RESUMO
Decades of research indicate social support is vital for retaining teachers. However, little is known about social support for teachers serving students with extensive support needs. The purpose of this study was to explore whether collective social assets (administrative support, colleague support, paraeducator support, school culture) were associated with retaining special education teachers (SETs) who serve students with extensive support needs (e.g., intellectual disability, autism). Stepwise regression analyses and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were used to analyze survey data from SETs across the United States. Results showed that positive social supports are critical, and teachers serving students with autism reported the highest levels of social support in three of the four social assets categories. Implications for future research and practice are discussed, as well as a need to promote and better understand positive school culture as this variable weighed heavily across SETs.
RESUMO
This paper describes the implementation of a Title IV-E child welfare training program in Louisiana. A collaborative arrangement between the state child welfare agency and seven state university social work programs provides for student monetary stipends in return for child welfare training and work as public child welfare employees upon graduation. On a test of child welfare knowledge, students in MSW and BSW programs scored higher following child welfare training; BSW student stipend recipients made greater gains than non-recipients when controlling for initial scores. MSW students' results appear to approach significance; they may not be significant due to low power of the statistical analysis. Child welfare agency retention of the stipend student graduates is considered good by the agency.