Across grade levels, students with learning disabilities (LD) experience challenges with aspects of their academic learning in terms of reading and writing. In many cases, these challenges can be addressed by utilizing assistive technology (AT) applications as a potential solution. According to the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in 2004, AT should be "considered" in the development of the Individualized Education Program (IEP) to meet the requirement of providing a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) and to assist students in accessing the general education curriculum. The law requires IEP teams to consider AT to determine whether AT devices and services are necessary; therefore, IEP team members play an important role for considering AT and how AT should be specified in the IEP (Golden, 1998). The IEP team members include school administrators, teachers, and professionals who are responsible for developing, reviewing, and revising the IEP for students with disabilities. Thus, the IEP team members should have essential knowledge to inform AT decisionmaking (Bowser, 2003). The Technology and Media Division (TAM) of the Council of Exceptional Children (CEC) lists standards and teacher competencies regarding knowledge and skills of AT for practitioners and related professionals to follow. The standards include obtaining knowledge about AT legal foundations, students' characteristics, instructional content, technology applications, and related services for providing technology. In order to know whether IEP team members possess knowledge for considering AT for students with LD, the purpose of this study was to examine IEP team members' knowledge regarding characteristics of students with LD, AT legislation, AT devices, and AT services for considering assistive technology in the IEP development for 3rd grade to 5th grade students who have been identified as having learning disabilities in reading and writing. Participants (N=1050) including school administrators, general education teachers, special education teachers, diagnosticians, and speech/language pathologists from three school districts in a southern state were surveyed. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was used to analyze the data. The results showed that participants were somewhat knowledgeable about the characteristics of students with LD, AT legislation, AT devices, and AT services when considering AT in the IEP development. Training in terms of quality and quantity was suggested by researchers to provide IEP team members who are serving students with LD better preparing for considering AT in the IEP team meetings. Future research should focus on conducting a similar study with different IEP team members and with different disability groups rather than just learning disability.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

This study described and analyzed the experiences of administrators in six Indiana school corporations that adopted a school-year budget under authorization provided by Public Law 50 (PL 50-1996). The study had the following objectives: (a) to identify reasons why school corporations became involved in the pilot project, (b) to determine what happened as a result of the pilot project, (c) to determine if the pilot project was perceived as successful by the school officials in the pilot group, and (d) to identify recommendations of superintendents and business officials about further use of a fiscal year budget in Indiana school corporations. A qualitative research methodology was used in this study. Data collection consisted of interviews with superintendents and business officials in the pilot group during January 2000.The administrators joined the pilot group because they believed all Indiana school corporations would eventually convert to a fiscal year budget and that their experiences would facilitate the conversion. They supported the concept of a fiscal year budget because it was congruous with the school-year. During implementation of the fiscal year budget, the administrators felt abandoned and did not receive the support they expected. Yet, based on their experiences with a fiscal year budget, the administrators supported a conversion to a fiscal year budget for all school corporations. Administrators recommended the state phase-in a fiscal year budget for other non-pilot school corporations.These findings suggest that administrators had valid reasons for joining the pilot group. In addition, administrators viewed the absence of key leaders at the state level as problematic for the pilot project. Based on the evidence, it appears that a fiscal year budget produced the following advantages for the participating corporation administrators: (a) allowed for better tracking of expenditures, (b) required less work to determine the cost of a school-year program, (c) allowed for more freedom in the summer, and (d) provided for a less stressful year-end. The success of the pilot group did not produce support for fiscal year budgets from either non-pilot school corporation officials or from state officials. Recommendations for piloting policy change and for further study on fiscal year budgets are included. / Department of Educational Leadership

Title of the diploma thesis Training of experts of the Labor Office of the Czech Republic in the capital city of Prague Author Bc. Markéta Fraibišová Abstract This diploma thesis deals with education of specialists of the Labour Office of the Czech Republic in the capital city of Prague. The Labour Office of the Czech Republic, as an administrative authority with nationwide competence, has its own educational system, which includes both regular and project staff. Employee education program is driven by direct leaders who identify learning needs, assign employees to training events and evaluate learning outcomes. The aim of this diploma thesis is to propose a modification of the educational system for specialists of the Czech Labour Office in the capital city of Prague. The theoretical part of the diploma thesis is focused on adult education, education management and training of public administration employees. The practical part of the diploma thesis is based on questionnaire survey, interview and internal documents analysis. Keywords The Labour Office of the Czech Republic, public administration, vocational education, adult education, employee training

