A first year evaluation of the Cajon Valley Union School District shadow class pilot program.

摘要

How best to provide special education services to middle school students with learning disabilities (LD) has long been a contentious topic of debate among educators, researchers, politicians, and parents. With the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA, 2001) and the reauthorization of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2004), however, the federal government has made it clear that the time for debate must now yield to action that employs proven, research-based instructional practices that result in positive outcomes for all students.;As part of the process to meet federal expectations, the Cajon Valley Union School District (CVUSD) has recently developed and implemented a pilot program that employs shadow classes as a strategic intervention for middle school students with LD. Shadow classes are a State of California recommended approach whereby special educators, in collaboration with the general education teachers of core English/language arts and math classes, provide daily supplemental and differentiated instruction that supports the core curriculum.;This proposed doctoral project is a first year evaluation of the CVUSD's Shadow Class Pilot Program (SCPP). The methods for this evaluation will include a quantitative analysis of the student participants' archival academic data, as well as a survey assessing general and special education teachers' perceptions of the program.;Results from this program evaluation will provide important baseline and initial experimental data regarding the effectiveness of the CVUSD SCPP as a strategic intervention for middle school students with LD. Further, teacher perceptions may provide valuable insights about the pilot program's strengths and weaknesses, as well as suggestions for how best to improve its future implementation at other CVUSD middle schools.