The shift toward standardized testing has failed to result in a meaningful reduction of high school dropout rates, and students with disabilities continue to be marginalized by the culture of testing in public education (Dynarski et al., 2008). With that said, the needs of students with specific educational challenges are diverse and complex, and the solutions to their needs are not revealed in the results of standardized testing (Crawford &

Vaughn et al. (2003) report that the identification of LD students has increased upwards of 200% since 1977, with explanations ranging from a likely outcome of the growing knowledge field, to LD as a field serving as a sink for the failures of general education to meet the needs of students of varying abilities. The study investigators find that not only is the heterogeneity of the identified students quite wide,

RTI Response to Intervention Response to Intervention (RTI) Over the past decade, rapid changes have occurred in general educational practice to increase the focus on early identification of and intervention for students considered at risk. The aptly named response-to-intervention (RTI) model of service delivery is generally described as a multi-tiered model whereby students receive interventions of increasing intensity, with movement from one level to another based on demonstrated performance and rate of progress

Thus, efforts aimed at helping teachers to avoid harmful stereotyping of students often begin with activities designed to raise teachers' awareness of their unconscious biases." (1989) Cotton goes on the relate that there are specific ways in which differential expectations are communicated to students according to the work of: "Brookover, et al. (1982); Brophy (1983); Brophy and Evertson (1976); Brophy and Good (1970); Cooper and Good (1983); Cooper and

CRISS- Annotated Bibliography Annotated Bibliography Jitendra, A.K. (April 2011). Reading Comprehension Instruction for Students with Learning Disabilities. Focus on Exceptional Children, Vol. 43 Issue 8, p1-16, 16p. Students with learning disabilities require unique strategies for accessing knowledge. The article addresses text enhancement strategies available to teachers such as graphic organizers, story maps, mnemonic illustrators, story guides and computer aided instruction. Assistance in main idea development, questioning, and summarization can also help students. Guidance

School Culture on School Safety Many studies have been done on safety in schools. Likewise, many studies have been done on the culture of various schools. Unfortunately, there has not been significant research on a link between the two. This is not to say that these kinds of studies have not been done, but rather that there has not been enough of them. Many of the studies that have been