Social Competence in Urban Alternative Schools

This exploratory grounded theory study examined teacher perspectives of social competence in urban alternative high schools. Research questions elicited teachers’ conceptualizations of social competence and descriptions of how their views on students’ social-emotional behaviors influence pedagogy. The specific school context was behavior-focused alternative schools, which serve a disproportionate number of Black students and students with disabilities. Findings indicated urban alternative high school teachers highly value and prioritize within their classrooms the learning and application of specific social competencies perceived to influence post-high school employability. Implications are discussed

Use of Legally Compliant IEPs for Inclusive Programming

The purpose of this article is to review major components of an Individualized Education Program (IEP) from the perspective that the IEP process serves to facilitate inclusive opportunities for students with disabilities. The IEP is a legally binding contractual agreement between a school district and a family, thus it is imperative for the process to be procedurally compliant and completed in a substantively meaningful manner consistent with the six key foundational principles of special education law (Turnbull, Stowe, & Huerta, 2007). An IEP is one of the foundational principles of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) of 2004, and this article will primarily focus on three legal criteria needed to develop a meaningful IEP

African American and disabled youth are overrepresented in behavior-focused and academic remediation schools

School districts in the US often have many different types of high schools - some are traditional neighborhood schools, while others are more innovative or focused on behavior or academic remediation. In new research Aaron B. Perzigian, Kemal Afacan, Whitney Justin, and Kimber L. Wilkerson examine the characteristics of students across these school types. They find that African American students, ..

Evidence-based Interventions for Immigrant Students Experiencing Behavioral and Academic Problems: A Systematic Review of the Literature

The purpose of the present research review is to identify effective, high quality school-based interventions for immigrant students with disabilities or academic and behavioral problems. A systematic review of the literature was conducted to synthesize international research studies. Initial and criteriabased selection processes yielded six intervention studies published between 1975 and 2010. Two of the studies are academic interventions while four are behavioral interventions. Three studies were conducted in the United States while the remaining three in Israel, Canada, and Norway. The identified studies were evaluated against the quality indicators of special education research. Three experimental studies met the minimum criteria for acceptable methodological rigor. The results show an urgent need for methodologically robust intervention studies in the field of special education for immigrant students. Implications for research and practice are discussed

Characteristics of Students in Traditional Versus Alternative High Schools: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Enrollment in One Urban District

Urban school districts are comprised of many diverse high school environments including comprehensive neighborhood schools as well as a variety of smaller alternative models that focus on innovative practices, behavior remediation, or academic recovery. In terms of enrollment distribution, urban school districts are increasingly offering nontraditional school placement options for students presenting academic and behavioral difficulty or for students seeking specific curricular emphasis or pedagogy, including—but not limited to—use of school choice voucher programs. In this study, we examined student distribution across school types in one large urban district to investigate enrollment patterns with regard to gender, race, socioeconomic status, and disability status. The results of this cross-sectional analysis indicated significant disproportionality in student demographics within different school types, including overrepresentation of African American students, male students, and students with disabilities in restrictive and segregated alternative schools; overrepresentation of White students and female students in self-selected and innovative alternative schools; and underrepresentation of Hispanic and Asian students in remedial alternative schools. Implications of this disproportionality for policy and practice are discussed