Regional Survey of Teacher Attitudes toward Special Education Resource Programs.

Overview & Synopsis

Surveys regarding attitudes toward special education were completed by 1,232 regular classroom teachers in Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi. Analysis was performed on survey responses and measures of teachers' experience, level of education, number of special education courses taken, class size, number of special education students in the class, attitude toward those students, school size and location, and grade level taught. Significant relationships were found between attitudes toward the special education resource program and attitudes toward special education students. In addition, four factors were significantly related to the special education resource program: number of years of teaching experience, number of special education children assigned to the classroom, coursework in special education, and school location. Over 20% of the attitudes toward the special education resource programs measured in the survey were negative. (CL)