THE SAMPLE OF STUDENTS UPON WHICH THIS REPORT IS BASED
This report describes the impact of the remedial reading curriculum on all students who attended Ben Bronz Academy from school year 1991-92 through school year 1996-97, a total of 120 students over a period of six years. Eight students left school in their first year of enrollment, so pre-post data were not available for them. That left a research sample of 112.

Figure 1 shows the distribution of the ages of the students at the time they entered Ben Bronz Academy. The bulk of the students ranged from age nine to age 16. Age 12 was both the mean and the mode. One student entered at age seven and one at age eight.

Figure 2 shows the distribution of IQ scores. The range (72 to 135) was impressively wide. The mean was 99, and the distribution was symmetrical. Thus, the distribution of intelligence of Ben Bronz students appears to be essentially similar to a "normal," unselected sample of students in the public schools. Learning disabilities seem to strike at all intelligence levels.

All of the students entered Ben Bronz Academy with the general diagnosis of Serious Learning Disability. Many had additional, more specific, co-occurring diagnoses. These diagnoses and their frequencies of occurrence are shown in Table I. (Since each student may have had more than one diagnosis, the frequencies are not totaled.) Attention Deficit Disorder, Language Disorder and Dyslexia were the most frequent co-occurring diagnoses.
 
 

Table I

Co-occurring Diagnoses at the Time of Enrollment
(All Students had the Primary Diagnosis of Seriously Learning Disabled)

 Language Disorder, Expressive or Receptive 
(including Auditory Processing or Phonological Disorder)
47
 Dysgraphia, Visual Processing or Written Expression Disorder 8
 Mathematics Learning Disorder 3
 Dyspraxia or Motor Delay 2
 Neurologically Involved 5
 Dyslexia 28 
 Attention Deficit Disorder 52
 Tourette's Syndrome 5
 Williams' Syndrome
 Woodburg's Syndrome 1

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