Degree Name

EdD (Doctor of Education)

Program

Educational Leadership

Date of Award

12-2014

Committee Chair or Co-Chairs

James H. Lampley

Committee Members

Cecil N. Blankenship, Virginia P. Foley, Donald W. Good

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the achievement scores in reading/language arts and math of fourth and fifth grade special education learning-disabled students who received academic instruction in an inclusion classroom or a pull-out classroom. Student achievement scores from the 2012-2013 Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) and the Discovery Education Assessment (DEA) improvement scores were compared with regard to service location and analyzed for significant differences between the locations: inclusion and pull-out classrooms. A quantitative study was used to find the differences in reading/language arts and math achievement scores for fourth and fifth grade special education learning-disabled students in an East Tennessee school district. Eleven research questions guided the study. The results of the analyses indicated significant differences in reading/language arts and math scores between the groups in all but 2 analyses. The inclusion students scored higher than the pull-out students. The fourth grade inclusion students scored significantly higher than the fourth grade pull-out students in TCAP reading/language arts, TCAP math, and DEA math but scored with similar results in DEA reading/language arts. The fifth grade inclusion students scored significantly higher than the fifth grade pull-out students in TCAP reading/language arts, TCAP math, and DEA reading/language arts but scored with similar results in DEA math. This study supported the idea that learning-disabled students receiving academic instruction in an inclusion classroom score significantly higher on achievement tests than the students who received their instruction in the pull-out classroom.

Document Type

Dissertation - unrestricted

Copyright

Copyright by the authors.

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