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Community College Faculty Knowledge of Legal Issues and Students with Disabilities: A Case Study.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent of Prince George's Community College faculty knowledge of the legal issues, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, The Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, and recent court decisions, related to the provision of classroom accommodations for students with disabilities at the postsecondary level. The focus of the study was to determine if a difference existed between the knowledge of full-time and part-time faculty. Part-time faculty comprise over 50 % of the instructional staffs at most community colleges and are considered an integral part of their institutions, yet they are offered little opportunity for professional development. The variables of gender, department affiliation, teaching at more than one institution, number of years of teaching experience, number of students taught with a disability, and number of individuals known with a disability also were reviewed. Data were collected through a questionnaire distributed to 158 faculty members at the college. Twenty-nine packets were returned as undeliverable. Of the 129 deliverable packets, 57 were returned for a response rate of 44.2%. Results from the analysis of data indicated that faculty have very limited knowledge of the legal issues concerning students with disabilities. Only 26.9% of respondents scored at an acceptable level of knowledge. Additional analysis suggested no relationship existed between faculty knowledge and gender, faculty status (full-time and part-time), department affiliation, teaching at more than one institution, number of years of teaching experience, or number of individuals known with a disability. A relationship was found at the p < .05 level of significant between faculty knowledge and number of students taught with a disability. Faculty who scored in the acceptable range had a mean score of 24 or more students taught with a disability. Faculty scoring in the unacceptable range had a mean score of 11 students taught with a disability.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc4365
Date12 1900
CreatorsHopkins, Kathleen C.
ContributorsLumsden, D. Barry, Combes, Bertina H., Newsom, Ronald W.
PublisherUniversity of North Texas
Source SetsUniversity of North Texas
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis or Dissertation
FormatText
RightsUse restricted to UNT Community, Copyright, Hopkins, Kathleen C., Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

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