Isolation timeouts for students. Researchers at Rochester Institute of Technology investig...

Isolation timeouts for students. Researchers at Rochester Institute of Technology investigated the use of isolation time-out as a behavioral management technique (Exceptional Children, Feb. 1995.) Subjects for the study were 155 emotionally disturbed students enrolled in a special-education facility. The students were randomly assigned to one of two types of classrooms: Option II classrooms (one teacher, one paraprofessional, and a maximum of 12 students) and Option III classrooms (one teacher, one paraprofessional, and a maximum of 6 students). Over the academic year, the number of behavioral incidents resulting in an isolation time-out was recorded for each student. Summary statistics for the two groups of students are shown in the following table:

Source: Costenbader, V., and Reading-Brown, M. "Isolation timeout used with students with emotional disturbance,” Exceptional Children, Vol. 61, No. 4, Feb. 1995, p. 359 (Table 3).

Do you agree with the following statement: “On average, students in Option III classrooms had significantly more time-out incidents than students in Option II classrooms?”

Table 3