全球智库信息集成服务系统

Teachers report that their schools have a culture of shared responsibility for serving students with disabilities, but they have less access to relevant training, resources, planning time, and student data

• General educators were less likely than special educators to report having sufficient access to support for serving students with high-incidence disabilities (SWDs).
• Most teachers reported that their schools had a culture of shared responsibility for the success of all students, but fewer reported sufficient leadership support for serving SWDs, particularly general educators.
• Most teachers reported having access to staff with specific expertise regarding students with disabilities, but fewer — particularly general educators — believed that collaboration was emphasized in their school models or that they had sufficient time for planning.
• General educators reported significantly less access than special educators to data and records for SWDs as well as tools for using data.
• Both general and special educators reported relatively low access to training and resources for serving SWDs; general educators report significantly less access than special educators.
• Educators were significantly less likely to report sufficient support for serving SWDs at the high school level.

The extent to which students with high-incidence disabilities (SWDs) are afforded effective and specialized instruction depends, in large part, upon the support their teachers receive. Certain teacher supports are essential for effectively serving SWDs, including a supportive school culture, collaboration and planning time, resources and training, and access to data and tools for using data. In this report, we explore the extent to which these supports are available to general and special educators, based on the results of the Measurement, Learning, and Improvement Survey to the RAND American Teacher Panel, a survey administered to a nationally representative sample of teachers. While research has established the importance of these supports, little is known about teachers' access to them on the nationwide level and about how school-level factors (such as grade levels served, percentage of minority students, and poverty level) influence the prevalence of teacher supports. Overall, teachers' access to support for serving SWDs varied by type of support, teacher role, and school level. General educators and teachers at the high school level were significantly less likely to report having sufficient access to support. Planning and release time were among the supports least often deemed sufficient by both general and special educators.