Learning Disabilities Assessment: Strengths and Weaknesses of Competing Models

Learning Disabilities Assessment: Strengths and Weaknesses of Competing Models Richard D. Baer, Ph.D. Effective Instructional Materials & Systems Utah LD Test Selection Committee, Chair rd_baer@msn.com 435 757-7372 CEC 2013 Convention and Expo San Antonio TX April 4, 2013

LD Defined • Term coined by Sam Kirk in 1963 • Focus on children with normal intelligence who were having difficulty learning to read. • Discrepancy between reading achievement predicted from intelligence and actual reading achievement • Definition

LD Defined • Biologically based – Minimal Brain Dysfunction • Rare • Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (ITPA) • Inputs – vision, hearing, • Processes • Outputs – verbal, written

LD Defined • Maze tracing • Balance beam walking • Didn’t work

LD Defined • Public Law 92:142, The Education of All Handicapped Children Act (1975) • (A) In general • The term ‘specific learning disability’ means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which disorder may manifest itself in imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations. • (B) Disorders included • Such term includes such conditions as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. • (C) Disorders not included • Such term does not include a learning problem that is primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, of mental retardation, of emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.

LD Defined • Implementing Rules for PL 94:142 • Sec.300.541 Criteria for determining the existence of a specific learning disability • (a) A team may determine that a child has a specific learning disability if-- • (1) The child does not achieve commensurate with his or her age and ability levels in one or more of the areas listed in paragraph (a)(2) of this section, when provided with learning experiences appropriate for the child’s age and ability levels [Close to RTI]; and

LD Defined • (2) The team finds that a child has a severe discrepancy between achievement and intellectual ability in • one or more of the following areas-- • (i) Oral expression; • (ii) Listening comprehension; • (iii) Written expression; • (iv) Basic reading skill; • (v) Reading comprehension; • (vi) Mathematics calculation; or • (vii) Mathematics reasoning. • (viii) Reading Fluency

LD Defined • (b) The team may not identify a child as having a specific learning disability if the severe discrepancy between ability and achievement is primarily the result of-- • (1) A visual, hearing, or motor impairment; • (2) Mental retardation; • (3) Emotional disturbance; or • (4) Environmental, cultural or economic disadvantage. • (CFR 34, Part 300, Subpart E)

Severe Discrepancy Measurement • No national formula • States were left to decide • Four approaches • Deviation from grade level • Expectancy formulas • Standard score comparison • Regression models - correct

Special Education Programs Work Group on Measurement Issues in Learning Disabilities • Cecil Reynolds – 1984

Special Education Programs Work Group on Measurement Issues in Learning Disabilities • When the rules and regulations for PL 94-142 were being developed, many experts testified in the Office of Education hearings, wrote numerous papers, and were convened for discussion and debate. When the results of these hearings, papers, and debates were examined, the reason for the discrepancy emphasis of the PL 94-142 definition becomes clear. The only consensus of this “thing” called learning disability, was that it resulted in a major discrepancy between what you expect academically of learning disabled children and the level at which they were actually achieving. (Reynolds, 1984-85, p. 452, bold added for emphasis)

IDEA Reauthorization 2004 • School districts can choose: • Severe discrepancy • Response to [scientific, research-based] intervention • Other scientific based methods (patterns of strengths & weaknesses) • Some combination

RTI Elements • Tiered Instruction • High quality regular classroom instruction • Small group, different curriculum, etc. • More intensive instruction, assessment & special education

RTI Upside • Elevates pre-referral intervention • Students succeed academically • Students avoid special education stigma • Special education resources saved for students with disabilities

RTI Difficulties • Tiers > students with low achievement • Eliminate other disability, environmental, cultural, & economic disadvantage • Traditionally LD = unexpected low achievement • Under RTI LD = unexpected & expected low achievement = severe discrepant students & slow learners • More students in special education • Change of definition • Are children LD if they do respond or if they don’t?

RTI Difficulties • Expected/unexpected low achievement distinction doesn’t matter – Both groups learn the same.

RTI Difficulties • National Reading Panel (2000) • Both groups benefit from phonemic awareness and phonics training – decoding, word reading. • We don’t know if there are differences in reading fluency and comprehension. • Research is needed.

RTI Difficulties • Joe Torgesen & Colleagues (1997) • Group of students: • Word reading skills improved by phonological awareness & phonics instruction • Does not improve orthographic reading and reading comprehension • 2-5% of population traditionally defined as LD who do not respond to phonological awareness and phonics instruction.

RTI Difficulties • Other LD achievement areas • Oral Expression • Listening Comprehension • Written Expression • Mathematics Calculation • Mathematics Reasoning • Premature to conclude no difference in learning by expected & unexpected low achievers

RTI Difficulties • Do we have scientific, research-based interventions? • Practical considerations: • Regular education initiative • Training • Treatment fidelity • Levels, criteria, procedures

RTI Difficulties • It makes no more sense to conclude, solely on the basis of low achievement, that students are LD than it would to conclude they are intellectually disabled or deaf or autistic, etc. Low academic achievement is a given in special education qualification. Additional criteria are needed to determine disability category.

