The purpose of this investigation was twofold: (a) to explore the use of a new rating scale that measures teachers' attitudes toward their students and (b) to investigate the attitudes of inclusive teachers toward their students with disabilities using the rating scale. Fifty inclusive elementary teachers in 12 north-east Ohio schools rated all of their students with disabilities ( N = 156) and 4 students without disabilities in each of their classrooms in the attitudinal categories of attachment, concern, indifference, and rejection. Results indicated that (a) the rating procedure exhibited modest test—retest reliability and moderate concurrent validity with a previously validated nomination procedure; (b) in comparison to students without disabilities, included students with disabilities received significantly higher ratings of teacher concern, indifference, and rejection, and significantly lower attachment ratings; and (c) average teacher indifference ratings toward their included students related positively and significantly to presence of paraprofessionals, and average teacher rejection ratings of included students were inversely and significantly related to school district socioeconomic status. Implications for practice and policy are discussed.

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A previously unknown polypeptide myotoxin, designated myotoxin a, was isolated for the first time from prairie rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis viridis) venom. Electrophoretic homogeneity of myotoxin a was shown in beta-alanine disc gel polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and in isoelectric focusing gel electrophoresis. Molecular weight and isoelectric point estimates of 4100 and 9.6 were obtained by gel filtration and isoelectric focusing gel electrophoresis, respectively. Amino acid composition showed a total of 39 amino acid residues, with 10 lysine residues and two disulfide bridges. When the two disulfide brides were reduced and alkylated, the myotoxic activity was abolished, indicating that the disulfide bridges of myotoxin a are essential for its biological activity. The loss of the biological activity is probably due to a marked change in secondary structure. The circular dichroic spectrum indicates that the chemically modified, inactive myotoxin exhibits typical random-coil conformation.

This article reports two related studies. In the first study, concern and rejection ratings of 14 inclusive teachers toward 26 students with disabilities were correlated with teacher—student interactions. Partial correlations, controlling for severity of disability, indicated that instructional-academic interactions corresponded significantly with teachers’ concern ratings and noninstructional-behavioral interactions corresponded significantly with teachers’ rejection ratings. In the second study, the authors compared teachers’ concern and rejection ratings of students with learning disabilities ( n = 77), cognitive disabilities ( n = 44), attention-deficit disorder ( n = 20), behavioral disorders ( n = 19), and no disabilities ( n = 1,153) in 65 inclusive classes using ANOVAs and Scheffe post hoc tests. Students in all disability categories received significantly higher concern ratings than nondisabled students, students with learning disabilities and behavioral disorders received significantly higher rejection ratings than nondisabled students, and students with behavioral disorders received significantly higher rejection ratings than students with cognitive disabilities.

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