Perceived needs of special education as identified by school personnel in small rural school districts in six eastern Oregon counties

Graduation date: 1987The purpose of the study, which was conducted in 33 school\ud districts in six Eastern Oregon counties, was threefold:\ud 1. To assess the perceived needs of administrators, counselors\ud and/or specialists and special teachers of the handicapped\ud and disadvantaged, to determine special education needs in\ud small rural school districts;\ud 2. To develop a questionnaire which could serve as a model for\ud other small rural school districts to assess the perceived\ud needs concerning special education;\ud 3. To determine if differences existed among administrators,\ud counselors and/or specialists and special teachers of the\ud handicapped and disadvantaged relative to their\ud understanding of special educational needs.\ud This study was to determine if differences did exist in the\ud understanding of specific needs in special education among\ud administrators, counselors and/or educational specialists and special\ud teachers.\ud The instrument, a 48 item questionnaire, developed by this\ud investigator and validated by a panel of experts utilizing a five\ud point Likert format, was completed and returned by 151 respondents\ud which was 83% return of the total selected sample of 180.\ud The statistical application of the data was a (2 x3 x 2) fixed\ud design of the analysis of variance with unequal cell sizes. This\ud three-way arrangement included the two levels of school size, three\ud levels of occupational types, and two levels of county blocks. The\ud data was applied to each of the seven levels to determine the\ud computed F value at a .05 level of confidence.\ud Within the limitations of the study, the following major\ud conclusions were drawn:\ud 1. Only one of the seven hypotheses was rejected. Hypothesis\ud #2 established evidence that there was a significant\ud difference among administrators, specialists, and teachers\ud in their perceptions of the needs in special education.\ud Further analysis revealed that administrators had not\ud perceived the needs as being as great as the specialists and\ud the teachers.\ud 2. Special teachers ranked high those items that related to\ud services provided on an individual basis to special students\ud and their families.\ud 3. Counselors and/or educational specialists ranked high those\ud items that related to supportive services.\ud 4. Administrators felt that the items relating to teacher\ud expertise were most important