ABSTRACT
Gresham’s white paper is an excellent document that will serve to set the stage for necessary and important dialogue concerning the role of responsiveness to intervention as an alternative to traditional psychometric/exclusionary approaches to identifying learning disabilities. It quite clearly defines the major problems associated with traditional approaches to identification as well as the important issues that need to be addressed for a full airing of his proposal that intervention-based approaches be substituted for currently used psychometric/exclusionary approaches to identifying learning disabilities. The exposition throughout is based on a comprehensive and, indeed, impressive review of the relevant literature, and Gresham uses this literature quite articulately in supporting the proposals he makes for changing current classification practices. I am acquainted with much of this literature, but not all of it, and the paper provided me with some new perspectives that I’m sure will have singularly positive effects on my own work in this area. For this I am grateful. It is clear that Gresham was the right person to ask to prepare this document and the topics I discuss in this commentary are intended only to amplify, embellish, and reinforce the excellent points he makes and the powerful arguments he forwards in this paper.
