An extensive literature review has been undertaken to create an accurate portrayal of North American Indian Sign Language as used by both deaf and hearing American Indians. Historical accounts are stressed as the primary source for understanding the extent of signed language use among the American Indians of North American and its decline to the present status as an endangered language. This sign language has functioned in two significant ways: (1) primarily (for hearing tribal members) as an alternative to the spoken language and (2) as a primary, or first language for deaf tribal members. It is critical to bear this distinction in mind for future investigations into the linguistic status of North American Indian Sign Language. Additional historical accounts related to American Indians' encounters with the signed language use among Deaf Anglos are also included. An ongoing research project involving the preservation of old film in which North American Indian Sign Language has been documented in 1930s and the current data collection of deaf NAISL signer is discussed as a potential source for future research and as a viable access to the heritage of American Indians.

<p> The purpose of this study was to determine the validity of state standardized testing English Language Learners are required to participate in as part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Although policymakers continue to debate the minutia of the academic accountability for English Language Learners, the over-arching question of test validity has continued to be ignored. Current federal requirements identify participation in state standardized testing of all English Language Learners who have been in country more than one academic year. Data collected for analysis included English Language Learners&rsquo; level of English proficiency, and state standardized testing scores in reading, English language arts, and mathematics. The goal was to determine, using quantitative data, correlations between these variables. The study concludes by highlighting factors to be considered that influence accountability policy at the state and federal level and by making suggestions for future research in the area of assessing English Language Learners for the purpose of increased accuracy for accountability in academic growth and performance.</p><p> Through the use of ex-post-facto data, the results of the study identified three findings. The first finding identified that there is a correlation between ELL students&rsquo; English language proficiency level and performance on state standardized testing in the areas of reading, English language arts, and mathematics. The second finding in the study, using the Washington English Language Proficiency Assessment (WELPA) to identify student English proficiency levels, recognized that there is a threshold between WELPA levels and the ELL students who are passing state standardized tests. The third finding recognized that there was no significant distinction in state standardized testing between the number of reading/English language arts tests and mathematics tests.</p>

<p> This research consists of three case studies conducted within American Jewish day schools (JDSs). Addressing some of the issues pointed to by past researchers, this investigation focuses on the following discrete areas of Hebrew language (HL) programs: the stated visions for Hebrew language learning as noted in the mission statements and other documents of the schools and as articulated by teachers and administrators, the methodologies employed by Hebrew and Jewish Studies educators within these institutions, and the assessment practices employed by these schools and educators to determine whether the expressed goals of these programs are being met. By exploring the missions, methods, and assessment processes within these Hebrew language programs, and contrasting these aspects of the schools, we come to a better understanding of the inner workings of these programs and the issues that may be addressed in practice and future research. The following questions guided this mixed-methods study: (1) Within each JDS, what are the goals, according to the mission statement, teachers and administrators, for receptive and productive oral proficiency and literacy in HL? (2) Within each JDS, what are the instructional methodologies employed by teachers in HL and Jewish Studies? (3) Within each JDS, what formal and informal assessments, including teacher perceptions, are currently used for student placement, ongoing and recursive assessment, and outcome assessment? Findings indicate that each of these schools has articulated its missions and program goals to incorporate the development of some kind of Hebrew proficiency and Jewish identity among students. However, confusion was identified within each institution regarding planning methodological approaches and employing systematic and meaningful evaluations of student progress, both of which are found to be interwoven with the desired development of Hebrew language, Jewish identity and a Zionist orientation. In order to successfully achieve their goals and missions, clearer articulation, more consistent and research-based methodological choices, along with consistent and meaningful assessments are required.</p>

<p> Mathematics performance of students in the United States is concerning. When compared to global peers, students in the United States perform at the lower range in areas of mathematics. Even after controlling for variables such as ethnicity, parent educational attainment, and socio-economic status, students in the United States continue to struggle in mathematics. One area that facilitates learning complex mathematics skills is computational fluency. The Mathematics Advisory Panel Report and the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics recommend that students have daily practice to build computational fluency skills. Evidence based interventions that target computational fluency includes incremental rehearsal, cover copy compare, and performance reward. The interventions were implemented with three students who attended a dual language immersion program and analyzed through single-case research design. The results found the interventions effective for two of the three students. Using these interventions as a package can have beneficial results in the computational fluency of students in dual-immersion programs.</p>

