Mainstreaming Mentally Retarded Children: A Review of Research

This chapter discusses the importance of mainstreaming the mentally retarded children. The lack of comparability among treatment methods and criterion measures is reflected in contradictory results. When positive effects are reported for integrated pupils, it is difficult to determine which aspects of the mainstreamed treatment contributed to improvement. Methodological weaknesses abound in most of the studies. The discussion of research on achievement has indicated that the failure to isolate components of integration programs in the design of many studies precludes conclusions about which aspects of the treatment result in improved achievement of mainstreamed pupils, when improvement does occur. One of the most important areas of mainstreaming research requiring replication and further study involves the assessment of attitudes of professional school personnel toward mainstreaming administrators. This research is only a first step toward understanding the potential effects of mainstreaming on retarded pupils.