Education Commons^™

Referral Decisions Of Teachers And School Psychologists For Twice-Exceptional Students, Jennifer Marie Hoffman

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

The accurate and timely referral and identification of twice-exceptional students remains a challenge. In a statewide study, the referral decisions for both special education and gifted programming evaluations made by four participant groups (i.e., general education teachers, special education teachers, gifted education teachers, and school psychologists) were compared. Participants were randomly assigned to read one of three identically described students in a vignette that differed only in the presence of a diagnostic label—autism spectrum disorder (ASD), specific learning disability (SLD), or no diagnostic label. In all, special education teachers made the most special education referrals, while gifted education teachers made …