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Some of the worst long-term outcomes of children are associated with the presence of externalizing behavior and low academic achievement. However, the nature of the causal and predictive relationship between these two domains remains contested due to inconsistent findings in previous literature. Leveraging a nationally representative sample (N = 7330) from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS)–Kindergarten Cohort of 2011, we used latent class growth analysis and machine learning cross validation techniques to analyze the association of early math and reading achievement with the development of externalizing behavior trajectories in elementary school. Several theoretically and empirically important covariates were utilized to develop a profile of learners in each trajectory. Results indicated stable teacher ratings of behavior across kindergarten to fifth grade and three primary trajectories, consisting of (1) higher persistent, (2) low persistent, and (3) no problem behavior. Importantly, teacher rated early inattention and approaches to learning behaviors, rather than direct standardized measures of academic achievement, were the strongest malleable predictors to trajectory membership. Student demographics, including being a boy and identifying as Black, contributed to these students being almost twice as likely to belong to the higher problem behavior trajectory as compared to girls and White peers. Educational implications for intervention, as well as the influence of implicit bias and structural racism in the role of teacher ratings, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nearly 50 years of research show persistent racial disproportionality in the identification of special education disabilities, but the underlying mechanisms for these disparities remain largely unexplored. Because ambiguous regulations defining disabilities may allow subjectivity and unlawful differential treatment (i.e., racial bias or discrimination) in the special education eligibility process, an important target of study is disparate treatment of students by race in evaluations required to determine eligibility. School psychologists have long been recognized as highly influential in this process and in schools' resultant decisions. We used a 3 × 2 mixed factorial experimental design in three studies with simulated case report data to measure the influence of race and assessment data on school psychologists' perceptions of students' eligibility for special education in cases centering on emotional disturbance, intellectual disability, or autism, respectively. Participants included 302 practicing school psychologists in three states across the three experiments. There was little evidence of racial disparity, but participants tended to render decisions unsupported by, and even contrary to, evaluation data. Implications for research, practice, and professional development are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Studying change over time requires rigorous and sometimes novel statistical methods that can support increasingly complex applied research questions. In this article, we provide an overview of the potential of piecewise growth mixture models. This type of longitudinal model can be used to advance our understanding of group and individual growth that may follow a segmented, or disjointed, pattern of change, and where the data come from a mixture of two or more latent classes. We then demonstrate the practical utility of piecewise growth mixture models by applying it to a subsample of students from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Kindergarten Cohort of 1998 (ECLS-K) to ascertain whether mathematics achievement is characterized by one or two latent classes akin to students with and without mathematics difficulties. We discuss the applicability for school psychological research and provide supplementary online files that include an instructional sample dataset and corresponding R routine with explanatory annotations to assist in understanding the R routine before applying this approach in novel applications (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2019.03.004). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective instructional planning and intervening rely heavily on accurate understanding of students' growth, but relatively few researchers have examined mathematics achievement trajectories, particularly for students with special needs. We applied linear, quadratic, and piecewise linear mixed-effects models to identify the best-fitting model for mathematics development over elementary and middle school and to ascertain differences in growth trajectories of children with learning disabilities relative to their typically developing peers. The analytic sample of 2150 students was drawn from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study — Kindergarten Cohort, a nationally representative sample of United States children who entered kindergarten in 1998. We first modeled students' mathematics growth via multiple mixed-effects models to determine the best fitting model of 9-year growth and then compared the trajectories of students with and without learning disabilities. Results indicate that the piecewise linear mixed-effects model captured best the functional form of students' mathematics trajectories. In addition, there were substantial achievement gaps between students with learning disabilities and students with no disabilities, and their trajectories differed such that students without disabilities progressed at a higher rate than their peers who had learning disabilities. The results underscore the need for further research to understand how to appropriately model students' mathematics trajectories and the need for attention to mathematics achievement gaps in policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the average treatment effect of preschool special education services on children''s kindergarten academic skills. Using data from a nationally representative sample of United States children who participated in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Birth Cohort, we examined the effectiveness of preschool special education services by comparing reading and math outcomes for children who received special education services at preschool-age to a propensity-score-weighted sample of children who did not receive these services. Results indicated that the receipt of these special education services had a statistically significant moderate negative effect on children''s kindergarten skills in both reading (d =−0.21) and mathematics (d =−0.29). These findings have implications for the implementation and evaluation of services for young children experiencing developmental delays or disabilities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]