Education Commons^™

A Phenomenological Study Of School Psychologists: The Influence Of Implicit Bias On The Disproportionate Identification Rates Of African American Students Evaluated For Emotional Disturbance, Sonya Coe-Milo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As advocates, school psychologists remain ethically responsible and uniquely positioned to identify social injustices and promote nondiscriminatory practices in prekindergarten through grade 12 public education institutions. Implicit bias and its influence on African American students is one such practice. In public education, implicit bias contributes to discipline disproportionality, differentiated teacher support, pedagogical practices, and adult perceptions and expectations of appropriate and inappropriate behaviors. These factors directly correlate to the disproportionate identification rates of African American students for special education and related services. Therefore, this phenomenological qualitative study examined the personal, lived experiences and perceptions of school psychologists regarding implicit bias …

Impact Of School Closures And Virtual Instruction On Sixth Grade Reading And Math Achievement Of Student Subgroups, Crystal Michelle Pope

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this quantitative, causal-comparative design study was to determine whether differences existed between the reading and math achievement of sixth grade general education students and students with disabilities who have been identified with a specific learning disability or other health impairment. This study was important because achievement gaps exist between subgroups of students (Farkas et al., 2020). The sample included scores from 144 students in a school division in Southeastern Virginia. The instrument used was the Grade 6 Reading and Math Standards of Learning assessments administered in the spring of 2021. Two one-way ANOVAs were used to compare …

Does Teacher Bias Increase Referral Of Blacks To Special Education For A Reading Disability?, Blade Wise Perry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research shows that Black students are over-represented in special education for a reading disability based on the inaccuracy of teacher referrals. Teachers' accuracy in referring Black students to special education for a reading disability is not an extensively researched area. This study aims to determine if teachers' biases and attitudes toward Black students impacted their ability to accurately make a special education referral for a reading disability for this population of students. For this study, teachers completed a questionnaire, cultural competence self-assessment checklist, four vignettes, and a post-vignette question to determine if their personal biases and attitudes impacted their willingness …

Taking Flight: Giving Up The Things That Weigh Me Down, Karina Malik

Occasional Paper Series

From the perspective of a Latinx, dual-language, special education, public school teacher, I explore and detail what an equitable and just education could look like in our future. I begin by envisioning a future that:

• Values collaboration in teaching and learning

• Allows for spaces of ongoing teacher learning where we teachers decide where we want to grow and how we want to learn.

• Invests in our growth and development as educators.

• Consists of a solid understanding that there is more expertise across communities than in any one person.

I continue by explaining that in order for this to be a …

Building-Level Administrators And Collaborative Special Education Iep Meetings: Addressing Barriers To Active And Inclusive Participation, Trevor A. Addis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify the factors serving as barriers to effective building-level administrator participation in special education individualized education program (IEP) meetings. For the purposes of this study, research was conducted in the multidisciplinary areas of social cognitive theory and self-efficacy, along with an examination of school-building administrators as instructional leaders, the role(s) of building-level leadership in special education and building administrator knowledge and understanding of special education policies and practices. A qualitative research approach was used to examine local building-level administrator participation in the special education IEP process. Building Level Administrators, in the district were …

A Study Of Student Experiences In The Secondary Transition Program Through Student, Parent, And Teacher Perceptions, Kelley M. Sells

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to examine and analyze the perceptions of students with mild-moderate disabilities, teachers, and parents regarding the students’ experiences related to their secondary transition plan. More specifically, the qualitative single-case study sought to identify areas of alignment and divergence of these three key members’ perspectives since experiences and perceptions are unique to an individual based on the context and individual’s perspective of the event. These findings suggested that the district showed experiences of valuable student presence and input in their IEP meetings and trusting supportive student-teacher relationships. The study also revealed that significant barriers …

Effectiveness Of Collaborative Handwriting Curriculum: Handwriting Without Tears And Orton-Gillingham, In Kindergarten Classroom Setting., Merry G. Harper

Occupational Therapy Doctorate Capstone Projects

Background: Formal handwriting instruction, using evidence-based, developmentally appropriate handwriting programming, in school based occupational therapy is necessary to support the role of a student. Handwriting is an occupation of children in the school environment. Without formal handwriting instruction in place there is evidence to support occupational therapy intervention providing a handwriting program can improve handwriting success.

