Education Commons^™

Identifying Critical Employability Skills For Employment Success Of Autistic Individuals: A Content Analysis Of Job Postings, Amy Jane Griffiths, Amy E. Hurley-Hanson, Cristina M. Giannantonio, Angel Miles Nash, Wallace Walrod, Petersen Walrod, Rachel Torres, Raquel Delgado

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This study aimed to examine the literature on the skill sets of autistic individuals and determine how these skills align with current and projected future labour market needs. Based on a literature review, researchers identified the following skill categories common to autistic individuals: visual skills, attention to detail and systemizing composite skills. Researchers then gathered aggregated data on occupations and industries from over 90 state and federal sources in the United States. Next, they collected data on the most in-demand jobs, their industries and relevant skills by analysing hundreds of millions of online job postings. The results indicate the most …

The Roadmap To An Improved Braille Display Design, Emma Garofalo, Trey Alexander, Luke Shankland, Michael Smith, Michael Cheng, Michael Bishai, Lauren Sun

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Our innovative braille display, focused on affordability and education, fills a notable void in the market of refreshable braille displays, which are typically costly and not designed primarily for educational use. This product stands out as an economical educational aid for people with visual impairments. It features a system where pressing a keyboard alphabet key corresponds to specific braille pins, allowing for the display of letters or characters. Additionally, our design can represent simple geometric shapes, like circles or squares, using the braille pins. When these pins are raised, the user can feel the braille representation of the character or …

One Font Doesn’T Fit All: The Influence Of Digital Text Personalization On Comprehension In Child And Adolescent Readers, Shannon M. Sheppard, Susanne L. Nobles, Anton Palma, Sophie Kajfez, Marjorie Jordan, Kathy Crowley, Sofie Beier

Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Articles and Research

Reading comprehension is an essential skill. It is unclear whether and to what degree typography and font personalization may impact reading comprehension in younger readers. With advancements in technology, it is now feasible to personalize digital reading formats in general technology tools, but this feature is not yet available for many educational tools. The current study aimed to investigate the effect of character width and inter-letter spacing on reading speed and comprehension. We enrolled 94 children (kindergarten–8th grade) and compared performance with six font variations on a word-level semantic decision task (Experiment 1) and a passage-level comprehension task (Experiment 2). …

Equipped For Change: A Grounded Theory Study Of White Antiracist School Leaders’ Attitudes And Perceptions Of Racial Consciousness In Educational Leadership, Thomas Joseph Peterson

Education (PhD) Dissertations

There is substantial evidence that issues of race and racism and are common in U.S. public schools, especially those greatly impacted by poverty and racial segregation. Unfortunately, it is highly likely many of these occurrences either go unrecognized, unacknowledged, or are perpetrated unknowingly by White educators and administrators—many of whom are well-intentioned, but lack the critical lens necessary in challenging and dismantling them. For White people, the enculturating normativity of White racial dominance, maintained by the social conditioning of Whiteness, facilitates an environment of racial ignorance and insignificance, leaving most painfully oblivious to the damaging complexities of racism in contemporary …

All Things Weird And Wonderful: A Creative Exploration Of Disability Representation, Lara Ameen

Education (PhD) Dissertations

My dissertation, All Things Weird and Wonderful: A Creative Exploration of Disability Representation, begins with a thorough review of the literature of disability representation in TV and film to set the stage for the one-hour supernatural drama pilot I wrote, which I also adapted into a complete Adult urban fantasy novel.

Pitched as the supernatural drama version of Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building meets Netflix’s Raising Dion, All Things Weird and Wonderful is a one-hour supernatural drama about an asexual college freshman with cerebral palsy named Genevieve Ross, who has supernatural powers, and an Egyptian American college senior with …

Disability, Race, And Origin Intersectionality In The Doctoral Program: Ableism In Higher Education, Theodoto W. Ressa, Scot Danforth

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This paper explores the experiences of a doctoral disabled student at a university to examine how ableist structures in graduate programs affect access to higher education and post-degree outcomes. Guided by the DisCrit framework and autoethnography approach, the article illuminates systems and processes that disadvantage graduate disabled students. Through intersectional analyses of disability, race, and origin, the article makes visible manifestations of disability microaggressions and systemic ableism, racism, and xenophobia. It interrogates the perpetuation and normalization of academic transgressions, including exclusionary practices that degrade and oppress graduate disabled students and hinder them from seeking success. Finally, the argument is made …

