Handicapped Students in the Least Restrictive Environment: A Longitudinal Study

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of age (young, ages 5 through 10 years; and old, ages 11 through 16 years), disability (educable mentally impaired, emotionally impaired, and learning disabled), and time interval (10 intervals of 3 school-months each, covering a 3-year period) on the percentage of time spent in regular education. A 3-way factorial design with repeated measures with 138 students was employed. The Age x Interval and Disability x Interval interactions were significant, as well as all three main effects. The percentage of time spent in regular education by the old group was greater than that of the young group at each interval, although the trend across intervals differed for the two groups. Time spent in regular education by the educable mentally impaired was less than that of the learning disabled. The emotionally impaired began at a low level, not significantly different from the educable mentally impaired, but their percentage of time in regular education increased more rapidly than that of the other groups and eventually equaled that of the learning disabled. A second purpose was to determine the effects of age and disability on adjusted achievement posttest scores and to compare pretest and posttest scores (3-year reevaluation results on reading, spelling, and math). Using 90 subjects and pretest scores as the covariate, the analyses of covariance revealed that, while the covariate had a significant effect on posttest scores, age and disability did not.