Examining the Current Conditions of Appropriate Education for Special Educational Needs Students by Means of the Equity Indicators of Special Education
The purposes of this study were to examine the appropriateness and importance of the established equity indicators of special education (ISPED) and to apply the indicators to explore the current conditions of appropriate education for special educational needs (SEN) students. By means of literature review, rolling focus group discussion, questionnaire survey, and in-depth interview, the data were collected and analyzed. The final version of the indicators consisted of 46 items in 6 areas. In terms of the 6 areas, the "Teacher" dimension have most items (9), followed by "Identification and Assessment", "Educational Placement", and "Resource and Support System" (8 items, respectively), "Counseling and Career Development" (7 items), and "Curriculum and Instruction" (6 items). In terms of the subjects to be served, the common ones have most items (36), followed by the disabled (7 items), and the gifted (only 3 items). The indicators were highly confirmed, both in appropriateness and importance, by teachers with an average score of 4.18 and 4.36, respectively, in a 5-point scale. According to the questionnaire survey (n=217) and in-depth interview (n=49), it was found that, among the 6 areas of the indicators, the best condition of appropriate education for SEN students was related to "Teacher" , followed by "Counseling and career Development", "Resource and Support System", "Educational Placement", "Identification and Assessment", and "Curriculum and Instruction" , all reached the level above the medium score of 2.5. It means that, as a whole, the appropriate education as implemented in Taiwan primary and secondary school settings were fairly good, especially in terms of teachers' attitude toward the disabled. It was also found that there were more appropriate education problems for the gifted than for the disabled as there were 3 out of 4 lowest degrees of equity items related to gifted education, in the areas of identification and assessment, educational placement, and enrichment learning. In addition to the fact of low rate qualified gifted education teachers, the gifted students' appropriate educational needs may be hardly to meet. As to the students with disabilities, the most serious equity problem was the difficulty in job-hunting. It is concluded that the equity indicators of special education could be used in explore and improve appropriate education conditions for SEN students, both the disabled and the gifted, in terms of policy, research, and practice. Suggestions are made accordingly.
