SpecialEd Ch12

Rethinking Learning Disabilities
Chapter 12

G. Reid Lyon, Jack M. Fletcher, Sally E. Shaywitz,
Bennett A. Shaywitz, Joseph K. Torgesen,
Frank B. Wood, Ann Schulte, and Richard Olson
Introduction
This report is about learning disabilities (LD), the most frequently identified class of disabilities
among students in public schools in the United States. Despite its apparently high—and rising—
incidence, LD remains one of the least understood and most debated disabling conditions that
affect school-aged children (and adults). Indeed, many
disagree about the definition and classification of LD; the
Given what is now diagnostic criteria and assessment practices used in the
known about LD, it is identification process; the content, intensity, and duration of
irresponsible to instructional practices employed; and the policies and legal
requirements that drive the identification and education of
continue current those with LD.1
policies that dictate
inadequate We take the position that many of these debates can be
informed by converging scientific data. On the basis of this
identification practices. evidence, we contend that many of the persistent difficulties
in developing valid classifications and operational
definitions of LD are due to reliance on inaccurate
assumptions about causes and characteristics of the disorders. Furthermore, we argue that
sufficient data exist to guide the development and implementation of early identification and
prevention programs for children at-risk for LD, particularly reading programs that can benefit
many of these youngsters.
We contend that sound prevention programs can significantly reduce the number of older
children who are identified as LD and who typically require intensive, long-term special
education programs. Moreover, prevention programs will prove more effective than remedial
programs. Finally, we contend that, given what is now known about LD, it is irresponsible to
continue current policies that dictate inadequate identification practices. Instead, we must
develop evidence-based alternatives, specific strategies to implement these alternatives, and a
research and policy agenda to ensure that these changes are phased into practice as quickly as
possible.
In this chapter, we offer alternatives to traditional identification, assessment, and educational

strategies for children with LD, alternatives that close the gap between research and practice.
Progressive Policy Institute ❖ Thomas B. Fordham Foundation • 259

G. Reid Lyon, Jack M. Fletcher, et al.
We provide a description of the specific instructional needs of children whose low academic
achievement can be strengthened by informed teaching.
The chapter is organized into three sections. In the first, we present the current federal definition
of LD and trace the theoretical, clinical, and political
bases for its construction.2
We estimate that the number
In the second section, we summarize a body of of children who are typically
converging research on reading development,
identified as poor readers
reading disabilities (RD), and reading instruction that
underscores the importance of early identification and and served through either
prevention intervention programs to reduce reading special education or
failure among many children at-risk for limited literacy compensatory education
development. Although RD represents only two (LD in
basic reading skills; LD in reading comprehension) of
programs could be reduced
the seven types of LD that can be identified according by up to 70 percent through
to federal law, our focus on RD is predicated on three early identification and
facts. First, approximately 80 percent of children with
prevention programs.
LD have primary difficulties with reading.3 Second,
learning to read is essential for academic
achievement and accomplishment in all subjects. Third, more is known about deficiencies in
reading than about any other academic domain affected by LD, and much of what is known can
effectively impact policy and instruction.4
We have chosen to combine the following within the RD designation: (1) those children who
meet criteria for LD and typically receive services through special education; and (2) those who
read below the 25th percentile but do not qualify for the diagnosis of LD and often receive
services through compensatory education. Our decision to combine the two groups is predicated
on data indicating little difference between them in the proximal causes of their reading
difficulties. We estimate that the number of children who are typically identified as poor readers
and served through either special education or compensatory education programs (as well as
children with significant reading difficulties who are not formally identified and served) could be
reduced by up to 70 percent through early identification and prevention programs.
In the third section, we examine a number of issues that should be considered when addressing
the educational needs of children at risk for learning failure and children identified as LD at later
ages. Under current policies and practices, the number of older children identified as LD
continues to increase without concomitant improvements in their learning abilities. We explain
why this is the case and provide alternatives for meeting the educational needs of these students.
Finally, we are mindful of the complexity of translating research findings into policy and
practice. Policy can have unintended outcomes. Evidence-based alternatives can have few
benefits or even harmful effects if implementation strategies are not informed by a clear
understanding of specific needs for capacity building at the teacher, school, and system levels.
In response, we outline a series of short- and long- range initiatives designed to optimize
instruction for all students.
260 • RETHINKING SPECIAL EDUCATION FOR A NEW CENTURY

Definitions of Learning Disabilities

What is a Learning Disability?
The term learning disability (LD) is traditionally synonymous with the concept of unexpected
underachievement—specifically, students who do not listen, speak, read, write, or develop
mathematics skills commensurate with their potential, even though there has been adequate
opportunity to learn. Historically, unexpected underachievement has been attributed to intrinsic
neurobiological factors that indicate that students with LD will require specialized instruction to
achieve at expected levels based upon some index of aptitude, usually an IQ test score.5
The concept of unexpected underachievement has been reported in medical and psychological
literature since the mid-19th century under the rubrics of dyslexia, word blindness, dysgraphia,
dyscalculia, and other terms.6 However, it has only been since 1962, when Samuel Kirk, a
psychologist at the University of Illinois, coined the term learning disabilities, that the concept of
unexpected underachievement attained formal recognition in the education community. Kirk used
the term to refer to a variety of syndromes affecting language, learning, and communication;
like his more medically oriented predecessors, he felt that LD
reflected unanticipated learning problems in a seemingly
The term learning capable child. Writing in 1962, Kirk defined LD as “a
disability gained retardation, disorder, or delayed development in one or
more of the processes of speech, language, reading,
rapid acceptance in spelling, writing, or arithmetic resulting from a possible
the 1960s and 1970s cerebral dysfunction and not from mental retardation,
because it addressed sensory deprivation, or cultural or instructional factors.”7
Speaking at a 1963 conference, Kirk further noted that LD
a critical need of
represented a discrepancy between a child’s achievement
concerned parents and his or her apparent capacity to learn. As in the current
and professionals. federal definition, Kirk recognized that LD represented an
amalgam of disabilities, all grouped under a single label. He
did not feel that the term was synonymous with RD.8
However, RD was the most frequently identified type of LD in Kirk’s day, as today.
The term learning disability gained rapid acceptance in the 1960s and 1970s because it
addressed a critical need of concerned parents and professionals. The concepts represented by
LD also made educational sense.9 Previously, children whose failure to learn could not be
explained by mental retardation, visual impairments, hearing impairments, or emotional
disturbance were disenfranchised from special education. Their learning characteristics simply
did not correspond to existing categories of special education. Thus, the needs of these children
were not being met by the educational system; it was through parental and professional
advocacy efforts that special education services were ultimately made available for them through
the 1969 Learning Disabilities Act.10 The same legislative language later appeared in the
Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (EAHCA), now the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).11
The concept of learning disabilities and the need for different specialized educational services
also made intuitive sense to parents, teachers, and policymakers. The term did not stigmatize
children. Specifically, the learning difficulties displayed by youngsters with LD were not due to

mental retardation, poor parenting, or psychopathology. The term likewise reflected optimism.
Students with LD had not yet reached their potential: Their difficulties in learning to read, write,
and/or calculate occurred despite adequate intelligence, sensory integrity, healthy emotional
development, and cultural and environmental advantage. Education programs were needed that
recognized differences among children with LD, those who learned “normally,” and those who
manifested physical, sensory, and intellectual handicaps that affected academic achievement.
This view of educational need continues to maintain

considerable currency. Since the mid-1970s, when the
EAHCA first required an accounting of the number of
In just the past 10
children with LD identified and served in public schools, the
number of children served has increased from 1.8 percent of years, the number of
school-aged students (1976-1977) to almost 5.2 percent in students ages 6-21
1997-1998. Moreover, in 1976-1977, students with LD identified as LD under
comprised 22 percent of school-aged students in special
education programs; in 1997-1998, the percentage came
the IDEA has
closer to 52 percent. In just the past 10 years, the number of increased 38 percent.
students ages 6-21 identified as LD under the IDEA has
increased 38 percent, with the largest increase (44 percent)
among students between 12 and 17 years of age. These increases are not limited to public
schools. The number of students identified with LD that attend private schools and post-secondary
institutions has increased by similar proportions in the same time period.12
Few would disagree that 5 percent or more of our school-age population experience difficulties
with language and other skills that would be disruptive to academic achievement, or that the
factors that led to the concept of LD have lost their salience. The concept of LD is valid, and
there are many children and adults whose difficulties in learning are indeed the result of genuine
learning disabilities. The issues we raise involve whether classifications used for LD identify all
children who would benefit from special education services and/or specialized instruction.
Similarly, we ask whether younger children who have severe (difficult to remediate) forms of LD
are being adequately served given identification rates that point toward disproportionate
representation of older children within this category.
What underlies this disproportionate increase in the prevalence of children with LD, particularly
in the 12-17 age range? Is it because of improvements in diagnostic and identification practices,
or are other factors at work? Is the definition of LD that guides assessment and diagnostic
practices too general and ambiguous to ensure accurate identification of younger students? Are
the constructs and principles inherent in the definition of LD even valid? Are diagnostic practices
biased against the identification of younger, poor, or ethnically different children with LD? Are
some students identified as LD actually underachieving in school because of poor teaching and
inadequate services? Or has the education profession failed to tolerate individual differences in
learning and to properly train regular teachers and special educators to address these
differences? Is teacher preparation an issue in the emergence of a child as LD?
Such questions must honestly be answered for the sake of our nation’s children. We believe
some of the answers can be found through close examination of the features that comprise the
current definition(s) of LD, as well as those that preceded it. We also propose that the

