Dalun Zhang

Minority Representation in Special Education A Persistent Challenge

Overrepresentation of minority students in special education has been a concern for more than 3 decades. Such overrepresentation has triggered a number of legal challenges, educational reforms, and legislative actions. However, a question still remains in the field: Have there been any recent changes or improvements? We addressed this question by analyzing data published by the federal government. Racial representation along with regional variations and state poverty rates were examined. The results indicated that American Indian/Alaskan Native and African American students were overrepresented in high-incidence disabilities (i.e., emotional and behavioral disorders, learning disabilities, and mental retardation); that significant regional variations existed in minority representation, but that these variations were not correlated with state poverty rates; and that racial representation in certain disability categories was negatively correlated with state poverty rates for certain racial groups.

Substantiated Best Practices in Transition: Fifteen Plus Years Later

Since the transition movement in the 1980s, numerous transition practices have been developed. Kohler (1993) provided a comprehensive review and analysis of transition best practices and divided them into substantiated and implied practices based on the existence of empirical evidence. Since that review was published, the field of transition has changed. The purpose of this article is to provide an updated review of transition best practices since Kohler’s study. A total of 29 documents were collected that substantiated best transition practices. The resulting most- to least-substantiated practices were paid or unpaid work experience, employment preparation, family involvement, general education inclusion, social skills training, daily living skills training and self-determination skills training, and community or agency collaboration.

Giving Parents a Voice: A Qualitative Study of the Challenges Experienced by Parents of Children With Disabilities

BACKGROUND This study sought to examine the specific sources of challenges as identified by parents of children with disabilities. METHOD Focus groups were conducted with 40 parent caregivers. Data gathered were coded into themes which were then analyzed through an intentional process of data reduction that resulted in the cross site validation of four superordinate themes. RESULTS Four themes emerged as the most prominent barriers to positive parent wellbeing: (a) access to information and services, (b) financial barriers, (c) school and community inclusion, and (d) family support. These four themes are indicative of problems associated with a lack of match between caregiver needs and services, resources, or support available in the community to meet those needs. CONCLUSION Caring for a child with a disability can be challenging, but many of these challenges are likely due to a lack of necessary environmental supports. Future research should expand on these findings and policy makers, scientists and providers should give particular attention to the environmental support needs of parents in order to create policies and interventions that are more family-centered.

Juvenile Delinquency and Recidivism: The Impact of Academic Achievement

For well over a century, behavioral researchers have attempted to understand the relation between juvenile delinquency and academic achievement. The authors review current literature pertaining to academic achievement and its effect on delinquency. While researchers have not yet been able to establish a direct causal relation between these two variables, it has been demonstrated that poor academic outcomes can adversely affect a childs behavior, and early behavioral problems can lead to poor academic outcomes. Studies have also shown that rates of recidivism are highly correlated with low levels of academic performance. Lastly, research has demonstrated that the implementation of sound academic interventions, particularly in reading, can effectively reduce rates of both delinquency and recidivism.

The Construct of Adaptive Behavior: Its Conceptualization, Measurement, and Use in the Field of Intellectual Disability

This article updates the current conceptualization, measurement, and use of the adaptive behavior construct. Major sections of the article address an understanding of the construct, the current approaches to its measurement, four assessment issues and challenges related to the use of adaptive behavior information for the diagnosis of intellectual disability, and two future issues regarding the relations of adaptive behavior to multidimensional models of personal competence and the distribution of adaptive behavior scores. An understanding of the construct of adaptive behavior and its measurement is critical to clinicians and practitioners in the field because of its role in understanding the phenomenon of intellectual disability, diagnosing a person with intellectual disability, providing a framework for person-referenced education and habilitation goals, and focusing on an essential dimension of human functioning.

