In the fourth session of the National Research Center on Learning Disabilities Responsiveness-to-Intervention Symposium in 2003, Good, Vellutino, and Torgesen presented papers that addressed the question, "How should unresponsiveness to secondary intervention be operationalized in an RTI approach to LD identification?" In this commentary, I…

Spirit-driven leadership requires an inner journey, wholeness, and reflection.

Recent representations of autism frequently include an assumption that autism is the result of a "theory of mind" deficit (i.e., an inability to understand others' mental states). This notion is examined using a social constructionist perspective. The belief that autism is a sort of "mind-blindness" has much in common with earlier representations…

The interactive nature of the Internet is seen by some as a technological innovation that might boost participation in politics and civic affairs. That potential, however, is clouded by imprecise definitions of interactivity found among scholars and practitioners alike. Evaluation of state legislature Web sites found them to not be very…

One of the chief difficulties of pedagogical science at the present stage has been the growing discrepancy between theory and practice. The former is built basically on an analysis or critique of the Soviet model of the schools, which, in basic outline, persists to this day. In practice, there is an ongoing conflict between the inertia of the…

Williams (WS) and Down syndromes (DS) are two genetic disorders that involve intellectual disability (ID) and have been extensively studied over the past decades because of the unique linguistic profiles they exhibit. Recent investigations seek to explore the fractionation of linguistic components within the cognitive system using genetically…

Acquiescence, or acquiescent responding, is reviewed. A detection method using the concept of differential person functioning is illustrated with two data sets. The effects of acquiescence are shown to be different for each example. Implications for questionnaire and attitudinal scale development are discussed and an operational definition for…

We employ an array of terms to denote the visual; however, we have not yet agreed on a clear framework for understanding the function and relationship between visual concepts. I propose a literacy approach to the visual so that as educators, researchers, students, and practitioners, we acquire more than skills that rely on changing definitions and…

Drawing on Peirce's later as well as his early formulation of pragmatism, I show in this article how Peirce's definition of the purpose of a university can be reformulated in terms of his semiotic pragmatism. The abstract educational principles appealed to in the definition may thus be rephrased in terms of our pre-specialized capacities for…

Non-metropolitan population growth has received extensive consideration since it was first observed in the United States nearly 30 years ago. The emergence, weakening and selective reappearance of this phenomenon across much of the developed world has spawned a large body of applied and academic literature. Many terms and phrases have been coined…

Known as Bitter Bierce, the writer Ambrose Bierce spent years ironically redefining the terms for a host of people, things, actions, and concepts, compiling his redefinitions into the "The Devil's Dictionary." In this article, the author describes how she uses this caustic work as a model for an exercise when her developmental writing class begins…

A type of data layout that may be considered as an extension of the two-way random effects analysis of variance is characterized and modeled based on group invariance. The data layout seems to be suitable for several scenarios in psychometrics, including the one in which multiple measurements are taken on each of a set of variables, and the…

Objective: To examine the implications for research of the use of three alternative definitions for Asperger syndrome (AS). Differences across the three nosologic systems were examined in terms of diagnostic assignment, IQ profiles, comorbid symptoms, and familial aggregation of social and other psychiatric symptoms. Method: Standard data on…

Everyone wants a world-class university. No country feels it can do without one. The problem is that no one knows what a world-class university is, and no one has figured out how to get one. Everyone, however, refers to the concept. A Google search, for example, produces thousands of references, and many institutions--from modest academic…

Most family scholars take the concept of poverty for granted. The variety of ways people have chosen to define and measure this concept, however, often makes it difficult to interpret or compare research results. We review and critique the ways that poverty has been measured in the family and child literatures as well as the measures that have…