Mainstreaming Programs: Design Features and Effects

Abstract

The twofold goal of this study was to review and analyze the design features and efficacy of mainstreaming as an educational approach to serving disabled students. Based on a predetermined set of criteria, 11 empirical studies of the effects of mainstreaming published from 1975 through spring, 1984 were selected for analysis from a total pool of 264 studies. Meta-analysis was the technique used to perform a quantitative synthesis of findings from the studies.Among the notable findings was that mainstreamed disabled students consistently outperformed nonmainstreamed students with comparable special education classifications. In addition, selected design features found in the extant effective-teaching literature to be associated with programs designed to provide for student differences were also found to be features of mainstreaming programs that showed greater proportions of positive than of negative outcomes.The development and implementation of school learning environments that effectively meet the educational needs of disabled students has been a major topic of investigation since the advent of special education programs over a century ago. Most recently, enactment of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 and, in particular, implementation of the law's &dquo;least restrictive environment&dquo; (LRE) mandate as a guiding principle for placing disabled students, have provided the impetus for a wave of intensified efforts to examine and compare the relative merits of serving disabled students in segregated or integrated educational settings.

Meta-Analytic Methods of Pooling Correlation Matrices for Structural Equation Modeling Under Different Patterns of Missing Data.

“…In the field of education, meta-analysis has been used to assess the relation between classroom size and achievement (e.g., McGiverin, Gilman, & Tillitski, 1989) and to examine the efficacy of mainstreaming programs for special education students (e.g., Wang & Baker, 1985). In the medical sciences, meta-analysis has been used in multiple areas including, for example, an examination of the relationship between breast cancer risk and mammography screening (McCaul, Branstetter, Schroeder, Glasgow, 1996).…”

The Impending Demise of the Discrepancy Formula

“…However, after reviewing a larger number of studies which involved children with behavioral disorders, mental retardation, and learn ing disability, these authors concluded that "little evidence exists supporting the efficacy of special education or the development of differential programs as a result of the assessment-placement process" (p. 243). Wang and Baker (1986) conducted a meta-analysis of 11 studies which set out to examine the efficacy of mainstreaming versus special classes. Of a total of 541 students of preschool, elementary school, and middle school ages, 3% were learning disabled.…”

More academics in regular schools? The effect of regular versus special school placement on academic skills in Dutch primary school students with Down syndrome

“…Studies into the effects of special versus regular placement for children with disabilities date back into the 1930s (Carlberg & Kavale 1980). Three meta‐analyses (Carlberg & Kavale 1980; Wang & Baker 1985/86; Baker et al . 1994/95) conclude that placement in a regular class leads to small to moderate positive effects on cognitive and social development of students with intellectual disabilities (ID).…”