Closing the Performance Gap: CAI and Secondary Education for the Mildly Handicapped

Secondary mildly handicapped students are frequently expected to pass a set of academic competencies in order to graduate from high school along with their non-handicapped peers. Typically, resource room instruction for these mildly handicapped students involves considerable practice on elementary facts and concepts and relatively little time devoted to more complex information and problem-solving activities. Well designed computer assisted instruction can not only teach the latter, but it can lead students to perform at skill levels commensurate with their non-handicapped peers. This article describes three studies involving the use of CAI with secondary mildly handicapped students. Experimental comparisons were conducted between mildly handicapped groups and quasi-experimental comparisons were made between the experimental group in each study and non-handicapped peers. The studies consistently indicate that well designed CAI can have a significant effect on learning.