Academic Achievement Test Use and Assessment Practices: A National Survey of Special Education Administrators

This study examined current academic achievement test use and assessment practices in the United States. Special education administrators from 725 US school districts were surveyed using an online platform to determine current trends in the use of norm-referenced academic achievement tests (NRTs) and curriculum-based measures (CBMs). Administrators reported that school psychologists most commonly administered the NRTs used to help determine special education eligibility, although special education teachers also fill this role frequently, particularly in Western states. General and special educators are the most likely staff to administer CBMs. A detailed accounting of academic achievement assessment practices is discussed including which tests are used and the differences in assessment roles by region and district locale. Implications of these findings for the training of educators and for research are considered.

The Use of Response to Intervention to Inform Special Education Eligibility Decisions for Students With Specific Learning Disabilities

This is an official position paper of the National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities (NJCLD), of which the Council for Learning Disabilities has been a long-standing, active member. Response to intervention (RTI) is a critical component of a multi-tiered service delivery system. This NJCLD paper presents concerns related to the implementation of RTI and its use as the sole method of evaluation to determine the identification and eligibility for special education as a student with a specific learning disability (SLD) and implications for transition.

Response to Intervention (RTI) and Changes in Special Education Categorization

Response to intervention (RTI) is used as a prerequisite to referring children for special education eligibility for learning disabilities (LD). RTI provides schools with a framework for helping students with learning challenges. In the United States, while the number of students receiving services through RTI has remained consistent, the overall number of students receiving some educational intervention through an alternate path has increased. The purpose of this study was to determine the influence that the RTI model had upon eligibility numbers in a large special education co-operative spanning 21 rural school districts in southern Illinois that represented 15,128 students. Each of the school districts maintained its own policies and procedures governing RTI implementation, special education referral, and special education eligibility. The study revealed that while the number of students with LD dropped significantly over the past decade, the numbers of children eligible for other disability categories increased in a similar proportion. This changing trend may be the result of several factors including changes in school district policy, parent advocates pressing for quicker paths to treatment, treatment providers shifting categories for a wide variety of reasons, or some yet unknown factor. These possible explanations suggest that family issues, time, finances, and procedural dynamics may play a role in the changing categorizations and should be better understood. Future studies should focus on the inclusion of more culturally and economically diverse students, within and outside the Unites States. Last, school district policies and RTI implementation procedures should be investigated to better uncover any potential relationship to this shifting data trend.

Comparing Autism Symptom Severity Between Children With a Medical Autism Diagnosis and an Autism Special Education Eligibility

Rates of children identified as having autism spectrum disorder (ASD) continue to increase in both medical and school settings. While procedures for providing a medical diagnosis are relatively consistent throughout the United States, the process for determining special education eligibility under an ASD classification varies by state, with many states adopting looser identification criteria than medical taxonomies. This study included a sample of 73 school-age children with ASD and sought to examine differences in ASD symptom severity, adaptive functioning, and challenging behaviors between those identified in the medical system versus those identified in schools. Results indicate that children identified as having ASD only by their school had less severe clinician-rated ASD symptomatology than children with a medical ASD diagnosis but that caregiver reports of adaptive functioning and challenging behavior did not differ between the two groups. These findings do not appear to have been influenced by demographic factors including caregiver education, household income, or health insurance status. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Implementing Effective Student Support Teams

Pre-service teachers in a K-12 setting, encounter students in need of academic and behavioral supports. One method of providing supports to struggling students in the general education and special education setting is through the problem-solving process of pre-referral intervention, hence forth referred to as Student Support Teams (SST) within Response-to-Intervention. During the SST process, student's academic and/or behavioral difficulties are considered through a multidisciplinary approach. Research demonstrates the use of a multi-tiered problem solving approach as a means to provide supports for students prior to special education eligibility and placement. Additionally, there are concerns regarding implementation and teacher perceptions (Powers, 2001) on the effectiveness of the intervention and collaboration between general education and special education teachers (Graden, 1989). This chapter discusses historical aspects, purpose and process, best practices, and challenges of SSTs, while presenting strategies for teachers and educators to effectively implement the SST process.

Under-Identification of Students with Long Term Disability from Moderate to Severe TBI:

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a special education eligibility category under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Unlike other special education categories (e.g., autism, specific learning disabilities), relatively few students with TBI are identified for special education nationwide compared to the known prevalence of TBI. Discrepanies between TBI hospitalization data, estimates of long-term disability due to TBI, and the number of students identified under the TBI category were analyzed. Only 33% of students projected to have moderate to severe TBI were represented in state child counts using the IDEA TBI category. Possible explanations for these discrepancies were explored, including that students with TBI are not referred for special education services, students are served under other special education categories, communications between medical systems-school systems are limited, and that students may not manifest difficulty until years after injury. Potential solutions to improve TBI identification for special education services are presented.

Academic Assessment

In the field of education, assessment is used to evaluate and document the learning progress and educational needs of students. Assessment takes many forms, including direct and indirect methods and summative and formative measures, and occurs across levels from the individual student to the district and state levels. At the individual student, classroom, and school levels, academic assessment data are used to make instructional decisions regarding differentiation, intervention, program placement, and special education eligibility. Specifically, academic skills assessment enables the educator to determine student performance on tasks in the basics of reading, writing, and math against a criterion or standard (e.g., grade-level expectations) and in relation to same age or grade peers. At the district level, high-stakes statewide assessment data are used for accountability purposes, such as documenting adequate student progress. Additionally, statewide assessment results often are used to “grade” and rank schools and may influence decisions regarding allocation of resources and school choice vouchers. The purpose of this annotated bibliography is to provide an overview of general resources for academic assessment as well as more-specific resources for differing modalities and methods of assessment, applications, and implications for policy and practice. The bibliography includes seminal and contemporary references from educational publishers and peer-reviewed sources.

The Relationship of Collaboration and Job Satisfaction Between Speech-Language Pathologists and School Psychologists

Purpose The professions of speech-language pathology and school psychology appear to be moving in similar directions in the 21st century. Legal mandates suggest the importance of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and school psychologists (SPs) adopting more of a collaborative role in the school setting as opposed to past roles resembling separate deliveries of service. Moreover, both professions are encouraged to address service provision in a more comprehensive manner to reach all students, regardless of special education eligibility. However, the changing roles of SLPs and SPs may result in higher workload demands and eventually lead to a decrease in job satisfaction. A collaborative model may alleviate their growing workloads and thus increase their job satisfaction. This study examined collaboration among SLPs with SPs and the relationship of collaboration to job satisfaction. Factors that increased the likelihood of the SLPs engaging in collaborative practices were also investigated. Data were collected from 363 SLPs through a web-based survey. Conclusions The results revealed a significant correlation between job satisfaction and collaboration. A multiple regression analysis identified attitude toward collaboration and perception of the other professional's competency level to be significant predictors of collaboration for the SLPs. The results add to the emerging body of research describing the influence of collaboration on job satisfaction and strengthen the notion that collaboration increases job satisfaction.