Mainstreaming for the educationally deprived

Abstract

William J. Mosley Howard H. Spicker Department of Special Education Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana In 1968 Lloyd Dunn questioned the appropriateness of special class placement for children thought to be mildly handicapped who had been assessed, labeled, and classified as educable mentally retarded (EMR). Dunn appears to have raised the issue of the appropriateness of EMR special classes for the mildly handicapped for two principal reasons. One reason was that many children who do in fact evidence mild forms of low cognitive functioning may have a better chance of having their educational needs met through regular rather than special education. Dunn pointed to the negative effects of traditional classifying labels used in special education, to poor academic showing of EMR children in special classes, and to the general inequality of educational opportunity that characterizes the self-contained special education EMR classroom. By contrast Dunn pointed to the overall improvements found in such areas as instructional design and development and teacher training programs in regular education. Consequently, according to Dunn, many children labeled EMR who in fact seemed to be mildly handicapped would be more appropriately placed in regular, rather than in special education EMR, classes. Dunn also appears to have had a second reason for raising the issue of the inappropriateness of special education EMR classes for children classified as mildly handicapped. This reason was that an unusually large number of children in special education EMR classes were of low social status and were racially or culturally different. An extremely large percentage of this group did not evidence low cognitive functioning when appropriately tested. Dunn's concern here was that many children were being placed in special education EMR classes not because they evidenced low cognitive functioning, but because they encountered school performance difficulties owing to problems relating to low social status, race, and culture.