Running head: LITERATURE_REVIEW_DAVIS
Literature Review:
Learning Disabilities, Remediation, and Success
Deborah Davis
Liberty University Online
EDUC 721: Issues and Trends in Exceptionality
Dr. Verlyn Evans
July 6, 2014
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Abstract
This review seeks to determine if enrollment in remedial English courses impacts graduation
completion rates of Learning Disabled (LD) students. The challenge begins with determining
who the LD students are. At the post-secondary level, self-identification is the primary method
of locating LD students. Many will not self-identify for a variety of reasons. Transitions to
college programs can aid students in identifying their needs, as can a variety of tools available.
Seeking assistance and making assistance available is the next step. Then, students must identify
their own learning strategies and take ownership of their own issues. Programs, such as remedial
English courses can aid with learning strategies. This research explores these needs and tools
and programs and their impact on graduation rates at a University in rural southern Ohio.
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Learning Disabilities, Remediation, and Success
Students with learning disabilities are expected to self-identify at the post-secondary
level. Many do. Some do not, and for a variety of reasons. Some believe it is their chance to get
beyond whatever constraints they felt held within at prior schooling. Some believe there is a
stigma that they do not want to accompany them into college. Some do not realize they must do
so. Given that remedial English courses are now required for nearly half of the students entering
college, one must wonder if these courses meet the needs of the learning disabled (LD) students
who take them. More importantly, one must query if the successful completion of such
coursework truly prepared these LD students for the rigors of post-secondary academia, leading
to graduation. Reviewing the records of LD students at one such college (Shawnee State
University, Portsmouth, Ohio) over the previous ten years, should lead to some answers.
Research Question:
What is the effect of remedial English courses as measured by graduation completion
rates for Learning Disabled (LD) students at a rural four-year-university?
Literature Review
Identification Issues:
“Students with learning disabilities may arrive on college campuses with slightly
different characteristics than their peers” (Abreu-Ellis, Elli, & Hayes, 2009, p. 28). While
identification of these characteristics may lead to identification of the students as LD, still, those
characteristics may go unnoticed for some time. The Learning and Study Strategies Inventory
(LASSI) has shown lower scores identify students with LD issues that require special placement
or accommodations. While LD issues may relate to some academic genre and not others, to
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provide the best possible environment requires the most possible information. This entire article
focuses on timely identification of LDs to ensure proper accommodation and placement.
In an area where there is a prominent percentage of non-native English speakers, and a
requirement in the schools for English-only learning environments, ELLs are disproportionately
and increasingly likely to be identified as LD and place in a special education environment
(Sullivan, 2011). Logic would seem to dictate that testing the intelligence of a fish with its
ability to climb a tree would be inappropriate. Without language enhancements and
interventions, it would seem apparent that testing ELLs in English only will result in lower
scores, and consequently higher placements. Students need to be evaluated carefully to
determine if LDs are present, or merely language difficulties.
One way to aid LD students in reaching their post-secondary goals is through early and
appropriate identification of their needs. While the percentage of LD students is increasing in
college, the support for disability services is decreasing (Kane, Roy, & Medina, 2013, p. 21).
One tool for identification is the Learning Difficulties Assessment (LDA) – an easy to read, nocost, online tool to aid stakeholders in determining areas of strength and weakness, and
identifying tools to aid them. Use of the Likert Scale to identify each of the 123 items is then
aligned against 23 subsets to post a singular number between one and five with a score of 3.5 or
higher indicating a need for further testing and analysis for a Learning Difficulty or an Attention
Deficit issue. Using the LDA tool can aid in identification of students needing assistance at the
post-secondary level, and therefore effectively allocate the limited disability resources available.
Identification is essential in getting these students the services they need to succeed.
One program to aid in getting the identification of students with literacy and learning
issues is the National Early Literacy Panel (NELP). Recognizing these deficits in elementary
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school through the NELP program has aided students in the services needed through the postsecondary level (Miller & McCardle, 2011). The article on this issue was primarily an argument
for the need for greater research in the area of writing in general. However, the suggestion of a
synergistic approach to research and resolutions leads to some interesting potential for further
analysis. Particularly noteworthy are the elements about the ongoing need for literacy
refinement both within and without of the school system. Regardless of learning disabilities, the
abilities of the American public to write is sorrowful at best as any reading of a public newspaper
will show.
