One year has passed since the legislation mandating "mainstreaming" was enacted. Individual school districts have interpreted the laws for their own needs and have set up programs based on those needs. Although programs for the handicapped youths have increased, so has the isolation and segregation that permeated the sparsely existing…

The report summarizes the findings and conclusions from the second and final year of an evaluation of Head Start's efforts to serve handicapped children. It is explained that baseline and posttest data were collected on 391 handicapped Head Start students, 321 handicapped children in non-Head Start preschool programs, and 121 unserved handicapped…

A training package on mainstreaming was field tested with 263 regular and special class teachers and paraprofessionals. The package included a set of structured roleplays and discussion sessions designed for use by untrained workshop managers in a 2- to 3-hour workshop. It was concluded that the training materials are capable of being utilized…

A 4-year research project involving 342 handicapped and 202 nonhandicapped children (in grades 1 through 6) was conducted to determine the practicality and impact of assigning special educators to support regular classroom teachers (the stratistician-generalist model). Examined were the following variables: teacher ratings of the student; student…

The study compared two groups of fourth grade special needs children differing in mainstreaming experience--one group was currently receiving more segregated instruction than they had the prior year and the other group was receiving less. Variables investigated included measures of their attitude toward school, social acceptance by regular class…

The historical review places mainstreaming of exceptional children in the context of special education developments since World War II and recent legislation. The period since the War is noted to have produced an expansion of special education services. Among pressures described for changing the emphasis on special class placement are the…

A peer tutoring system was used to improve the math skills of nine eighth grade students in a mainstreaming program. Ss (whose math skill deficits ranged from 3.8 to 6.6 years) met daily with peer tutors for one half hour of instruction from the Sullivan Associates Programmed Math series. Achievement rates after 3 months ranged from 4.8 months per…

Evaluated were the effects of a curriculum model combining mainstreaming and field-centered educational experiences on 201 handicapped, normal, or gifted high school students (13-17 years old). The model, studied over a 4-year period, was based on the importance of relating classroom activities to the reality of society and the advantages of…

Discussed in connection with Project PRIME (Programmed Reentry into Mainstream Education) is the need for educational research to assess the comparative efficacy of three instructional settings (regular resource, and self-contained special education classes) for providing services to handicapped children. It is explained that data on the classroom…

Educable mentally retarded children were mainstreamed into regular elementary school classes. Experimental subjects worked on a multimedia project with four to six nonretarded classmates. After eight weeks of treatment, the nonretarded children's acceptance of their experimental peers improved significantly more than that of the control children.…

The study sampled 145 elementary school handicapped children in order to compare a mainstreamed and self-contained special education program in a large urban school district. (Author/PHR)

An in-service model for mainstreaming mildly handicapped children is described which combines competitive, accommodative, and problem solving approaches. (CL)