THE PERCEIVED ENVIRONMENT OF SPECIAL-EDUCATION CLASSROOMS FOR ADOLESCENTS - A REVISION OF THE CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT SCALE

The Classroom Environment Scale (CES), originally developed for use in traditional public school classrooms, was revised for use in special education classrooms. The scale, which assesses students' perceptions of various aspects of the classroom, was administered to students in 7 9 special education classrooms in 16 residential and day treatment sch ools serving special education students with behavior disorders and em otional disturbance. Psychometric analyses showed that only seven of t he nine aspects of the classroom found in the original CES were reliab ly reported in special education classrooms. The revised scale was fou nd reliable for use in special education classes in residential and da y treatment settings.