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-03T16:15:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Angeli M Teixeira.pdf: 1318552 bytes, checksum: 139d513bbe99020680b7f7fb95fe30f5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-09-11 / The overlapping of the administrative over the pedagogical in the everyday routine of the School Supervisor has been having, over the past decades, an important role in the academic discussions. It stems from the dissatisfaction of a great number of these professionals who face a heavy load of burocracy when they take charge and which doesn t allow them to work effectively on the pedagogical projects in the schools. The research in this area, though growing, still needs more attention. The issue of this research focus on the ways the supervisors (in the Rede Municipal de Ensino de São Paulo) handle these two aspects of their role: the administrative, related to the burocracy, and the pedagogical one, related to the educational projects in the schools and other areas of community. This research has as a starting point a historical outline of the path of the School Supervisor in the city, based on the legal material which was responsible for defining this function/position and of the historical background they were a part of. Following that, there s the answers of the research carried out with the School Supervisors from diretorias de ensino regionais de educação of the city analysed in face of the historical background mentioned above and the chosen theoretical guidebooks, in which the works of Demerval Saviani and Celestino Alves da Silva Júnior must be highlighted for these are authors acknowledged as important references and widely cited in the researches concerning the educational supervision area. The research points out important issues to contribute to the understanding of the problems at stake, especially those related to the controversy regarding the duties imposed on the School Supervisor, to the insufficient educational background of these professionals and, therefore, to the difficulty to construct the professional identity of the São Paulo City School Supervisor. / A sobreposição da ação administrativa à ação pedagógica no cotidiano de trabalho do Supervisor Escolar tem ocupado, nas últimas décadas, espaço importante na discussão acadêmica. Fruto da insatisfação de grande parte desses profissionais que, ao assumirem os cargos, deparam-se com uma carga de obrigações burocráticas que os impede de atuar efetivamente nos projetos pedagógicos das escolas, a pesquisa na área, embora crescente, ainda carece de exploração. O problema dessa pesquisa diz respeito às formas pelas quais os supervisores escolares da Rede Municipal de Ensino de São Paulo articulam essas duas faces da função que constitui a sua profissão, a administrativa, ligada às obrigações burocráticas e a pedagógica, ligada ao trabalho pedagógico nas escolas e em outras esferas. Parte-se do delineamento da trajetória histórica do Supervisor Escolar no município, feito perante o levantamento dos referenciais legais que objetivaram sua função/profissão e dos contextos históricos em que se inseriram. Na sequência, as respostas da pesquisa realizada com supervisores escolares de diretorias regionais de educação da cidade analisadas em suas relações com o levantamento histórico citado e os referenciais teóricos eleitos, em que se destacam as obras de Demerval Saviani e Celestino Alves da Silva Júnior, autores reconhecidos como referenciais importantes e amplamente citados nas pesquisas da área da supervisão educacional. A pesquisa aponta importantes indicadores para contribuir com a elucidação do problema em tela, especialmente no que tange à controvérsia das atribuições impostas à Supervisão Escolar, à formação deficitária desses profissionais e, por conseguinte, à dificuldade de se construir a identidade profissional do Supervisor Escolar do Município de São Paulo.  

The role for the transition team leader (TTL) has not been formalized at the state level in Texas. The purpose of this study was to determine the current perceptions of the public school superintendents in Texas for the roles, responsibilities, and functions of the TTL. The framework of the survey questionnaire was based on eight categories of expertise for the TTL derived from a review of the literature and from professional experience in preparing handicapped individuals for the world of work. The findings are listed as desirable and undesirable characteristics for the role or job description of the TTL. The desirable characteristics for the role of TTL were viewed as: (a) having experience with handicapped populations, (b) having skills to supervise others, (c) being a liaison between agencies, (d) making program adjustments as needed, (e) providing training, (f) knowing how to explain the transition program to staff, (g) being a liaison with parents, (h) being a liaison with community employers, (i) knowing pertinent regulations, (j) knowing the characteristics for each of the handicapping conditions, and (k) knowing the options and barriers to transportation for handicapped individuals in the community. The least desirable characteristics identified with the role of the TTL were: (a) The need for certification of the TTL, (b) making curricular changes at the elementary level, (c) the TTL as the Educational Diagnostician, (d) the TTL as a parent of a handicapped individual participating in the transition program, and (e) the TTL encouraging severely handicapped individuals to remain in the public schools until the maximum age of 21. These categorical data were grouped by ESC area with urban, suburban, and rural demographics. These data were analyzed by a three-way ANOVA design and significant differences were found by category, by ESC area, and by population designation. The public school superintendents have perceived the role of the TTL as a new position, community-based, community-oriented, transferable, and requiring no additional certification procedures.

