ABSTRACT
The studies reported in chapters 4–8 verified a premise of this book, that prospects for self-determination are different for low- and high-achieving students because of differences in their abilities to adjust to new opportunities. Students in special education consistently report lower prospects for self-determination than do students in general education because of their lower capacity to adjust to challenge. The chapter 4 study reported these differences in teacher and student reports on students’ capacities and opportunities to self-determine. The chapter 5 study replicated this finding for adults with and without disabilities graduating from a community college. The study reported in chapter 6 found that students with disabilities who were enrolled in secondary schools in the Gambia, West Africa, also rated their capacities to self-determine lower than did students without disabilities enrolled in those schools. And the study in chapter 7 tested whether these differences were related to disability and found a significant disability effect when comparing capacities to self-determine of students with different sensory impairments.
