Ensuring Content–Area Learning by Secondary Students with Learning Disabilities

Three factors tied with secondary student success in content–area reading are demonstrated: (a) validated teacher–focused and student–focused interventions, (b) integrated and comprehensive service delivery systems, and (c) well–designed, data–based professional developmental programs. Difficult challenges face secondary students with LD and their teachers with regard to these students’ participation and success in required general education classes. Recently, instructional methods and materials have been developed and validated for promoting these students’ success. Some of them focus on how general education teachers plan and teach their content–area courses; others focus on giving students the strategies they need to respond independently to the demands of their courses. This article describes these instructional methods, a service–delivery model for implementing these interventions in secondary schools, and professional–development mechanisms and administrative support that must be in place for the model to be maintained effectively.