The development of an instrument to determine parental priorities for the education of children with moderate disabilities

The purpose of this study was to develop a reliable, valid instrument that will assist teachers to determine parental priorities for the education of students with moderate disabilities. Based on the literature review, there is little documented evidence that links parents' priorities to the educational components that are thought to be sound educational practice for students with moderate disabilities. Therefore, an instrument was developed to assist teachers in determining if their priorities lie with the current literature on sound educational practices for children with moderate disabilities. The educational components focused on in the instrument were: Integration; Functional Curriculum; and Community-Based Training. An instrument containing 58 questions was developed. The instrument was mailed to 70 parents of children with moderate disabilities and was completed by 21 parents. Test-retest reliability was used and the Pearson product-moment correlation was computed on the results. The results produced a .942 reliability coefficient. Further testing with a larger sample was recommended.