Evaluation of the effects of SOMPA measures on classification of students as mildly mentally retarded

Recent suggestions for changes in classification criteria for mild mental retardation, advocated in the literature and by the courts and Federal agencies, were investigated with samples of children from four sociocultural groups. Application of the requirements of sociocultural background and broadly conceived adaptive behavior, using the System of Multicultural Pluralistic Assessment Adaptive Behavior Inventory for Children and Estimated Learning Potential measures, sharply reduced the number and percentages of children eligible for mild mental retardation classification in all sociocultural groups. Implications for the diagnostic construct of mild mental retardation and for the concept of bias in assessment were discussed.