Stakeholders Issues:
This study indicates that stakeholders of students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD)
are not generally included early enough in the research process to make the research practicable
(Dingfelder & Mandell, 2011). Consequently, whatever results are applied can seldom be
implemented at the real-world level. Including stakeholders early in the process will enhance
real-world applicability to the research, and make it feasible. At the collegiate level, it is crucial
that stakeholders be engaged in any changes to the process of remedial English courses – from
selection for, through completion of – to make the changes practicable.
Zirkel (2013) shows that free appropriate public education (FAPE) is not always the same
for each student. Further, students with individual education plans (IEPs) are guided by those
instruments rather than the normative standards set by the schools or administrative
professionals. Beyond this, parental input has declined significantly in recognition by the court
system. As a consequence, remediation at the college level has become less of an exception and
more of a standard for any student who graduated with an IEP. At the freshman college level, it
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is now required to teach students to learn, because under their IEPs, they were often only taught
to regurgitate knowledge and behave.
Perhaps the biggest transition for all students moving into the Post-Secondary
environment is the garnering of responsibility for themselves. For LD students, this shift is even
more pronounced. Where special educators and parents had previously advocated for the LD
students and their rights and needs, the students now must become their own advocates
(Garrison-Wade, 2012). This study yielded three basic venues required to aid in LD student
success. Self-determination was the biggest factor, those students who want it badly enough will
find a way to get what they need. A formalized plan with mentorship and guidance was nearly
as important as the students need to know where to go and what to do within their own issues of
concern. Postsecondary support was a third big issue in that the decreasing budgets of many
schools are restricting available support to developmental services. Within these three elements,
the ownership of the issues as belonging to the student is key. All students need to realize they
are responsible for their own education.
Transition Issues:
Daviso, Denney, Baer, and Flexer (2011) studied students in Ohio for their postsecondary plans to learn how transition programs affected learning disabled (LD) students. They
found that while many had plans for employment or further education, most were unprepared for
the rigor of the requirements for either. A substantial percentage anticipated a requirement to
work to afford further schooling. This led to an understanding of how hard it is for LD students
to balance these requirements, and explains why many only attend part-time or have extensive
delays in their education. This particular study, which took place in Ohio, determined there was
a gender difference in direction and desire among LD students, with more males tending toward
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work and females toward further education. In a change from previous studies, this study found
that LD students were on or near par with their general education peers with their post-secondary
educational plans.
This study indicates that students with disabilities who intend to attend post-secondary
education are not as prepared as their non-disabled peers (Wilson, Hoffman , & McLaughlin,
2009). They are, however, more prepared than their peers with disabilities who do not plan to
attend post-secondary education. One purpose of the study was to determine the viability of
transition programs for disability students to post-secondary programs. The resulting
consequence is that transition programs can help disability students prepare for post-secondary
programs much as they do general education students. However, the post-secondary educational
institutions need to be engaged in this process to ensure the functionality of disability educational
aids and necessary remediation for students who did not participate in college preparatory
programs.
Probably the most relevant study to the situation of Shawnee State in the foothills of
Appalachia is one published by Irvin, Farmer, Weiss, Meece, Byun, McConnell, & Petrin (2011).
This study worked within the rural high school environment, comparing the needs of LD
students and their non-LD peers as regarding preparedness for college work. The most telling
point of the study was an element referred to as “Academic Self-Concept” (p. 4). Test results
show a disparity between student realization of capability and tested scores. Most of the
disparity was an indication that LD students could actually do better than they thought they
could. Further, those students with very low academic self-concept had difficulty in believing
there was value in preparing themselves for post-secondary work as they believed it beyond their
capabilities. It is interesting to note that rural students studied also tended to have lower
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aspirations than their urban peers, while the only differing score was in the academic selfconcept.
Massengill-Shaw and Disney (2013) explored literacy skills among young adults in postsecondary education programs. The reading clinic used differing methods to meet the needs of
the population and provide literacy intervention. A variety of rural, suburban, and urban students
were accommodated, largely from middle to lower socio-economic status. These students had
completed secondary schooling, though most had required some form of reading intervention in
earlier education. The students reading scales, as measured by a variety of standard literacy tests
more than doubled, on the average, during the ten week program. Such a program, geared for
students with reading challenges, could drastically reduce the number of times remedial English
would be required for incoming students, and likely eliminate it for a number of them.