Table 1. Federal definition of learning disabilities

The term “specific learning disability” means a disorder in one or more of the basic
psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or
written, which may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, speak, read, write,
spell, or to do mathematical calculations. The term includes such conditions as
perceptual handicaps, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and
developmental aphasia. The term does not include children who have learning
disabilities which are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor handicaps, or
mental retardation, or emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or
economic disadvantage.
(a) A team may determine that a child has a specific learning disability if:
(1) The child does not achieve commensurate with his or her age and ability
levels in one or more of the areas listed in paragraph (a) (2) of this section,
when provided with learning experiences appropriate for the child’s age and
ability levels; and
(2) The team finds that a child has a severe discrepancy between achievement
and intellectual ability in one or more of the following areas: (i) Oral expression;
(ii) Listening comprehension; (iii) Written expression; (iv) Basic reading skill; (v)
Reading comprehension; (vi) Mathematics calculation; or (vii) Mathematics
reasoning.
Sources: Assistance to States for the Education of Children with Disabilities Program and Preschool Grants for
Children with Disabilities Final Rule, 34 C.F.R. pts. 300, 301 (1992); see also note 2.
disproportionate increase in the numbers of older children identified as LD during the late
elementary to middle school years is, in part, attributable to the following: (1) the limited
effectiveness of remediation after age nine; (2) measurement practices that are biased against
the identification of children before age nine; and (3) socio-educational factors operating within
the public school enterprise. Within this context, we have organized the rest of this section to
address the scientific integrity of major themes that guide identification and instructional
practices in the field of LD. We conclude it with an examination of the function of the current LD
category within the larger educational enterprise and the effects of this function on education
policies and practices, particularly those involving the definition of LD. It is important to point out
that many of the concerns we address in this chapter (for example, the over use and over
interpretation of discrepancy data, as well as the misinterpretation of disclaimers in the exclusion
language of the IDEA) frequently reflect misinterpretation of the actual regulatory language in the
IDEA by schools determining eligibility for special education. Nevertheless, these concerns are
frequently cited and are predicated on less than optimal translation of the federal law into
identification practices at the school level.
The Critical Conceptual Elements Within Definitions of LD

The federal definition of LD (see Table 1) has four conceptual elements that are common across a
number of definitions of LD.13 These elements are (1) the heterogeneity of LD; (2) its
intrinsic/neurobiological nature; (3) a significant discrepancy between learning potential

(typically assessed by measures of intelligence) and academic performance (typically assessed

by measures of reading, writing, mathematics, and oral language skills); and (4) the exclusion of
cultural, educational, environmental, and economic factors, or other disabilities (mental
retardation, visual or hearing impairments, emotional disturbance) as causes of LD. Despite the
ubiquity of these elements in LD definitions, their validity is rarely examined.
The Heterogeneity Element

As defined in federal legislation, LD is not a single disability but a general category of special
education composed of disabilities in any one or a combination of seven skill domains:
(1) listening; (2) speaking; (3) basic reading (decoding and word recognition); (4) reading
comprehension; (5) arithmetic calculation; (6) mathematics reasoning; and (7) written
expression. Disabilities in these areas frequently occur
together and can also be accompanied by emotional,
social, and behavioral disorders, including disorders of LD is not a single
attention. However, these companion conditions cannot be disability but a general
the primary cause of the LD.
category of special
Although the inclusion of these seven areas of disability in education composed of
current definitions ensures that an expansive diagnostic net disabilities in any one
can be cast around a wide range of learning difficulties,
or a combination of
heterogeneity within and across each academic domain
renders diagnostic precision impossible. There are, by and seven skill domains.
large, different forms of LD. Their characteristics and
learning needs vary. Reading and mathematics disorders,
for example, vary along multiple dimensions. There is little evidence that the precise causes of
different forms of LD are the same, so treating them as seven separate, heterogeneous disorders
makes sense. However, we presently have one definition for all of these forms of LD. In the
future, separate evidence-based definitions for each of these disabilities should be developed to
enhance the assessment and instruction of children with different forms of LD.14
The Intrinsic/Neurobiological Element

The field of LD was founded on the assumption that neurobiological factors are the basis of these
disabilities. In the main, neurobiological dysfunction was inferred from what was then known
about the linguistic, cognitive, academic, and behavioral characteristics of adults with
documented brain injury, as well as the observation that reading problems ran in families. As
the field progressed, definitions of LD continued to attribute disabilities in learning to intrinsic
(neurobiological) rather than extrinsic (for example, environmental or instructional) causes, even
though there was initially no objective way to assess the presence of putative brain
dysfunction.15
Neurobiological factors have been most closely studied in the area of reading. A considerable
body of evidence indicates that poor readers exhibit disruption primarily, but not exclusively, in
the neural circuitry of the left hemisphere serving language. Both a range of neurobiological
investigations using postmortem brain specimens and, more recently, quantitative assessment of
brain anatomy using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) suggest that there are subtle structural
differences in several brain regions between RD and nonimpaired readers. Converging evidence
from neuroimaging modalities that measure brain function (for instance, a functional MRI)

indicates a pattern of brain organization in RD that is different from nonimpaired readers.

Specifically, these studies show reductions in brain activity while performing reading tasks
usually, but not always, in the left hemisphere.16
Of particular interest from the studies of brain function is the possibility that the resultant neural
circuitry reflects not only the individual’s biological makeup, but also environmental influences.
Central among these influences is how reading instruction impacts brain circuitry. The findings
suggest that neural systems develop and are deployed for specific cognitive functions through
the interaction of the brain and the environment (including instruction).
This “interaction” perspective is supported by genetic studies of individuals with RD. It has long
been known that reading problems recur across family generations, with a risk in the offspring
of a parent with RD eight times higher than the general population. Studies with identical and
fraternal twins have shown that a significant portion of this familial risk is due to genetic factors.
Yet such factors account for only about half of the variability in reading skill development;
environmental factors account for the other half and therefore
have a significant influence on reading outcomes. Thus, what
may be inherited is a susceptibility for RD that may manifest itself
No definitional given specific interactions, or lack thereof, with the environment.
element of LD has For example, parents who read poorly may be less likely to read
generated as to their children. The quality of reading instruction provided in the
school may be most critical for children when there is a both a
much controversy genetic risk for poor reading and a family situation giving rise to
as the use of IQ- limited instructional interactions in the home.17
achievement
The Discrepancy Element
discrepancy in the No definitional element has generated as much controversy as
identification of the use of IQ-achievement discrepancy in the identification of
students with LD. students with LD.18 When resources (funding) are limited, a valid
classification must give rise to operational criteria that can guide
the reliable identification of individual cases. Indeed, the
adoption of the concept of an IQ-achievement discrepancy as only one, but clearly the primary,
operational criterion commenced in 1977, shortly after passage of the EAHCA, to “objectively
and accurately” distinguish the child with LD from children with other academic deficiencies.19
When the EAHCA was enacted in 1975, states reported that the definition of LD provided
insufficient criteria for identifying eligible children. In response, the Office of Education
developed more explicit criteria for eligibility and published guidelines for identification which
included a severe discrepancy between achievement and intellectual ability (see Table 1). These
criteria maintained the heterogeneity and exclusionary elements of the 1969 definition, but
added the IQ-discrepancy component as an additional criterion. Inherent in this criterion is an
implicit classification of low-achieving students into those who are LD (those with unexpected
underachievement) and those who simply underachieve (those with expected underachievement).
The idea of using an IQ-achievement discrepancy metric as one way to “objectively determine”
the presence or absence of LD was probably reasonable at the time. Long before “severe
discrepancy” became synonymous with LD, practitioners had been intrigued by the seemingly

paradoxical inability of some children of average and superior intelligence to master academic
concepts. Following repeated reports of this phenomenon in the literature, clinicians and
researchers saw value in distinguishing between a subset of low achievers who displayed
pervasive limitations in cognitive ability (for example, students with mild mental deficiency) and
a subgroup of children with academic deficits displayed against a background of normal
intelligence.20
The notion of using an IQ-achievement discrepancy as a marker for unexpected

underachievement was also consistent with the still-
prevailing, albeit inaccurate, view that IQ scores were
robust predictors of an individual child’s ability to learn. The IQ-achievement
Given this view, children who displayed a gap or
discrepancy between their measured IQ and their discrepancy, when
achievement in oral language, reading, writing, and/or employed as the
math were viewed as not achieving at levels primary criterion for the
commensurate with their potential. Thus, despite
identification of LD, may
admonitions by R. L.Thorndike and others throughout the
20th century that IQ scores reflect primarily a gross well harm more
estimate of current general cognitive functioning and children than it helps.
should not be used as a measure of learning potential, 21
the idea of an IQ-achievement discrepancy as a

meaningful diagnostic marker for LD was accepted in policy and practice in 1977 and has been
in general use ever since.
There are many problems with the concept of an IQ-achievement discrepancy. It not only
embodies sometimes naive and erroneous assumptions about the adequacy of an IQ score as an
index of learning potential, but the actual comparison of academic achievement scores with IQ
scores to derive a discrepancy value is fraught with psychometric, statistical, and conceptual
problems that render many comparisons useless.22 Of even greater significance, the IQ-
achievement discrepancy, when employed “inappropriately” as the primary criterion for the
identification of LD, may well harm more children than it helps. Not only do discrepancy
formulas differ from state to state, making it possible for a student to lose special education
services following a family move, but also reliance on a measurable discrepancy between IQ
and achievement makes early identification of LD difficult. An overreliance on discrepancy
means that children must fail or fall below a predicted level of performance before they are
eligible for special education services. Because achievement failure sufficient to produce a
discrepancy from IQ cannot be reliably measured until a child reaches approximately nine years
of age, the use of IQ-discrepancy constitutes a “wait-to-fail” model.23 Thus, the student has
suffered the academic and emotional strains of failure for two to three years before potentially
effective instruction can be brought to bear. This order of events has devastating, lifelong
consequences. In the area of RD, epidemiological data show clearly that the majority of children
who are poor readers at age nine or older continue to have reading difficulties into adulthood.24
Another potentially serious flaw in the use of an IQ-achievement discrepancy metric concerns the
unsystematic and frequently inequitable provision of educational services and accommodations
based on the presence or absence of a discrepancy. Because there is no strong evidence that

the IQ-achievement discrepancy criterion either (1) describes an intrinsic reading-related

processing difference within low achieving readers (nondiscrepant versus discrepant), or (2)
provides a differential prediction of response to intervention or educational outcomes, the use of
such discrepancy requirements to deny specialized services and/or accommodations to
nondiscrepant poor readers is arbitrary and problematic.25
In the area of RD, the issue is further complicated when some individuals score in the average
range on word reading tasks but exhibit significant difficulties when reading connected text.
Here, their reading comprehension is impaired primarily because they read slowly. These
individuals are disabled in reading and clearly require specialized instruction and
accommodations. They do not receive such instruction and accommodations because reading
fluency is rarely assessed in current identification procedures. If a slow-reading student scores
significantly above the average range on a measure of
intelligence, services may be afforded on the basis of the
discrepancy between the average untimed word reading score
No child is born a and the above-average IQ score. However, slow-reading
reader; all students who score within the average range on both the
children in literate untimed reading measures and the IQ test will typically be
denied services because there is no discrepancy—even though
societies have to they also have a disability that requires specialized services
be taught to read. and/or accommodations. The bottom line is that the IQ-
achievement discrepancy formulation provides access to
services for only some individuals and sometimes denies
services without appropriately measuring the fundamental problem.
In sum, the use of an IQ-achievement discrepancy to identify children with LD appears to move
many students further away from the education they need. Because the discrepancy hinges on
the IQ level of students rather than on their specific academic needs, the emphasis is on
eligibility rather than instruction. This situation reflects the orientation of special education in
public schools toward compliance with federal regulations rather than positive educational
outcomes. Such an emphasis is unfortunate since we have little evidence that the special
education remediation services provided to children with LD help them catch up to their peers in
academic skills. This issue is addressed below.
The Exclusion Element

