Classroom Placement Research Articles

A Personality Inventory for Children (PIC) Profile Typology: III. Relationship to Cognitive Functioning and Classroom Placement

Clinical and educational assessment of children requires reliable and valid measures of their behavioral, cognitive, and emotional functioning. The inadequacy of traditional psychiatric categories has long been recognized, and the importance of accurate child adjustment information for educational placement has been appreciated increasingly. This study evaluated the external validity of a new, 12 profile type classification system for the Personality Inventory for Children (PIC) and used cognitive functioning and special education placement data as external criteria. Children who obtained the 12 PIC profile types differed significantly in their performance on several individually administered intellectual and academic tests and their placement in regular vs. special education classrooms. Implications of these findings for use of this profile typology as a screening tool in educational settings are discussed.

Factor analysis and discriminant analysis of psychoeducational report contents

This study evaluated the psychoeducational reports of 205 children who were referred to the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Hospital for evaluation of academic achievement problems. Factor analysis of the report data indentified a medical factor, a school history factor, and a family factor. Following factor analysis, all three factors as well as measures of cognitive functioning and academic achievement were entered into a discriminant analysis in order to determine which variables, if any, helped predict the educational placement finally to be recommended for each child at the end of the individual psychoeducational work-up. Statistical analysis indicated different results for each of four educational placement options, the greatest predictability being associated with regular classroom placement. Across all placements, the variable that allowed for the greatest accuracy in predicting educational programming recommendations was academic achievement, measured as mean achievement score on standardized achievement tests.

Characteristics of Special Education Placements: Findings From Probability Samples in Five Metropolitan School Districts

Characteristics of classroom placements were studied for a probability sample of approximately 950 special needs children enrolled in kindergarten through sixth grade in five major metropolitan school districts. Across all special education students, 58% spent the majority of their school day in a regular class, 38% spent the majority of their school day in a special class, and 4% attended special schools. The regular classes in which special education children were enrolled resembled other regular classes in overall size and student composition. By contrast, special classes were smaller and more heterogeneous, and classes in special schools were especially small and heterogeneous. The proportion of time spent in regular education varied significantly both by the child's primary handicap and the school district in which the child lived, but sizable variations also were found within disability groups and within districts. For learning-disabled, mentally retarded, and physically/multiply handicapped children, variations in placement were found to be associated with student socioeconomic status and race or ethnicity.

An objective evaluation of special class placement of elementary schoolboys with behavior problems.

Behavioral checklists were employed to identify the type and degree of psychopathology observed in 90 boys who were referred for possible placement in classrooms for the socially and emotionally disturbed (SED). School behavior was assessed by teachers completing the Conners Teacher Rating Scale, while behavior at home was rated by parents with the Child Behavior Checklist. The checklist findings from both environments showed the boys to have high levels of psychological disturbance, especially for externalizing factors such as hyperactivity, aggression, and conduct disorder. This was especially true for those boys for whom SED placement was recommended. Further, the clinical usefulness of these checklists was investigated as an adjunctive method for the determination of the need for SED placement. By the use of discriminant function analysis, about three-fourths of the boys recommended for SED placement were accurately identified; correct classification was maximized when parent and teacher checklists were employed together.

Articles: Curricular Inertia and New Directions

Abstract Reduced financial support and increased service demand have led many human service administrators to undertake coordination activities with other organizations in order to maintain services for clients. Many social work administrators have little understanding of interorganizational theory and techniques. This paper suggests, from a political economy perspective, that interorganizational theory and practice skills should be further developed in the social work administration curriculum. As a step in this direction, the paper first identifies key interorganizational concepts and research. Factors crucial to successful coordination are then summarized, and strategies for promoting successful coordination are detailed, with attention to benefits and costs of each strategy. Finally, the paper describes several alternative ways to integrate interorganizational content in the social work administration classroom and field placement.

Preliminary Needs Assessments for Regular Classroom Placement for Students with Handicaps

Teachers (n = 127) from two school districts in Ohio, USA, were surveyed for their attitudes toward the integration of handicapped children. A principal components factor analysis revealed seven clusters of items accounting for 65 per cent of the variance. A discriminant function analysis was used to determine which items could be used to predict teachers who were willing or unwilling to teach students with handicaps. Two factors, Appropriate Placement and Classroom Management, were predictive with 79 per cent accuracy when combined with items regarding teacher perceptions of the benefit of full-time regular classroom placement, teaching experience with the handicapped, and resource awareness. This information is discussed in terms of the formation of a needs assessment to be used in integration.

