Because the test information function and its two modified formulas provide useful information, the reliability coefficient of a test is no longer necessary in modern mental test theory. Yet it is interesting to know how to predict the coefficient using the test information function and its modifications, tailored for each separate population of…

The Kindergarten Oral Language Project (KOLP) is a program of the Los Angeles (California) Unified School District. The program is based on Teaching Activities for Language Knowledge and is designed to improve oral language skills of the kindergarten population, identify students at risk for language and speech problems, and decrease incidences of…

To reduce Rhode Island's high percentage of students being classified as learning disabled, an advisory committee recommended development of a statewide Learning Disabilities Identification Process (L.D.I.D.), to prepare evaluation teams to consistently consider regulatory criteria and to justify their decisions when making learning disability…

Traditionally, educational psychology has been a content-oriented course covering methodology, measurement, and learning theories. Recently, however, those in teacher education have been required to add a large clinical and field component to the course. An experiential taxonomy developed by Norman Steinaker and Robert Bell is flexible enough to…

This publication is designed to assist secondary school and vocational personnel with the process of conducting initial and ongoing screening observations for the purpose of identifying students with a handicapping condition that presents a barrier to learning. Development of the screening process is overviewed. The discussion of the vocational…

Parents' views concerning the developmental assessment of their special children were evaluated, and a diagnostic model was developed based on the findings. Nineteen families whose 3- to 36-month-old children were undergoing first-time developmental evaluations were studied through questionnaire and interview responses. Twelve recurring themes…

This volume contains five papers presented at a conference on developmental and environmental factors related to the onset of stuttering, evaluation and treatment procedures, and the measurement of therapy outcomes. In "The Development of Fluency in Normal Children," C. W. Starkweather considers evaluation of the fluency of young…

A study using a cross-sectional survey technique compared the uses of American television by 276 native American and 83 nonnative American children. Uses of American television were defined in terms of motivation for television viewing, preference for television programs, patterns of exposure to television, identification with television…

This slide script, part of a series of slide scripts designed for use in vocational agriculture classes, deals with commercially important woody ornamental landscape plants. Included in the script are narrations for use with a total of 253 slides illustrating 92 different plants. Several slides are used to illustrate each plant: besides a view of…

This study was conducted to investigate the long-term validity of the Japanese version of the Denver Developmental Screening Test (JDDST). Participating in the initial assessment were 1230 children in Tokyo and 600 children in Iwate who were between 1 month and 6 years of age when assessed between 1975 and 1979. Participants in the 1983 and 1985…

The study investigated the validity of the process of reevaluating a child's need for continued special education services especially the biasing effects of the teacher's referral statement on the decision of the multidisciplinary team. Psychoeducational profiles describing two children were distributed to 108 multidisciplinary teams in New York…

The American-born and -educated director of an international elementary and secondary school for gifted children in South Africa uses her 40 years of experience to explore the needs of gifted children and the goals of gifted education. The school provided an American-based educational program and English language instruction to a multilingual,…

This report offers answers to four basic questions about children's readiness for school: (1) What does being ready for school mean? (2) How can practitioners best identify and assess readiness? (3) How important is readiness? and (4) How do children who are ready get ready, and how do children who are not yet ready become ready? It is argued that…

The paper, originally given at a 1986 Ethnic and Multicultural Symposium, emphasizes the need for schools to recognize and understand the impact of culture on student academic and social success. Classroom based assessment and evaluation strategies for use with culturally diverse, behaviorally disordered students are reviewed and discussed. An…

There are several definitions of "learning disability," all of which involve a description of perceptual processing problems. The classic dyslexic problems are letter and word reversals by people of average or above average intelligence. Other common behaviors that may help instructors to identify dyslexic students include poor reading, inability…