High School Quality Is Associated With Cognition 58 Years Later, Dominika Seblova, Chloe Eng, Justina F. Avila-Rieger, Jordan D. Dworkin, Kelly Peters, Susan Lapham, Laura B. Zahodne, Benjamin Chapman, Carol A. Prescott, Tara L. Gruenewald, Thalida Em. Arpawong, Margaret Gatz, Rich J. Jones, Maria M. Glymour, Jennifer J. Manly

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

We leveraged a unique school-based longitudinal cohort—the Project Talent Aging Study—to examine whether attending higher quality schools is associated with cognitive performance among older adults in the United States (mean age = 74.8). Participants (n = 2,289) completed telephone neurocognitive testing. Six indicators of high school quality, reported by principals at the time of schooling, were predictors of respondents’ cognitive function 58 years later. To account for school-clustering, multilevel linear and logistic models were applied. We found that attending schools with a higher number of teachers with graduate training was the clearest predictor of later-life cognition, and school quality mattered …

Are Deficit Perspectives Thriving In Trauma-Informed Schools? A Historical And Anti-Racist Reflection, Cora Palma, Annmary S. Abdou, Scot Danforth, Amy Jane Griffiths

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Mental health research concerning adverse childhood experiences and neurocognitive trauma has prompted many school districts to pursue the development of trauma-informed schools that attend specifically to the emotional and instructional needs of affected students. Researchers and practitioners are fast proliferating trauma-informed professional practices. Given research findings indicating disproportionate impacts of trauma on students of color and those living in poverty, in this article, we examine the risks of trauma-informed educational programs reanimating cultural deficit theories from the 1960s about marginalized students and families. Educators are challenged to thoughtfully fortify trauma-informed schooling by increasing awareness of deficit perspectives and incorporating critical …

The Efficacy Of A Key Word Signing Workshop, Krista Mcmorran-Maus

Education (PhD) Dissertations

This study examined the effect of a 1-day, 6-hour key word signing (KWS) workshop on in-service special education teachers’ and speech-language pathologists’ (SLPs) (a) skill identifying American Sign Language (ASL) signs; (b) skill producing ASL signs; (c) use of KWS in the classroom or therapy room; and (d) perceived changes from taking part in a KWS workshop. Participants included five special education teachers, three SLPs, and four students with complex communication needs (aged 3 to 14 years) participated in the study. All eight adult participants participated in a pretest-posttest design with repeated posttest measures over time, survey design, and phenomenological …

Examining California’S Title 22 Community Care Licensing Regulations: The Impact On Inclusive Preschool Settings, Aja Mckee, Audri Sandoval Gomez, Sardis Susana Rodriguez, Janice Myck-Wayne, Scott Turner, Markus Trujillo

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Access to general education preschool in California has varied for children with disabilities. One reason for the disparity of educational placement is the preschool regulations outlined in California Department of Education’s Title 22: Community Care Licensing guidelines. These regulations, particularly in preschool, support or hinder preschool inclusion. Examining the preschool section of Title 22 through document analysis resulted in identifying three major themes that embrace or deter inclusive practices: (a) language (i.e., supportive language, antiquated language, and ambiguous language); (b) training, experience, and education; and (c) staff-student ratio. California’s educational leaders should consider these results to provide opportunities for preschool …

“I Just Learn Differently”: The Experiences Of Dis/Abled Students Of Color Interpreting And Resisting Normalizing Forces In The Mathematics Classroom, Dina Mahmood

Education (PhD) Dissertations

This critical phenomenological study employs a disabilities studies in education and critical race theory (DisCrit) lens to unpack the learning experiences of seven dis/abled students of color in the secondary mathematics classroom. Based on data collected from individual and group interviews, the counter-stories presented in this study highlight the implicit and explicit ways that the normative forces of ableism and racism circulate in the secondary mathematics classroom. Through their education journey maps, the participants described forms of hyper-labeling, experiences of implicit and explicit biases from teachers and peers, and rigid conceptions of mathematics that constrained their success. The counter-stories are, …

