Education Commons^™

Equitable Identification Of El Students For Special Education By All Teachers, Hanna Winkelman

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The research question addressed in this project is: How do teachers refer EL students for special education services and how can the process be more equitable for students? The motivating factor for this research was one teacher’s frustration in referring EL students for special education services at a large urban school. The teacher felt as though the process was disorganized, inequitable and did not support EL students with the highest needs. The author interviews ESL, special education teachers and a bilingual educational assistant at one urban school to identify their perspective of the process and frustrations that arise from it. …

A Descriptive Study Of Implementing Tiered Systematic Phonics Intervention Through The Colorado Read Act, Geoffrey H. Stokes

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The research question explored in this capstone was, how might I aid schools and districts in implementing district-wide systematic phonics intervention, both instructionally and organizationally? It documents Denver Public Schools (DPS) efforts to implement the READ act, a comprehensive law in which all students are evaluated in reading and assigned intervention if needed. The capstone explores how DPS can implement tiered systematic phonics intervention as part of the READ act. The paper reviews the most current peer reviewed research regarding the efficacy of phonics intervention. Using the methodology of a descriptive study, the capstone lays out a detailed logistical proposal …

Best Practices For Co-Teaching Literacy In The Secondary Language Arts Classroom, Anne Robenhorst

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the best practices for co-teaching literacy in the secondary language arts classroom. Participants of the study included 34 tenth grade students in a co-taught English class who completed anonymous questionnaires, and two language arts teachers, one special education teacher and one assistant principal were interviewed. Qualitative data was gathered regarding academic grades and state testing scores in the area of reading. The student survey feedback indicated positive perceptions related to the co-taught environment, primarily increased writing skills. Teacher interviews highlighted the most effective co-teaching models and stressed the importance of strong administrative …

Assessment Of The Impact Of Reading Mastery Implementation On A Group Of First To Third Grade Students Receiving Special Education Services, Christopher Martin Jones

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Reading Mastery was instituted with a group of first to third grade students receiving special education services as a supplemental reading intervention to regular education reading instruction. The students were enrolled in a kindergarten through eighth grade rural, Title I school with a high Native American population. Student performance was assessed with the easyCBM reading measure and the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System (Field Study, 2016).

Results showed that students who received the Reading Mastery intervention performed with mixed results on the easyCBM measure not making clear gains in all areas. The Fountas and Pinnell measure showed gains commensurate …

Transitioning Children With Autism From One-On-One Discrete-Trial Settings To Special Education Classrooms, Jennifer L. Freeman

Dissertations

The goal of an early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) program is to teach each child the skills necessary to make meaningful progress in less-restrictive environments (Fox, Dunlap & Crushing, 2002). However, few studies have detailed the steps necessary for a “successful” transition into these educational settings. We transitioned two children, who received 20 hours a week of one-on-one discrete-trial therapy and attended a half-day special education pre-school classroom, to a full-time educational setting. With the goal of aiding each during his/her transition, this study used the Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program (VB-MAPP) (Sundberg, 2008), particularly the barriers and …

Redefining A Special Education Alternative High School Program To Make Students College And Career Ready: A Change Leadership Plan, Janine E. Gruhn

Dissertations

The change leadership plan examines redefining college and career readiness for students in alternative programs. We know from research that all students need to have the necessary skills to be ready for post-secondary employment or to attend colleges; however, students attending a special education alternative program were not successfully transitioning back to their high school and tended to stay in the district’s program until graduation (Gruhn, 2016). Therefore, this change leadership plan used Wagner’s (2006) 4 C’s framework to examine the areas of context, culture, conditions and competencies. Focusing on 10 practices of college of career and college readiness (Brand …

An Alternative Program To Help Special Education Students Transition Back Into High School: A Program Evaluation, Janine E. Gruhn

Dissertations

This program evaluation examines the effectiveness of transitioning students from an alternative program (O’PLUS) back to a general high school setting. Research on effective alternative high schools for students with disabilities includes five components: broad academic courses, support structures that can be customized to a student’s needs, student-felt connection to the school and built in motivation, a caring adult community, and responsive school leadership (Brigharm, et. al. 2006). Students lacking these key components in an alternative setting often do not transition well, or at all, back into the high school general education environment. In this program evaluation it was found …

