Date of Award
1982
Document Type
Thesis
Publication Status
Version of Record
Submission Date
October 2026
Abstract
The literature shows that minority students have been placed into programs for the mentally retarded in numbers which far exceed their expected representation in the general student population. Also, that the current evaluation procedures are the primary reason for this over identification and that new evaluation procedures should be considered. The "System of Multicultural Pluralistic Assessment" (S.O.M.P.A.), created by sociologist Dr. Jane Mercer of Riverside, California, in 1979, provides an alternative procedure. S.O.M.P.A. meets the federal mandate for nonbiased assessment outlined in Public Law 94-142. Using the existing Palm Beach County School District procedures and the S.O.M.P.A., this study attempted to determine which procedure would more accurately diagnose minority students as mentally retarded by dually evaluating seventy-three minority students. Fifty-four students were placed into programs for the mentally retarded utilizing the district procedures while only twenty-three students would have been placed utilizing S.O.M.P.A. That was a statistically significant (P < .001 level of confidence) reduction in the number of students placed in favor of S.O.M.P.A. The study also shows that males were referred, evaluated, and placed more frequently than females; blacks were referred, evaluated, and placed more frequently than whites and Hispanics; black males were referred, evaluated, and placed more frequently than any other sex and ethnic group combined; Hispanic females were referred, evaluated, and placed less frequently than any other sex and ethnic group combination; eight to eleven year old students were referred, evaluated, and placed more frequently than any other age range; ten year old students were referred and evaluated more frequently than any other age student; and that eleven and twelve year olds were placed more frequently than any other age student.
Extent
192 p.
Recommended Citation
SARGEANT, JOHN ALLEN, "ADMINISTRATIVE IMPACT OF TWO EVALUATION PROCEDURES FOR THE IDENTIFICATION AND PLACEMENT OF MENTALLY RETARDED MINORITY STUDENTS" (1982). Electronic Theses and Dissertations 1980 - 1989. 142.
https://digitalcommons.fau.edu/etd_general_3/142
Identifier
FADT11811
Comments
Thesis (Educat.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1982.|College of Education|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Thesis (Educat.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1982.