Teachers’ Autonomy in Today's Educational Climate: Current Perceptions From an Acceptable Instrument

This research evaluated the psychometric properties of Friedman's (1999) Teacher Work-Autonomy Scale (TWA) to determine whether it was an acceptable instrument to measure U.S. teacher autonomy in the present educational context. A second purpose was to ascertain the current status of teachers’ perceptions of their autonomy from a sample of U.S. teachers. Four hundred seventy-seven teachers from three public schools in Michigan participated in this study for a response rate of 30%. Factor analysis confirmed the multifaceted nature of teacher autonomy; however, somewhat different factor structures were found for the elementary and secondary teachers in this study, in comparison to that of Friedman. The TWA, without major modifications, appeared to be a valid and reliable instrument for use with a U.S. secondary sample but with limitation with an elementary sample. Elementary and secondary teachers perceived autonomy in the different factors in identical order, but with significant differences between their scores. Differences in school structure and conceptions of autonomy may have contributed to grade-level discrepancies. The findings suggest that administrators may be able to enhance teacher autonomy by releasing some of their power to include teachers in school leadership, specifically in the two areas teachers perceived with lowest autonomy: school finances and professional development.     

A thesaurus for end-user indexing and retrieval

Direct end-user data entry and retrieval is a major factor in achieving an economical information retrieval system. To be effective, such a system would have to provide a thesaurus structure which leads novice end-users to browse subject areas before retrieval and yet provides control and coverage of terms in a domain. A faceted hierarchical thesaurus organization has been designed to accomplish this goal.     

Integration and Segregation in Mainstreaming Programs for Children and Adolescents with Hearing Impairments

This article describes an investigation of 26 mainstreaming programs for students with hearing impairments from pre‐kindergarten through high school. The purpose of the study was to examine selection criteria, quality and quantity of mainstreaming time, and available support services. Students were found to be mainstreamed according to a number of criteria reported in the literature such as academic performance, hearing loss, and interpersonal skills, but also were affected by the willingness of regular education teachers to accept them into their classrooms. Academic mainstreaming was infrequent, and classroom observations showed that children with hearing impairments often appeared to be not well integrated into classroom activities. Programs varied considerably on all variables examined, including support services; in particular sign language interpreting was offered in some programs, available to a limited extent in others, but in many cases not at all. Clearer definitions of mainstreaming are a necessity and regular education teachers need to be informed of the special requirements of children with hearing impairments.