Most definitions of LD have an exclusion clause, stating that LD is not the primary result of other
conditions that can impede learning. These other conditions include mental retardation;
emotional disturbance; visual or hearing impairments; inadequate instructional opportunities;
and cultural, social, or economic conditions. Given the primacy of the exclusion element within
definitions of LD (in combination with the discrepancy element), many children identified as LD
have been diagnosed on the basis of what they are not, rather than what they are.26 This is
unfortunate for three major reasons. First, identifying children with LD on the basis of exclusions
downplays the development of clear inclusionary criteria. Second, an exclusionary definition is a
negative definition that adds little conceptual clarity and clearly constrains understanding LD to
its fullest extent. As Michael Rutter has argued,27 this approach to definition suggests that if all
known causes of the disorder can be excluded, the unknown (in the form of LD) can now be

invoked. Third, and most important, many of the conditions excluded as potential influences on
LD are themselves factors in impeding the development of cognitive and linguistic skills that lead
to the academic deficits frequently observed in RD children.
One exclusion criterion for LD that is especially difficult to reconcile is the student’s instructional
history. All definitions of LD exclude children from
consideration if their learning problems are primarily a
product of inadequate instruction. Of all the different From its inception as a
assumptions in the concept of LD, this one is the least category, LD has served
examined yet perhaps the most important. Some would
interpret this exclusion feature to indicate that children
as a sociological sponge
who profit from instruction do not have a biologically that attempts to wipe up
based LD, yet functional imaging studies suggest that in general education’s spills
the area of reading this is not so. Instruction may be
and cleanse its ills.
necessary to establish the neural networks that support
reading. No child is born a reader; all children in literate
societies have to be taught to read. The ability to read and write is explicitly built upon our
natural capacities for developing oral language.28
Similarly, most definitions exclude children from the LD category whose learning difficulties may
be primarily related to environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage. Yet these very
conditions place some children at significant risk for weaker neural development and secondary
learning difficulties. Given the emphasis within current definitions of LD on the causal role of the
central nervous system in academic skills disorders, it seems unwise to reject the possibility that
the environment (including social and cultural factors) can affect brain development and function,
and thus affect learning. Poor socio-economic conditions are related to a number of factors—
including malnutrition, limited pre- and post-natal care, exposure to teratogens and substance
abuse—all of which can place children at risk for neurological dysfunction, leading to cognitive,
linguistic, and academic deficits.29
In sum, the brain and the environment operate in reciprocal fashion, pushing or limiting
development according to the frequency, timing, and quality of the interactions. To exclude
children from specialized services because of instructional, environmental, social, and cultural
factors ignores the importance of these factors in shaping the central nervous system and the
child’s cognitive and linguistic repertoire. Many lives can be improved significantly by
identifying those children most susceptible to possible cognitive and academic difficulties. These
children need the best instruction at the earliest possible time. To do this will require
reconsideration of current definitions of LD. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done because
of the sociological role that LD has come to play within the larger educational enterprise.
LD’s Sociological Function

Discussions of LD frequently become mired in attempts to explain frequent inconsistencies in
definitions, identification practices, and instructional needs of children with the disorder. Some
critics of the LD diagnostic concept argue that the category is a “catch-all” for low-achieving
students who don’t fit anywhere else within the special education system. However, these
arguments fail to address the real reasons the category has expanded exponentially in the last
three decades. To paraphrase Gerald Senf’s analysis,30 from its inception as a category, LD has

served as a sociological sponge that attempts to wipe up general education’s spills and cleanse
its ills. Today’s classrooms are heterogeneous and teachers are expected to address a wide
range of individual differences in cognitive, academic, and behavioral development.
Unfortunately, many regular classroom teachers have not been trained to accommodate different
students’ learning needs, and they understandably seek assistance that typically takes the
responsibility of educating the child away from the classroom teacher.31
There is no doubt that, because of limitations in training, many general education and special
education teachers are not prepared to address and respond to these individual differences in
an informed manner. For example, a large number of teachers report that their training
programs did not adequately prepare them to impart effective reading instruction, particularly to
children with limited oral language and literacy experiences or to children with the most severe
forms of reading disabilities.32 This is a significant concern, given that many children at risk for
reading failure come from disadvantaged backgrounds, where early childhood education and
preschool experiences are less available. Many of these children fail to read because they did
not receive effective instruction in the early grades. Some may then, in later grades, require
special education services to make up for this early failure in reading instruction.
Senf’s metaphor is particularly apt as one observes the “sponge” expand or contract when
standards for academic accountability stiffen, demographics of school communities change,
administrative concerns increase because LD students are being
over- or under-identified, or parental pressures are brought to
Children who get off bear on behalf of their struggling children. In general, the LD
to a poor start in sponge has expanded since the advent of the EAHCA because it
reading rarely catch has been able to absorb a diversity of educational, behavioral,
and socioemotional problems irrespective of their causes, their
up. We wait—they responses to good teaching, or their prognosis.
fail. But it does not
The effects of these practices on our scientific understanding of
have to be this way.
LD have been devastating and insidious. It is important to
understand that, for the most part, knowledge about LD has been
obtained by studying heterogeneous samples of children identified by their schools as LD without
attention to how or why the diagnosis was applied. The differences observed within and across
samples have been so extensive that the research data are often difficult to interpret.
Where Do We Go From Here?

The current federal definition of LD is conceptually weak. The inclusionary criteria (such as the
IQ-achievement discrepancy criterion) and most exclusionary criteria do not appear to be valid
markers for LD. The primary use of the IQ-achievement discrepancy criterion comprises a “wait
to fail” model: many children cannot be reliably identified as LD and begin to receive
specialized services until approximately third grade because of the psychometric limitations
inherent in the use of discrepancy formulas. All of this reflects the emphasis within special
education on compliance as opposed to results. In the next section, we show that the results of
remedial services for children with LD in reading are poor.
We contend, therefore, that it is not in the best interest of children to continue to use present
policies and practices as the primary means to provide appropriate instruction to children with

LD, particularly students with reading difficulties. A strong statement? Yes, but it is one that is
based on research indicating that, without early intervention, the poor first-grade reader almost
invariably becomes a poor middle school reader, high school reader, and adult reader. In short,
children who get off to a poor start in reading rarely catch up. We wait—they fail. But it does
not have to be this way. It is a tragedy that both general and special education practices and
policies continue unchanged even as extensive converging evidence makes clear that one major
solution to the problem of school failure in general, and reading failure in particular, is early
identification and prevention.
Figure 1. Growth in Reading Skills
Figure 1. Growth in reading skills by children in the Connecticut Longitudinal Study

from the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Test Battery from 6-18 years of age
(Grades 1-12) by children identified at 8 years of age (Grade 3) as not reading
impaired (NRI) or reading disabled according to a discrepancy between IQ and
reading achievement (RDD) or low reading achievement with no discrepancy (LA). The
figure shows that growth in the two groups with reading disability is similar (the
growth curves are indistinguishable); neither catches up to the NRI group; and the
differences between the NRI group and the two groups with reading disability are
apparent well before Grade 3.

An Evidence-Based Argument for Early Identification, Prevention,

and Early Intervention
Good readers understand how print represents the sounds of speech, can apply phonemic and
phonics skills in a rapid and fluent manner, and possess sufficient vocabularies and other
language abilities to actively connect what they are reading to their background knowledge and
experiences. Conversely, children who are most likely to have reading difficulties enter
kindergarten lacking sufficient phonological processing skills and fail to develop adequate word
reading ability. This bottleneck in word reading skills limits their ability to learn how to read text
in a fluent fashion. Their text reading is typically slow and laborious, which impedes their
comprehension of what is read. Among these children, the effort exerted in reading is frequently
not rewarded by enjoyment and learning. Frustration on the part of the child and a decrease in
reading behavior are often observed. Limited reading practice
and experience result in weak vocabulary development and
difficulties in learning other academic subjects. And the cycle
Special education goes on.33
professionals and
programs should Given that the underlying causes of most early reading difficulties
become a source are similar for children regardless of whether they are currently
served in special or compensatory education programs, we argue
for preventative that the most valid and efficient way to deliver this early
interventions. intervention in reading is through regular education. This
approach allows limited funds to be targeted at intervention
rather than expensive eligibility determination practices. Initially,
however, the specialized instructional approaches that will be necessary for some children are
typically not within the purview of general education teachers. Thus, special education
professionals and programs should become a source for preventative interventions. Regardless
of the approach to classification, we contend that it is critical to provide this instruction as early
as possible in a child’s school career to avoid the reading failure that will otherwise occur. That
is the major message of this chapter.
As mentioned before, children identified as RD after Grade 2 rarely catch up to their peers.
Thus, the long-term development of reading skills appears to be set early and is difficult to alter.
Figure 1 shows the development of reading skills of children in the Connecticut Longitudinal
Study, which followed them from kindergarten through Grade 12.34
Three groups are depicted, including children who are not reading impaired (NRI) as well as
groups defined in Grade 3 as RD using either IQ-discrepancy (RDD group) or low-achievement
(LA group) definitions. Thus, one group of children would qualify for special education as LD
under federal guidelines (RDD), while the other group (LA) would not qualify despite the fact that
Figure 1 shows the RDD and LA groups are comparably impaired in reading ability. The overall
pattern depicts large differences in the development of the NRI and two RD groups. However,
the two RD groups are almost indistinguishable and neither catches up to the NRI group despite
the fact that schools identified at least half the children as eligible for special education services.

