California Association of School Psychologists (CASP) adopted a Position Paper in March, 2014 intended to support school psychologists in California in electing to use a process known as Patterns of Strengths and Weaknesses (PSW) as one of three methods specified in IDEA 2014 and California Code of Regulations, Title 5, to identify students being…

Surveyed 83 Montana school psychologists concerning use of computer-based regression discrepancy model for learning disability identification. Of respondents, 89 percent used model; 62 percent used model regularly. Nonuse was related to less agreement with model assumptions, lower perception of model's value, difficulty in locating input data,…

The report presents a screening and identification model for use with primary children to identify giftedness. The procedure is designed to be objective and employs multiple selection criteria. The Bayesian approach is used as it applies a probability methodology. The steps in instrument development include, among others, a review of the relevant…

The Brookline Early Education Project (BEEP) was initiated to determine the cost effectiveness of providing comprehensive diagnostic and educational services for 285 very young children and their parents. The primary goal of the program is to bring the family, the school, and the medical profession into a working relationship early in the child's…

An assessment procedure which meets the requirements of P.L. 94-142 (the Education for All Handicapped Children Act) is described. In this hierarchical and interrelated system screening provides information and a focus for diagnosis, and diagnosis provides information and a focus for treatment. (Author)

The author reviews research which questions the worth of psychoeducational diagnosis of learning disabilities, and suggests a model that places the teacher as the primary decision maker in identification, diagnosis, and programing. Three concerns about psychoeducational diagnosis are raised: the conceptualization of learning disabilities as a…

The article reviews statistical and psychometric issues associated with the severe discrepancy definition of learning disabilities used in Public Law 94-142. It is proposed that these issues should not drive the psychological theory of learning disabilities and should be replaced by constructs firmly grounded in psychological theories of learning.…

This guide, for classroom teachers and other school personnel in regular contact with students, describes a screening process for emotional disturbance based on information gathered through review of the literature, laws, and current screening practices. In order of presentation, this paper addresses: (1) definitions of screening, including early…

A review of the legal basis for and a model of operationalizing definitions of handicapping conditions is presented along with a trend analysis of the association between operationalized criteria and stability in incidence rates. The role of Public Law 94-142 (the Education for All Handicapped Children Act), Public Law 93-380, and Section 504 of…

Examined with 59 inservice teachers was the ability to learn to identify and manage children with learning difficulties through participation in a training program using the module "A Decision-Making Model for Teaching the Handicapped", the transfer of knowledge obtained from the training program to the teacher's classroom behavior, and…

Reported on is a practicum involving training of ten teachers from five schools to conduct screening and educational process evaluation of potential learning disabled students. Brief sections cover the project's background, statement of the problem, objectives, and approach to the solution. Activities of the practicum are reported to include…

In response to Kenneth Kavale's theoretical objections to the model of severe discrepancy in determining the existence of learning disabilities, this article describes advantages of discrepancy considerations and presents a model that emphasizes the role of the learning disabilities teacher in diagnosing and remediating specific learning…

The first of nine volumes in the SER-LARS (Special Education Resources Location Analysis and Retrieval System) Series presents an overview of the system's diagnostic-prescriptive instructional data bank. Information for the user is provided on resources needed, information generated, and procedures for the model's eight levels: initial referral…

A qualitative method for assessing the cognitive and linguistic development of bilingual children is presented, and its underlying model is discussed. The model views language learning as a concept formation process in three domains: cognitive; cultural; and linguistic. This method has been found useful in accurately differentiating genuine…