Most definitions of emotionally disturbed youngsters suggest that disturbances in the child's behavior patterns cause academic and social problems which affect the child and his peers. While the process of identification may be facilitated by operational criteria within a definition, these factors are noticeably absent from definitions of…

This is a quiet rant. A request to revisit an article reprinted in this issue prompted it and I focus on context and purpose of the original article, lack of developments in the field since the article was published, and favored directions to take in the future related to the focus of the original work. [This classic article was indexed in ERIC in…

The goal of any educational program is to help students maximize their performance. For many students with disabilities, the environment in which to achieve this outcome is under continuing debate and sometimes diminishes the likelihood of achievement. As a result of a long and sometimes difficult history of treatment, individuals with…

This article addresses the effects of 3-tiered comprehensive reading and behavior interventions on K-3 student outcomes in 7 urban elementary schools with a high prevalence of students considered difficult to teach. Specific features of each level of the implementation are described including screening and tier placement procedures, scheduling and…

The identification of students who are gifted traditionally has been grounded in criteria with an emphasis on unitary measures of intellectual ability. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the performance of elementary school children in a Southeastern state identified as gifted using an assessment process based on MI theory, the Problem…

Incidence figures for special education placement in a sample of 94 U.S. school districts were calculated. During the 1977-78, 1978-79, and 1979-80 school years, about 5% of the students were referred and evaluated; 3% were placed in special education programs. Wide variation was evident in the incidence figures for individual school districts,…

Forty special education teachers were asked to make some decisions about a fourth-grade boy portrayed as learning disabled or emotionally handicapped and whose work samples were representative of high or low levels of competence. Placement decisions and future performance predictions were a function of the child's perceived competence. (Author)

Analysis of the numbers of referred students who were evaluated and the number of evaluated students who received special education from 1977-80 in 94 districts revealed that, overall, the probabilities associated with the evaluation of referred students and delivery of special education sevices to evaluated students were high. (CL)

The incidence figures of handicapped children in a sample of school districts were calculated. During the 1977-78, 1978-79, and 1979-80 school years, four to five percent of the students were referred or evaluated; three percent were placed in special education programs, with wide variation in the data supplied by individual school districts.…

The article looks at the concept of discrepancy between ability and achievement in conceptualizations of learning disabilities. Comparison of ability and achievement scores found generally small average discrepancies, though some wide ranges were evident. Implications of the findings for current and future use of discrepancies as estimators of…

Decision makers and psychologists (N=224) who had previously participated in at least two placement team meetings individually completed a computer simulated decision making program on a child referred for a suspected handicapping condition. Ss were randomly assigned to 16 different conditions varying on the basis of the referred child's sex,…

The percentage of variance in achievement accounted for by IQ greatly decreased as the subgroups became more removed from the mean IQ for the sample. Results suggest that definition and placement decisions based on IQ be reconsidered for populations whose mean IQ is substantially above or below the average IQ. (DB)

Teachers' and psychologists' ratings of children's potential performance in reading and mathematics are influenced by selected information in referral statements read prior to having objective test scores or rating scales for evaluation. (JMF)

In this comment to a paper by S. Braaten (EC 210 835), in which the Regular Education Initiative (REI) was described as a "patent medicine" for students with behavioral disorders, it is argued that such students are not misidentified or inappropriately placed and that the REI has been misinterpreted and may work. (JDD)