The Beliefs and Attitudes about Deaf Education (BADE) Scale: A Tool for Assessing the Dispositions of Parents and Educators

This paper reports on the development of the Beliefs and Attitudes about Deaf Education (BADE) scale and presents psychometric information derived from the administration of the scale to a national sample of parents, teachers, and program administrators during Wave 1 data collection of the Early Educational Longitudinal Study (EELS). Initially the scale had 47 items; however, 26 items were eliminated during analysis because they were found to be either redundant or not contributing to the most significant underlying latent attitudinal factors. We examined the content of the items loading highly on the factors in this final analysis to determine appropriate subscale labels for the factors. These are as follows: 1) Literacy through Hearing Technologies and/or Visual Support for Speech Comprehension; 2) Visual Language and Bilingualism; 3) Listening and Spoken Language; and 4) Difficulties Associated with Hearing Parents Learning ASL. The BADE scale will be helpful to families with deaf children and the professionals working with them as they explore the different communication options and their own personal beliefs and attitudes toward deaf education.