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I chose to conduct my study at all three middle schools in a medium-sized school
district in California that is typical of many school districts in California. Each of the
middle schools had a significant subgroup of student with disabilities. Valley was a Title
One school with about 1000 students and the lowest achievement scores (API = 779)' of
the three schools in 2008. Hillside, the largest school, with about 1400 students, had the
highest achievement scores (API = 840) and the highest socioeconomic level. The third
middle school, Mountain View, had approximately 1200 students, an average
socioeconomic level, and its achievement scores were between the other two schools
(API = 799). The three middle schools fed into two local high schools which have about
twice as many students as the middle schools.
Students with learning disabilities at the middle school were placed in either
general education Language Arts classes, Resource Specialist Program (RSP) Language