| With the current school reform in Florida, teachers are at risk of losing their careers based on poor student performance on standardized assessments. In response to federal and state mandates, students with disabilities are ever increasingly being incorporated into inclusion classrooms; furthermore, accountability, rigorous state curriculum standards, and standardized test scores are making it increasingly more difficult for students to succeed. Special education teachers are being placed in inclusion classes to assist the general education teacher in making accommodations for students with disabilities, but they cannot make all the accommodations on the assessments. Teachers are overwhelmed with meeting the needs of so many special education students in the inclusion classroom. Many students with disabilities cannot complete grade level work, even with the accommodations, and continue to struggle with the Florida standardized achievement tests. Some students with disabilities, despite receiving accommodations throughout their schooling, cannot pass the standardized achievement tests. The increasing number of students with disabilities in the inclusion classroom and the weight of accountability for student achievement accentuated the importance of conducting this study. The study participants were 119 general education inclusion teachers and 308 special education teachers, from 67 counties, in the state of Florida. The study was conducted to identify general education and special education teacher perceptions regarding accommodations for students with disabilities in Florida. The results of the study indicated that the general education teacher differed from the special education teacher in their perceptions with regard to the effectiveness of specific accommodations that are used in the classroom. |
