Early Childhood Education Commons^™

Inclusive Education For All: Identifying Teacher Beliefs About Working With Students With Disabilities, Chelsea Sharek

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the beliefs K-12 teachers have when working with students with disabilities in a rural Pennsylvania school district. This study aimed to identify if teachers’ personal beliefs created biases about their students and school systems; thus, forming barriers and preventing an inclusive education when working with disabled students. Instrumentation for this quantitative study is the Multidimensional Attitudes Towards Inclusive Education Scale (MATIES) survey. Findings suggest that some teachers at Sunnyside School District (pseudonym) hold personal beliefs that could create biases about their students and school system that may form barriers when working with …

Parent Choice: Learning Pods Or Public Education During Covid-19 Pandemic, Shari Kinney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to examine the decision-making process of K-12 parents living in the Appalachian Highlands who chose to remove their children from traditional public schools to join learning pods (sometimes referred to as pandemic pods) during the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to answer this overarching question, the researcher focused her study on two areas: first, what were the possible push factors that influenced parents to remove their children from public schools, and secondly, what were the pull factors that lead parents to choose learning pods over other school choice options. Through the data collected …

Examining Teachers' Referral And Placement Decisions Of Hispanic Children For Gifted And Talented Programs, Guillermo I. Mendoza

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This quantitative survey design study examined whether children’s ethnicity makes a difference in teachers’ referral and placement decisions in gifted and talented (G/T) programs. A total of 524 teachers from all over the United States who have taught or currently teach pre-kindergarten through 5th grade participated. The participants were randomly given one of six vignettes adapted from a previous similar study (Elhoweris et al., 2005). Participants answered whether the child described should be referred and placed into gifted and talented programs. All six vignettes described gifted and talented characteristics; the only differences were the children's ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Data …

Strengthening The Academic Progress Of Students Within Multi-Tiered Systems Of Support, Leslie Dial

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Leadership in education is thinking, communicating, and modeling to maximize student growth and achievement. This quantitative research study explored how leadership can strengthen the academic progress of students within Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS). When implementation of MTSS is guided by adaptive school leadership, educators will be prepared, communication will occur, interventions will be established, and data will be evaluated. Adaptive leaders who build efficacy will ensure fidelity and continuous improvement of student achievement.

Survey research was conducted to analyze the operational level of MTSS regarding the domains of Leadership, Building Capacity for Instruction, Communication and Collaboration, Data-Based Problem-Solving, Tiered …

Assessing The Fidelity Of School-Level Professional Learning Community Implementation, William W. Thigpen Ii

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

As schools face increasing accountability, many have turned to professional learning communities (PLCs) as a possible solution. The challenge is that many schools are not implementing PLCs with fidelity. It is imperative that school leaders assess PLC practices to ensure that critical components are being implemented effectively. This research provides a framework for school leaders to assess school leader, teacher, and support staff perceptions of various PLC dimensions. Descriptive statistics were used to determine levels of agreement with statements related to six PLC dimensions. A one-way univariate analysis of variance tests (ANOVA) was used to analyze differences in mean …