The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to determine if and to what extent a relationship exists between K-12 principal and assistant principal cognitive, affective, and behavioral attitudes towards inclusive education and overall attitudes toward inclusive education in schools in the United States. The theoretical foundations for…

Educators and the general public are often discouraged by grim reports by the media regarding our nation's standing with regard to education and the policies that attempt to improve that standing. This study examined (a) the percentage of students identified as needing special education, (b) graduation rates, and (c) dropout rates from a sample of…

This qualitative study examined the perceptions of ten immigrant families in regard to the education of their children with disabilities. The purposes were to: (a) explore the role of culturally-based concepts of disability and special education in these families' involvement in the education of the children with disabilities; (b) determine…

This dissertation details the experiences of eight teachers who use Whole Brain Teaching (WBT) in their classrooms. Teachers were asked questions regarding factors that impeded the implementation of WBT, administrators' perceptions prior and after the implementation of WBT, and students' reactions to the implementation of WBT. Since teachers…

The superintendent is the most visible figure in a school district and subject to the greatest stress and public scrutiny (Fullan, 1998; Jazzar & Kimball, 2004). The nature of the position is highly complex and requires a skilled leader to be able to navigate intricacies of public education (Byrd, Drews, & Johnson, 2006). Thus, the most…

The purpose of this mixed method study was to examine if there is a predictive relationship among special education teachers' sense of teacher efficacy and intent to leave while accounting for job satisfaction and a special education teacher's perceptions of principal support. Electronic surveys were sent via Survey Monkey to a random sample of…

The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the perceptions of distributed leadership held by 15 administrators of special education and 15 special education teacher leaders invited to perform a Q-sort, rank ordering 40 statements representing distributed leadership attributes. The research questions that guided this investigation included:…

An achievement gap in reading existed in a Southwest United States school district with Hispanic, economically disadvantaged, English Language Learners (ELLs), and special education sixth grade students based on Measures of Academic Progress data. This study investigated the effectiveness of the "READ 180" reading intervention program…

In the field of educational leadership, as well as special education, parental participation is paramount given that federal law has mandated that schools provide and show evidence that they foster parental participation. This quantitative, non-experimental study examined the relationship between level of education, marital status, socioeconomic…

Researchers have focused their attention on the subject of special education teacher attrition for many years. While these researchers have made valuable findings, the need to abate the staggering numbers of special education teachers who leave the field still exists. Districts desiring to retain their teachers must place greater emphasis on the…

Since their inception in 2001 and 2004 respectively, "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) and "The Reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act" (IDEIA) have produced litigious feelings throughout the world of education. One of the most controversial initiatives which evolved from these aforementioned…

The purpose of this study was to examine the academic preparation of students with disabilities who plan to attend a four year college or university upon graduating from high school in the Participating School System. The study employed a measure of high school academic course rigor developed by Horn and Kojaku (2001) to measure the academic…