A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Teacher Preparation Standards Within Inclusion-Intensive States, Kay Lynn Ceja

Education (PhD) Dissertations

Federal law calls for students with disabilities to be educated in the least restrictive environment possible. However, this still allows for students with disabilities to be placed in a range of educational settings, from the general education classroom to a separate school. The number of students with disabilities that are included to the maximum extent possible in the general education classroom varies by state. This study focused on the role of teacher training as defined by state drive teacher education standards. The purposeful outlier sample was selected by identifying the 12 states with the highest levels of inclusion of students …

Higher Education Housing Professionals And Disability: A Grounded Theory Exploration Of Resident Directors’ Understandings Of Disability, Christopher Toutain

Education (PhD) Dissertations

The residential experiences of students with disabilities in higher education play a pivotal role in their overall campus education. However, little is known about the ways in which the staff who manage and support these residential environments understand and work with issues and concepts of disability. Utilizing constructivist grounded theory, this study examines the ways in which resident directors think about and work with disability within their positions of residential management. The study also explores the ways in which resident directors think about and understand disability as a component of diversity, the steps that resident directors take in working with …

Disabled Idf Veterans In Israeli Higher Education: Disability Identity And Use Of Support, Einat Ben Dov

Education (PhD) Dissertations

Even though military service in Israel is mandatory and common among the state population, Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) veterans with disabilities are rarely represented in the literature regarding their experience in Israeli higher education (HE). This study aimed to fill this gap by investigating the experiences of disabled IDF (DIDF) veteran students, their experiences as students, identities, challenges, and utilization of support resources on their campuses. The relevant fields of Disability Studies, Veteran Studies, and the use of disability support services on campus are discussed in this study, focusing on the implementation of accessibility regulations and practices in the Israeli …

Thinkmed: Inspiring The Future Of Stem, One Project At A Time, Steven Trinh, Lauren Dudley

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

ThinkMED is a nonprofit initiative offering a four-week curriculum specifically designed to develop critical thinking and encourage evidence-based decision making. Each week’s content material revolves around the use of a ThinkBOX science kit containing four (4) wet-lab experiments designed to supplement the curriculum. Each experiment is formulated to be inclusive of all California Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) K-5. At the end of each week, students get the opportunity to speak with university professors & scientists from a multitude of subject areas including chemistry, anatomy, computer science, physiology, and bioengineering. ThinkBOXes are donated to children and families who do not …

Special Education Parent Perceptions Of Involvement And Parent–Educator Relationships During Iep Meetings At Nonpublic Schools, Alex Huynen

Education (PhD) Dissertations

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) requires parents to be involved in all parts of the education decision-making process, including the IEP meeting. Although there is a vast body of research about parents of students receiving special education services and their perspectives of the IEP meeting, little is known about parents’ perspectives of the IEP meeting while students are at a nonpublic school. Understanding the perspectives of parents whose students attend nonpublic schools will allow for more collaboration and more effective IEP for their students attending nonpublic schools. The current study explored parent perspectives of involvement and parent–educator …

Thinkmed: Providing An Environment For Disadvantaged Students To Explore Stem, Steven Trinh, Lauren Dudley, Peter Chang

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

ThinkMED is a nonprofit initiative offering a four-week curriculum specifically designed to develop critical thinking and encourage evidence-based decision making. Each week’s content material revolves around the use of a ThinkMED Science Kit containing a wet lab experiment designed to supplement the content curriculum. Each experiment is formulated to be inclusive of all California Next Generation Science Standards K through 5. Contained within each week’s ThinkMED Science Kit is a unique QR code that directs the student to an interactive simulation of the experiment created by our team of computer scientists and graphic designers. At the end of each week, …

Developing Strong Transition-Focused Ieps Using Labour Market Data, Amy Jane Griffiths, Meghan E. Cosier, Rachel Wiegand, Sneha Kohli Mathur, Sara Morgan

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Employment rates and post-school transition outcomes for individuals with disabilities remain alarmingly low compared to peers without disabilities. Transition-Focused Individualized Education Plans (TF-IEPs) often centre on skills associated with employment experience opportunities that are immediately available to the individual with a disability. While the transition plans focus on the student's strengths and areas of interest, less attention is paid to the guidance and support a student might need in choosing a sustainable career. We contend that teams must develop transition plans with specific attention to projected labour market data. Using this information will ensure that we are preparing students with …

