Scientifically Based Practices - Part II

Research is Not Just for Researchers 

The words "research-based" or "evidence-based" are now used widely throughout the education world. (This is a very good thing!) As mentioned a year ago in my column "Scientifically Based Practice: Show Me the Evidence," the No Child Left Behind law compels educators to use "teaching practices that have been proven to work." In that column I wrote that:

• simply collecting data is not in and of itself scientific
• not all research is created equal
• decisions based on careful scientific inquiry are better than those made by "shooting from the hip"
• and introduced different types of research designs such as experimental group studies, correlational studies, single subject studies and qualitative studies.

In subsequent columns I wrote about Responsiveness to Intervention and Student Progress Monitoring as approaches to making decisions about instruction that tap readily available data from classrooms and help educators identify and teach students who struggle with learning. Are these approaches based on scientific evidence? Are there carefully controlled studies that demonstrate their benefit to students and educators? Is there solid evidence to confirm their effectiveness with a range of students with special needs? The answer is a resounding "Yes." And yet, there is much more to be learned about implementing these practices in different settings, their effectiveness with students who present particular types of learning challenges, and the types of training and support that are essential for these practices to be implemented with fidelity to effectively reach every student who struggles with learning.

The Internet Says ...

Everyone is interested in the educational well-being of students. Parents want their children to succeed in school as a way to prepare them for post-secondary experiences and eventually for success in the workplace and in life. Educators want students to master skills and content learning and to help students become flexible, creative thinkers and independent learners. Society wants students to succeed in school so they can become active and contributing members of society at large. And no one would argue that the best way to accomplish these goals is to make decisions about instructional methodologies and support based on sustentative and reliable data.

What's that? You're not convinced that educational research is on the public's radar screen? Look below and see the results of three simple internet searches earlier this week on a popular web browser, both with and without the word "education" included as a key word:

The challenge we face today is not deciding whether to believe that a scientific approach to recognizing and responding to students who struggle with learning is important, but rather how best to build collaborative relationships among researchers, educators, and parents so these best, most effective teaching strategies are developed, tested, refined, disseminated, and incorporated into daily practice.

A Role for Parents

When parents suspect their child to have a medical disorder of some sort, they are quick to go to great lengths to learn as much as they can about the nature of the disease and the different treatment approaches that are used to overcome its symptoms and, to the greatest extent possible, provide relief (or even a cure) for their child. Why then do so many parents of children who struggle to learn because of a suspect specific learning disability assume a passive posture and "wait to see" whether some extra help from a teacher or tutor will do the trick? Parents today have ready and easy access to the same information as teachers and other school personnel, and they could (and should) play active roles in determining what approaches are best for their child, not just based on "learning style" or "intuition" but also on their understanding of what research tells us about WHAT WORKS!

I encourage you to read a wonderful (and fun) article that explains the Ingredients of Good Research and the role parents can play as partners with schools in applying the best available research knowledge to ensure school success.

Be a Skeptical Consumer

A healthy dose of skepticism is a good thing when it comes to making decisions about "best practices" in education. For example: Some of the best data we have about effective teaching strategies (say, in the area of reading) have been derived from studies with children in certain age groups. Does this mean that these same strategies will work with children who are older or younger? Does this mean that these techniques are equally effective with content and skill areas other than reading? Does this mean that these approaches should only be used with children and in settings that are identical to those in the research studies? No, no and no. It does, however, pose challenges for parents and educators as they make decisions about what kinds of instruction and support to provide. So what should parents and educators do? They should:

• Document the child's current situation (methods now being used, progress being made, concerns about rate of learning or mastery of content) and identify unmet needs
• Talk about how alternative approaches are similar or different than those now being used, learn more about them from the Web, journals or textbooks, and decide whether they hold promise for accelerating the child's progress in school
• Learn about the kinds of resources (time, funding, training) that need to be available for any new approaches to be successful, and have open and honest discussion about the viability of adopting these approaches, either in whole or in part
• Establish some realistic way of measuring whether, once adopted, these new approaches are indeed facilitating progress

Share Knowledge and Expertise

NCLD has written a number of guides that enable parents and educators to make informed decisions about the implementation of scientifically-based practices as detailed in current law.

A Parent's Guide to Response-to-Intervention (RTI) (PDF)

IDEA includes a provision that allows states and school districts to use high quality, research-based instruction in general and special education to provide services and interventions to students who struggle with learning and may be at risk or suspected of having learning disabilities. NCLD has written this Guide to provide an overview of the RTI process, describe how it is implemented in schools and offer questions that parents can ask.

Parent Guide to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)

Learn about your expanded parent rights and opportunities under the most recent special education law. The IDEA Parent Guide walks you through the law, in easy-to-understand language, and provides tools you can use to get organized, understand the process and know your rights under the law.

I encourage you to read these guides (download them for free) and share them with friends and colleagues. And remember ... research is not just for researchers!