Academic Progress of Students Across Inclusive and Traditional Settings

Abstract

Effects of inclusive school settings for students in six Indiana school corporations were investigated. Results reveal that students without disabilities educated in inclusive settings made significantly greater academic progress in mathematics and reading. For students with disabilities, there were no significant differences in reading and math achievement across the comparison groups. However, a review of group means and the percentage of students making comparable or greater than average academic progress when compared to students without disabilities indicates a pattern in favor of inclusive settings. The academic progress of students with specific disability labels, namely, learning disabilities and mild mental handicaps, also supported inclusive education.

Disabilities Inclusive Education Systems and Policies Guide for Low- and Middle-Income Countries

“…Evidence also indicates that students with and without disabilities who are educated in inclusive classrooms have better academic outcomes than students who are educated in noninclusive classrooms. For example, several studies have shown that students without disabilities make significantly greater progress in reading and math when taught in an inclusive setting with students with disabilities (Cole, Waldron, & Majd, 2004;Cosier, Causton-Theoharis, & Theoharis, 2013).…”

Are school administrators and teachers' attitudes toward inclusion influence by the change process?

“…The results from the current study concur with prior research in that inclusion supports the academic growth and success of students in the general setting (Cole, Waldron, & Majd, 2004;Garriott, Miller, & Snyder, 2003;Rea, McLaughlin, & WaltherThomas, 2002), but only when teachers provide instructional strategies that are known to support academic achievement for children with disabilities (Bender, Vail, & Scott, 1995). Moreover, Freeman and Aikin (2000) further add that full inclusion does benefit students with disabilities academically rather than partial integration.…”

“…Early reports provided evidence that the conventional methods of teaching students with disabilities (i.e., resource rooms) could not continue (Will, 1986a), and exclusion from the regular setting contributed a detrimental effect on a child's social and academic growth (Cole, Waldron, & Majd, 2004;Crossley, 2000).…”

“…As the inclusion debate continued (Akom, 2011;Zigmond et aI., 2009), educational research reported inclusion provided students with disabilities increased positive social interactions with non-disabled peers (Horrocks, White, & Roberts, 2008;Mastropieri & Scruggs, 2001;Peltier, 1997), decreased behavior issues (Rea, McLaughlin, & Walther- Thomas, 2002), exposure to high-quality instruction (Torgesen, 2009;Velluntino, Scanlon, Small, & Fanuele, 2006), and provided students without disabilities greater academic gains (Banerji & Dailey, 1995;Cole, Waldron, & Majd, 2004).…”

Actitudes del docente de centros de educación especial hacia la inclusión educativa

“…Así, existen algunos estudios que demuestran los efectos positivos de la educación inclusiva en alumnos con discapacidades graves y permanentes: Rafferty, Piscitelli y Boettcher (2003) o Bunch (2008) señalan la incidencia positiva del ambiente inclusivo en el proceso de aprendizaje del alumnado con discapacidad severa y, de igual modo, otros autores como Cole, Waldron y Majd (2004), Myklebust (2007) o Ruijs y Peetsma (2009) revelan cómo la motivación y los resultados académicos del alumnado con discapacidad aumentan en este tipo de contextos.…”