Improving Outcomes for Students with Autism: The Individuals
with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004, Evidence-Based
Interventions, and Progress Monitoring
Mitchell Yell, Ph.D., University of
South Carolina
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement
Act of 2004 (hereafter IDEIA) places increasing pressure on
teachers of students with disabilities to improve student outcomes.
Two ways in which the law accomplishes this is by (a) requiring
individual education program (IEP) teams to identify and use
evidence-based interventions (called peer-reviewed research in the
law) in developing students' special education programs, and (b)
requiring that teachers collect and use data to monitor student's
progress in their programs.
The objectives of this session are to (a) provide an overview of
the IDEIA's requirement regarding evidence-based interventions and
progress monitoring; (b) explain how this requirement will change
the ways in which teachers will be required to educate students in
special education and that parents will work in IEP teams; and (c)
describe a process for ensuring that students receive
scientifically validated treatments and that teachers collect
formative data to monitor student progress. Additionally, the
session will include a question and answer period to address other
legislative and litigative issues in the education of students with
autism.
Dr. Mitchell Yell is a Professor in Special Education in the
College of Education at the University of South Carolina (USC) in
Columbia, South Carolina. Prior to coming to the University of
South Carolina, Dr. Yell was a special education teacher in
Minnesota for 12 years. During this time he taught in elementary,
middle, and secondary classrooms for students with mild mental
retardation, learning disabilities, emotional and behavioral
disorders, and autism. He received his Ph.D from the University of
Minnesota in 1992. His professional interests include special
education law, evidence based interventions for children and youth
with disabilities, school wide positive behavior support, and
progress monitoring.
For the past 16 years Dr. Yell has conducted extensive research
on legal issues in special education. His primary goal has been to
extrapolate principles from legislation and litigation, communicate
them to parents, teachers and administrators in a clear, nonlegal
manner, and to assist school districts in the formation of legally
sound, research-based, policies. He has published over 60 journal
articles, 2 textbooks (The Law and Special Education, 2 nd
edition, and No Child Left Behind published by
Merrill/Prentice Hall) 12 book chapters, and has conducted numerous
workshops on many aspects of special education law.
Since coming to USC, Dr. Yell has directed the teacher-training
program in emotional and behavioral disorders at USC. He is also
the lead author of the forthcoming textbook Educating Students
with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders in General and Special
Education Classrooms, also published by Merrill/Prentice Hall.
Finally, he has recently started working on The Special
Education Resource Book: Developing and Implementing Legally Sound
and Educationally Appropriate Special Education Programs, to
be published by Sopris West. He has conducted numerous local,
state, national, and international workshops.