This qualitative case study examined a rural school district where many of the students live in poverty. The purpose of the study was to develop a deeper understanding of the learning disability (LD) identification process as implemented in a high-poverty rural setting. Analysis of the data revealed the prevalence of some stereotypical beliefs…

Poorer outcomes for youth labeled with learning disabilities (LDs) are often attributed to the student's own deficiencies or cumulative disadvantage; but the more troubling possibility is that special education placement limits rather than expands these students' opportunities. Labeling theory partially attributes the poorer outcomes of…

The study involving 57 high school and elementary teachers investigated whether teachers hold different stereotypes for labeled remedial reading (RR) and labeled learning disabled (LD) students than for unlabeled students, and whether elementary and secondary teachers differ in the stereotypes they may hold regarding learning disabled and remedial…

The role of the faculty in helping the learning disabled student succeed on campus is discussed. It is suggested that faculty members who reject the learning disabled are at one end of the spectrum, while the faculty members who treat the disability as incidental while providing assistance are at the other end. The rejecting faculty member may…

This investigation sought to determine the extent to which examiners' evaluations of writing performance were influenced by the learning disability label and to identify mediating variables which modify expectancy effects. Forty-four preservice regular education teachers were randomly assigned to one of two expectancy conditions (learning-disabled…

This paper discusses the challenges of identifying gifted students from underrepresented or special populations. Reasons for underrepresentation of students from special populations are reviewed and include biases in standardized testing, underreferral of students from diverse cultural and ethnic groups to gifted programs by teachers, and the…

This manual is intended specifically for new teachers who will be working with reentry or "hard-to-serve" adults. Introductory materials include general information for high school teachers who will incorporate this new, diverse population into the secondary classroom, descriptions of who these new adult students will be, and a discussion of…