Fm. Gresham et al., TEACHERS AS TESTS - DIFFERENTIAL VALIDITY OF TEACHER JUDGMENTS IN IDENTIFYING STUDENTS AT-RISK FOR LEARNING-DIFFICULTIES, School psychology review, 26(1), 1997, pp. 47-60
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.