Analysis of factors influencing special educational placement decisions

To determine the factors that influence placement recommendations, 356 working school psychologists evaluated nine psychological reports on special educational referral cases. The reports presented various combinations of IQ-level, emotional-social problems, and IQ-achievement discrepancies which were hypothesized to yield EMR, LD, and ED placement recommendations. It was found that when one of these characteristics was present at a greater level of severity than the others, predictable placement recommendations were made. In more complex combinations, however, no general decision-rules could be found to explain the recommendations.