WWC adds new topic area: Students with Learning Disabilities

The Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences What Works Clearinghouse (the arbiter of what is good research in education ;-) has added a new Topic Area. According to their recent newsletter, "WWC is now conducting reviews of research on interventions that focus on students who have learning disabilities. This new topic area aims to help educators make important decisions about curriculums [sic], supplemental products, and classroom methods....it is often difficult to identify research-based interventions—whether those are programs, products, or practices—that have shown to be effective specifically for these students. The WWC will evaluate research on curricula and instructional strategies that are intended to improve achievement for students with learning disabilities in grades K–12 and provide educators with insight on these important questions:

• Which interventions improve achievement in reading, writing, math, science, or social studies? Which promote student progress?
• Are some interventions especially effective for certain subgroups of students with learning disabilities—students of different ages, for example, or students with particular learning disabilities, students of specific racial/ethnic groups, or English language learners?"