Availability of Special Education Teachers Trends and Issues

A national shortage of fully certified special education teachers has been a persistent concern over the years. The purpose of this study was to examine teacher availability by analyzing data from the annual reports to Congress over a 10-year period. Findings indicate (a) that there is a nationwide shortage of teachers who are qualified to teach across all disabilities, including a particularly disproportionate shortage in the area of emotional and behavioral disorders, and (b) that there has been a dramatic decrease in the teacher shortage rate, beginning in the 1993—1994 year and continuing in subsequent years. Possible explanations for this decrease may be the expanded reliance on the proliferation of alternate or emergency certification, inclusionary practices, personnel preparation training grants, and noncategorical certification. In the short run, alternate or emergency certification routes may decrease the shortage of special education teachers; however, we caution against the use of these routes to teacher certification, if they become an institutionalized alternative to a comprehensive teacher education program.

High-Stakes Testing and Students With Disabilities Challenges and Promises

The use of high-stakes testing has become an increasingly popular assessment for schools to use in demonstrating individual academic performance of students, and providingaccountability for school improvement. Given the potential negative consequences associated with mandatory testing (e.g., grade retention, withholding of high school diplomas, labeling failing schools), students, parents, and school districts all bear significant risks based upon student test scores. The historically poor performance of students with disabilities on these assessments has raised concerns over minimum standards, permissible test modifications, and alternate assessments. The authors provide a review of recent research literature, legislation, and court decisions pertaining to the use of high-stakes testing for students with special needs in support of : (a) federal legislation (i.e., No Child Left Behind and Individual With Disabilities Education Act), (b) Mandatory Competency Exams to determine grade promotion, and (c) Mandatory Exit Exams to meet graduation requirements.

Parent and Teacher Engagement in Fostering the Self-Determination of Students with Disabilities A Comparison Between the United States and the Republic of China

This study investigated the behaviors of parents and teachers in the United States and Taiwan in fostering the self-determination of elementary and secondary school students. Participants were parents and teachers of 203 students from the United States and 90 students from Taiwan. Findings indicated that U.S. teachers reported similar levels of engagement in selfdetermination—fostering behaviors as teachers in Taiwan; U.S. parents reported significantly higher levels of engagement in selfdetermination—fostering behaviors than parents in Taiwan; in both countries, teachers and parents of secondary school students reported higher levels of engagement than teachers and parents of elementary school students; and country differences and teacher—parent differences were related to some specific items. Interpretations of these findings and their implications for parent and teacher education and cultural differences are discussed.

Personal self-determination and moderating variables that impact efforts to promote self-determination

The purpose of this second article in the special topic issue from the National Training Initiative on Self-Determination is to provide detail with regard to how we understand the self-determination construct and to discuss moderator variables and how such variables impact the design and implementation of interventions to promote self-determination. Moderator variables are baseline factors that define subgroups with greater versus lesser intervention response. That is, they are factors that need to be taken into account, a priori, when designing interventions so that the intervention might address unique needs or characteristics of the people for whom the intervention is intended.

Background and Psychosocial Variables Associated with Recidivism Among Adolescent Males A 3-Year Investigation

Given the limitations of existing “prediction models” regarding recidivism among juvenile offenders, psychosocial variables were added to background variables to investigate the contributions of these factors to the prediction of recidivism. Psychosocial variables included alcohol abuse, depression, levels of parent and peer attachment, and personality traits.The participants for the present study were 299 adolescent males incarcerated from July 1998 to July 1999 in a midwestern correctional facility. Follow-up data on recidivists were collected in 1999—2000, 2000—2001, and 2001—2002. Findings differentiating recidivists from nonrecidivists were consistent with earlier studies regarding age at first commitment and parole violation. Personality variables such as cognitive structure and succorance (Personality Research Form; Jackson, 1989) improved the prediction of recidivism, even with age of commitment, educational achievement, and measures of psychopathology accounted for. Continued efforts to improve the validity of prediction models are recommended, particularly by considering psychosocial and postrelease-related variables in addition to background and educational factors.