The purpose of this investigation was to obtain information about special educators' perceptions of the reintegration of special education students into general education classrooms and factors affecting their reintegration decisions. Reintegration is the process of determining when it is appropriate to fade and eventually remove special education services for a student. Special educators often are in a good position to both initiate and facilitate this process. The current study surveyed special educators. Participants read vignettes depicting special education students with mild disabilities and answered a set of survey questions regarding their perceptions about reintegrating the students into the general education classroom. Specifically, two research questions were investigated: (1) Does performance data on achievement affect special educators' willingness to reintegrate students for reading instruction beyond their willingness based only on anecdotal information and, (2) What type of student performance data were most influential in special educators' ratings of willingness to reintegrate special education students?This study found that data on academic performance does affect special educators' willingness to reintegrate students with disabilities into general education classrooms. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to investigate what factors were most influential in the decision-making process. Results of these analyses varied as a function of disability category of the student depicted in the vignette. In two of the four vignettes, pre-data willingness, or anecdotal information accounted for the largest percentage of unique variance indicating that non-academic data is very influential in reintegration decision-making. Implications of the findings for practice, including promotion of the use of CBM data in reintegration decision-making are discussed.

First, this study was conducted to determine the effects of MVRC on the spelling development of second-graders. Second, this study sought to determine if spelling trajectories vary by gender, English Language Learner (ELL) enrollment and/or Special Education (SPED) enrollment. Lastly, students' spelling tests were evaluated with two different spelling scoring methods: traditional standardized scoring, correct and incorrect, and Curriculum-Based Measurement-spelling (CBM), correct letter sequences, to determine which method was more sensitive to growth from pre-test to post-test. Students were pre-tested and post-tested with two measures from the Woodcock-Johnson IV Achievement, Test 3: Spelling and Test 16: Spelling of Sounds. Participants included 159 students, 83 students were enrolled in the experimental condition and 76 students were enrolled in the comparison condition. Using a multilevel model for repeated measures, the researcher estimated the between group-model analyses for Test 3: Spelling and Test 16: Spelling. Students who participated in the experimental condition, receiving MVRC, had significantly different spelling scores than their peers in the comparison group. For Test 3: Spelling, the experimental group increased on average by 1.786 words compared to the comparison group. For Test 16: Spelling of Sounds, the experimental group increased on average by 1.741 words compared to the comparison group. Student spelling trajectories did vary by gender, ELL enrollment, and SPED enrollment. However, these differences were not found to be significant. Neither traditional scoring norCBM-spelling scoring was found to be the more sensitive scoring method for growth for both tests. Instead, CBM-spelling was more sensitive for Test 3: Spelling, while traditional scoring was more sensitive for Test 16: Spelling of Sounds.

abstract: National assessment data indicate that the large majority of students in America perform below expected proficiency levels in the area of writing. Given the importance of writing skills, this is a significant problem. Curriculum-based measurement, when used for progress monitoring and intervention planning, has been shown to lead to improved academic achievement. However, researchers have not yet been able to establish the validity of curriculum-based measures of writing (CBM-W). This study examined the structural validity of CBM-W using exploratory factor analysis. The participants for this study were 253 third, 154 seventh, and 154 tenth grade students. Each participant completed a 3-minute writing sample in response to a narrative prompt. The writing samples were scored for fifteen different CBM-W indices. Separate analyses were conducted for each grade level to examine differences in the CBM-W construct across grade levels. Due to extreme multicollinearity, principal components analysis rather than common factor analysis was used to examine the structure of writing as measured by CBM-W indices. The overall structure of CBM-W indices was found to remain stable across grade levels. In all cases a three-component solution was supported, with the components being labeled production, accuracy, and sentence complexity. Limitations of the study and implications for progress monitoring with CBM-W are discussed, including the recommendation for a combination of variables that may provide more reliable and valid measurement of the writing construct. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Educational Psychology 2012

abstract: The most recent reauthorizations of No Child Left Behind and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act served to usher in an age of results and accountability within American education. States were charged with developing more rigorous systems to specifically address areas such as critical academic skill proficiency, empirically validated instruction and intervention, and overall student performance as measured on annual statewide achievement tests. Educational practice has shown that foundational math ability can be easily assessed through student performance on Curriculum-Based Measurements of Math Computational Fluency (CBM-M). Research on the application of CBM-M's predictive validity across specific academic math abilities as measured by state standardized tests is currently limited. In addition, little research is available on the differential effects of ethnic subgroups and gender in this area. This study investigated the effectiveness of using CBM-M measures to predict achievement on high stakes tests, as well as whether or not there are significant differential effects of ethnic subgroups and gender. Study participants included 358 students across six elementary schools in a large suburban school district in Arizona that utilizes the Response to Intervention (RTI) model. Participants' CBM-M scores from the first through third grade years and their third grade standardized achievement test scores were collected. Pearson product-moment and Spearman correlations were used to determine how well CBM-M scores and specific math skills are related. The predictive validity of CBM-M scores from the third-grade school year was also assessed to determine whether the fall, winter, or spring screening was most related to third-grade high-stakes test scores. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Educational Psychology 2014

