Response to Intervention (RTI) was encoded into the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004, and is being adopted on a wide scale as an alternative approach to identification of students with learning disabilities. For RTI to be an effective mechanism for addressing disproportionate representation of culturally and…

There is great controversy in the field of learning disabilities (LD) regarding the establishment of criteria for LD identification. The traditional approach to LD identification is to use the IQ-discrepancy. Lyon and colleagues (2001) point out the numerous problems with such an approach, including faulty assumptions about the adequacy of an IQ…

Identifying Specific Learning Disability (SLD) has been an arduous task. Until IDEA 2004, diagnosing SLD was limited to IQ discrepancy models lacking in both empirical evidence and contributing to minority over-representation. This paper examines the history of SLD assessment, the phenomena of minority over-representation, and the implementation…

As a prelude to the reauthorization of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 2004, President Bush charged a Commission on Excellence in Special Education with evaluating the current status of special education on the national, state, and local levels. One of the Commission's recommendations concerned the need to implement and…

Response to intervention (RTI) is a framework for providing high-quality instruction and intervention matched to students' individual needs. It includes the practice of frequent progress monitoring and use of data to make educational decisions about instructional and grouping practices as well as the duration, frequency, and amount of time…

The booklet specifies procedures used in Ohio for determining the existence of a severe discrepancy between intellectual ability and achievement in learning disabled (LD) students. An introductory section outlines state regulations regarding eligibility criteria for determining LD. A three-step procedure is then described (and illustrated in a…

Cumulative files on 276 students (grades 2-12) identified as learning disabled (LD) were analyzed in the project designed to investigate effects of LD selection formulas and the influence of various LD services. Analyses revealed that few (3-5%) of the students were identified as LD by formulas demanding a substantial IQ achievement discrepancy; a…

The study was designed to determine the efficacy of the Bannatyne recategorization in differentiating subgroups of learning disabled from emotionally disturbed children. The sample was comprised of 327 male and female Ss who had been placed in special education classes for either the learning disabled or emotionally disturbed. A three factor…

The extent to which identification as learning disabled is a function of the definition used and the extent to which different classifications would result from use of different definitions were examined in a study involving 51 students (6 to 12 years old) referred for psychological evaluation as a result of academic difficulties. The school…

A study investigated the possible relationship between month and season of birth and subsequent identification of learning disabilities in 583 learning disabled and 7,911 non-learning disabled kindergarten through twelfth grade students. Non-parametric statistical analysis of the data indicated non-significant differences in birthdate patterns…

The position statement of the Board of Trustees of the Council for Learning Disabilities opposes the use of discrepancy formulas to determine eligibility for learning disability services and recommends instead comprehensive diagnostic evaluations. (DB)

Meta-analysis was used to arrive at a quantitative synthesis of the results of 94 studies of the validity of Wechsler regroupings for differential diagnosis of learning disabilities. The primary findings indicated that no recategorization, profile, factor cluster, or pattern showed a significant difference between learning disabled and normal…

The article logs descriptive demographic and psychometric data on 1,839 randomly selected learning disabled students from across Iowa. In contrast to the results of other studies, nearly 75 percent of the students in Iowa LD programs met a moderate level of academic discrepancy. Variability was found among the standard scores for the achievement…

To determine the degree of controversy or consensus regarding definitions at the state level, questionnaires focusing on six learning disability topics were sent to each state education agency (SEA) and the District of Columbia. In general, more consensus than controversy exists when broad areas are considered. Changes in some SEA definitions…

Nine procedures assessing the magnitude or statistical significance of ability-achievement discrepancy dealing only with magnitude were evaluated and found to possess one or more serious statistical deficiencies. The approach with the greatest potential involves assessing the statistical significance (reliability) of a discrepancy score and then…