Date of Award

Summer 8-7-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education in School Leadership

Department

Teaching & Educational Leadership

College

College of Education

Committee Chair

Dr. John Freeman

Second Committee Member

Dr. Charlotte White-Wright

Third Committee Member

Dr. Steve Bounds

Abstract

Since the inception of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) as the national educational policy in 2015 (U.S. Department of Education, 2023), the Arkansas Department of Education has planned and implemented different initiatives to increase inclusive education in schools across the state. This quantitative research sought to examine the progress of public school districts in the state of Arkansas by determining if there were differences, particularly among high-poverty school districts across the state of Arkansas, that meet or exceed the state target percentage (58.07%) of students with disabilities being taught in general education classrooms for 80% or more of the instructional day. It further examined the high-poverty school district data to see if differences existed between the groups by looking at the factors of student enrollment population and the level of state-coordinated support. This study identified the school districts as high-poverty or low-poverty districts based on the poverty index. In Arkansas, a school district is considered high poverty if its poverty index is > 70%.

The results obtained yielded the following: 1) There is a statistically significant difference in the percentage of high-poverty school districts across the state of Arkansas that meet or exceed the state target percentage of students with disabilities in the general education classroom for 80% or more of the instructional day when compared to low-poverty school districts. 2) There is no statistically significant relationship in the percentage of high-poverty school districts across the state of Arkansas that are meeting or exceeding the state target percentage of students with disabilities (58.07%) in the general education classroom for 80% or more of the instructional day when grouped by level of state coordinated support; 3) there is no statistically significant relationship between the percentage of high-poverty school districts across the state of Arkansas that are meeting or exceeding the state target percentage of students with disabilities in the general education classroom for 80% or more of the instructional day when grouped by student enrollment population.

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