Data from a national survey of state departments of correctional and special education are presented. Issues regarding compliance of correctional education programs with the PL 94-142 Education For All Handicapped Children Act mandate are discussed and recommendations for improving services for incarcerated handicapped youth are offered.…

Process assessment is offered as an alternative frame of reference for conducting psychoeducational assessment. The research base is presented, as well as a specific model that focuses assessment on the characteristics of the task, the child, and the setting, as well as the interactions among three factors. (Author/CL)

A sample of 54 risk students and 54 matched students were examined at three levels of decision making--identification, classification, and instruction. Temperament information had little or no utility with respect to administrative decisions concerning identification and classification. There were significant relationships between temperament…

Extremely gifted participants in a university program were, for the most part, receiving special services in their schools prior to the university program, and a rather high-quality interface existed between the schools and the university program. Students seemed to be better served by schools as a result of participation in the university…

The paper reviews litigation and discusses issues related to suspension and expulsion of handicapped pupils. Recommendations for reviewing school disciplinary codes are made and for clarifying the relationship between misbehavior and handicapping conditions. An active role for special educators in this process is suggested. (Author/CL)

Interviews with 39 classroom teachers regarding referral practices revealed disparities with federal policy regarding protections to assure fairness in the identification and placement process. Policy alternatives are posed. (CL)

The article provides a sample of research in the Soviet Union with mentally retarded preschoolers. Studies address such topics as problem solving, size perception and classification. (Author/CL)

Three hundred eighty-two special education teachers (N=382) listed published tests useful in making diagnostic and placement decisions. Perceived usefulness of many tests varied as a function of exceptionality and geographical region. Those tests most frequently listed were not necessarily the most psychometrically sound, but tended to be…

Ten introductory special education texts published since 1980 were reviewed to determine recency of information by determining frequency of reference for a 10-year period in each handicapping category across all the texts. Findings suggested that certain books draw more heavily from selected bibliography than others. (Author/CL)

A health knowledge test, the Children's Health Locus of Control (CHCL) scale, and six health status measures were administered to 181 learning disabled and educable mentally retarded high schoolers. In general, students who had higher knowledge scores believed they had control over their health. (Author/CL)

Distractible elementary students (N=44) were assigned to one of four experimental conditions, reflecting manipulations of reinforcement and task difficulty. For difficult tasks, students assigned to contingencies for correct academic performance alone were off-task more and scored significantly lower in academic performance than Ss receiving…

Comparison of questionnaires completed by 32 therapeutic teachers, 39 regular teachers, and 28 school psychologists in Israel resulted in a unified picture of the therapeutic teacher's role. Therapeutic aspects and emotional features were clearly preferred to academic improvement. Psychologists as a group were more reserved in expectations, but…

Results of interviews with 10 special education supervisors indicated that the supervisor is forced to compromise administrative and technical assistance aspects of the job description. A typology of special education supervisors is presented, suggesting that role conflict is a function of the supervisor's view of the legitimate activities of that…

The study reviewed certification-endorsement requirements for special education administrators in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Results indicated that 38 of the 51 respondents had increased their certification-endorsement requirements since 1975, though a causal relationship could not be established. (Author/CL)

Questionnaires administered to 189 professional educators, 61 parents of handicapped children and 21 parent advocates rated criteria for print materials development and dissemination in terms of physical characteristics, readability/language, coverage of P.L. 94-142 (The Education For All Handicapped Children Act), and coverage of services. (CL)