Abstract
Educating children is a costly endeavor; however, when children with special needs enter
kindergarten unprepared emotionally, socially, or academically, the increased costs and
support systems have to be absorbed by the schools and communities. The purpose of this
study was to determine if there was a significant difference between the academic
achievement of students participating in Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE)
compared to students without ECSE services with DIAL-3 scores ranked in the 20th
percentile or below. Achievement scores for second and third graders in one urban school
district were utilized to compare the scores of ECSE and non-ECSE students. The sample
included the TerraNova and Performance Series assessment scaled scores of 30 ECSE
students and 30 non-ECSE students for a total of 60 students from academic years 2008
to 2012 from the participating school district. A stratified sampling was utilized within
the two groups of students’ assessment scores. Standard calculations included means,
standard deviations, and a t-test. When comparing the second grade achievement scores,
ECSE students had statistically significant gains on the overall scaled scores than the
non-ECSE students. When comparing the third grade Performance Series reading,
language arts, and math scaled scores of the ECSE students to the non-ECSE students,
the ECSE students had statistically higher achievement scaled scores compared to the
non-ECSE students. When comparing the third grade Performance Series reading and
language arts standard item pool scores of the ECSE students to the non-ECSE students,
the ECSE students had statistically higher achievement standard item pool compared to
the non-ECSE students. The Performance Series standard item pool scores were not
statistically significant between the two groups.