Parents’ Perspectives On A Smartwatch Intervention For Children With Adhd: Rapid Deployment And Feasibility Evaluation Of A Pilot Intervention To Support Distance Learning During Covid-19, Franceli L. Cibrian, Elissa Monteiro, Elizabeth Ankrah, Jesus A. Beltran, Arya Tavakoulnia, Sabrina E. B. Schuck, Gillian R. Hayes, Kimberley D. Lakes

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Distance learning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic presented tremendous challenges for many families. Parents were expected to support children’s learning, often while also working from home. Students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are at particularly high risk for setbacks due to difficulties with organization and increased risk of not participating in scheduled online learning. This paper explores how smartwatch technology, including timing notifications, can support children with ADHD during distance learning due to COVID-19. We implemented a 6-week pilot study of a Digital Health Intervention (DHI) with ten families. The DHI included a smartwatch and a smartphone. Google …

Independence, Dependence, And Intellectual Disability: From Cultural Origins To Useful Application, Scot Danforth

Education Faculty Articles and Research

American government educational policy and leading advocacy groups commonly espouse independence as a primary goal for young people with intellectual disabilities. An extensive philosophical literature of autonomy has focused mostly on analyses of cognition that achieve individual self-governance. But the loosely defined concept of independence used by disability policymakers and advocates provides a more malleable, social understanding that involves someone actively relying on the assistance of others. The purpose of this paper is to examine the cultural, historical origins of the notion of independence for disabled persons through an exploration of the biography of Ed Roberts, the father of the …

Understanding The Lived Experiences Of Autistic Adults, Sneha Kohli Mathur

Education (PhD) Dissertations

Although there is a plethora of autism-related research, research related to transition and support needs for autistic adults remains limited. The purpose of this study was to understand the hopes, dreams, aspirations, challenges, and lived experiences of autistic adults. Academic literature has largely emphasized autism as a medical deficit, and use of first-person narratives to understand needs of people on the autism spectrum is rare. To fill this gap, I conducted a narrative study through a social model of disability lens and centered voices of autistic individuals. The narrative component of this research allowed readers to understand the subjective experiences …

Handwriting Correction System Using Wearable Sleeve With Optimal Tactor Configuration, Dhanya Nair, Grant Stankaitis, Sean Duback, Robert Geoffrion, Justin B. Jackson

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Handwriting remains an elusive skill with practice worksheets being the common method of learning. Since these worksheets provide only visual feedback and no quantitative feedback, it can often be a challenge to improve. For children with learning disabilities, learning handwriting skills is one of the most difficult tasks. We propose a handwriting training system that uses off-the-shelf webcam, a pen tracking software and a haptic sleeve which provides active feedback to the user based on their deviation from the original pattern. The sleeve has 4 individual motors that vibrate at different intensities based on the direction (right, left, up or …

Community College Success Of Students With Disabilities, Shayne Brophy-Felbab

Education (PhD) Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify aspects of home life, college life, or high school preparation that supported the success of students with disabilities at community colleges. As students with disabilities are rarely represented in the literature, this study offered a space for students with disabilities to share their voice and further develop their sense of agency. The six participants had a range of disabilities and enrolled in Disabled Student Programs and Services (DSPS) at their community college. They had all completed at least one year and three students were completing their final year and had plans in …

Systemic Functional Linguistics In The Community College Composition Class: A Multimodal Approach To Teaching Composition Using The Metalanguage Of Sfl, Jennifer James

Education (PhD) Dissertations

This qualitative research study sought to understand the affordances and limitations of a systemic functional linguistics (SFL) approach to teaching composition at the community college level. The study took place over the course of a semester in two developmental college composition classes using the language of SFL to teach writing through multimodal assignments. The study was developed in response to the increasing diversity in writing skills and educational goals of students in the community college composition class. The increase in diversity is a result of legislation in California that restructures developmental class offerings and affects placement in the transfer-level composition …

The Politics Of The Hero's Journey: A Narratology Of American Special Education Textbooks, Elise Assaf, Jennifer James, Scot Danforth

