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The Academic Effects of Moving to Middle School on Students with Disabilities Relative to their General Education Peers

Kaitlyn G. O'Hagan,
Leanna Stiefel,
Amy Ellen Schwartz

Middle school transitions are increasingly required, despite documented negative effects on general education students (GENs). We explore if and how the move to middle school differentially affects students with disabilities (SWDs), a large and low-performing group of students. Using an instrumental variables strategy and NYC data on nine cohorts of students, we find the middle school transition causes a 0.29 standard deviation decline in SWD math performance, a 0.16 standard deviation decline in ELA performance, and a one percentage point increase in grade retention. However, after accounting for potential mediators (e.g. peer cohort stability) effects are similar for SWDs and GENs, suggesting the need to ease the middle school transition for all students.

Keywords
policy, special education, school organization
Education level
K-12 Education
Topics
Student Learning
Tags
Students with disabilities,
Middle schools
Download 08/2023
Document Object Identifier (DOI)
10.26300/1vfx-x027
EdWorkingPaper suggested citation:
O'Hagan, Kaitlyn, Leanna Stiefel, and Amy Ellen Schwartz. (). The Academic Effects of Moving to Middle School on Students with Disabilities Relative to their General Education Peers. (EdWorkingPaper: -655). Retrieved from Annenberg Institute at Brown University: https://doi.org/10.26300/1vfx-x027

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