Reading Instruction in Special Education Resource Rooms

Using the observation procedures developed by Leinhardt, Zigmond, and Cooley (1981), we conducted a large-scale field study of reading instruction in special education resource room programs for fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade mildly handicapped students. Children in 23 resource rooms in one district and those from 5 resource rooms in another district were observed during reading instruction. Observations were also made in regular classrooms for a subset of handicapped students and their nonhandicapped peers. The research sought to answer questions regarding the standardization of resource room reading instruction, the nature and amount of reading instruction in these programs, factors associated with how students are scheduled for special reading instruction, reading instruction in resource rooms versus regular classrooms, and special education students’ reading instruction (resource room plus classroom) versus that of nonhandicapped peers. Process-product relations similar to those of the Leinhardt et al. research in learning disabilities classrooms were also tested. Results indicated considerable variability in reading instruction across programs and students that was not strongly linked to student characteristics. Overall, the amount of reading instruction was remarkably low, and instructional process variables in resource rooms were not predictive of achievement.