Teachers' perceptions of criteria for identifying learning disabled students

A national sample of 118 teachers of learning disabled (LD) students described their school districts' criteria for identifying LD students and indicated their agreement or disagreement with the criteria. Reported criteria were characterized by variability, even within states, as were the teachers' stated agreement or disagreement with them. Implications of the continuing definitional crisis in the area of learning disabilities are explored.     

Little Evidence That Socioeconomic Status Modifies Heritability of Literacy and Numeracy in Australia

Socioeconomic status (SES) has been found to moderate the influence of genes and the environment on cognitive ability, such that genetic influence is greater when SES is higher, and the shared environment is greater when SES is lower, but not in all Western countries. The effects of both family and school SES on the heritability of literacy and numeracy in Australian twins aged 8, 10, 12, and 14 years with 1,307, 1,235, 1,076, and 930 pairs at each age, respectively, were tested. Shared environmental influences on Grade 3 literacy were greater with low family SES, and no other moderating effects of SES were significant. These findings are contrasted with results from the United States and the United Kingdom.     

Assessment practices in model early childhood special education programs

Examination of assessment practices in 54 model programs for early education of handicapped children revealed extreme variability. Only 19 tests were used by at least five programs; only one device was used by over half of the responding programs. Most tests were listed as being used for more than one purpose, but some tests appeared to be used more exclusively than others for a particular purpose. Although the technical adequacy, in terms of norms, validit, and reliability, was reportedly an important factor influencing selection and continued use of tests, analysis of the 19 most commonly used devices revealed that only three were technically adequate. Other methods of assessment also were examined. Implications for model practice are discussed.     

Identifying A Range of Performance Improvement Solutions Through Evaluation Research

Using the evaluation research strategy (Geroy & Wright, 1988) as a guideline, the authors conducted a needs assessment with 280 support staff, faculty, and administrators at a mid–sized community college. We taught the nominal group technique (Delbecq & Van de Ven, 1971) to representatives from each of these three groups. These representatives facilitated the participation of virtually all employees at the college in identifying a prioritized list of items that would enable these persons to “do their jobs better.” Analysis of the suggested performance improvement solutions utilized the performance technology model (Gilbert, 1978) and indicated that the solutions fell into five categories of intervention: high–yield training, direction and flow of information, resources, performance incentives, and medium–yield training. This combination of models and methods provided the decision makers with data that refocused their vision from planning professional development training to planning for performance improvement. These data represented needs, not wants, and enabled them to recognize the importance of addressing both training and non–training options.     

Moderating Possibly Irrelevant Multiple Mean Score Differences on a Test of Mathematical Reasoning

A pool of items from operational tests of mathematical reasoning was constructed to investigate the feasibility of using automated test assembly (ATA) methods to simultaneously moderate possibly irrelevant differences between the performance of women and men, and African American and White test takers. None of the artificial tests exhibited substantial impact moderation, although the estimated mean scaled score differences for the relevant population indicated a modest move in the intended direction: the difference between scaled score means was reduced by about 20% for women and men and about 9% for African American and White test takers. Although many issues in the implementation of this methodology remain to be solved, the consideration of impact in ATA, along with the maintenance of the detailed test plan, appears to be a potential method of moderating possibly irrelevant mean test score differences.