The central research question is the extent to which gifted programming affects student academic outcomes of gifted as compared to not-gifted students and how this differs by race/ethnicity and/or poverty status. Since the identification of elementary school students as gifted is not random, propensity score matching is used to remove this bias in the estimates of the effects. A matched sample of North Carolina middle school students based on individual level data of both gifted and not-gifted students of varied racial/ethnic groups and income levels is used for this analysis. This enables a comparison of sixth, seventh, and eighth grade student achievement to determine the extent to which participating in gifted programming differentiates effects by race/ethnicity and poverty status. I show the additional test score gain, if any, from being in gifted programming compared to students not participating in gifted programs. Variations in gifted program effects across race/ethnicity and income are assessed. This research adds empirical evidence to the more qualitatively focused gifted debate by analyzing differences in student outcomes between gifted and not-gifted students in North Carolina. Since black and lower income students are less likely to participate in gifted programs, they disproportionately encounter less experienced teachers, lower expectations, and fewer resources. The extent to which these additional learning supports translate to differences in student outcomes are analyzed.

<p>Abstract</p><p>This paper investigates how to individualize the tuition in English by using ability groupings. The study is primarily focusing on the group of under-achieving ability pupils since teachers have a special responsibility for those pupils who experience difficulties in attaining the goals that have been set for their education, according to the Curriculum for compulsory school Lpo 94. The main research question was if the groupings were positive or negative for the under-achieving pupils at school X, i.e. the compulsory school under investigation. In addition I also wanted to find out if the ability groupings at school X responded to the steering documents, i.e. the Curriculum in compulsory school and the Education Act. The study is based on primary data in the forms of interviews, with four English teachers, and questionnaires, answered by the under-achieving ability pupils.</p><p>Conclusions were drawn that the ability groupings seemed to be mostly negative concerning the under-achieving pupils. The groupings at school X are not supported in any steering documents either since the groupings are not temporary, they do to some extent put the pupils at a certain grade level and on a certain track which violates the Education Act. One of the conclusions in this paper is also that there should be clearer guidelines on how to approach this phenomenon.</p>

This thesis investigates whether luck egalitarianism can provide a cogent and coherent interpretation of educational equality. Historically, the belief that each child should receive an equally good education has exerted a strong influence on policy makers and thus on educational practice, and this despite the vagueness of the egalitarian formula. More recently however, the ideal has been undermined in practice by the rise of neoliberalism and in theory by a number of thinkers advocating other principles of educational justice. But it is vital to be clear about what each child is owed because of the profound effects of education on a person’s life prospects. The motivation for this work is therefore to determine whether educational equality can be rescued as a desirable and animating ideal of educational justice. In order to achieve this, I examine luck egalitarianism, a theory of distributive justice that has its origins in the work of John Rawls, but is now the major rival to his account of egalitarian justice. I probe at the fundamental moral intuitions underpinning luck egalitarianism and how it brings together the morally potent ideas of equality, luck and choice. I argue that these are of relevance for the education each child is owed and I propose a luck egalitarian conception of educational equality, argue that it is a cogent interpretation of egalitarian justice, and conclude that a luck egalitarian conception shows educational equality to be an ideal that is relevant, coherent and what morally matters most for justice in education. I describe luck egalitarianism as resting on three basic moral beliefs: that distributive equality is a fundamental demand of justice; that luck undermines fair equality; and that a person’s genuine choices can sometimes, under certain background conditions, render some otherwise objectionable inequalities not unjust. I then examine whether these three beliefs are compatible with each other and what, if anything, links them. Next, I consider luck egalitarianism’s status as a theory of distributive justice and argue that far from this being a weakness, as Elizabeth Anderson (1999) has notably argued, it is a strength of the position. But to appreciate this it needs to be seen that luck egalitarianism makes no claim to being all of justice and that the equalisandum of equality is complex and egalitarianism is intrinsically pluralist in nature (with a particular understanding of what is meant by pluralist). I consider too whether it is a mistake to say that inequalities that are largely due to luck can really be thought of as unjust. Thomas Nagel (1997) has argued that it is merely misfortune, unless the result of deliberate actions or social structures for which someone is responsible. I reject that position and argue that no one has to be responsible for an inequality for it to be unjust. Having interrogated luck egalitarianism and found it to be a sound account of egalitarian distributive justice, I turn to looking at whether it can illuminate our understanding of educational equality. Educational equality is often interpreted in terms of equality of educational opportunity. I look particularly at a conception of equality of educational opportunity, strongly influenced by Rawls, that has been thoughtfully and carefully articulated by Harry Brighouse and Adam Swift (2008). I find their conception powerful, but flawed, and argue that a luck egalitarian conception can account for the appeal of their conception, but is an advance on it. I end by looking at a specific question of educational justice to test the luck egalitarian conception – is there anything inegalitarian about ability grouping? I conclude that, while still needing to have its implications worked out in full, particularly as regards choice, a luck egalitarian conception provides a compelling account of educational equality and reasserts that equality matters for justice in education.

