School Completers and Noncompleters With Learning Disabilities

Although academic and behavioral problems place many students with learning disabilities (LD) at risk for not completing high school, we know very little about the differences between children with LD who complete school and those who fail to do so. In this study of 76 male youth (45 school completers and 31 noncompleters), standardized measures were used to examine academic achievement and intellectual ability, and self-report measures were used to examine global self-worth, satisfaction about reading and behavior, and relations with teachers. Although we predicted that noncompleters would score lower than completers on most of these measures, no significant differences were found. Implications of these results are discussed.