| The purpose of this investigation was to measure teacher attitudes and perceptions of how effectively schools are structured to support the needs of diverse students. Diverse students include students with disabilities, students who are English Language Learners, and other students considered at high risk for school failure. Participants were selected from three key groups of service providers of the diverse k--12 population. The sample group for this study consisted of 95 bilingual education, special education, and bilingual special education teachers from the Western New York area. They completed and returned an anonymous mail survey which asked them to rate their degree of agreement/disagreement with five different areas related to school structure, including: (a) administrative/collegial support; (b) parent involvement; (c) building-specific problems; (d) system-wide issues; and (e) changes that could be made to improve upon current school structure. These areas formed five survey subscales used in subsequent data analysis. Results of a MANOVA indicated significant differences in participant response across teacher groups and survey subscales. Teachers in this study reported they were, on average, slightly dissatisfied with their ability to meet the needs of their students within the structure of current school programs and agreed there was a need for improvement to programs that service students with diverse needs. There were also significant differences in how groups felt about various dimensions related to school structure. Special education teachers were, in general, more satisfied with current school structure than bilingual and bilingual special education teachers, and bilingual education teachers were more satisfied with current school structure than bilingual special education teachers. Of the three groups, bilingual special education teachers reported the greatest sense of dissatisfaction with the structure of current programs and indicated the most need for change. Implications of these findings for educational programming, school improvement, and the increasingly diverse student population are discussed. |
