A Comparison of the Academic and Social Attitudes of Eighth Grade Special Education Students with and Without a History of Elementary School Retention

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the academic and social attitudes of 8th grade special education students that have been retained and those that have not. This is important because a students’ attitude can affect their success in life and school. The null hypotheses are that there are no statistically significant difference in the mean Social Attitude, Academic Attitude, and Total School Attitude scores in eighth grade special education students that have a history of elementary school rete ntion and age, gender, race, and special education classification matched to students that do not. This study compared the academic and social attitudes of students that were retained (n=9) and that were not (n=9). The researcher created a survey to assess the student’s social and academic attitudes. The mean Social Attitude score was significantly lower for the retention group (Mean = 21.56, SD = 7.89) than for the non - retention group (Mean = 35.33, SD = 6.91) [t(8) = .007, p < .01]. The mean Academic Att itude score was also significantly lower for the retention group (Mean = 24.11, SD = 8.10) than for the non - retention group (Mean = 40.67, SD = 3.39) [t(8) = .002, p < .01]. Finally, the mean Total School Attitude score was significantly lower for the rete ntion group (Mean = 45.67, SD = 15.67) than for the non - retention group (Mean = 76.00, SD = 9.08) [t(8) = .003, p < .01]. Implications of the findings and ideas for future research are discussed. Thus, the null hypothesis was rejected.