36 J'Aime C. Balogh, Ed.D. al., 2019; RAND, 2012). Figure 1 illustrates the significant impact of teacher efficacy on the achievement of students with dyslexia and the related disorders of anxiety, ADHD, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, executive functioning disorders, and oral and written language disorders. Educator Training and Certification Teacher retention in the general education environment has been a struggle, and filling special education positions has been a challenge for school systems for decades (Theobald et al., 2021). The difficulty in the placement of special education teachers is due to both an insufficient supply of qualified educators (Theobald et al., 2021) and to lower retention rates of special education personnel (Billingsley & Bettini, 2019). Research has connected lower retention rates to the unique demands and working conditions in special education assignments (Bettini et al., 2017; Billingsley et al., 2020; Theobald et al., 2021). These trends in special education align with the difficult roles and responsibilities of teaching students with disabilities in the general education classroom as general education teachers report a lack of preparation to teach students with SLD prior to entering the teacher workforce (Galiastos et al., 2019; Mcleskey, 2018; Merlin, 2021). Upon review of state policies for educator certification, the NCLD report (2019) indicated standards for general education licensure in most states did not outline specific standards Figure 1 Low Performance Outcomes of Dyslexia and Related Disorders for teaching students with disabilities. Additionally, few educator preparation programs offer dual certification pathways for aspiring teachers to complete coursework and practical training in-service training (Guardino, 2018). Methodology Overview The current study sought to solicit the self-perceptions of efficacy in teaching students with the disabilities of dyslexia and other related disorders of anxiety, ADHD, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, executive function, and language disorders, from PK3–12 teachers at a Texas private Christian school, called the Academy. Teachers’ perceptions were measured in three areas: (1) general self-perceptions of their abilities in the roles and responsibilities in teaching, (2) self-perceptions of their abilities in the roles and responsibilities of teaching students with disabilities, and (3) self-perceptions of their abilities in teaching students with dyslexia and related disorders in the general education classroom. The first stage of research included the use of two previously verified instruments to measure teacher efficacy in general teaching and in teaching students with disabilities (Dawson & Scott, 2013; TschannenMoran & Hoy, 2001). The researcher designed a 4-part online Google Form survey which included the 12item Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) and the 19-item Teaching Students with Disabilities Efficacy
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