Particularly sobering is the finding that over 70 percent of the group identified as RD in Grade 3
was still identified as RD in Grade 12. Regardless of how they are defined, reading disabilities
are often chronic, lifelong incapacities that lead to problems in a variety of social and
vocational areas in adolescence and adulthood.
By measuring reading skills longitudinally from

kindergarten, the Connecticut Longitudinal Study also The importance of early
shows that children are behind in reading long before
Grade 3. Other studies support the view that many
intervention is clearly
children are behind in reading early in their development apparent from studies
and that they can be reliably identified well before Grade of typical special
2. For example, in a study conducted by Connie Juel and
education remediation
her colleagues at the University of Texas, it was found
that word recognition skills at the end of first grade were services for reading and
strongly related to reading proficiency at the end of math skill development.
Grade 4. Indeed, almost 9 of 10 children who were
35
deficient in word recognition skills in first grade were

poor readers in fourth grade. Similarly, 8 of 10 children with severe word reading problems at
the end of the first grade performed below the average range at the beginning of the third
grade. Joseph Torgesen and his associates at Florida State University showed that these patterns
could be detected as early as kindergarten and persisted through Grade 5.36 This research has
been the basis for early reading assessments in Texas and Virginia.
These and other longitudinal studies indicate that early reading difficulties portend later reading
difficulties. Further, these studies tell us that children do not typically “catch up” on their own.
Unless addressed with well-designed instruction, struggling readers stay that way. Historically,
schools have opted to address these persistent reading difficulties through the provision of
remedial and special education services typically beginning in second grade and beyond. Yet
the majority of children provided such services fail to become skilled readers. We will now
examine specific attempts to improve reading skills, first through remedial efforts, then through
preventative efforts.
Remediation
The importance of early intervention is clearly apparent from studies of typical special education
remediation services for reading and math skill development. Perhaps most revealing is an
analysis of a large data set by Eric Hanushek and colleagues. They found that placement in
special education was associated with a gain of 0.04 standard deviations in reading and 0.11
in math. Unfortunately, these gains are so small that children are not closing the gap between
their academic performance and the performance of their higher achieving classmates. Thus,
many of these children remain for lengthy periods of time in special education programs that
were ostensibly meant to close the academic gaps.37
Remediation models for older children have been ineffective for several reasons, but two stand
out. First, the standard instruction provided through remediation is frequently too little, too
general, and too unsystematic. Second, even if the instruction were of high quality, it may be too
late given that many children are already far behind and less motivated to learn to read
following a year or more of reading failure.

Regarding the first reason, Sharon Vaughn and her colleagues studied children with RD who
were served for an entire year in public elementary school special education resource rooms.38
The researchers found that their instruction was characterized primarily by whole group reading
instruction to large groups of children (5-19) who also varied widely in grade level (3-5 grades).
Despite this variation, little individualized or differentiated instruction occurred. Although a
follow-up study two years later showed that more of the teachers were utilizing materials that
supported differentiated instruction, none of these studies found evidence that children made
significant gains in reading. Several earlier studies also failed to find evidence supporting
significant gains in reading skills through specialized reading instruction programs.39
These observations do not represent new findings. Special education classes often reflect what
happens in general education classes; over the past two decades, there has been a gradual
movement away from small-group, differentiated instruction and towards the inclusion of special
education students in general education classes, as well as a gradual trend towards more
undifferentiated whole group instruction, even in pull-out classrooms. Moreover, other studies
show that placement in special education commonly results in less reading instruction for
students with RD because it takes the place of language arts instruction in the general education
classroom. In addition, despite the fact that most students with LD require direct and intensive
instruction in reading, even special education teachers spend little time directly teaching reading
skills, and remedial students spend very little of their time reading in these “specialized”
programs.40 In short, the remediation services for elementary grade children in today’s special
education classrooms are not particularly effective.
These and similar findings which demonstrate a lack of efficacy for conventional “pull-out”
special education instructional-remediation models served as a major impetus for the “inclusion
movement” in special and general education that currently guides instructional practices in many
states. Unfortunately, several studies have documented that inclusion practices are especially
ineffective for older poor readers. For example, in one study, 80 percent of the poorest readers
made no measurable gain over the school year.41 What is clear is that neither traditional “pull-
out” programs nor inclusion practices have been effective in
helping poor readers in Grades 2 and beyond develop the
Several studies critical literacy skills they need.
have documented It is possible that the lack of progress in reading made by these
that inclusion relatively “older” students can be attributed to insufficient
practices are teacher preparation, large class sizes, and the lack of
specialized reading instruction. Yet even where teachers
especially
received professional development and support, the amount of
ineffective for older progress made by the end of the year did not close the reading
poor readers. gap.42 Because the purpose of reading remediation is to close
the achievement gap, these findings, like those obtained by
Hanushek and associates, were not very positive.
Even with as few as eight children in a group, teachers find it difficult to impart the necessary
individualized instruction with appropriate intensity. Many programs have been developed that
provide individualized tutoring. Unfortunately, such programs have been infrequently evaluated,
particularly for older poor readers. They have also been difficult to introduce into public schools

Figure 2. Growth in Total Reading Skill Before, During, and Following

Intensive Intervention
Figure 2. Changes in broad reading skills on the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-

Educational Test Battery by disabled readers in Grades 3-5 during 16 months of
placement in special education prior to intensive reading remediation (pre-pretest to
pretest), a 2 month intervention with random assignment to the Auditory Discrimination
in Depth (ADD) or Embedded Phonics (EP) programs (pretest to posttest), and one- and
two-year follow-up assessments after completion of the intervention. The figure shows
little change in reading skills prior to the two-month intervention remediation,
significant improvement from (on average) below the 10th percentile (standard score of
80) to the average range (25th percentile; standard score of 90). There were no
differences in the efficacy of the two programs, and children maintained the gains after
the two month intervention at one and two year follow-ups.
given their cost, the need for specialized professional development, and the sheer number of
children who need to be served. However, there is little evidence that 1:1 (one teacher to one
student) instruction is necessary. Groupings of 3:1 up to 5:1 have been found effective, and
sometimes more effective than a 1:1 teacher/student ratio if the children are similar in their
reading levels.43
With regard to older poor readers, unfortunately, even the best studies using highly intensive
remediation approaches have improved only a subset of critical reading skills. For example,
Torgesen and his group conducted a series of well-designed reading remediation trials with
severely disabled readers in grades 3-5.44 The students were randomly assigned to one of two

remediation approaches. One intervention was the Lindamood Auditory Discrimination in Depth
(ADD) program; the other was labeled “Embedded Phonics” (EP). Both programs provided
explicit instruction in phonics but varied in the amount of phonics instruction and the amount of
practice in reading and writing connected text. Students received 67.5 hours of individualized
instruction in one of these two programs over an eight-week period.
Figure 2 describes the growth in broad reading ability (a combination of word reading
accuracy and reading comprehension) by the children during their 16 months of special
education prior to the research intervention (pre-pretest to pretest, with pre-pretest based on the
school’s assessment). It also shows the growth they made during the eight weeks of intervention
(pretest to posttest) and in the two years following the interventions. The children showed little
change in the 16 months preceding the interventions, major improvements from pretest to
posttest, and maintenance of the gains for two years after
the intervention.
Although time and
Although these results show that appropriate and intensive
expense should not interventions can help older children substantially improve
dictate how we address their reading accuracy and comprehension, almost all the
the educational needs children in the study remained very slow readers. Their
scores on standardized measures of reading fluency
of children, the reality is
remained below the 5th percentile two years after the
that few school systems intervention. In attempting to account for these mixed
presently have access to findings, Torgesen’s group theorized that a major factor in
the necessary resources. the development of fluency is the number of words to
which a child is exposed through frequent reading
practice. Children with word recognition difficulties avoid
reading, so these children build up enormous deficits during the time they remain poor readers
in elementary school. Thus, it is extremely difficult for them to “catch up” to their peers in total
amount of reading practice time, particularly because their normally reading peers are
continuing their high rates of reading practice.
Although the children remained slow readers, Torgesen and colleagues’ study is noteworthy
because the gains in reading accuracy and comprehension were maintained after the
intervention was terminated. The study is also significant because it shows that more intensive
instruction than is typically provided in special education classrooms can have a very significant
effect on some reading skills of children with severe reading disabilities in a relatively short
period of time. Keep in mind that during the 16 months prior to the intervention, the children
made almost no progress toward closing the gap in word reading and comprehension skills.
After the intervention, however, many of the children maintained some reading skills within the
average range. Moreover, despite the reading fluency weaknesses, 40 percent were returned
from special education to regular education classes, which greatly exceeds the 5 percent figure
commonly cited for leaving special education. These remediated students returned from a
program that lasted 8 weeks but was very intense, and they occurred under two different types
of intervention.
It is likely that understanding of how to improve all reading skills among older disabled readers
will increase in the next few years. But we must expect that the reading programs and strategies

