NRCLD Information Digest #4
Accurately identifying which child has learning disabilities and which one doesn't is the heart of the National Research Center on Learning Disabilities, a research-based initiative of the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) in the U.S. Department of Education.
OSEP's organized plan of action to systematically address the learning disability identification procedures was evident in the 1997 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) regulations: "The Department plans to carefully review research findings, expert opinion, and practical knowledge over the next several years to determine whether changes should be proposed to the procedures for evaluating children suspected of having a specific learning disability."
Part of OSEP's plan has been to listen to stakeholders, such as those who gave testimonies at regional public forums on IDEA reauthorization sponsored by the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), OSEP's parent organization. These forums took place from October to December 2001 in Salt Lake City; Mobile, Al.; Minneapolis; Providence; Reno; San Antonio; and Washington, D.C.
Another part of OSEP's plan has been to bring converging research to the forefront to build a learning disabilities foundation for the future. With this in mind, OSEP convened a group of researchers, parents, policy makers, service providers, and individuals with learning disabilities in May 2000. After the meeting, the group commissioned nine white papers by nationally recognized researchers in the field.
Now available in the book Identification of Learning Disabilities: Research to Policy (edited by Renee Bradley, Louis Danielson, and Daniel Hallahan and published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., the nine research papers illuminated the following topics related to learning disabilities:
Demonstrating its research-driven commitment, OSEP organized the invitational Learning Disabilities Summit: Building a Foundation for the Future, which was held August 27-28, 2001, in Washington, D.C. The LD Summit provided an opportunity for stakeholders to hear and respond to the nine white papers.
In opening comments, Rod Paige, U.S. secretary of education, stressed the importance of research-driven practices. Paige said, "We want to commit ourselves to ensuring that students with learning disabilities, and in fact all students, will not be subject to programs and policies that are based on belief, rather than data. Let us commit ourselves together to gather the most accurate data, the most useful data, and bring it to bear, on our programs and on our methods and on our practice."
Robert Pasternack, assistant secretary, OSERS, said that the height of special education referrals peaks at age 12. "Now, unless you believe that children are becoming learning disabled, we should have picked up these kids earlier," he said. "We know from research that parents as well as teachers notice a need for services long before actual services are provided.
"We know that kids identified at risk of reading failure in kindergarten have significantly reduced learning problems and non-promotion in the early grades if they receive appropriate, scientifically based reading research interventions. Children identified in first grade and provided services as early as second grade have shown to make significantly greater achievement gains than non-disabled control groups. Early intervention works. And we now have the scientifically based reading research to train teachers how this can be done."
Research's importance in the IDEA reauthorization was repeated by Lou Danielson, director of the OSEP research to practice division. "We have to begin with the science and the science will then inform and drive the policy. This meeting is about science, what we know."
At each session, the main author presented what was known and not known about the issue in his or her paper. Afterward, invited respondents commented, and audience members were given the opportunity to speak. To these audience members, moderator Renee Bradley, OSEP, said, "Given the information that you hear and your experiences in the real world and in your jobs, what are the implications of these findings on research, on policy, and on practice?"
At the end of each day, participants met at small group round tables for discussion.
During a follow-up meeting November 29-30, 2001, a group of researchers came to agreement on eight statements related to learning disabilities. Read the Researcher Consensus Statement in NRCLD Information Digest #3.
To learn more about learning disabilities identification and further study issues related to behavior, reading, and learning disabilities, OSERS awarded $8.7 million in special education grants to nine U.S. universities in October 2001.
Vanderbilt University received one of these five-year grants to establish the National Research Center on Learning Disabilities (NRCLD). The Center's focus will be on accurate, early identification of children with learning disabilities. Partnered with the University of Kansas for dissemination and technical assistance to state and local school districts, Vanderbilt University will focus on research on methods of identifying students with learning disabilities as well state and local policies related to students identified with learning disabilities.
Explaining the need for the NRCLD, Douglas Fuchs, a professor in the department of special education at Vanderbilt and one of the Center's three co-directors, said, "There are a lot of issues and problems in the field of learning disabilities. People don't always agree on what they are, but many people -- parents, professional advocates, teachers, school administrators, state and local politicians, and university researchers -- believe the field is in a difficult place right now.
"There are many concerns -- definitional confusion, over-identification, minority representation, costs, and the effectiveness of special education programs, to name a few.
"If I had to pick the biggest concern, it would be definitional confusion. There's a chronic disagreement as to what learning disabilities really are and how to best identify them in children and youth. For decades, there has been a failure to reach a consensus on exactly what LD is and what it is not.
"There's also a widespread perception among public school folk -- teachers, administrators, school boards, and the like -- that too many children are being identified with disabilities, and the category that's viewed most negatively, in this regard -- the culprit, if you will -- is learning disabilities. Hence, there's a tendency of many to say, if we could 'fix' the LD category, we could greatly reduce the number of kids identified as LD and thus reduce the number of kids requiring special education.
"This concern is closely tied to money. It costs an average of two and a half to three times more to educate students with disabilities. So, the more students identified as disabled, the more costly is the special education endeavor. There's also a popular belief that special education does not do a terribly good job of educating children with learning disabilities and would not be needed if general education were to be improved.
"Another concern is the number of minority children in special education. There is a disproportionate representation of children of color, and most are there because of an LD designation."
Funding for NRCLD is provided by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special
Education Programs. Award No. H324U010004. Opinions expressed herein are those of the National
Research Center on Learning Disabilities and do not necessarily represent the position of the U.S.
Department of Education.
© 2007 National Research Center on Learning Disabilities
Last Updated: November 19, 2007
Contact: nrcld@ku.edu