TEACHERS AS TESTS - DIFFERENTIAL VALIDITY OF TEACHER JUDGMENTS IN IDENTIFYING STUDENTS AT-RISK FOR LEARNING-DIFFICULTIES

The discriminant validity of teacher judgments in differentiating vari ous groups of students who were at-risk for learning difficulties base d on their referral to School Study Teams (SSTs) was assessed. Three g roups of students defined as Learning Disabled (LD), Low-IQ, and Low A chievement (LA) were contrasted with a group of normally achieving Con trols using the Academic Competence scale of the Social Skills Rating System (Gresham & Elliott, 1990). Large differences were found between the Controls and all at-risk groups. Consistent with past research co ntrasting mild disability groups using cognitive and achievement measu res, relatively few differences were found among LD, Low IQ, and LA gr oups. Results from cross-validated stepwise discriminant function anal yses showed that teacher judgments correctly classified 91% of the LD group (9% false negatives and 10% false positives), 100% of the Low IQ group (0% false negatives and 7% false positives), and 95% of the LA group (5% false negatives and 17% false positives). Results were discu ssed in terms of the implications for the continued time-consuming and expensive practice of differentiating among mild disability and low a chievement groups for classification, placement, and intervention purp oses.