This dissertation aims to examine some aspects of special education in Swedish upper secondary schools. The availability of special education resources, the occurrence of ability grouping and the organisational modalities of special education support are investigated. The further aim of the thesis is to discuss how these phenomena can be understood on the basis of democratic educational theories and theories of social educational justice. The study describes how special education support was organised in 764 upper secondary schools in Sweden in the academic school year 2010/2011, with a response rate of 80.4% (n=764). The design of the study is a cross-sectional total population survey, where data have been collected by way of questionnaires and supplemented with public statistics. The results of the study show that about 37.5% of upper secondary schools lack special education resources in terms of special educators or special education teachers. Special education support is not provided in 68% of the independent schools compared with 10% of the public schools. This uneven balance between public and independent schools can be interpreted to be a threat to an equivalent and democratic school, since students in need of special support do not have the same opportunities to receive such support in all schools. Furthermore, schools with a higher average parental educational background have shown higher availability of special education resources. It seems that students with parents who have higher educational backgrounds have to a greater extent access to special education resources. Ability grouping is used in about 43% of the schools. It is most commonly used within foundation subjects, particularly in Mathematics. The schools that use ability grouping to a very large extent have lower and more varied merit rating values and greater availability of special education resources. Special education support is primarily provided outside the students’ regular teaching groups. This is also the case with support provided by other school staff: indeed, 87% of the schools report that the majority of special education support is provided outside the students’ regular teaching groups. This can be understood as a way to organise special support in which heterogeneity and pluralism are not considered important. Based on democratic theories, the support provided outside the regular teaching group might be a risk to the creation of a democratic school where all students are given opportunities to meet and interact.    Overall, the results from this thesis show that special education resources are unevenly distributed among independent and public schools; that 43% of the schools use ability grouping; and that special support is primarily provided outside the students’ regular teaching groups. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 3: In press.</p><p> </p>

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Abstract This paper investigates how to individualize the tuition in English by using ability groupings. The study is primarily focusing on the group of under-achieving ability pupils since teachers have a special responsibility for those pupils who experience difficulties in attaining the goals that have been set for their education, according to the Curriculum for compulsory school Lpo 94. The main research question was if the groupings were positive or negative for the under-achieving pupils at school X, i.e. the compulsory school under investigation. In addition I also wanted to find out if the ability groupings at school X responded to the steering documents, i.e. the Curriculum in compulsory school and the Education Act. The study is based on primary data in the forms of interviews, with four English teachers, and questionnaires, answered by the under-achieving ability pupils. Conclusions were drawn that the ability groupings seemed to be mostly negative concerning the under-achieving pupils. The groupings at school X are not supported in any steering documents either since the groupings are not temporary, they do to some extent put the pupils at a certain grade level and on a certain track which violates the Education Act. One of the conclusions in this paper is also that there should be clearer guidelines on how to approach this phenomenon.

