This digest reports on the very limited research that has focused specifically on early childhood issues in American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) health, development, and education. Extant research focuses primarily on infant mortality, birth weight and growth, obesity, and hearing and speech. Beginning in 1985, a longitudinal study called the…

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) holds states, districts, and schools accountable for student achievement. NCLB requires regular assessments to mark progress and highlight weaknesses in core academic subjects. Assessment results must be reported in the aggregate and disaggregated by individual subgroups of students. Research shows that…

While some educators have attributed early school failure to improper grade placement and thus advocate grade placement according to developmental age, others believe that early school failure is due to the lack of academic preparation for young children by their parents or by preschools. This paper examines related literature for empirical…

This study examined the relation between teacher suspicion of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and teacher ratings on common behavior measures used to identify and diagnose ADHD. The children, urban, Midwestern, African-American first graders, (N=372) completed the Conners' Continuous Performance Test (CPT), an objective measure of…

Youth suicide is recognized as a serious public health problem, but suicide within juvenile facilities has not received comparable attention, and the extent and nature of these deaths remain unknown. This article utilizes an example of a young man in a juvenile justice facility who succeeded in committing suicide to illustrate these points.…

This TIP is designed to teach juvenile justice, health services, education, and substance abuse treatment personnel about how to identify, screen, and assess people 11-to-21 years old who may be experiencing substance-related problems. It details warning signs of substance use disorders, when to screen, when to assess, what domains besides…

This study describes preliminary research efforts to examine the validity and utility of three Spanish versions of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), the most extensively used and researched rating scale of children's internalizing and externalizing emotions. The study involved: (1) identification of Spanish items that were significantly…

The effectiveness of the Test of Standard Written English (TSWE) as an aid in placing students into introductory English courses was studied by relating test scores to course outcomes for students entering the University of Houston between the fall of 1977 and the spring of 1981. For students placed into the regular introductory English…

Two competing definitions of test fairness and their differing implications are explained and illustrated, and data from a number of published studies on test bias are reanalyzed; the focus is on unfair bias that may exist in tests that are approximately equally valid for both majority and minority groups. (Author/JM)

This article discusses the importance of providing vision screening services to students who are difficult-to-test and describes strategies for providing such services. Included in the discussion is an overview of various instruments that may be used to test visual acuity, including the Parsons Visual. (Authors/JMK)

Role of school psychologists in diagnosis of specific learning disability is described. Discusses problems of definition, misidentification, and overidentification and assessment of general intelligence, achievement, perceptual motor coordination, and personality. A model for screening, assessment, and the team evaluation process is discussed, and…

Describes the El Paso, TX/Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, metropolitan area and examines how the University of Texas at El Paso resolves problems brought about by the area's multilingual continuum. Also describes the public school system's responses to the same problems. (EKN)

Describes a pilot project in Montgomery County, Maryland aimed at developing a clear, functional procedure for identification of specific learning disabilities. An interdisciplinary team is used to interpret test scores that compare intelligence and achievement, and serves as a consultant to school staff members. (JAC)

Offers reviews of six standardized English tests, noting their applicability/usefulness to journalism educators. Concludes that none of the tests meets all needs of journalism programs. (RL)

Three classifications of 6- through 12-year-old children (388 nonretarded, 115 educable mentally retarded, and 85 trainable mentally retarded) were evaluated on the public school version of the Adaptive Behavior Scale by their teachers. (Author/SBH)