Group Design Studies in Rural Special Education: Opportunities for Advancing Evidence-Based Practice

Overview & Synopsis

Group design studies in education include groups such as students, teachers, caregivers, schools, or districts assigned to conditions, typically treatment and control, to compare outcomes between the groups. Although the use of group designs in education has become more frequent and robust, the use of group designs in rural education lags far behind and few special education group design studies including rural participants appear in the literature. To support additional rigorous group design studies in special education, we provide an overview of common group designs and applications in rural special education, challenges and potential solutions, and future directions for enhancing group design studies in rural special education research.