Thesis (Ed. D.)--Illinois State University, 1996. / Title from title page screen, viewed May 25, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Lanny E. Morreau, Ming-Gon J. Lian (co-chairs), Thomas E. Caldwell, Larry D. Kennedy. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 129-149) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Illinois State University, 1997. / Title from title page screen, viewed June 7, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Paula Smith (chair), Jeffrey Bakken, Raymond Schmitt, Mark Swerdlik, David Tucker. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-105) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (M.Sp.Ed.)--University of Waikato, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 159-168) Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.S.)--Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, 1985. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2809. Typescript. Abstract precedes thesis as preliminary leaves 1-4. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 119-125).

abstract: The following study evaluated the effectiveness of a self-monitoring strategy on independent work behavior. The three subjects were in first grade, seven years old, identified with mild mental retardation (MIMR), and had an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) with targeted functional academic and behavior goals. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a self-monitoring strategy on on-task independent work behavior and task completion. The research sought to determine whether or not a self-monitoring strategy would affect on-task independent work behavior and task completion. A multiple baseline across subjects design was used. Data were collected using a frequency count of off-task behavior. The self-monitoring strategy was found to be successful with all three subjects in the study. Overall, the subjects demonstrated a decrease in off-task behavior during independent work time after the intervention was introduced. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Special Education 2010

<p> This case study examines the home language and literacy events and practices of two families with children who have Autism Spectrum Disorder. These families are immigrants from Peru and Pakistan, they are multilingual and from working class backgrounds. Specifically, this study explores how these families create meaningful opportunities to provide language and literacy development for their children. In families who have children with ASD, there are few studies addressing language and literacy practices through a sociolinguistic and sociocultural lens. This study focuses on how parents in diverse families support language and literacy. The study contributes to the development of partnerships between home and school settings or between families and the school environment. </p><p> Through interviews and observations, the parents in this study share rich and detailed narratives of their parenting experiences, thus detailing how their families use their home environment and their cultural backgrounds to find meaningful ways to provide opportunities of language and literacy development. These include the rituals of religious practices such as Ramadan, and the activity of preparing and serving cultural specific meals. The emerging data from their stories resulted in the creation of such various cross themes as: language and literacy learning (families create unique and structured spaces in their homes that provide meaningful and purposeful demonstrations of language and literacy); authentic home and public experiences (families use ongoing and designed family activities to provide opportunities for children to engage in and observe natural language interactions); and cultural values (families modify and adapt their social and cultural events to include their children in their family literacy practices, which supports learning, language and literacy development. This research aspires to add to the current literature supporting the learning of children with autism, as well as on studies that investigate families from diverse backgrounds who have a child with special needs. The findings bring forward implications for including family literacy histories and cultural practices into the teaching and treating of this population; the importance of teachers and other practitioners to conduct home visits to understand families&rsquo; experiences, strengths and values; and the need for closer partnership relationships between families and professionals.</p><p>

Doctor of Education / Department of Special Education / Robert H. Zabel / This study investigated the effects of new teacher induction programs on feelings of burnout of 69 newly hired special education teachers from two Midwestern, metropolitan school districts. The central research question was whether there was a significant difference in feelings of burnout between new teachers in a district that uses a special education instructional resource teacher as a key feature of their induction program and teachers in a district that uses a more traditional induction model. Participants’ scores on the Maslach Burnout Inventory – Educators Survey provided the dependent measures. There were, on average, no statistically significant differences (p < .05) in feelings of burnout of newly hired special education teachers in the two school districts. There were, on average, no statistically significant differences between the two groups. These findings suggest that, at least in these districts, special education teachers are staying in the field longer than originally expected, newly hired special education teachers are coming to the job better prepared, and deliberate and responsive induction programs did not influence feelings of burnout. The influence of participant demographic characteristics, particularly the amount of experience and licensure status, is discussed. Implications of these findings for special education teacher induction programs are suggested. Among these are the examination of supports from various sources, the availability of resources, and the structure of the induction program itself to meet the needs of more experienced teachers.

