Background & Purpose: Integrating students with special needs in public education schools is one of the important educational systems. The purpose of the present study was to compare the academic achievement and behavioral performance of students with hearing impairment in inclusive and separated schools of Mazandaran Province.
Method: The present study is a causal-comparative study. The statistical population of the study consisted of all students with hearing impairment in separated and inclusive schools in Mazandaran who were studying in the academic year of 1963-94. The sample consisted of 78 students with hearing impairment (35 students from inclusive schools and 33 students from separated schools) who were selected using convenience sampling. To collect the data, the child behavior check list (Achenbach, 2001), Raven's progressive matrix test (Karami, 2010), and the students' educational records were used and data were analyzed using independent t-test, Mann-Whitney and Kalmogrof-Smirnov tests.
Results: Findings showed that the academic achievement of students in special needs were higher than the achievement of students with hearing impairment in inclusive schools (P <0.001), but the level of behavioral performance was not significant except for the components of the physical problems.
Conclusion: According to the findings of this study, it can be concluded that the integration of students with hearing impairment in public education schools has not resulted in their educational progress and the educational integration plan needs to be reviewed in terms of the necessary bases.