The adequacy of staff support for compliant and quality special educational programming as perceived by local school personnel, 1988

Richards, Ruby Tolbert

1980-1989

This study examined the perceptions of local school personnel concerning the adequacy of staff support for Compliant and Quality special educational programming in relationship to selected demographics of subjects, i.e., Role Position, Administrative Area, Highest Earned Degree, Tenure in Present Position, Number of Special Education Classes for which Principal Has Responsibility, teacher's Delivery Mode, and teacher's Area of Exceptionality. Additionally, the study examined subjects' written comments for program improvement and their ratings of tasks of staff leaders to facilitate Compliant and Quality special educational programming. Participants included 30 principals with responsibility for and 87 teachers of exceptional students. A writer-designed questionnaire was used to secure data on all variables. Statistical procedures used were T-Test, ANOVA, and correlational analysis (Pearson r); the established level of significance was 0.05. Significant relationships were found between various Compliance indicators and Number of Special Education Classes for which Principal Has Responsibility, Number of Special Education Courses Taken by principal, and principal's and teacher's Tenure in Present Position; and between various Quality indicators and teacher's Delivery Mode and teacher's Tenure in Present Position. An intercorrelation of subjects' responses regarding Compliance and Quality indicators revealed a number of significant relationships. Among principals, these were Information Dissemination and Staff Training, Material Resources, and Teacher Motivation; and, Monitoring and Staff Training. Among teachers, all relationships between Compliance and Quality indicators were found to be significant. Respondents' written responses indicated that principals perceived the need for increased resources -to facilitate mainstreaming; and teachers, the need for improved communication, increased skills' training in instruction and classroom management, and the employment of staff to conduct school level Compliance tasks. An item analysis of mean scores revealed that subjects rated staff support for Compliant programming more favorably than that for Quality programming. The general implication was that differentiated activities were needed to accommodate various demographics. The general recommendations were that special attention should be given to indicators of Quality programming, i.e., staff training, material resources, and teacher motivation; and, that a division of leaders' responsibilities should be made to ensure improvement in both components of Special educational programming, i.e., Compliance and Quality.

text

application/pdf

1988-07-01

thesis

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Atlanta University

School of Education

Turner, Trevor

Clark Atlanta University

Georgia--Atlanta

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12322/cau.td:1988_richards_ruby_t