found to be effective through this research will continue to require low teacher-student ratios,
highly trained personnel, and a level of instructional intensity and duration that is time-consuming
and expensive. Although time and expense should not dictate how we address the educational
needs of children, the reality is that few school systems presently have access to the necessary
resources. In reading, this is partly because of the sheer number of older children with RD who
require services. The number of students identified
as LD and provided special education services
increases with age for two major reasons. First, as There is substantial evidence
pointed out previously, many children identified at
that early identification and
approximately nine to ten years of age are not
effectively remediated and therefore continue to intervention in kindergarten
receive services. Second, a large number of and Grade 1 may
children are identified as LD during middle and substantially reduce the
high school primarily because their reading
difficulties preclude learning in content areas.
number of children that
might otherwise be eligible
Prevention for special services.
Because most reading remediation efforts have not
been effective, a number of recent studies have
looked at prevention and early intervention
approaches that have the potential to reduce the number of children who eventually qualify for
special education or compensatory education programs. In reading, prevention research efforts
have been especially promising. Both the consensus report of the National Research Panel
(NRP)45 and the evidence-based report of the National Reading Council (NRC)46 concluded that
reading problems for many children could be prevented.
The NRC report suggested that in kindergarten, for example, children could be identified as “at-
risk” for word reading difficulties on the basis of their performance on tasks that assess
phonemic awareness and naming abilities. The types of measures that are most predictive of
later reading ability involve the child’s knowledge of letter sounds, the ability to blend sounds
into words (done orally), and, at the end of kindergarten, the ability to name letters rapidly. By
first grade, the child’s ability to read appropriately leveled words is the best predictor of later
reading success.
The beneficial effects of early identification and intervention are apparent in many studies. The
NRP identified a large body of research showing that explicit teaching of the relation of print
and sounds through phonological awareness training and phonics was especially effective in
kindergarten and Grade 1, with the instructional effects diminishing in subsequent grades when
word recognition skills had been developed to a level that adequately supported reading of
connected text.
There is substantial evidence that early identification and intervention in kindergarten and Grade
1 may substantially reduce the number of children that might otherwise be eligible for special
services. Torgesen recently summarized five such studies, all of which resulted in a reduction in
the number of potentially eligible children.47 In all these studies, children were identified as at-
risk for RD in kindergarten or Grade 1 based on assessment results that identified the children in
the bottom 12-18 percent (depending on the study) of the school population in either reading

skills (Grade 1) or phonological processing (kindergarten). After intervention, the reading

performance of the primary intervention groups in each of the five studies was well within the
average range. But not all programs work with all children. Across the five studies, 8-30 percent
of the children completed the intervention with reading scores below the average range. On the
other hand, these children fell in the bottom 12-18 percent of all kindergarten/Grade 1 students
in reading skills, and the response rate for the interventions suggests that if they were available
to all children at-risk for reading difficulties, less than 6 percent of the population would be
eligible for services later in school. Simply stated, when an intervention is used with the bottom
18 percent of the student population and works with 70 percent of them, the number of at-risk
children requiring services is reduced from 18 percent to 5.4 percent.48 Across the five studies,
the expected incidence of RD was reduced from 12-18 percent to 1.4-5.4 percent.
The five studies varied in how children were identified as “at-risk,” the types of early
interventions employed, and the student-teacher ratios. All studies followed children for 2-5 years
and all showed that the gains were maintained. Moreover, in contrast to the remedial studies
described above, improvement in both accuracy and fluency
of word recognition skills was apparent, with gains also
The goal of remedial present in comprehension skills.49
reading instruction None of the intervention programs were equally effective for
should be to improve all of the children studied. There may be individual
characteristics of children that predispose them to more or
reading skills as
less success with a particular program. Research examining
quickly as possible so this possibility is underway, but it’s already clear that we
the student can “read need to move away from a “one-size-fits-all” mentality and
to learn” in critical apply continuous assessment approaches that evaluate how
well an instructional program is working with particular
content areas. youngsters. The growth of reading skills can be constantly
measured over time in the classroom, and these “curriculum-
based” approaches can identify children who are not
responding optimally to a particular instructional strategy. This information can then give the
teacher an objective basis for modifying instruction to address a particular student’s needs.50
The prevention and early intervention research has its critics. Some argue that early
identification is fraught with errors leading to misidentification and may incorrectly label a
student as at-risk for academic failure.51 We respond by suggesting that a label is not necessary
for implementation of prevention programs and the costs of delaying intervention are too great
to wait. Indeed, we hope that, at some point, all kindergarten and elementary grade teachers
will have had sufficient training to provide instruction that incorporates prevention into the
normal course of their teaching. Even with this enhanced capacity, however, some children will
need more instructional intensity than they can obtain in a typical classroom.
Other critics identify studies that show greater gains in word recognition than comprehension,
and suggest that many early intervention studies show diminished gains in the later grades.52 We
respond by pointing out that the so-called “fourth-grade” slump does not mean that children
begin to decline in the reading abilities gained; rather, they simply begin to show a reduction in
the rate of growth. The key is to continue reading instruction throughout elementary school with

a focus on continually integrating word-reading skills, fluency instruction, and reading

comprehension skills in the later grades. Learning to read words is necessary but not the only
condition for literacy proficiency.
Not all children will benefit from early intervention. Nevertheless, as stated in the above
discussion of prevention studies, children whose
word recognition skills were not brought into the
average range did improve to some degree in the Even the best evidence-
five studies. These children may require different based recommendations
interventions over time and/or more intensive
programs to foster compensatory learning strategies will not be utilized and
while continuing to work on basic academic skills sustained in practice unless
deficits. The goal of remedial reading instruction careful thought is given to
should be to improve reading skills as quickly as
possible so the student can “read to learn” in critical
identifying the conditions
content areas. To accomplish this, students, that will increase the
particularly at older age ranges, require highly probability of their
intensive and systematic instruction provided in successful implementation.
settings characterized by low teacher-student ratios.
This can only be done when the potential number of
children with reading difficulties has been reduced to manageable levels through early
intervention.
How Policies and Practices Must Change

We have endeavored to illustrate the following: (1) the origins of the concept of LD; (2) old and
sometimes incorrect assumptions about LD that have been maintained in public policy; (3) the
specific scientific and educational problems with current definitions of LD; (4) the limited
effectiveness of current reading remediation approaches; and (5) the potential value of early
identification and intervention approaches in reducing reading failure. We conclude that
significant improvements in education policies and practices related to the definition of LD,
changes in teacher preparation, and development and implementation of early intervention and
remediation programs must occur if the educational needs of children are to be met. However,
we realize that even the best evidence-based recommendations will not be utilized and sustained
in practice unless careful thought is given to identifying the conditions that will increase the
probability of their successful implementation.
These conditions include our ability to (1) ensure that all recommendations have been sufficiently
tested to acknowledge clearly their strengths and weaknesses and evaluate their specific impact
on the children and adults to be served; (2) anticipate the effects of changes in policies and
practices on federal, state, and school communities and address them effectively; (3) take into
account barriers to change in public school policy and practice; and (4) articulate specific areas
where capacity must be developed to ensure successful implementation. We recognize that our
recommendations will require time and resources to determine whether these essential conditions
can be met. Hasty implementation of these recommendations without full knowledge of the
challenges that confront such significant change could put students in jeopardy. Thus, we

recommend that the relevant government agencies undertake a consensus development initiative
through which the federal definition of LD and attendant eligibility and intervention issues raised
in this chapter are evaluated in an attempt to align policy with research.
With this as background, we now summarize our major recommendations for improvements in
the definition of LD, teacher preparation, and the development and implementation of early
intervention and remediation programs. We conclude by articulating what we consider to be the
significant factors that must be addressed if productive implementation of these recommendations
is to occur.
Recommendations for Improvement in the Definition(s) of LD

First, replace the current generic exclusionary definition of LD with evidence-based definitions
that specify precise characteristics necessary to identify children with LD in reading,
mathematics, written expression, and oral language. This type of effort has already been
accomplished in the area of reading disabilities, giving rise to greater precision in describing
children under study and in providing appropriate
instructional services. Until such definitions are developed for
all types of LD, reliable assessment and appropriate
There is a pressing instruction of children with LD will continue to be
need for early, compromised.
intensive, empirically
Second, jettison the IQ-achievement criterion as a primary
based interventions
marker for LD. Assessment and identification strategies that
to be made easily replace the use of IQ-achievement test comparisons are
available to children clearly possible. In most cases, student underachievement
through general can be predicted on the basis of performance on tasks
assessing skills directly related to the academic domain in
education. question. Further, underachievement can be documented by
direct comparisons of students’ age and grade with their
academic functioning in oral language, reading,
mathematics, and written language.
Third, stop excluding children because of inadequate instruction, cultural and social factors, and
emotional disturbance. These exclusions may be policy-driven, designed to avoid commingling
of funds for compensatory and special education, but we should not allow our
conceptualizations of LD to be driven by policy issues. In the case of inadequate instruction and
cultural/social factors, we have argued that it is just these factors that may lead to inadequacies
in neural and cognitive development that place children at significant risk for LD. Thus, decisions
to maintain distinctions between compensatory and special education services should not drive
our conception of LD. Instruction is the key for all children who are not achieving according to
expectations.
Fourth, include consideration of a student’s response to well-designed and well-implemented

early intervention as well as remediation programs as part of the identification of LD. Recall
Senf’s sponge metaphor. There is a pressing need for early, intensive, empirically based
interventions to be made easily available to children through general education. There are too

many “spills” in the current system. The complex identification criteria and expensive due
process procedures of special education should be reserved for children who have not
responded to the powerful shorter-term interventions that are presently available. No doubt,
children who do not benefit from these interventions will require even more intensive remediation
programs as well as educational accommodations as they proceed through school.
These four recommendations are offered with two

caveats. First, the assessment practices and criteria that
Teachers must be
we have proposed should not lead to the identification of
LD without input from teachers, parents, and others provided the critical
responsible for the child’s education. Typically a academic content,
multidisciplinary school-support team undertakes this pedagogical principles,
function. Such teams should have sway over decisions
based solely on test scores, as provided in the IDEA.
and knowledge of
learner characteristics
Second, our recommendations can be expected to that they need in order to
change who is identified as LD. The exclusionary and IQ-
achievement elements of the LD definition have served as impart systematic and
artificial “caps” on LD prevalence, while the lack of informed instruction to
robust interventions for academically unsuccessful their students.
students in general and compensatory education has
inflated LD identification rates. A key to more effective
responses to learning difficulties in general education and lowered LD prevalence will be
policies that do not simply change the criteria for identifying LD, but that truly improve the
capacity of teachers and schools to implement sound early interventions with the necessary
fidelity. Years of disappointing outcomes in special and compensatory education have taught us
that mandated instructional/intervention programs (usually watered-down to allow rapid
dissemination and a quick fix), ultimately cost more than a reasoned, systematic approach that
uses science as a base. Such an approach assures that the policy and implementation issues
inherent in broadening from practice to large scale are anticipated and addressed.53
Recommendations for Improving Teacher Education

