Academic Deficits in Emotionally Disturbed Children Revisited

An Analysis of Children's Strategy Use on Reading Achievement Tests

“…197') In fact, for Total Reading Total Math, or Total Battery scores these differences did rot exceed two months in grade equivalent scores A case may be made that although academic functioning rinileal s similar given a static achleventent test measure, the population may differ with ls, to rate of learning If this were if110 however one would expect the BD students to begin sum pass the LD students academically by the second or third grade Such differences Over grade levels however were not lbserved bough the sample size used in this investigation was relatively large it should be ihat the subjects came from only one geographical area This fact may present problems in generalization of findings However it must also be maintained that the standards for Inclusion in special education placement in this area are very similar to criteria user, around the country In fact these criteria make the ',ridings more surprising in that speci,ic ability /performance discrepancies in areas of academic functioning are necessary requirements for LD placement while they are not for OD placement Nevertheless, the strong similarities between the two groups indicate that lor one reason or another many LD and 3D students in the primary grades apparently do function on a highly similar academic level This finding does not support the suggestion of Cullman Lloyd and Epstein (1981) that academic deficits may be minimal in the primary grades and increase with age It was found. however that the variability of BD student performance descriptively exceeded that of LD students at all grade levels Such higher levels of variability on the part of BD students have been reported by Forness et al (1983) Although the relatively higher descriptive level of variability here may simply be an artifact of the fact that an academic 188 May 1986 Behavioral Disorders S cutoff level was operating for LE) but not BD students, it does suggest that a special education teacher may expect to fond a wider range of academic achievement among 80 students In contrast to the Epstein and Cullman (1983) investigation, no evidence is given by these data that academic programing should proceed differentially for the two groups However. the fact that two groups are functioning at a similar academic level does not necessarily mean that Instructional procedures should be the same.…”

“…among other things. the !acts that relatively small samples of students were employed and that no girls or minority pupils were included in the sample To these above stated limitations could be added another The conclusions of Epstein and Cullman refer to Only a small sample of LD and BO students matched on 10, and provide little information concerning academic achievement levels of large numbers of such students actually enrolled in public school special education classes The use of 10 data in investigating the academic characteristics of behaviorally disordered students has been employed frequently in the past (Forness Bennett. & Tose 1983Graubard, 1964 Kauffman (1981) has ii 'ted that use 0110 data on behaviorally disordered students is critical for effectively assessing the academic characteristics of this population Although matching on 10 with the behaviorally disordered and other populations does provide information regarding relative disc:leo:loos between ability and academic performance of the behaviorally disordered population it does not describe the actual level of academic performance exhibited by hehaviOrally disordered students enrolled in special education classes and how 11)1% peiformancedif fors from that of their learning disabled counterparts The Epstein and Cullinan (1983) study is most informative regarding tho relative :Malty,' academic performance discrepancy of their sample of the Iwo populations but pi °vides little information regarding the direct comparison of learning disabled and Itehav orally disordered students on measures of academic functioning The present inveStig.thon was intended to investigate this issue by examining the achievement test score,' of a large sample of LD and BO children as 'hey were enrolled in special ethrcation claSSioomS Through this procedure.…”

Behavioral and Emotional Problems of Students with Learning Disabilities, Serious Emotional Disturbance, or Both Conditions

“…Kauffman, Cullinan, and Epstein (1987) found that of 249 children identified as SED, 70% were rated by teachers as functioning at least 1 year below grade level in one or more academic areas. Forness, Bennett, and Tose (1983) found that about a third of students referred to an outpatient clinic for emotional disturbance were achieving at least 1 year below their expected age in several core academic areas.…”

Social maladjustment and emotional disturbance: Problems and positions I

“…Unfortunately, academic achievement of SED children has been less often studied than their social and emotional adjustment (Forness, Kavale, Gutherie, Scruggs, & Mastropieri, 1987). One of the few noteworthy attempts to establish the percentage of inpatient SED who also suffer adverse educational impact shows that only about a third had deficits of a year or more in reading and math (Forness, Bennett, & Tose, 1983). The absence of any widely agreed upon operational definition of "adversely affects educational performance" hinders determination of the percentage of SED who also experience dire educational impact.…”