Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders and Other Health Impairments: effects of less versus more restrictive placements on academic achievement.

Abstract

Though federal educational laws mandate that students with special needs must be placed in the least restrictive environment, many students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders (EBD) and others with special needs are often placed in self-contained classrooms or even self-contained schools. This study was intended to take a closer look at achievement levels of students with emotional and behavioral disorders and Other Health Impairments (OHI) while they attended general education or inclusive settings and then one year later after they had been placed into a more restrictive environment (e.g., self-contained, special education classroom). The study compared the standardized test and rubric scores of 17 students with special needs to determine if there were any noticeable effects on pupil achievement as a function of their changes in placement. Results indicated that : (a) pupil performance on high stakes assessments was distressingly low across the board, (b) there were negligible effects of placement changes on pupils' test performance, and (c) there were a few isolated yet potentially negative outcomes associated with placement changes for a few individual pupils. Implications for research and practice are discussed.