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This paper explores introduction to special education textbooks in order to illuminate how they portray the social and political work of special educators, especially in relation to disabled students and adults. This study analyzed five leading special education textbooks used in university teacher education programs using traditional methods of discourse analysis, including line-by-line coding and language-in-use with valuation. The analysis and coding tracked story plot components and characters associated with five phases evident in the narrative structure of a hero's journey: (1) the call to adventure, (2) supernatural aid, (3) threshold guardians, (4) trials and tribulations, and (5) the return. …

The Importance Of Inclusive Spaces In Social Skills Development: Drawing On The Lgbtq Educational And Disability Studies In Education Frameworks, Aja Mckee, Audri Sandoval Gomez, Kevin Stockbridge

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This manuscript highlights a major finding from a larger study conducted in the United States that used phenomenological interviews with adults with autism who typed to communicate. Participants shared their United States educational experiences before and after learning to type. This finding focused on how disability studies in education and the development of inclusive spaces, such as those designed for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual, and queer or questioning (LGBTQ) students, may change the way in which educators support students with autism in developing and sustaining natural and meaningful friendships. Thus, this paper examined the social experiences of one participant who …

Word-Problem-Solving Interventions For Elementary Students With Learning Disabilities: A Selective Meta-Analysis Of The Literature, Jennifer E. Kong, Christy Yan, Allison Serceki, H. Lee Swanson

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This meta-analysis assessed the effect of word-problem-solving interventions on the word-problem-solving accuracy of students identified as having a learning disability (LD) or at risk for an LD in kindergarten to the sixth grade. Eighteen randomized control group designed studies met the inclusion criteria. Overall, word-problem-solving interventions yielded a significant positive effect on the word-problem-solving accuracy of students in elementary grades with LD (effect size [ES] = 1.08). Instructional components that underlie effective studies were also identified. Results suggest that peer interaction and transfer instructions yielded large effects on treatment outcomes. Results also suggested that intensive interventions (50-min sessions, 34 total …

Educator Perceptions Of Adult-Student Relationships, Racial Climate, And Associated Discipline Techniques, Annmary S. Abdou, Ashley M. Mayworm

Education Faculty Articles and Research

The overuse and misuse of exclusionary and punitive discipline practices in schools have been consistently linked to social and educational inequities across the globe, particularly for students of color. However, there is an ongoing need for a greater understanding of how school climate factors (e.g., adult-student relationships, racial climate) relate to the types of discipline approaches observed, particularly from the viewpoints of educators. The current study used hierarchical multiple regression analyses to investigate teacher, administrator, and staff (N = 168) survey responses from four junior high schools where discipline disproportionality for Latinx students had been previously established. Analyses explored …

Families And Schools Together: Designing A Model For University-Community Partnerships To Support Home-School Collaborations, Amy Jane Griffiths, James Alsip, Kelly Kennedy, Elena L. Diamond, Cora Palma, Annmary S. Abdou, Rachel Wiegand, John Brady

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Collaboration between school staff, families, and community partners is vital for ensuring all students’ success, particularly those with disabilities. In this case study, we will discuss a community-university partnership involving a university school psychology graduate program, several local school districts, and a specialized medical facility for children with autism and related neurodevelopmental disorders. These partners came together to create the Families and Schools Partnership Program (FSPP). Facilitated by School Psychology faculty and graduate students, FSPP offers support to families and schools through a cohesive multidisciplinary approach to intervention. In this study, we examined the experiences of 700 families referred to …

Stem For Everyone: A Mixed Methods Approach To The Conception And Implementation Of An Evaluation Process For Stem Education Programs For Students With Disabilities, Amy Jane Griffiths, John Brady, Nicholas Riley, James Alsip, Vanessa Trine, Lauren Gomez

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Some students with autism spectrum disorder and other learning differences may have superior visual acuity, increased attentional focus, and logical thinking abilities, lending to an affinity for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. At the same time, economists report that, the United States will experience a 28.2% increase in STEM-related jobs between 2014 and 2024. Although students with disabilities (SWD) can help to fill those positions, 85% of SWD graduates are either underemployed or unemployed as they enter young adulthood. Thus, there is a need to develop, evaluate, and report outcomes of STEM preparation programs specifically tailored to SWD. …