Education and Training in Developmental Disabilities - Division on ...

<strong>and</strong> adm<strong>in</strong>istrators reported that these materials
promoted greater underst<strong>and</strong><strong>in</strong>g of children
with disabilities <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong>creased the
school’s commitment to <strong>in</strong>clude the children
<strong>in</strong> general education classrooms. With the <strong>in</strong>volvement
of faculty <strong>and</strong> students from local
universities, FAPs were further developed to
<strong>in</strong>clude a DVD/movie <strong>and</strong> a webpage. Guidel<strong>in</strong>es
for what <strong>in</strong>formation to <strong>in</strong>clude <strong>and</strong> how
to create multimedia materials were published
(Thompson et al., 2007). S<strong>in</strong>ce the portfolios
were mak<strong>in</strong>g an important contribution to the
assessment <strong>and</strong> decision mak<strong>in</strong>g efforts of
IFSP/IEP teams, the term Family Assessment
Portfolio (FAP) was co<strong>in</strong>ed.
Although FAPs appear to be a promis<strong>in</strong>g
practice for the field of special education, to
date, only a few FAPs have been developed
<strong>and</strong> used, <strong>and</strong> only anecdotal reports support
their effectiveness <strong>and</strong> acceptability by parents
<strong>and</strong> teachers. Systematically evaluat<strong>in</strong>g FAPs is
needed. Such an evaluation will not only provide
more objective evidence regard<strong>in</strong>g their
usefulness, but also could help improve their
effectiveness <strong>and</strong> contribute to wider dissem<strong>in</strong>ation.
Traditionally, researchers <strong>and</strong> practitioners
have evaluated practices <strong>in</strong> terms of outcomes.
They were primarily <strong>in</strong>terested <strong>in</strong> assess<strong>in</strong>g
whether the practice produced significant effects.
However, these evaluations did not necessarily
afford <strong>in</strong>sights about the social importance
of the practices. Wolf (1978) argued that
society needs to validate the practices used
<strong>and</strong> he referred to it as “judgment of social
validity” (p. 207). Wolf suggested three levels
of social validity: (a) the social significance of
the goals, the importance of the goals for
society; (b) the social appropriateness of the
procedure, the acceptability of the practice by
the consumers; <strong>and</strong> (c) the social importance
of the effects <strong>and</strong> satisfaction with the results
of the practice.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate
the acceptability <strong>and</strong> effectiveness of the FAPs.
The research questions that guided the <strong>in</strong>vestigation
addressed the three levels of social
validity of the FAPs: (a) are FAPs important
<strong>and</strong> needed <strong>in</strong> the field of special education;
(b) is the process of develop<strong>in</strong>g the FAPs acceptable
<strong>and</strong> appropriate; <strong>and</strong> (c) are the effects
of the FAPs important <strong>and</strong> mean<strong>in</strong>gful.
Assessment of social validity is important be-
cause if practices are judged to be acceptable,
they are more likely to be <strong>in</strong>itiated. Practices
that show good outcomes <strong>and</strong> have positive
social validity measures are more likely be dissem<strong>in</strong>ated
<strong>and</strong> adopted by others (W<strong>in</strong>ett,
Moore, & Anderson, 1991).
Method
Participants <strong>and</strong> Data Collection
422 / <strong>Education</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g</strong> <strong>in</strong> <strong>Developmental</strong> <strong>Disabilities</strong>-September 2009
To evaluate the acceptability <strong>and</strong> effectiveness
of the FAPs, data were collected from three
groups of stakeholders: (a) parents who participated
<strong>in</strong> the project <strong>and</strong> created FAPs for
their children; (b) FAP facilitators, the practic<strong>in</strong>g
professionals (teachers <strong>and</strong> social workers)
<strong>and</strong> university students who provided
technical assistance <strong>and</strong> support to parents as
they were develop<strong>in</strong>g the FAPs; <strong>and</strong> (c) preservice
teachers <strong>and</strong> experienced educators who
served as a proxy for educators who receive
FAPs from parents. Consents for participation
were obta<strong>in</strong>ed prior to data collection from all
participants.
Parents. N<strong>in</strong>e families who created FAPs
for their children participated <strong>in</strong> this study. In
total, there were 10 parents (9 mothers <strong>and</strong> 1
father) that provided <strong>in</strong>formation to the researchers.
Overall, data from parents <strong>in</strong>clude
<strong>in</strong>formation related to eleven FAPs that were
developed, as two of the families had two children
with disabilities <strong>and</strong> therefore developed
two FAPs (one for each child). Data were collected
from the mother of each child, with the
exception of one case where both mother <strong>and</strong>
father provided <strong>in</strong>formation. All of the families
spoke English as the primary language at
home. However, for one family the parent’s
native language was H<strong>in</strong>di. Additional <strong>in</strong>formation
about the parents participat<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> this
study <strong>and</strong> their children is provided <strong>in</strong> Table
1.
Parents were asked to complete a questionnaire
<strong>and</strong> participate <strong>in</strong> a face to face or a
phone <strong>in</strong>terview with the first author. The
items on the questionnaire are shown <strong>in</strong> Table
2, <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong>cluded 26 statements. Parents identified
their level of agreement with each statement
on a Likert scale from 1 (disagree) to 5
(agree). Twenty statements were worded positively
<strong>and</strong> 6 statements were worded negatively.
It is important to <strong>in</strong>clude both positively