Social acceptance of Elementary Educable Mentally Retarded Pupils in the Regular Classroom

Abstract

In the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System students classified as Educable Mentally Retarded (EMR) have been completely mainstreamed into regular classrooms. This study was an attempt to assess the effectiveness of that mainstreaming in terms of the social acceptance or rejection of EMR students by their non-EMR classmates. Subjects were drawn from 15 fifth and sixth grade classes in three elementary schools. Thirty-two non-EMR students were randomly selected and matched by sex and classroom assignment with 32 identified EMR students for comparison of sociometric ratings. The results indicate that fifth and sixth grade EMR students receive significantly lower sociometric ratings than a randomly selected sample of their non-EMR classmates.

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