Making Placement Decisions Research Articles

Factors affecting cost of gain of feedlot steers (1993)

This study examined the relative effects of corn price and cattle performance factors on steer finishing cost of gain. Seasonal analysis of cost of gain and the factors affecting it was also conducted. Using over 10 years of closeout data from two western Kansas feedyards, corn prices, feed conversion, and daily gain explained 93 to 94% of the variation in steer finishing cost of gain. About 60% of the variability was explained by corn price alone. Cost of gain and feed conversion rates were seasonally below average for steers placed in February through August. Daily gain was seasonally high for steers placed in March through August. Because cost of gain is heavily influenced by the volatility and seasonal patterns of corn price and cattle performance, cattle feeders should consider this information when making placement decisions.

Credible Letters of Reference: How you Read Them is Important

How do you judge whether a letter of reference is credible? Probably on the basis of the specific information it contains. Human resource professionals require letters containing specific information for making placement decisions, but they may be influenced by the way the letters are written as well as the factors wchich appear to influence how credible the readers judge a letter of reference to be. The provision of specific examples raises credibility, but so does using a “better” writing style. Some recommendations are made to practitioners for accurately assesing the credibilty of letters of reference.

Prerequisite Skills for Semi-Independent Living Services (SILS) Placement

The goal of residential services should be placement in the least restrictive setting. Individuals and programs who make placement decisions should therefore understand what skills are needed to move from a more restrictive residential setting (ICF-MR) to a less restrictive semi-independent living services (SILS) program. A survey instrument, Independent Living Evaluation and Training Program, was sent to 128 directors of SILS, directors of Class A ICF-MR group homes, and directors of combined programs (SILS/ICF-MR). Directors were asked to identify what they believed to be prerequisite skills for placement into SILS programs. Seventy surveys were returned, representing a 56% response rate. Large differences were found among and between directors of the ICF-MR group homes, SILS providers, and those directors offering both programs. ICF-MR program directors identified more skills and rated skills as being more important than did SILS directors.

The Special Education Assessment and Decision-making Process in The Netherlands and the USA

For the last seven years researchers in both The Netherlands and the United States have been studying the assessment and decision-making process that leads to the placement of students in special education programmes. Researchers at the Institute of Educational Research (RION) in Groningen, The Netherlands and at the University of Minnesota Institute for Research on Learning Disabilities (IRLD), Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, have been asking the same kinds of research questions and collecting similar kinds of data. In both countries, early research on the use of assessment data to make placement decisions about students led to a recognition of the importance of referral decisions, and thus to subsequent research on referral decisions and on factors influencing referral. In this paper, we bring together the results of the research conducted separately by two sets of investigators in two countries with different social/governmental structures and different special education delivery systems in order to reach some conclusions about the process of making referral decisions, about pre-referral intervention and about the purposes served by referral of children and placement in special education. It is not our purpose here to review the many specific studies conducted in the two research institutes, but to make some general observations based on what we have learned. The work at RION resulted in the development of many research reports. The original reports are available from C.J.W. Meijer. The work at the IRLD resulted in the development of more than 160 monographs and research reports. An annotated bibliography of these is available from James Ysseldyke. The reports are on the ERIC system* or they may be ordered from Ysseldyke.

Relationship of the WISC-R factors to the adaptive behavior scale-school edition in a referral sample

The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) factor deviation quotients (DQ) were calculated for Verbal Comprehension (VCDQ), Perceptual Organization (PODQ), and Freedom From Distractibility (FDDQ) factors for 83 referred children aged 7 years, 5 months to 16 years, 2 months who received a psychoeducational evaluation. The DQs were then compared to the factor domain and Comparison scores of the Adaptive Behavior Scale-School Edition (ABS-SE) by separate stepwise regression analyses. The results indicated that the two significant models were Community Self-Sufficiency ( F(3, 76)=6.67, p<.001, R 2 =.208) and the Comparison Score ( F(3, 76)=7.30, p<.001, R 2 =.223). The VCDQ and Verbal IQ scores were essentially equal predictors of adaptive behavior, but the PODQ and Performance IQ scores were not predictive. It is suggested that practitioners using the ABS-SE consider the differential predictive characteristics of the Verbal IQ/VCDQ and Performance IQ/PODQ when making placement decisions and when predicting success in various programs. Verbal comprehension is presented as being a common construct that underlies the WISC-R and ABS-SE. The suggestion that cognitive processes enable persons to acquire skills that make performance of adaptive skills possible also is discussed.

