Comparison of the written stories of 96 learning-disabled and 96 non-learning-disabled students found significant differences at grades 3, 4, and 5 in students' inclusion of a complete story grammar. No differences were found at grade 6. (Author/DB)

This study was designed to identify differences in the neurological functioning of three groups of children with developmental dyslexia and to assess whether any of the groups were characterized by a particular pattern of neurological soft signs. Subjects were 88 children, aged 11-14, who were identified as developmentally dyslexic. The children…

Three mildly retarded 11 year olds were administered reading probes for a period of 4 months, and number of words read correctly were compared to student performance on a criterion-referenced mastery test. Findings questioned whether such probes alone yield sufficient information for making program decisions during the course of instruction.…

Forty prototypical descriptions representing 4 aptitude domains and 4 talent fields were rated by 2,343 intermediate-level pupils and their teachers, and indices of interpeer agreement were computed. A majority of the prototypes maintained acceptable interpeer agreement levels. Interpeer agreement depended primarily on the specific aptitude or…

Two instruments and instructional activities were pilot tested to determine if they could be used in a later evaluation study of a Domain of Cognition model, developed by Robert J. Stahl as an alternative to Bloom's Taxonomy. The model, intended to help educators more effectively plan for, implement, monitor, and evaluate instruction, was proposed…

The correlation between risk taking behavior and test results on the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) was examined in a group of 47 fourth and fifth grade students identified for a gifted and talented program. The risk-taking check list (DEEP) was developed by the Downington, Pennsylvania Area School District, and includes four…

Thirty-two hearing-impaired adolescents were assessed on comprehension of three anaphoric forms within conjoined sentences: repeated noun, personal pronouns, and null form. The null form anaphora in a semantically acceptable environment, in which some hearing-impaired students apply a deviant object-subject deletion rule, was significantly more…

Two pilot tests with fifth and sixth graders evaluated the Secondary School Admission Test for identifying academically talented students of elementary school age. Testing indicated that mean scores for eighth and ninth grade normative samples are recommended as cutoffs for identifying highly able fifth and sixth grade students. (Author/JDD)

Thirty-six fifth graders considered "disruptive" were rated with the ACCEPTS Placement Test, Walker-McConnell Scale of Social Competence and School Adjustment, and Matson Evaluation of Social Skills with Youngsters (self-report and teacher rating). The three teacher rating measures were strongly related, and students' self-ratings were…

Reports a study to test the hypothesis that intermediate grade teachers (n=96) will reflect an expectation of male success in the scores they assign to students' work in mathematical problem solving. MANOVA involving the variables of student gender, teacher grade level, and teacher gender indicated no gender bias on the part of teachers. (MDH)

Speech samples from 3 hearing-impaired children (ages 9-11) were videotaped for judgment by 5 teachers in audio-only and audio-video condition. When a teacher evaluated a child's speech using both auditory and visual information, fewer errors were typically noted than if the child's speech was evaluated using only auditory information. (Author/JDD)

Criterion-related validity data are presented on 3 methods for assessing reading comprehension, based on 26 learning-disabled middle school students. The standard cloze test and multiple-choice cloze test produced moderate correlations, although the traditional scoring method was considered inappropriate. The story retell procedures demonstrated…

Communication in the mathematics classroom is currently viewed as an integral part of mathematics instruction. This paper explores the usefulness of math penpal letters as a means of increasing the quality of written communication in mathematics. The focus of this study is the letter writing exchanges between a class of 4th-grade students (n=28)…

Examined were relationships between metamemory and strategic behavior in 130 impulsive and reflective children in fourth, fifth, and sixth grades. Of these, 77 had been tested 3 years earlier on multiple metamemory and memory tasks. At pretraining, children were assessed on metamemory, cognitive tempo, summarization skills, and teacher ratings of…

This study investigated the technical adequacy of 7 objective indexes of writing quality in monitoring the progress of 36 middle school students with mild disabilities over a 6-month period. Three indexes (such as "percent of legible words") were moderately correlated with holistic ratings but were not sufficiently stable over time. (Author/JDD)