A study of the Pupil Behavior Rating Scale was made to determine its factor structure and to determine its utility for screening children at the elementary school level to identify potential learning disabilities. (Author)

Focusing primarily on learning disabled children, the article briefly reviews the literature related to perceptual skills required in reading acquisition and the validity of current perceptual measures to tap these task-related perceptual abilities, and proposes an informal task-related measure to overcome the drawbacks of more formal measures of…

The practice of evaluating certain special education tests in terms of traditional test evaluation procedures appears inconsistent with observations that these tests are often so closely tied to instructional procedures that they are not separable in practice. (Author)

Investigated with 64 upper middle class first-grade children of normal intelligence and visual perception was the construct validity of the trait of visual figure-ground perception. (Author/DB)

This study compared students diagnosed with learning disabilities (n=2,053) and students without learning disabilities (n=2,200) on the Learning Disability Index (LDI). Subsamples of specific reading and math disabilities permitted further assessment. Analysis indicated the LDI resulted in a correct diagnostic decision only 55 to 64 percent of the…

In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) in discriminating auditory or visual deficits, 121 learning disabled children (mean age 100 months) were tested. (PHR)

The study evaluated the construct validity of five perceptual traits with simulated work samples from the Jewish Vocational Service Work Sample System. Results with 36 learning disabled adolescents indicated that simulated work samples can be used as a diagnostic instrument for assessment of perceptual abilities in a vocational setting. (Author/DB)

The validity of using an analysis of patterns of performance on the Meeting Street School Screening test versus using the composite cutoff score for identification of learning disabilities was analyzed for 1,377 first graders. Use of subtest scatter predicted later learning disability placements less accurately than chance. (Author/DB)

The article reviews validity and reliability studies on the informal reading inventory, a diagnostic instrument to identify reading grade-level placement and strengths and weaknesses in work recognition and comprehension. Gives suggestions to improve the validity and reliability of existing inventories and to evaluate them in newly published…

The study compared selected subtests of commonly used standardized reading tests and informal placement procedures with 32 primary grade students in a summer reading tutor program. (SW)

Correlations between the two screening tests and between the screening and criterion measures were inconsistent with prediction rates based on classificational screening test scores. On the basis of correlational validity coefficients, relationships between measures in this study would have been overestimated. (Author/SBH)

The content validity of the Peabody Individual Achievement Test and the Wide Range Achievement Test was examined with 27 educationally handicapped students (5-9 years old). (CL)

This study, involving 10 adults with dyslexia and 11 controls, found that controls differentiated between real and false traffic signs better than subjects did and that there was a significant correlation between traffic sign recognition and driving experience for controls but not for subjects. Results are interpreted in terms of a deficit in…