Special Education Outcomes Research Articles

Effects of prenatal cocaine exposure on special education in school‐aged children

. Levine T. P., Liu J., Das A., Lester B., Lagasse L., Shankaran S., Bada H. S., Bauer C. R. & Higgins R. ( 2008 ) . Published online . DOI: 10.1542/peds.2007‐2826 . Objective The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of prenatal cocaine exposure on special education at age 7 with adjustment for covariates.Methods As part of the prospective, longitudinal, multi‐site study of children with prenatal cocaine exposure (Maternal Lifestyle Study), school records were reviewed for 943 children at 7 years to determine involvement in special education outcomes: (1) individualized education plan; (2) special education conditions; (3) support services; (4) special education classes; and (5) speech and language services. Logistic regression was used to examine the effect of prenatal cocaine exposure on these outcomes with environmental, maternal and infant medical variables as covariates, as well as with and without low child IQ.Results Complete data for each analysis model were available for 737–916 children. When controlling for covariates including low child IQ, prenatal cocaine exposure had a significant effect on individualized education plan. When low child IQ was not included in the model, prenatal cocaine exposure had a significant effect on support services. Male gender, low birthweight, white race and low child IQ also predicted individualized education plan. Low birthweight and low child IQ were significant in all models. White race was also significant in speech and language services. Other covariate effects were model specific. When included in the models, low child IQ accounted for more of the variance and changed the significance of other covariates.Conclusions Prenatal cocaine exposure increased the likelihood of receiving an individualized education plan and support services, with adjustment for covariates. Low birthweight and low child IQ increased the likelihood of all outcomes. The finding that white children were more likely to get an individualized education plan and speech and language services could indicate a greater advantage in getting educational resources for this population.

Effects of Prenatal Cocaine Exposure on Special Education in School-Aged Children

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of prenatal cocaine exposure on special education at age 7 with adjustment for covariates. As part of the prospective, longitudinal, multisite study of children with prenatal cocaine exposure (Maternal Lifestyle Study), school records were reviewed for 943 children at 7 years to determine involvement in special education outcomes: (1) individualized education plan; (2) special education conditions; (3) support services; (4) special education classes; and (5) speech and language services. Logistic regression was used to examine the effect of prenatal cocaine exposure on these outcomes with environmental, maternal, and infant medical variables as covariates, as well as with and without low child IQ. Complete data for each analysis model were available for 737 to 916 children. When controlling for covariates including low child IQ, prenatal cocaine exposure had a significant effect on individualized education plan. When low child IQ was not included in the model, prenatal cocaine exposure had a significant effect on support services. Male gender, low birth weight, white race, and low child IQ also predicted individualized education plan. Low birth weight and low child IQ were significant in all models. White race was also significant in speech and language services. Other covariate effects were model specific. When included in the models, low child IQ accounted for more of the variance and changed the significance of other covariates. Prenatal cocaine exposure increased the likelihood of receiving an individualized education plan and support services, with adjustment for covariates. Low birth weight and low child IQ increased the likelihood of all outcomes. The finding that white children were more likely to get an individualized education plan and speech and language services could indicate a greater advantage in getting educational resources for this population.

Progress Developing the Kansas Early Childhood Special Education Accountability System

Policy decision makers, early educators, and early interventionists face numerous challenges as they develop and implement statewide accountability systems to evaluate and improve children's early intervention and early childhood special education outcomes. Kansas was an early adopter of the Child Outcomes Summary Form (COSF) developed by the Early Childhood Outcomes Center as a means of integrating multiple sources of information on children's performance and to meet policy requirements of the state and the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). The purpose of this article is to describe the Kansas experience and to report preliminary findings for entry-level COSF data. Implications are discussed.

Relationship of preschool special education outcomes to instructional practices and parent–child interaction

Developmental outcomes attained by children receiving preschool special education services in relationship to both the general instructional approach used by their teachers and their parents’ style of interaction were examined. The sample included 70 children from 41 Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) classrooms. The type of instructional model children received was determined by dividing the sample into three clusters based upon six global ratings of children’s classroom environment: Choice; Cognitive Problem-Solving; Child-Initiated Learning; Developmental Match; Child-Centered Routines; and Rewards and Discipline Strategies. Based on this analysis, 27 children were classified as receiving developmental instruction; 15 didactic instruction; and 28 naturalistic instruction. Observations of parent–child interaction collected at the beginning and end of the year were classified along four dimensions using the Maternal Behavior Rating Scale: Responsiveness, Affect, Achievement Orientation and Directiveness. Results indicated that the kinds of experiences that children received varied significantly across the three instructional models. However, there were no significant differences in the impact of these instructional models on children’s rate of development. Regression analyses indicated that children’s rate of development at the end of intervention was significantly related to their parents’ style of interaction but was unrelated to the type of instructional model they received.

