+ Special Education and Related Services: What Have We Learned From Meta-Analysis? By Steven R. Forness University of California, Los Angeles Neuropsychiatric Hospital Training School Psychologists to be Experts in Evidence Based Practices for Tertiary Students with Serious Emotional Disturbance/Behavior Disorders US Office of Education K H325K Presented by Julia Hood 3/11/09

+ Special Education Criticism of the effectiveness of special education Research efforts in Special Education have also been criticized Past research efforts of narrative report are insufficient and inadequate Lack of evidence for effective interventions based on: Certain types of problems Certain types of children In comparison to other interventions

+ Special Education Meta-analysis is being used more frequently as a means to synthesize research in the area of interventions and special education

+ Special Education Current meta-analysis is an update to a previous synthesis in order to make the research more current 24 separate meta-analyses across 20 intervention topics Compared mean effect sizes (ES) Difficulty because no directly comparable studies Studies had different purposes, research samples, and outcome measures Therefore, only tentative conclusions can be drawn as to relative effectiveness and need for further investigation

+ Meta-Analyses for Special Education Large ES InterventionESNumber of Studies Mnemonic strategies (Mastropieri & Scruggs, 1989) Reading-comp. strategies (Talbott, Lloyd, & Tankersley, 1994) (Mastropieri et al., 1996) (Swanson, 1999) Behavior modification (Skiba & Casey, 1985) Direct instruction (White, 1988)0.8425

+ Meta-Analyses for Special Education Medium ES InterventionESNumber of Studies Cognitive behavior modification (Robinson, Smith, Miller, & Brownell, 1999) Psychotherapy (Weisz & Weiss, 1993) Formative evaluation (Fuchs & Fuchs, 1986) Early intervention (Casto & Mastropieri, 1986)0.6874

+ Meta-Analyses for Special Education Medium ES InterventionESNumber of Studies Stimulant medication (Crenshaw, Kavale, Forness, & Reeve, 1999) (Kavale, 1982) Computer-assisted instruction (Schmidt, Weinstein, Niemie, & Walberg, 1985–86) Peer tutoring (Cook, Scruggs, Mastropieri, & Casto, 1985–86 ) Word-recognition strategies ( Swanson, 1999)

+ Meta-Analyses for Special Education Small ES InterventionESNumber of Studies Psycholinguistic training (Kavale, 1981) Reducing class size (Glass & Smith, 1979) Psychotropic medication (Kavale & Nye, 1984) Social-skills training (Forness & Kavale, 1996) (Quinn, Kavale, Mathur, Rutherford, & Forness, 1999)

+ Meta-Analyses for Special Education Small ES InterventionESNumber of Studies Modality instruction (Kavale & Forness, 1987 ) Diet restrictions (Kavale & Forness, 1983) Perceptual training (Kavale & Mattson, 1983) Special class placement (Carlberg & Kavale, 1980)

+ Single-Participant Studies Inclusion of single-subject studies is a controversial topic When included, Percentage of Non-overlapping Data (PND) is commonly used as the metric Data points obtained during intervention phases that do not overlap with any data points from baseline or reversal phases are divided by the total number of intervention phase data points Criteria for effectiveness are: Powerful intervention Favorable Questionable Under 50 Unfavorable

+ Special Education “Mega- Analysis” When all of the mean ES’s from all of the meta-analyses were combined, there was an overall ES of.55 for special education This was partially weighted for the interventions that had more than one meta-analysis This would imply that there is a substantial benefit to special education There are dangers to combining studies that are this diverse

+ “special”, “education”, or “related” M ust look at the intervention and the emphasis of “special”, “education”, or “related” “Special” is an intervention that involves a unique and different method that would not typically be used in general education Usually designed solely for use in special education Goal of enhancing hypothetical and unobservable constructs that are presumed to cause learning deficits

+ “special”, “education”, or “related” “Education” is the category of interventions that emphasize education by adapting and modifying instruction Origins in general education and modified for special education to accommodate the needs of students Direct approach of adapting instruction to enhance the academic learning of special education students

+ “special”, “education”, or “related” “related” services are dependent on other professionals aside from the teacher Consultation from other professionals (school psychologists, behavior analysts) Actual delivery of the intervention by another individual

+ Special “Education” Mneumonic Strategies 1.62 Reading Comprehension Strategies0.94 Direct Instruction0.84 Formative Evaluation0.70 Computer-assisted Instruction0.66 Peer Tutoring0.58 Word Recognition Strategies0.57 Mean0.84

+ “Special” Education Psycholinguistic Training0.39 Social Skills Training0.20 Modality Instruction0.14 Perceptual Training0.08 Mean0.20

+ “Related” Services Behavior Modification0.93 Cognitive Behavior Modification0.74 Psychotherapy0.71 Stimulant Medication0.62 Psychotropic Medication0.30 Diet Restrictions-0.12 Mean0.53

+ Conclusions Best practice Combine interventions with medium to high ES’s Look at how the combination of certain interventions will produce varying ES’s Monitor students’ progress Teacher cognitive-behavioral self-management Possibility of stimulant medications (particularly ADHD) Professionals following these guidelines should expect better outcomes

+ Considerations About Practice Some versions of certain interventions can have different effect (positive or negative) Some children will benefit more from some interventions than other children would Many of the studies included are now over 10 years old New research has been done and should be considered

+ Final Thought Overall, special education cannot be considered ineffective based on the results of this “mega-analysis”