Attitude and perceptions of public school principals in Illinois toward inclusion of students with disabilities in the general education classroo

Many school districts in Illinois continue to isolate students with disabilities in the educational environment. Congress has enacted many pieces of legislation that continue to gain momentum for integrating students with disabilities into the general education classroom. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to investigate the attitudes and perceptions of public school principals in Illinois toward inclusion of students with disabilities in the general education classroom. This researcher utilized the Principals and Inclusion Survey developed by Praisner (2000) to collect data from a random sample of Illinois public school principals. Participants were asked about various demographic factors, their educational backgrounds, degree of experience working with students with disabilities, and views on the appropriate placement of students with disabilities. The data was analyzed by conducting comparisons of variables through the use of either parametric (i.e., t-test or one-way ANOVA) or nonparametric (i.e., Mann-Whitney or Kruskal-Wallis) tests of the difference(s) between the category means, depending on whether or not the assumptions of parametric statistical tests were met. Additionally, nonparametric Spearman rank order correlations (rho) test was computed between the ten attitudinal items and the eleven disability type inclusion items. All four null hypotheses were not rejected. The results of this study imply the following: Public school principals need to meet the educational needs of all students and should seek out professional development opportunities geared toward working with students with disabilities in the general education classroom. Colleges and university administrators can utilize the results of this study to improve or enhance the curriculum being taught to better prepare public school principals for the challenges of educating all students including those with and without disabilities.;Keywords: inclusion, integration, students with disabilities, special education.