TEACHER LEVEL INDICATORS THAT INFLUENCE THE REMOVAL OF STUDENTS WITH EMOTIONAL OR BEHAVIORAL DISTURBANCES FROM THE GENERAL EDUCATION SETTING

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2022-05-16

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AbstractBackground: According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 53% of students with emotional disorders are removed from general education at least twenty percent of the day or wholly removed from the general education campus (McFarland et al., 2019). Students with EBD also have the highest percentage of any disability in a correctional facility (McFarland et al., 2019). In addition, many students are removed from the general education setting, only to be placed in an environment that does not deliver an equal opportunity for learning (Hoge & Rubinstein-Avila, 2014). Thus, these circumstances have adverse effects on these students. Purpose: This study examined educators' attitudes towards students identified under the category of emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) and their ability to contribute to their academic and social success. Three research questions guided the study. The first was the attitudes of educational professionals in rural public-school settings regarding students who are labeled with EBD. Secondly, the study examined the professional development opportunities that have been provided to help these professionals working with the unique needs of students with EBD, finally, how the attitudes and professional development of educators have affected the removal of EBD students from the general education setting. Method: The study was conducted across four rural school districts in southeast Texas. A multiple-choice survey examined educators' perceptions of the general education classroom's EBD population. The quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS software. A crosstabulation was run to show the number of Likert responses by participant job title. Each question was then analyzed using a Pearson Chi-Square test determine any significant association in responses. Results: The survey results indicate that sixty percent of the educators self-report being somewhat expert at coping with EBD students. However, the majority also stated that they do not have enough confidence to work with students with EBD. Seventy percent of the participants agreed that having professional development sessions would improve the Educator's interactions with students with EBD. Finally, most of the participants agreed that teacher preparation programs were not sufficient in the training of working with students with EBD. Conclusion: Students with emotional or behavioral issues can do well with their peers in a general education classroom. However, some problems between teachers and students need to be resolved. Providing more professional development to teachers ensures that keeping students with EBD in the general classroom will benefit the students and the educational professionals, and alternative settings would not be necessary. More information needs to be obtained to determine what professional development educators need to receive to work with students with EBD effectively.

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EBD educators

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