Sex bias in the diagnosis of learning disabled students

Studies of special education students consistently indicate a preponderance of males in classrooms for the learning disabled (LD). To determine whether the overrepresentation of males and underrepresentation of females constitutes sexual discrimination, an objective index involving the discrepancy between expected and actual achievement was calculated for each student. Factors such as intelligence, socioeconomic status, and reason for referral also were investigated to help explain the large disparity of boys to girls diagnosed and placed as LD. Data were collected on 235 LD students and 290 students referred for special education who were declared not impaired (NI). No evidence was found to indicate that group membership in a sexual class was related to diagnostic and placement practices. Approximately one half of the students labeled as LD did not show a reliable discrepancy between expected and actual achievement.     

The use of standard scores in diagnosing learning disabilities: A critique

This paper examines the limitations of standard scores of achievement tests commonly used in diagnosing learning disabilities. The consideration of these limitations is an important factor in attempting to decide whether a marked discrepancy exists between ability and achievemen, a requirement for the diagnosis of learning disabilities under Public Law 94–142. The phrase “standard score scale” is ambiguous because it can refer to both status score scales and developmental score scales. Unfortunately, many school psychologists seem unaware of the distinction between these two types of standard scores and the ramifications of this distinction. Many standardized achievement tests commonly used in the assessment of learning disabilities use status standard scores despite their severe limitations (noncomparability across grade levels and subjects, and failure to reflect changes in variability across grade levels). While developmental standard scores are to be preferred over status standard scores in diagnosing learning disabled children, their value is significantly lowered because they require greater growth for below-average students than for average or above-average students. Moreover, developmental scores are nonequal interval and they assume that subject matter is normally distributed within age or grade groups. Although we recommend the use of developmental standard scores over status standard scores, we urge that they be interpreted cautiously.     

Diagnostic utility of the K-ABC and WISC-R/PIAT in determining severe discrepancy

The basic question addressed in this study was whether the discrepancies found between the Mental Processing Composite (ability component) and the Achievement subtests of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) corresponded with the discrepancies found between the WISC-R Full Scale IQ and the PIAT subtests, or whether use of the K-ABC over the WISC-R and PIAT results in the identification of different students. The differences were evaluated using four standard score procedures for calculating a severe discrepancy. It was found that the K-ABC and WISC-R/PIAT approaches to the determination of a score difference resulted in the identification of different populations of students. The high average PIAT standard scores together with the lower subtest reliabilities appeared to be the primary source of disparity between the K-ABC and WISC-R/PIAT comparisons.     

New Realities: The Relationship between Higher Education and Employment

The paper addresses one aspect of the`New Realities' of higher education: theemployer-higher education interface. It explores thedevelopment of the `employability' agenda in highereducation, examines the nature and implication oforganisational change for graduates and assesses whatattributes graduates will need in the next decade.Flexible organisations need flexible, and increasinglyempowered employees; that in turn calls fortransformative and empowering learning. The way thathigher education might address this, particularly inthe context of lifelong learning, is explored.     

North American Approval Program coverage and cost study 1998/99

Blackwell’s Approval Program Coverage and Cost Study details subject areas and list prices of monographs covered by our New Titles program for academic library collections. The Study reports on titles treated, not on copies sold—each title is counted once, whether it was purchased by one library or by hundreds. The Study presents information on numbers of titles treated and average list price, arranged by Blackwell’s subjects and then by LC class, for all publishers and then for university presses exclusively. It also includes a detailed report of all treated titles by NLM class. Additionally, the report includes a breakdown of the non-subject characteristics (e.g., language and format) of treated titles. Since most of Blackwell’s Approval libraries are not profiled to receive books for titles coded with the Non-Subject Parameters (NSPs) Popular works and Lower undergraduate texts, we exclude titles with these NSPs from the Coverage and Cost Study. This article appeared originally at http://www.blackwell.com/shelf/tools/cc.htm It is reproduced with the permission of the author.     

Race,Education, and Joblessness in the Inner City, 1970–1990

In When Work Disappears, William Julius Wilson argues that the difficulties black inner-city residents face in finding work has more to do with their failure to acquire the kinds of education, skills, and work habits required by changes in the urban labor market than with racial discrimination. In this essay, I argue that this notion tends both to obscure the substantial gains African-Americans have made in education and to discount the degree to which race continues to mediate the relationship between educational achievement and labor market outcomes. Although there is no question that the economic position of those with little education has deteriorated badly over the last two decades, absent policies that address the persistent racial disparities in employment, reforming education by itself will not substantially improve African-American employment opportunities or reduce black joblessness in the inner city.     

Forming chunks in instrumental learning: The role of overshadowing

Lower order units combined into higher order functional units (e.g., letters into words) are calledchunks. The hypothesis tested here suggests that chunks are formed when memories of goal events signal other goal events, a signal capacity that can be reduced when memories are seriously overshadowed by other more valid cues calledgrouping cues. In support of this hypothesis, it was found, in each of three experiments employing rats in runways, that the capacity of the memory of nonreward to signal reward depended on its validity relative to that of two other situational cues, runway brightness cues and a change in brightness cues, from one trial to the next. Specifically, the capacity of the memory of nonreward to signal reward was much more seriously reduced when it was in competition with more valid situational cues (.33 vs. 1.00, Experiment 1; .50 vs. 1.00, Experiment 2) than when it was in competition with situational cues having either the same validity (.33, Experiment 1) or a slightly higher validity (.33 vs. .50, Experiment 3). It was also found that grouping each of two series was less effective in producing chunking than was grouping only one of the series.