EFFECTS OF INCLUSION ON THE ACADEMIC-PERFORMANCE OF CLASSMATES WITHOUT DISABILITIES - A PRELIMINARY-STUDY

To investigate the impact of inclusive school environments on the Academic Performance of general education students. A pretest-posttest post HOC study was conducted. For the purposes of this study, and inclusive environment was defined as a general education elementary classroom with members including some who had significant disabilities and who were previously taught in self-contained special education classrooms. This study examined the Academic Performance differences between 35 general education students educated in an inclusive environment (The Inclusion Group) and 108 general education students who were not in inclusive environments (The Comparison Group). Group achievement test scores and report card ratings were used as performance indicators in the academic areas of reading, language arts, mathematics, and the behavioral areas of conduct and effort. The results of the study revealed no statistically significant differences between the two groups for every academic and behavioral measure.