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Elementary Science Essential Elements Curriculum Map & Progress Monitoring With Evidence-Based Teaching Strategies, Tasha Jenkins

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

Little research has explored the field of science instruction tailored to students with significant disabilities. However, research studies have begun to emerge that suggest, with specific instructional strategies, these students can be successful in learning science curriculum. This project evaluated literature to find evidence-based instructional strategies for teaching science to students with significant cognitive disabilities. Six strategies were consistently found across multiple studies. The six strategies include (1) time delay, (2) systematic instruction, (3) multiple exemplar training, (4) task analysis, (5) graphic organizers, and (6) guided inquiry-based learning. These strategies were shared with a team of nine special education teachers …

Returning To School After A Pandemic: K-6 Special Education Teachers Perspectives On Students With Disabilities Returning To School In Regard To Mindset, Behavior, Social Connections, And Academic Achievement, Andrea Xenios

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to determine K-6 special education educators’ perceptions of the impact on students with disabilities returning to school after the trauma of a pandemic for 2 years with regard to behavior, academic achievement, mindset, and social connections.

Methodology: This qualitative study interviewed 10 special education teachers who taught before, during, and after the pandemic in Orange County, CA. Semi-structured open ended interview questions was the main source of data collection with other sources including observations, and artifacts. Data was coded and the researcher analyzed the data for themes and patterns.

Findings: The study …

Inclusionary Practices For Elementary Students With Disabilities, Caroline Brandau

M.Ed. Literature Reviews

This research explores inclusionary practices for elementary-aged students with individualized education plans (IEP) for special education. Three themes were identified: academic achievement through push-in services, secondary benefits of special education services in the general education setting, and power dynamics of stakeholders of inclusion. The paper goes on to examine how practices at Western Washington School District could be aligned with research and then explores implications for future research and transform practice. The paper concludes with a call to action and a positive outlook for the future of special education.

Special Education Teacher Attrition: K-12 Administrator Perspectives, Tia Alove Stevens-Hicks

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Teacher attrition is a significant contributor to the teacher shortages, with preretirement attrition accounting for two thirds of all attrition. Special education teachers leave teaching at significantly higher rates than their general education peers. In addition, there is a greater demand for special education teachers due to the increase in public school students requiring special education services. As a result, many K–12 administrators and other educational leaders often fill vacant positions with unqualified or new teachers with less experience than their predecessors. Special education teachers have reported that teachers who remained in their positions reported high levels of administrative …

Using The Raap Strategy To Promote Communication Skills For Students With Multiple Disabilities, Hannah Millard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the RAAP strategy on students with multiple disabilities and their ability to produce multi-symbol messages. Using a single-case, multiple probes across participants design, 4 students with multiple disabilities participated in this study. They were taught how to answer reading comprehension questions through the RAAP strategy and access to a communication/core board.

Results indicated a functional relation between the RAAP strategy and the student’s multisymbol messages. Three of 4 students increased their multi-symbol messages and made progress with the intervention as it was planned. One student needed the intervention to …

Improving Inclusion: The Ongoing And Transformative Process Of Improving Education Systems To Meet The Needs Of All Students, Robert Mistler

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

For this Capstone Project the researcher will investigate how instructors view the environment of the classroom when there is a mix of special needs students incorporated into the general population classroom setting and what they think could be done to improve the environment. The inclusion of special needs is necessary for fair and equal treatment; further, by separating the general population from special needs students, brings about a culture of segregation that can have lifelong impacts. Through an evaluation of scholarly literature and interviews conducted with teachers at an elementary school the findings uncovered three emergent themes: collaboration with teachers …

All About The Special Education Process: A Handbook For Parents, Mikayla Reinke

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

Until 1976 and the passing of P.L. 94-482 parents or caregivers of children with disabilities were not significantly involved in the education of their children. Even after this, many parents have felt they were in unknown territory regarding the field of special education. With different types of meetings, definitions, and processes that are not explained in a form that those who have not studied special education would understand, how could there not be unknown territory? Parents are provided with the Parent’s Guide to Special Education (2018) and the Parental Rights for Public School Students Receiving Special Education Services: Notice of …

Becoming Inclusive: A Collection And Analysis Of The Perceptions Of Newly Qualified General Elementary Education Teachers On Their Preparedness For Teaching In Inclusive Settings, Brooke M. Armesto

