Abstract
Background
In a recent school year, nearly 58,000 (10.5%) Kindergarten-Grade 12 students in British Columbia had a special needs designation, according to the BC Ministry of Education (BC MED) Student Statistics 2015/2016. Despite these considerable numbers, we know little about the educational journeys of students with special needs. To help set a research agenda in this area, we undertook a Research Priority Setting (RPS) study, which is an approach used in knowledge translation and exchange research. RPS is a relatively new approach, particularly in educational research, and is used to involve knowledge users early in the research process. It can include a diverse range of methods including surveys, workshops, and Delphi studies. As part of a larger research program to investigate the population-level educational journeys of students with special needs, we employed RPS.
Objectives
The purpose of this study was to explore educational leaders’ perspectives on research priorities in special education.
The specific research questions were:
1. Given a pre-determined set of research areas based upon available population-level administrative data, what are educational leaders’ research priorities?
2. Which specific special education student groups (here, called designations) are educational leaders most interested in learning about through population-based research?
3. Beyond the available administrative data, what additional population-level research priorities do educational leaders identify?
Design/Methods
We employed a cross-sectional survey design. In December, 2017, we invited public school districts to participate in a survey we created to help us identify research priorities related to the educational journeys of students with special needs and disabilities. The specific needs the BC MED routinely tracks are presented with their respective designation codes in Table 1.
Table 1.
British Columbia Ministry of Education’s Special Needs Designations
| Designation Code | Designation Description |
|---|---|
| A | Physically Dependent |
| B | Deafblind |
| C | Moderate to Severe Profound Intellectual Disability |
| D | Physical Disabilities or Chronic Health Impairments |
| E | Visual Impairment |
| F | Deaf or Hard of Hearing |
| G | Autism Spectrum Disorder |
| H | Intensive Behaviour Interventions/ Serious Mental Illness |
| K | Mild Intellectual Disability |
| P | Gifted |
| Q | Learning Disabilities |
| R | Moderate Behaviour Support / Mental Illness |
| Z | All designations combined (A-R, inclusive) |
The survey invited participants to rank eight specific research areas in order of perceived importance. Then, they were asked to indicate which of the 12 special needs designations were of most interest in relation to the research areas. Finally, the survey included an open-ended question inviting participants to suggest further areas for research.
Quantitative results were analyzed using descriptive analyses, including frequency tables, cross-tabulations, and histograms. Qualitative data from the open-ended question was analyzed using content analysis.
Results
We asked a wide range of education professionals to complete this survey, including: district administrators, district learning support service providers, and school staff. In total, 71 participants volunteered to complete our survey, representing 43 of BC’s 60 public school districts. The average participant had: a master’s degree; a district administrator position; and between 20 and 29 years of educational experience. The majority of participants were experienced in special education.
Overall, survey participants agreed on three specific priorities for future research on the educational journeys of students with special needs and disabilities:
whether students with special needs and disabilities are completing high school;
at what pace, over time, students with special needs and disabilities are progressing through grade levels; and
the number of school years students with special needs and disabilities are in the school system prior to receiving a special needs designation.
We then used approved BC MED data to prepare district-specific reports for each of these three topics, with province-wide data included for comparison. In each report, we break down students’ results by their BC MED special needs designation.
Conclusion
This study is an important step forward in our knowledge about the educational journeys of students with special needs. The results can be useful in guiding policy and program development, both here in British Columbia and beyond. Healthcare providers in pediatrics are in key roles to advocate for supports and resources for this population on their educational journeys.