An educational programming framework for a subset of students with diverse learning needs: borderline intellectual functioning.(Report)

Students with intelligence test scores between 70 and 85 frequently fall into the gap between general and special education. Students with borderline intellectual functioning are a large population at-risk for school failure. Recent educational trends (e.g., the use of response to intervention models of special education eligibility, implementation of inclusive education, and the accountability components of No Child Left Behind) have increased awareness and may serve as a catalyst for improving the education of students with borderline intellectual functioning. However, students currently receive few supportive educational services. An educational programming framework is developed for improving the education of students with borderline intellectual functioning in response to recent educational trends. Effective instructional practices can build academic resilience skills to ameliorate the important, but often-ignored, risk factor of borderline intellectual functioning.

Keywords: intervention; academic; instruction; accommodations; differential curriculum for students with mild disabilities; inclusion; strategies; intervention(s)

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Students with borderline intellectual functioning have intelligence test scores between 70 and 85. Nationwide, this population makes up approximately 14% of the population, which is more than all students in all special education categories combined (Shaw, 1999a). Although these students have intelligence test scores that range from the 2nd to the 16th percentile and frequently have difficulty acquiring academic skills, they often are not eligible for special education services (Kaznowski, 2004; MacMillan, Gresham, Siperstein, & Bocian, 1996).

Students with borderline intellectual functioning are a subset of diverse learners who account for disproportionately high levels of school dropout, grade retention, school suspension and expulsion, referral for special education services, teen pregnancy, incarceration, illicit drug use, aggression, mental health problems, and underemployment and unemployment (Ahrens, Evans, & Barnett, 1990; Shaw, 1999a; 1999b). Students with borderline intellectual functioning often have deficits in social skills, attention, speech and language skills, and school readiness (Lynam, Moffitt, Stouthamer-Loeber, 1993; Shaw, 2000a). Students with borderline intellectual functioning have been called slow learners, shadow children, gray-area kids, low achievers, educationally subnormal, and crack kids (i.e., because they fall between the cracks) because they rarely meet eligibility criteria for special education but have high failure rates in the general education setting (MacMillan, Gresham, Bocian, & Lambros, 1998; Stuebing & Shaywitz, 1998; Zetlin & Murtaugh, 1990). These terms are considered to be pejorative, outmoded, and even offensive (Cooter & Cooter, 2004). The label "children with diverse learning needs" is now widely used and far more acceptable in education (Coyne, Kame'enui, & Carnine, 2007).

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