Individual Student Characteristics
Individual students are the core constituents of the educational process. Students bring powerful assets to the educational equationintelligence, hope, enthusiasm, drive, compassion, sense of humor, and a variety of functional abilitiesto varying degrees. To provide an understanding of student outcomes, SEELS will need to paint a thoughtful picture of students in special education. Several dimensions for task force consideration include:
Potential research questions related to student characteristics appear in Table 8.
Table 8 |
Potential Research Questions Student characteristics |
Descriptive Questions |
What are students identified disabilities? |
What are the implications of disability for student functioning? What are students abilities in functional domains, including vision, hearing, use of limbs, practical reading and numeracy tasks? |
What are students demographic characteristics, including age, gender, and ethnicity? |
What languages do students speak? What is their English language proficiency? |
To what extent are students first generation immigrants? |
How generally healthy are students in special education? What are their experiences with hospitalization? |
Do students in special education have medical insurance? To what extent does it meet their medical needs? |
What past experiences with grade promotion or retention do students in special education have? |
Where and with whom do students live? |
How frequently have children moved? Changed schools? |
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Comparative & Explanatory Questions |
How do demographic and health characteristics vary among disability categories? |
How do students in special education compare with the general student population in terms of these characteristics? |
How do student characteristics correlate with features of students educational programs? To what extent is what they get a function of who they are? |
What individual characteristics correlate with better outcomes? |
How does past educational experience correlate with current academic performance? |
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