Research and Evaluation Methods in Special Education

This excellent resource provides an approach to research and evaluation that helps educators better understand and address the needs of students with various disabilities.

"In an era when government policy emphasizes 'scientifically based research' (No Child Left Behind), this book provides an important resource in understanding what this means."
Diane Browder, Snyder Distinguished Professor of Special Education
University of North Carolina, Charlotte

"This is a superb book. I learned by reading it, and I found myself rethinking some of my own thinking about research on individuals with disabilities."
James E. Ysseldyke, Professor
University of Minnesota

When face-to-face with the challenge of providing special needs children with a quality education, teachers and other educators are often met with the dilemma of inadequate research on the topic, or they are uninformed that a framework for critically analyzing and conducting special education research exists. Research-based practice is a powerful tool for success, as it can inform educators and others about educational strategies that work.

Research and Evaluation Methods in Special Education is intended to enable educators to design, conduct, and report research and evaluation in a way that transforms special education by addressing the needs of persons with disabilities as heterogeneous, cultural groups. This text provides practical guidance for:

• Planning research and evaluation
• Addressing the implications of legislation and program evaluation
• Using empirically based data for decision-making in a variety of settings
• Assessing additional research needs in areas such as standards-based reforms, personneldevelopment, family involvement, and new and developing topics in special education
• Using quantitative research methods, including casual comparative, correlational, single case, and survey research
• Using qualitative methods, including identification and selection of research participants, information collection, and more

This excellent resource provides an approach to research and evaluation that helps educators better understand and address the needs of students with various disabilities, including blindness, mental retardation, deafness, learning disabilities, and more.

Donna M. Mertens is a professor in the Department of Educational Foundations and Research at Gallaudet University. She teaches research methods, program evaluation, statistics, and educational psychology to deaf and hearing students.  Her research focuses on improving methods of inquiry by integrating the perspectives of those who have experienced oppression in our society. She draws on the writings of feminists, minorities, and people with disabilities who have addressed issues of power and oppression, and their implications for research methodology. She has made numerous presentations at meetings of the American Educational Research Association, the American Evaluation Association, the Convention of American Instructors of the Deaf, the Association for College Educators of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and various international organizations that explore these themes. She served as the president and as a board member of the American Evaluation Association between 1997 and 2002, and as a member of the International Organization for Cooperation in Evaluation from 2002 to 2003. Her publications include two edited volumes titled Creative Ideas for Teaching Evaluation and Research and Inequality (coedited with Carole Truman and Beth Humphries) and several authored books, including Research and Evaluation Methods in Special Education (coauthored with John McLaughlin) and Parents and Their Deaf Children (coauthored with Kay Meadow Orlans and Marilyn Sass Lehrer).  She has also published many chapters and articles in edited volumes, encyclopedias, handbooks, and journals such as New Directions for Program Evaluation,American Journal of Evaluation, American Annals of the Deaf, Studies in Educational Evaluation, and Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis.