<p> The balance of awareness of student disabilities, providing supports and accommodations necessary for the success of special education students, and a high understanding curriculum contents is a challenge for special educators in the co-taught setting. This study investigates the effect the relationship between the number of curricula in which the special educator is co-teaching has, on student achievement. Statistical analysis was conducted to compare both the results on state mandated end of course examinations, and course grades in classrooms where the special education coteacher was responsible for one curriculum content where they were responsible for two and three curricula. Findings show a significant difference in student achievement only between classrooms where the special educator was responsible for one curriculum and where they were responsible for two. In looking at the mean achievement results for end of course examinations and course grades, students in the classrooms where the special educator was responsible for three curriculum contents earned higher scores. Results indicate that factors or a combination of factors, other than curricula content knowledge of the special education co-teacher, play a greater role in effecting the achievement of the special education students in the co-taught classroom.</p><p>

<p> The ability to think critically and complexly amid novel experiences that require self- and other-awareness is something that leaders in an array of social institutions seek to develop in their communities. Global and Diversity Learning (GDL) practices, one category of high impact practices (Kuh, 2008), aim to increase students&rsquo; awareness of self and others and imbue critical thinking skills that will help students see how their own background and experiences interact with those of peers. This study aims to understand the relationship of four GDL practices (education abroad, multicultural programming, intercultural living-learning communities, and global studies coursework) to desired learning outcomes. Through completing ANCOVAs and multiple regression analyses on an existing dataset of GDL participants, this study demonstrates the influence of gender, socio-economic status, and citizenship within GDL practice types. The study findings also reveal significant differences between group members&rsquo; other awareness and critical thinking capacity. Understanding how different GDL practice types affect capacity development will allow university leadership to direct collaboration between departments and align programming, to allocate resources more effectively, and communicate potential outcomes based on empirical data.</p><p>

<p> The State of Vermont has long had one of the highest high school graduation rates in New England, hovering around 87.8% with a lagging college enrollment rate of 52.3% at any 2- or 4-year postsecondary institution in the country (New England Secondary School Consortium, 2015). This research explored the factors that have the greatest effect on the college enrollment patterns of Vermont high school graduates. Specifically, this study explored the relationship between the following factors and 2- and 4-year college enrollment: (a) academic preparation, (b) access to college information, (c) early career exploration and education planning, (d) gender, (e) grade point average, (f) parent educational attainment, (g) parental expectations, (h) student location, and (i) student perception of affordability. </p><p> This descriptive, correlational quantitative study used binomial logistic regression to determine which of the factors listed in the preceding section had the greatest impact on the college enrollment patterns of Vermont high school graduates. The dataset for this research was the Class of 2014 Senior Survey from the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation, administered to all students graduating from Vermont high schools in 2014. This research looks to inform work currently being done at the state level to raise the number of adults living in Vermont with a postsecondary credential to 70% by the year 2025</p><p>

<p> This dissertation examines the special issue of peer harassment of students with disabilities through a legal lens, exploring the legal standards used in cases involving three federal statutes&mdash;Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (&ldquo;Section 504&rdquo;), the Americans with Disabilities Act (&ldquo;ADA&rdquo;), and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act ("IDEA"). Using legal research methods, litigation trends regarding the number of cases and the legal standard used and applied were explored. There has been no Supreme Court case on the legal standard to be used under Section 504, the ADA, or IDEA in peer harassment of students with disabilities, and circuit courts of appeals have not reached consensus on which legal standard should apply. Instead, courts have applied several different legal standards, including the Davis standard, a modified <i>Davis</i> standard, bad faith and gross misjudgment, deliberate indifference, disability discrimination, intentional discrimination, and denial of a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). This dissertation synthesizes the relevant legal standards used in each federal circuit and identifies trends that might guide the future of this type of litigation.</p><p>

<p> The purpose of this qualitative explanatory multi-case study was to examine childcare workers&rsquo; perceptions about the use of developmentally appropriate practices within private toddler and preschool classrooms. The problem was that some child care workers have a master&rsquo;s or bachelor&rsquo;s degree in another field not related to early childhood education, which may result in a lack of knowledge regarding child growth and development and the use of developmentally inappropriate practices in toddler and preschool classrooms. The theoretical framework for this qualitative multi-case study was based on the contributions from the field of developmental psychology and neuroscience. Data collection included semi-structured one-on-one interviews, a focus group, and documentation which included photographs of participants&rsquo; classrooms, sample lesson plans, and children&rsquo;s work samples from 16 child care workers in Northern New Jersey. Transcribed interviews were imported to NVivo 12 Pro. NVivo 12 Pro was used to manage and organize transcribed data and assign codes, which led to emerging themes. Three themes emerged: (a) preparing children so they would not be behind in kindergarten or for the next teacher; (b) curriculum and the age level approach; and (c) qualifications, knowledge, and training. Recommendations may lead to better monitoring of child care center programs to ensure that program activities are appropriate according to age and developmental level of the children. Recommendations may also lead to training models for child care center directors and child care workers. </p><p>

No description available.

In Georgia, there are high rates of instability in foster care, and each time a child changes placement, his or her support networks are gone until he or she can rebuild them. The purpose of this case study was to explore if current stakeholders provide effective support and assistance to professionals and others who assist foster students with their educational needs. This case study used a conceptual framework based on Rankism, in which students move up and down the rungs of the ladder of their social system. Data were collected via interviews with a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) worker, a Department Division of Family and Child Services (DFCS) caseworker, a former foster parent, a teacher, a school social worker, a school administrator, and a school counselor, all of whom were involved with foster children. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and then open coded using constant comparative analysis. Findings revealed a need for greater support, and illuminated the repercussions that may occur when students are moved from their homes and/or schools: They may lose their support networks, community supports, school supports, and recognition they had previously until these are rebuilt in their new placement. The major themes that emerged were (a) a need for data sharing, (b) effect of trauma on children, and (c) the need for improved educational advocacy. These findings, along with a review of the literature, led to the development of a policy change recommendation and the creation of a data system to enable collaboration amongst all agencies. The project that emerged was the creation of a data system that affords real-time transfer of educational records, allowing for appropriate educational plans to be put in place.

This study examines teacher and curriculum development in the period of intense curriculum policy reform of the mid-1990s. It is based largely on interviews conducted with teachers in four New Zealand secondary schools. It documents and analyses the thinking and strategising that informed their attempts as teachers and curriculum leaders to develop their individual and collective practice and respond to external demands for change. The accounts are contextualised within the history, politics and culture of New Zealand secondary schooling since the Thomas Report on the Post-Primary school Curriculum in 1943, and parallel developments in secondary schooling in other anglophone countries.The study attempts to understand the workgroup, organisational and systemic constraints within which secondary school teachers conduct their work and how they seek to exercise their individual and collective agency in order to gain more control and knowledge of their occupational circumstances. The study links contemporary dilemmas of practice to longer standing, embedded tensions of curriculum content, pedagogy and assessment. It identifies continuities and discontinuities of secondary schooling practice in the decades since the 1940s and shows how contemporary policy options and proposed solutions are simply the latest staging post in a protracted sequence of political efforts to solve 'problems' of curriculum and credentialing. In some respects, the official policy texts introduced in the 1990s spoke directly to teachers, own pragmatic concerns and aspirations. Thus, in this study, teachers and curriculum leaders engaged creatively and energetically with the challenges posed by school-based Unit Standards trials because they appeared to offer the opportunity to end secondary teachers' long search for meaningful alternatives to examination dominated schemes of work, assessments and credentials. However, curriculum innovation always took place alongside other day-to-day routines and seasonal patterns of work. For curriculum leaders in this study, these multiple demands meant that any potential benefits of voluntary curriculum innovation had constantly to be weighed against its costs in terms of other workgroup priorities, the energies and dispositions of fellow workgroup members and their personal health and well-being.

This thesis is concerned with the relationship between the education system and its critics - with the terms in which programmes of educational reform are viewed by critical intellectuals, and with the claims and limitations of a particular mode of 'principled' critique. It explores this concern in relation to a number of recent developments in Australian education policy, describing the debates that they have engendered and identifying the political ambiguities that attend them. Three case studies are developed. The first is drawn from reactions to the recent bureaucratic reorganisation of higher education, especially those responses concentrated on the defence of the humanities. The second concerns developments in post-compulsory education, especially the construction of the new national credentialling system based on the assessment of 'Key Competencies'. The third addresses the endemic problem of educational assessment and equity. While each of these case studies is discussed in its own right, the three areas of discussion supplement one another within an overall argument concerning the relationship between the education system and a particular mode of 'principledt critique. In exploring this relationship, the thesis puts the case that we require a more historically-informed understanding of current problems in Australian education and a more pragmatic appreciation of the achievements of the existing education system. The issues raised are timely ones. Matters of educational policy have become particularly pressing over the past decade, as Australian education has undergone significant changes. In recent years, we have seen the effects of the drive towards a national education system, of the reorganisation of higher education, of the development of schemes for national credentialling and of the reconstruction of links between schooling, training and industry. These reforms have been driven by some pressing imperatives: to produce a trained and flexible workforce; to monitor levels of literacy and numeracy at a national level; and to satisfy the 'unmet demand' for increased educational places, while managing a limited educational budget.

Sensitivity of Value Added School Effect Estimates to Different Model Specifications and Outcome Measures