Currently 706 teacher prep programs, across 38 states (AACTE, 2016), are participation in edTPA in some aspect. EdTPA, a performance-based assessment of teacher candidate quality and effectiveness, is now required in numerous states in order to receive licensure. Since its inception, participating special education teacher candidates have consistently scored lower overall than all other comparable disciplines.

This session will address the importance of training pre-service teachers to inform parents about RTI-based assessment of LD. A synthesis of research will examine issues in assessment and placement processes, timelines, and parental communication. Attendees will be enabled to identified essential RTI information that should be provided by schools districts.

Currently 626 teacher prep programs, across 47 states (AACTE, 2015), require teacher candidates complete and pass the edTPA, a performance-based assessment of teacher candidate quality and effectiveness in order to receive licensure. Since its inception, special education teacher candidates have consistently scored lower overall than all other comparable disciplines.

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Results of two nationwide studies indicated inconsistency across states and their districts in relation to many critical elements of RTI. Given these results, a checklist will be proposed to improve consistency in RTI implementation and assessment practices to ultimately help rural school districts more accurately identify students with learning disabilities.

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Current state and federal legislation mandate public schools to provide a vast array of educational services for students with disabilities. Catholic high schools are, for the most part, exempt from laws requiring them to provide those same services. Although many Catholic schools attempt to assist students with disabilities, the students they are willing to accept and accommodate generally have learning disabilities categorized as mild to moderate, who may not need the scope and breadth of services available to them in public schools. However, they are bound by their identity as Catholic to include and embrace all members of the community. This qualitative study employed interviews of four administrators and eight teachers to assess the extent to which teachers and administrators at one coeducational suburban Catholic high school felt spiritually and professionally called to accommodate students with disabilities and to encounter the ways teachers and administrators at this school put the call of Catholic social teaching and the obligations of social justice into a relationship of care for students with disabilities. Findings indicated little formal preparation and infrequent professional development for teachers accommodating students with disabilities combined with inadequate resources. These deficiencies were countered by professionalism, passion, and a passionate call to care on the part of educators. The findings support the need for Catholic high schools to begin engaging in conversation surrounding the best ways to support and train administration and faculty to improve current accommodation practices and to expand their current offerings to students with disabilities.

Less than 25% of superintendent positions, the highest level of educational leadership, are occupied by women. This is in sharp contrast to the fact that over 75% of the nation’s teaching force are women. A significant barrier cited in the literature is that there is a deficiency in the support needed for women to successfully promote into higher-level administrative positions. Although mentoring has been shown to be key factor for female administrators’ success in educational administration, this study provides quantitative data to demonstrate the need for quality mentoring opportunities for school site administrators.The purpose of this research study was to examine associations between the quality of mentoring relationships and school administrators’ competency in instructional leadership, specifically as perceived by female educational leaders in contrast to male educational leaders. While there is research to support that mentoring provides many benefits for new administrators and evidence that school site administrators must possess competency in the area of instructional leadership, research investigating the potential impact of mentoring on the instructional leadership effectiveness of educational administrators is limited. This quantitative study utilized multiple regression analyses and found evidence to suggest that the quality of the mentoring experience is related to instructional leadership effectiveness based on self-reports of educational school site leaders. Moreover, when the relationships were investigated by gender, an association was found for women, but not for men. Additional analyses based on gender pairings of mentee with mentor also revealed gender-specific differences. When measuring overall instructional leadership effectiveness, and the Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale dimension of developing the school learning climate, there was evidence to suggest that the gender of the mentor may matter for male mentees although there was insufficient evidence to suggest that the gender of the mentor mattered for female mentees. Collectively, the findings of this study provide quantitative data to demonstrate the need for quality mentoring opportunities for school site administrators, particularly for female educational leaders in the area of instructional leadership effectiveness. Additional research is needed to determine whether the gender differences observed in this sample are replicable, and if so, to better understand their source and possible strategies to reduce them.

Elizabeth Davey Public and Social Policy Master's Thesis Abstract Education has long been perceived to be the key to positive social mobility, but mounting evidence has shown that for many low-income students this may be more of a myth than reality. The Achievement Gap between students of different socio-economic and racial groups remains persistently difficult to eliminate despite decades of efforts geared at school reforms. Recognizing the importance of developing more equitable funding allocation for public education institutions, as well as the general consensus that such a policy is an essential step toward increasing equity in the education system, this paper looks at addressing the problem through a different lens. This thesis develops an index of how cross generational relationships and circumstances play into a child's academic access, and as a result, their academic outcomes. Using this index, this thesis adds to the body of knowledge on the topic and a new perspective to the discourse surrounding equity in education, and educational outcomes by considering how Two-Generation interventions can address these intersections. To complete the triangulation, interviews, and observations with leadership staff, program social workers, and participants of a successful Two- Gen program are used to address...