This study was designed to solicit teachers' perceptions of nonacademic skills required for students with behavioral disorders and learning disabilities to be successful in mainstreamed settings. Regular class teachers designated nonacademic skills possessed by a learning disabled or behaviorally disordered child recently mainstreamed into their class while special educators designated skills possessed by children recently mainstreamed out of their programs. Special educators indicated to what extent the nonacademic skills were trained in their classrooms. Teachers also assessed the extent to which nonacademic skills were considered in decisions relating to mainstreaming. Results revealed that regular class teachers perceived differences in nonacademic skills as demonstrated by behaviorally disordered, learning disabled, and normally achieving students. Differences were also found between regular and special class teachers' perceptions of the number of skills possessed by recently mainstreamed behaviorally disordered students.
This study applied Messick's unified, multifaceted concept of construct validity to an electronic portfolio system used in a teacher education program. The subjects included 128 preservice teachers who recently completed their final portfolio reviews and student teaching experiences. Four of Messick's six facets of validity were investigated for the portfolio in this study, along with a discussion of the remaining facets examined in two previous studies. The evidence provided support for the substantive and generalizability aspects of validity, and limited support for the content, structural, external, and consequential aspects of validity. It was suggested that the electronic portfolio may be used as one requirement for certification purposes, but may not be valid for the purpose of assessing teacher competencies.
Since passage of the Education of All Handicapped Children Act in 1975, professionals and parents have disagreed concerning how to define and implement the related services requirement of the law. Some states have enacted statutes or regulations establishing eligibility criteria; however, many have not. Although a number of due process and court cases have been filed concerning related services as a necessary component of a free and public education to students with disabilities, the narrow and sometimes conflicting outcomes of those cases has failed to provide clear guidance for the field. This article will review the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act definitions of related services, overview types of related services commonly provided in schools, and review legal decisions concerning related services and the research providing support for best practices.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.