Special Education Teachers’ Perspectives on Preparing Students With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities for College

As more opportunities for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) to attend college emerge, it is important for secondary special education teachers to be knowledgeable about how to prepare students with IDD for college. We conducted a survey of 1,048 secondary special education teachers from the U.S. states of Illinois, Missouri, and Texas to understand their prior experiences with receiving education and training addressing college options for students with IDD, the instruction and activities their students with IDD participate in to prepare for college, and teachers’ perceptions of their own mastery of college preparation domains. We also investigated the extent to which teachers’ demographics, education and training, caseload, and school demographics were associated with their perceptions of their own mastery of college preparation domains. Our results suggest teachers’ perceived levels of mastery and the types of activities in which students with IDD participate vary significantly by college preparation domain. We discuss implications our results have for teacher preparation programs, middle and high schools, special education teachers, and researchers.