Educational Diagnosticians

Dr. McGill wrote When Theory Trumps Science in 2016, an article about the lack of statistical reliability for our assessment methods. Since then, he's written similar articles examining the reliability and validity of cognitive assessments for predicting academic performance.

Anise Flowers, Ph. D, has moved on from Pearson learning and now works for Presence. Presence uses telecommunication technology to match evaluators with districts who need evaluations. She tells us about the benefits of the platform and the validity of using it.

Dr. Monica McHale-Small tells us about the position of the Learning Disabilities Association of America's position on identifying a learning disability and the work of the LDA to bring awareness to the issues surrounding learning disabilities.

The Texas Educational Diagnostician Agency celebrated its 50th Anniversary and became golden this year. Many didn't get to go because the conference was quickly sold out. I share my take aways from the conference for those of you who didn't get to attend.

Dr. Sarah Brasiel joins for Educational Diagnostician Week to tell us about the Institute for Educational Sciences.  The organization offers lots of information and services to teachers and evaluators. Because they encourage the science of education, their work provides hope that one day, we will use science to find ways to prevent learning disabilities.  In recognition of Educational Di...

Marnee Loftin is has had the unique position of being the LSSP for the School for the Blind.  She tells us about the special considerations we should have when testing children who have significant visual impairments.  She also shares her view on co-morbid diagnosis for children who are visually impaired.

Dr. Mark Shinn could be considered one of the Founding Fathers of special education. He led the way in research to find ways to measure progress for children with disabilities.  His work on developing CBMs lead to the development of DIBELS and AIMSweb, both of which are widely used in schools today.  Together with other pioneer researchers, he and others helped influence the federal IDEA...

Dr. Schultz tells us about the President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education report from 2002.  The recommendations in this report drove the revision of IDEA in 2004.  At the time, SLD identifications were reported to have grown by 300%.  The recommendation was to include Response to Intervention.  The question here would be, with the lack of focus on good RTI pract...

Allison Hollis joins to tell us about all the special considerations when managing a transition assessment.

Nancy Mather tells us about the Test of Dyslexia and how to assess for dyslexia. 

The Law Dawg tells us about the Texas Legislature and we discuss what we can look forward to in this legislative session. 

Dr. Fletcher explains how he attempts to establish that Learning Disabilities are real. Likewise, he also describes the hypotheses in research surrounding subtypes of dyslexia.  

Meet our OSEP director.  Hear about recent cases heard in courts regarding child find and LRE, and get ready for subtypes of dyslexia!

According to the NAEP published on October 23, 2022, 66% of fourth graders are not reading proficiently to make good scores on college entry exams by the time they get into high school.  Covid reflects low scores across the country.  This begs to question: are our norms still valid?

Last year the number of AU identifications surpassed the number of OHI identifications.  What are some the reasons for rising numbers of AU identifications? Is this a good thing or should be concerned?

So you want to be a contractor? There are a lot of choices today.  Join us as we talk with Hannah Paulus from Accountable staffing.  Let's keep our profession competitive. 

Jack Fletcher argues in his book, Learning Disabilities from Identification to Intervention, that subcategories of learning disabilities are arbitrary, and that based on what we know about learning, Reading Fluency should not be an SLD because all areas of learning require automaticity. Meanwhile, reading fluency across the nation is lacking proficiency.  Considering reading fluency in this c...

All around Texas, diagnosticians scramble to lock or activate their IEP documents on the last Friday of each October. What do we learn from PEIMS? Listen to find out. 

Where did the term stealth dyslexia come from? Hear the opinions of experienced diagnosticians talk about the idea of the twice exceptional child.  

The classroom observation is often something we save for the last minute, but new wording in the Texas state regulations sheds new light on the importance of including a good observation in an SLD evaluation. 

Dr. Matthew Burns wrote the white papers for the NCLD on the state of methods for identifying SLD across the US in 2019.  He included TX as an example of a state that uses PSW, but Texas has since re-written its regulations. Hear his opinion on what he thinks this means for Texas. Dr. Schultz joins the dialogue as well in the argument for IQ tests while Dr. Burns stands strongly against the u...

Dr. George Batsche was scheduled to join us from the NCLD to tell us about trends in special education effectiveness, but unfortunately, he lives in Florida and the hurricane hit the night before this episode.  Attempts will be made to reschedule.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing is one of the lowest incidence disabilities, but there's a lot to remember for this population.  

It might feel redundant and aimless to create a Prior Written Notice after every meeting, but the pesky form does have its purpose. 

Learn about the impact of deficit thinking. This thinking has long lasting effects on both behavior and academic success for children. This concept will blow your mind.