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• National Research Center on Learning Disabilities

NRCLD Activities

• A framework for building capacity for responsiveness to intervention
• A Research-Based View of Specific Learning Disabilities: Implementing Change
• A Research-Based View of Specific Learning Disabilities: Responsiveness to Intervention Overview
• Access To, Participation and Progress in the General Education Curriculum
• Adolescents with learning disabilities: Unique challenges and reasons for hope
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Center Overview

The Center for Research on Learning Disabilities (NRCLD) develops valid learning disabilities assessment and identification methods by pursuing two programmatic lines of research: (1) identification methods and individual differences, and (2) state and local practices.

Methods

The first focus of the project, research on identification methods and individual differences, has four objectives: (1) Explore nine specific learning disabilities (SLD) identification methods. The methods are analyzed in terms of demographic differences and the influence of various classroom-related factors on the methods and on outcomes; (2) Administer a battery of tests that addresses cognitive processes, academic achievement, and learner characteristics. The data derived from these tests is used to predict the children identified by each of the SLD identification methods; (3) Describe those students who achieve or fail to achieve important sub-goals in reading and math; and (4) Attempt to determine benchmarks or thresholds for important sequential subgoals in reading and math. The second focus of the project, state and local practices research, uses survey methodology to generate current descriptive information on state policies, conceptual definitions, classification criteria, assessment practices, and prevalence. Analyses is being done to examine and explain differences in state SLD populations and prevalence, and how policies differ in high and low prevalence states.