Purpose: The purpose of this research study is to determine the clinical efficacy of a hybrid approach to handwriting instruction pairing the Handwriting Without Tears and Orton-Gillingham instructional programming for prewriting and handwriting skills in the kindergarten population. The research question addressed is: Will …

Perspectives On Professional Development On Common Core Standards For English Language Arts, Martin W. Jones

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Middle school teachers at a rural site in a western state have faced problems in implementing Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for English Language Arts (ELA), as well as in resolving achievement gaps in ELA between regular education students, special education (SPED) students, English language learners (ELL), and at-risk students. The purpose of this case study was to obtain teachers’ and school leaders’ perspectives on how CCSS for ELA can be used to enhance learning for all populations of students using the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles. The CCSS for ELA and UDL comprised the frameworks employed in this …

A Comparative Study Of Student Achievement And Teacher Perceptions Between Differently Structured Special Education School Districts, Leigha Wetter

Dissertations

In order to provide recommendations for special education service organization practices, the researcher investigated student achievement and teacher perceptions of differently structured special education school districts that collaborated with a special school district to provide special education services and schools that provided their own special education services. Through evaluating the varying school districts, this study aimed to address possible best practices within the structuring of the organizations to increase student achievement for students with special needs. In order to evaluate the organization of the school districts, the researcher analyzed the student achievement of special education students at the elementary and …

A Causal-Comparative Study Of Christian School Special Needs Student Test Scores Based On Teacher Degree, Daniel Lee Riley

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Special education is a field that is expanding at a rapid pace. A second field of education that has been in existence for only a few decades is the modern Christian K-12 day school. The merging of the two of these phenomena in education creates a research platform that few have studied in unison. There is little research when pairing these two fields, but the need to study them is great. This study will focus on the academic achievement of students with special needs, based upon standardized math and reading test scores, using the Stanford 10 (SAT 10) standardized assessment …

Exploring Stem Kit Diagrams For Braille Readers In Inclusive Classrooms, Sariat A. Adelakun Dr

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

Diagrams appears in many school subjects but more prominent in science and mathematics taught in schools. Accessing these diagrams in an inclusive classroom has been identified to be problematic for blind students partly due to the teaching resources available and personnel type, support and sufficiency. Diagrams are mostly omitted by teachers leaving the blind person out in such classroom to access portion of education received by their peers. In many instances, questions with diagrams are treated as bonus for blind students in some countries which is not fair to them. This study explored the efficacy of STEM Kit diagrams on …

Implementing Writers’ Workshop Into The Special Education Classroom, Taylor Denning

Masters of Education in Teaching and Learning

Writers’ Workshop has developed prominence as a method towards providing authentic writing experiences. The purpose of this study was to determine what happens to student perceptions and quantity of writing when Writers’ Workshop is implemented into a special education setting. This study took place in a self-contained special education classroom of third-, fourth-, and fifth-graders. Data was collected through focus group interviews with the teachers, focus groups with two students from every grade, perception surveys, and writing samples.

Surveys and focus group interviews were completed before and after the implementation. Writing samples were collected at the beginning, middle, and end …

Reinforcement In The Classroom: Reference Guide, Morgan Buehler, John Maag

Honors Theses

My initial research question was “how can I make information about appropriate reinforcement techniques easily available to elementary educators?” Upon beginning this endeavor, I realized the most efficient way to do so would be to condense a variety of information on this topic into an easy to read access guide. This brochure contains information educators can reference when trying to analyze behavior, create classroom environments or build individual or group behavior plans/goals. It was written with the purpose that anyone in the education world could have quick and easy access to valuable information without having to search through a textbook …

Placement Of Students With Extensive Support Needs In California School Districts: The State Of Inclusion And Exclusion, Meghan Cosier, Audri Sandoval-Gomez, Donald N. Cardinal, Shayne Brophy

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Access to general education settings for students with disabilities varies greatly among and within states across the United States and worldwide. The variability in placement and lack of access to general education for students with disabilities, particularly students with extensive support needs, are reasons to identify factors associated with placement and then address the role of current policy. Explored in this study were the placement of students with extensive support needs in 938 school districts across the State of California in the United States and the relationship between placement and economic and demographic factors. Results suggest alarmingly low access to …

The Lived Experiences Of Black Males In Special Education: A Phenomenological Study Of Parents And Students, Ashonta Lashonda Wyatt

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation

Black males rank highest among students who choose to leave school; are suspended, expelled, or kicked out of school; score poorly on tests; have low GPAs and high rates of referral and placement in special education; and are underrepresented in gifted education (e.g., NCES, 2005; Whiting, 2004) as cited in Whiting (2006a). The purpose of this study was to generate an understanding of the attitudes and beliefs related to special education referral and placement of Black males as perceived by six Black students and their parents. The focus of this phenomenological study was to examine the lived experiences of six …

