Implementation of a Writing Strategy for Students with Learning Disabilities in a Rural Setting

The researchers implemented this study as part of a university teacher education grant-funded project designed to significantly improve the quality of services, results, and opportunities for pupils with high incidence disabilities at the middle and high school levels within a rural, high poverty region of California. In the region in which this study took place, the majority of middle and secondary schools have low graduation and high dropout rates. The majority of the counties are listed as "most critical" on the Educational Needs Index because of higher poverty rates, higher populations of at-risk minorities, and lower rates of educational achievement. State data showed that, for grades 4th through 8th, the rural National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores were below average (Strange, Johnson, Showalter & Klein, 2012). Data also indicate that special education teachers located in small and rural communities have experienced professional isolation and often have fewer resources for professional development and fewer support networks (Berry, 2012; Brownell, Bishop, Sc Sindelar, 2005; Ludlow, Conner, & Schecter, 2005).The grant provided the opportunity for regional special education cooperating teachers to participate in a universitysponsored professional development project intended to promote the implementation of evidence-based interventions for students with learning disabilities. Five secondary special education teachers participated in the project in which writing was identified as an area of high pupil academic need and the target of the study. Project faculty and participating teachers seleced the Strategic Instructional Model (SIM) Proficiency in the Sentence Writing Strategy as the writing intervention for this 1-year study.The Problem and Implications for Rural SettingsSecondary educators face many challenges. Most of all, they are expected to teach with "... raise[d] standards so graduates of secondary schools are better able to compete in the world economy and close the achievement gap for the growing number of struggling adolescent learners ..." (Deshler, Hock, &. Catts, 2006, p. 1). By the time students reach the junior and high school levels, teachers expect their students to have basic reading and writing skills that are required for ongoing learning. For literacy instruction, there is often an emphasis on reading; yet, writing skills are used as a way to measure comprehension and application across content areas (Deshler, Palincsar, Biancarosa, & Nair, 2007). Many secondary students, however, do not have grade-level writing skills that are needed to meet the demands of their grade-level courses or for beyond high school (Graham & Hebert, 2010). According to the National Commission on Writing (2003), writing is the most neglected curriculum of the three "Rs." For students with learning disabilities, the problem is amplified. To add to this picture, Harris, Graham, Friedlander, Laud, and Dougherty (2013) reported that a majority of teachers indicate they have received inadequate preparation in writing instruction and evidence-based interventions.The statistics on writing achievement for student attending rural schools are dismal. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), just over 20% of children in the United States are educated in more isolated rural settings where a higher proportion of students perform lower at the basic writing level than their counterparts in suburban or urban locations (Strange et al., 2012). Research in the fields of special education and rural education indicates that the challenges for rural schools, including increased rates of poverty, diversity, and students with special needs, provide mounting evidence that rural special education teachers need opportunities to engage in meaningful professional development that leads to higher rates of student achievement (Berry &. Gravelle, 2013; Robinson, Bursuck, &. …