Practice of Learning Disabilities as Social Policy

Abstract

This research presents an analysis of learning disabilities from a social-policy perspective. The reading performance of three groups of elementary students was systematically measured during the spring of the school year: regular education students receiving no supplemental instructional services, regular education students receiving remedial Chapter 1 services, and students labeled as learning disabled. The measures consisted of Curriculum-Based Assessment procedures, following the format developed at the Institute for Research on Learning Disabilities at the University of Minnesota. Students' reading performance was compared across the three groups, including the means and semi-interquartile ranges. A discriminant function analysis was applied to predict group membership. The three groups were sorted by level of reading skill with (a) very different means, (b) minimum overlap, and (c) high accuracy in classification. The results support the notion that schools may be consistent in their decision making and allocation of service delivery on the basis of students' classroom achievement. Regardless of legal or scientific definition, it is argued that schools widely employ a social-policy definition of learning disabilities designed to serve students most deficient in achievement.