Inclusion in Idaho: The State of the State since NCLB

2009

The Inclusion in Idaho Study was funded by the Idaho Council on Developmental Disabilities and carried out by the University of Idaho Center on Disabilities and Human Development during the 2007-2008 school years. The primary purpose of the study was to determine whether there had been any changes in levels of and attitudes towards inclusion since the implementation of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation in 2002. The study consisted of four phases of data collection. The first phase consisted of gathering data from existing data sources including LRE placement and legal complaint data from the Idaho State Department of Education and Comprehensive Advocacy Inc. The second phase focused on teacher preparation programs in Idaho with specific attention to the amount of disability-related coursework preservice teachers received. The third and fourth phases of the study consisted of disseminating surveys to teachers, administrators, and parents across the state to gather their input regarding attitudes towards inclusion and changes in inclusive practices since NCLB. Data gathered for this study were analyzed separately for each phase, and then converged to provide a more holistic picture of inclusive education in Idaho. In the final analysis it was difficult to ascertain changes in inclusive practice since the implementation of No Child Left Behind because there was not an initial baseline of data from which to draw a comparison. Findings from this study seem to indicate that there has been a general trend towards placing students in more restrictive settings over the past few years as a result of pressures to meet the adequate yearly progress (AYP) benchmarks required through NCLB. Nevertheless, the study also made it quite clear that teachers and administrators in Idaho hold many segregatory attitudes and beliefs about educating students with disabilities in Idaho schools and that these attitudes may be of more concern than the issue of standardized testing. Parent data gathered for this study indicates that most parents haven?t noticed a change in how or where their child is educated since NCLB. The parent data also highlights the need for teachers and administrators to receive more disability-related training and specifically in the area of autism supports. Over 50% of the parent respondents were parents of children with autism who felt that their child?s needs were not being met in their current setting. The following report outlines the study methodology, how this study fits into the literature related to inclusion, and the datasets from each discrete phase of the study. The report concludes with a summary of the major findings and a set of recommendations based upon the findings. The Appendix contains the complete data summaries for each of the surveys.

Reports and monographs

Consumers/Families, Professionals, Students

Electronic (disc, CD, 508 compliant web posting)

N/A