Developing and Validating the College and Career Readiness Teacher Expectation Survey for Students With Disabilities

Abstract

All students, including those with disabilities, must be college and career ready, which requires high expectations for them (Every Student Succeeds Act, 2015). In this study, we developed and validated the College and Career Readiness Teacher Expectation Survey (CCR-TES), an instrument that measures the postschool expectations that educators have for students with disabilities (SWD). With a sample of 459 educators, we provide initial evidence for strongly correlated factors, highlighting the difficulty in measuring CCR. Results support one general CCR factor, and invariance testing results show the CCR-TES functions similarly for special and general education teachers. Furthermore, results also revealed educators have somewhat low postsecondary expectations for SWD. Implications for teachers, researchers, and policymakers are discussed.