Severe Discrepancy Criticisms • SD is a wait to fail model • Some young children do show SD • Administrators can adjust cutoff criteria • Achievement measures can be improved • Finding a student does not qualify for Sp. Ed. does not preclude helping

Severe Discrepancy Criticisms • Not clear all students benefit from early intervention. Some may need compensatory education. • Wait to fail is emotionally loaded. • No more appropriate than labeling RTI “rush to fail” or “watch them fail”.

Severe Discrepancy Criticisms • SD models are not reliable & valid. Some are. • SD models do not inform instruction • They are not suppose to • An audiological examination does not tell us how to teach children who are Deaf

Patterns of Strengths & Weaknesses • SD is a pattern of strengths & weaknesses • This is what Kirk tried that didn’t work • Flanagan, Ortiz, & Alfonso (2007). Essentials of cross-battery assessment: Second Edition, Hoboken NJ: John Wiley & Sons

Patterns of Strengths & Weaknesses • Cattell-Horn-Carroll theory of intelligence • General Intelligence (“g”) • Broad Abilities • Narrow Abilities

Patterns of Strengths & Weaknesses • 10 Broad Abilites (Flannagan et al. 2007) • Fluid Intelligence • Quantitative Knowledge • Crystalized Intelligence • Reading & Writing • Short Term Memory • Visual Processing • Auditory Processing • Long-Term Storage & Retrieval • Processing Speed • Decision/Reaction Time/Speed • Now expanded to 16 (9 for everyday practice)

Patterns of Strengths & Weaknesses • 75 Narrow Abilities • Fluid Intelligence • General Sequential Reasoning • Induction • Quantitative Reasoning • Piagetian Reasoning • Speed of Reasoning • Now expanded to 80 (35 for everyday practice)

Patterns of Strengths & Weaknesses • The hope; • Identify strengths & weaknesses • Play to strengths & remediate weaknesses • Better school achievement

Patterns of Strengths & Weaknesses • Difficulties • What abilities underlie what achievement difficulties? • What abilities are remediable? • What abilities are not remediable? • What do we do when abilities are not remediable?

Patterns of Strengths & Weaknesses • Difficulties • What patterns of strengths & weaknesses represent learning disabilities? • Severe discrepancy is a pattern of strengths & weaknesses. It’s the pattern Kirk used to define learning disability. • Given all the trouble we have had trying to agree on how to measure the difference between IQ and achievement scores when and how will we come to consensus regarding 16 broad and 80 narrow abilities.

Everything & Nothing • LD is • Severe discrepancy – many formulas • RTI – many things • Pattern of strengths & weaknesses – what patterns? • Other • Combination • If LD is defined in many ways it becomes many things and therefore not one thing.

Conclusion • RTI is great for improving pre-referral intervention. • It doesn’t tell us if a child has a learning disability.

Conclusion • Patterns of strengths & weaknesses • Didn’t work for Kirk • No generally agreed upon pattern (s) • Research needed • Premature as an assessment model • Neuropsychology may need to be considered

Conclusion • Done correctly SD, in combination with exclusionary criteria (instruction, other disability, environmental, cultural, & economic disadvantage), is a psychometrically sound method for identifying LD that preserves historical definition and provides for consistency from state to state and district to district.

Due Process/Litigation Zirkel, P. A. (2010). The legal meaning of specific learning disability of special education. Teaching Exceptional Children, May/June 2010, p 63-67. • 1980 – 2006: 90 hearing/review officer and court decisions around LD qualification: • Schools won 80% claiming student did not qualify • Most frequent decision factor was SD (n=68) • Second most frequent factor was need for special education (n=31)

Due Process/Litigation • 2006-10: 18 hearing/review officer and court decisions around LD qualification • Schools won 17 cases claiming student did not qualify • Relatively strict reliance on SD • RTI conspicuously absent • RTI may emerge in the future

Utah Rules • An LEA may use one of the following methods for determining a student’s eligibility under the specific learning disability category: • A process based on the students response to scientific, research-based intervention • Identification of a sever discrepancy between intellectual ability and achievement • A combination of (a) and (b) (page 46)

Utah Rules (h)Discrepancy Method. If the team is using a severe discrepancy between the student’s achievement and intellectual ability as part of its process to determine if the student has a specific learning disability, the team must document: … (iii) The comparison of the standard scores on the tests of achievement and intellectual ability: (A) Must produce a report that states that the team can be 93 percent confident there is a severe discrepancy between the student’s expected achievement score and the obtained achievement score, based on the Utah Estimator software or

Utah Rules (B) Must produce a report that shows a significant discrepancy, based on a commercial software program that employs a clearly specified regression formula that considers the relationship between the intelligence and achievement tests as well as the tests’ reliability. (pages 51-52)

Estimator • Software to assist with severe discrepancy calculation. • www.estimator.srlonline.org/ • rd_baer@msn.com • 435 757-7372

Learning Disabilities Assessment: Strengths and Weaknesses of Competing Models