When classifying the evidence base of practices, special education scholars typically appraise study quality to identify and exclude from consideration in their reviews unacceptable-quality studies that are likely biased and might bias review findings if included. However, study quality appraisals used in the process of identifying evidence-based…

A study of 22 learning disabled (LD) and normal children (mean age nine years) was undertaken to illustrate the research problems involved in using analysis of covariance to control for differences between LD and normal children on measures of intelligence. (SW)

Two methodological problems often arising in dyslexia research are considered. The first problem concerns the validity of experimental measures and the related problem of interpreting null results. The second problem involves the effects of sampling from a disabled population if the disorder under investigation has multiple unknown origins.…

Reviewed are the technical problems in the work of Grill and Bartel who attempted to demonstrate that a bias exists in the Grammatical Closure subtest of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities against speakers of nonstandard English. (SBH)

Presented are a rebuttal and a counter-rebuttal to an earlier article questioning the educational usefulness of perceptual tests with learning disabled children. (DB)

The paper evaluates the empirical and theoretical basis upon which several recent studies reject the hypothesis of a visual-perceptual deficit in reading disabilities. (Author)

The Stanford Achievement Test (SAT), 1973 edition, was administered concurrently with the Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT), level 1, to 296 neurologically impaired and emotionally handicapped students to validate the WRAT (using the SAT as a criterion). (PHR)

The study involving 40 learning disabled children (6-8 years old) investigated the relationships between the various indexes of the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities (MSCA) and the scales of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R), and the comparability between the MSCA General Cognitive Index and the WISC-R Full Scale…

The concurrent validity of the Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT) with 45 learning disabled children (7- to 12-years-old) was investigated using the California Achievement Test (CAT), the Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT), and teacher ratings as criterion measures. (Author/DB)

To analyze differential diagnostic efficiency of the Revised Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (a measure designed to assess strengths and weaknesses of learning disabled children), the Kelley procedure for estimating the proportion of differences in excess of chance was applied to the standardization data. (SBH)

Evaluated was whether factor analysis of the 12 Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities subtest scores earned by 90 underachieving children (between 5 and 10 years of age) would support the dimensions of psycholinguistic processes, organizational levels, and communication channels as described in the clinical model of the instrument. (Author)