Using Difference Scores in Making Screening and Placement Decisions

This paper presents a step-by-step procedure for finding the probability of occurrence of the difference between test scores and the probalitily of occunerce of errors of measurement, This procedure is useful ininterpreting test results to parents and in making placement decisions. Difference scores are often used in the placement of students in learning disabilities and remedial reading programs. This type of profile analysis is hazardous unless the reliability of the pairs of tests is taken into account.

Grading practices: The construction and use of background knowledge in evaluative decision-making

Personnel in "people-processing" settings (Hasenfeld, 1972) are frequently asked to make evaluative decisions regarding clients who seek, use or are subjected to their services. Organizations like the police, courts, clinics, social service agencies, and myriad others produce ratings, judgments and diagnoses in order to determine appropriate organizational responses. Perhaps prototypic in this regard are educational institutions: schools must constantly evaluat e , classify and differentiate between students in order to monitor their progress and make placement decisions. Educators conscientiously espouse the need for using fair, accurate and unbiased decision-making procedures. To that end, special methods of evaluation have been widely instituted to safeguard against decisions that might be unsystematically derived or tainted by emotion or predisposition. In some sense, the grading practices that evolve in educational settings doing "standardized" evaluation are suggestive of evaluation methods implemented in other settings that attempt to decontextualize and systematize decision-making. These attempts to control decision-making assume, fundamentally, that it is possible, as well as advisable to prevent evaluators' use of particularized background knowledge of cases being evaluated in order to produce "objective" ratings.

Social skills assessment as a component of mainstreaming placement decisions.

The use of social skills measures as a component of multifactored assessment in making mainstreamed placement decisions is recommended. Conventional assessment information such as IQ and academic achievement functioning levels are typically weighted most heavily in making placement decisions. It is suggested that social skills information may be more important in making a decision to mainstream than IQ or achievement. Increased involvement of both regular and special education teachers as well as parents in the assessment process is emphasized.

PREDICTION OF GRADES IN COLLEGE MATHEMATICS COURSES AS A COMPONENT OF THE PLACEMENT VALIDITY OF SAT‐MATHEMATICS SCORES

ABSTRACTBecause the Scholastic Aptitude Test Mathematical Score (SAT‐M) is a measure of general mathematical aptitude that is not closely linked to the specific skills that are prerequisites for a particular course or series of courses, it should not be the only information considered in making placement decisions. Nevertheless, if it can be shown that the SAT‐M score is a reasonably good predictor of success in particular mathematics courses, then it may have a role to play as one of the pieces of information to be considered. The question of the predictive validity of SAT‐M performance was addressed by collecting grades in freshman mathematics courses from 10 colleges. Compared to tests that were specifically designed for placement purposes, the SAT‐M score was a relatively poor predictor of grades in most courses. Even after correcting for the considerable range restriction that may occur when within‐course scores are analyzed, coefficients were typically only in the mid‐.30s (compared to corrected coefficients for a local placement test that ranged from the high .40s to the low .60s). Nevertheless, the SAT‐M score significantly improved predictions from high school grade‐point average alone, especially for calculus courses.In courses at all levels, grades of males and females were very similar, but the SAT‐M scores of males were significantly above the scores of females. Gender differences for predicting grades in particular mathematics courses generally could be eliminated or greatly reduced by considering high school GPA together with SAT‐M scores. Three subscores (Algebra, Insight, and Routine) were generated from the November 1985 SAT‐M test but they had no differential utility in prediction. No practically significant trait‐treatment interactions were demonstrated.For algebra versus precalculus course placement decisions, a weighted composite of SAT‐M score and self‐reported high school grades and courses taken correctly predicted 64 percent to 71 percent of the actual placements. For precalculus versus calculus decisions, about 80 percent of the actual placements could be predicted.

