A Snapshot of Secondary Education for Students with Mild Intellectual Disabilities

Abstract

Given the number of students identified with mild intellectual disabilities and the studies showing their poor postschool outcomes, it is surprising and alarming that little current research has examined educational programming for this population of students. This paper presents a secondary analysis of the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS2) relative to understanding the educational programming (i.e., curricular focus, course instruction, setting where receive instruction, participation in assessments, and parental satisfaction) for high school students with mild intellectual disabilities. The majority of students received instruction in the core content areas, were educated in special education settings for core content areas, and received a specialized or modified academically-focused curriculum. Further, the majority of students take some form of a standardized assessment and have parents satisfied with their education. Although the data provide a snapshot of educational programming for high school students with mild intellectual disabilities, the data from the NLTS2 were from the early 21 st century and future research should explore current educational programming, especially considering the impact of federal education legislation, such as No Child Left Behind (2002).