Achieving proficiency in core foundational oral language (OL), reading, and writing skills remains difficult for students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) and foundational OL difficulty (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2022). Despite evidence linking OL skills in grammar (morphosyntax, syntax) and vocabulary (semantics) to…

Developmental delays in cognitive flexibility early in elementary school can potentially increase vulnerability for subsequent externalizing and internalizing psychopathology. The first goal of the current study was to identify latent subgroups of children characterized by different developmental trajectories of cognitive flexibility throughout…

There are still many unanswered questions regarding the application of response to intervention (RTI) to making eligibility decisions for specific learning disabilities (SLD). Both U.S. federal regulations and research support that students identified with SLD using RTI should be deficient in both level of academic functioning and rate of growth…

In this longitudinal study, we examined what kind of profiles of reading fluency and spelling skills could be identified among pupils (N = 467) and how stable these profiles were during the first three years of school. We also investigated how monolingual (Swedish) and simultaneously bilingual (Finnish-Swedish) pupils and gender were distributed…

Background/Context: Chronic absenteeism is a serious problem that has been linked to lower academic achievement, diminished socioemotional skills, and an increased likelihood of high school dropout (Allensworth et al., 2021; Gottfried, 2014). As a result, many schools have begun to embrace early warning systems (EWS) as a tool to identify and flag…

Fluency Assessment and Benchmarking for Literacy in Education (FABLe) is the first mobile application being developed for the assessment of foundational literacy skills in India. FABLe passages are currently available in English for Grades 2, 3 and 4, with plans to expand to other Indian languages. FABLe is designed to administer curriculum-based…

Acadience Reading (AR) is a screener for early detection of reading problems in elementary students. Limited research exists, however, on its technical adequacy for evaluation of English Learners (ELs). In this study, we tested the long-term predictive validity and diagnostic accuracies of AR and examined the differences between native…

Assessing a student's level and rate of improvement on an academic skill is a contemporary approach to the identification of specific learning disabilities. This approach, broadly categorized as responsiveness to intervention, however, does not obviate educators from scrutinizing the psychometric qualities of the data used to make important…

The "English Language Development among American Indian English Learner Students in New Mexico" study examined ways to better understand progress toward English proficiency among American Indian English learner students. The study examined two statewide cohorts of American Indian students identified as English learner students at initial…

Using 4 years of mathematics achievement scores, groups of typically achieving children (n = 101) and low achieving children with mild (LA-mild fact retrieval; n = 97) and severe (LA-severe fact retrieval; n = 18) fact retrieval deficits and mathematically learning disabled children (MLD; n = 15) were identified. Multilevel models contrasted…

This mixed methods study examines factors associated with student learning outcomes for Mexican American students in the public elementary schools. The problem of disproportionate identification of cultural and linguistically diverse students in special education is addressed. This study looks at 23 third and fourth grade students by means of a…

This exploratory study considered the perceptions of parents and teachers regarding behaviors exhibited by gifted students who may have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) by examining their responses to the Conners 3 behavior rating scale. Statistical analysis revealed average scores in the ratings of parents and teachers in the areas…

This study compared the effects of delivering a supplemental, small-group tutoring intervention on the mathematics outcomes of third-grade students at risk for mathematics difficulties (MD) who were randomly assigned to either a schema-based instruction (SBI) or control group. SBI emphasized the underlying mathematical structure of additive…

The purpose of this case study is to highlight the integral role that progress monitoring (PM) plays throughout any response to intervention (RTI) process. This example uses a three-level, responsiveness-to-intervention (RTI) method for identifying students with learning difficulties. Using a fictional third-grade classroom as the setting for…

As many schools move toward a three-tier model that incorporates a Response to Intervention (RtI) service delivery model in the social, emotional, and behavioral domains, school psychologists may provide leadership. The decision-making process for filtering students through multiple tiers of support and intervention and examining change is an area…