Date of Award

2012

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

History

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the attitudes of principals regarding the provision of special education services using the traditional special education model compared to using the response to intervention model. The major research and related research questions were identified by the investigator to explore the attitudes of Illinois public elementary school principals regarding special education services, in relation to: (1) resources; (2) amount of faculty time spent; and (3) the role of the principal. The major research question and the related research question was addressed through seven survey questions, six through Likert–scaled questions and one through an open ended question.

To address the research objectives, the researcher conducted a pilot test with three Illinois elementary school principals from a south suburban school district in Illinois. The sample for this study is purposeful, rather than random and is based on the attitudes of public Illinois elementary school principals. The sample is limited to 15 Illinois school districts across DuPage County, Will County and Cook County, and included 68 elementary schools across the 15 school districts. The elementary schools used in this study have student populations ranging from kindergarten (K) to eight (8) grades. Of the 68 surveys sent to this representative sample of principals, 39 were returned. The 39 respondents was a 60% response rate.

The study revealed that over 90% of the majority of the 39 respondents regarding special education services attitude reflected that more resources are used for response to intervention model compared to traditional special education model. The results further indicated that the majority of the 39 respondents' attitudes indicate that the amount of faculty time spent was greater in the use of the response to intervention model than in the traditional special education model. Lastly, the majority of the 39 respondents' attitudes towards the role of the principal were greater in the area of response to intervention model than in the traditional special education model.

Results of the study suggested the majority of Illinois elementary public school principal respondents felt their attitude towards the use of the response to intervention model is greater than their attitude towards the use of the traditional special education model.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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