Education Commons^™

Exploring Public School K-12 Educators’ Experiences With The Special Education Eligibility Process For African American/Black And Hispanic/Latino Students In Rural Communities, Debra R. Gately

Doctor of Education Program Dissertations

Rural school districts often face unique challenges such as limited resources, attracting and retaining qualified teachers, and varied offerings of professional development opportunities and training. This study substantiated these challenges and revealed the challenges presented when educators do not consider the cultural and linguistic factors that exist among the student population when considering academic and behavioral interventions. This qualitative investigation explored how general education teachers in a public school district in the northeastern United States experienced the special education eligibility process for African American/Black and Hispanic/Latino students in a rural community. Guided by the theories of intersectionality and systems view …

Advocating For Equity In Teaching And Learning, Marrielle Myers

KSU Distinguished Course Repository

Learners in this course will use a critical lens to examine the challenges and opportunities that students, teachers, families, and leaders in urban contexts face related to opportunity gaps, classroom management, assessment, special education, gifted education, and retention. Learners will complete field-based assignments and will think analytically about and develop a research-based advocacy plan to advocate for change regarding a critical issue in urban schools.

Teacher Perceptions On L2 Acquisition And Education Practice For English Language Learners, Shu J. Chen-Worley Ph.D.

Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning

This study examined teachers' perceptions on language acquisition and education practice for English Language Learners (ELLs) to further address the disproportionality concern in education and identify the areas of training needs for classroom teachers as education renovation. A total of 222 participants voluntarily participated in this study. A Mixed Methods approach was used to conduct the study and analyze the data. The results showed that most participants did not have formal training in second language (L2) or learning experience but they had already taught ELLs. Working with ELLs and their parents was considered challenging for five common reasons. Language barriers …

School And District Leader Perceptions Of The Root Causes Behind Male Underachievement In American Secondary Schools: A Mixed-Methods Study Of This Phenomenon, Patrick Hegarty

WWU Graduate School Collection

The Title IX legislation of 1972 asserts that “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance, ..” This, along with other movements and forces of the past half century, laid the foundation for our ongoing challenging, national dialogue about individuality, identity, opportunity, equality, and equity. This study advances that conversation based on the continuing evidence of male underachievement in our secondary schools.

The purpose of this study was to explore school …

Influence Of Restorative Practices On The Middle-School Classroom, As Reported By Teachers: A Qualitative Case Study, Julia Y. Andrews

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine middle school teachers’ perceptions of the influence that restorative practices have on the middle school classroom environment. For the purpose of this study, seven middle school teachers were selected who have implemented restorative practices in their middle school classrooms to provide feedback. Findings suggest that overall restorative practices have a positive influence on the classroom. The findings from this study can be used with teachers, administrators, counselors, parents, and school and district support staff to help create a positive campus culture between students and adults in middle school classrooms. The …

Examining Overrepresentation In Special Education Amongst African Americans Diagnosed With Emotional Disturbance In The State Of Pennsylvania, Krisa Franzetta

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the disproportionality in special education, regarding African American students being overrepresented, specifically under the disability category of Emotional Disturbance (ED) within the state of Pennsylvania. Demographic information was collected with the use of secondary data provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, using 648 educational programs across 29 intermediate units. Data were analyzed with statistical representation of percentages as related to risk composition and the E-Formula. The results yielded an average risk of African American students being two times more likely to be diagnosed with ED than their White peers. Additional results from the calculation of the …

Combining Positive Behavioral Intervention And Supports With Cultural Responsiveness: A Framework To Reduce Teachers’ Cultural Bias And Decrease Discipline Disproportionality Among Black Elementary Males, Jaymes Aimetti

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Throughout the United States and the world, public schools are becoming more culturally diverse. Therefore, teachers and school administrators need to build the foundation to clearly understand students and their families. In this study, three questions will be explored (1) How does professional development in cultural responsiveness affect teachers’ viewpoints in how they work with their Black elementary male students based on the CISA survey? (2) How are the number of Black elementary male students’ discipline incidents from the beginning of a school year changed after teachers receive culturally responsive professional development? (3) What will the CISA survey reveal on …

Disparities In Behavior Interventions For Black, Indigenous, And People Of Color In Schools, Michelle Seiger

Culminating Projects in Special Education

Investigating teacher response to student behaviors in the classroom, focusing on the disparity between BIPOC student referral rates and that of White students. Discussions include removal discipline, PBIS, the definition of problem behavior, and unconscious bias.

