Special Class Placements as Labels: Effects on Children's Attitudes toward Learning Handicapped Peers

Abstract

This study determined whether different types of special education placements affected children's attitudes toward learning handicapped peers in a school where no clinical labels were used. Traditionally these peers would have been labeled “learning disabled” and “educable mentally retarded.” Seventy-seven fourth- through sixth-graders judged the capabilities of peers depicted in written vignettes as attending one of two types of placement: a resource room or a special classroom. These placements were identical to those found in the children's school. Children saw resource room targets as significantly more capable than special class targets. This indicated that educational placements alone could act as de facto labels. Older children were found to have higher expectations of peers regardless of placement. Implications for teachers and researchers were discussed.

Characteristics of Students in Traditional Versus Alternative High Schools: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Enrollment in One Urban District

“…Discussions of equality or equity of educational opportunity should include consideration of the specific needs of students with disabilities relative to their placement in educational environments. Locales in which students with disabilities are educated (e.g., separate classrooms or separate schools), can have profound impact on those students' experiences during their schooling and postschooling trajectories (e.g., Bak, Cooper, Dobroth, & Siperstein, 1987;Bianco, 2005;Powell & Planck, 2003). Considering placement in restrictive and segregated settings during K-12 increases the risk for greater segregation or restriction in adulthood, we should be cautious with further marginalization of youth with disabilities into segregated school programs.…”

Social and Emotional Functioning of Children with Learning Disabilities: Does Special Education Placement Make a Difference?

“…Furthermore, these students will feel less stigmatized, be better liked and accepted, and will have more positive self-perceptions, than will students with LD in special education classes (Gartner & Lipsky, 1987;Stainback & Stainback, 1996). Others have claimed that full inclusion can avoid the harmful emotional effects of exclusion from general classroom settings, including loneliness and depression (Bak, Cooper, Dobroth, & Siperstein, 1987;Leondari, 1993;Stainback & Stainback, 1996).…”

Labelling and self‐esteem: does labelling exceptional students impact their self‐esteem?

“…Fairbanks () acknowledges that schooling becomes an agent in impeding intellectual and social growth for the labelled student. Bak, Cooper, Dobroth and Siperstein () observed that placements of individuals in special education programmes can act as de facto labels. Indeed, most labels associated with special education are used in demeaning ways and are imprecise descriptions of need, and sometimes are assigned wrongly; they may not result in the student getting appropriate services, and once attributed are difficult to remove or forget (Kauffman and Pullen, ).…”