Itinerant vs. Inclusion: Comparison of Achievement Levels

As seen in our previous two posts, children with itinerant teachers appear to score higher on the achievement tests than students in inclusion classrooms. We assume this is because the itinerant teacher provides extra one-on-one attention that gives the student time to really focus on things they did not understand in class. Inclusion students without itinerant teachers have to rely solely on the abilities of their teachers and interpreters. Another issue in mainstream classes is that students often don't have a way to communicate directly with the teacher.

"Staff and students spoke of barriers to communication between deaf students and inclusion teachers.When mainstream teachers did not communicate directly to students this could be viewed by the students as teachers not understanding their needs:

“Some teachers just leave me and some teachers don’t know about me–they don’t talk to me, or help me.”

"I go up to the teacher if I want to ask a question about the work. I go up and say “hi,” and then ask the question. Teachers don’t come up to me” (Esera 2008).

According to Wolters, Knoors, Cillessen, and Verhoeven in Imapct of Peer and Teacher Realations on Deaf Early Adolescents' Well-Being: Comparisons Before and After a Major School Transition, "After the transition to junior high school, deaf mainstream children still had lower levels of well-being than hearing classmates, and mainstream boys had lower levels than girls. An interesting pattern occurs regarding the importance of the relationship with the teacher for children’s well-being in school. For deaf children, regardless of educational setting, higher levels of acceptance are associated with higher levels of well-being in school. Interestingly, although the relationship with the teacher predicted well-being for deaf children in special education schools, it did not predict well-being for deaf mainstreamed children. For deaf mainstreamed children, peer relations (i.e., acceptance and popularity) predicted well-being, where acceptance was more important for girls than boy" (2012).

The chart below compares deaf and hearing students' achievement levels from grade 2 to grade 9.