Jay Gottlieb

Special Education in Urban America It's not Justifiable for Many

We review current practices in urban school districts related to referral and placement of academically low-functioning children in special education. Data we have collected over a 10-year period indicate that todays child with learning disabilities functions very similarly to the way students with educable mental retardation performed 25 years ago. We discuss the characteristics and needs of inner-city special education youngsters and the difficult options facing school administrators.

Parent and Teacher Referrals for a Psychoeducational Evaluation

The school records of 439 pupils who had been referred for special education evaluation were studied. Of the pupils, 328 were referred by teachers and 111 by parents. Results indicated that both parents and teachers referred primarily for academic reasons, but parents did so more often, and that parents referred higher functioning pupils than teachers referred. Data also indicated that white parents were more likely than minority parents to refer their children, but that teachers were more likely to refer minority pupils.

Evaluating Mainstreaming Programs: Models, Caveats, Considerations, and Guidelines:

A variety of practical and theoretical issues pertinent to the evaluation of mainstreaming programs are presented, including (a) a critique of large and small mainstreaming evaluation studies, with emphasis upon the adequacy of models and the insights they yield for improved evaluation designs; (b) problems and issues in the evaluation of educational treatments, including attention to the variables of instructional time, instructional integration, stating goals and objectives, assessing teacher willingness to accommodate the handicapped child, and monitoring child progress; (c) considerations related to appraising dependent measures (attitudes, achievement, acceptance, cost/effectiveness); and (d) a discussion of issues unique to the evaluation requirements of Public Law 94–142. The paper concludes with a presentation of guidelines for developing and appraising mainstream evaluation reports, and the observation that problems related to the evaluation of mainstreaming programs are not insurmountable.

Mainstreaming Mentally Retarded Children: A Review of Research

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the importance of mainstreaming the mentally retarded children. The lack of comparability among treatment methods and criterion measures is reflected in contradictory results. When positive effects are reported for integrated pupils, it is difficult to determine which aspects of the mainstreamed treatment contributed to improvement. Methodological weaknesses abound in most of the studies. The discussion of research on achievement has indicated that the failure to isolate components of integration programs in the design of many studies precludes conclusions about which aspects of the treatment result in improved achievement of mainstreamed pupils, when improvement does occur. One of the most important areas of mainstreaming research requiring replication and further study involves the assessment of attitudes of professional school personnel toward mainstreaming administrators. This research is only a first step toward understanding the potential effects of mainstreaming on retarded pupils.

Improving Attitudes toward Retarded Children by Using Group Discussion

• As a result of Public Law 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, many handicapped children are being removed from self contained classes and mainstreamed into the regular grades. One way that mainstreaming programs have been evaluated has been to examine whether or not handicapped children are socially accepted by their nonhandicapped classmates (Corman & Gottlieb, 1978). When handicapped children are socially accepted by their peers, it is assumed that the mainstream experience is effective since it increases the likelihood that handicapped children will feel positive about themselves and will be able to become involved in the larger peer culture of the school. Unfortunately, the majority of data indicate that mainstreaming alone does little to improve educable mentally retarded (EMR) childrens social status in the peer hierarchy (Corman llr Gottlieb, 1978). Research on the effects of mainstreaming suggests that in the absence of direct intervention to improve the attitudes of .nonhandioapped classmates toward EMR children, few changes are likely to occur simply as a result of placing EMR children in regular classes. One strategy that has been used with some success to improve the acceptance of EMR children has been to involve them in the regular classroom in a nonacademic task involving social interactions with their nonhandicapped classmates (Ballard, Corman, Gottlieb, & Kaufman, 1977; Lilly, 1970). The assumption underlying the direct experience paradigm is that as a consequence of the interaction, nonhandicapped children will discover positive attributes in EMR children and will change their attitudes accordingly. Most studies that have employed the direct experience paradigm have reported at least temporary improvement

Classroom Behavior of Retarded Children before and after Integration into Regular Classes

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Sociometric Status and Solitary Play of LD Boys and Girls

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TEACHER INTERACTIONS WITH MAINSTREAMED HANDICAPPED STUDENTS AND THEIR NONHANDICAPPED PEERS

3.29 Behavior Patterns; *Behavior Rating Scales; Childhood; *Educable Mentally Handicapped; *Exceptional Child Research; Mentally Handicapped; *Regular Class Placement; *Social Adjustment The classroom behavior of 11 segregated and 11 integrated educable mentally retarded (EMR) children, 8 to 13 years of age, was compared on a 12-category observation schedule when all EMR children were in special classes, four months after some children had been reintegrated, and at the conclusion of an academic year. The results indicated that integrated children differed from segregated children on a factor that included prosocial behavior, with the integrated group exhibiting more prosocial behaviors. No significant differences between the two study groups appeared on two other factors which included verbal and physical aggressive behavior. (Author)

The effect of perceived duration of physical disability on attitudes of school children toward friendship and helping.

This investigation compared the sociometric status of learning disabled (LD) and non-learning disabled (NLD) boys and girls as well as their actual play during unsupervised free-time activities. Results indicated that the lower sociometric status of LD children was attributable to same-sex rejections of girls. The data also indicated that LD children tended to play alone significantly more often than NLD peers. The results were interpreted as highlighting the need to examine gender effects in subsequent research on social aspects of learning disabilities.

The perception of risk over time as a factor influencing attitudes toward children with physical disabilities

Teacher interactions with handicapped and nonhandicapped students in 38 mainstreamed classrooms were observed using an interval time-sampling procedure and behavioral categories derived from the Brophy-Good Teacher-Child Dyadic Interaction System. Six aspects of teacher-student interactions were considered: Academic Questions, Extended Feedback, Praise, Criticism, Work Interactions, and Total Amount of Interactions. Results of discriminant analysis indicated that handicapped students received fewer questions and were provided with less teacher feedback than their nonhandicapped peers. It was concluded, therefore, that mainstreamed handicapped students were less involved in academic exchanges than the nonhandicapped subjects.