Education Commons^™

Off Sunset Boulevard: Students, Homelessness And Disability In Los Angeles- Idea, Mckinney Vento And The Void In Between, Remy Krumpak

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

Homeless youth with a disability must overcome many barriers to receive the meaningful, individualized education they are legally entitled to. Over the last two decades, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the McKinney-Vento Act have begun to acknowledge the challenges that exist for this population. These laws require school districts to identify homeless youth with a disability, allow them immediate enrollment and access to special education services, and free transportation to school. This article examines the Los Angeles Unified School District as a case study for policy implementation. In analyzing the success of the policies as implemented, this article …

Examining The Relationships Between Secondary General Education Teachers' Attitudes Toward Inclusion, Professional Development, And Support From Special Education Personnel, Lynn Wogamon

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This correlational research study examined the relationships between secondary general education teachers' attitudes toward inclusion, hours of professional development in topics related to special education and hours of support from special education personnel addressing the needs of students with disabilities received weekly. The research also investigated whether this information could be used to predict secondary general education teachers' attitudes towards inclusion. General education teachers in six South Carolina high schools completed the Scale of Teacher Attitudes Toward Inclusive Classrooms (STATIC) and a demographic survey that asked about hours of professional development in special education topics and hours of support received …

Contributing Factors To Retention Of Direct Support Professionals In Group Home Settings, Wendi Rhea Foss

Culminating Projects in Special Education

This research investigates the factors that affect job satisfaction and retention of direct support professionals in group home settings. The researcher utilized exit interview surveys from 40 direct support professionals who had resigned from their positions. The researcher examined the results of open-ended survey questions for themes using grounded theory. Major factors affecting job satisfaction and retention were pay, management, and communication. These had both positive and negative effects on job satisfaction as well as retention. The research suggests the company examine these factors to find ways to decrease the negative effects on job satisfaction and turnover. The company should …

Parents' Perspectives On The Literacy Instruction Received By Their Children With Intellectual Disabilities, Michelle A. Duffy

Reading and Language Arts - Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative interview study was to explore the perspectives of 22 parents of children with intellectual disabilities on the literacy learning opportunities the children were provided in school. It asked: 1) What are the perspectives of such parents on the literacy instruction offered to their children?, and 2) What are the perspectives of such parents on the opportunities available to them to participate in decision-making about this literacy instruction?

This study was grounded in disability studies and critical interpretivist frameworks, which provided a lens for understanding participants' views in the context of our society's historically unjust treatment …

Standards-Based Education: Implications For Special Education Teachers, Virginia Phillips

Culminating Projects in Special Education

No abstract provided.

Decoding Skills Of Middle-School Students With Autism: An Evaluation Of The Nonverbal Reading Approach, Patrick Allen Leytham

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Students diagnosed with autism demonstrate a deficit in communication skills, which affects their literacy skills. Federal legislation mandates that students with disabilities receive a free appropriate public education, be taught how to read, and have access to the general education curriculum. Students with autism are being included more in the general education classroom. Prior literacy instruction for students with moderate to severe forms of disabilities has shown promising results. The whole language approach to teaching students with autism how to read has been researched extensively, particularly in the area of sight-word identification. One major limitation to this approach, however, is …

The Challenges Of Implementing Best Practices: Experiences Of Dialogic Reading By Teachers Of Deaf And Hard Of Hearing Students, Jacquelyn Urbani

Education | Faculty Conference Presentations

Deaf and hard of hearing children frequently have delayed language and little experience with books because they do not share a common language with their hearing parents. However, there is little research concerning their language and literacy development in the classroom and equally little discussion of teacher responsibilities to address these issues.

This study investigated the implementation of dialogic reading, which aims to engage students in active discussion and retellings of stories, using American Sign Language. Because dialogic reading research with language delayed, hearing preschool students resulted in significant improvement of language skill (Whitehurst, Arnold, et al., 1994; Whitehurst, et …

To Teach As Jesus Would: Inclusive Education In One Catholic Elementary School, Michelle Powell Wechsler

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

Throughout the history of Catholic schools in Los Angeles, the mission of Catholic schools and the Archdiocese governing its schools has been clear: Catholic schools must strive to serve children with varied learning needs. However, despite calls for inclusion from the Vatican, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and efforts from trained administrators and professionals to help facilitate inclusion in schools, Catholic inclusive programs are not able to include all learners.

Using qualitative research with semi-structured interviews, focus group, and document review, this study uses the framework of ableism and disability studies to research and analyze the two questions …

Portfolio Assessment: Practices In Special Education Teacher Education, Amy Rosenstein, Adelle Renzaglia

Faculty Research and Creative Activity

Reform in teacher education has made teacher education preparation programs re-examine their current practices and makes changes in the assessment and instruction of teacher candidates. In the search for more authentic assessments of teacher candidate knowledge and abilities, portfolios have been offered as a viable option. After more than 20 years of portfolio use in teacher preparation programs, there is little empirical information on portfolio assessment use across special education teacher candidate preparation programs. The purpose of this study was to examine, using quantitative and qualitative methods, the practices, satisfaction, and issues associated with portfolio use across multiple institutions that …

Family Portraits: Past And Present Representations Of Parents In Special Education Text Books, Dianne L. Ferguson, Philip M. Ferguson, Joanne Kim, Corrine Li

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This paper analyses the descriptions of families of children with disabilities as contained in introductory special education texts over the last 50 years. These text books are typically used in pre-service teacher education courses as surveys of the education of ‘exceptional children’. The textbooks reflect the mainstream professional assumptions of the era about topics such as disability, special education, inclusion, and family/school linkages. However, they also shape the assumptions of the next generation of educators about these same topics. The paper summarises the results of a qualitative document analysis of a sample of these textbooks from two different eras. The …

Special Education Teacher Retention: The Relationship Between Mentoring, Job Satisfaction And The Retention Of Special Education Teachers, Angela Horrison-Collier

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The causes of the teacher shortage are complex; however, the retention of special education teachers is a significant contributor to this shortage. Some research has indicated that up to 9.3 % of special education teachers leave the field at the end of their first year of teaching and 7.4 % move to general education yearly. Therefore, school districts face a continuous cycle of recruitment, hiring, and induction. Because of the pivotal value of retention, school districts and site level education leaders must take proactive steps to reduce the retention rate. The research on teacher retention indicates factors such as salary, …