This case highlights the moral and ethical dilemmas that principals and educators confront when making decisions about special education classification and placement, particularly in the context of racial disproportionality. These decisions are complex, influenced by the requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and…

At the end of every school year, particularly as students move on to middle or high school, educators throughout the nation face the same question: To reclassify or not to reclassify English Language Learners (ELLs)? The reclassification decision is tricky because it sometimes feels as if there is an inevitable tradeoff between specialized…

Intelligence tests are important tools in psychology and education; however, the stability of scores and use of intelligence tests has always been surrounded by some controversy. Since its conception in 1905, intelligence testing has become one of the most prominent tasks for school psychologists worldwide. Today's need for frequent use of…

Students classified as English learners (EL) are a protected class of students with core legal rights. There are clear opportunities to strengthen education policies and practices to improve opportunities and outcomes for EL-classified students. This dissertation is comprised of three studies examining key issues in EL education with the goal of…

Across the United States, students face increasingly high expectations of what they should know and be able to do upon completing high school. However, too few state policies take into consideration how the pathway to graduation may look different for English Learners (ELs), particularly adolescent newcomers who have limited formal education. Many…

Many postsecondary institutions, and community colleges in particular, require that students demonstrate specified levels of literacy and numeracy before taking college-level courses. Typically, students have been assessed using two widely available tests--ACCUPLACER and Compass. However, placement testing practice is beginning to change for three…

Teachers-in-training (N=160) were asked to make decisions about a student after reading a file containing personal data, referral information, and test results. Results indicated that Ss were significantly influenced by specific student characteristics in decisions concerning all dependent variables except likelihood of needing special education…

The article delineates the training and competencies individuals should possess if they have primary responsibility for classification and placement decisions for the learning disabled. (Author)

The classification problem in educational testing is a decision problem. One must assign subjects to one of several available treatments on the basis of test scores, where the success of each treatment is measured by a different criterion. Examples of classification decisions include individualized instruction, counseling, and clinical settings.…

Educational decision makers (N=224) participated in a computer simulated decision making experience to ascertain the extent to which referral information on a child with a suspected handicapping condition biased classification decisions. Ss were randomly assigned to 16 conditions varying on the basis of the child's sex, socioeconomic status,…

The study evaluated the accuracy of Class.LD2, a computerized expert system for classifying learning disabled (LD) students. Of 264 student files, 78 files were chosen based on disagreement between multidisciplinary team and Class.LD2 decisions regarding eligibility for LD placement. These 78 cases were evaluated by three individuals expert in LD…

A three-step simulation was developed to reflect procedures followed by educational personnel (n=223) when a child is referred by the classroom teacher: (1) receipt of the referral statement, (2) assessment of the student, and (3) decision making about the student's eligibility and classification. (Author/PN)

The 9th International Conference on Educational Data Mining (EDM 2016) is held under the auspices of the International Educational Data Mining Society at the Sheraton Raleigh Hotel, in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, in the USA. The conference, held June 29-July 2, 2016, follows the eight previous editions (Madrid 2015, London 2014, Memphis…

Referral, placement, and retention decisions were analyzed using item response theory (IRT) to study whether classification decisions could be placed on the latent continuum of ability normally associated with test items and to study the existence of classification differential item functioning. Results with 352 kindergarten children demonstrate…