Assessment in special schools: national early assessment procedures and pupils attending special schools in England

An implicit assumption that fostering inclusion means having shared systems encompassing the needs of all children is evident in many aspects of policy development over the past decade. Reflecting this, the implementation of ‘baseline assessment’ schemes (i.e. testing at around age 5 years) is a statutory requirement on all state-maintained special and mainstream schools in England since 1998. Our argument is that the enthusiasm for commonality has obscured the need to question the value and validity of baseline assessment schemes for children with special educational needs (and possibly some others such as children having English as an additional language). We illustrate this position with reference to data from our recent study on baseline assessment in England. The study encompassed survey data from a national sample of 982 schools, of which 107 were special schools. Between them, these special schools used 42 different baseline assessment schemes. Comparisons between our mainstream and special school respondents indicated that there were similarities in the nature and perceived value of the schemes used. However, special schools were less satisfied with their schemes. We suggest that a reappraisal of the nature and purpose of baseline assessment for pupils with special educational needs warrants greater critical debate. Without this, there is a danger that a stress on commonality, veiling an inclusion orthodoxy, will ultimately be counterproductive.     

Intergroup attitudes of European American children attending ethnically homogeneous schools

Intergroup attitudes were assessed in European American 1st-grade (M=6.99 years, SD=0.32) and 4th-grade (M=10.01 years, SD=0.36) children (N=138) attending ethnically homogeneous schools to test hypotheses about racial biases and interracial friendships. An Ambiguous Situations Task and an Intergroup Contact Assessment were administered to all participants. Unlike previous findings with European American children attending heterogeneous schools, children rated minority perpetrators more negatively than majority perpetrators, and friendship as less likely when a minority than a majority perpetrator was portrayed. These findings suggest that intergroup contact contributes to racial bias in children's interpretations of peer dyadic encounters and to judgments about interracial friendships.     

Special links? Partners in provision? Collaboration between ordinary and special schools

Link arrangements between special and ordinary schools can provide a base for the full- or part-time integration of pupils with special educational needs and encourage the exchange of those ideas which lead to mutually beneficial curriculum development. A recent research project at the National Foundation for Educational Research has surveyed the current situation. Felicity Fletcher-Campbell, a Senior Research Officer at the NFER, outlines some of the findings and addresses some of the issue arising.     

论普通学校特殊儿童支持系统的构成要素

本文主订阐述了建立普通学校特殊儿童支持系统的必要性，确定普通学校特殊儿童支持系统构成要素的原则，提出了以“对普通学校儿童形成支持的人”、“教育目标”、“教育过程”、“特教制度”、“特教资源”等五个要素作为普通学校特殊儿童支持系统的构成要素。     

Sexually inappropriate or abusive behaviour among pupils in special schools

In this article, Rachel Fyson of the Centre for Social Work in the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Nottingham reports the findings of a study into sexually inappropriate or abusive behaviour occurring between pupils in special schools in four local authorities in England. The behaviours identified ranged from relatively minor misconduct, such as exposure of genitals and use of sexualised language, through to serious acts of sexual abuse, including rape. Although the majority (88%) of special schools had noted sexualised behaviours of some kind on a regular basis, only a minority (19%) had specific policies in place to guide staff responses to such incidents. It was apparent that responses to sexual behaviour, and policy decisions about whether or when to refer to outside agencies, varied widely both within and between schools. The implications of these findings for the well-being of all pupils are discussed.     

Arithmetic processing in children with spina bifida: Calculation accuracy, strategy use, and fact retrieval fluency

Three studies compared 98 children with spina bifida myelomeningocele (SBM)-a disorder associated with high rates of math disability and spatial deficits-to 94 typically developing children on multidigit subtraction and cognitive addition tasks. Children with SBM were classified into those with reading decoding and math disability, only math disability, and no reading or math disability. Study 1 showed that visual-spatial errors in multidigit arithmetic were not elevated in children with SBM. In Study 2, deficits in accuracy, speed, and strategy-use in single-digit addition characterized groups with math disability regardless of reading status. Accuracy and speed on single-digit addition was strongly related to performance on multidigit subtraction. A math-level matching design in Study 3 revealed less mastery of math facts by the group with SBM. The results are discussed with reference to cognitive and neuropsychological models of math disability.     

The effects of the Primary Movement programme on the academic performance of children attending ordinary primary school

The present study investigated the prevalence of a primary reflex (the Asymmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex) in children attending ordinary primary school and how this related to attainments in a number of academic areas. The effectiveness of a specific movement intervention programme in reducing primary reflex persistence and improving academic attainment was also evaluated.
A comparative study of the progress of 683 children over a two-year period from Years 3 and 5, who completed an intervention programme known as Primary Movement, was carried out using the relative attainments of children at the same schools and standardised scores as baseline and follow-up measures. A second, quasi-experimental study followed the progress of four parallel groups in each of two large schools with the experimental side completing the movement intervention programme while the other side acted as the control.
It was found that ATNR persistence was significantly associated with level of attainments in reading, spelling and mathematics and that boys were more at risk than girls for ATNR persistence. In both studies, it was found that the movement intervention programme had a very significant impact on reducing the levels of ATNR persistence in children and that this was associated with very significant improvements in reading and mathematics, in particular.
This research provides further evidence of a link between the attainment of core educational skills and the interference that may result from an underlying developmental deficit. The effectiveness of the intervention programme in reducing ATNR persistence and in increasing academic attainments suggests that this programme could be used to complement other strategies that have been shown to have a positive effect on children's learning.     

