Date of Award

Winter 11-20-2017

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Department

School of Education

First Advisor

Christina Ager

Second Advisor

Kim Dean

Third Advisor

Amy Accardo

Abstract

Students with learning disabilities represent a group of students who are frequently most in need of high-quality instruction in order to meet the academic goals consistent with their non-disabled peers (Kretlow & Blatz, 2011). Despite the existence of several easily accessible, free online resources and federal mandates in laws such as those in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA, 2004), research has found that teachers still fail to implement evidence-based practices in their instruction (Cook, Smith & Tankersley, 2012). The purpose of this study was to measure the level of knowledge held by teachers about online resource centers, their use of five particular online resource centers, and their opinions of the value of the resources at these sites. To this end, 410 teachers in one suburban district in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States were invited to participate in a quantitative survey. This instrument was developed by the researcher for the purpose of this study. Results indicated that the majority of teachers lacked familiarity with these online resource centers. However, those who were familiar and had used such resources reported them as being somewhat to very valuable in determining instructional practices for students with learning disabilities.

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