Implications Of The Improvement Science Process On Swpbis Implementation At A Title I High School, Cody Rich

Dissertations

Disparities in discipline are well documented throughout our nation as the gap continues to increase (Losen et al., 2015; Losen & Skiba, 2016; Raush & Skiba, 2004; The Civil Rights Data Collection, 2014). Though Black students comprise only 16% of the student population in the United States, they account for nearly half of school suspensions and expulsions (The Civil Rights Data Collection, 2014). In the context of RHS (location of this dissertation in practice), Black students encompass nearly 20% of the student population while accounting for approximately 30% of the total number of referrals. More alarming is that administration suspended …

African American Administrators Utilizing Responses To Intervention For Identification Of African American Males In Special Education: A Phenomenological Study, Barbara Jean Batts

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to describe the experiences of African American administrators in public schools with their use of Response to Intervention (RTI) when identifying African American males in special education. In order to arrive at the crux of the matter, the central research question was, How do African American public-school administrators describe their experiences in using RTI in the identification of African American males in special education? This study attempted to discover the perceptions of African American administrators in the sub-questions of: (1) How do African American administrators describe the connection of misidentification and disproportionality …

Parent Experience In Preschool Special Education Classroom Setting Decisions, Kaia Kathryn Nordtvedt

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Early childhood is a crucial time in a child's development and is often the entry point for a child experiencing developmental delays in the special education process. Parents play an essential role in the special education process as the child's primary caregivers. This study examined the decision-making process of economically disadvantaged Black and Hispanic/Latinx parents as they provide input on classroom setting decisions during preschool IEP creation. Through in-depth interviews, parents shared their lived experiences as they navigated the special education process and made decisions on classroom settings as part of the IEP team. Document analysis provided additional context in …

Teacher Perceptions Of Disproportionate Suspensions Between Minority And White Students, Tanika Rachelle Barr

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Throughout public schools in the United States, minority students continue to receive more disciplinary consequences compared to other groups of students. The problem addressed in this study was the persistence of discipline disproportionality between minority students and White students at a public U.S. middle school, even with recent efforts such as the implementation of the positive behavior interventions and supports (PBIS) framework. Guided by the theory of behaviorism, the purpose of this basic qualitative study was to investigate teachers’ perceptions about the persistence of this discipline disproportionality between minority and White students and ways to improve the use of PBIS …

Principals’ Perceptions Of How To Reduce Discipline Disparities For Black Students, Brandi Lee Pineda

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Disparity exists in disciplinary actions taken toward Black students compared to White students in the public schools of a county school district in a Southwest U.S. state. Successful school leadership practices are needed to minimize the disproportionality of Black students being expelled, suspended, and routed to the school-to-prison pipeline. The purpose of this basic qualitative case study was to explore school leaders’ perceptions of how to reduce the disciplinary actions taken with Black students in the public schools of a county school district in a Southwest U.S. state. The conceptual framework was critical race theory. The research questions addressed (a) …

Is There A Disproportionate Representation Of African American Males In Special Education? A Causal-Comparative Investigation, Kiena S. Hughley, Karen H. Larwin

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

African American male students are disproportionately represented in special education. The purpose of the current study is to examine the disproportionality of African American male students who are referred to special education programs and are identified special education services, specifically in the areas of Emotional Disturbance (ED), Specific Learning Disability (SLD), and other low incidence disabilities (OTH), which includes Speech & Language Instruction, Other Health Impaired, Autism, and Traumatic Brain Injury, in Northeast Ohio’s suburban school district for the 2017-2020 school year. The sample was drawn from a suburban school district in Northeast Ohio which consisted of six schools. Findings …

The Inequitable Consequences Of School Disciplinary Policies On Black Girls In Ohio, Terry Husband, Shamaine Bertrand

Journal of Global Education and Research

Studies have examined the effects of school disciplinary policies and practices on Black boys. Much of this research highlights the degree to which many of these disciplinary policies and practices have affected Black boys in P-12 contexts in negative ways. A small and emerging body of scholarship has begun to investigate the effects of school discipline policies and practices in P-12 contexts on Black girls. The focus of this study was to investigate the effects of disciplinary policies on Black girls in comparison to girls from other races in the 15 largest school districts in Ohio. Drawing from recent out-of-school …

Positive Behavioral Interventions And Supports (Pbis): Does Stronger Implementation Relate To More Equitable Student Outcomes In School Discipline?, Stephenie C. Bruce

Dissertations

For this study, I explored the degree of implementation of the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) framework and the existence of disproportionality of formal school disciplinary responses to behavioral occurrences by race/ethnicity, sex, special education status (SPED), and socioeconomic status (SES) of students. Further, I investigated the relationship between a school’s degree of implementation of PBIS and the existence of disproportionality by race/ethnicity, sex, SPED, and SES, and investigated the differences in the existence of disproportionality in schools that fully implemented PBIS and schools that did not fully implement PBIS.