Teacher Perception Toward Students With Certain Disabilities In The General Education Setting, Tara Lynn Broussard-Harshaw

Theses and Dissertations from 2019

Teacher expectation for student success in the classroom is an effect size that can be used as an indicator of student success. Students with disabilities such as Autism, emotional disturbance, specific learning disabilities or other health impairments are often viewed as being unable to be as successful in a general education classroom than their peers. There were 11 participants in this study. Participants were from the northwest corridor of the state. Participants were public school general education teachers. They varied in range from Kindergarten through grade 12. This study reinforces the need for general education teachers to have a better …

West Side Story: Success Within Special Education Through Arts Integration, Kelly Richardson

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Arts education programs can provide the necessary skills students need for future success, including communication skills and confidence. The Turnaround Arts program at Rosa Parks Elementary School has advanced overall student success, particularly benefiting students in Special Education. Both Special Education teachers and the Arts Specialist at Rosa Parks Elementary were interviewed and the Turnaround Arts Program was observed. Each teacher described their experiences within this program to be noteworthy and recognized the importance it has had on their students’ success in the classroom. Based on an analysis of the data and the relevant research literature, we used what we …

Teachers’ Perceptions Of Effective Student Support Systems By Availability Of Student Support Facilitators, Marsha Joyce-Tatum

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Student support systems are designed to improve struggling students’ performance and should be used by general and special education teachers. The purpose of this study was to examine teachers’ perceptions of student support system frameworks in a rural school district in a Mid-Atlantic state with a full-time or part-time student support facilitator. This study will provide educational leaders with information on teachers’ perceptions concerning student support systems, in order to support creation of improved staff development efforts that will influence effective teacher use of student support systems. Teachers’ perceptions of their training, special education eligibility, and framework weaknesses in student …

A Multilevel Model Of Poverty, Community Factors, And Learning For Students With Disabilities., Randal Barnes

Dissertations

Students with disabilities face challenges to academic success that can be exacerbated by the effects of poverty. In this study, Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) was used to analyze the effects of socio-economic status, social capital, and threats to safety on literacy test scores for students with disabilities. Results of the analysis indicate that discipline rate had a significant effect on mean district scores on statewide standardized tests, but not on the impact of socio-economic status on test scores. Conversely, the percent of college graduates in a school district did not have a significant effect on district scores, but moderated the …

Characteristics Necessary For Teacher Success In A Classroom For Students With Emotional Disabilities, Cheryl Bowers

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this collective case study was to describe the characteristics necessary for teacher success in a classroom for students with emotional disabilities (ED) through the perceptions of teachers of students with ED, administrators, and behavior specialists in South District. Albert Bandura’s social cognitive theory guided this study as it explains the mutual influence among cognitive, environment, and behavior factors for teachers. A rich description of the perceived characteristics necessary for teacher success in an ED classroom was created thereby answering the central question of the study: What characteristics does a person need to be a successful teacher in …

Special And General Education Teachers’ Assessment Of Their Participation In A Peer Assistance And Review (Par) Program, Alexandre Lopes

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Traditional teacher evaluation systems have failed to (a) show variations in teacher effectiveness, (b) determine teachers’ professional development needs, and (c) align evaluation of teacher effectiveness with compensation, retention, and dismissal. Furthermore, traditional teacher evaluation systems have failed to establish teaching practices that positively affect student learning - an issue of critical importance for students with disabilities.

The literature indicates that Peer Assistance and Review (PAR), grounded in social network theory, is regarded by many as a viable option to compensate for the disadvantages of traditional teacher evaluation systems. PAR has the potential to provide (a) frequent and meaningful observations, …

General Education Science And Special Education Teachers’ Experiences With Inclusive Middle School Science Classrooms, Michelle P. Phelan

Dissertations

While inclusion of students with disabilities has been a topic of debate for decades, uncertainty still exists concerning best practices for their participation in general education contexts (Carter et al., 2016). This study was designed to investigate teachers’ experiences and perceptions with inclusion in general education science classrooms. While students with disabilities are generally included in general education science classrooms today, statistics show students with disabilities are graduating from high school unprepared to major in science-related fields or to enter the workforce in sciencerelated careers (Brusca-Vega, Alexander, & Kamin, 2014). Therefore, the content area of science was targeted for the …

Inclusive Special And General Education Secondary Teachers’ Attitudes Towards The Inclusion Of Students With Disabilities In The General Education Setting, Barbara Portwood

