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Collaboration is one of the most significant components of inclusive education, according to professional literature. The purpose of this study was to understand the perceptions of intervention specialists in terms of collaboration with general education teachers in elementary school inclusive classrooms and administrative support of collaboration. The collaboration and the community of practice theories were used for the conceptual framework in this study to understand how collaboration is an ongoing interaction between people to achieve a common goal. Research questions were designed to understand the perceptions of intervention specialists who work in inclusive classrooms regarding collaboration and administrative support by documenting their experiences through interviews. In this basic qualitative study, 9 intervention specialists were interviewed. Interview data were analyzed using thematic coding. The results of this study indicated that each participant was a part of a weekly collaboration meeting with teachers, an administrator, and an instructional coach. Most participants reported that they had to complete a 5-step form, and it was not a good source of time because it did not directly focus on students' needs. Most participants also reported that they did not receive training in college or professional development at work on how to collaborate or work in inclusive classroom settings. Participants reported that their administrators were supportive, but some classroom teachers were not. The implications of social change for this study include insight on the importance of collaboration in inclusive classrooms and insight on how administrators can create training programs for the collaboration of all teachers who work in inclusive classrooms.

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Students with disabilities (SWD) at an urban high school in Midwestern United States experienced academic, social, and emotional problems. When SWD experience difficulties in high school, they may drop out and face potentially life-long problems. The purpose of this case study was to understand how a Response to Intervention (RTI) tutoring program addressed the academic, social, and emotional needs of students using the RTI model as a conceptual framework. The research questions addressed intervention specialists' perceptions of how use of the RTI model helped them meet SWD needs and what tutoring documents revealed about tutoring practices. Data sources consisted of interviews with 7 purposely selected intervention specialists who worked as special education teachers at the research site for at least 2 years, lesson plans provided by participants, and reviews of 20 student work samples including pre and post assessments. The data were analyzed by coding for emerging ideas related to interventions within the RTI framework and academic and social/emotional issues. The findings revealed that intervention specialists perceived the overarching academic difficulty for SWD was reading deficits, the out-of-class tutoring program was beneficial for SWD academically by using one-on-one and small-group instruction to scaffold success, and RTI was successful socially/emotionally by guiding students to use appropriate classroom behaviors. The results of the documentary data was that the created lessons were academically appropriate for the SWD they taught in the tutoring center. This study can contribute to positive social change by providing guidance to intervention specialists for increasing SWD social and academic success.

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