TY - JOUR
T1 - The Interaction of Learning Disability Status and Student Demographic Characteristics on Mathematics Growth
AU - Stevens, Joseph J.
AU - Schulte, Ann C.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016, © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2016.
PY - 2017/5/1
Y1 - 2017/5/1
N2 - This study examined mathematics achievement growth of students without disabilities (SWoD) and students with learning disabilities (LD) and tested whether growth and LD status interacted with student demographic characteristics. Growth was estimated in a statewide sample of 79,554 students over Grades 3 to 7. The LD group was significantly lower in achievement in each grade and had less growth than the SWoD group. We also found that student demographic characteristics were significantly related to mathematics growth, but only three demographic characteristics were statistically significant as interactions. We found that LD-SWoD differences at Grade 3 were moderated by student sex, while Black race/ethnicity and free or reduced lunch (FRL) status moderated LD-SWoD differences at all grades. These results provide practitioners and policy makers with more specific information about which particular LD students show faster or slower growth in mathematics. Our results show that simply including predictors in a regression equation may produce different results than direct testing of interactions and achievement gaps may be larger for some LD subgroups of students than previously reported.
AB - This study examined mathematics achievement growth of students without disabilities (SWoD) and students with learning disabilities (LD) and tested whether growth and LD status interacted with student demographic characteristics. Growth was estimated in a statewide sample of 79,554 students over Grades 3 to 7. The LD group was significantly lower in achievement in each grade and had less growth than the SWoD group. We also found that student demographic characteristics were significantly related to mathematics growth, but only three demographic characteristics were statistically significant as interactions. We found that LD-SWoD differences at Grade 3 were moderated by student sex, while Black race/ethnicity and free or reduced lunch (FRL) status moderated LD-SWoD differences at all grades. These results provide practitioners and policy makers with more specific information about which particular LD students show faster or slower growth in mathematics. Our results show that simply including predictors in a regression equation may produce different results than direct testing of interactions and achievement gaps may be larger for some LD subgroups of students than previously reported.
KW - interaction effects
KW - mathematics achievement growth
KW - student demographic characteristics
KW - students with learning disabilities
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U2 - 10.1177/0022219415618496
DO - 10.1177/0022219415618496
M3 - Article
C2 - 26746313
AN - SCOPUS:85018939186
VL - 50
SP - 261
EP - 274
JO - Journal of Learning Disabilities
JF - Journal of Learning Disabilities
SN - 0022-2194
IS - 3
ER -