Articulate rationale for early assessment Describe process of assessment and feedback sessions List benefits of process based on: Objective data Opinion of interns over past 2 years

IDEIA requires a student who receives special education services to have an IEP that is specific to each student and NCLB requires that all students be taught the same knowledge and skills. The purpose of this study was to determine with which federal school law, No Child Left Behind (NCLB) or Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA), school districts in Mississippi are choosing to comply and what drives that decision. The research questions were: (a) Are Mississippi school districts choosing to comply with NCLB or IDEIA when writing IEPs for their students receiving special education services? and (b) What are the reasons for that decision? A multiple-case design was used in this study resulting in a more convincing explanation because when more cases are involved variation increases across the studies. Real-life applications and issues were noted in case studies. The researcher was the main instrument for data collection and analysis. Three school districts participated in the study that included 11 teachers. Five themes emerged from the case studies. Those were: (a) teacher opposition, (b) out-of-level testing, (c) achievement test preparation, (d) lack of written guidelines, and (e) different approaches in meeting educational needs of students receiving special education services. Recommendations included: (a) development of guidelines for special education students who do not take the grade level MCT , (b) mandatory training on standardized IEP guidelines, (c) further study on report of numbers of special education students within schools, (d) further study on self-concept of special education students who participate in out-of-level instruction and testing, (e) comparative study of inclusion and resource students using MCT as pre- and post-test.

Aligning Individual Education Program (IEP) goals of students with severe disabilities with the general education curriculum is required by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEIA). This study sought to determine the perspectives of special educators regarding this requirement. Special educators from three school districts participated in focus groups to offer their perspectives in aligning IEP goals with the general education curriculum. The researchers also sought the special educators' perspectives with regards to providing access to the general education curriculum. The study found that special educators are striving to align IEP goals through the use of general education classes, the extended core, and portfolios. The main approaches to providing access to the core curriculum were general education classes, peer tutors, and adapted curriculum.

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In recent years, university-based Intensive English Programs (IEPs) have expanded to serve the growing population of international students who wish to earn their degrees at U.S. universities. Many of these IEPs have shifted their focus to assist these academically bound international students by functioning as a bridge to enrollment in American undergraduate or graduate degree programs. Accordingly, it has become increasingly important to investigate and better understand how such programs are serving this student population. This dissertation explores how one university-based IEP is preparing its academically bound international students for their subsequent academic studies. In order to gain greater insight into students’ experiences throughout the college-going process, current and former students were interviewed about the ways in which this IEP facilitated their admittance to, enrollment in, and academic readiness for success in university degree programs. Additionally, interviews with instructors and administrators, observations of IEP courses and advising sessions, and student test score and academic record data were all analyzed to gain a more holistic understanding of the processes these students undergo in the pursuit of their academic goals. This study draws upon Lave and Wenger’s (1991) theory of situated learning as a theoretical framework to examine the academic socialization that international students studying at a university-based IEP experience throughout the college-going process. The findings from this study revealed that in addition to English language instruction, university-based IEPs with academically bound student populations must also provide their students with the college choice support and academic readiness skills necessary to achieve their goals. By conducting an in-depth analysis of one university-based IEP, this dissertation offers concrete implications that IEP administrators and instructors can enact in order to better support their students throughout the university applications and admissions processes, while providing these students with the linguistic and academic skills necessary for ultimate success in their undergraduate or graduate degree program. / CITE/Language Arts

The Individualized Education Program (IEP) is intended to serve as a planning tool to ensure that school teams provide students with disabilities a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) (Blackwell & Rosetti, 2014). An essential step in the IEP process includes the development of meaningful and measurable IEP goals based on students’ present levels of performance and specific areas of need (Christle & Yell, 2010). Despite the significant role that the IEP plays in meeting legal requirements of the IDEA, research has shown that the quality of IEPs for students with disabilities is generally low (Blackwell & Rosetti, 2014; Rakap, 2015), especially for students with autism (Etscheid, 2003). Research evaluating IEP quality for students with autism revealed that many IEPs failed to include goals and objectives that addressed students’ deficits in social communication or social interactions (Ruble, McGrew, Dalrymple, & Jung, 2010) despite explicit recommendations for best practices (NRC, 2001). The purpose of this study was to train pre-service teachers to use results from a curriculum-based assessment to write quality IEP goals and objectives for students with autism. The study used a randomized group design in which undergraduate students (N = 32) enrolled in an introductory special education course were randomly assigned to a training group. Participants assigned to the Captivate Group (n = 16) participated in a series of interactive eLearning modules in which there were opportunities for the learners to respond to questions and engage in various learning interactions. The training provided to participants in the Video Group (n = 16) served as a treatment-as-usual condition in which participants viewed video recordings of the eLearning modules, but did not have opportunities to engage in any learning interactions. A two-way mixed analysis of variance was conducted to examine within group differences from pre- to post- test and between group differences based on the method of eLearning training received. Additional analyses were conducted in order to compare the quality of goals and objectives written for academic skills and goals targeting communication skills. Results indicated significant improvement for both groups on the quality of written goal and objectives from pre- to post-test . Although the Captivate Group performed slightly better on the post-test, there was no significant effect for training received. Additional analyses examining group outcomes on specific quality indicators revealed some noteworthy differences between groups. The data also confirmed statistically significant differences between participants’ total academic scores and total communication scores at pre-test, meaning that goals and objectives written for academic skills met more quality indicators compared to goals and objectives written for communication skills. A second paired samples t-test on participants’ post-test totals showed significant differences in quality for the Video Group, but not the Captivate Group. / Special Education