Literature exists on PBIS implementation and, separately, on the …

Measuring Self-Efficacy Of Elementary General Education Teachers Serving English Language Learners With And Without Disabilities, Stacey L. Mccrath-Smith

Education Dissertations

The K-12 student population across the United States has experienced a growth of students whose native language is not English (Piazza et al., 2020). These culturally, linguistically diverse students, also known as English Learners (ELs), are placed in classrooms of teachers who lack the training necessary to effectively serve language and content learning needs (Ortiz & Robertson, 2018). A model that has been routinely used to provide teachers with an instructional framework to address the needs of ELs, is the sheltered instruction observation protocol (SIOP) (Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2017). This study sought to develop a valid and reliable tool, …

Disrupting Racial Segregation In Special Education: An Evaluability Assessment Of Washington State’S Inclusionary Practices Project, Tania May

Ed.D. Dissertations in Practice

Despite disability advocacy, case law, and legislative attempts to regulate equity in placement, students of color with disabilities are removed from general education settings at higher rates than peers. Ongoing advocacy to extend legal protections and utilize dispute resolution procedures contributed to special education’s reputation for being litigious. This study included a recent review of literature on landmark education cases and litigation using a symbolic organization framework to analyze special education placement procedures, disputes, and decisions. The theoretical frameworks of Critical Race Theory and Dis/ability Critical Race Studies offered a critique of special education placement and outcomes and rebutted symbolic …

Ethical And Equitable Psychological Assessment Of Black Youth In Chicago Public Schools: A Coaching Model For Cps School Psychologists, Haley Biddanda

School of Education Capstone Projects

This capstone seeks to examine multiple factors that affect Black youth in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) during the psychological evaluation process, and subsequently develops a coaching model for CPS school psychologists to provide more ethical and equitable psychological evaluations for Black youth. An analysis of the system of CPS finds that Black students are more likely to receive special education services and be placed within restrictive settings in special education than their white peers. Despite this, CPS school psychologists receive no training specific to evaluating or working with Black youth. A review of the literature reveals that there are multiple …

Restorative Strategies Used To Reduce Disproportionality In Texas Schools That Have Implemented Restorative Practices, Shenita Y. Alsbrooks

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to identify restorative practice strategies than can be used to reduce disproportionality in school discipline in Texas schools. Exclusionary discipline practices have created disproportionality in school discipline. While zero-tolerance policies are no longer considered effective in addressing conflict in schools, many schools are implementing restorative practices as a promising alternative. Restorative practices have shown to contribute to positive school culture, specifically by improving student achievement, improving attendance, improving student-teacher relationships, and lowering discipline issues. Interviews using semistructured questions were used to conduct this study. In this qualitative case study, participants at suburban …

Racial Disproportionality In School Discipline, Melissa Becker

Graduate Teacher Education

Racial disproportionality in discipline has been present, documented and researched for several decades. A growing body of evidence indicates that students of color, most specifically African American males, receive the highest rate and most severe forms of exclusionary discipline (suspension and expulsion). Certain contributing factors found responsible for the increasing rates in disproportionality, such as implicit bias and the implementation of a zero-tolerance policy, have been linked to the Nation’s deeply rooted history of racism. Therefore causing the academic achievement gap between African American and white students to also continue to widen. Evidence further indicates a correlation between exclusionary discipline …

An Lre Placement Loophole: A Critical Policy Analysis Of Lre Placement In Defining Disproportionality Of Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Students In Special Education, Arti Sachdeva

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The policies adopted by the Exceptional Children’s Education Act (2016) enabled disproportionality within LEAs by overlooking undocumented classroom removal practices, underestimating the monitoring and reporting criteria, and overlooking non-dominant cultural and linguistic groups within the Colorado community. In this critical policy analysis, I used quantitative methods to analyze and explore the difference between the odds ratio calculation of culturally and linguistically diverse students (CLDS) in special education with a least restrictive environment (LRE) of 40% and greater compared to Colorado’s acceptance of the federal mandate of the minimum requirement of the student LRE of less than 40% and alternate school …

The Role Of School And District Leaders In Discipline Systems In Positive Outlier High Schools, Catherine E. Guthrie

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Using secondary data from a NY Kids comparative case study conducted in 2017-2018 of two positive outlier high schools, the purpose of this dissertation was to learn more about their discipline practices and the role secondary school leaders play in shaping those discipline systems. Two positive outlier high schools were studied, as they were identified as achieving better than expected graduation outcomes for youth of color, but also have proportionate, or close to proportionate, rates of exclusionary discipline for the same population of students. Interview transcripts from the larger study as well as additional school documents (i.e., code of conduct, …