Honors College Theses

Pre-service teachers majoring in elementary education generally have few opportunities to teach students with disabilities. This research addressed the question “How do newly qualified general elementary education teachers perceive their preparedness to teach in inclusive settings?” The goal of this study was to discover what areas new teachers need to become more proficient in order to successfully teach within inclusive classrooms. The topics explored include perceived preparedness for teaching in inclusive settings, ways to measure preparedness, current approaches in teaching within the inclusive settings and strategies for preparing preservice teachers. Using a qualitative narrative design, five newly qualified elementary inclusion …

What Student And School Factors Increase Disadvantages In Special Needs Students? An Investigation Of Student Learning Growth In Students With Ieps, Julia Burdulis

Senior Theses and Projects

This study used public-use data from the National Center for Education Statistics’s (NCES) Early Childhood Longitudinal Program, Kindergarten Class of 2011 (ECLS-K: 2011) to examine math and reading learning growth from 4th to 5th grade among student with and without Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). When comparing the non-IEP student sample to the IEP student sample, a disproportionate number of minority students and students of low socioeconomic status were observed in the IEP student group. Among non-IEP students, significantly decreased score growth was predicted in students who were Black, Hispanic, had less highly educated parents, were from a low income household, …

Conducting Classroom Preference Assessments To Determine Effective Reinforcers For Students With Disabilities, Jessica Mitchell

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Reinforcement is a way to help students acquire and maintain skills and appropriate behaviors. This review of literature focuses on a variety of educational studies on students who have special needs. A majority of these studies discussed the types of reinforcers and assessments utilized in either these students’ classrooms or in the researchers’ offices.

All educators should find a variety of reinforcers for their students; in order to avoid a student’s satiation (when they are bored of a specific reinforcer) for a specific item. The most productive way educators can avoid a student becoming satiated with a specific reinforcer is …

Writing Underachievement: How To Support Students With Learning Disabilities And/Or Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder Through Self-Regulation Strategy Development, Katie Ludin

Education | Master's Theses

Writing underachievement is a national dilemma, especially among students with LDs and/or ADHD. Difficulties with written expression create negative social and emotional consequences for students since writing is critical to academic and professional success. Despite this, few studies have explored the impact of writing underachievement. The purpose of this research was to better understand the experiences of struggling writers within the elementary school setting, especially students who receive special education services. Part of this research included an intervention group. Self-Regulation Strategy Development was taught to a group of students with LDs and/or ADHD. This research was conducted in an effort …

Motivating The Unmotivated: How Are We Supporting Struggling Readers In Upper Elementary Classrooms?, Maci V. Wood

Honors College Theses

Motivating struggling students to read is a question considered by many general education reading teachers and special education teachers alike. Since student classroom experiences today differ greatly from classrooms of the past in terms of instructional practices and learning supports, scripted materials that seldom cater to student interest have often been promoted due to the pressure of standardized assessment. With little to no student engagement present in the classroom, it is up to the student to find the will to read or to the teacher to utilize alternative strategies in increasing student motivation (Cambria & Gunthrie, 2008). However, there is …

Growing Citizens: Students’ Social Emotional Learning Via School Gardens, Kathryn Markham-Petro

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The importance of social and emotional learning in the life of a student is now being recognized as a factor for academic and life success. How a garden can help in the promotion of skills related to social and emotional learning will provide further justification for the implementation of gardens in schools. The purpose of this exploratory, interpretivist qualitative study, with data collected from a purposive sample of educators involved in classroom-based education within schools, was to explore the social and emotional practices of primary grade students (kindergarten through grade five). The sample size consisted of 14 educators who were …

How To Best Support Individuals Growing Up With A Special Needs Sibling, Lauren Mcdonell

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

The purpose of this study was to understand the emotions of a neurotypically developing sibling. This study also attempted to understand how caregivers can best support the neurotypical sibling in the areas of self-concept and overall well-being. The gap is knowledge is how to better support neurotypical developing siblings specifically in the areas of self-concept and overall well-being. Three participants were interviewed to gain insight about their experiences with their special needs sibling. Participants who participated in a support group for neurotypical developing children with a SNS were surveyed to gain insight about their experiences with the support group. Through …

