In 2005, to address concerns about students who might fall in the "gap" between the regular assessment and the alternate assessment based on alternate achievement standards (AA-AAS), the U.S. Department of Education announced that states could develop alternate assessments based on modified achievement standards (AA-MAS). This article…

Stated is the need for the educator to evaluate the assets and deficiencies of the child's cognitive and communicative abilities in order to institute the most effective program for the child. (Author/KW)

The author discusses the regression discrepancy method for identifying learning disabled (LD) children and compares it with other identification techniques, pointing out its advantages but indicating that it is still inadequate as a sole criterion for LD identification. (Author)

All methods reviewed significantly discriminate between groups of brain damaged and unimpaired children. No method, however, provides successful predictive rates high enough to warrant the use of the Bender as the sole diagnostic instrument in individual cases. (Author)

Three hundred eighty-two special education teachers (N=382) listed published tests useful in making diagnostic and placement decisions. Perceived usefulness of many tests varied as a function of exceptionality and geographical region. Those tests most frequently listed were not necessarily the most psychometrically sound, but tended to be…

The author presents the argument that serious problems exist with regard to the competence of professionals involved in the assessment of exceptional children. Recommendations for improving the competence and performance of professionals are also given. (Author)

Three approaches to the evaluation of diagnostic decision making for handicapped students are discussed: accuracy, sensitivity and specificity, and ROC (receiver-operating-characteristic) analysis. ROC analysis is explained to allow the diagnostician to vary the decision threshold depending on the index of suspicion and relative costs and benefits…

A method for identifying the possible rehabilitant or non-rehabilitant among socially maladjusted students at the time of placement in special classes was demonstrated to be possible at a level useful for prediction. (Author/KW)

To determine the extent to which the long-term goals and short-term instructional objectives of the individualized education programs (IEPs) can be documented as being predicated upon the psychoeducational assessment, the IEPs and corresponding psychoeducational assessments of 243 students identified as educable mentally retarded, emotionally…

Discussed are the relative merits of two currently popular models of assessing children--the ability assessment and task analysis models. (CL)

To produce a greater degree of consistency and reliability in diagnosis of handicapped children, a system called multidimensional actuarial classification is presented for differential diagnosis of mental retardation, inadequate adaptive behavior, social maladjustment, academic under and overachievement, and learning disabilities. (Author/CL)

Inservice workshops and simulated exercises were used with groups of early childhood teachers (N=48) to evaluate the effective features of diagnostic reports that make them useful to teachers for individualized curriculum planning for handicapped students. Results supported the advantages of using developmentally based reports to facilitate…

The author's response to H. Reed's paper (EC 115 148) on the nature of the relationship between biological defects and educational aptitude and achievement stresses that knowledge of biological causes provides educators with little, if any, practical information to help affected children progress. (For other responses and a rebuttal see EC 115…

A study of 373 students with suspected learning disabilities found that different measures for calculating discrepancies between aptitude and achievement and for measuring achievement resulted in relatively little agreement on appropriate classification. A second study, using computer-simulated data, provided a framework for generalizations to a…

Part of a special issue on adaptive behavior, the article presents a brief and selective history of the care and treatment of persons with mental retardation, emphasizing the roles that adaptive behavior has played in assessment and treatment. Current and possible future applications of adaptive behavior are also discussed. (Author/JW)