The disproportionate representation of children of color in special and gifted education can be conceptualized through an a-b-c analysis: antecedent, behavior, and consequence. The focus for remedies should be shifted from antecedent conditions and the resulting behaviors to the consequences that perpetuate disproportionate representation.…

Little is known about the Asian Pacific American (APA) college student, but three problems may have important implications for teaching and learning: communication with and within the population; refugee waves; and generational identity. Educators should consider alternative and more appropriate strategies to avoid neglecting segments of this…

A study of 4,455 school districts found African-American students were about 2.4 times more likely to be identified as mildly mentally retarded and about 1.5 times more likely to be identified as seriously emotionally disturbed than their non-African-American peers. Economic and demographic variables were significant predictors of disproportionate…

Recounts the author's experiences as he developed a love for reading in elementary school, discovered in high school the element of power that reading held, and endured isolation in college. Describes his work with struggling African-American adolescent readers. (SR)

Defines four roles that media specialists should assume in the management of students with learning differences. These include disseminating information to classroom teachers and parents about diagnosing/managing students with learning differences, collaborating with colleagues in educational-technology selection, working one-on-one with students,…

Explores practical guidelines for classroom use of cooperative learning integrated with computer-based learning. Discusses positive interdependence, social modeling, communication skills, individual accountability, learners' abilities, grouping strategies, interaction patterns, locus of control, intrinsic motivation, cognitive processes, higher…

Composite reading performance data from 223 pairs of identical twins and 169 same-gender fraternal twins in which at least one member was classified with reading disability were subjected to multiple regression analysis. Results indicated that the genetic etiology of reading disability differs as a linear function of IQ. (Contains extensive…

A study of general and English-as-a-Second-Language elementary classrooms investigated teacher and student functional uses of language. The need to use dynamic assessment procedures and ethnographic observations to distinguish between a language disorder and typical difficulties associated with second-language acquisition is discussed. (Author/CR)

This study evaluated the impact of intensive behavioral treatment by parents in the home setting on the development of 11 young autistic children. Compared to a control group, the children had significantly higher posttreatment IQ scores. Smaller, but statistically significant effects on symptom severity were also found, although experimental…

Data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 were examined to study the disidentification of African American and other minority students with academics. African American boys in general remained disidentified through grade 12, but no other group demonstrated significant disidentification, and identification did not appear to vary…

A study involving 453 pairs of Israeli parents and teachers used an item response theory measurement model(IRT) to examine the 28-item Conners Teacher's Rating Scale (CTRS) for diagnosing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. IRT analyses revealed structural inadequacies involving the inappropriateness of the 4-point Likert-type scale used by…

A study investigated the effect of different diagnostic criteria on the identification of emotional or behavioral disorders in 3694 second-grade children. Results indicated the 13 different diagnostic combinations identified from 1.1% to 27.5% of the sample. Four of these combinations resulted in significant ethnic or gender bias. (Author/CR)

In an urban Brazilian shantytown, poor mothers took the risk of becoming squatters on public land (despite repressive actions by a military dictatorship) because activism was their only avenue to access the resources (housing) needed for motherhood--their only available valued identity. Poor fathers, having other possible identities, tended to…

A study investigated the impact of the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) on special education by collected data on all 176 school districts for 1989-90 through 1993-94. Findings indicate that KERA had a significant impact on the provision of, and allocation of resources to, special education five years after implementation. (Contains two…

Draw-a-Person (DAP) samples from 108 adolescents and adults with mental retardation were scored using Naglieri's cognitive and emotional disturbance scoring systems. Visual-motor skills emerged as the best predictor of DAP cognitive scores, more predictive than intelligence. Findings suggest caution in using DAP as an index of intelligence or as a…