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Educators are required to use evidence-based practices to support student development of academic skills. Results from single-case experimental designs are well suited for this purpose and may be more flexible for applied use than group-based designs. However, educators also require information about which interventions work for whom and under what conditions. Although previous reviews of single-case experimental designs exist, most focused on design characteristics related to internal validity. The purpose of this U.S. study was to determine the participant characteristics within multiple-baseline and multiple-probe across participant designs targeting academic skills. Representation of various demographic subgroups differ between studies targeting different academic skill areas (mathematics, reading, and writing). However, reporting was often inconsistent, with a substantial proportion of records omitting information about participants' race/ethnicity, economic status, and English learner status. This finding was divergent from best practice recommendations. Implications for future research are discussed within the context of the study's limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preschool students' mastery of early numeracy skills is important, so they enter kindergarten with the necessary prerequisite skills, which are predictive of achievement in later elementary grades. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a concrete-representational-abstract (CRA) instructional package on the foundational early numeracy skills of three preschool students. A multiple baseline across participants design was employed. Treatment sessions were 15 to 20 minutes long and held twice a week. The primary outcome variable was a measure of match quantity, and the generalization outcome variable was a measure of number sequencing. Results indicate that CRA was effective for increasing the match quantity fluency skills of two of three participants; however, the effects did not generalize to number sequencing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]