Social‐Information‐Processing Skills of Kindergarten Children with Developmental Learning Disabilities

The study examined the social‐information‐processing skills of kindergarten children with developmental learning disabilities (LD) utilizing Crick and Dodge's (1994) model of children's social adjustment as a theoretical framework. Participants consisted of 20 kindergarten children with developmental LD who attended three integrated kindergartens and 20 children without developmental LD from the same kindergartens. Participants were assessed on social‐information‐processing skills, feelings of loneliness, sense of coherence, and teachers' ratings of behavioral problems and positive resources. The results indicated that girls with developmental LD performed significantly lower on two information‐processing steps—the response decision and the enactment steps—than did girls without LD. Such differences were not found for boys. The results also showed that the social‐information‐processing skills of children with developmental LD were correlated with teachers' ratings.     

Review article

Ducellier, A., Kaplan, M., Martin, Bernadette, avec la collaboration de Françoise Micheau. Le Moyen Âge en Orient. Byzance et l'Islam. Des Barbares aux Ottomans. Paris: Hachette Histoire Université, 1990.     

Extended Test Time and postsecondary Students with Learning Disabilities: A Model for Decision Making

The most frequently requested accommodation among students with learning disabilities (LD) in postsecondary settings is extended test time. The frequency with which this accommodation is requested and granted compels disability service providers to become knowledgeable about the factors that influence the need for, and appropriateness of, the accommodation. Moreover, the synthesis of these factors becomes the basis for determining if the accommodation is reasonable under federal law. The purpose of this article is to present a step‐by‐step model to be used as a decision‐making process when considering the accommodation of extended test time for postsecondary students with LD. The model is designed to assist disability service providers in the analysis and synthesis of information collected from (1) the student's diagnostic evaluation, (2) the course or classroom test to be accommodated, and (3) student interviews. A list of diagnostic tests from the four most frequently administered test batteries used with adults is provided, along with a concise explanation of how characteristics of LD impact reading, writing, and math, and relate to the need for extended time. This information can be used to determine if extended test time is a reasonable accommodation and to estimate how much additional time to provide.     

All I really needed to know I learned during gastrulation

Note from the Editor     

The administrative control of high school principals by superintendents: the supervisory function

Conclusion Supervision, the most prevalent of the control mechanisms studied, was used in all of the schools to varying degrees. The frequency of superintendent visits fluctuated between a high of almost every day, in the case where the superintendent and the principal shared the same facility, to two times a year. Superintendents did visit schools without formal sessions with the principals. Several principals described their superintendents' visits as informal walk-throughs. District size did not influence the frequency of supervision by the superintendents. Schools in both large and small districts received roughly the same number of visits. Ninety-two percent of the principals received a medium or high number of visits. In some schools, particularly unit districts composed of grades kindergarten through 12, principals were evaluated by associate superintendents for secondary education. Central office personnel usually visited several times each month. Principals from large districts received fewer visits from central office staff than did principals from medium or small districts. Most principals perceived the visits by their superintendents and central office personnel as nonthreatening. When superintendents and central office administrators visited schools, they added to the system of control by collecting information about all aspects of schooling, including the climate. In general, principals perceived supervision as light, and felt that schools and principals were afforded considerable autonomy.Vanderbilt University