The study analyzed the relationship between cultural affinity and language dominance of Arab minority students participating in bilingual/bicultural education programs. The hypotheses tested were: (1) Arabic dominant Arab students would not exhibit a greater affinity for the Arab culture than for the American culture. (2) English dominant Arab students would not exhibit a greater affinity for the American culture than for the Arab culture. (3) Bilingual students would not exhibit an equal affinity for both the Arab and the American culture. / A major undertaking of the study was the modification and the adaptation of the Cultural Affinity Scale to the Arab culture, which was later used to assess cultural affinity. To assess language dominance, the Basic Inventory of Natural Language was used. The subjects for the study were 72 Arab minority students enrolled in fourth through eighth grade bilingual/bicultural classes in Wayne County School District in Detroit, Michigan. / The results of the study failed to confirm the relationship, if any, between the cultural affinity and the language dominance of Arab students in bilingual education programs. Regardless of their language dominance, the subjects demonstrated a consistent expression of their biculturalism. The fact that all the subjects were enrolled in bilingual/bicultural classes may be a significant factor in the explanation of the results. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-02, Section: A, page: 0352. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.

Bilingual bicultural education continues to be a complex social issue in the U.S. well into the end of the 20th century. Supporters of bilingual bicultural education charge that the mass media usually pay little attention to the field, and when they do pay attention, they tend to print mostly negative articles. Educators consider newspaper editors to be particularly biased when they write about bilingual bicultural education. / Newspaper editorials offer a public forum where controversial issues can be debated. Professional standards in the field of communications, e.g., Hulteng and Nelson (1971), require editors to use argumentation where all sides of a social issue are exposed so that readers can make up their own minds about a controversial social issue like bilingual bicultural education. / The research questions for this study are to ask (a) whether there are any editorials that espouse bilingual bicultural education, and (b) whether editors are exposing their readers to the 12 points in the argument that favors bilingual bicultural education. These 12 supportive statements are gleaned from the writing of educational theorists. / Since 1970, Editorials on File has been collecting U.S. editorials on sundry topics. In that 23-year period, there are 3 years where the selected editorials are about bilingual bicultural education. A computer program called Qual-Pro has been used to cull editorial sentences supportive of bilingual bicultural education in the 68 editorials of that period. / The results of the study are that none of the editors comes out in full support of bilingual bicultural classes. Of such statements in these 3 years of editorials, only 23% give even token discussion to the 12 points in the positive argument. Only 4 of the possible 12 points are mentioned--only 2 frequently, the other 2 somewhat frequently--and the other 8 points are hardly mentioned at all. The 2 points mentioned most often are (a) bilingual education is a legal right of minority students, and (b) bilingual education includes teaching in more than one language. The 2 points mentioned less often are that (c) bilingual education includes teaching about more than one culture, and (d) bilingual education has been and is now as asset to the nation as a whole. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-07, Section: A, page: 2492. / Major Professor: Frederick L. Jenks. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

Little research has been conducted to document the process utilized in state-mandated multicultural teacher inservice education programs and the effect of these programs on teachers and their ability to teach their limited English proficient (LEP) students. The current study focused on the component of culture in the 60-hour inservice education required of content-area teachers in Florida. The purpose was to assess the impact of inservice educational programs on public school teachers' cross-cultural adaptability using control and experimental groups. / The study established the relationship between multicultural inservice education and the four dimensions of cultural adaptability: emotional resilience, flexibility/openness, perceptual acuity, and personal autonomy. The study also investigated the relationship of these four dimensions to teacher characteristics of gender, age, race, years of teaching experience, languages spoken fluently other than English, and extent of overseas travel. / One hundred and three male and female content-area teachers ranging in age from 24 to 60 years old were divided into four groups: (a) two control groups of 24 and 29 teachers respectively, and (b) two experimental groups of 24 and 26 teachers, respectively. The two experimental groups consisted of teachers participating in a multicultural inservice education program. The two control groups were composed of teachers who had not yet had the inservice program. / All subjects were administered the Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory (CCAI) developed in California by Meyers and Kelley (1987) as well as the Multicultural Opinion Survey (developed at The Ohio State University) and a Demographic Profile Checklist. Semi-structured interviews with selected teachers were conducted to further substantiate the outcomes of the inservice education. The instructor was also interviewed regarding her educational background and teaching experience. / Contrary to what the researcher expected, the findings of the study revealed that there was no statistically significant difference in the teachers' cross-cultural adaptability scores before and after taking the cultural component of the inservice educational program. The results of the study indicate that inservice educational programs in multicultural education need to be reevaluated. Further research is needed in other parts of the country to validate the findings of the current study. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-12, Section: A, page: 4378. / Major Professor: Byron G. Massialas. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

