Emotional/behavioral disturbance (EBD) is characterized by a range of behaviors that adversely affect a child's academic performance and cannot be explained by other sensory or health impairments. Although research has clearly demonstrated that children and youth with EBD tend to exhibit high rates of problem behavior, research on the characteristics of their academic performance has been less clear. This article reports the results of a meta-analysis of the academic status of students with EBD. The overall effect size was −.64, which indicated that students with EBD had significant deficits in academic achievement. An examination of moderators (subject area, setting, and age) indicated that students with EBD performed at a significantly lower level than did students without disabilities across academic subjects and settings; greater deficits were not observed in older students with EBD (i.e., those more than 12 years old), as compared to younger students. Implications and areas for future research are discussed.

This review conducted a comprehensive examination of the current state of the literature on the academic status of students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). The authors examined the literature to assess (a) student characteristics, (b) placement settings, (c) academic subject areas, and (d) measures used to assess academic achievement. Second, when possible, the functioning level of students was examined.Third, trends in the research over the past 4 decades were assessed. Although several investigators have researched the academic status of these students, significant limitations exist in the research, including incomplete reporting of student information, inadequate research on specific academic skill sets, and limited numbers of studies assessing students served in general education settings. Implications of the findings are discussed.

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Two studies on young children are reported, addressing the psychometric characteristics of the Scale for Assessing Emotional Disturbance (SAED), a standardized, norm-referenced instrument based on the federal definition of emotional disturbance (ED). The main purpose of the SAED is to assist in identifying children with emotional disturbance by operationally defining ED as stated in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997. The first study investigated the long-term test—retest reliability of the SAED over a 7-month period. The second study examined the convergent validity of the SAED by comparing it with several subscales of the Systematic Screening for Behavior Disorders, a multigate screening system to identify children at risk of behavior problems. The results indicate that the SAED is a reliable and valid instrument for identifying young children who may qualify for the federal definition of ED.

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