Service Delivery Models: Impacts for Students With and Without Disabilities

Authors: Nathan Jones, Lindsey Kaler, Jessica Markham, Josefina Senese, Marcus A. Winters 

Project Summary

When a student is identified with a disability, their school faces many decisions about how best to support their academic and developmental progress. One key decision point is how and where the student will receive needed services. Will they remain in a general education classroom all the time, be “pulled out” to a different environment for part of the day, or be placed in a separate classroom solely for students with disabilities? This research study offers some of the field’s first causal evidence of how different service delivery models impact student achievement and behavior. The findings contribute valuable information to ongoing discussions about how to organize schools and allocate resources effectively to support students with disabilities.

Key Findings

• Students with disabilities who experience two different service delivery models during their academic journey tend to achieve slightly better academic outcomes in the more inclusive setting.
• However, effects are quite small and vary across grade levels.

Policy Implications

These findings suggest that ongoing efforts to increase inclusive learning opportunities for students with disabilities may be beneficial in some ways but are not a panacea for improving special education overall. As education leaders work toward making informed decisions to support students with disabilities, we must continue to build up at-scale evidence about service delivery models as well as other aspects of the broader special education system.