K-12 Special Education Accessibility and Instructional Quality Related to the COVID-19 Shift to Online Instruction

Abstract

ABSTRACT The shift to online teaching dictated by the COVID-19 pandemic was disruptive to all levels of education. Research has shown that access to online instruction was particularly challenging for K-12 students with disabilities and that their teachers were not well-prepared to provide instruction online. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the relationships between special education teacher characteristics and the switch to online instruction related to the COVID-19 pandemic as predictors of quality of instruction, and also to explore how the switch to online instruction was related to teacher and student access to the content and other relevant resources. Using a mixed methods online survey that incorporated a retrospective pretest approach for quantitative data collection, data from 293 special education teachers were used to examine these relationships. Regarding quality of instruction, paired samples t-tests yielded a large and significant drop in Engagement, a smaller drop in Action and Expression, and a small but significant increase in Representation. Teacher experience was significantly and positively correlated with student access to technology. Teachers described poor institutional support for the transition to online instruction and also reported problems with accessibility for their students. Only 22 of the 293 participants reported any prior experience with online teaching. Future research should include development of teacher preparation that includes training in improving Engagement as well as practice with online teaching skills and resources.