Education Individualized Through Technology, Rachel M. Leers

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis will overview technology in the classroom and the impact as well as the potential that is has individualizing instruction in order to meet the needs of every kind of student. The thesis will consist of thorough research on the subject matter. Technology is a great tool to use for individualizing instruction as it consists of many recourses, it increases communication, increases discussion, has high availability, it is affordable, and consists of a variety of lesson plan ideas to meet the needs of each student. Individualized learning is especially important in the classroom as it increases student achievement, provides …

The Elusiveness Of Inclusiveness: A Discursive Analysis Of Inclusion In A District Level Exceptional Student Education Leadership Team, Karen Ramlackhan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This poststructural study utilizes Foucault’s theories of power/knowledge nexus and disciplinary power to explore the discursive formation of inclusion of a district level Exceptional Student Education leadership team in order to understand how the discourses are constructed, practices are normalized, and power relations are legitimized. This type of analysis interrogated the assumptive groundings of special education in the district, and how these have been taken-for-granted and normalized in the professional knowledge, policies, and practices of the field. Data from multiple sources: semi-structured interviews, observations, multimodal forms of communication, observation journal, and researcher reflexive journal produced findings within four dominant discourses---the …

Making All Students "Our" Students: Where To Start?, Frank E. Mullins Ph.D., Janice Murdock Ph.D., Phoebe A. Okungu Ph.D., Deann A. Lechtenberg Ph.D.

Journal of Human Services: Training, Research, and Practice

The collaborative team approach is an approach in which general education and special education teachers work together in a single classroom to provide instruction to all students. Neither teacher has more authority than the other.

Education should not be compartments in which one has a mindset of “my students” and “your students”. The mindset must be changed to “our students”. This change in mindsets must begin in pre-service programs in order to carry on to PreK-12 classrooms. As inclusion becomes more and more accepted in public education, educators must be taught strategies that will enable them to work collaboratively with …

Beyond Special And General Education As Identity Markers: The Development And Validation Of An Instrument To Measure Preservice Teachers’ Understanding Of The Effects Of Intersecting Sociocultural Identities, Mildred Boveda

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Intersectionality can advance an understanding of the gap created by the lack of an integrated treatment of diversity in teacher preparation research. Intersectionality is a frame that explores the complexities of the interactions of markers of difference. It holds great potential as a concept for preservice teachers’ understanding of diversity because it can inform collaborative efforts with diverse stakeholders and facilitate preservice teachers’ understanding of diverse learners. The researcher uses the term “intersectional competence” to describe preservice teachers’ understanding of diversity and how students, families, and colleagues have multiple sociocultural markers that intersect in nuanced and unique ways. In this …

Special Education Students And Standardized Assessments, Deborah Taylor

Dissertations

Special education students with many different disabilities are taught in today’s classrooms, and since the passing of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001, they are required to take the same standardized assessments as their regular education peers (Resmovits, 2013). Within this study, data were analyzed to determine the perceptions of two groups, which included third-grade regular education teachers and special education teachers of special education students who took the same standardized assessments as their regular education peers. In addition, data were also examined to determine if there was a relationship between how teachers from the two groups responded …

Estudio Acerca Del Apoyo Educacional Y Laboral Para Alumnos En Situación De Discapacidad Intelectual: El Caso De Cinco Instituciones De Educación Especial En Santiago, Viña Del Mar Y San Antonio / Study On Educational And Work Support For Students In Situations Of Intellectual Disability: The Case Of Five Special Education Institutions In Santiago, Viña Del Mar And San Antonio, Sophia Gomez

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Research Question: How effective are special education organizations and programs in helping students with intellectual disabilities with job pursuits, education, and independence?

Objectives: The general objective of this study is to describe the support that students with intellectual disabilities receive from the special education system and how this support promotes autonomy. The specific objectives are to investigate the teachers’ roles, discover the level of autonomy students have, and identify how the education system supports labor insertion.

Antecedents: Historically, job placement has been difficult for people with disabilities. Many people are misinformed regarding their true abilities. There also exists an ignorance …

Differentiated Instruction In Mathematics, Vania I. Diaz

South Florida Education Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Exploring Career Development Curricula And Experience Of Secondary Transition Students With Intellectual Disabilities: Interviews With Students And Teachers, Anthony Oliver Dosen

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The research question addressed in this project was: what kind of job-searching and vocational development skills are being taught to secondary transition students with intellectual disabilities in major American transition programs? The purpose was to determine possible reasons why the employment gap for students with intellectual disabilities remains high following graduation from secondary programs. This qualitative study synthesized past and current research in the fields of job development, customized employment, disability services, and transition education along with detailed, semistructured interviews with current transition students with intellectual disabilities and transition teachers. The author identifies three main themes that emerged from the …