The present study, a quantitative lexical analysis, examines the extent to which vocabulary size and lexical diversity contribute to writing scores on advanced non-native speakers’ and native speakers’ academic compositions. The data consists of essays composed by 104 adult non-native English learners enrolled in advanced second language writing courses and 68 native speaking university students in a first-year composition course. The lexical diversity of the sample essays is quantified by both the Measure of Textual Lexical Diversity (MTLD) and the voc-D while vocabulary size is measured by CELEX word frequency means, three instruments that are available in the computational linguistics program Coh-Metrix 3.0. Writing scores are provided by three independent raters’ evaluations according to the TOEFL iBT Independent Writing Rubric. Results from a binary logistic regression reveal that lexical diversity has a significantly greater impact on writing score than vocabulary size (p < .01). Nevertheless, a series of MANOVAs indicate that vocabulary size initially facilitates writing scores at the lower proficiency levels, but it is an essay’s lexical diversity that promotes it to the higher score levels. Additional findings from the MANOVAs demonstrate that native speakers’ profiles of lexical diversity and size are significantly different from their non-native peers (p < .001). The lexical profiles also differed significantly among the individual score levels of the TOEFL iBT rubric (p < .05). A final outcome from a Pearson’s product moment correlation analysis shows that iii vocabulary size has only a moderate relationship to lexical diversity, suggesting that variation of mid-range vocabulary may be more important to writing proficiency than the use of more sophisticated terms that occur less frequently in natural language. Implications for practice suggest that it is not enough to simply teach vocabulary words in the L2 composition classroom, but also to guide learners in how to employ these words in a varied manner within their writing. Furthermore, the results of this study indicate that teachers should spend more time on helping students use medium frequency words along with synonyms of a similar frequency rather than teaching students infrequent vocabulary, which may appear to sound more advanced.

Intensive English Programs (IEPs) play an important role in helping speakers of other languages gain necessary language, cultural, and educational skills to succeed in an English-speaking environment (Hamrick, 2012; Toner, 2017). Previous research has investigated factors that influenced student choice of IEPs located in the southeastern portion of the U.S. (Williams, 1994) and in California (Jones, 2013). This study identified factors that influenced ESL students who chose to further their English language education at IEPs located in the western United States. Particular influences that were probed included program, location, student services, and marketing factors. Moreover, this study examined the previously uninvestigated relationship between factors that influence student choice and the size of the program in which students enroll. A Qualtrics survey was used to gather data and was modeled on the questionnaires of previous studies investigating IEP students' choice of program (Jones, 2013; Williams, 1994). Results indicated that with regard to program factors, participants highly valued IEPs that provided an intense learning experience, were well respected, and had excellent teachers. Location factors of greatest importance were the safety of the school and community, and the good reputation of the city where the program is located. Students perceived that the most important student services that programs offered were academic or personal counseling, immigration services, and out of class activities. The marketing factors that were rated highest in importance were the program's website, referrals from former students, and the ability to communicate online with the school. A surprising finding was that social media appeared to be of minimal to moderate importance in influencing students' decisions, but of the platforms investigated, Facebook was identified as the most influential. Implications of these findings are then discussed for program directors of IEPs seeking to attract new students as well as maintain and grow their respective programs.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act requires local education agencies to include parents as equal team members in the cultivation of their child’s individual education plan (IEP). Despite law, studies have shown that parents experience barriers to being included in the process. Barriers such as a lack of information, lack of understanding of the law, and feelings of unequal status or power as compared to school district team members have been noted. The aim of this study was to explore the perceptions, feelings, and understanding of the initial IEP process as experienced by parents new to the world of special education. This study took the form of two research articles, each with a set of three research questions. Through the utilization of narrative inquiry, I was able to listen to the stories of parents as they tried to navigate their way through the initial IEP experiences, hear who supported their understanding along the way, learn how parents perceived their role during their journey, feel the emotions that parents shared feeling during their experiences, and find out if parents knew their procedural safeguard rights. The most impactful barriers for parents new to special education was the lack of adherence to legal timelines. Parent requests for special education assessment took up to two years for some parents. Lack of information and understanding of the IEP process and law was another major hurdle for participants. Without adequate information and understanding parents felt a power imbalance and feeling of being taken advantage of. Parents described a disconnect regarding how they viewed their parent role and how the school district viewed their role. A copious amount of praise was given to family resource centers for their support and trainings offered to parents.