THE IMPACT OF STUDENTS WITH SPECIAL EDUCATION NEEDS IN THE GENERAL EDUCATION SETTING ON MISSOURI’S STATE ASSESSMENT

Schools and educators have been increasingly educating students with disabilities in the general education setting; while at the same time the level of accountability for making a positive outcome on high stakes assessments for all students has increased. This study began with utilizing the data from 1250 elementary schools from all 524 districts in the state of Missouri over a three-year period (i.e. 2008, 2009, and 2010). This study examined the impact that students with disabilities participating in the general education setting had on the Missouri’s Assessment Program’s (MAP) Communication Art and Mathematics assessments for student with and without disabilities. The study considered the influence of other factors such as student to classroom teacher ratio, a district’s expenditures per ADA, the percentage of FRL, and the ratio of students identified with disabilities within each school. The results of the study showed the time students with disabilities spent in the general education setting had a statistically significant impact on the MAP assessment results. However, the overall impact is quite small in a practical sense. This study showed the time students with disabilities spend in general education does not have a negative impact for students with or without disabilities in regards to the MAP assessment. When schools had high levels of participation with high amounts of time spent in general education, the schools had increased scores on both the Communication Arts and the Mathematics assessment for both students with and without disabilities