A Case Study Of An Office Of Disability Support Services In Higher Education For Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Bunnie Loree Claxton

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative case study is to identify the factors that impact learners with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) at a university in central Virginia. The theory guiding this study is disability theory as it seeks to explain the limitations placed on persons with disabilities. The central research question is: What factors of the disability support services impact learning in university students with ASD? The subquestions include: (a) How do students with ASD describe their experiences with the university’s disability support service offices? (b) How do university faculty describe their role in supporting students with ASD? (c) What factors …

Differentiation For All Learners: Applying Theory And Practice So All Children Reach Their Potential, Kathryn Elizabeth Kreitzer

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

Teachers in classrooms today are challenged with students with a ride range of abilities necessitating differentiation in the classroom. Faced with increasingly heterogeneous populations of students, including the mainstreaming of special education students, teachers are challenged to develop curricula that is matched to students’ abilities. This project focused on how to adapt state mandated grade level content to multiple instructional levels. Included in this project is a differentiated unit on the American Revolution based on Minnesota fifth grade standards. The unit is differentiated to first grade, third grade and fifth grade reading and writing levels. This project demonstrates how teachers …

Educator Perceptions Of The Disproportionate Experience Of African Americans In Special Education, John Palen Geske

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The research question addressed in this capstone is, what are educators’ perceptions of the causes of the disproportionate experience of African Americans in special education? In this study, the author examines educators’ beliefs about two existing racial trends in special education. The first is the over-identification of African American students as candidates in need of special education. The second part of the disproportionate experience is that African American students tend to make less growth than their White peers once receiving services. In this research, the author provides a historical synthesis of the extensive record of disproportionality literature. The capstone includes …

Using A Therapeutic Music Curriculum To Improve The Social And Academic Skills Of Students With Optic Nerve Hypoplasia/Septo Optic Dysplasia, Kimberly Kay Wooster

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

This paper addresses the possibility of improving the academic and social outcomes of students with optic nerve hypoplasia/septo optic dysplasia through the use of a therapeutic music curriculum. Students with these conditions are born with blind or with visual challenges and in the case of septo optic dysplasia are also born with behavioral and physical challenges, including austistic-like traits. By exploring the literature and research available in the use of therapeutic music in improving the academic and social outcomes of young students with autism, I was encouraged to create a therapeutic music curriculum to implement in classrooms from K-3rd grade …

Building Principals’ Self-Efficacy Regarding Their Ability To Supervise Special Education Programing And Staff, Candida J. Marek

Masters Theses

This study uses quantitative data analysis to reveal Michigan building principals’ selfefficacy dependent on number of years on the job and types of certification they hold. These findings reveal the need for principals to have more opportunities to better understand this special population they are leading and are responsible for. Albert Bandura has established much research on self-efficacy and cognitive theory. Applying that research to that of principal responsibility reveals a need for more knowledge and confidence in the area of Special Education. Principals report that this area is not addressed formally in their certification journey and the need to …

English Language Learners And Special Education: One District's Journey Through The Collaborative Problem Solving Process, Laura S. Salem

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

English Language Learners are a growing population in schools in the United States. There are many challenges that face this group of students in addition to learning English as a new language. A major issue for teachers, schools, and districts is determining whether an English Language Learner is experiencing academic difficulties based on issues primarily related to language acquisition or whether a learning disability is contributing to the academic challenges. As a result, English Language Learners are often misidentified for Special Education services and may be placed in classrooms that are not adequately prepared or appropriate to meet their needs. …

Re-Imagining Inclusion/Exclusion: Unpacking Assumptions And Contradictions In Arts And Special Education From A Critical Disability Studies Perspective, Alice J. Wexler

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

Inclusion is usually defined “as a student with an identified disability, spending greater than 80% of his or her school day in a general education classroom in proximity to nondisabled peers” (Baglieri et al., 2011, p. 2125). This term, although seemingly benign and even beneficial, is nevertheless the outcome of polarized and divided terminologies. As a result, inclusion within the public school system can suggest not belonging. In this article I examine the invisible barriers to children’s full inclusion and participation hidden within the terminology and practices of special education, and suggest how the arts might be a natural ally …

A View Of Parents Of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Jennifer Reynolds