Effects Of Social-Emotional Instruction On The Behavior Of Students With Learning Disabilities, Kelsey Olson

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

Students with learning disabilities who spend the majority of the school day in a general education classroom often struggle to appropriately deal with feelings of frustration and anxiety. There is currently a gap in understanding how special education teachers can support the social and emotional inclusion of students with learning disabilities when they are in the general education classroom. The purpose of this study is to explore the results of implementing a social-emotional curriculum both in a pullout setting and in the general education setting and examine the effect of the program on the behavior of students with learning disabilities …

Benefits Of Educational Services For Students With Disabilities, Miguel Zazueta-Ruiz

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone research project examines the benefits of educational services that schools offer to students with disabilities for a smooth transition from elementary school level to middle school and high school level. Federal and state laws, e.g. the Re-authorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Educational Act (IDEA) of 2004, ensure that students with disabilities receive a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) specifically designed to provide services to meet the needs of individual student with disabilities through the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Section 504 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Through the use of relevant literature review and surveys …

An Analysis Of Inclusion In The Field Of Special Education, Sarah K. Jerome

Selected Honors Theses

This review of literature explores the many different aspects of including a student with disabilities into the general education classroom 100% of the school day. The topics explored include; the history of inclusion, the social and emotional effects of inclusion, the active engagement of included students, the importance of social acceptance from peers, the teachers’ attitudes and opinions of inclusion, the students’ opinions of inclusion, and the parents’ opinions of inclusion. The goal is to expose some of the negative outcomes of inclusion because of recent emphasis on inclusion in the last decade. The researcher found that inclusion should be …

Literary Devices: Effects Of Classroom Management On Student Engagement With 1:1 Devices, Elizabeth Parker

All Master's Theses

The study compares two different classroom management strategies in a 5th and 6th grade classroom using an iPad based intervention. The students participated in 10 sessions of a language and grammar intervention on the Moby Max program. During five of the sessions, the teacher actively monitored the classroom, walking around the room, and redirecting students as necessary. For the other five sessions, the teacher used data from the intervention and monitored and redirected students from her computer screen. The data collected included the number of corrections given to each student by the teacher, the number of minutes the program considered …

Closing The Achievement Gap In Mathematics For Students With Learning Disabilities Utilizing The Resource Room As An Intervention, Esta H. Brownstein

Theses and Dissertations

Students with learning disabilities are placed in general education classrooms in increasing numbers. Many of these students receive additional services in Resource Room programs taught by a special education teacher. The intent of this study was to determine if students with disabilities, who were struggling in mathematics, increased achievement utilizing Resource Room instruction as an intervention. Students in the study were in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades and performed at least one grade level below expectations for that grade in mathematics. All of the students had a specific learning disability. This study investigated the correlation, if any, between the amounts …

A Qualitative Study Analysis On How Utilizing A Token Economy Impacts Behavior And Academic Success, Solomon Defrancis Dr.

Dissertations

Utilizing a qualitative study analysis, this study examines how behavior impacts academic success utilizing a token economy with students who suffer from emotional disturbance disorder. Through focus groups of para educators, therapists and teachers on special education settings, there will be a comparative analysis of behavior and academic success. The study will consist of six education sites throughout the Antelope Valley: A kindergarten through eighth grade (Yellen Learning Center), a kindergarten through sixth grade elementary (Valley View Elementary), a seventh through eighth grade intermediate school (Joe Walker) and three high schools that are ninth through twelfth grade (Desert Pathways, Palmdale …

The Quest For A Meaningful “Special Education”: The Educational Journeys Of Nine Students With Learning Disabilities From An Inaccessible Learning Environment To One That Enabled Them To Learn, Amy E. Ballin

Educational Studies Dissertations

This ethnographic case study follows the educational journeys of nine students with learning disabilities who with luck and parental advocacy attend a school designed to address their disability. The researcher explores the role of cultures, both within and outside the school, and examines some of the effects of the social construction of special education on student learning.

