Culturally Diverse Rural Students: At Special Risk for LD Classification

Abstract

Due to the significant over-representation of rural culturally diverse students identified as learning disabled, this study investigated the effects of modifying the discrepancy formula between intelligence and achievement. This formula is commonly used to identify and place school-age students in programs for children and youth with learning disabilities. Three modifications were applied to the discrepancy formula using a sample of 123 students currently being served in classes for children and youth with learning disabilities in a rural Mississippi school district. The results indicated that modifying the assessment protocol and raising the minimum full scale IQ to 85 in the discrepancy formula resulted in the greatest reduction to the over-representation of rural culturally diverse students assessed for learning disabilities. Suggestions for future research in this area are offered.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Briand

(1995, November). Disabled student numbers rising at record pace. Special Education Report, 21, 1, 3.

Heward

W.L.

(1996). Exceptional children: An introduction to special education (5^th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Merrill.

Kirk

S.A.

, Gallagher

J.J.

, & Anastasiow

N.J.

(1997). Educating exceptional children (8th ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Lerner

J.W.

(1997). Learning disabilities: Theories, diagnosis, and teaching strategies (7^th ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Miller

J.A.

(1997). Quality Counts '97. Education Week on the Web [On-line]. Available: www.edweek.org/sreports/qc97/states/ms.htm.

Miller

J.A.

(1999). Quality Counts '99. Education Week on the Web [On-line]. Available: www.edweek.org/sreports/qc99/states/policy/ms-up.htm.

Moore

(1999, September 19). Census figures show population shift. Starkville Daily News, p. A1.

Payette

K.A.

, & Clarizio

H.F.

(1994). Discrepant team decisions: The effects of race, gender, achievement, and IQ on LD eligibility. Psychology in the Schools, 31, 40–48.

Spear-Swerling,

, & Sternberg

R.J.

(1998). Curing our ‘epidemic' of learning disabilities. Phi Delta Kappan, 79(5), 397–401.

10.

U.S. Department of Education. (1994). To assure the free appropriate public education of all children with disabilities: Sixteenth annual report to Congress on the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Washington, DC: Government Document Service.

11.

Utley,

C. A.

(1995). Culturally and linguistically diverse students with mild disabilities. In Grant

C.A.

(Ed.), Educating for diversity: An anthology of multicultural voices (pp. 301–324). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.