Educational Accountability and Students with Disabilities: Issues and Challenges

This article reviews current accountability policies pertaining to students who receive special education. The 1997 amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Title I of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 contain provisions that mandate the participation of students with disabilities in large-scale assessments and the public reporting of those students' performance along with other important educational outcomes. These new accountability requirements represent a major change from the traditional model of special education accountability that has been focused on system compliance with procedures. The article also discusses the technical, legal, and practical challenges to implementing the new accountability mandates. The authors conclude that despite the unknowns associated with new and more rigorous public scrutiny of special education outcomes, emerging evidence suggests that the changes will result in better educational outcomes for students with disabilities as well as a new, more integrated model for special education.

Transition Outcomes of Young Adults with Disabilities in Rural Areas: A Research Synthesis

The efficacy of special education is often measured by employment, independent living and social outcomes. Therefore, the purpose of this review was to synthesize articles concerning outcomes of young adults who have transitioned from secondary school to adult life in rural areas. Articles on transition of young adults with disabilities in rural areas published in numerous refereed journals between 1990 and 1998 were reviewed to determine the rates of employment and independent living. Additional variables included demographics, job types, wages, and benefits. Results indicated that few empirical studies examined special education outcomes for young adults living in rural areas. Studies that did examine employment outcomes indicated that, overall, fewer than 70% of young adults with disabilities in the studies' samples were employed. However, employment outcomes seem to have improved from 1990 to 1997. The synthesis also indicated that, overall, fewer than 40% of young adults with disabilities in rural areas live independently. More research on additional outcomes of employment, independence, and social well-being is called for as well as research on effective transition programs and processes in rural areas.

The Effect of Early Childhood Intervention and Subsequent Special Education Services: Findings from the Chicago Child-Parent Centers

This article explores patterns of special education services during the elementary grades among children who participated in either the Child-Parent Center (CPC) Preschool Program or other early childhood programs in the Chicago Public Schools. The study sample included 1,377 low-income, racial minority children in the Chicago Longitudinal Study. Controlling for family background characteristics that might affect educational performance, children who participated in Child-Parent Center preschool had a significantly lower rate of special education placement (12.5%) than the comparison group (18.4%), who participated in an alternative all-day kindergarten program. The estimated impact of CPC preschool intervention was best explained by the cognitive advantage hypothesis. This article provides support for the long-term impact of the CPC preschool intervention on special education outcomes.

A Quality of Life Framework for Special Education Outcomes

The national goals of higher expectations for all students and their emphasis on academic achievement are reviewed in light of the data on outcomes for students with disabilities. A new framework for measuring outcomes along the lines of quality of life is proposed. The framework regards academic goals as the means for achieving other outcomes, namely the four outcomes that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) declared: equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency. We propose that the underlying goal of education should be to enhance the quality of life of students with disabilities and that the four overarching IDEA goals, as implemented in part by the emphasis on academic achievement, should guide the curriculum and all assessment measures.

Mental Health and Special Education Outcomes of Head Start Children Followed Into Elementary School

Little is known about the mental health and related special education outcomes of children served by Head Start upon their entrance into public school. However, it seems clear that of the 4 major disability categories (speech-language impairment, emotional disturbance, mental retardation, and learning disability), Head Start children are most often identified as having speech-language impairment, while the smallest group are those deemed to have an emotional disturbance. The authors here report on a series of studies to examine the category of emotional disturbance as it relates to identification of Head Start children in the early elementary grades. As former Head Start children enter elementary school, a pattern emerges in which children with emotional disturbance continue to be underidentified and/or subsequently misidentified in other special education categories, such as learning disability or speech-language impairment, The authors describe these and related findings from this group of studies in or...

Exploring the Relationship between Student Mobility and Dropout among Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) are more likely to drop out of school than their disabled and nondisabled peers. Forty-eight percent of students with EBD drop out of grades 9-12, as opposed to 30% of all students with and 24% of all high school students. Students with EBD are also more likely to change teachers, classes, and schools than their disabled and nondisabled peers. Mobility is likely to contribute to poor school outcomes that contribute to a high dropout rate. This article analyzes school and classroom risk and protective factors that contribute to or prevent mobility and drop out. Students who leave school without graduating face daunting challenges in our increasingly technological society. Dropping out may be especially toxic for children with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). For example, according to our best current national survey data, 73% of students with EBD who drop out of high school are arrested within three to five years of leaving high school (U.S. Department of Education, 1994). This is particularly problematic for some of those youth, including African American students with EBD, who must navigate in an environment marked by police profiling and job market bias (Osher, Woodruff, & Sims, 2002). We will briefly review data on dropout for students with EBD as a backdrop for a more thorough examination of the issue of mobility as a significant contributor to dropout and other schooling consequences for students with EBD. While our data on students with EBD are based on the 1% of students who are identified as having an emotional or behavioral disorder (sometimes called emotional disturbance or serious emotional disturbance), our best epidemiological estimates suggest that these findings may also be relevant to an additional 3-6% of students (U.S. Department of Education, 1999). While dropouts in general education have garnered the attention of researchers over the past decades, the emphasis on special education dropouts (which includes dropouts with EBD) has increased with passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 1997. Specifically, IDEA cites the prevention of school dropout among students with as a target issue of national assessment. According to IDEA provision Sec. 612 (a) (16), states must establish performance indicators to be used in assessing state progress towards reducing dropout rates among children with disabilities (U.S. Department of Education, 1999). While the legislation firmly established the states' mandate in terms of reducing school dropout, dropout rates still remain high for the special education population. Among students with disabilities, the students most likely to leave school before graduating are students with emotional and behavioral disorders. Students with EBD drop out (or are pushed out) of school at a rate much higher than their nondisabled peers and their peers with other (Kronick & Hargis, 1998). According to the best available survey data (The National Longitudinal Transition Study of Special Education Outcomes [NLTS]), 48% of students with EBD drop out of grades 9-12, as opposed to 30% of all students with and 24% of all high school students. Another 8% of students with disabilities, including students with EBD, drop out before grade 9 (U.S. Department of Education, 1994; Wagner, 1995). As with other students, race and economic disadvantage mediate outcomes. For example, twice as many African American students identified for EBD exited grades 9-12 as a result of dropping out (58.2%) as opposed to graduating (27.5%; Valdes, Williamson, & Wagner, 1990). While the study did not specify what happened to the other 14.3%, it is likely that a minimum of 8% dropped out of school before entering grade 9, according to the NLTS data cited above. Similarly, according to the NLTS, 59% of students with EBD who lived in households that had annual incomes of less than $12,000 dropped out of high school, compared to 30% of students with EBD whose families had annual incomes of more than $25,000 (Osher & Osher, 1996). …

