Organizational Context in General and Special Education: An Exploratory Investigation to Describe the Perspective of School Leaders

Abstract

Organizational context (e.g., climate, culture, resources) can impede or enhance implementation of evidence-based practices in general education settings or special education settings serving students with autism spectrum disorder. We examined the relations between organizational context and individual (i.e., implementation leadership, administrator- or service provider-role) or school (i.e., enrollment size, public/nonpublic school type) characteristics. Participants were administrative or service providing leaders (n = 34) from 11 schools in one state on the East Coast of the United States. School leaders’ average ratings of the organizational context were generally more positive for special education than general education; however, greater culture stress was reported for special education. Correlation analyses indicated being an administrator and implementation leadership were positively associated with implementation climate in both education settings. Being an administrator was also positively associated with cultural effort (i.e., how hard people work towards achieving goals) in special education, but negatively associated with culture stress in general education. In special education, nonpublic schools had better climates (both learning and implementation), but more culture stress. Additionally, school enrollment size was negatively related to available resources and implementation climate in special education. Investigating the similarities and differences in organizational context across educational settings is needed in future research.

Individual and organizational factors as predictors of early evidence-based practice adoption in Michigan high schools: Baseline data from an implementation trial

“…Little is known about predictors of better or worse implementation climate or leadership in schools: some studies suggest that school demographics (such as racial composition, percentage of special education students, and school size) have a negligible effect on schools' ability to support EBP implementation (Lyon et al, 2022;Thayer et al, 2022), while others suggest potential differences in the inner context due to school location or size (Moore et al, 2021;Suhrheinrich et al, 2021). In terms of linkages between strategic organizational factors and EBP implementation, studies have found mixed support in clinical settings (Meza et al, 2021;Powell et al, 2021) as well as in schools.…”

“…Of the various conditions for EBP adoption studied in implementation science, one topic that requires further study in school settings are “inner-context” implementation factors ( Locke, Lawson, et al, 2019 ; Lyon & Bruns, 2019 ), as described in various implementation frameworks, including the Exploration, Preparation, Implementation, Sustainment (EPIS) framework ( Aarons et al, 2011 ). Inner-context factors of organizations implementing EBPs, including provider attitudes and organizational strategic context, have been shown to be influential for EBP implementation ( Aarons et al, 2009 ; Moullin et al, 2019 ; Sijercic et al, 2020 ). While these factors have been studied frequently in clinical healthcare settings, more studies are needed to understand their mechanisms when scaled out to non-specialty settings like schools ( Aarons, Sklar, et al, 2017 ; Wolk et al, 2022 ).…”

Implementation readiness for evidence-based autism practices in school systems

“…One factor that may impact EBP implementation in schools is the structure of the special education system and the limited capacity most state systems have for scaling up EBPs ( IDEA, 2004 ). There is some evidence of differences in leader perceptions of culture and climate between general and special education ( Moore et al, 2021 ). This may be because special education has a more distributed leadership structure than general education with less authority at the school site level and more at the centralized district level.…”