To compile data useful for informed reevaluation decisions that concern specific-learning-disabled (SLD) children, the stability of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) and Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT) scores was assessed over a period of approximately 3 years in two samples of SLD children. Both samples began in a part-time learning-disabilities program (SLD-P). At the second WISC-R testing, 68 students remained in the part-time program, and 31 students had been placed in a full-time SLD program (SLD-PF). The WISC-R IQ reliabilities were high with the exception of Verbal IQ(VIQ) in the SLD-PF group. WRAT scores were less reliable. For both groups, VIQs decreased and Performance IQs (PIQs) increased over time. In the SLD-P group WRAT-Math scores decreased over time, and in the SLD-PF group WRAT-Spelling scores decreased over time. Regression analyses that used time in program as a covariate revealed unimpressive effects of program on WISC-R and WRAT scores. Cautions about program placement and the experimental design are discussed.

Several researchers have focused on the question of whether the traditional two-factor interpretation of WISC--R scores proposed by Wechsler (1974) is appropriate in selecting students to be admitted to gifted programs. Some researchers have suggested that the two-factor solution (Verbal and Performance) of Karnes and K. E. Brown provides the appropriate model, while others have proposed an alternative model based on exploratory research with gifted and average students. The current study expands exploratory findings of S. W. Brown with Rood in 1982 and Yakimowski in 1987, using confirmatory factor analytical procedures. The confirmatory factor analyses for selected groups of gifted (n = 158) and average (n = 195) students (M = 9.6 yr.) indicate that the alternative three-factor solution model may be a better system for interpreting the pattern of WISC--R subtest scores of gifted students than the conventional Verbal and Performance solution.

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To examine the validity of the Detroit Test of Learning Aptitude for the evaluation of students with learning disabilities, the records of 163 referred children were reviewed. Each child had been administered the Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT), the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R), and the Verbal Opposites, Motor Speed, Unrelated Words, Memory for Objects, and Memory for Designs subtests of the Detroit Test of Learning Aptitude (Detroit). A series of hierarchical multiple regression analyses were computed to determine the relationship among WRAT, WISC-R, and Detroit scores. It was concluded that once a student's age and WISC-R Full Scale IQ ere known, the Detroit subtest scores contributed minimally to an understanding of the student's academic achievement. Additional analyses revealed that the inter correlations between the Detroit subtests and the WISC-R were not strong.