Because of what are perceived by some as potential challenges it is still commonplace for research to fail to seek the opinions of pupils with multiple and complex needs. While many such pupils do have significant communication difficulties, along with other disabilities, which are undoubtedly a constraint, it is crucial in order to be inclusive,…

This paper examines the extent to which legitimacy affects program continuation, and focuses on the process by which programs attempt to maintain legitimate status through conformity with the larger environment. Legitimacy is defined as cultural support from a program's larger environment, such as the school district or community. An innovative…

Intended as an aid in the selection of software techniques and tools, this document contains three sections: (1) a suggested methodology for the selection of validation, verification, and testing (VVT) techniques and tools; (2) summary matrices by development phase usage, a table of techniques and tools with associated keywords, and an…

This review of 50 social validation research studies involving persons with handicaps concludes that social validation procedures are an appropriate and important component of applied behavior analysis. Discussed are methodological issues, social importance of effects, social significance of goals, social appropriateness of procedures, and…

This guide provides a brief overview of the issues involved in the validation process. It was developed for evaluators of adult education projects, such as 310 projects. The guide is organized in three sections. The first section discusses the rationale for validation. The second section describes the characteristics of validation models. The…

A visually-impaired 17-year-old was videotaped in a work setting before and after vocational training. The videotape was shown to 35 graduate students and student teachers, whose ratings of the student's vocational competence validated behavior changes (e.g., job task accuracy) resulting from the training as being clinically important. (Author/JDD)

This report reports activities of the Regional Information Exchange (RIE) program under the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research's Knowledge Dissemination and Utilization Program. An overview compares the RIE program with a National Diffusion Network unit--the Joint Dissemination Review Panel, which also focuses on…

The second of two related pamphlets, this guide describes how to design an outcome study and outlines procedures for collecting outcome data. After an introduction that delineates the purpose of the two-part series, the pamphlet is divided into four major sections. The first section explains how to select a cost-outcome analysis. The next three…

Beginning in fall 1991, Napa Valley College (NVC), in California, switched from essentially mandatory placement of incoming students to an advisory, self-selection system, where students receive course recommendations based on assessment test results. In order to evaluate the validity of NVC's assessment procedures, a study was conducted of…

A survey instrument, Higher Education Economic Development Survey (HEEDS), designed to measure research administrators' perception of current involvement of state universities and land grant institutions in economic development, was developed and validated. The instrument consists of 56 items concerning presently occurring and normative economic…

In this book, which applies the state of the art in qualitative research to special education, qualitative research is used as a generic term for investigative methodologies described variously as ethnographic, naturalistic, anthropological, field research, or participant-observer research. Chapter 1 introduces and defines qualitative research and…

Despite their vital role in open-access, two-year colleges, remedial education efforts have increasingly come under attack by legislators and the public, who view such programs as duplicating the appropriate function of high schools, and who believe that limited state resources should be devoted to more prestigious programs. For a college to…