The primary purpose of this study was to test two hypotheses proposed by Bracken and McCallum (1998), authors of the Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Test (UNIT), as to how children diagnosed with ADHD would perform on the UNIT. Twenty-nine students between the ages of 5 and 17 years were administered the extended battery of the UNIT twice, with…

The research reported in this paper explores which variables predict native and non-native speaking teachers' perception of fluency and distinguish fluent from non-fluent L2 learners. In addition to traditional measures of the quality of students' output such as accuracy and lexical diversity, we investigated speech samples collected from 16…

This article discusses court cases and other sources on each of four major topics regarding federal disability discrimination laws and claims made by post-secondary students with learning disabilities: (a) Which students are entitled to the protection of the statutes, (b) What if any deference should be afforded academic institutions in their…

This paper describes part of the results of a study investigating how adolescents, between the ages of 14 and 15, construct and share meaning about their local environments. Specifically, the results presented focus on how adolescents perceive and interpret spatial and three-dimensional data presented in various formats, such as in terms of…

This study explored the relationship between perceived stress and perceived need for social support among doctoral psychology students attending a distance education university. Although small sample size conceivably prevented identification of a direct correlation between these two factors, female doctoral students perceiving greater levels of…

Background: It is important to determine how programmes serving the individual with intellectual disability may also help to reduce stress in parents of adult children with intellectual disabilities. The aim of this study was to test whether parents who frequently watch their children at Special Olympics (SO) competitions report less stress than…

This paper explicates a pattern of scientific argumentation in which scientists respond to causal questions with the generation and test of alternative hypotheses through cycles of hypothetico-predictive argumentation. Hypothetico-predictive arguments are employed to test causal claims that exist on at least two levels (designated stage 4 in which…

For all the fractious debate in America over the state of public schools, those on the political Left and Right agree that the "achievement gaps" are real. But what do most people mean when they say "achievement gaps"? Gaps in standardized test scores, of course. The gaps consist of the differences between the test scores of…

Recent literature regarding functional behavior assessment (FBA) in general education environments has been critical of the paucity of research in such settings, given the complex and often time-consuming nature of FBA. Less complex team-based FBA processes have been suggested as a realistic alternative for general education environments. This…

This article presents a synthesis of an unfinished dialogue on Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) scenarios for education in the twenty-first century and on the position of education that these scenarios question. The first part of this article brings together some of the core considerations put forward by the members…

This research explores violent and property crime rates in nonmetropolitan counties. It is argued that crime rates are lower in these counties because of higher levels of social integration. We test the hypothesis that predictors of crime from social disorganization theory exert different effects on violent and property crimes at different levels…

As a result of their mission to provide services to diverse groups, community colleges generally have lower retention rates. The present research reviews the theoretical basis of retention, with a focus on summarizing how the theory pertains to two-year schools. While numerous variables influence persistence, a student's educational objectives…

Curriculum-based measurement is a system for monitoring students' progress and formatively evaluating instruction backed by 25 years of validation research. Most of this research has been conducted in elementary schools. In middle and high school classrooms, where there is an emphasis on mastering content knowledge, elementary-level measurements…

Promoting collaboration skills and dispositions is widely encouraged currently in the field of teacher preparation. However, very few university classrooms incorporate collaboration into their assessment practices. One factor may be the perceived potential lack of soundness of such methodologies. This study is a qualitative examination of the…

Latent semantic analysis (LSA) is an automated, statistical technique for comparing the semantic similarity of words or documents. In this article, I examine the application of LSA to automated essay scoring. I compare LSA methods to earlier statistical methods for assessing essay quality, and critically review contemporary essay-scoring systems…