Det undersökta området för denna studie behandlar klassrumsdiskussioner kring ett matematiskt innehåll utförda av elever i två klasser i år 6 som är nivågrupperade. Dessa två grupper består övervägande av lågpresterande respektive övervägande av högpresterande elever. Denna studie är ett undervisningsförsök med syfte att undersöka hur metoden som innefattar medvetna strategier i form av ”talk-moves” fungerar i dessa klassrumsdiskussioner. Skillnader och likheter under nämnda klassrumsdiskussioner jämförs mellan nämnda grupper. Studien är begränsad till att behandla samspelet mellan elevernas prat och tankar under berörda klassrumsdiskussioner. Till största delen består metoden som används för denna studie av videoinspelningar som sedan observerades. Dessa ”talk-moves” innebär att läraren får verktyg att bjuda in samtliga elever att delta i klassrumsdiskussioner.  Läraren kan också använda dessa verktyg till att möjliggöra för eleverna att bygga sin egen kunskap. Detta innebär i sin tur en möjlighet för eleverna att komma förbi utantillinlärning. / The area of subject of this study is classroom discussions in mathematics. The purpose of the study is to investigate how the method called “talk-moves” functions in two ability grouped classes of year six. Each group consists mainly of low-level ability students and high-level ability students. During these clasroom discussions differencies and similarities are compared between these two groups. The limitation of the study consists of the connections between the students´ talk and thoughts. The main part of the method of this study are videorecordings which were later observed. The teacher is able to use “talk-moves”  as tools which are used to invite all students of the class to participate in mentioned classroom discussions. It is also possible for the teacher to use these tools to enable the students to build their own knowledge. This means in turn a possibility for the students to overcome learning by heart.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether gifted students scored higher on reading achievement and self-esteem ratings when they worked in mixed ability (heterogeneous) groups or similar ability (homogeneous) groups while participating in cooperative learning activities. The participants were 47 fourth grade students from six intact classrooms in four elementary schools in small midwestern school districts.The Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests were used to obtain pre- and posttest scores in the area of reading ability. The test consisted of 93 items, including 45 vocabulary and 48 comprehension questions. The Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory was also given to the students as a pre- and posttest measure of self-esteem. A treatment of cooperative learning activities was then completed with each class by the researcher to determine if there was a difference between the two groups.The following hypotheses were tested at the.05 level of significance:Hypothesis 1: There is no significant difference between the reading achievement of gifted students who participate in cooperative learning with heterogeneous groups of students and gifted students who participate in cooperative learning with homogeneous groups of students.Hypothesis ll: There is no significant difference in the self-esteem ratings of gifted students who participate in cooperative learning with heterogeneous groups of students and gifted students who participate in cooperative learning with homogeneous groups of students.To test the hypotheses an analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used. For each hypothesis, the obtained F-ratio exceeded the F-value for significance at the .05 level. Therefore, the tests failed to reject the null hypotheses. The findings of this study indicate that students achieve equally well in reading achievement and self-esteem regardless of the grouping strategy used. / Department of Elementary Education

This study investigated the relationship between student scores on the Behavioral Objective Sequence (BOS) and student placement, the relationship of BOS scores to teacher variables, and the relationship of BOS scores to student variables. Participants in the study were 47 special education teachers serving students with Emotional Disabilities (ED). The teachers reported BOS total and subscale scores for 141 ED students. Student and teacher demographic data was collected. A significant relationship was identified between BOS total scores and student placement. A significant relationship was found between five of the six BOS subscale scores and placement. Student variables, with the exception of socioeconomic status, were not found to have a significant relationship to BOS scores or placement. Teacher variables were not found to have a significant relationship to BOS scores. The results of this investigation indicate that the BOS may be a useful tool for IEP team use in determining appropriate placement for students withED. / Department of Special Education