High School Teachers\u27 Perceptions of Inclusion

With the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind, school systems must ensure students with disabilities receive instruction in general education classrooms. Implementing the inclusion model has been challenging for many school systems as the systems try to find ways to meet the needs of their diverse student populations. The purpose of this quantitative casual-comparative and correlational study is to identify high school teachers\u27 perceptions of inclusion. One hundred seventy-three high school teachers from six school districts located in a southeastern metropolitan area completed a survey to allow the researcher to examine if a relationship existed between teachers\u27 perceptions of inclusion in regards to certification field, degree level, years of experience, and classroom setting. The survey contained of four demographic/background and 27 Likert-type questions. Anova and Pearson-product moment tests were used to analyze data. The researcher found no statistically significant relationships between teachers\u27 perceptions of inclusion in regards to certification field, degree level, and years of experience. However, the study did find a statistically significant relationship between teachers\u27 perceptions of inclusion and classroom setting. The researcher concludes that teachers with experience teaching in inclusion classrooms hold more favorable attitudes toward inclusion than those teachers who do not teach in inclusion classrooms