Macalester College

- Each disability group differed significantly from the reference group for the intercept: students in the advanced groups scored almost 7 or 8 scale score points above the reference group, while the students in the different disability groups scored from 2.64 scale score points below the reference group for students with learning impairments to nearly 15 scale points below the reference group for students with intellectual disabilities.
- Students with reading-based learning disabilities showed an interesting growth trajectory, demonstrating low initial achievement in Grade 3 but more rapid growth than several other disability groups, surpassing students with emotional disturbance and hearing impairments by 7th grade.
- Achievement gaps for students in the different disability groups varied: students with learning impairments consistently had the smallest gaps (<.25 a SD) and students with intellectual disabilities consistently had the largest gaps, well over 1.5 SDs at each grade level.
- Achievement gaps for students with disabilities changed very little across grades, and group rankings for the exceptionality groups also remained stable.
- After 4 years, none of the disability groups had “caught up” with the students in the general education group in their reading comprehension achievement.

Reading Comprehension Achievement Gap Findings by Disability Group

Schulte, A. C., Stevens, J. J., Elliott, S. N., Tindal, G., & Nese, J. F. T. (2016). Achievement gaps for students with disabilities: Stable, widening, or narrowing on a state-wide reading comprehension test? Journal of Educational Psychology, 108(7), 925–942. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000107

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