Peer Support Strategies: Improving Students' Social Lives and Learning

Peer supports really work: they're a great, efficient way to help all students learn, make the most of teacher/ paraprofessional time, and increase the achievement level of challenging students. This is the concise, practical guide every middle and high school needs to implement peer support strategies—including cooperative learning and peer tutoring—to benefit students with moderate to severe disabilities and their peers.

With this reader-friendly, step-by-step planning guide from the foremost authorities on peer supports, educators, paraprofessionals, and other school staff will

• discover how peer supports are a "two-way street," boosting the academic outcomes, social skills, and self-esteem of students with disabilities and the peers who support them
• determine which students might benefit most from peer supports
• recruit and match the students most likely to form mutually beneficial relationships
• develop effective support plans that promote access to the general curriculum
• work peer supports into IEP goals to meet state and national academic standards
• give students the training and guidance they need to approach their support roles with confidence and enthusiasm
• clarify the responsibilities of everyone involved in a peer support system: students, general and special educators, paraprofessionals and other school staff
• provide peers with constructive ongoing feedback
• extend peer supports to school activities and extracurricular events
• evaluate the social and academic impact of peer support arrangements

A complete, start-to-finish guide to peer supports, this book is packed with photocopiable planning, implementation, and evaluation tools; evidence-based strategies; and vignettes that illustrate successful peer supports.

With this must-have book on one of the hottest topics in inclusive education, educators and paraprofessionals will create schools where all students—with and without disabilities—help each other reach their academic goals, make new friends, and live full and meaningful lives.

Lisa S. Cushing, Ph.D., BCBA, Associate Professor, Department of Special Education, University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), 3233 EPASW, 1040 West Harrison Street, Chicago, Illinois 60607

Dr. Cushing holds a doctorate in special education from the University of Oregon. Before her tenure at UIC, Dr. Cushing served as a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Special Education of Peabody College at Vanderbilt University and an Assistant Research Professor at the Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities at the University of South Florida. She has published more than 20 journal articles and book chapters in the areas of peer supports, social interaction, instructional supports, access to the general education, transition, secondary education, inclusion, technical assistance, and positive behavior supports. She sits on the editorial board for The Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions. Prior to working in academia, Dr. Cushing was a special educator for students with significant disabilities in Hawaii.

Erik Carter, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Department Special Education at Vanderbilt University and a member of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center. His research and teaching focuses on evidence-based strategies for supporting access to the general curriculum and promoting valued roles in school, work, and community settings for children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Prior to receiving his doctorate, he worked as a high school teacher and transition specialist with youth with significant disabilities. He has published widely in the areas of educational and transition services for children and youth with significant disabilities. He was the recipient of the Distinguished Early Career Research Award from the Council for Exceptional Children and the Early Career Award from the American Association for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. His research interests include adolescent transitions from school to adult life; peer relationships and peer support interventions; students with severe disabilities, access to the general curriculum; and religion, congregational supports, and disabilities.

Craig H. Kennedy, Ph.D., BCBA, Chair, Special Education Department, and Professor of Special Education and Pediatrics, Box 328, Peabody College, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37203

Dr. Kennedy is Chair of the Special Education Department and Professor of Special Education and Pediatrics at Vanderbilt University and is a Vanderbilt Kennedy Center Investigator. He also is Director of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Behavior Analysis Clinic. Dr. Kennedy received a master of science degree in special education and rehabilitation from the University of Oregon and a doctorate in special education with an emphasis in quantitative sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Dr. Kennedy has published more than 140 scholarly works, including the book Single-Case Designs for Educational Research (Allyn & Bacon, 2005). He has served as Associate Editor of the Journal of Applied Behavioral Analysis, Journal of Behavioral Education, and Journal of The Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps.

He is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and Secretary of the Board of Trustees of the Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior. He is a member of the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, Association for Behavior Analysis, Society for Neuroscience, and TASH. He also serves on the editorial boards of many highly respected peer-reviewed journals.

In 1991, Dr. Kennedy received TASH’s Alice H. Hayden Award, and in 1993, he received the B.F. Skinner New Research Award from the American Psychological Association, Division 25. He was also recognized in 2003 for his research excellence by Peabody College at Vanderbilt University.