We have noted problems with teacher education as well as the need to incorporate the notion of
adequate instruction into definitions of LD. The often-heard statement that many children
identified as LD are actually “teaching-disabled” is unfortunately accurate in many cases. Our
research has taught us that almost all children can learn to read if taught by appropriate
methods, but clearly many students are not receiving appropriate instruction for their reading
needs. Is this the teacher’s fault? We don’t think so. In our experience, people become teachers
in order to help make significant positive changes in student’s lives and teaching children to
read is certainly one of those goals. Teachers, however, like the rest of us, frequently teach what
they have been taught. Much evidence shows that teachers are not trained to address individual
learning differences in general and specifically are not prepared to teach reading to students
who arrive in their classrooms from highly diverse backgrounds and a range of initial abilities.
Nor are teachers trained to study and apply research. Once in the classroom, no matter how
much teachers want to “keep up” with the most recent research, they are not encouraged to do
so.54

We doubt that the colleges of education will change their current preparation practices in the
near future. What is clear is that teachers must be provided the critical academic content,
pedagogical principles, and knowledge of learner characteristics that they need in order to
impart systematic and informed instruction to their students. Some states (such as Texas) and
communities (for example, the Houston Independent School District) have considered alternatives
to traditional teacher preparation to ensure that teachers can close the gap between research
and practice. These initiatives should be carefully evaluated to determine whether such large-
scale efforts are effective.
Recommendations for the Development of

Prevention and Early Intervention Programs
An important lesson can be The technology for implementing early identification
drawn from compensatory and intervention programs is undergoing rapid
development. Many states, notably Texas and Virginia,
education, where entry
have developed reading assessments for K-2 children
criteria are relatively simple that are teacher-administered. Although the purpose of
and much more funding is these instruments is to guide instruction, they also serve
targeted for intervention to signal further evaluation for LD by identifying at-risk
children. Through the Reading Excellence Act, some
programs. states are developing intensive programs for children
who are at-risk for reading difficulties because they are
socially disadvantaged. These programs are required to use scientifically based research and to
focus on accelerated reading instruction in kindergarten and the early grades. Such strategies
may prevent reading failure in many children. The key is to enhance classroom instruction
accompanied by targeted intervention programs for children who require more help.
A major problem with such efforts is that special educators who typically provide instruction to
children with LD have not been integrated into the early identification and prevention initiatives
and have not had a role in efforts to design and implement early intervention programs. It is
important that both regular and special education embrace these efforts and view prevention as
part of their mission. The IDEA today allows states to identify 6- to 9-year-old children as eligible
for special education services based on a designation of “developmental delay,” which means
the child is not making progress. Although developmental delay is a fairly meaningless term,
especially given the evidence that reading problems become persistent deficits early in
schooling, the idea that special education funds can be used for early identification and
prevention is critical. Unfortunately, the most recent report to Congress (for 1997-1998) on
implementation of the 1997 revision of the IDEA—which permitted use of “developmental
delay”—indicated that only eight states actually utilized this eligibility category. Children served
under “developmental delay” represented only 1.32 percent of children with disabilities in the 6-
to 9-year-old age group.55
Although special educators may not be directly involved in the provision of classroom instruction
for at-risk children, they should have a clear role in activities related to prevention. This includes
early identification and the implementation of specialized interventions within the classroom and
elsewhere. Such specialized services and programs should not be oriented toward a
determination of eligibility as is presently the case. An important lesson can be drawn from

compensatory education, where entry criteria are relatively simple and much more of the
funding is targeted for intervention programs rather than administrative issues relevant to
eligibility determination.
What is a Disability? There are few

The emphasis on prevention begs the question of what constitutes areas where the
the disability in LD. If the role of inadequate instruction is taken
seriously, and more aggressive attempts are made to teach all
relationship of
children to read, the meaning of disability could change in the science and policy
future. In this scenario, the actual diagnosis of LD could be are more loosely
reserved for children whose reading or other academic problems
linked than LD.
are severe and intractable (that is, for children who do not
adequately respond to a variety of intervention approaches). With
documented lack of adequate response, eligibility should be more streamlined and less
adversarial than is presently the case with LD.56
In particular, we do not know if there are characteristics of the environment, the brain, or
heredity that make it difficult to teach all children to learn to read, write, and/or develop
mathematics competencies. Yet a child who has difficulty learning to read early and whose
reading skills never develop to a level commensurate with stronger reading peers will most likely
show improved reading levels after aggressive attempts to provide sound early intervention.
Such a child may also need extensive modifications of his or her educational environment, more
extensive compensatory techniques, and other changes in curriculum such as those made for
youngsters with more obvious disabilities.
This is by no means an attempt to “write off” children who do not respond to aggressive
instruction, but it is recognition of the role of instruction in the definition of LD. Thus, it may be
reasonable to reserve the term “learning disabled” for individuals who clearly do not respond to
intensive intervention and who may need more significant modifications of their educational
environment in order to maximize their learning experiences in school. It would be important to
identify these children and look more closely at both neurobiological and environmental factors
that characterize them. With the opportunity to conduct research on children who clearly do not
respond to even the best of current interventions, we may be able to understand the causes of
this intractability and develop interventions that may further reduce the prevalence of LD in the
future. Regardless, such efforts should be tied into preventative approaches through an attempt
to implement what is essentially a public health model and reduce the overall prevalence of LD.
Under no circumstances should inadequate instruction be used as an excuse for denying access
to special education services. Poor instruction causes LD and should not be exclusionary.
Science and Policy

There are few areas where the relationship of science and policy are more loosely linked than
LD. This is unfortunate. In too many instances, policy-related issues have driven the scientific
agenda relevant to LD. This situation should be reversed; research should drive policy on LD. But
the production of clear, convergent findings is only the first step. Effecting meaningful change in
the lives of children and teachers requires that we not only have sound scientific findings, but
also that we understand how to formulate policies based on these findings to produce changes
we desire at the individual child level. It is unlikely the formulators of the EAHCA envisioned that

the majority of those served by their legislation would be children in a relatively new disability
category. Similarly, although changes needed in the LD identification criteria and intervention
practices seem obvious based on the research presented here, we must expect unintended
consequences to follow from any changes. Considering that enhancing local capacity is key to
any change efforts, the fundamental changes we desire in educational practice will require time
and resources to implement.
It is time to more tightly link policy, research, and practice in LD. Programs that are implemented
on the basis of policy should be continuously evaluated for their efficacy. Similarly, instructional
interventions for children with LD should carry with them the expectation that they will be based
on research and evaluated in a serious way. Decisionmaking in education, whether it involves
policy or practice, should be guided by research. Society should have the same expectations for
education policy and practice that it has for medicine. We do not believe that the criteria used
to evaluate evidence are meaningfully different, nor that decisions on how much research is
necessary to implement a particular policy or practice are particularly different in education,
medicine, or related areas.
Such a radical restructuring of education policy and practice can only be successfully
accomplished if we acknowledge the complexity of the task before us. We have a model of
successful inquiry into the nature of reading disorders that can be applied to other learning
disorders. We now need to use what we know about LD and about education change to
construct and evaluate models for successful change in educational policy and practice for
children with learning difficulties. It is time to apply the same care and precision used in
conducting the original research to the task of effecting serious policy change based on that
research. The real tragedy is that conceptualizations of LD have not changed over 30 years
despite the completion of significant research in the past 15 years. What we know from
research now needs to be implemented. Children deserve no less.
_______________________________________
1
See B.K. Keogh, “A Shared Attribute Model of Learning Disabilities,” in Research in Learning Disabilities: Issues
and Future Directions, eds. S. Vaughn and C. Bos (Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1987), 3-18; and L.C.
Moats and G.R. Lyon, “Learning Disabilities in the United States: Advocacy, Science, and the Future of the
Field,” Journal of Learning Disabilities 26 (1993): 282-294.
2
See Cecil Mercer, et al., “Learning Disabilities Definitions and Criteria Used by State Education Departments,”
Learning Disabilities Quarterly 19 (1996): 217-232; “Definition and Criteria for Defining Students as Learning
Disabled,” 42 Fed. Reg. 65,083 (1977); and “Assistance to States for the Education of Children with
Disabilities Program and Preschool Grants for Children with Disabilities Final Rule,” 34 C.R.F. 300 and 301
(1992).
3
See J. Lerner, “Educational Intervention in Learning Disabilities,” Journal of the American Academy of Child and
Adolescent Psychiatry 28 (1989): 326-331.
4
See M. Kamil, et al., Handbook of Reading Research: Volume III (Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2000); National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development, The Report of the National Reading Panel: An Evidence-
Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction
(Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development, 2000); and C. Snow, et al.,
Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1998).
5
See K. Kavale and S. Forness, The Nature of Learning Disabilities (Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1995); and J.L.
Wiederholt, “Historical Perspectives on the Education of the Learning Disabled,” in The Second Review of

