteria and procedures for identifying what works in the fields of clinical psychology, school psychology, and general education; and it compares these systems with proposed guidelines for determining evidence-based practices in special education. The authors then summarize and analyze the approaches and findings of the 5 reviews presented in this issue. In these reviews, prominent special education scholars applied the proposed quality indicators for high-quality research and standards for evidence-based practice to bodies of empirical literature. The article concludes by synthesizing these scholars' preliminary recommendations for refining the proposed quality indicators and standards for evidence-based practices in special education, as well as the process for applying them. uch forces as the standardsbased education movement, the mandated participation of students with disabilities in state proficiency testing, inclusion, and the recognition that many students with disabilities are capable of higher levels of academic and social attainment than previously expected have driven an intensified focus on improving outcomes for students with disabilities. Perhaps because many factors that may inhibit the outcomes of students with disabilities are beyond the direct control of educators (e.g., poverty, limited resources, attitudes), special educators have tended to focus their attention on one determinant of students' outcomes over which they have always exercised primary control—teaching practices. Unfortunately, many teachers of students with disabilities have implemented teaching practices shown to have little effect on student outcomes while eschewing many research-based practices (e.g., B. G. Cook & Schirmer, 2003; Kauffman, 1996). In an effort to bridge this research-to-practice gap, lawmakers have emphasized practices that research has shown to be effective in such legislation as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act of 2004. Researchers Exceptional Children 3 6 5 in special education have also conducted initial research on how to effectively support teachers in adopting and maintaining the use of researchbased or evidence-based practices (see Wanzek & Vaughn, 2006, for a review of this research). Despite the considerable interest in basing instructional practices on research evidence, special educators have not yet established definitively which practices are or are not evidence-based or settled on a systematic process for determining evidence-based practices (EBPs). E V I D E N C E B A S E D P R A C T I C E S All interventions are not equal; some are much more likely than others to positively affect student outcomes (Forness, Kavale, Blum, &C Lloyd, 1997). Simple logic appears to suggest that, in general, teachers should prioritize the use of instructional practices that are most likely to bring about desired student outcomes. Although some contend that research cannot reliably determine which educational practices produce desired gains in student outcomes (e.g., Gallagher, 1998), we proceed under the positivist assumption that it can (Lloyd, PuUen, Tankersley, & Lloyd, 2006). The use of EBPs, or those practices shown by research to work, seems particularly imperative in special education. As Dammann and Vaughn (2001) suggested, whereas many nondisabled students make adequate progress under a variety of instructional conditions, students with disabilities require the most effective teaching techniques to succeed. However, advocating for implementing EBPs in special education begs two critical questions: what are EBPs, and how can researchers identify them? All interventions are not equal; some are much more likely than others to positively affect student outcomes. Determining whether a practice is evidencebased involves a number of issues: What types of research designs should researchers consider? How many studies with converging findings are necessary to instill confidence that a practice is effective? How methodologically rigorous must a study be for the results to be meaningful? To what extent must an intervention affect student outcomes for researchers to consider it effective? Although other issues certainly affect the difficult business of determining EBPs, we limit our discussion to these four issues—research design, quantity of research, methodological quality, and magnitude of effect.