Schools have been working for years to eliminate the achievement gap between special education students and those without IEPs. A study by UNH doctoral candidate Carla Evans has found amazing achievement gains in 8th grade math among special education students at PACE schools compared to students in non-PACE schools. In fact, she found that:
PACE students with IEPs do better in 8th grade math than they had before.
Carla’s study also shows that the competency based learning in PACE schools shows up in their performance on traditional standardized tests.
The next step is to see whether she finds the same kinds of results in English Language Arts in 8th grade and in ELA and math in the other grades. These results are, on their face, very impressive.