Indiana high school students with disabilities who spent 80% of their educational time in general education classrooms scored higher on state reading and math assessments and were better prepared for post-secondary education and employment opportunities than their peers in less inclusive settings, according to a new study by Indiana University researchers.
September 15, 2022
Indiana high school students with disabilities who spent 80% of their educational time in general education classrooms scored higher on state reading and math assessments and were better prepared for post-secondary education and employment opportunities than their peers in less inclusive settings, according to a new study by Indiana University researchers.
«We are currently in a time when the experience of ‘community’ is being stressed in multiple ways in our society,» said Hardy Murphy, study co-author and a clinical professor in the School of Education at IUPUI. «Changing and elevating our expectations of what students with disabilities are capable of lies at the heart of people with disabilities contributing to and benefiting from being a part of our community experience, beyond K-12 education. Including students with disabilities in their school communities with their general education peers is an important place to begin this transformation. These results show that it is as much a moral and ethical question as it is an educational one.»
The study, conducted by IU’s Center on Education and Lifelong Learning, one of seven research centers at the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community, was recently published in the Journal of Special Education.
