Academic Achievement

A considerable gap in achievement in reading, mathematics, science, and social studies exists between youth with disabilities and their peers in the general population.

• Direct assessment results are reported as standard scores, which, for the general population of youth, have a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15. In the general population, 50 percent of youth score at the mean of 100 or above and 50 percent score below. In contrast to this distribution for the general population, more than threequarters of youth with disabilities score below the mean across subtests.
• In the general population, about 2 percent of youth have standard scores that are more than two standard deviations below the mean (i.e., below 70). Among youth with disabilities represented by those who participated in the direct assessment, from 14 percent to 27 percent score more than two standard deviations below the mean across subtests.
• Despite the prevalence of poor scores among youth with disabilities, from 12 percent to 23 percent of youth with disabilities have scores above the mean of 100 for the general population.
• Youth experience the greatest difficulty with reading comprehension; on average, they have a mean score of 79, compared with mean scores that range from 84 for mathematics calculation and social studies content knowledge to 87 for the use of synonyms and antonyms.