The issue of differential item functioning (DIF) in standardized tests has increasingly generated interest in the measurement and testing communities. An item is said to contain DIF if examinees of equal proficiency from different gender, ethnic or other groups have an unequal probability of responding correctly to the item. / Although the majority of DIF research has focused on its identification through statistical procedures, recent published studies have addressed the arguably more important issue of causes of DIF. To date, however, most studies of causes of DIF have been concerned with post-secondary situations. / The present study identified sources of DIF within a widely used secondary school achievement battery. Responses on the Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension sections of the Stanford Achievement Test were obtained from 1580 White and 3223 Hispanic eighth graders in Dade County, Florida. A quantitative technique was used to detect items exhibiting DIF. Once these items were identified, a review panel of expert bilingual judges examined them in terms of linguistic and cultural factors associated to DIF between Hispanics and Whites. / Results suggest that, when comparing Hispanic and White students of the same ability, the use in test items of true cognate words frequently used in Spanish will favor the performance of Hispanics. In contrast, several conditions may favor Whites, including the use of non true cognate words infrequently used in English, linguistic complexity, idiomatic expressions derived from technical language, and poetry. Moreover, words and phrases with a special cultural meaning for one of the groups will favor members of that group (White or Hispanic) and, the use of settings for which Hispanic students are likely to be less familiar with will favor the performance of Whites. / Findings from the study confirm the need to stress certain areas in the instruction of Hispanic students. Even though DIF is not necessarily indicative of item bias, its appearance in test items might be a sign of instructional deficiencies. Findings also should alert test developers to distinguish between construct-relevant DIF and DIF associated with test invalidity. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-09, Section: A, page: 3411. / Major Professor: Albert C. Oosterhof. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

Six instructional competencies (communication skills, positive regard, non-authoritarianism, pedagogic flexibility, socio-cultural knowledge, and self confidence) were investigated to determine the effectiveness of elementary bilingual education teachers. Supervisor/peer ratings of teachers' effectiveness were selected as the criterion of effectiveness for this study; the relationships between competency scores, supervisor/peer ratings, and background data were then examined and compared. / There was a significant correlation between teachers' pedagogic flexibility (the ability to provide a variety of methods and materials) scores and their ratings, although the remaining correlations between competencies and ratings were near zero. Correlations between background variables and competency scores were not significant, nor were correlations between background variables and competency scores, with the exception of the significant relationship between the subjects' years of experience teaching limited English proficient students with their scores for the competency of positive regard. / There were minimal differences in the background data of teachers who had received the highest and lowest supervisor/peer ratings. However, the highest rated teachers scored higher on all competencies; their mean total competency score was almost double that of the lowest rated teachers and their mean pedagogic flexibility score was almost triple that of the lowest rated teachers. / The factor that determined a teacher's effectiveness rating seemed to be skill in pedagogic flexibility. If further experimental studies that deliberately train one set of teachers in pedagogic flexibility and deny such training to another set of teachers verify the findings of the present study, the need for specialized training in ESL/BE will be substantiated and pre- and in-service training will need to be modified to emphasize the development of a repertoire of skills in pedagogic flexibility. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 42-10, Section: A, page: 4408. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1981.

Local community participation in overseas development projects as a critical ingredient for long-term program sustainability has become a central policy issue for both government and non-government organizations. It has been recognized that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are viable channels for funding participatory programs. Yet, while NGO strengths for implementing and managing participatory development projects have been extolled, there is little research to demonstrate their effectiveness at the field level. It has also been recognized that NGOs' overseas programs are influenced by the process and circumstances of identifying and obtaining program resources. What is lacking in the analysis of NGOs as channels for participatory development programs is the specific relationship between fundraising and the facilitation of community participation at the project level. / This research has sought to determine the relationship between the facilitation of local community participation and fundraising in overseas development projects. This has been accomplished through an in-depth case analysis of both the fundraising and project field experience of an NGO based in the United States. The study examines how the NGO's development policy compared with its actual field program implementation practice. A comparison was also made between the NGO's traditional small-scale community development work with a more recent large-scale project experience. / Overall, this research has demonstrated that, in the case of the NGO studied, there is a relationship between fundraising and the facilitation of community participation in the agency's overseas projects. Five primary areas of fundraising adversely influencing the facilitation of community participation were identified. / Evidence collected in the field case of the Louga large scale project in Senegal demonstrated that significant local community participation was occurring. / In comparing findings from the large-scale project experience in Louga with findings from the small-scale project research, seven similarities and six differences were identified. Identified are five areas where the small-scale sponsorship approach to fundraising adversely influences the field staffs' ability to facilitate community participation. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-12, Section: A, page: 4042. / Major Professor: Sydney R. Grant. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.