An examination of the reading performance of students with mild educational handicaps or learning disabilities

Reading performance is a primary concern in both regular and special education. Reading is also the dominant medium through which educators conduct lessons, or students acquire information in subjects such as science and mathematics. Reading performance can be measured in a variety of ways. The present study examined the performance of students with mild educational handicaps (n = 28) or learning disabilities (n = 38) on a combination of norm-referenced and curriculum-based assessment (CBA) approaches that used science content. Overall, there were no significant differences between the samples on measures of word recognition, but significant differences favoring students with learning disabilities did occur in comprehension.