Rehabilitation professionals working with students with disabilities and the families of those students face unique challenges in providing inclusive services to special education student populations. There needs to be a focus on adaptive teaching methods that provide quality experience for students with varying disabilities to promote student…

The discussion of minimum competency testing (MCT) for learning disabled students focuses on advantages and disadvantages, the need for test modifications, and the importance of coordinating the child's individualized education program with MCT considerations. (CL)

This document updates "Accommodations: Assisting Students with Disabilities. A Guide for Educators," published by the Florida Department of Education (FDOE) in 2003. This document is written to assist school district personnel and parents when making decisions about the use of accommodations by students with disabilities in instructional…

The literature on testing has documented the existence of persistent anomalies in test scores of bilingual students. School psychology, which is test-dependent and test-defined, has an inadequate technology and knowledge base to deal with the testing of bilingual students, leading to error and misdiagnosis exacerbated by lack of viable testing…

Dyscalculia is considered to be a learning difficulty or difference. It is increasingly being recognised and "diagnosed" within adult learning. However, practitioners are often unclear about whether learners who are considered to have dyscalculia are entitled to access arrangements for examinations and assessments, and which access…

The article outlines and illustrates some methods a classroom teacher can use to modify final exams to better meet the needs of mainstreamed secondary learning disabled students. (SB)

Students with learning disabilities can prepare for the SATs (Stanford Achievement Tests) by (1) counseling sessions to discuss college prerequisites and pre-admission tests; (2) taking more academic courses or procuring necessary remedial help; (3) school personnel identifying and correcting skill weaknesses; and (4) discussing abuses and uses of…

Teacher-made tests can be adapted for learning disabled students during the process of test construction (incorporating aspects of directions, individual items, and test design) or during test administration. (CL)

The author describes an evaluation of persons with suspected learning disabilities. Two types of tests are considered (mental maturity and basic language skills) and examples of each are given. Sample profiles exhibiting irregular development of aptitudes are provided and observations from informal as well as formal assessment are suggested. (CL)

Suggested accommodations for mainstreamed secondary learning disabled students on teacher made tests are presented. Suggestions are grouped into general; format; and test taking modifications (presentation, recording, and scoring). Among the many suggestions made are the following: watch readability of questions; assure test is clearly printed;…

A teacher offers suggestions for the diagnosis of mathematical learning disabilities including differentiation of emotional problems from mathematical problems, specification of mathematical skills, and distinction between mathematical failure and procedural failure, failure resulting from the manner in which tests are administered. (DB)

Outlines the problems of students with dyslexia and the history of the recognition of the problem. Includes a detailed list of symptoms that may indicate dyslexia is a problem for a student. (MD)

This article presents guidelines for writing better test items to evaluate student learning better. Recommendations are provided for writing true-false items (test only one idea in each item), multiple-choice items (include the bulk of information in the stem), and matching items (only use homogeneous lists). Examples are provided. (Contains 7…

Organizations sometimes find themselves doing things they don't really choose due to: (1) action anxiety, (2) negative fantasies, (3) fear of separation, and (4) reversal of risk and certainty. Application is made to psychoeducational testing in the field of learning disabilities. (DB)

This response argues that Linda Siegel's paper (EC221505) confuses measures of intelligence with predicted achievement, calls for doing away with the construct of learning disabilities rather than the discrepancy definition model, and overlooks the need to determine which students qualify for special educational services for treatment of learning…