Special education service delivery: Perceptions and practices in intervention assistance models and traditional models

Abstract

Intervention assistance models of special education service delivery are an alternative to traditional refer-test-place models. They are designed to promote problem solving and problem ownership among teachess regarding to difficult-to-teach students, and to reduce unnecessary special education referrals and placements. This study investigated teachers' perceptions of problem ownership as measured by their responses to vignettes which depicted students exhibiting academic and/or behavioral difficulties. The methods and results of the pilot study for this study are also presented. Participants in the present study included teachers from both intervention assistance and traditional model schools. Generalizability theory was used to estimate variance components at the model and the individual levels. Results indicated that no variance in teachers' perceptions of problem ownership was accounted for by different service delivery models. A substantial portion of variance was related to differences among individual teachers. However, the largest source of variance was the vignette-by-teacher interaction. Special education referral and placement practices were also investigated. Referral and placement rates across intervention assistance schools were compared with rates across traditional schools. Both referral and placement rates were significantly lower across intervention assistance than across traditional model schools. The proportion of placements to referrals was also compared between models. Results provided no evidence to indicate that the proportion of placements to referrals differs between the two models. Findings are summarized and discussed, and their implications for future practice and research are examined.