Evaluation of the support services provided to deaf children attending secondary general schools in Cyprus

Deaf children have been integrated into secondary schools in Cyprus since 1990. This article reports the results of a major study carried out in Cyprus, the aim of which was to evaluate for the first time the support services available for deaf children receiving their education in secondary general schools. For the purposes of our study, four types of questionnaires were designed and administered to all deaf children integrated into secondary general schools, as well as to their parents, teachers, and head teachers. All participants stressed that the support services are vital for the children's academic success and social integration. The main support services identified by the participants in our study were: one-to-one and group sessions; presence of co-coordinators (special teachers of the deaf); "acoustical treatment" of the classrooms; provision and management of personal amplification, psychological support, and counseling; and in-service training for designated teachers. The majority of the participants expressed satisfaction with the support services offered to them. They also made some suggestions for the improvement of the integration of deaf children into secondary schools in Cyprus.     

The role of teacher-related factors in mathematics skills between children attending Estonian-speaking and Russian-speaking schools

This study examined the extent to which teaching practices and teaching experience predict mathematics skills of children’s in the third through fifth grade by focusing on three cognitive components: (1) knowing facts and procedures, (2) applying this knowledge and (3) using reasoning. This study was longitudinal. The data was collected from 1810 students and 90 teachers attending Estonian- and Russian-speaking schools. The students’ were tested twice, at the beginning of the third and at the beginning of the fifth grade. The teachers were asked to complete a questionnaire assessing their teaching practices. The results revealed that teachers from Estonian-speaking and Russian-speaking schools’ classrooms differed in their use of teaching practices and teaching experience. Teachers in Russian-speaking schools were slightly more experienced, and they reported using more teacher-centred practices compared to teachers in Estonian-speaking schools. The study showed different effects on the outcomes of the children attending classrooms where the study language was Estonian and Russian in solving arithmetic word problems when accounting for the teachers’ use of different learner-centred teaching practices in the classroom.     

Understandings and misconceptions of biology concepts held by students attending small high schools and students attending large high schools

Do students from small high schools show fewer understandings and more misconceptions of biology concepts than students attending large high schools? Fifty students attending large high schools (enrollments exceeding 900 students) and fifty students attending small high schools (enrollments less than 150 students) were randomly selected and than evaluated on their understandings and misunderstandings of four biology concepts: diffusion, homeostasis, food production in plants, and classification of animals and plants. Students attending small high schools showed less instances of understanding and more instances of misunderstanding the concepts of diffusion and homeostasis. These differences could be related to a higher percentage of students in large schools capable of formal operations; sound understanding of diffusion and homeostasis required students to use formal operations. No difference was observed between the large and small school samples for the concepts of food production in plants and classification of plants and animals. Students in the small school sample lived in agricultural communities and their daily experiences allowed them to develop some understanding of food production in plants and prevented instances of misunderstandings from being developed. Classification of animals and plants required concrete operations to understand; therefore, students in small schools were capable of developing sound understanding as well as students from large schools.     

Patterns of seated activity in sensory gardens among children educated in special schools

This study investigated the seated activity among children educated in special schools and their adult carers in two sensory gardens in the United Kingdom. Seated activity was established whether the seating was used as intended or whether users preferred to sit on other attributes during their learning session. The objectives of this study are to explore opportunities for users' activity and their engagement with the attributes, whether activity is possible or if opportunities are not being actualised because of barriers. Observation and behaviour mapping methods were carried out alongside affordance theory. The outcome suggests that the number of users, the number of attributes and the total area of the zone did not relate to the median time spent per user; rather, it was the richness of the attributes that did so.     

The voices of thirteen Chinese and Taiwanese parents sharing views about their children attending Chinese heritage schools

Many Chinese and Taiwanese parents providing their children the opportunity to learn Chinese in the Untie States see benefits of Chinese schools in culture and language. The results of this qualitative study involving interviews with thirteen Chinese and Taiwanese parents indicated that there were three main reasons why parents want to send their children to Chinese schools. They are （1） maintenance of heritage language and culture, （2） perspectives of bilingualism, and （3） value of Chinese heritage school.     

Educational arrangements and social participation with peers amongst children with disabilities in regular schools

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between educational arrangements and social participation amongst children with disabilities in regular schools. The analysis is based on data drawn from surveys of parents of children with disabilities, aged 11–13, who attend regular schools in Norway (N = 262). We have explored the relationships between the variables of interest by means of structural equation modelling linear structural relations (LISREL). The results show that (1) the present educational arrangements may hinder social participation with peers and (2) the type of disability and the degree of impairment have no direct effect on the degree of social participation with peers, but only an indirect effect via educational support and classroom participation. These findings suggest that if children with disabilities are equally entitled to have the opportunity of gaining the same social benefits as their peers, then regular schools should be careful not to segregate them from their peers in mainstream school activities.     

Teaching in mainstream and special schools: are the stresses similar or different?

Research evidence, and the direct experience of many practitioners, suggest that teaching is a stressful profession. However, a number of factors, including, for example, the age group taught, the number of pupils in the class, the hours worked and the type of school, may mediate the types and degree of stress experienced. In this article, Michelle Williams, who carried out this study as part of her degree in psychology at the University of East London and who is not a teacher, and Professor Irvine Gersch, course director of the MSc course in educational psychology at the University of East London, describe work undertaken to compare whether teaching in a mainstream or special school is perceived as more stressful and whether there are different stresses in both types of school.
The authors designed a questionnaire to measure teacher stress and collected data from 41 teachers in three mainstream and two special schools. Their results reveal no significant difference in the overall level of stress experienced between mainstream and special school teachers, but five factors do emerge indicating that different types of stress are experienced in the different school settings studied.