The real world of special education.

Comments on D. K. Detterman and L. A. Thompson's article (see record 1997-30052-007) concerning special education. The authors feel that the argument that "the goals of special education should be stated in terms of achievement and IQ" is an untenable generalization, and suggest that the assumption that current special education instructional practices are ineffective is inaccurate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Where angels fear to tread: Issues in sampling, design, and implementation of school-based mental health services research.

Research on school-based mental health systems is an important but hazardous enterprise. Current trends suggest that child mental health professionals will increasingly focus on community service systems that are family-based and school-centered. Challenges to conducting research on effectiveness of such services include underidentification of children with emotional or behavioral disorders, lack of concordance between diagnostic criteria used in school vs mental health systems, problems of comorbidity, analysis of data from multiple informants, lack of interdisciplinary or interagency collaboration, community involvement, and a variety of other factors. These issues and suggestions for addressing them are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influences on the sociometric ratings of mildly handicapped children: A path analysis.

Hypothesized a model of influence that characterizes teacher and peer perceptions of cognitive and behavioral competencies as mediating variables between observed behavior and achievement and social status. 133 mildly mentally retarded children (aged 7–14 yrs) enrolled in self-contained special classes were observed for attending and disruptive behaviors over 6-sec intervals in round-robin fashion until 10 intervals were collected for each S. Ss were also administered the Wide Range Achievement Test, the Guess Who scale, and a social status measure. Teachers were administered the Teacher Rating scale. Results of a path analysis reveal the following causal sequence or pathway of influence: (a) from observed behavior and achievement, (b) to teacher perceptions of these competencies, (c) to student perceptions of the competencies, and then (d) to social status of the mildly handicapped students. Theoretical and practical implications for the clarification of the dynamics of social status are discussed. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)