This study draws no conclusions regarding the connections between the cultures at the school and the student’s success. However it does highlight the perspective of students, parents, and teachers, noting the ways in which they describe how and why this school environment allowed …

Promoting Self-Advocacy Skills For Students With Mild Disabilities, Loretta Lynn Franz

All Graduate Projects

The purpose of this project was to develop a unit plan for teachers to help promote self-advocacy skills in the Individual Education Program (IEP) for students with mild disabilities. The results of this study indicate that students with mild disabilities are required to be invited to their IEP when consideration of services are to be discussed. Students are often not successful in the IEP process because they are dependent on others to make decisions for them. They are not given the opportunity to make their own choices and decisions. They have a poor self-concept, lack of understanding, self-acceptance and motivation. …

A Model Inclusion Program For Primary Level Students, Greg S. Brown

All Graduate Projects

The purpose of this study was to develop a model inclusion program for primary level students. To accomplish this purpose, a review of current literature and research related to integration of special education students into a "regular" classroom was conducted. Additionally, information from selected schools and districts related to primary inclusion programs was obtained and analyzed.

Establishing A Positive School Climate On The Playground For Students With Serious Behavioral Disabilities: A Collaborative Effort, Mildred Carol Fletcher Garcia

All Graduate Projects

Social skills deficits of students with serious behavior disabilities are often an obstacle to integration into the regular education system. Many of the most troublesome problems occur outside the classroom on the playground due to the lessened structure constraints of the playground environment. As a result, the students are labeled "bad kids" by the teachers and paraprofessionals, are socially rejected by nondisabled peers, and the downward spiral of a negative social "trap" is begun.

The purpose of this study was to create an inservice training packet promoting collaboration between teachers and paraprofessionals providing students with serious behavior disabilities a positive …

Inclusion: A Case Study At Coe Elementray School, Loretta L. Kimball

All Graduate Projects

The purpose of this project was to evaluate perceptions of the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of inclusion on the achievement of special needs students and to use this information to increase effectiveness in inclusion programs through the design and implementation of specific teaching strategies. To accomplish this purpose, current literature and research related to inclusion was reviewed. The writer examined how special needs and regular education students are affected and analyzed the variables, strategies and programs which increase effectiveness. The project that follows is a case study of what has been done in the past, what attitudes and perceptions exist and …

Increasing Reading Fluency In Students With Reading Difficulty, Kathryn Balabanis Peabody

All Graduate Projects

Four methods designed to increase reading fluency were employed in a primary level Special Education resource room. The methods were implemented in accordance with the theory and research regarding reading fluency. Each of the four methods effectively increased the students' ability to read fluently. However, the implementation of these methods varied in cost and time.

Silent Reading Before Oral Reading On The Iri: Implication For Diagnosis And Instruction, Catherine P. Benedetti

All Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to test the effect of silent pre-reading on the number of oral reading errors a student makes on an IRI. Twenty children read passages silently and then orally read passages without pre-reading. The results supported the null hypothesis that there would be no statistically significant difference on oral reading performances for disabled second and fourth graders. Implications for diagnosis and instruction are discussed.

Notification Of A Commercial Reading Program Presented As Learning Activity Packets For Learning Disabled Students, Edna M. Meyers

All Graduate Projects

This project represents a modification of a commercial reading program, with individual learning activity packets as the management tool for the program. The project plan provides for:

1. Program goals and objectives

2. An initial placement test

3. Unit criterion tests

4. Mastery level tests

5. Individual learning activity packets

Each learning activity packet includes:

1. Individual student record and assignment page

2. Individual story report forms

3. Vocabulary words

4. Detailed comprehension questions

5. Individual student/teacher reading contract

This project provides a reading program that meets the unique instructional needs of the learning disabled student in a financially feasible …

Diagnostic/Prescriptive Teaching Of Language Arts And Mathematics, Molly Montz Sato

All Graduate Projects

The purpose of this project is to provide a Language Arts and Mathematics curriculum for the elementary level special education classroom by correlating remedial materials and activities to objectives determined by the Brigance Inventory of Basic Skills. This project is limited to the areas of Language Arts and Mathematics; however, the areas of Readiness and Reading are also tested by the Brigance.

An Instructional Packet Of Teacher Activities Designed To Teach Elementary Students K-3 About Exceptional Children, Lori J. Hanson

All Graduate Projects

The need for and delivery of programs in our public schools to educate elementary students K-3 about Exceptional children was studied. An Instructional packet of ideas, resources, and activities was presented that could be used in an elementary classroom K-3, to help children overcome negative attitudes toward the handicapped and to recognize the rights of the handicapped individual to pursue a normal life.