The aim of this study was to examine the contribution of dynamic testing in the measuring of children's need for instruction and to explore responses of special education teachers to dynamic testing results. Thirty-six 10-12-year-old children with a moderate to mild intellectual disability and their teachers participated. Children in the experimental condition were dynamically tested. This test included graduated prompts training and an analogy construction task; children in the control group were administered a static pre-test and post-test only. Outcomes of the assessments were reported to teachers. Teacher-child interactions were observed twice, learning potential ratings were gathered and teachers were interviewed regarding reports. The results showed that dynamically tested children achieved significantly higher post-test scores than untrained children. Dynamically tested children, even with comparably low IQ scores, varied in their need for instruction--measured by the number and type of prompts they required during training as well as during construction problems. Teachers appreciated the reported dynamic testing outcomes, although substantial changes in teaching practice were not observed. Supplementing intelligence testing with a dynamic testing procedure is recommended to obtain a more accurate description of children's educational needs. (Contains 3 tables and 5 figures.)