Educational Diagnosticians

Robbi Cooper is one of the parents who pushed HB 3928 through the legislature last spring. She joins to tell us why this legislation was important, what the parent advocates hoped to achieve, and all of the work that went into creating the bill.

Dr. Miller uses correlations to create profiles of strengths and weaknesses of WJ IV cognitive and achievement subtests for various ages for each disability area. He answers questions about how he uses scientific statistical methods to achieve the evidence of these patterns. He cautions against not using IQ tests and explains how neuropsychological studies and psycho-educational have started to overlap. He wants us to understand the theory behind the tests we use and go beyond the standard scores to interpret the results.

Special Education was built on the vision of Evelyn Deno. She wanted us to fully realize separate is not equal and had a vision of an inclusive education system that saw special education as a safety net that would bring up the rear of those who fall behind in general education. However, there are those who blame her vision for issues in special education like defining LRE and what makes special education special. Nazzie shares the commentary the article by Hoffman, Where Special Education Goes to Die and the reaction from Norena Hale, a long time friend and coauthor of Deno's book, Dogged Determination.

Dr. Martin Bloomfield from Dyslexia Bytes and Dyslexia Compass tells us about his mission to create discussion and awareness regarding the challenges that various countries and cultures present when faced with the challenge of literacy and dyslexia. Candace Vielma joins to help with the interview.

Representatives from Region 10, Region 11, and clubhouse regulars put our heads together to find a way to summarize the new legal updates resulting from the last legislative session.

12 new courses are available on the TEA website to help you be in the know about DBI and it's role in MTSS. We talk to Deanna Clemens, the Director of Integrated Special Programs at TEA about these.

Tammy says people often don't understand why we decide to be diagnosticians, and we often forget ourselves. Our profession is in a crisis from the increased numbers of referrals. We struggle to focus on the child's story and put too much focus on scores. We've been through a lot of changes and we can go through these changes over time. CSEP was a lead in making the changes that TEA is now making. She'd like to create a book of our stories and why we chose to be diagnosticians.

Dr. Katie Maki does research on the elements that influence our decisions as evaluators and how consistent we are in our decisions.

Dr. Erica Lembke is pioneer researcher, creating CBMs and developing RTI research at the University of Missouri. She tells us about her work with the NCII to bring better RTI to Texas. Texas is one of 9 states taking on the DBI system of interventions and support for our students.

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