More academics in regular schools? The effect of regular versus special school placement on academic skills in Dutch primary school students with Down syndrome.
Kids with Down syndrome learn more in regular classrooms than special schools, especially in reading.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers tracked Dutch primary pupils with Down syndrome.
Some kids went to regular classes. Others went to special schools.
The team compared reading, writing and math scores after controlling for family income and child IQ.
What they found
Kids in regular schools read better.
Writing and math scores were also higher.
The edge stayed even when kids had the same IQ and family background.
How this fits with other research
Dessemontet et al. (2012) saw the same literacy bump in a wider group with intellectual disability.
Oh-Young et al. (2015) pooled 24 studies and found the same pattern across many diagnoses.
Leaf et al. (2012) meta-analysis shows kids with Down syndrome decode non-words like younger typical kids, but their vocabulary lags. Regular classrooms expose them to more words, which may explain the reading gain.
Why it matters
If you write IEPs for kids with Down syndrome, push for general-education time. The data say inclusion lifts reading most, and writing and math follow. Start with reading groups where peers model fluent words. Track weekly reading levels to show the team the payoff.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Studies from the UK have shown that children with Down syndrome acquire more academic skills in regular education. Does this likewise hold true for the Dutch situation, even after the effect of selective placement has been taken into account? METHOD: In 2006, an extensive questionnaire was sent to 160 parents of (specially and regularly placed) children with Down syndrome (born 1993-2000) in primary education in the Netherlands with a response rate of 76%. Questions were related to the child's school history, academic and non-academic skills, intelligence quotient, parental educational level, the extent to which parents worked on academics with their child at home, and the amount of academic instructional time at school. Academic skills were predicted with the other variables as independents. RESULTS: For the children in regular schools much more time proved to be spent on academics. Academic performance appeared to be predicted reasonably well on the basis of age, non-academic skills, parental educational level and the extent to which parents worked at home on academics. However, more variance could be predicted when the total amount of years that the child spent in regular education was added, especially regarding reading and to a lesser extent regarding writing and math. In addition, we could prove that this finding could not be accounted for by endogenity. CONCLUSION: Regularly placed children with Down syndrome learn more academics. However, this is not a straight consequence of inclusive placement and age alone, but is also determined by factors such as cognitive functioning, non-academic skills, parental educational level and the extent to which parents worked at home on academics. Nevertheless, it could be proven that the more advanced academic skills of the regularly placed children are not only due to selective placement. The positive effect of regular school on academics appeared to be most pronounced for reading skills.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2013 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2011.01512.x