The effects of schools and their curricula on the reading and mathematics achievement of hearing impaired students

Abstract

This paper reports the result of a national study of achievement patterns of hearing impaired students. Data were collected by Gallaudet University's Center for Assessment and Demographic Studies during its 1983 norming of the Stanford Achievement Test with a sample of approximately 8,000 hearing impaired students. Teachers of a randomly selected subsample of over 2,000 students in both special schools and mainstream programs responded to specific questions regarding school and curricula. Factors examined in this study include time spent on learning tasks, reading and mathematics curricula content exposure, grade placement relative to other hearing impaired students of the same age, and classroom integration with hearing students. Multiple regression analysis, controlling for fixed demographic factors, demonstrates the relative contributions of these alterable factors to the prediction of achievement. Results indicate the overall importance of classroom factors, as well as some diminishing returns. Observed interactions for some factors indicate differential effects on population subgroups.