Students With Specific Learning Disabilities Can Pass State Competency Exams: Systematic Strategy Instruction Makes a Difference

Abstract

Students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) are required to pass the same competency exams as students enrolled in general education in order to graduate to new grade levels and to earn a high school diploma. In this study, the authors taught students with SLD a self-directed organizational strategy designed to assist them in passing the expository and persuasive essay writing portions of a state competency exam. The authors used the established state writing rubric to measure student performance. The authors found that the class average for students with SLD who received strategy instruction and practice was equal to the average achieved in the general education population of the state in the same year and was not significantly different from the general education peers in the same school for that year.

Keywords:

• accountability
• competency exams
• Specific Learning Disability (SLD)