Middle school students classified with Emotional Disturbance in two levels of least restrictive environments (LRE)--self-contained classes (SCC) and a self-contained school (SCS)--were compared at the beginning and the end of a school year, using demographics, IQ and achievement testing, a teacher checklist for DSM-IV psychopathology, and standard…

Objective: We examined the neuropsychological functioning of youth enrolled in the NIMH funded trial, Treatment of Early-Onset Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders (TEOSS). We compared the baseline neuropsychological functioning of youth with schizophrenia (SZ, n = 79) to those with schizoaffective disorder (SA, n = 40), and examined the relationship…

Children with sickle cell disease (SCD) are at risk for neurocognitive impairment and poor academic achievement, although there is limited research on factors predicting academic achievement in this population. This study explores the relative contribution to academic achievement of a comprehensive set of factors, such as environmental…

The aim of the present study was to investigate the associations between elementary school children's mathematical achievement and their conservation abilities, visuospatial skills, and numerosity processing speed. We also assessed differences in these abilities between children with different types of learning problems. In Study 1 (N = 229), we…

This study surveyed a national sample of school psychologists with respect to the identification of reading disabilities (RD). It covers school psychologists' opinions regarding perceived benefits of the use of cognitive assessment in RD identification, both within and outside of an IQ-achievement discrepancy model. The survey also solicited…

This study assessed rates of learning disabilities (LD) by several psychometric definitions in children with epilepsy and identified risk factors. Participants (N = 173, ages 8-15 years) completed IQ screening, academic achievement testing, and structured interviews. Children with significant head injury, chronic physical conditions, or mental…

Many schools in the United States use the IQ-achievement discrepancy method to identify children with learning disabilities (a significant split between their intelligence and their achievement skills). Unfortunately struggling students who are not identified by this method remain in the regular education setting with no additional supports and…

There are many benefits for emerging adults, both financial and personal, in obtaining a General Education Development (GED®) credential (Ou, 2008). However, little is known about the correlates of GED® credential attainment in "disconnected" emerging adults attending GED® programs. Our goal was to examine whether externalizing…

There has been considerable debate regarding the causal precedence of intelligence and academic achievement. Some researchers view intelligence and achievement as identical constructs. Others believe that the relationship between intelligence and achievement is reciprocal. Still others assert that intelligence is causally related to achievement.…

School psychologists' perceptions of how reading disabilities (RD) should be operationalized were examined and compared to those of journal editorial board members in the learning disabilities field (Speece & Shekitka, 2002). Participants were practicing school psychologists drawn from the membership directory of the National Association of School…

Concern is growing over the limited academic progress in special education students with emotional and/or behavioral disorders (EBD). We know little about how academic and behavioral factors interact in these students to affect their academic functioning. Therefore, potential associations were investigated over the course of one school year for…

Research studies have implicated executive functions in reading difficulties (RD). But while some studies have found children with RD to be impaired on tasks of executive function other studies report unimpaired performance. A meta-analysis was carried out to determine whether these discrepant findings can be accounted for by differences in the…

The disproportionate representation of minority students in special education programs has been a problem for over forty years. Factors contributing to minority overrepresentation include the lack of primary prevention, inappropriate language and educational assessment, over-referral of minority students for suspected learning difficulties,…

In this article, we address the relationship between teacher expectation bias and student characteristics, its effect on long-term student performance, and the development of this effect over time. Expectation bias was defined as the difference between observed and predicted teacher expectation. These predicted expectations were estimated from a…

This study examined the consequences of classifying postsecondary students as learning disabled (LD) using five objective sets of criteria: IQ-achievement discrepancies (1.0 to 1.49 SD, 1.5 to 1.99 SD, and greater than or equal to 2.0 SD), DSM-IV criteria, and chronic educational impairment beginning in childhood. The participants were 378…