Change Dynamics in Special Education Assessment: Historical and Contemporary Patterns

This article discusses historical and contemporary influences on changes in special education assessment, with emphasis on three persistent themes: accurate classification, fairness to minority students, and special education outcomes. Dunn's contributions to each of the themes are discussed, along with other influences such as legislation and litigation. Current dynamics leading to significant changes in special education assessment are discussed, particularly in the disability category of specific learning disabilities.

Gender differences in response to auditory-verbal intervention in children who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Recent research has questioned the role of gender in language development and in special education outcomes, yet neither issue has been addressed in literature on students who are deaf or hard of hearing. To determine if language and placement outcomes differ by gender, the present study considered the behavior of children who attended a clinical program subscribing to an auditory-verbal philosophy. Parents of 28 boys and 42 girls with hearing losses evaluated their children using the Parent Rating Scale of the Leiter International Performance Scale--Revised (Roid & Miller, 1997) and the Parental View of Therapy Scale (developed for the present study). Also, clinical file data were surveyed. The boys were found to be more likely than the girls to be rated by their parents as having basic features of temperament nonconducive to traditional clinical language intervention. The girls' language and placement outcomes surpassed the boys', although both groups' outcomes were positive. A possible limitation of the study was that the population was atypical of students with hearing losses in general.

Charter Schools and Students with Disabilities

Currently, charter school laws exist in 30 states, and more than 1,000 charter schools are now in operation (Center for Education Reform, 1998). The rapid increase in the number of charter schools suggests that this educational reform may have the potential to become a major factor in the education of U.S. children. Charter schools are serving a variety of students, and recent studies at the national level show that a sizable proportion of students being served in charter schools have disabilities. Yet few studies address the provision of special education services and whether the needs of students with disabilities are being met. The Enrollment Options Project at the University of Minnesota has been examining the impact of Minnesota's charter schools on students with disabilities. Parents of students with and without disabilities enrolled in Minnesota's charter schools were surveyed to answer questions about their experiences with charter schools. Results from more than 600 respondents who completed the survey are presented in this article. Parents answered questions about reasons for charter school enrollment, perceived changes in their child as a result of attending the charter school, level of satisfaction, level of parent involvement, and special education service availability. In addition, written comments provided by parents are qualitatively analyzed. The article concludes with a discussion of information gathered from parents and implications for further study, examining special education delivery and outcomes for students with disabilities attending charter schools.

Identifying Special Education Outcomes

Identifying Special Education Outcomes

Reflections on “child temperament effects on special education process and outcomes”

(1992). Reflections on “child temperament effects on special education process and outcomes”. Exceptionality: Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 127-131.

Preschool prediction of early school performance: Relationship of McCarthy scales of children's abilities prior to school entry to achievement in kindergarten, first, and second grades

Two studies assessing the predictive validity of the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities (MSCA) are reported. In Study 1, the MSCA was administered prior to school entry to a stratified sample of 129 children chosen from a countywide cohort, with oversampling of those at risk for developmental delay. California Achievement Tests (CATs), retention, and special education outcomes were assessed in kindergarten, first, and second grades. Preschool MSCA scale scores showed significant positive correlation with achievement outcomes ( r=.35–.70). Children who scored low (<68 or between 68 and 84) on the MSCA General Cognitive Index (GCI) had significantly lower CAT scores in all grades than did children scoring within the normal range (≥84) on the GCI. By second grade 94% of children scoring less than 68 on the preschool GCI and 74% of those scoring between 68 and 84 on the GCI had failed a grade, had been placed in special education classes, or were scoring in the bottom 20% of their cohort on the CATs in that year. In Study 2, these results were replicated through first grade for a second cohort.

Special education outcomes; implications for implementation of Public Law 94-142.

Special education outcomes; implications for implementation of Public Law 94-142.