WOW, interesting site. I will be diving into it in more detail to look at the specific research. I was a little saddened to see that the topics list did not include special education, or any special education disability areas. While I believe reading interventions and drop out prevention are important, I am a bit of a special ed snob and hoped to at least find something on the topic. They may cover it within these other topic areas, but that does make wading through much more time consuming to find the info.At least there's a start. It's probably because they test these programs on the largest population -- the general ed population. Of course, gen. ed. kids who have reading problems can have the same reading issues as our spec. ed. kids do. Now that IDEA 2004 requires that reading programs be research based, I'm hoping that the companies who market these programs will find it worth putting their programs through valid research in BOTH populations. Otherwise they may find that the schools will have to drop them. I'm searching for the right program for my HS son right now.
I agree with you completetly! There are people who independently research which types of curricula work for ASD (see the NECC). I am glad to see the government is starting this collection of information- even if it is after they have begun enforcing that we teach this way. While I am on an even slightly related topic, I would also LOVE to see academic assessment testing that has a "norm" group in the test population of children with ASD.
Thank you for the link, I will be checking it often.
The above is a link to a compilation by the US DOE of various programs and approaches that work with different kids for different reasons. This is not just for spec. ed. NCLB requires that research based and peer reviewed techniques be used, so the government has started compiling lists of programs and approaches that do just that. It might be worth a peek.