The field of special education has come under criticism for its failure to produce
academic achievement for students with disabilities. The U. S. Department of Education
(2002) criticized the field by stating that qualifying for special education has become the
goal instead of effective instruction and intervention. In spite of an awareness of
research-based instructional strategies, they have not been consistently implemented by
special educators. Some researchers contend that teachers' beliefs substantially influence
and impact their actions in the classroom and the process of teaching will only be fully
understood when the two domains are examined in relation to one another (Clark &
Peterson, 1986; Vartuli, 2005).