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A committee of the National Research Council studied the desirability, feasibility, and potential impact of two reporting practices for National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results: district-level reporting and market-basket reporting. NAEP's sponsors believe that reporting district-level NAEP results would support state and local education reform efforts. The proposal for a market-based approach to NAEP reporting is based on the belief that the large-scale release of a market-basket set of items could demystify the assessment by providing many examples of the content and skills assessed and the format of items. Using percent correct scores to summarize performance on the market basket would be an attempt to make test results more user friendly. Data from a variety of sources, including workshops attended by representatives of the National Assessment Governing Board, the National Center for Education Statistics, and other interested parties, were used to examine these issues and those posed by the use of a NAEP short form. Market research emphasizing both needs analysis and product analysis is necessary to evaluate the level of interest in district-level reporting, and the decision to move ahead should be based on real interest. Any decisions about the configuration of the NAEP market basket will involve tradeoffs, and some methods would result in simpler procedures than others without supporting the desired inferences. If the decision is made to design a market basket for the NAEP, its configurations should be based on a clear articulation of the purposes and objectives of the market basket. These new reporting practices would provide information that would receive attention from new audiences for NAEP results. The potential of these reporting methods for significant impact on curriculum and assessment at local levels is high. If either is implemented, program sponsors should develop intensive support systems. One appendix discusses the background and current uses of the consumer price index, and the other illustrates a usability evaluation of depicting changes in reading scores. (Contains 4 figures, 2 tables, and 103 references.) (SLD)

This text examines the characteristics that define autism: impairments in communication; abnormal social development; and clinically significant odd behaviors. Specific chapters include: (1) Neural Mechanisms in Autism (Andrew W. Zimmerman and Barry Gordon); (2) Epidemiology of Autism and Other Pervasive Developmental Disorders: Current Controversies (Peter Szatmari and Jeremy Goldberg); (3) Clinical Practice Guidelines: The New York State Experience (Donna M. Noyes-Grosser); (4) A Neuropsychological Approach to Language Intervention in Autistic Children (Michelle Dunn and Mary Joan Sebastian); (5) Stereotypies and Repetitive Behaviors in Autism (Marco A. Grados and Daria McCarthy); (6) Diagnostic Issues in Autism (Pasquale J. Accardo); (7) Experimental Design and Cumulative Research in Early Behavioral Intervention (O. Ivar Lovaas); (8) Pragmatic Language Intervention for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (Rebecca Landa), which discusses assessment of pragmatic language skills, intervention, and instructional methods; (9) The Savant Syndrome in Autism (Darold A. Treffert); (10) The Broad Autism Phenotype (Joseph Piven); (11) Seizures, Landau-Kleffner Syndrome, and Autistic Regression: Differential Diagnosis and Treatment (John F. Mantovani); (12) Neuropharmacological Therapy in Autism (Andrew W. Zimmerman and others); (13) Parent and Family Issues: Stress and Knowledge (Martin A. Kozloff and John S. Rice), which discusses areas and benefits of family participation, behavior modification approaches, and evaluating a childs education program; and (14) Autism: Summary of Selected Decisions (Brooke R. Whitted). (Individual chapters contain references.) (CR)

This book is a compendium of papers presented March 18-20, 1996, at the eighteenth annual Spectrum of Developmental Disabilities course. Research findings are presented that address identification, diagnosis, management, and prognosis of specific reading disability. Individual chapters include: (1) "Dyslexia: The Evolution of a Concept" (John Doris); (2) "Specific Reading Disability: Splitting and Lumping" (Bruce K. Shapiro); (3) "Functional Neuroimaging of Developmental Dyslexia: Regional Cerebral Blood Flow in Dyslexic Men" (Judith M. Rumsey and Guinevere Eden); (4) "Genetics of Reading Disability: Further Evidence for a Gene on Chromosome 6" (Shelly D. Smith, A. M. Brower, L. R. Cardon and J. C. DeFries); (5) "Early Identification of Children At Risk for Reading Disabilities: Phonological Awareness and Some Other Promising Predictors" (Hollis S. Scarborough); (6) "The Discrepancy Formula: Its Use and Abuse" (Linda S. Siegel); (7) "Dyslexia: The Identification Process" (Doris J. Johnson); (8) "Dyslexia: Over- and Under-Diagnosis, Over- and Under-Sophistication" (Ruth Nass); (9) "Diagnosis and Remediation of Dyslexia" (Robin P. Church, Michael Bender and Marjorie A. Fessler); (10) "Instructional Interventions for Children with Reading Disabilities" (Joseph K. Torgesen); (11) "The Long-Term Prognosis of Learning Disabled Children: A Review of Studies (1954-1993)" (Paul Satz, Steve Buka, Lewis Lipsitt and Larry Seidman); and (12) "Reading Dyslexia" (Pasquale Accardo). (Each chapter contains references.) (CR)