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Consistently inconsistent: An examination of the variability in the identification of emotional disturbance
Author(s) -
Scardamalia Kristin,
BentleyEdwards Keisha L.,
Grasty Kairys
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
psychology in the schools
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.738
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1520-6807
pISSN - 0033-3085
DOI - 10.1002/pits.22213
Subject(s) - operationalization , statistic , psychology , reliability (semiconductor) , identification (biology) , disturbance (geology) , special education , clinical psychology , applied psychology , social psychology , statistics , mathematics education , paleontology , philosophy , power (physics) , physics , mathematics , botany , epistemology , quantum mechanics , biology
The federal definition of emotional disturbance (ED) has been heavily criticized as vaguely defined and poorly operationalized yet there has not been a formal analysis of the reliability of the ED criteria. This study examined the reliability of the federal criteria for a special education designation of ED. A total of 179 school psychologists reviewed a mock special education report, made an eligibility determination, and provided information about their eligibility decision. In all, 56 participants found the student met ED eligibility criteria using 16 different combinations of the five criteria. Krippendorff’s α, a statistic preferred for content analysis, was calculated as a measure of criterion reliability. Results indicated extremely poor reliability ( α = 0.2011). These findings demonstrate the importance of redefining the existing criteria.