Parent and Teacher Perceptions of Student Teacher Assistance Teams
The Student Teacher Assistance Team (STAT) method is one form of prereferral intervention that involves the problem-solving of teachers and other school professionals with the goal of obtaining more efficient and effective help for students in the regular education setting. After an examination of the research in the area of prereferral interventions, it was noted that few research studies mentioned parents' involvement in and none were found assessing parents' perceptions of the process. This study examines both parent and teacher perceptions of student teacher assistance teams (STATs) in a small rural county in Kentucky. Participants in the study involved 44 parents of children who have been involved in the STAT team during the 1996-97 school year and 49 teachers who currently teach in the school system. A questionnaire entitled "Parent's Expectations" was administered to the parents, and a questionnaire entitled "Teacher's Views of STAT" with 13 equivalent questions was administered to the teachers. Results of the surveys generally showed higher levels of agreement by parents than by teachers with the descriptors of the STAT process. Specifically, survey results showed that parents rated the following characteristics of the STAT process significantly higher than the teachers in the study: overall helpfulness, improvement in a child's behavior and school work, necessity for helping a child, a focus on a child's strengths and weaknesses, provision of ways to work with the child, and helping a child get along with others. Results also showed that parents and teachers hold separate beliefs about the STAT process. Teachers were significantly more likely than parents to view the process as only as a step toward testing. In contrast, parents were more likely to believe that the team will find the cause of their child's problems and will tell them what the future holds for their child. Further results showed that views differed between those teachers who have been a member of a STAT team and those who have never participated in the process. Teachers who have been a member of the STAT team were more likely to believe that the team will listen to what they have to say, while those who had been a team member were more likely to believe that the STAT team will provide them with ways to work with their students. In addition, results also showed that teachers of higher grades (4-8) viewed the process in a more positive manner than did teachers of lower grades (K-3).
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