impact of special needs students on the reading, writing and mathematics achievement scores of typically achieving grade 3 students.
Published: 2004
Language: eng
Number of pages: 217
Subjects: Reading (Primary) -- Ability testing.; Reading (Primary); Mathematics -- Ability testing.; Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Primary); English language -- Written English -- Ability testing.; English language -- Written English -- Study and teaching (Primary); Academic achievement.; Exceptional children.; Inclusive education.
Description: The results of this study provide empirical evidence supporting the previous findings that the performance of typically achieving Grade 3 students educated in single-grade, inclusive classrooms seems not to be compromised due to the inclusion of special needs students in the class group.This study focused on the impact of the number of special needs students, total class size, and socio-economic status of the school on the achievement of typically achieving students in single-grade inclusive classes of publicly-funded English-language schools on the 1997--1998 Education Quality and Accountability Office Grade 3 assessments. These assessments were conducted in reading, writing and mathematics.The inclusion of special needs students into regular classrooms has generated much discussion and debate among parents, teachers, administrators, and policymakers. The discussions have centered on the concern that having special needs students in the classroom would adversely affect the academic growth of typically achieving students. The research base on the outcomes of typically achieving students in inclusive classes is limited.Regression analyses were conducted on 2247 single-grade classes. The major findings were a strong significant relationship between socio-economic status of the school and the achievement of typically achieving Grade 3 students in single-grade classes, and that both the number of special needs students and total class size were suppressor variables in the regression equation and increased the predictive ability of socio-economic status of the school.Implications for policymakers and educators and recommendations for future research were discussed.
Notes: Adviser:  Phil Nagy.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Toronto, 2004.

Electronic version licensed for access by U. of T. users.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 65-05, Section: A, page: 1750.