How Do Special Education Teachers View The Phenomenon Of Black Male Overrepresentation In Special Education?, Lelon B. Jeffers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As the student population in many U.S. public schools grows increasingly more diverse, the need to assess the educational practices utilized in public schools grows as well. It is imperative for educators to make a concerted effort to ensure the rights and needs of minority students are being addressed in public schools. It is the duty of educators and policy makers to protect those students who are most marginalized by society. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the phenomenon of Black male overrepresentation in special education, and to ascertain the views and perspectives of special education teachers …

Addressing Disproportionality In School Discipline Through Alternatives To Exclusionary Discipline Practices, Kevin Matthew Higley

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Tasked with ensuring that school environments are safe and orderly, school administrators spend an increasingly inordinate amount of time and energy on managing student discipline. Often, when students commit egregious behaviors or violate school policy, schools resort to out-of-school disciplinary consequences, i.e. suspension, expulsion, or alternative educational placements, in attempts to reduce problem behaviors from recurring. Historically though, these exclusionary discipline practices have led to the unfair treatment of some students, (e.g., Black/African American students, male students, and/or students with disabilities). This disproportionate practice is often cited as the genesis for the school-to prison pipeline phenomenon. From a behaviorist perspective, …

Factors Potentially Influencing Discipline Referral And Suspensions At An Affiliated Charter High School, Debra Bryant, Andrea Wilson

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

This article addresses long-standing data from federal government agencies documenting concerns regarding the use of school discipline and suspension indicating that Black students are referred for discipline and/or suspended at a higher rate than students of other ethnicities. Available data from a local school district reflected similar troubling patterns of discipline referral and suspension. The purpose of this study was to determine if variables such as students’ ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and gender predicted the likelihood of receiving discipline referrals or being suspended at an affiliated charter high school in a local school district. Guided by Bandura’s social learning theory and …

Coping On The Fly: School Psychologists' Perceptions Of Cultural Competence, Jennifer Wynn

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The goal of this qualitative ethnographic study is to explore how school psychologists demonstrate multicultural competence (MC) when testing students for K-12 special education. As the population of the United States (US) becomes increasingly diverse, mental health professionals are encouraged to become culturally competent. Cultural competence is the ability to work with culturally and linguistically diverse populations; and being aware of stereotypes, biases and microaggressions. Cultural competence is taught within some psychology preparation programs; however, courses are often limited. Although cross-cultural competencies have been explored in clinical and counseling psychology, they have yet to be explored in the field of …

Disproportionality In Special Education: The Factors Of Overrepresentation, Lack Of Inclusion And It's Impact On Student Success, Paige E. Webb

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) is the guiding force behind placement for special education students. It provides students with disabilities access to the general education classroom and the ability to learn. The Individuals with Disabilities Act of 2004 (IDEA) sets forth regulations that require academic institutions to prioritize inclusive learning for all students regardless of the severity of needs. However, through various studies and findings, institutions have not followed mandates wholeheartedly. Due to this, students with disabilities, as well as minority students, are both consciously and subconsciously pushed away from the general education classroom, unfairly singled out through the referral …

A Critical Multiple Case Study Analysis Examining The Implementation Of The Every Student Succeeds Act (Essa) To Promote Positive School Climate, Weade W. James

Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the role of federal policy in improving school climate, and examined how federal policy, specifically the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is being implemented at the state-level to address school climate issues. A qualitative multiple-case study design with content analysis was used as the leading approach to understanding how states are implementing ESSA’s school climate measure for accountability. ESSA is the nation’s federal education law that was enacted in 2015 and replaced No Child Left Behind (NCLB). I compared states’ implementation of ESSA’s school climate and safety (SCS) measure, including how states are measuring SCS and whether …

An Intersectional Analysis Of Disproportionality Of Dual Language Learners In Special Education In Virginia: A Mixed Methods Study, Melissa J. Cuba

Theses and Dissertations

The disproportionality of dual language learners (DLLs) in special education has been a persistent and complex issue for decades. These students have multidimensional identities that require a look at how they are positioned in school systems and the broader social landscape. Using a multilevel model of intersectionality and an explanatory mixed methods design, this study examines how social categories, practice, and policies influence the representation of DLLs in special education in Virginia, a state where DLLs represented 13 percent of the total student population in 2018-19. Findings from this study reveal overrepresentation and underrepresentation of 63 DLL subgroups using nuanced …