Center on Education and Lifelong Learning
Postschool Outcomes of Students with Disabilities Across Inclusive and Traditional Settings
Grossi, T. and Cole. C.
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This study looked at four high schools in four different school districts. Two of the high schools selected had a history and a reputation of including a full range of students with disabilities in the general education classes; and two high schools selected provided a more traditional approach to special education services where students spending the majority of their instructional time in resource rooms and/or self-contained classrooms. The study found that students from inclusive settings had more access to the general education curriculum, more time in inclusive settings across grade levels, had higher expectations, and more access to extra-curricular activities that resulted in higher rates for passing the state proficiency test, higher graduation rates and improved postschool outcomes.
Academic Progress of Students Across Inclusive and Traditional Settings
Cassandra M. Cole, Nancy Waldron, Massoumeh Majd and Susan Hasazi
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Effects of inclusive school settings for students in six Indiana school corporations were investigated. Results reveal that students without disabilities educated in inclusive settings made significantly greater academic progress in mathematics and reading. For students with disabilities, there were no significant differences in reading and math achievement across the comparison groups. However, a review of group means and the percentage of students making comparable or greater than average academic progress when compared to students without disabilities indicates a pattern in favor of inclusive settings. The academic progress of students with specific disability labels, namely, learning disabilities and mild mental handicaps, also supported inclusive education.
A shared responsibility for all students: Toward a definition of inclusive schools
C.M. Cole, S. Washburn, and J. Ansaldo
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This report presents findings from year three of the Indiana Inclusion Study. The study investigated the effects of inclusive programs for students without disabilities and students identified with mild disabilities in Indiana school corporations over a three-year period. In year three, we employed a descriptive case study design that provides a detailed portrayal of the teaching practices and school structures in three elementary schools that consider themselves to be inclusive. From this study comes a working definition of inclusion-one that recognizes that inclusion is more than simply physically placing students together in the same classroom.
Indiana Pilot Study: Tucker Signing Strategies for Reading
C.M. Cole, M. Majd, and P. Gaither
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The Tucker Signing Strategies for Reading provide educators with a powerful supplemental strategy for decoding that can be used in conjunction with a conventional reading program. The strategies utilize a system of 44 hand signals that prompt associations between letters or word chunks and the sounds they represent. During the 2001-02 school year, a pilot study of the Tucker strategy was completed using data from 290 students from schools in Indiana. The pilot study showed that students who had been taught the Tucker strategy made significant progress in decoding words.
Tucker Signing Strategies for Reading: National Study
C.M. Cole and M. Majd
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While the pilot study did not have a control group and only focused on students from Indiana, the Tucker National Study was designed with a control group and data from various classrooms across the nation.
The effect of Tucker Signing Strategies for Reading on the decoding skills of students in four elementary schools
C.M. Cole and M. Majd
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This study used data from eight elementary schools with controls for training and length between pre and post-tests. We investigated the effects of the Tucker Signing Strategy for Reading on the decoding skills of elementary school students. Students' ability to decode basic sight words was compared across four experimental sites and four control sites.