The Validity of LDST-S: Exploring the Usefulness of Discriminating Students of Learning Support

The purpose of this study is to verify the validity of the Learning Disability Screening Test(LDST-S) and to assess its usefulness of discriminating students of learning support. Data from 852 elementary school students collected in Gyeonggi-do were used for the analysis. Among these, 64 students selected as eligible for learning support were assigned to the experimental group, and 64 students, randomly selected from the general population with matching gender and grade, were assigned to the control group. The results derived from this study are as follows. First, the correlations between the LDST-S and three indicators of convergent validity that measure students’ reading and vocabulary levels were generally satisfactory. Also, the correlations of the five subdomains of the LDST-S and the factor validity verified through confirmatory factor analysis were also satisfactory. Second, a comparison of the total and subscale scores of the LDST-S between the learning support group and the general group showed that the learning support group scored higher than the general group. Third, discriminant analysis and ROC analysis revealed that all subscale scores, except for the sociality domain, and the total score effectively distinguished between the learning support group and the general group. Fourth, through the odds ratio analysis, the odds ratios of the total score ranges were significant, and the discriminative power between the learning support group and the general group was excellent within certain T-score ranges. Finally, Based on the discriminant usefulness of LDST-S, a specific three-step screening procedure was proposed to identify students of learning support, and furthermore, the possibility of using it in the educational field was discussed.