As public schools, charter schools are legally required to educate all students regardless of the difficulties they bring with them into the classroom. Nonetheless, many are concerned that the charter sector fails to educate all comers. Charter schools are often criticized for not enrolling similar proportions of students with disabilities as are…

From a sample of 1,242 third graders, prospective twice-exceptional students were selected using reading and math curriculum-based measures (CBMs), routinely used in Response to Intervention (RtI). These prospective twice-exceptional students were compared with non-twice-exceptional peers with similar strengths in either math or reading on CBMs…

Children in a vegetative state (VS) and a minimally conscious state (MCS) experience severe limitations as a consequence of nervous system deficits and require consistent environmental support. However, disability in VS and MCS children has never been described following a model that accounts for the presence of the symptoms, limitations and the…

Research has demonstrated that many children have learning problems related to deficits in specific cognitive processes that are not adequately represented by a single IQ score. The administration of cognitive measures that include narrow abilities is useful in understanding specific learning problems and developing effective interventions.…

Accommodations to standard test administrations are granted on many tests for students who have one or more disabling conditions. In some instances, students' scores from these nonstandard administrations are "flagged" to caution those who interpret the test score that the test was not administered under typical conditions. The practice of…

Provided with information on 41 test or subtest scores of 9 school-identified learning disabled (LD) and 9 non-LD students, 65 school psychologists, 38 special education teachers, and 21 university students found that accuracy and interjudge agreement were difficult in discriminating between LD and non-LD students. (Authors)

Reviews the use of IQ scores in determining special education placement. It argues that although IQ is central to state education codes and their eligibility criteria for special education, the evidence shows that many children exhibiting psychometric scores that would make them eligible are never referred. (Author/CR)

The recent influx of students with disabilities into postsecondary education has generated a concomitant increase in the demand for psychoeducational assessments that include a measure of cognitive ability, either to identify ability-achievement discrepancies or to rule out alternate or comorbid diagnoses. The most commonly recommended cognitive…

Current national efforts at education reform rely largely on the use of standardized testing, the cornerstone of federal education policy as a result of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001, with its requirements for regular testing of all students and demonstrations of adequate yearly progress on tests by all schools. The challenges…