Discusses ways to motivate students to participate in and take assessment efforts seriously. Indicates that a strong institutional commitment to testing, administrative support of assessment, integration of testing into the curriculum, student and faculty participation in testing operations, and reporting test results are major factors in…

Comparison of the efficacy of integrating 41 elementary school students with moderate mental retardation into either regular classes, a special class with a community-based program, or a special class with a traditional developmental program found that, after 2 years, no single program was superior to the other 2. (Author/DB)

Recommendations are offered to parents who wish to ensure an appropriate school placement for a deaf or hard of hearing child. A table lists 30 recommended standards to facilitate full inclusion and the associated actions that parents can take to ensure compliance with these standards. (DB)

Types of assessment for young children with special needs can include the following approaches: norm referenced, criterion referenced or curriculum based, adaptive to handicap, process oriented, and ecologically based evaluation. An explanation of each approach is given with a description of possible advantages and disadvantages of each in the…

Issues that are central to special education and appear destined to remain so are discussed, including professional divisions among special educators and between special and regular educators, the population to be served, individualization, and placement. (JDD)

Scores on cognitive abilities tests administered to students (n=80; grades 4-8) being considered for gifted placement were analyzed for differences between low socioeconomic status (SES) students and average or above average SES students. Analysis indicated that the primary reason low SES students did not meet criteria for gifted placement was low…

Intensive group interviews with 11 special education and 3 general education teachers regarding the educational placement of pupils with emotional or behavioral disorders found diverse opinions about placement alternatives; administrative procedures seen as impediments; support for collaboration between decision makers and service providers; and…

Demonstrates a statistical model that can be used to develop graphical displays of uncertainty in student grade level placements versus their potential attainment. Suggests how the model can help determine how well the British National Curriculum assessments are working. (SK)

This interview with an author who investigated "untracking" in America's schools discusses whether tracking enhances academic achievement, why tracking is harmful, how common tracking is, what elementary school tracking looks like, advantages to grouping children homogeneously for certain subjects, alternatives to tracking, cooperative learning,…

Children with serious emotional disturbance receiving community-based services were compared to children with other disabilities and children with no disabilities. For the sample of 228 children, factors considered include: gender, race, guardianship, psychotropic medication, criminal record, previous involvement with the service system, and…

The Utah Elementary Integration Model places students with severe disabilities in neighborhood schools that provide supported integration in age-appropriate grade-level homerooms, peer-referenced and community-referenced curriculum, a transdisciplinary team approach, and data-based training in natural settings. Twenty-seven participants achieved…

Discusses a new placement program that allows incoming university students to select courses on the basis of prior mathematics coursework and tests students after the first few days of review. Compares and contrasts this method with the previous program that tested students prior to placement. (MDH)

The STEP curriculum is a competency-based vocational education, evaluation and training program for special needs students with 27 components in 3 domains: survival skills and problem solving, career development and job seeking, and job keeping and work maturity. After implementation in South Dakota, 63 percent of completers were hired permanently…

Johnson County (Kansas) Community College assesses vocational programs in terms of (1) accomplishment of objectives; (2) student opinions of services; (3) appropriate employment; (4) employer satisfaction with student skills; and (5) responsiveness to local labor market and economic development needs. (SK)

Using S. J. Messick's theoretical work concerning construct validity as a guide, underlying hypotheses for investigation when validating placement test decisions are assessed. Guidelines on validating placement decisions are offered, and the hypotheses and guidelines are applied in a validation study of the Written English Expression Placement…