“MIND THE GAP” FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

Mary E. Yakimowski, Michael Faggella-Luby, and Michael AlfanoUniversity of Connecticut

Presentation at the annual meeting for the American Educational Research Association

New Orleans, LOApril 2011

Office of Assessment

Purpose

To examine differences over time between the performance of students with disabilities in comparison to their typically achieving peers.

A Great Education Begins with Great Teachers

Teachers for a New Era (TNE) - An initiative designed to improve teacher quality by

reforming outstanding teacher preparation programs

Carnegie Corporation of New YorkFord Foundation,

he Annenberg Foundation

Design Principles 1. Emphasize to preservice teachers the importance of demonstrating student achievement through evidence. 2. Fully integrate faculty from the liberal arts and sciences, enriching future teachers' general and subject matter knowledge. 3. Support will be extended to beginning teachers from their individual colleges and universities.

Focus on how the UConn Neag School of Education is examining K-12 performance

More specifically, we would like to examine the patterns of Connecticut’s grade 3-8 pupils of graduates of our Teaching Education Program as part of our Neag Assessment Plan through our Teachers for a New Era project

Examining Achievement Gap Theories

Delayed or Developmental LagAn initially lower reading achievement than

Students with No Disability (SND) but later accelerated growth as schooling continues (Francis, Shaywitz, Stuebing, Shaywitz, & Fletcher, 1996).

Deficit Model of Reading GrowthAn initially lower reading achievement yet

parallel growth over time when compared to SND (e.g., Catts, Bridges, Little &Tomblin, 2008; Francis, Shaywitz, Stuebing, Shaywitz, & Fletcher, 1996).

Examining Achievement Gap Theories

Cumulative Trajectory or Matthew Effect An increase in variability among growth trajectories over time as

SNDs start slow in reaching achievement and develop at slower rates than SNDs. Consequently, SWDs fall further behind as each year of school passes leading to a widening, rather than a closing achievement gap (Leppanen, Niemi, Aunola, & Nurmi, 2004) or Matthew Effect (Stanovich, 1986).

Examining Achievement Gap Theories

Method Subjects

Convenience sample of 5 districts employing Neag graduates 8,541 students with matched scores for three consecutive years

between 3rd Grade and 8th Grade 1:5 ratio of students with to students without disabilities

Analysis DV=Connecticut Mastery Test-Fourth Edition (CMT-4) Reading

Comprehension scores 2006-2008 IV=Grade span cohorts, SWD vs SND

Cohort 1: Grade 3, 4, 5 Cohort 2: Grade 6, 7, 8

Repeated Measures Analysis of Variance (RMANOVA)

Results support the Deficit Model of Reading Growth

Results

Overall reading scores are higher for 6th Grade cohort when compared to 3rd Grade cohort with improvement at each time point. Therefore: Both SWD & SND improve over time rather than plateau.

Statistically significant difference between SWD & SND reading scores at each time point Therefore: The achievement gap persists

Mean differences on the reading score gap between SWN & SND across each year for upper and lower grades NOT statistically significantly different Therefore: While the achievement gap persists, the gap does not appear

to grow larger over time supporting the Deficit Model of Read Growth.