Motivation to Read: How Does It Change for Struggling Readers with and without Disabilities?

Lack of reading motivation impedes upper elementary and secondary school students’ willingness to improve critical reading skills and strategies to be successful in school. Struggling readers often show a negative attitude towards reading tasks and manifest low motivation to read. Although the importance of motivation is clear, there is limited research on reading motivation of struggling adolescents with disabilities. This study examined whether reading motivation of struggling readers with and without disabilities significantly changed after an eighteen week period of reading instruction in two elementary schools and one high school in a Midwest state of the United States of America (USA). Findings yielded significant improvement in motivation for adolescents without disabilities while motivation scores declined for students with disabilities. An overview of students’ answers to survey questions is provided and some evidence-based methods that teachers can utilize to improve reading motivation of upper elementary and high school students are summarized

African American and disabled youth are overrepresented in behavior-focused and academic remediation schools

School districts in the US often have many different types of high schools - some are traditional neighborhood schools, while others are more innovative or focused on behavior or academic remediation. In new research Aaron B. Perzigian, Kemal Afacan, Whitney Justin, and Kimber L. Wilkerson examine the characteristics of students across these school types. They find that African American students, ..

Characteristics of Students in Traditional Versus Alternative High Schools: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Enrollment in One Urban District

Urban school districts are comprised of many diverse high school environments including comprehensive neighborhood schools as well as a variety of smaller alternative models that focus on innovative practices, behavior remediation, or academic recovery. In terms of enrollment distribution, urban school districts are increasingly offering nontraditional school placement options for students presenting academic and behavioral difficulty or for students seeking specific curricular emphasis or pedagogy, including—but not limited to—use of school choice voucher programs. In this study, we examined student distribution across school types in one large urban district to investigate enrollment patterns with regard to gender, race, socioeconomic status, and disability status. The results of this cross-sectional analysis indicated significant disproportionality in student demographics within different school types, including overrepresentation of African American students, male students, and students with disabilities in restrictive and segregated alternative schools; overrepresentation of White students and female students in self-selected and innovative alternative schools; and underrepresentation of Hispanic and Asian students in remedial alternative schools. Implications of this disproportionality for policy and practice are discussed

Reading outcomes of students with intellectual disability on statewide assessments

Education laws in the U.S. hold schools accountable for including students with intellectual disability on statewide reading assessments. Students with intellectual disability have been taking general or alternate reading assessments over the past two decades. However, very little attention has been given to the results of these assessments. The purpose of this study was to examine reading outcomes of students with intellectual disability on statewide general and alternate assessments in a Midwestern state in the U.S. We also examined whether students with intellectual disability’s reading outcomes varied across traditional and innovative school types. Results from descriptive analyses showed that a very low percentage of students with intellectual disability performed at the proficient level or above on 5th and 8th grades reading assessments. Also, students with intellectual disability’s reading proficiency levels did not significantly differ across school types. Implications of these results are discussed and recommendations for future research are provide

Repeated school suspensions: who receives them, what reasons are given, and how students fare

Although out-of-school school suspensions have been correlated with negative school outcomes, they are still a common formal response given to students whose behavior is deemed problematic. Being suspended multiple times within an academic year results in students losing even more instructional time. In this study, we used longitudinal data for students from elementary to high school to examine: (a) demographic characteristics of students who received repeated out-of-school suspensions across six consecutive years, (b) common infractions that resulted in those school suspensions, and (c) the relationship between repeated suspensions and students’ later academic and behavior outcomes. We found that a high number of male and Black students, as well as students with disabilities, received repeated suspensions with minor infractions reported as the most common reasons. Regression analyses revealed a significant and negative relationship between repeated suspensions in the early grades and the number of suspensions students received in secondary school

The effectiveness of behavior-focused alternative middle schools for students with disabilities

Behavior-focused alternative schools serve students who are identified by school personnel as exhibiting behavior difficulties, often coupled with low academic achievement. Students can be referred to behavior-focused alternative schools as an alternative to expulsion. In this study, we examined the demographic characteristics of students who attended behavior-focused alternative middle schools, as well as the effectiveness of these schools on two outcomes: (a) standardized state reading assessment scores and (b) number of suspensions received. Using a retrospective cohort design study, we investigated whether students attending behavior-focused alternative middle schools experienced significantly different reading and suspension outcomes compared with a matched sample of students attending traditional middle schools. The majority of students in behavior-focused alternative middle schools were male, Black, and receiving special education services. Results showed that students attending behavior-focused alternative middle schools performed significantly lower on standardized assessments of reading in the eighth grade. No significant differences were noted for the number of suspensions experienced