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In response to the urgent national need to implement evidence-based literacy supports for adolescent struggling readers (ASRs), this chapter provides a framework for addressing reading comprehension instruction. Schools face significant challenges in the education of ASRs including how to address the achievement gap that emerges between proficient readers and a variety of poor reader subgroups predicted by the Simple View of Reading. The authors present current research in the components of reading comprehension (e.g., text structures, vocabulary, prior knowledge, cognitive strategies, and motivation) and explicit pedagogical practices associated with improving outcomes for ASRs, including a school-wide framework called the Content Literacy Continuum. Two specific interventions with supporting research are presented as model practices to improve outcomes for ASRs.

Although improving, students with learning disabilities (LD) still do not experience positive postsecondary outcomes at the same rate as their nondisabled peers. Research indicates that inclusion in the general education classroom for core content courses correlates to better outcomes; however, the large amount of content to be covered in these courses makes it difficult to deliver targeted transition services, such as instruction in self-determination skills, in these settings. In this chapter, we briefly summarize the research on transition services for students with LD and then provide examples of opportunities for instruction and practice of self-determination skills in the general education classroom.

In this chapter, we focus on specially designed instruction (SDI) as a core value for the field of specific learning disabilities (SLD). SDI is at the heart of special education, and the field of LD has been built on the core value that effective instruction improves student outcomes. We describe a two-step test and an extended example of what is and is not SDI for Matt, a student with an SLD. Finally, we discuss some of the confusion surrounding SDI and the need for the field to return to its core value of individualized, intentional, targeted, evidence- or high leverage practice–based, and systematic instruction for students with SLD.

Promoting the self-determination of students, particularly adolescents, with disabilities has become best practice in special education and transition services. Research documents that students who leave school as more self-determined young people achieve more positive employment and independent living outcomes and experience a higher quality of life. Further, promoting self-determination can provide an entry point to the general education curriculum for students with disabilities, and instruction to promote self-determination can enable students to better engage with and learn in the general education curriculum. This chapter defines the self-determination construct as it applies to the education of students with disabilities, examines the importance of such instruction, and provides information with regard to prevailing practices in assessment and instruction to promote this outcome.