Assessing The Discriminant Validity Of Regression Models And Subjectively Weighted Models Of Judgments

When either regression models or subjectively weighted models are used as aids in making placement decisions, the discriminant validity of these models is of interest. When all predictor information is used in all decisions, models which assign equal weights cannot simultaneously show high levels of predictive accuracy and discriminant validity; in some settings, both regression models and subjectively weighted models may. The discriminant validity of regression models and of subjectively weighted models was investigated in two judgment experiments. Both types of models showed high levels of accuracy and cross-validity in both experiments. Regression models showed discriminant validity in both experiments, while subjectively weighted models failed to show discriminant validity in the second. The homogeneity of cue validities appeared to moderate both the level of discriminant validity and the relationship between similarity of subjective models, across tasks, and discriminant validity.

School Psychology and Special Education Students' Placement Decisions: IQ Still Tips the Scale

Syracuse University's Psychoeducational Teaching Laboratory attempted to evaluate how well it was transmitting the principles of multidimensional and nonbiased assessment practices to its students. School psychology and special education graduate students were asked to make program placement decisions for a child when given data about IQ, adaptive behavior higher than IQ, and academic achievement. Results indicated that the school psychology and special education programs were equally successful in training students to seek least restrictive school placements. Their decisions reflected a greater degree of integration with nonhandicapped students than might be expected from either the child's IQ or adaptive-behavior data alone. However, no matter what the order of presentation of IQ and adaptive-behavior data, IQ had a powerful paralyzing effect on further flexibility in problem solving. For these students, the mainstreaming ideology had taken hold, but the IQ information had not been demystified. If these findings are supported in replications, definite implications arise regarding the manner of presenting IQ information when making placement decisions. It has been known for a long time that IQ is not highly related to our educational system's goal of post-school adult adjustment. Therefore the recent development of adaptive-behavior measures, although imperfect in conceptualization and construction, is viewed positively. Their impact upon school placement and programming decisions, relative to other measures, will depend on future reliability and validity research.

VALIDATION OF THE DESCRIPTIVE TESTS OF MATHEMATICS SKILLS

ABSTRACTA variety of techniques were used to assess the validity of the Descriptive Tests of Mathematics Skills.(DTMS) for making placement decisions. DTMS tests were administered in 36 institutions that represented a broad spectrum of two‐year and four‐year colleges. A pre‐post design was used in seven institutions, with a pretest only in the other colleges.Results indicated that the DTMS tests were:(1) sensitive to gains from instruction in a single semester;(2) highly correlated with course grades obtained concurrently;(3) predictive of end of course grades when the DTMS tests were administered at the beginning of the course;(4) a better predictor of course grades than SAT‐Mathematical scores for remedial courses;(5) related to course difficulty as perceived by students;(6) capable of demonstrating a trait‐treatment interaction in a precalculus‐calculus sequence; and(7) related to the content of mathematics courses as judged by mathematics faculty members.

Examining foster care: a viable solution for placement of handicapped children?

Foster care for handicapped children has become a frequently used and even more frequently criticized procedure. Traditional methods of foster placement have resulted in a number of negative outcomes, especially for the placed children. Based on a review of some recent innovative foster care programs, this paper has isolated a number of options for the restructuring of the entire foster care delivery system. These options include: rigorous client evaluation, use of selection and training criteria for foster parents, matching of client needs to caregiver abilities in making placement decisions, and ongoing professional support and supervision after placement. Systematic consideration of these issues may help make foster care a more viable solution to the growing problem of home placement for handicapped children.

Identification of Learning Disability (Dyssymbolia)

This article reports the attempt to refine the term and definition of learning disabilities. The new term is dyssymbolia. Four criteria for making placement decisions are presented and discussed. Finally, the results of five studies which have contributed to the refinement of the definition of the terms are given in prècis.