Doctor of Education / Department of Special Education / James Teagarden / Gerald Bailey / Finding qualified teachers is a growing concern to school districts nationwide. Special Education is one of those areas that is highly in need. Researchers have suggested the reason for these shortages is not recruitment of special education teachers, but the retention of special education teachers. The research has also shown that lack of effective building administrative support may be a critical factor in a teachers’ decision to stay or leave the field. This study was developed to determine what administrative behavior special education teachers value the most. Additionally, this study sought to find out if there were differences in the administrative behaviors that special education teachers value and what building administrators perceive to be of value. A survey was sent electronically to a random sample of convenience to 200 special education teachers and 200 building administrators in the state of Kansas; 276 surveys were returned. The survey collected data to determine the perceived value of administrative support behaviors by the special education teachers, and any differences of the perceived value of administrative supports by the building administrators. The survey items were categorized into four subgroups of administrative behaviors: emotional, environmental, technical, and instructional. The administrative behaviors of most value to the special education teachers were those that were emotional in nature. Respondents reported that the most valued support actions included providing praise and acknowledging that the teacher makes a difference, supporting the teacher in front of parents, and trusting the teacher’s judgment. Findings also indicated that there were statistically significant differences between what administrative supports special education teachers valued and what building administrators perceive to be of value to special education teachers, with the exception of the technical administrative support actions. These findings suggested that it would benefit school districts positively to implement strategies to evaluate the emotional support provided and desired by their special education teachers as one method to reduce special education teacher attrition. One way of ensuring administrators provide these supports is to hold them accountable, perhaps through policy change in the evaluation process. With recent legislation such as No Child Left Behind, mandating all students receive a quality education form qualified teachers despite the current shortage of special education teachers; administrators must implement strategies to reduce teacher attrition.

Doctor of Education / Department of Educational Leadership / Gerald D. Bailey / The purpose of this study was to create a handbook for school and museum educators to support their development of curriculum materials that provide meaningful access to diverse learners. The handbook was developed using the research and development methodology (R&D) developed by Borg and Gall (1989). The steps in the R&D cycle used in this study included: (1) Research analysis and proof of concept; a proof of concept consisted of interviews with three national experts in the areas of accessibility, education, and museum education to determine the need for the resource. (2) Product planning and design; information was gathered through a literature review, curriculum materials derived from a collaborative partnership between Kansas State University and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum were used as examples. (3) Product development; a prototype of the handbook was created. (4) Preliminary field test; the handbook was evaluated by five national leaders in the fields of education, accessibility, and museum education. (5) Product revision; revisions were made based on feedback from the preliminary field test. (6) Main field test; seven potential users from the areas of education and museum education reviewed the handbook. (7) Operational product revision; feedback from the main field test was used for final revisions. Conclusions: 1. There was a need for a resource to assist professionals in the design of curriculum materials that were accessible to diverse learners in both the school and museum setting. 2. The handbook was useful to both intended audiences. Museum educators found the handbook expanded their thinking to include cognitive accessibility. School educators reported the handbook increased their skills in designing learning activities for diverse learners. 3. The handbook provided specific instructions in the applications of differentiated instruction and universal design to curriculum developed for museums. 4. Physical accessibility was accepted as an important concern for museum educators. This awareness provided a useful bridge to cognitive accessibility. 5. Cognitive accessibility was accepted as an important concern for school educators. The handbook increased their skills in reaching diverse learners. 6. Both museum and school educators appreciated the technology resources that prompted reviewers’ expanded thinking.

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / Marjorie R. Hancock / No Child Left Behind legislation has required public schools to increase efforts to measure and track student performance through school, district, state and nation-wide assessments. Researchers argue that it is essential for all students, including special education students, to be included in accountability assessments in order to help measure and track educational progress and compare the performance of schools, districts and states in terms of achieving educational goals. One method for including more special needs students in accountability assessments is to use accommodations during testing. Assistive technology is an accommodation that is approved for use on accountability assessments in many states and has the potential to significantly impact the performance of special education students. The primary purpose of this research was to gather and analyze data from special service providers (staff of a special education cooperative) and educators and administrators (employees of the school districts the cooperative serves) on the subject of using assistive technology as an accommodation on Colorado State Assessment Project (CSAP) testing. The researcher conducted a survey to measure the attitudes and knowledge of educators and special service providers on this subject. The survey was a five point Likert scale comprised of ten items designed to measure "attitudes" and ten items designed to measure "knowledge". Data was analyzed using backward regression analysis to compare scores between groups and consider the impact that years of work experience had on survey scores. The researcher used responses from survey data to select ten survey respondents to participate in in-depth interviews. Interview data was analyzed using pentadic analysis, a method of rhetorical analysis designed by Kenneth Burke (1945). Survey results indicated that the knowledge and attitudes scores between the two groups were similar, however regression analysis identified a significant increase the attitude scores of employees of the special education cooperative as they gained work experience. Scores of district employees did not increase on either scale as participants gained work experience. Analysis of interview data provided rich description of participants’ knowledge and attitudes concerning the use of assistive technology as an accommodation and enabled the researcher to identify significant similarities and differences between groups of employees and the state standards intended to guide their decision making on this subject. Results of this research suggest a need for improving education on the subject of assistive technology, related state regulations and improving resources to foster the use of assistive technology as an accommodation on accountability assessments.