Book Description
The purpose of this causal-comparative design study was to analyze fourth-grade math achievement of students with educational disabilities in Accelerated Schools Project attendance centers to fourth-grade math achievement of students with educational disabilities in traditional, non-accelerated school programs, in the state of Missouri. The dependent variables for this study were the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) scaled scores and the TerraNova Survey national percentiles. Achievement scores were from the spring of 2000. This study was divided into two major parts. Part A examined Accelerated School Status and Mobility Status (i.e., attendance in the school less than one year; more than one year). These analyses were studied by means of a 2 x 2 ANOVA to determine if mobility status and school type (i.e., Accelerated Schools Project and traditional school) significantly affected MAP and TerraNova Survey scores. Part B examined Educational Disability Types and Disability Type by School Status using a 2 x 5 factorial ANOVA was used to determine if there were significant differences among different educational disability types and school type (i.e., Accelerated Schools Project and traditional school). Part A analyses found a significant main effect on student performance on the MAP scaled scores, favoring traditional schools. While statistically significant, mean differences were quite small. No significant main effects or interactions were found with respect to the TerraNova Survey . Part B analyses results showed a significant main effect for disability type and an interaction between disability type and school type with respect to the MAP scaled score. The TerraNova Survey analysis revealed a significant main effect for disability type, but not a significant interaction of disability type and school type. While post hoc analysis were not conducted in this study, examination of mean scores revealed appreciably lower achievement scores for students with mental retardation on both measures. In addition, it appeared that students with behavioral disorders scored considerably better in traditional schools while students with mental retardation performed better in Accelerated Schools.