EFFECTS OF CLASSROOM PERFORMANCE DATA ON GENERAL-EDUCATION TEACHERS ATTITUDES TOWARD REINTEGRATING STUDENTS WITH LEARNING-DISABILITIES

Previous research on general education teachers' attitudes has suggested they usually are unwilling to reintegrate students with handicaps into their classrooms for instruction and no variables affect those attitudes substantially. These investigations have been conducted largely using simulation methods. This study employs more naturalistic methods to investigate general education teachers' reintegration willingness attitudes and whether student behavioral and academic data impact those attitudes. Twenty-six general education teachers were divided into two groups based on the performance in the general education curriculum of students with learning disabilities in their classrooms relative to members of their classroom low reading groups. One group of teachers had potential candidates for reintegration; the other had unlikely candidates for reintegration. Teachers' initial reintegration attitudes were assessed given only the name of their classroom with whom they had been interacting for at least 6 months. Teachers attitudes were reassessed 4 weeks later after being provided with data from a published achievement test, curriculum-based measures (CBM), and the special education teacher's rating of the student's reintegration readiness. Consistent with previous research, results indicated that general education teachers initially were unenthusiastic or neutral about reintegrating the student into their classroom. After being provided with student achievement data, however, willingness ratings changed significantly. In particular, data describing performance within the context of the teachers' low reading groups significantly impacted teachers' ratings. Implications for reintegration efforts are discussed.