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Improving Reading Comprehension of Middle and High School Students pp 179–197Cite as

Special Education in Middle and High School

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Part of the book series: Literacy Studies ((LITS,volume 10))

Abstract

This chapter includes three sections addressing historical, current, and emerging issues in teaching reading comprehension to students with disabilities. The first section reviews special education law, statistics, and practices as they relate to middle and school. The second section reviews the information presented in the content area chapters and discusses how the information presented works with students in special education but receiving the majority of their content instruction (80 % or more of the day) in general education settings. The final section presents an overview of effective instructional practices in light of new issues being raised with instructional fidelity and the need to have students more actively engaged in reading diverse texts, including those that are computer-based.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Mental retardation is now referred to as intellectual disability.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Florida Center for Reading Research, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

    Deborah K. Reed

  2. College of Education, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA

    Kristi L. Santi

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  1. Deborah K. Reed
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Correspondence to Deborah K. Reed .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Education, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, USA

    Kristi L. Santi

  2. Florida Center for Reading Research, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, USA

    Deborah K. Reed

Appendix A

Appendix A

Excerpt from the transcript of the President’s Panel on Mental Retardation (pp. 1–3)

1.1 Introduction

The mentally retarded are children and adults who, as a result of inadequately developed intelligence, are significantly impaired in their ability to learn and to adapt to the demands of society. An estimated 3 % of the population, or 5.4 million children and adults in the United States are afflicted, some severely, most only mildly. Assuming this rate of prevalence, an estimated 126,000 babies born each year will be regarded as mentally retarded at some time in their lives.

1.2 Significance of the Problem

Mental retardation ranks as a major national health, social, and economic problem:

  • It afflicts twice as many individuals as blindness, polio, cerebral palsy, and rheumatic heart disease, combined; only 4 significant disabling conditions—mental illness, cardiac disease, arthritis, and cancer—have a higher prevalence, but they tend to come late in life while mental retardation comes early.

  • About 400,000 of the persons affected are so retarded that they require constant care or supervision, or are severely limited in their ability to care for themselves and to engage in productive work; the remaining 5 million are individuals with mild disabilities.

  • Over 200,000 adults and children, largely from the severely and profound mental retarded groups, are cared for in residential institutions, mostly at public expense. States and localities spend $300 million a year in capital and operating expenses for their care. In addition they spend perhaps $250 million for special education, welfare, rehabilitation, and other benefits and services for retarded individuals outside of public institutions. In the current fiscal year, the Federal Government will obligate an estimated $178 million for the mentally retarded, about four-fifths for income maintenance payments and the rest for research, training and for special services. Federal funds for this group have increased by about 75 % in 5 years.

  • The Nation is denied several billion dollars of economic output because of the under-achievement, under-production and/or the complete incapability of the mentally retarded.

  • The untold human anguish and loss of happiness and well being which results from mental l retardation blights the families in the United States. An estimated 15–20 million people live in families in which there is a mentally retarded individual. Economic costs cannot compare with the misery and frustration and realization that one’s child will be incapable of living a normal life or fully contributing to the well being of himself and to society in later life.

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Reed, D.K., Santi, K.L. (2015). Special Education in Middle and High School. In: Santi, K., Reed, D. (eds) Improving Reading Comprehension of Middle and High School Students. Literacy Studies, vol 10. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14735-2_8

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