School-based teacher support teams are being established by many educational agencies in an effort to assist teachers in more effectively serving students with learning and behavior problems within the general classroom setting. This article addresses questions most frequently asked by educators who are interested in establishing or strengthening school-based teams. Data are summarized from five studies conducted on 96 teams in seven states with respect to intervention goals of teams, team impact on student performance and the special education referral process, reactions of classroom teachers to teams, factors related to team effectiveness or ineffectiveness, and recommendations for improving team effectiveness.

Although regular classroom teachers can meet the needs of many mainstreamed children within the regular classroom setting, situations arise when teachers need assistance. In such cases, the classroom teacher often has no place to turn for help. Rather than addressing this problem in the traditional inservice format, the present study proposes a teacher support system model for classroom teachers. Based on a survey of perceived prerequisite skills and competencies for dealing effectively with learning and behavior disorders in the classroom, the Teacher Assistance Team concept was developed to provide a day-to-day peer problem-solving group for teachers within a particular building. The goal of the team is to obtain more efficient and effective delivery of special help to children by placing the initiative for action in the hands of classroom teachers.

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The current status of knowledge concerning learning disabilities is reviewed with respect to areas of consensus and areas of disagreement about this phenomenon. The adequacy of the knowledge base is evaluated, and implications for social policies regarding the definition, diagnosis, treatment, and education of learning disabled children are drawn.

This article proposes a method for operationalizing disabilities in order to identify precisely the population in question. An analysis of nine widely used definitions' is presented. This analysis reveals that definitions of learning disabilities seem to focus on five components. These are: task failure, exclusion factors, physiological correlates, discrepancy, and psychological correlates. To use the definition in the identification process, each of the five definitional components must be applied to the child. Strategies for operationalizing each component are discussed. The procedures for operationalizing the first four components present no problem. The psychological correlate component, however, is more difficult to operationalize. Five psychological processes are identified, questions to be considered during assessment are presented, and standardized tests for each process are listed.