One major concern when developing a response to intervention (RTI) program is to select effective practices that will be successfully implemented and sustained with adequate organizational guidance and support. The purpose of this study was to explore patterns of student tier placement data as a school-based case example of the nature and utility of RTI in an applied setting. Specifically, this study aimed to explore the extent that the percentages of students placed in a three-tier program based on student oral reading fluency (ORF) level and growth trajectories reflect the standard RTI tier placement (80%, 15%, and 5%) at fall, winter, and spring in a school setting. Percentages of the total student population tier placement were explored with ORF data from third- and fourth-grade students (N = 429) at two schools in fall, winter, and spring. Results showed that school and ORF data reflected the standard percentages of student populations within each tier in fall, winter, and spring. However, slope data showed greater percentages of students in the more intensive tiers. Moreover, flexible grouping, or movement between tiers occurred for few students when movement occurred based on school or ORF level data. No significant differences were found between the school and ORF student tier placements in fall, winter, and spring. A significant difference was found in spring between placement methods with a larger proportion of students in Tier 1 based on the school assignments and a larger proportion of students in Tier 2 and Tier 3 based on ORF slope assignments.

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Prevention science has suggested that universal screening can enhance educational and mental health outcomes in the schools (Greenberg et al., 2003). A three-tier model of prevention has been proposed by Albers, Glover, and Kratochwill (2007) and Brown-Chidsey and Steege (2005) employing universal screening assessments of basic academic skills at Tier-1. Curriculum-based measurement maze (CBM-maze) probes are universal screeners that were developed as measures of reading comprehension. They are characterized as easy to administer, time-efficient, valid, and reliable (Parker, Hasbrouck, & Tindal, 1992). CBM-maze probes are short stories consisting of 400 words where every seventh word is omitted and replaced with three answer choices. Students are given 3-minutes to read the passage silently and select a word from the answer choices that restores the meaning of the story. Maze probes have been utilized as reading comprehension assessments for universal screening (Tier 1) and progress monitoring (Tier 2 and Tier 3; Espin, Deno, Maruyama, & Cohen, 1989; D. Fuchs & Fuchs, 1992). The current research study was conducted to further extend the research on the reliability and validity of CBM-maze probes. More specifically, it investigated if there were any differences between 1-minute, 2-minute, and 3-minute time frames, alternate form reliability, concurrent validity, and social validity of the maze probes. Results indicated differences in correct word selections (CWS) between 1-minute, 2-minute, and 3-minute time frames with significant interaction effects noted for the 2-minute maze probe. Alternate form reliability correlation were statistically significant and moderately strong (r = .47 to .71). Concurrent validity correlations between the STAR Reading norm referenced test (computer adaptive reading comprehension test) and CBM-maze probes yielded statistically significant and moderate correlations (r = .30 to .50). Tabulations of the assessment rating scale indicated that students perceived maze probes as acceptable measures for reading comprehension. Implications for practice, cautions in interpreting the results, and future directions are discussed. / School Psychology

Standardized formative mathematics assessments typically fail to capture the depth of current standards and curricula. Consequently, these assessments demonstrate limited utility for informing the instructional implementation choices of teachers. This problem is particularly salient as it relates to the mathematical problem solving process. The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate the psychometric characteristics of Structural-Symbolic Translation Fluency, a curriculum-based measure (CBM) of mathematical problem solving. The development of the assessment was based on previous research describing the cognitive process of translation (Mayer, 2002) as well as mathematical concept development at the quantitative, structural, and symbolic levels (Dehaene, 2011; Faulkner, 2009; Griffin, 2004). Data on the Structural-Symbolic Translation Fluency assessment were collected from 11 mathematics and psychometrics experts and 42 second grade students during the spring of 2016. Data were analyzed through descriptive statistics, frequencies, Spearman-Brown correlation, joint probability of agreement, Pearson correlation, and hierarchical multiple regression. Psychometric features of interest included internal consistency, inter-rater reliability, test-retest reliability, content validity, and criterion-related validity. Testing of the 9 research questions revealed 9 significant findings. Despite significant statistical findings, several coefficients did not meet pre-established criteria required for validation. Hypothesized modifications to improve the psychometric characteristics are suggested as the focus of future research. In addition, recommendations are made concerning the role of assessing the translation process of mathematical problem solving.