Digitalization is more than ever the top topic in economics, science and societal developments. Infrastructures and competencies are at the forefront of many debates. The question of which industry is or will be affected by digitization next and to what extent is not only driving executives around. While information technology innovations were something for so-called ‘(hyper-)nerds’ until recently, it has become an everyday item. We seem to have embarked on permanent change. But where does the journey actually go? Are large amounts of data a threat or an opportunity? Can we even process them or do we need fundamentally changed tools and methods - such as Visual Analytics, Virtual Reconstruction, Virtual Engineering? The 22nd GeNeMe has taken up these issues and will present them in various discussions. [... from the introduction]

The reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Act required that early intervention services for young children from birth to age 3 take place in their natural environment. However, limited research has been conducted on the impact of this requirement on the actual service providers who work within the home environments. Lewin's field theory on behavior, individual person, and the environment formed the theoretical framework for this descriptive case study, which examined the perceptions of developmental therapists on how their service is influenced by the inner-city home environment. Ten developmental therapists in a midwestern metropolitan city were interviewed about their beliefs and experiences on working within this environment and the influences of those beliefs and experiences on service delivery. Participants were members of a developmental therapy association of a Midwestern U.S. state who provided services in the inner city. Participant responses were transcribed, put into categories and assessed for themes. Five common elements within the inner-city environment were found to influence service delivery: (a) traffic of nonparticipants: (b) noise from TV, radio, and so on: (c) safety while traveling: (d) transient families: and (e) need for professional development. In addition, this study examined the providers' perspectives on their educational preparation to work in this setting. The results identified from this study provided the basis for a much-needed reform to the current professional development model and identified professional learning communities (PLC) as the guide to implement change. Incorporating PLCs can equip inner-city therapists with the ongoing support and training that is needed to provide services in a variety of environments, which increases the effectiveness of their service delivery while providing measurable outcomes and continuity of services for children. This study influences change at local and federal levels by reviewing current practices to effectively implement meaningful professional development.

The problem of this study was to determine the nature of the perceptions of leadership behavior held by deans and directors of student development/student personnel services in Texas community/junior colleges. The directors were further identified as directors of counseling and guidance, student activities, admissions and records, financial aid, job placement, and health services. Deans and directors from all Texas community/junior colleges constituted the population for this group and were selected from college catalogs and a professional directory. Ranking and correlation techniques were used in the statistical analysis of data. Results indicated that leadership behaviors exist which are common to the field of student development/student personnel services, and that jurors generally agreed with deans and directors on those leadership behaviors which they perceived to be the most and least important to leadership. In addition, deans and directors agreed on those behaviors which they perceived to be the most and least important to leadership in their position and area of responsibility. Data revealed that deans and directors placed a high priority on collaborative-interactive type behaviors and a low priority on administrative-related behaviors.

Public school systems have historically been responsible for the delivery of Adult BaSic Education programs. However, recent amendments to the Adult Education Act have allowed for administration of Adult Basic Education programs to be expanded throughout the public and private sector. This expansion has created competition among potential providers of Adult Basic Education, particularly public schools and community colleges, regarding who should have responsibility for delivery of services (Cross & McCartan, 1984). Data available from the North Carolina Department of Community Colleges and the Virginia Department of Education revealed significantly higher participation rates of enrollees in Adult Basic Education in North Carolina than in Virginia. In North Carolina, delivery of programs is the responsibility of community colleges, whereas in Virginia the primary delivery system is the public school divisions within the state. The specific purpose of this study was to ascertain why there are more enrollees in Adult Basic Education programs administered through community colleges than in Adult Basic Education programs administered through the public school systems. This purpose was achieved by conducting case studies of ABE programs in four sites, two in North Carolina and two in Virginia; the informants in each site consisted of the local ABE administrator, ABE faculty. and ABE students. / Ed. D.