Locus of control and persistence in structured and unstructured preschool classrooms

The effect of locus of control and classroom structure on persistence and attention in preschool children was examined. Teachers' ratings of persistence were obtained for 16 children from a relatively structured classroom and for 18 children from a relatively unstructured classroom. Locus of control was measured by administering the Preschool and Primary Nowicki-Strickland Internal-External Scale (Nowicki & Duke, 1974). As predicted, teachers from the structured classrooms rated externally controlled children as more persistent ( r=.55, p<.05), while teachers from the unstructured classroom rated internally controlled children as more persistent ( r= -.35, p<.10). Practical implications of this line of research for making classroom placement decisions are discussed.

The social status-socioempathy relationship among mildly handicapped and nonhandicapped children: analysis of the person X environment fit.

The notion of person X environment fit was explored as a framework for understanding the relationship between the social status and socioempathy abilities of 234 nonhandicapped and 85 mildly handicapped children in special- and regular-education settings. The results revealed that the amount of discrepancy between actual and estimated social status varied according to child characteristics and the classroom placement settings in which those measurements were taken. Additionally, the person X environment fit model was found to be appropriate for describing the relationship between social status and socioempathy. That is, accurate estimators of social status were significantly more popular than underestimators or overestimators. In turn, underestimators were more popular than overestimators. The same relationships were found for estimates of rejection. The above relationships were examined for integrated and segregated classroom settings.

The Effect of Functional vs. Non-Functional Activities on Attitudes/Expectations of Non-Handicapped College Students: What They See is What We Get

Six sections of a general education class for prospective teacher trainees were randomly assigned to one of two groups (N = 162). Each group was exposed to an identical audiotaped/slide presentation of a special education program involving a young woman with Down's Syndrome. However, the slides accompanying one group's taped presentation consisted of functional, integrated, and age appropriate curriculum activities and the slides accompanying the other group's presentation included non-functional, segregated, and age inappropriate activities. Prior to viewing the slide/tape presentation, all persons completed the Attitudes Toward Disabled Persons Questionnaire (ATDP) (Yuker, Block &amp; Younng, 1966). After viewing the slides, the participants completed a teacher-made questionnaire regarding their attitudes and expectations toward a young woman with Down's Syndrome. The multivariate analysis of variance resulted in no statistically significant differences between the two groups on the ATDP, but did result in statistically significant differences on the eight non-demographic items of the teacher-made questionnaire. Subsequent comparisons of individual questionnaire items revealed significant differences on those items which estimated IQ, future earning capacity, label of retardation, “best” residential environment, appropriate classroom placement, and most likely employment setting. These differences were in the direction of predicting higher levels of competence for the student when depicted as being involved in functional, integrated, and age appropriate activities.

Classroom Decision Making as a Function of Diagnostic Labels and Perceived Competence

Special education teachers were asked to make some decisions about a 4th grade boy who was portrayed as learning disabled or emotionally handicapped and whose work samples were representative of one of two levels of competence (i.e., high or low) Classroom placement decisions and future performance predictions were foud to be a function of the child's perceived competence. The results were discussed with regard to implications within labeling research and mainstreaming.

Commonality of behavioral characteristics of educable mentally retarded and emotionally disturbed children.

Frequencies of non-task-oriented behaviors of 11 educable mentally retarded and 11 emotionally disturbed middle school students in Grades 7 and 8 were observed in the regular classroom and the resource room for two 20-min. periods. Frequencies of operationally defined behaviors were analyzed by a two-way analysis of variance. Behavioral characteristics for the two groups did not differ significantly. Classroom placement, i.e., regular class or resource room, produced little difference in behavioral characteristics on the dimensions observed. Implications for placement of exceptional students based on categorical labels and special education vs regular classroom placements are considered based on overt classroom behaviors.

Characteristics of hearing-impaired children in the public schools: part I--demographic data.

Survey questionnaires eliciting incidence information about degree and type of hearing loss, educational placement, use of amplification, and other demographic data were completed by audiologists in 13 of the 15 Area Education Agencies in Iowa in an attempt to describe the characteristics of hearing-impaired children in public-school settings. The information revealed patterns of hearing loss related to age and sex, use of hearing aids, and classroom placement that may be useful in planning support services for this population.

Special classroom placements for EMR children: guidelines for community mental health personnel.

Community mental health personnel have become increasingly involved in public school interventions for mildly retarded children. Previous research, legal findings, and ethical principles regarding the most common intervention, special class placement, are reviewed. Advantages and disadvantages of special placement are presented. Finally, a process model is proposed as offering guidelines to the mental health professional who is involved in establishing treatment programs for EMR children in the public school.

What Teachers Believe-What Children Achieve

of making a prophecy about it. Second, that the act of making a prophecy about a situation is also an act of creating the conditions through which the prophecy is realized. Recent research has presented some convincing evidence that the self-fulfilling prophecy may be at work in educational settings across the country. In a study by Rosenthal and Jacobson eighteen elementary-school teachers were told that certain of

An experimental study of the effects of classroom placement variables on student teacher performance.

An experimental study of the effects of classroom placement variables on student teacher performance.