Daryl F. Mellard

Academic and Participation Profiles of School-Age Dropouts with and without Disabilities

Young adults with learning disabilities (LD) or emotional or behavioral disorders (EBD) tend to achieve below their nondisabled peers in secondary school. They typically lack proficiency in academic skills and are less prepared for the world of work. A disproportionate percentage of these students drop out of school. Some of the dropouts find their way to adult education to pursue a General Educational Development (GED) diploma. Two hundred seventy-seven young adults with and without LD/EBD were interviewed regarding their school and post-dropout experiences. Findings indicate that factors such as disability status, when individuals drop out, and self-perspectives influence education participation.

A Path Analysis of Reading Comprehension for Adults With Low Literacy

Adult literacy interventions often rely on models of reading validated with children or adult populations with a broad range of reading abilities. Such models do not fully satisfy the need for intervention research and development for adults with low literacy. Thus, the authors hypothesized that a model representing the relationship between reading component skills would be predictive of reading comprehension for an adult population with low literacy and beneficial to adult literacy researchers. Using data from 174 adults participating in adult basic education and secondary education programs, the authors performed a path analysis of component skills’ contribution to reading comprehension. The findings are clear that existing reading models do not describe this population. The implications are discussed in terms of instructional and curricular interventions.

Cognitive Processing Deficits and Students with Specific Learning Disabilities: A Selective Meta-Analysis of the Literature

Many practitioners and state education agency staff would likely agree that the accuracy and consistency of specific learning disability (SLD) eligibility decisions is in need of improvement. One component of the SLD definition particularly controversial in the identification procedures is the evaluation of cognitive processes, primarily due to a lack of information about the role they might play in informing an SLD diagnosis and eligibility for special education services. A meta-analysis of 32 studies was conducted to examine the cognitive processing differences between students with SLD and typically achieving peers. The analysis found moderately large to large effect sizes in cognitive processing differences between groups of students with SLD and typically achieving students. These differences are of sufficient magnitude to justify including measures of cognitive processing ability in the evaluation and identification of SLD.

Foundations and Research on Identifying Model Responsiveness-to-Intervention Sites

As regulations are rewritten regarding school-based learning disabilities identification practices, the components of those practices are likely to change. For example, cognitive assessment and aptitude-achievement discrepancy might be less important. A students responsiveness-to-intervention (RTI) is emerging as an important construct for assessing underachievement. This article provides a framework for understanding how RTI fits as one LD determination component, describes research on RTI, and outlines the NRCLDs research efforts to examine current RTI implementation in schools and model site selection.

LD IDENTIFICATION: IT'S NOT SIMPLY A MATTER OF BUILDING A BETTER MOUSETRAP

Historically, researchers, policy makers, and practitioners have sought improved solutions to the issues associated with LD identification decisions. Since the passage of P.L. 94–142, numerous identification methods has been proposed, implemented, and studied. While each new method has been successful, at least partially, in addressing some of the limitations of earlier methods, each new identification model is saddled with its own set of shortcomings. This article argues that factors beyond specific LD identification technology significantly influence the decision-making process and ultimately decisions about who is and who is not LD. Results from focus group discussions with six stakeholder groups (LD parents, LD teachers, general education teachers, directors of special education, school principals, and school psychologists/diagnosticians) are reported, indicating that a broad array of factors beyond a students performance on formal and informal assessments influence ultimate decisions made about a students eligibility for learning disability services. Thus, the search for new identification technologies should also include efforts to better understand the values and biases of critical stakeholders and how to include these factors in the overall decision-making process.

Social Competencies as a Pathway to Successful Life Transitions

Learning disabilities have been examined most carefully in the academic setting; however, learning disabilities is a lifelong condition that impacts individuals outside the academic environments. Since the formal school setting accounts for so little of a persons life experiences, it becomes important to understand the nonacademic manifestations of learning disabilities. Impaired social competency is one of these common manifestations exhibited by young adults with learning disabilities. This article describes post-secondary outcomes of young adults with learning disabilities, specific areas of social problems encountered, and the results of an assessment of social competencies in adults with learning disabilities. The authors recommend that secondary and post-secondary curricular experiences include greater attention to improving social competencies.

Contrasting Adult Literacy Learners With and Without Specific Learning Disabilities

This study of 311 adult education learners found 29% self-reported having a specific learning disability (SLD). Significant differences in demographic, academic, and life experience variables between the adult learners with and without SLD included prior participation in special education, having both an SLD diagnosis and a high school diploma, low reading scores, middle age, and negative perceptions about limitations because of reading abilities. A post hoc regression analysis found SLD status significantly contributes to variance in reading level when controlling for age and IQ. From these findings, we conclude that SLD status should be considered an educationally relevant variable in adult education that warrants a diagnostic or clinical teaching approach.

Component Model of Reading Comprehension for Adult Education Participants.

The following insights into the reading skills of 312 participants in adult basic and secondary education programs are based on a principal components analysis of reading components’ contributions to variance in reading comprehension. Overall, 75% of variance was explained by four composite variables representing word skills, language comprehension, memory, and fluency errors (which was nonsignificant). Differences existed in the degree to which the three significant components contributed to variance by adults’ functional reading level. These differences demonstrate a progression in which lowest ability readers seem to primarily draw on word skills and secondarily on memory, mid-level readers begin to integrate language comprehension skills with word reading and memory, and better readers engage in a balance of all three skills and abilities, yet remain below the 25th percentile in reading comprehension. Intervention developers and instructors are encouraged to not view this population as homogeneous but rather to be sensitive to the differences in reading behaviors among adult education participants.

Alternative Models of Learning Disabilities Identification Considerations and Initial Conclusions

The final session of the National Research Center on Learning Disabilities (NRCLD) Responsiveness-to-Intervention (RTI) Symposium, “What are alternative models to LD identification other than RTI?” included four papers that discussed concerns over the exclusive reliance on an RTI approach to learning disability identification, considerations for analyzing proposed LD identification models, and various alternatives to LD identification. The work of the participating panelists is summarized in this discussant paper, and next steps for the NRCLD in light of these presentations are suggested.

Reading practices among adult education participants

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institute for Literacy, and the U.S. Department of Education Office of Vocational and Adult Education (Award # RO 1 HD 43775)