Reflects on the motivating conditions, goals, works, and aspirations of the Juniper Gardens Children's Project (JGCP). The JGCP was established in 1964 to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty of a 10-square-mile urban area in Kansas City, Kansas, by improving developmental and educational experiences within the community. (CR)

Reviews the use of IQ scores in determining special education placement. It argues that although IQ is central to state education codes and their eligibility criteria for special education, the evidence shows that many children exhibiting psychometric scores that would make them eligible are never referred. (Author/CR)

Describes a curriculum-based dynamic language-assessment process using a flowchart description of the six steps of the assessment process. A case study of a linguistically diverse student is provided that is designed to allow insight into a student's learning capabilities and to provide direction for instructional planning. (CR)

Three studies investigated the effectiveness of the Computer Assisted Reading Diagnosis, a diagnostic system based on "rauding" theory (a collection of theories, constructs, and equations developed to describe, explain, predict and control the ability to comprehend relatively easy sentences) and a causal model of reading achievement.…

This study focuses on changes in listener ability to identify a language after brief periods of exposure. Specifically, it looks at whether minimal exposure to spoken samples of a language improve identification of novel samples and in what ways exposure materials affect listener performance. (Author/JL)

This article describes the evolution of Iowa's model of low vision care for students with visual impairments. It reviews the benefits of a transdisciplinary team approach to providing low vision services for children with visual impairments, including a decrease in the number of students requiring large-print materials and related costs. (Contains…

This article reviews and analyzes three decades of research on the underachievement of gifted students in an attempt to clarify the present state of research. The problems inherent in defining and identifying underachieving gifted students are given special attention. Suggestions for future research are included. (Contains extensive references.)…

Describes a program that addresses social, emotional, and behavior issues along with the developmental problems of infants and toddlers with developmental delays. Steps the early-intervention program in Montgomery County, Maryland, took to incorporate infant mental-health services are discussed and case studies are provided. (CR)

Highlights dynamic assessment, an approach to assessing cognitive ability in which students are instructed on how to perform on certain tasks and measured on their progress in learning to solve similar problems. It describes how dynamic assessment can be used for identifying disadvantaged students for specialized enrichment programs. (CR)

Presents an overview of preservice volunteer training at READ/San Diego, an adult literacy program. It discusses the program's informal assessment procedures that help identify possible language/learning disabilities and provide valuable information for instructional planning. Also described are selected multisensory teaching techniques designed…

Psychometric support for the use of the Los Angeles Symptom Checklist (LASC), a self-report measure of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), was provided by a study involving 639 high-risk adolescents. The LASC had appropriate levels of reliability and appeared to detect distress and PTSD as a function of trauma exposure. (SLD)

Examined the effects of racial imagery and cultural themes in reading content on the reading comprehension of 109 African-American elementary school students. Results provided some support for the hypothesis that stories depicting African-American characters would facilitate more efficient recall and comprehension than stories about white…

Nationalism, as taught in Belize schools, is panethnic and multiethnic, but because the increasingly widespread practice of ethnic mixing is not acknowledged, there is a discrepancy between what is taught and the daily life of students. Research results from 161 elementary school children show that the ethnic self-identification of children is…

Examines the relationship and predictive power of the Early Language Milestone Scale-2 (ELM-2)and the Bayley Scales of Infant Development-II (BSID-II). Both scales were administered to 90 infants at risk for developmental delay due to prematurity and low birth weight. Results of the ELM-2 correlated with BSID-II scores of infants 12 months of age.…

The syntax of 14 child speakers of African American English (AAE) with and without language disorders were compared. Findings suggested that shared features between AAE and Standard American English may be more diagnostically salient than features not shared when identifying children of AAE language backgrounds with language disorders. (DB)