Special Education, eds. L. Mann and D. Sabatino, (Austin, TX: PRO-ED, 1974), 103-152.
6
See J. Doris, “Defining Learning Disabilities: A History of the Search for Consensus,” in Better Understanding
Learning Disabilities: New Views from Research and Their Implications for Educational and Public Policies, eds.
G.R. Lyon, et al. (Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes, 1993), 97-115.
7
S. Kirk, Educating Exceptional Children (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1962), 263.
8
See S. Kirk, “Behavioral Diagnosis and Remediation of Learning Disabilities,” in Proceedings of the Conference
on Exploration into the Problems of the Perceptually Handicapped Child (Evanston, IL: Fund for the Perceptually
Handicapped Child, Inc., 1963), 1-7.
9
See N. Zigmond, “Learning Disabilities from an Educational Perspective,” in Better Understanding Learning
Disabilities: New Views from Research and Their Implications for Education and Public Policies, eds. G.R. Lyon,
et al. (Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes, 1993), 251-272.
10
Education of the Handicapped Act, Title VI, Pub. L. No. 91-230 (1969-1970).
11
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1991, Pub. L. No. 102-119, 20 U.S.C. § 1401 et
seq.
12
See Office of Special Education Programs, Implementation of IDEA.
13
See Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Pub. L. No. 102-119. Other definitions and their historical
origins are discussed in G.R. Lyon, “Learning Disabilities,” The Future of Children 6 (1996): 54-76.
14
See G.R. Lyon, “Toward a Definition of Dyslexia,” Annals of Dyslexia 45 (1995): 3-30; and K. Stanovich, “The
Construct Validity of Discrepancy Definitions of Reading Disability,” in Better Understanding Learning
Disabilities: New Views from Research and Their Implications for Education and Public Policies, eds. G.R. Lyon,
et al. (Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes, 1993), 273-295.
15
See K. Kavale and S. Forness, The Science of Learning Disabilities (San Diego, CA: College Hill Press, 1985).
16
Literature on post-mortem and structural imaging studies was reviewed in P. Filipek, “Structural Variations in
Measures in the Developmental Disorders,” in Developmental Neuroimaging: Mapping the Development of
Brain and Behavior, eds. R. Thatcher, G. Lyon, J. Rumsey, and N. Krasnegor (San Diego, CA: Academic Press,
1996), 169-186. Functional imaging studies involve several modalities, such as positron emission tomography,
functional magnetic resonance imaging, and magnetoencephalography. See S.E. Shaywitz, K.R. Pugh, A.R.
Jenner, R.K. Fulbright, J.M. Fletcher, J.C. Gore, and B.A. Shaywitz, “The Neurobiology of Reading and Reading
Disability (Dyslexia),” in Handbook of Reading Research, Volume IIi,.eds. M.L. Kamil, P.B. Mosenthal, P.D.
Pearson, and R. Barr (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2000), 229-249.
17
See Richard K. Olson, “Genes, Environment, and Reading Disabilities,” in Perspectives on Learning Disabilities,
eds. R.J. Sternberg and L. Spear-Swerling (Oxford: Westview Press, 1999), 3-22; and B. Pennington, “Dyslexia
as a Neurodevelopmental Disorder,” in Neurodevelopmental Disorders, ed. H. Tager-Flusberg (Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press, 1999), 307-330.
18
Detailed reviews of the issues with discrepancy models can be found in J.M. Fletcher, D.J. Francis, S.E.
Shaywitz, G.R. Lyon, B.R. Foorman, K.K. Stuebing, and B.A. Shaywitz, “Intelligent Testing and the Discrepancy
Model for Children with Learning Disabilities,” Learning Disabilities Research & Practice 13 (1998): 186-203;
and L.S. Siegel, “Learning Disabilities: The Roads We Have Traveled and the Path to the Future,” in Perspectives
on Learning Disabilities, eds. R.J. Sternberg and L. Spear-Swerling (Oxford: Westview Press, 1999), 159-175.
19
These recommendations can be found in Assistance to States for Education for Handicapped Children:
Procedures for Evaluating Specific Learning Disabilities, 42 Fed. Reg. G1082-G1085 (1977).
20
The 20th century reflects a period of extensive discussion of how to define different groups of low achievers
that culminated in the concept of LD. This history is discussed by J.L. Doris, “Defining Learning Disabilities: A
History of the Search for Consensus,” in Better Understanding Learning Disabilities, eds. G.R. Lyon, D.B. Gray,
J.F. Kavanaugh, and N.A. Krasnegor (Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes, 1993), 97-116; see also M. Rutter,
“Syndromes Attributed to Minimal Brain Dysfunction in Childhood,” American Journal of Psychiatry 139
(1982): 21-33.
21
See R.L. Thorndike, The Concepts of Over and Under Achievement (New York: Columbia University Bureau of
Publications, 1963).
22
The statistical problems with the use of IQ-discrepancy scores have been widely documented. See C.R.

Reynolds, “Critical Measurement Issues in Learning Disabilities,” Journal of Special Education 18 (1974): 451-
476.
23
Longitudinal research has shown that IQ-discrepancy scores are not reliable in Grade 1, but are reliable in
Grade 3 (and most likely in Grade 2, which was not included in the following study). See S.E. Shaywitz, M.D.
Escobar, B.A. Shaywitz, J.M. Fletcher, and R. Makuch, “Distribution and Temporal Stability of Dyslexia in an
Epidemiological Sample of 414 Children Followed Longitudinally,” New England Journal of Medicine 326
(1992): 145-150.
24
See S.E. Shaywitz, J.M. Fletcher, J.M. Holahan, A.E. Schneider, K.E. Marchione, K.K. Stuebing, D.J. Francis,
and B.A. Shaywitz, “Persistence of Dyslexia: The Connecticut Longitudinal Study at Adolescence,” Pediatrics
104 (1999): 1351-1359.
25
See J.K. Torgesen, R.K. Wagner, C.A. Rashotte, E. Rose, P. Lindamood, J. Conway, and C. Garvan, “Preventing
Reading Failure in Young Children with Phonological Processing Disabilities: Group and Individual Responses to
Instruction,” Journal of Educational Psychology 91 (1999): 579-594; and F.R. Vellutino, D.M. Scanlon, and
G.R. Lyon, “Differentiating Between Difficult-to-Remediate and Readily Remediated Poor Readers: More Evidence
Against the IQ-Achievement Discrepancy Definition for Reading Disability,” Journal of Learning Disabilities 33
(2000): 223-238.
26
See A.D. Ross, Psychological Aspects of Learning Disabilities and Reading Disorders (New York: McGraw-Hill,
1976).
27
See M. Rutter, “Prevalence and Types of Dyslexia,” in Dyslexia: An Appraisal of Current Knowledge, eds. A.L.
Benton and D. Pearl (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978), 3-28.
28
See P.B. Gough and M.L. Hillinger, “Learning to Read: An Unnatural Act,” Bulletin of the Orton Society 30
(1980): 179-196; and A.M. Liberman, “How Theories of Speech Effect Research in Reading and Writing,” in
Foundations of Reading Acquisition and Dyslexia: Implications for Early Intervention, ed. B. Blachman
(Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence, 1997).
29
For an excellent discussion of the relationship between environmental, cultural, and economic factors; the
presence of teratogens; neural development; and learning, see D.P. Hallahan, J.M. Kauffman, and J.W. Lloyd,
Introduction to Learning Disabilities (Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 1996).
30
See G. Senf, “LD Research in Sociological and Scientific Perspective,” in Psychological and Educational
Perspectives on Learning Disabilities, eds. J. Torgesen and B. Wong (Orlando, FL: Academic Press, 1986), 27-
53.
31
See American Federation of Teachers, Teaching Reading Is Rocket Science: What Expert Teachers of Reading
Should Know and Be Able to Do (Washington, DC: American Federation of Teachers, 1999).
32
See G.R. Lyon, M. Vaasen, and F. Toomey, “Teachers’ Perceptions of their Undergraduate and Graduate
Training,” Teacher Education and Special Education 12 (1989): 164-169; and L.C. Moats, “The Missing
Foundation in Teacher Preparation,” American Educator 19 (1995): 43-51.
33
See J.M. Fletcher, and G.R. Lyon, “Reading: A Research-Based Approach,” in What’s Gone Wrong in
America’s Classrooms, ed. W. M. Evers (Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1998), 49-90; and S.
Shaywitz, “Dyslexia,” Scientific American 275 (1996): 98-104.
34
See S.E. Shaywitz, J.M. Fletcher, J.M. Holahan, A.E. Schneider, K.E. Marchione, K.K. Stuebing, D.J. Francis,
and B.A. Shaywitz, “Persistence of Dyslexia: The Connecticut Longitudinal Study at Adolescence,” Pediatrics
104 (1999): 1351-1359.
35
See C. Juel, “Learning to Read and Write: A Longitudinal Study of 54 Children from First through Fourth
Grades,” Journal of Educational Psychology 80 (1988): 437-447.
36
See J.K. Torgesen, “The Prevention and Remediation of Reading Disabilities: Evaluating What We Know from
Research,” Journal of Academic Language Therapy 1 (1997): 11-47.
37
See E.A. Hanushek, J.F. Kain, and S.G. Riukin, “Does Special Education Raise Academic Achievement for
Students with Disabilities?” (National Bureau of Economic Research working paper no. 6469, 1998).
38
See S.W. Moody, S.R. Vaughn, M.T. Hughes, and M. Fischer, “Reading Instruction in the Resource Room: Set
Up for Failure,” Exceptional Children 16 (2000): 305-316; J.S. Schumm, S.W. Moody, and S.R. Vaughn,
“Grouping for Reading Instruction: Does One Size Fit All?” Journal of Learning Disabilities 5 (2000): 477-488;

