This study examines faculty and student perceptions regarding university students with learning disabilities, sensitivity to such students' special needs, accommodations, and the perceived impact of a learning disability. Results reveal a general sensitivity to the special needs of students with learning disabilities; however, group differences suggest several areas warranting further attention.

This study compares the written expression of 48 students with learning disabilities (LD) and 48 normally achieving (NA) students (Grades 4, 8, and 11). Productivity, syntactic maturity, vocabulary, and mechanics were examined using writing samples obtained in response to a standard stimulus. Results indicate that, compared to their NA peers, students with learning disabilities write fewer words and sentences, write more words per sentence, produce fewer words with seven letters or more and fewer sentence fragments, and have a higher percentage of capitalization and spelling errors. No group differences were found for the number of T-units produced or the number of morphemes per T-unit. Comparison of group differences at each grade level and differences by groups across the grades reveals persistent written expression difficulties and signals a need for a careful review of current instructional practices and how they can be improved.

As part of a broader investigation, this study sought to (a) provide a statewide "snapshot" of educators' views regarding the current status of and process associated with increased integration efforts for serving students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) in Virginia, and (b) document factors serving as the basis of or creating reluctance toward such efforts. Survey respondents included the population of special education supervisors and samples of general education supervisors, building principals, general secondary and elementary education teachers, and LD teachers (N = 788). Results suggest active efforts to increase the amount of time students with SLD spend in general classroom settings; however, limited program change-related guidelines or category-specific outcome-monitoring measures were reported. Across groups, participants expressed doubts regarding the adequacy of general education teachers' skills for making needed instructional adaptations. Over half of the respondents tended to disagree or disagreed that general education teachers were willing to make needed adaptations for students with SLD. Differences in the views expressed by the different respondent groups were examined.

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