This children's book tells the story of 10-year-old Jimmy who is having problems at school and believes he is stupid. After a parent-teacher conference, he is tested and found to have a learning disability. The book discusses the characteristics of learning disabilities and the help Jimmy receives from a tutor. It concludes with Jimmy performing…

This brief paper summarizes warning signs of learning disabilities in preschool children, elementary school children, and secondary school children. It notes that learning disabilities are presumed to arise from dysfunctions in the brain resulting in significant difficulties in perceiving information, processing and/or remembering information,…

Protective factors were ingrained in the traditional Nez Perce way of life. The imposition of the White way of life introduced alcohol, suppressed protective factors, and facilitated the development of risk factors across all domains. For the past decade, the tribe has obtained federal funding for a variety of substance abuse prevention programs.…

Part of a larger ongoing study of the impact of antiracism mentoring on black student achievement, this report of a developmental study used a before-after approach to evaluate the pattern, direction, and significance of change in participating white teachers' white racial identity as a function of antiracism professional development. Using the…

This monograph deals specifically with the challenge of recognizing or assessing creativity. Following an introductory chapter, chapter 2 focuses on definitions and characteristics of creativity to help clarify the nature and meaning of creativity and creative thinking, and to consider the implications of those definitions for assessment. The…

Recent national studies show that nearly 2 million children have preventable learning "disabilities," and the number of students classified as learning disabled could be reduced by as much as 70 percent with rigorous early reading instruction. In predominantly white school districts, minority students are classified as learning disabled…

The Consortium of Longitudinal Studies in Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN) brings together five long-term studies of child maltreatment that utilize common procedures and instrumentation. Although each site is a separate project, collaboration permits exploration of additional issues and replication of findings. This paper provides brief reports…

This paper introduces a framework for conceptualizing a system of care for children and youth with severe emotional or behavioral disorders built on a child development perspective. The approach focuses on developmental transitions which all children and youth experience. Such transitions include entry into school, negotiating the challenges…

Students work in pairs or small groups to identify and categorize various objects. One student is blindfolded and the other student chooses five objects for his/her partner to identify. The blindfolded student has to describe and try to identify the object based solely on touch. Both students then record their data, describing the objects first as…

This manual, the 10th edition of a regularly published definition and classification work on mental retardation, presents five key assumptions upon which the definition of mental retardation is based and a theoretical model of five essential dimensions that explain mental retardation and how to use the companion system. These dimensions include…

This journal issue presents four major articles on cultural diversity issues in the education of gifted students. The first article is "An Alternative Approach to the Identification of Gifted Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners" by Carol S. Lidz and Sheila L. Macrine. It evaluates a dynamic assessment approach to…

This brief paper analyzes the types of information about disproportionality of particular racial/ethnic groups in special education that states provided in the Biennial Performance Reports (BPRs) submitted to the U.S. Department of Education in 2002 (covering the academic years 1991-2000 and 2000-2001). A section on the study's background notes…

This report introduces the General Education Development Testing Services (GEDTS) Administrator screening model for adults with learning disabilities. The screening model is designed to identify adults whose educational achievement is significantly below overall potential due to an informational processing deficit and who are thus eligible for…

This notebook is the 3rd volume of a three volume set containing strategies to provide an educational environment and assessment and counseling services for the learning disabled (LD) adolescent and adult. Part I focuses on a beneficial educational environment. Chapter 1, on the academic environment, addresses what is necessary for a supportive…

Two papers summarize a symposium on special education services and interagency systems of care for children and adolescents with severe emotional disturbance (SED) in California. The first paper, "Opening the Floodgates? The Influence of a System of Care on Referrals to Special Education" (Iris Zanglis, Michael J. Furlong, Michelle Wood,…