Development and Validation of a Scale Measuring Parental Perceptions of the Special Education Process

The purpose of this study was to develop and assess the psychometric properties of a scale measuring the perceptions parents had of the special education process . Before being distributed to the study sample, the Parent's Perceptions of Special Education Scale (PPSES) was reviewed by parent leaders from the Rhode Island Parent Information Network and students enrolled in a school psychology graduate program to judge the scale items for clarity and relevance. Surveys containing a personal background sheet, the PPSES, the Family-Partnership Scale, and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale were distributed to parents of children in special education at five sites in Rhode Island; two sites were advocacy agencies and three were nontraditional or alternative school settings. The data underwent a principal components analysis which resulted in a 45-item scale with a four factor structure. The four factors were labeled "Interactions at Meetings," "Time Issues ," "Emotional Perspective ," and "Acceptance of Differences. " The first three subscales listed had satisfactory coefficient alpha reliability estimates of . 98, . 75, and.79 respectively , with the last subscale having an unacceptable estimate of . 50. In order to assess convergent validity , the subscales of the PPSES were correlated with the Family-Partnership Scale, developed by Summers et al. (2005), which assessed the satisfaction levels parent s had with their interactions with an individual who provided special education services to their child. The subscale labeled "Interactions at Meetings" had the highest positive correlation with the Family-Partnership Scale (r = .851, df = 71, p = 0.01), while the last three subscales of the PPSES had positive , yet more modest correlations with the Family-Partnership Scale (r = .560, .470, and .453, df = 71, p = 0.01). Based on the correlations, it appears the Family-Partnership Scale and the PPSES are measuring similar constructs . Social desirability did not appear to influence the participants ' responses on the PPSES as measured by correlations between the four subscales of the PPS ES and the Marlow-Crowne Social Desirability Scale; correlations were found to be r = . 300, . 225, . 141, and -. 041, df = 65, p = 0.05. Research obstacles and limitations for the present study as well as future directions for research are discussed. Acknowledgements I would like to thank those individuals who helped make this research project possible and who supported me through the duration ofthis process. First, I would like to thank my committee members , Jerry Cohen and Diane Horm for their time and support throughout this process. I would like to give a special thank you to my major professor Margaret Rogers, who took the reigns of this project, for the many contributions she has made to it and for her guidance. I would also like to thank Danel Koonce for the time and support he gave and for being a great mentor for the past 3 and a half years. This project would not have been possible without the help from those individuals I met at each of the sites that participated in the study. I want to thank all of them for their contribution to the project. Next , I would like to thank my parents for their support: My dad for reminding me to keep my eye on the goal and to my ma for reminding me to take it one day at a time. To Stacey, Dawnie, Brian, and all of my friends who kept me laughing during the stressful times. I could not have completed this without all of them. And finally to Shannon, for the strength she gives me everyday to keep moving forward.