Over the years, many special education trends have emerged and faded, each claiming to be the solution to providing students with special needs a greater chance for success. Each year, new requirements for graduation and new educational legislation are introduced to try and correct old problems of ensuring students with special needs are properly educated leaving educators, parents, and advocacy groups with uncertainty as to appropriate placement, for students with learning disabilities. Therefore, the question becomes: "What method of instruction best suits the needs of special education students?" This will be a convergent mixed methodology study on the differences of students with special needs placed in both self-contained and inclusion classrooms as it pertains to their success on the ELA and Algebra Regents examinations. The students selected for this will be from a culturally diverse suburban school district located in central Long Island New York. This research will focus on students with special needs, ages 14 to 18, within these classroom settings and the differences in achievement on state assessment measures. A descriptive statistical analysis using SPSS will be conducted on students over the course of five years (2015-2019) in both the ELA and Algebra 1 Regents. A correlation study will also be conducted as to determine the differences in students relation to their success on both exams. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]