and S.R. Vaughn, S.W. Moody, and J.S. Shuman, “Broken Promises: Reading Instruction in the Resource
Room,” Exceptional Children 64 (1998): 211-225.
39
See R.L. Allington and A. McGill-Franzen, “School Response to Reading Failure: Instruction for Chapter One
and Special Education Students Grades Two, Four, and Eight,” Elementary School Journal 89 (1989): 529-542;
M.C. Haynes and J.R. Jenkins, “Reading Instruction in Special Education Resource Rooms,” American
Educational Research Journal 23 (1986): 161-190; and A. McGill-Franzen, “Compensatory and Special
Education: Is There Accountability for Learning and Belief in Children’s Potential?” in Getting Reading Right
from the Start: Effective Early Literacy Interventions, eds. E.H. Hiebert and B.M. Taylor (Boston, MA: Allyn and
Bacon, 1994), 13-35.
40
See R.L. Allington, H. Stuetzel, M.C. Shake, and L. Lamarch, “What is Remedial Reading? A Descriptive
Study,” Reading Research and Instruction 26 (1986): 15-30; and G. Leinhardt, C. Weidman, and K.
Hammond, “Introduction and Integration of Classroom Routines by Expert Teachers,” Curriculum Inquiry 17
(1987): 135-176.
41
See J.K. Klingner, S.R. Vaughn, J.S. Schumm, M. Hughes, and B. Elbaum, “Outcomes for Students with and
Without Learning Disabilities in Inclusive Classrooms,” Learning Disabilities Research & Practice 13 (1997):
153-161. These results are consistent with other studies. See, for example, N. Zigmond and J.M. Baker,
“Concluding Comments: Current and Future Practices in Inclusive Schooling,” The Journal of Special Education
29 (1995): 245-250.
42
See B. R. Foorman, D.J. Francis, T. Beeler, D. Winikates, and J.M. Fletcher, “Early Interventions for Children
with Reading Problems: Study Designs and Preliminary Findings,” Learning Disabilities 8 (1997): 63-71.
43
See B.E. Elbaum, S. Vaughn, M.T. Hughes, and S.W. Moody, “How Effective are One-to-One Tutoring Programs
in Reading for Elementary Students At-Risk for Reading Failure? A Meta-Analysis,” Journal of Educational
Psychology (in press).
44
See J.K. Torgesen, A.W. Alexander, R.K. Wagner, C.A. Rashotte, K. Voeller, T. Conway, and E. Rose, “Intensive
Remedial Instruction for Children with Severe Reading Disabilities: Immediate and Long-Term Outcomes from
Two Instructional Approaches,” Journal of Learning Disabilities 34 (2001): 33-58.
45
See National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, The Report of the National Reading Panel: An
Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading
Instruction (Bethesda, MD: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000).
46
C. Snow, et al., Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children (Washington, DC: National Academy Press,
1999).
47
See J.K. Torgesen, “Individual Responses in Response to Early Interventions in Reading: The Lingering Problem
of Treatment Resisters,” Learning Disabilities Research & Practice 15 (2000): 55-64. The five studies are as
follows: R.H. Felton, “Effects of Instruction on the Decoding Skills of Children with Phonological-Processing
Problems,” Journal of Learning Disabilities 26 (1993): 583-589; B.R. Foorman, D.J. Francis, J.M. Fletcher, C.
Schatschneider, and P. Mehta, “The Role of Instruction in Learning to Read: Preventing Reading Failure in At-
Risk-Children,” Journal of Educational Psychology 90 (1998): 37-55; J.K. Torgesen, R.K. Wagner, C.A.
Rashotte, and J. Herron, “The Effectiveness of Teacher Supported Computer Assisted Instruction in Preventing
Reading Problems in Young Children: A Comparison of Two Methods” (unpublished manuscript, Florida State
University, Tallahassee, FL); and J.K. Torgesen, R.K. Wagner, C.A. Rashotte, E. Rose, P. Lindamood, and C.
Galvan, “Preventing Reading Failure in Young Children with Phonological Processing Disabilities: Group and
Individual Responses to Instruction,” Journal of Educational Psychology 91 (1999): 1-15; and F.R. Vellutino,
D.M. Scanlon, E. Sipay, S. Small, A. Pratt, R. Chen, and M. Denckla, “Cognitive Profiles of Difficult-to-
Remediate and Readily Remediated Poor Readers: Early Intervention as a Vehicle for Distinguishing Between
Cognitive and Experiential Deficits as Basic Causes of Specific Reading Disabilities”, Journal of Educational
Psychology 88 (1996): 601-638.
48
The reduction in eligible children is calculated by multiplying the criterion for designating a child at-risk by the
number of children who would continue to need services. In Foorman, et al., “The Role of Instruction in Learning
to Read,” this is .18 times .30 equals .054.
49
See J.K. Torgesen, C.A. Rashotte, and A.W. Alexander, “Principles of Fluency Instruction in Reading:
Relationships with Established Empirical Outcomes,” in Time, Fluency, and Dyslexia, ed. M. Wolf (Parkton, MD:
York Press, in press).

50
See L. Fuchs and D. Fuchs, “Treatment Validity: A Simplifying Concept for Reconceptualizing the Identification
of Learning Disabilities,” Learning Disabilities Research and Practice 4 (1998): 204-219.
51
This issue has been discussed since the advent of the idea of early identification. See P. Satz, H.G. Taylor, J.
Friel, and J.M. Fletcher, “Some Developmental and Predictive Precursors of Reading Disabilities: A Six Year
Follow-up,” in Dyslexia: An Appraisal of Current Knowledge, eds. A.L. Benton and D. Pearl (New York: Oxford
Press, 1978), 313-348; A.A. Silver, “Prevention,” ibid. at 349-377; and J.J. Jansky, “A critical review of ‘Some
Developmental and Predictive Precursors of Reading Disabilities,’” ibid. at 377-395. A more contemporary
discussion is in D. Speece and L.P. Case, “Classification in Context: An Alternative Approach to Identifying
Early Reading Difficulty” (unpublished manuscript).
52
See M. Pressley and R. Allington, “What Should Reading Instructional Research Be the Research Of?” Issues in
Education 5 (1999): 1-35. See the responses in the same issue by B.R. Foorman, J.M. Fletcher, and D.J.
Francis, “Beginning Reading is Strategic and By Design Multi-Level”; G.R. Lyon, “In Celebration of Science in
the Study of Reading Development, Reading Difficulties, and Reading Instruction: The NICHD Perspective”; J.K.
Torgesen, “Placing NICHD-Supported Research on Reading With the Proper Context”; and F.R. Vellutino and
D.M. Scanlon, “Focus, Funding, Phonics—What’s the Point?”
53
See M. Fullan and M. Miles, “Getting Reform Right: What Works and What Doesn’t,” Phi Delta Kappan 74
(1992): 745-752; B. Rowan and L.F. Guthrie, “The Quality of Chapter 1 Instruction: Results From a Study of
Twenty-four Schools,” in Effective Programs for Students at Risk, eds. Robert E. Slavin, N. L. Karweit, and N.A.
Madden (Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 1989), 195-219; and R. Weatherly and M. Lipsky, “Street-level
Bureaucrats and Institutional Innovation: Implementing Special Education Reform,” Harvard Educational Review
47 (1977): 171-197.
54
See S.L. Hall and L.C. Moats, Straight Talk About Reading (Chicago, IL: Contemporary Books, 1999).
55
See U.S. Department of Education, Twenty-first Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (Washington DC: U.S. Department of Education, 1999).
56
These issues are extensively discussed by V.W. Berninger and R.D. Abbott, “Redefining Learning Disabilities:
Moving Beyond Aptitude Achievement Discrepancies to Failure to Respond to Validated Treatment Protocols,” in
Frames of Reference for the Assessment of Learning Disabilities, ed. G.R. Lyon (Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes,
1994), 143-162; and F.R. Vellutino, D.M. Scanlon, and E.R. Sipay, “Towards Distinguishing Between Cognitive
and Experimental Deficits as Primary Sources of Difficulty in Learning to Read: The Importance of Early
Intervention in Diagnosis Specific Reading Disability,” in Foundations of Reading Acquisition and Dyslexia, ed.
B. Blachman (Mahwah NJ: Erlbaum, 1997), 347-380.

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Rethinking Learning Disabilities

Rethinking Learning Disabilities

In this chapter, we offer alternatives to traditional identification, assessment, and educational

Progressive Policy Institute ❖ Thomas B. Fordham Foundation • 259

260 • RETHINKING SPECIAL EDUCATION FOR A NEW CENTURY

Definitions of Learning Disabilities

Progressive Policy Institute ❖ Thomas B. Fordham Foundation • 261

This view of educational need continues to maintain

262 • RETHINKING SPECIAL EDUCATION FOR A NEW CENTURY

Table 1. Federal definition of learning disabilities

The Critical Conceptual Elements Within Definitions of LD

Progressive Policy Institute ❖ Thomas B. Fordham Foundation • 263

(typically assessed by measures of intelligence) and academic performance (typically assessed

The Heterogeneity Element

The Intrinsic/Neurobiological Element

264 • RETHINKING SPECIAL EDUCATION FOR A NEW CENTURY

indicates a pattern of brain organization in RD that is different from nonimpaired readers.

Progressive Policy Institute ❖ Thomas B. Fordham Foundation • 265

The notion of using an IQ-achievement discrepancy as a marker for unexpected

the idea of an IQ-achievement discrepancy as a

266 • RETHINKING SPECIAL EDUCATION FOR A NEW CENTURY

the IQ-achievement discrepancy criterion either (1) describes an intrinsic reading-related

The Exclusion Element

Progressive Policy Institute ❖ Thomas B. Fordham Foundation • 267

LD’s Sociological Function

268 • RETHINKING SPECIAL EDUCATION FOR A NEW CENTURY

Where Do We Go From Here?

Progressive Policy Institute ❖ Thomas B. Fordham Foundation • 269

Figure 1. Growth in Reading Skills

Figure 1. Growth in reading skills by children in the Connecticut Longitudinal Study

270 • RETHINKING SPECIAL EDUCATION FOR A NEW CENTURY

An Evidence-Based Argument for Early Identification, Prevention,

Progressive Policy Institute ❖ Thomas B. Fordham Foundation • 271

By measuring reading skills longitudinally from

deficient in word recognition skills in first grade were

272 • RETHINKING SPECIAL EDUCATION FOR A NEW CENTURY

Progressive Policy Institute ❖ Thomas B. Fordham Foundation • 273

Figure 2. Growth in Total Reading Skill Before, During, and Following

Figure 2. Changes in broad reading skills on the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-

274 • RETHINKING SPECIAL EDUCATION FOR A NEW CENTURY

Progressive Policy Institute ❖ Thomas B. Fordham Foundation • 275

276 • RETHINKING SPECIAL EDUCATION FOR A NEW CENTURY

skills (Grade 1) or phonological processing (kindergarten). After intervention, the reading

Progressive Policy Institute ❖ Thomas B. Fordham Foundation • 277

a focus on continually integrating word-reading skills, fluency instruction, and reading

How Policies and Practices Must Change

278 • RETHINKING SPECIAL EDUCATION FOR A NEW CENTURY

Recommendations for Improvement in the Definition(s) of LD

Fourth, include consideration of a student’s response to well-designed and well-implemented

Progressive Policy Institute ❖ Thomas B. Fordham Foundation • 279

These four recommendations are offered with two

Recommendations for Improving Teacher Education

280 • RETHINKING SPECIAL EDUCATION FOR A NEW CENTURY

Recommendations for the Development of

Progressive Policy Institute ❖ Thomas B. Fordham Foundation • 281

What is a Disability? There are few

Science and Policy

282 • RETHINKING SPECIAL EDUCATION FOR A NEW CENTURY

Progressive Policy Institute ❖ Thomas B. Fordham Foundation • 283

284 • RETHINKING SPECIAL EDUCATION FOR A NEW CENTURY