Identification of Students with Academic Difficulties: Implications for Research and Practice

Many students with academic difficulties are not identified by schools as needing assistance. The traditional learning disabilities category appears to be less and less suitable given recent developments in special education that favor inclusion. Thus it is necessary to rethink procedures to identify students needing support and the implications of this for research and practice. This research was designed to examine the relationship between three procedures to identify students with academic difficulties in Quebec schools: teacher ratings, curriculum-based achievement tests, and identification of LD (learning disabilities) by the school. Results reveal that agreement between school identification and teacher rating is low. This agreement increased with subjects who had the lowest achievement test results. On the other hand, school identification and achievement scores are moderately associated. Finally, although achievement scores and teacher ratings are significantly correlated, only 50% of students with the lowest achievement test results are recognized by their teachers as having academic difficulties. The article concludes that further research is necessary to conceptualize in a new way the identification of students who need academic support.