When asked what would help them transition from an inclusive high school environment
to a successful post-secondary education, students in a study were virtually unanimous in the
requirement of two points: mentorship, and self-identification (McNamara, 2011). Through
mentorship, learning support, disability services, or other titles, the students had a place and a
person to go to for help. Through self-identification, they were given the gateway to the support
they needed. Still, many hesitated to self-identify, citing a desire to be identified other than by
their disability. Those who failed to self-identify frequently failed at the more stringent
requirements, lacking the needed support to succeed.
Students in the various programs for LD come up through the school system with a series
of Individual Education Plans (IEPs). These IEP lay out goals, sometimes by the week or month,
sometimes behavioral, and largely academic. In transition from secondary to post-secondary
schooling, however, there is no IEP. There is no set group of people who sit with the LD student
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to determine the next step on the path in detailed minutia. This is where some students get lost in
the shuffle (Peterson, Burden, Sedaghat, Gothberg, Kohler, & Coyle, 2013). The authors of this
article advice triangulating the goals of the student as the student rises through secondary school
Accommodation Issues:
In a shift of focus from the students, Dallas, Upton, and Sprong (2014) focused on faculty
providing inclusive curriculum to accommodate for the needs of all students. The inclusive
method in this article is referred to as Universal Design Instruction (UDI) (p. 12). This study
attempted to measure the attitudes of the faculty members toward implementation of UDI within
their various course structures. The bottom line in this study was that while most faculty were
open to multiple methods to accommodate LD students, those with more training in special
education were more forthcoming and had better attitudes toward inclusivity than others.
A study by Fichten, Jorgensen, & Havel, et al. (2012), shows that students receiving
special education services are more likely to do well both in college and in post-graduate
employment situations. In providing accommodations to students within the college
environment, the students are taught to cope with their disabilities and better prepared to manage
on their own – at the nearly same level as those without disabilities. Those who failed to register
and thus received no accommodations struggled both within the college career and in postgraduate employments. Students with disabilities found employment, but not within the field of
their studies. The question of “Why?” was not answered in this study but left for further
investigation. Once students are registered appropriately, their needs are more likely to be met,
whether through remedial English or specific counseling depends on the individual.
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Perhaps half as many LD students enrolled in post-secondary education will graduate as
correlated against their non-LD peers (Mytkowski, Goss, & College, 2012). This difference is
largely attributed to the difference in LD students who sought aid or accommodation and those
who did not. Relationships and conversation with professorial staff were attributed as causal
factors for successful LD students. The professors in this study were uniquely trained to provide
LD support services. Consequently, the students felt that their responsibility for ownership of
their LD issues led to their achievements, and the professors aided the students in their
ownership. The understanding of the metacognition issues affiliated with their own LDs allowed
these students to grown in their own paths. The study as a whole points to the criticality of LD
students being responsible for themselves and their learning. This allows them to seek the
support they need and find the tools best suited to them, and is directly related to their success at
the post-secondary level.
Another key factor in success at the post-secondary level is social skills. Students with
any issues within the Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) have these issues identified as part of
their diagnostic criteria (DeMatteo, Arter, Sworen-Parise, Fasciana & Paulhammus (2012). In
order to provide ASD students with the appropriate accommodations, it is essential to identify
what deficits they may have and how best to remediate them. The issue of interfering problem
behaviors must be addressed as well. Because of the different methods and modes of
intervention for the vast disparity in issues among students with ASD, it is essential that faculty
and Special Education staff work closely together to determine the appropriate accommodations
for these students.
PETERSON
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REED
SCHELLY
WILGOSH
Conclusion
All students need support. Students with LDs need to be responsible for seeking their
own support if they will be successful. The students who are identified or sel-identify with LDs
and pursue the assistance they need are more likely to take ownership of their own issues.
Owning their issues leads to better coping strategies and higher success rates. It is likely that this
study will validate the literature in this respect. Future studies would include qualitative analysis
with LD students to determine the best possible methods of aiding them in identification
strategies and erasing any stigma affiliated with the LD community. Transition to college is
difficult for most students. Those LD students who are not aided in this transition process will
have a harder time still. Tools, such as the Learning Difficulties Assessment (LDA) will allow
the students to identify their needs, and when incorporated in the post-secondary program, will
aid them in owning their issues and finding learning strategies that work for them individually.
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