The authors examine factors contributing to the perpetuation of the categorical approach to education for behaviorally disordered students and document problems associated with it. Factors in support of the noncategorical are presented. Selected examples of noncategorical educational programs precede recommendations concerning the facilitation of…

The authors propose a model for preparing special education teachers which accepts those differences among students that require categorical decisions for instructional pruposes but not those categories existing as mere historical artifacts. Three noncategorical teacher training programs are described, and six clusters of teacher competencies are…

The first of six articles on the topic of categorical versus noncategorical special education reviews research on the harmful effects of labeling and categorizing children and introduced the next five papers. (CL)

The author cites potential damages resulting from P.L. 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, and its reliance on categories of handicapping conditions. He further notes the possibility of a backlash movement in the country's current conservatism. (CL)

Objections to the traditional categorical model of special education are followed by a summary of administrative factors supporting the tradition. Reasons underlying the persistence of the categorical approach are seen to include misconceptions about the nature of the disability categories. Learning disabilities are cited as an invalid and…

The article summarizes concurrent policy and practice concerning categorical and noncategorical diagnostic procedures for young handicapped children. The strengths and weaknesses of four noncategorical policy options are discussed. Potential misuses of noncategorical policies are reviewed, and recommendations for policy research are offered.…

Papers are presented from a debate held in 1983 on noncategorical versus categorical programming for behaviorally disordered children and youth. C. Nelson and K. Greenough advocate the noncategorical approach, asserting that categorical approaches can be harmful, are nonfunctional in educational terms, and are less practical than alternative…

Three articles discuss the merits and pitfalls of categorical v noncategorical training of teachers in special education. (SBH)

The article explores implications of the noncategorization of exceptional students. One area of concern is that those children who fail in school will be lumped together with handicapped children, which, the author asserts, does an obvious disservice to both. (PHR)

This discussion of special needs students in the context of British education supports and extends John Fish's "dimensions" concept, a descriptive system which is seen as neither crudely categorical nor completely individualized. The model involves five dimensions of special needs, each banded into six levels of need intensity. (DB)

Examined are the political, historic, and economic influences in England and Wales affecting the categorization and labeling of pupils with special educational needs. The paper concludes that adoption of a non-categorical classification system has been unsuccessful in abolishing labeling, but has obfuscated statistical information reported by the…

The literature review examines the issue of whether categorical differentiation and placement of mentally retarded and learning disabled students is educationally warranted. First, the two conditions are defined; next, a comparison between the two on psychological, behavioral-social, and educational characteristics usually ascribed to children so…

This study examined the literature and state policies concerning noncategorical certification of special education teachers. First, the issues are identified and include services organized around the categorical conditions defined in Federal law, the tendency of categorical certification to adversely affect teacher supply and limit administrative…

Efforts to unify categorical programs for low-achieving elementary school students must address instructional validity issues (including similarities/differences between learning disabled and remedial students in instructional levels, learning rates, and learning styles) and political validity issues (including protection and equitable…