During the summer of 2022, Ashley Greene, a professor at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, and a co-author of this article, began a discussion on American Sign Language (ASL) literature with her doctoral students. The students, most of whom had backgrounds in K-12 deaf education or ASL education, explored what ASL literature means, how such…

Lexical meaning, as an important and essential aspect of the word, has long attracted the attention of scholars, who, in trying to know its nature, have sometimes mystified it by seeing it as an inexplicable thing and sometimes simplified it, equating it with the function of the word, with the concept, even with the "reali" itself that…

This research synthesizes studies that used a Digitalized Interactive Component (DIC) to assess K-12 student mathematics performance during Computer-based-Assessments (CBAs) in mathematics. A systematic search identified ten studies that categorized existing DICs according to the tools that provided language assistance to students and tools that…

Data about English Learner (EL) students in the United States are more plentiful than ever. Under the federal "Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015" (ESSA), states must report a wide range of information about their students' English language arts and math standardized test scores, graduation rates, and more. They must also break these…

With the adoption and ratification of the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2006, inclusive education became an international human right and a global norm. But, "Education for All" remains a worldwide challenge. It appears that some countries achieved higher inclusive education rates than others.…

The purpose of this article is to help education practitioners and researchers understand that research about rural education is complicated not only by issues of defining "rural," but also by the often dramatic ways that rural schools differ from each other. We briefly address issues in defining rural and describe rural classification…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA; P.L. 108-446) is the primary source of federal funding to states for the identification and education of children with disabilities. The majority of IDEA appropriations are allocated to states by formula to carry out activities under Part B, which covers 14 disability categories. Each state is…

Properly defining a population ensures that resources, such as funding and access, meet the needs, expectations, and intended outcomes for those represented. Ethical concerns arise when a target population, such as the English Language Learner population, is defined in numerous yet incomplete ways, and differently in research and in state policies…

Current definitions of STEM skills are inconsistent and not specific enough to inform education and skill policies and initiatives, potentially leading to a number of unsubstantiated and uncoordinated responses. There is a danger of generating a domestic oversupply of graduates in science, mathematics, engineering and technology while ignoring the…

States participating in the four federally-funded assessment consortia are required to establish a "common definition of English Learner." This includes the two Race to the Top academic assessment consortia and the two Enhanced Assessment Grant English language proficiency (ELP) assessment consortia. This paper provides guidance that…

The author points out two problems with the field of learning disabilities: the term caught on before a satisfactory definition had been determined and the field totally disregards the Law of Parsimony, which requires that one should never give a complicated answer when a simple one will do. (SBH)

A classification system of mental retardation is proposed based on etiology and IQs at least two standard deviations below the population mean. Social competence and performance capabilities of individuals with subaverage IQs are removed from definitional status and given prominence as correlates of class membership. (Author/CL)

In Study 1, 85 percent of 248 third-, fifth-, and twelfth- grade students identified as normal could have been classified learning disabled (LD). In Study 2, 88 percent of a low achieving fourth grade sample could have been identified as LD, with 4 percent not meeting any criteria for classification. (Author/CL)

This paper critiques Aumaugher's argument which states that the traditional view of concepts as a class of things with common attributes is an insufficient one, and, instead, offers a counterview, stemming from the work of Wittgenstein, which says that a concept is a term's use in the language. Aumaugher states that concept-terms are not always,…

Two studies were conducted to examine the extent to which the category "learning disabilities" (LD) meets the major criterion for classification systems, specifically that the category demonstrates at least one universal and one specific characteristic. Analyses were conducted on psychometric data for 248 students in regular 3rd, 5th,…