Socio-culturally diverse students with disabilities are underrepresented in gifted and talented programs. This study investigated the differences in educators' referral and placement decisions based on a students' disability label, socio-economic status (SES), and ethnicity. Two hundred and eighty five educators' (classroom teachers, school counselors, school psychologists, and school social workers) across a Florida school district participated in the study. Educators' were randomly assigned to treatment and control case vignettes that described a student with emotional/behavioral disabled (EBD) and gifted characteristics. Treatment case vignettes explicitly stated the students' disability label, socio-economic status, and ethnicity. Control case vignettes described of the student examined and did not mention the disability label, ethnicity, or socio-economic status of the student. After reading the case vignette, participants responded to a two-item questionnaire that explained their referral and placement decisions of the student described in the vignette. Participants responses to the two item questionnaire were indicated by selecting one of six choices: strongly agree, slightly agree, agree, disagree, slightly disagree, and strongly disagree. Reponses were the dependent variables being measured. A three-way factorial Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to measure the differences in educators' referral and placement decisions based on a student's disability label, socio-economic status, and ethnicity. Results indicate educators' awareness of a students' disability label, socio-economic status, and ethnicity influence referral decisions. Implications are discussed and recommendations for future research are made.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ucf.edu/oai:stars.library.ucf.edu:etd-4256 |
| Date | 01 January 2007 |
| Creators | Marrah, Charissa |
| Publisher | STARS |
| Source Sets | University of Central Florida |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Electronic Theses and Dissertations |
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