Dissertations

The passage of The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act (2002), formerly known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, sparked a significant rise in the number of students with disabilities receiving their instruction in the inclusive setting. While previous legislation mandated that students with disabilities be included in standardized testing, NCLB called for closing the achievement gap between students with disabilities and their nondisabled peers. Research indicated the success of students with disabilities in the general educational setting was influenced by teacher attitude. This qualitative study addressed secondary general and special education teacher attitudes and beliefs surrounding the practice …

A Phenomenological Study Of Elementary General Education Teachers' Experiences Teaching Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Patricia Massengale

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the experiences of elementary general education teachers instructing students diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in a suburban North Georgia inclusion setting. The four research questions that guided this study included (a) How do elementary general education teachers describe their experiences teaching students with ASD in their classrooms? (b) In what ways do teachers describe how the presence of students with ASD influence their beliefs regarding inclusion? (c) How do teachers describe the challenges they faced with students with ASD in the inclusion setting? and (d) How do teachers describe the …

The Relationship Between Exposure To Specialized Staff In A Classroom Setting And Observable Behaviors Among Students With Special Needs, Rachel Marie Prisco

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study aims to identify differences in the later integration of children with mild to moderate special needs based on their exposure to specialized staff regardless of the type of preschool they attended. This is done by observing the behaviors exhibited by those students with special needs and the proportion of the student’s day in a traditional classroom. One of the most noted issues with students who have special needs is their lack of appropriate early intervention with specifically-trained staff. This may attribute to those students delay in social emotional skills, and cognitive skills. Transitions, specifically those from one classroom …

Promoting Self-Determination Skills Of Individuals With Intellectual Disabilities Participating In The Inclusive Concurrent Enrollment Initiative Programs Throughout Massachusetts, Lyndsey Nunes

Doctoral Dissertations

There are currently 15 Inclusive Concurrent Enrollment Initiative (ICEI) Programs throughout Massachusetts. Each program is different in its day-to-day planning but all adhere to the mission, full inclusion of students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The purpose of this evaluative research study was to examine and understand the functional components of postsecondary education programs that promote self-determination for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities and to differentiate programs that include or do not include these components. To answer the five research questions data were collected from Students, Educational Coaches, ICEI Program Coordinators, Transition Liaisons, Statewide Coordinator, observations, and record reviews. …

Music Education For Students With Disabilities: A Guide For Teachers, Parents, And Students, Kaitlin A. Merck, Ryan M. Johnson

The Corinthian

The purpose of this paper is to provide some ideas, resources, and support for accommodating students with disabilities in music classes, including performing ensembles. First, we provide an overview of special education in America with a particular emphasis on music education. Next, we describe current inclusion practices that are used within the music classroom. Finally, we provide information for three groups of people involved in the music education of learners with special needs: learners, parents, and music teachers. It is hoped that this resource will be useful in making it possible to include students of all types in American music …

A Phenomenological Study Of Ninth Grade Students' With Disabilities Perceptions Of Educational Settings, Micole Talley

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Few research studies listened to the voices of high school students with disabilities’ regarding their lived experiences during placement in an inclusion setting and a resource setting. The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to understand the central phenomenon of the study for 10 ninth grade students with disabilities served in either an inclusive setting or a resource setting in 2 rural high schools located in Southeastern Georgia. The research design for this study is a qualitative, phenomenological because further exploration is needed to understand the perceptions of students with disabilities regarding their instructional environments. The central research question …

A Quantitative Analysis Of Virginia Public School Special Education Due Process Cases And Their Resolutions From 2004-2016, Valerie Beaudoin-Saunders

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Special education-related lawsuits are a concern to school systems. They are time-consuming, expensive, and contentious. School and parental relationships become strained when litigation is involved. This study analyzed data from the Virginia Department of Education’s due process database over a 12-year period of time to note common disabilities involved in special education litigation. Specific characteristics from each case were noted to determine if there was a trend in the frequency of due process cases: the sex, grade, age, disability, and outcome. The data was obtained from the Virginia Department of Education’s Office of Dispute Resolution and Administrative Services. The purpose …

The Influence Of Rti Upon Special Education Eligibility, Kasandra Raben

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

In 2004, the federal government gave states the option of using Response to Intervention as a prerequisite to referring children for special education eligibility for learning disabilities (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 2004). Research has generally supported this model although anecdotal evidence has suggested that the decrease in eligibility for learning disabilities is due to the reluctance of schools to refer children for learning disability eligibility because of the time required to implement the interventions prior to referral. The purpose of this study was to determine the influence that this model has had upon eligibility numbers in a large special …