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Parents of children with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) encounter many stressors beyond the typical parenting pressures that parents of children without disabilities face. Along with the additional challenges, parents of children with ASD face complex needs that differ from parents of children with other types of disabilities. The purpose of this qualitative study was to consider the needs of parents (N = 10) with children with ASD served in a public school system in North Georgia through the framework of Maslow’s (1943) Theory of Human Motivation. A transcendental phenomenological design was used to provide a voice to parents of children …

The Over-Representation Of Hispanics In Special Education Programs In New Jersey, Alexandra Lynne Chey

Theses and Dissertations

The over-representation of Hispanics of Special Education programs has been a debate for years now. Over-representation happens when the percentage of minority students in special education programs is greater than in the school population as a whole. This study attempts to evaluate the causes and problems of the over-representation. There are a number of factors that could explain the disproportionality of this issue. This study identifies multiple factors that shape this problem. One of the factors that could be influencing this issue is poverty and low SES. This paper looks at the lowest SES county in New Jersey vs. the …

The Academic And Psychological Effects Of Teaching Students With Learning Disabilities To Solve Problems Using Cognitive And Metacognitive Strategies, Holly Andersen

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The research conduced in this study addressed the question: what are the academic and psychological effects of teaching students with learning disabilities to solve word problems using cognitive and metacognitive strategies? During the study, metacognitive and cognitive strategies are employed by a teacher in her middle school math class composed of students with various disabilities. It included using a prescribed method to approach each word problem presented, followed by reflection questions that tracked students’ growth in self-confidence. The researcher documents the exact methods used and utilizes related research literature as a basis for this study. She reflects on the both …

Effective Interventions For Improving Reading Accuracy And Fluency In Children With Dyslexia, Carlea A. Winkler

Scholarship and Engagement in Education

There are a vast number of instructional strategies for teaching students with dyslexia, but successful approaches all share a few key components including, a high degree of structure, intensive and explicit instruction, and a low student to teacher ratio. Additionally, most research-backed strategies fall into one of two categories: programs that target phonological awareness, and programs that target orthographic pattern recognition and morphology. Numerous studies on phonological awareness training and orthographic pattern recognition training have showed positive results. However, more research is needed to understand why some children fail to make significant gains even with intensive intervention, and what factors …

English Language Learners And Learning Disabilities, Erin Elizabeth Logan

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The research question addressed in this capstone was, How do educators decipher whether a student is experiencing the typical language acquisition process or if they have a learning disability? This capstone provides research from current educators’ knowledge around understanding and identifying potential learning disabilities in English language learners. In order to address the gaps in knowledge that were identified, professional development and scholarly articles were collected and presented to school administration to distribute and make recommendations around professional development opportunities for staff.

Inclusive Settings: Rti In The General Education Classroom, Brittany Graves

Honors Projects

The premise of this study was derived upon seeing a severe need for professional development in my current field work experience. I set out to determine a possible solution to the lack of cohesion among general and special educators evident in my local school district. This small town rural school is looking to expand RTI, and intervention technique, to decrease gaps in education for at risk students. With issues of cohesion and professional development evident, I collected and analyzed data in order to determine a way the school district can still incorporate and expand their Response to Intervention (RTI) practices. …

Impact Of Mentoring On K-12 Beginning Teachers' Efficacy And Commitment: A Comparative Phenomenological Study, Sandra Mozdzanowski

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Despite a growing body of literature on the needs of beginning teachers, little is known about the impact of mentoring on K-12 beginning teachers’ efficacy and commitment to teaching, and why beginning teachers in special education received less mentoring than their counterparts in general education. This qualitative phenomenological study compared the experiences of nine beginning teachers in general education and special education, factors within the school (e.g., principal, mentor coordinator, mentor), and characteristics of the teaching assignment. The central question was: What are the experiences of K-12 beginning teachers who receive mentoring? The sample consisted of 22 participants (9 teachers, …

Self-Determination Training: A Collaboration Model For Schools And Vocational Rehabilitation, Shannon M. Williams

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Transitioning from high school to postsecondary education and employment is often difficult for students with disabilities. Research has shown that students with increased self-determination skills have a greater likelihood of being successful in a postsecondary setting and in obtaining employment.

Students with disabilities often receive extensive specialized instruction in the areas of English and math, but their teachers have not historically been given training in teaching self-determination. Vocational Rehabilitation counselors are trained to give career guidance and encourage self-determination skills, but are not experienced teachers.

The purpose of this thesis was to determine whether or not a self-determination curriculum created …