This final report describes the activities and outcomes of a federally funded program designed to improve the quality of personnel preparation in the State of Florida and in the nation. The project supported students of Haitian background to participate in a master's degree program aimed at preparing highly skilled teachers of young children with…

Telephone interviews concerning special education teacher attrition were conducted with 96 former special education teachers in Florida. Both qualitative and quantitative techniques were used to analyze the interview data. Participants had not returned to their special education teaching positions after the 1992-93 school year. The majority of…

Although children of migrant workers tend to have low educational achievement, there is a surprising lack of data concerning educational challenges faced by handicapped migrant children. It is often a teacher's advocacy that results in a student's enrollment in special education services. This paper describes a Florida program for training special…

The "State Teacher Policy Yearbook" examines what is arguably the single most powerful authority over the teaching profession: state government. This Florida edition of the National Council on Teacher Quality's (NCTQ's) "State Teacher Policy Yearbook" is the first of what will be an annual look at the status of state policies…

The second of two volumes presents descriptive and statistical data collected in a study to determine the impact of the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP) on special programs for exceptional children in 10 school districts and program development in five institutions. Case studies of the 10 districts give county code designation, date of…

Spurred by the inclusion trend, adapted physical education (APE) has emerged as a fundamental education service for children with disabilities in recent years. Although only 15 states have a certification or endorsement in APE, the Adapted Physical Education National Standards examination has produced certified APE educators in 21 additional…

Described are three training programs for teachers of the handicapped in Florida, Vermont, and Maryland that have been designated exemplary by the Bureau of Education for the Handicapped, which supports 500 teacher preparation programs. Typically covered for each program are aspects such as instruction, curriculum content, recruitment and…

Described in volumes 1 and 2 are the methodology, conclusions, and recommendations of a study to determine the impact of the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP) on special programs for exceptional children in 10 school districts and on educational program development in five residential institutions. Noted are aspects of the FEFP Act (1973)…

One of a series of nine reports of Project ACTIVE (Attaining Competence for Teaching in Vocational Education), this report focuses on the criteria for assessing mastery of the professional competencies (skills) important to vocational educators serving handicapped students. An overview of competency-based vocational teacher education (CBTE) and…

To respond to an increasingly diverse student population, educators need to evaluate how well teacher education programs prepare graduates in culturally responsive teaching (CRT). In this study, we used a performance-based assessment to determine whether (a) different levels of preservice preparation in CRT and (b) preparation in special versus…

This study attempted to determine the personal and workplace variables which predict a special educator's decision to stay, transfer, or leave the classroom. A stratified random sample of 1,576 special education teachers in Florida was surveyed, resulting in 1,152 usable responses. Two models were estimated with forward stepwise logistic…

A panel study of early childhood special educators in rural Florida identified problems in serving the needs of disabled children ages three to five related to rural ecology, family conditions, staff training, and educational programs and funding. Includes suggested modifications to current service programs that would improve service delivery to…

This article describes how the Professional Development School without Walls, a partnership between the Departments of Special Education and Elementary Education at the University of South Florida and two large school districts, was developed; the challenges, needs, and contexts influencing the development and implementation process; and the…

A project was undertaken to plan and begin developing the objectives for a master's degree program to prepare individuals to fill a wide range of roles in providing special and vocational education to disabled students. The following accomplishments were made during the project: an eight-member planning task force was formed; resources available…