The How, What, Why, and When of Teaching Mathematics in the K-12 Inclusive Classroom

Key Concepts And Questions

The National Center for Educational Statistics (2019) reports 63% of all students with a disability attend regular school, time inside general class 80% or more. An estimated 3 to 7% of students with mathematics disability (MD) demonstrate deficits in working memory, visuospatial processing, and basic fact retrieval associated with long term memory (DSM-5, 2013). While these students have documented disabilities, it is estimated that nearly 50% of students experience some difficulty in mathematics (Badian, 1983; Geary, 2003; Kosc, 1974; Rivera, 1997; Siegler, 2007). Students who demonstrate difficulty in mathematics may or may not have been diagnosed with another disability (i.e. emotional and behavioral disorder, mild intellectual disability). Results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) mathematics assessment show only 40% of U.S. students without disabilities in 4^th grade demonstrated proficiency in mathematics and only 34% of the students demonstrated proficiency on the 8^th grade assessment (NAEP, 2017). In addition, data indicate that students with disabilities continue to perform at lower levels of achievement compared to their nondisabled peers year after year with little improvement. Math learning disability have been identified as dyscalculia—a learning disability that makes it challenging to learn and process math (see Table 1 for more information on dyscalculia)