Remedial and Special Education, Ahead of Print.
Adaptive behavior, self-determination, and health are important areas of body functions and activities identified by autistic adults as priorities for research. Past research has suggested that autistic adults have high support needs in adaptive behavior and self-determination, and have poor physical and mental health outcomes. This study included 211 autistic young adults 18–25 years old (Mage = 20.93) and their caregivers who completed questionnaires and interviews on adaptive behavior, self-determination, and physical and mental health. Correlations were examined among adaptive behavior, maladaptive behavior, self-determination, and health outcomes controlling for IQ. Adult self-reports of self-determination capacity were associated with maladaptive behavior. Reports of self-determination by caregivers were associated with adaptive behavior and maladaptive behavior. Caregiver reports of maladaptive behaviors were associated with physical health outcomes. Findings provide an initial understanding of activities, participation, body functions, and their interactions among autistic young adults.

Remedial and Special Education, Ahead of Print.
A critical tenet of education research is establishing what works. Another is exploring theorized mechanisms of change to help ascertain why academic programs work, for whom, and under which conditions. In other words, unpacking the black boxes of academic programs. This study explored the quality of teachers’ facilitation of (a) scientific investigations and (b) science discourse during and after the implementation of a systematic, explicit second-grade science program (Scientific Explorers-2). Our results demonstrated that relative to comparison classrooms, Scientific Explorers-2 classrooms delivered significantly higher quality scientific investigations. The quality of science discourse and maintenance effects for both measures were not statistically significant, but favored treatment classrooms in each case. Implications for designing science programs that support the delivery of high-quality science instruction that meets the needs of all students, particularly students with or at risk of learning disabilities, are discussed.

Remedial and Special Education, Ahead of Print.
Adapted alternating treatment designs were used to evaluate and compare two computer-based phrase-reading interventions in four postsecondary students with an intellectual or developmental disability. Each intervention targeted eight unknown words from each student’s elective college class. For each word, interventions included three stimulus-response–stimulus-response learning trials, which prompted students to read a brief phrase containing an unknown word. During the single-phrase intervention, for each unknown word, three learning trials including the same phrase were presented. During the multiphrase intervention, three different phrases per unknown word were presented. Three generalization phrases were developed for each word. Both interventions increased students’ accurate reading of words embedded in generalization phrases and the entire generalization phrases, with the multiphrase intervention resulting in more rapid learning. Discussion focuses on future research designed to evaluate and enhance the effectiveness of phrase-reading interventions on generalized reading performance in students with disability.

Remedial and Special Education, Ahead of Print.
The current study used a multiple probe design to determine the effects of an intervention package (asynchronous training plus emailed specific performance feedback) on the rate of opportunities to respond (OTR) of three preservice elementary teachers providing small group mathematics instruction. The study utilized Swivl to record and upload lessons, which were viewed and coded to determine the rate per minute of OTR. Results show a functional relation between the intervention package and increased rates of OTR across all participants. Calculations using Nonoverlap of All Pairs (NAP) and Log Response Ratio (LRRi) suggest strong effects on the rate of OTR. Social validity was determined by semi-structured interviews, during which participants noted the intervention package to be effective at changing their behavior and simple to implement. Limitations and future research directions are addressed.

Remedial and Special Education, Ahead of Print.
The present study evaluated the effectiveness of point-of-view video self-prompting (VSP), with narration, delivered via an iPad, in teaching four secondary students with high-incidence disabilities to solve algebraic equations requiring the use of the distributive property. Participants were taught to independently use an iPad to self-deliver video prompts of each of 30 steps required to solve the algebraic equations. A multiple probe across participants design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. Dependent measures included the percentage of steps correct and the percentage of problems correct on novel problems during baseline, pre-VSP session probes, and maintenance and generalization probes. Three of four participants’ data evidenced a functional relation between the VSP intervention and solving the targeted algebraic equations. Participants’ skills maintained to varying degrees. In addition, participants’ skills generalized to a similar but untaught equation type. Limitations and implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Remedial and Special Education, Ahead of Print.
This pilot study investigated the efficacy of the Promoting Adolescent Comprehension Through Text (PACT) intervention, a social studies content knowledge and reading comprehension set of practices implemented with social studies classes including students with disabilities. Social studies general education teachers were provided with professional development on the PACT and differentiation practices to support students with disabilities in the general education classroom. A total of 28 teachers and 893 students (58 students with disabilities) participated in the study, across 20 rural and urban middle schools. Effect sizes (ES) ranged from 0.21 to 0.36 on measures of content knowledge acquisition and reading comprehension for students with disabilities in the treatment classes.

Remedial and Special Education, Ahead of Print.
Special educators often work in school contexts that are not oriented toward their students’ strengths and needs, resulting in tension–misalignment between their responsibility to students and their schools’ resources and expectations. Using grounded theory, we explored five teachers’ experiences of tension when serving students labeled with emotional/behavioral disorders in self-contained classes. We found teachers experienced tensions regarding students’ belonging, their academic instructional roles, and their roles supporting students’ behavior. Tensions reflected ways schools were not oriented toward students’ strengths and support needs. Yet, teachers’ perspectives on tensions varied greatly. Grounded in humanizing perspectives on students, some teachers experienced tension with colleagues who resisted including students and honoring students’ support needs. Other teachers held deficit-based, legalistic views of students, which underlay their acceptance of (or even advocacy for) exclusion. Findings indicate the centrality of educators’ conceptions of disability for how they conceptualize and fulfill their roles in serving students with disabilities.

Remedial and Special Education, Ahead of Print.
Instructional coaching is one way to support teachers’ implementation of evidence-based practices, but gaps exist in knowledge about effective coaching interventions to support teacher learning at the secondary level. In this article, we first introduce an adaptive intervention model (AIM) for coaching, AIM Coaching, a coaching model designed for middle school instructional leaders to use to support teachers as they implement evidence-based literacy instructional practices across a Tier 1 school-wide literacy model. We also describe the theory of change that guided our work, a description of the accompanying professional development instructional leaders received, and the literacy practices that are linked to the Model for the purpose of this work. Second, we describe the challenges we encountered and decisions we made during the development process, solutions that addressed those challenges, and implications of those solutions.