The Academic Status of Adolescents with Behavioral Disorders

Abstract

Academic competence and school performance are important to the successful adjustment of pupils. Unfortunately, along with social-emotional deficits, a primary characteristic of behaviorally disordered pupils is an inability to learn from academic instruction. The purpose of this article is to review the research on the academic status of behaviorally disordered adolescents and to identify future research needs and issues. The research needs identified involve sampling techniques, the selection of dependent measures including curriculum-based assessment, the assessment of the learning strategy, abilities of students with behavioral disorders, and instructional variables affecting the achievement of adolescents with social-emotional disorders.

The Effects of Reading Fluency Instruction on the Academic and Behavioral Success of Middle School Students in a Self-Contained EBD Classroom

“…of Education, 1998), indicating an increase in students who are at the highest risk for failure (Lichtenstein, 1988;National Mental Health Association, 1998;Sitlington, Frank, & Carson, 1990). These students are far more likely to be deficient in basic academic skills than are their disabled and nondisabled peers and are far more likely to fail in school (Epstein, Kinder, & Bursuck, 1989, Kauffman, 1997Walker, Colvin, & Ramsey, 1995). Socially, students with EBD are often excluded from the general education environment for behaviors such as noncompliance, aggression, disruption, selfinjury, property destruction, and antisocial responses (Knitzer, Steinberg & Fleisch, Kentucky Office of Educational Accountability ( 1998) estimates that 62% of the identified ninth grade EBD students will drop out.…”

Patterns and correlates of learning, behavior, and emotional problems of adolescents with and without serious emotional disturbance

“…A similar factor, however, has been found with some scales (see Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1978;Cullinan et al, 1983;Hoge, 1983). In any event, it is clear that academic and learning problems are commonly present among adolescent students with behavioral and emotional problems (Epstein et al, 1989).…”

“…These two dimensions are clearly characteristic of students with serious emotional disturbance (Luebke, Epstein, & Cullinan, 1987); but such pupils also generally experience considerable problems of learning, as manifested in lower intellectual ability, academic achievement, and other indices of unsatisfactory learning performance (e.g., Epstein, Kinder, & Bursuck, 1989). However, the literature on students with emotional disturbance and, generally, childhood psychopathology has tended to focus more on externalizing and internalizing disorders than on learning problems.…”

Comparison of Repeated and Two Non-Repeated Readings Conditions on Reading Abilities of Students with Emotional and/or Behavioral Disabilities

“…This difficulty in reading contributes to the widening of the achievement gap between students with EBD and their typical learning counterparts (Levy & Chard, 2001a). Additionally, students with EBD are more likely to have reading problems than their typical learning peers (Epstein et al, 1989).…”