This study examined the representational patterns of English language learners receiving special education services in school districts in South Texas. Additionally, this study identified school district characteristics that were related to the probability that an English language learner might be placed in special education programs. Data were collected from the Texas Education Agency'€™s Performance-Based Monitoring Analysis System 2004-2005 and Academic Excellence Indicator System for the 2003-2004 school year. Composition indices, risk indices, and relative risk ratios were calculated and reported for each of the school districts in Education Service Centers I (Edinburg), II (Corpus Christi), and XX (San Antonio) in the State of Texas (N=110). Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients were calculated to determine the direction and strength of the relationship among odds ratios and school district characteristics. These characteristics included total student enrollment, percentage of poor/underserved students, percentage of Latino students, percentage of English language learners, percentage of Latino teachers, and percentage of students in bilingual/English as a second language programs. Results indicated that English language learners in school districts in South Texas were more than twice as likely as their non-English language learner counterparts to receive special education services. Additionally, inverse relationships were documented for odds ratios equal to or greater than 2.00 and the school district characteristics of percentage of poor/underserved students, percentage of Latino students, percentage of English language learners, percentage of Latino teachers, and percentage of students in bilingual/English as a second language programs. It was concluded that there was an overrepresentation of English language learners receiving special education services in 77% (N=85) of the school districts in South Texas.

Teachers are being asked to engage in ambitious mathematics teaching in order to reform children's mathematics learning, and it has proven to be challenging. Unraveling the challenges requires understanding the in-the-moment decisions that teachers make while teaching mathematics. The focus of this study is to understand teacher noticing, the ways in which teachers identify, reason about and make decisions in the situations that occur when engaging English language learners in problem solving. Specifically, I used the construct of professional noticing of children's mathematical thinking (Jacobs, Lamb, & Philipp, 2010) to investigate what three bilingual teachers notice as they participate in a teacher study group to analyze and reflect on their experiences in weekly problem solving small groups. What teachers noticed reflected attention to situations in which they struggled to understand children's mathematical thinking and attempts to direct students towards correct problem solving. Teachers' decisions and struggles in engaging children in problem solving also revealed a focus on the role of preparing English language learners be successful for standardized testing. However, looking at student's work in the teacher study group began to help teachers focus on children's mathematical thinking. Implications on continued understanding of teacher noticing, effective mathematics professional development and developing understanding of mathematics teaching to English Language learners are discussed. / text

This study described how three English language learners from Korean cultural backgrounds in first grade (7 years old) learned and interacted by applying Collaborative Strategic Reading to their reading comprehension instruction. This article also reported the perceptions of three Korean English language learners in cultural aspects of group work. The theoretical framework of Collaborative Strategic Reading relied on reciprocal teaching and cooperative learning. As an instrumental intervention and strategy, this method has been formed to help English language learners and students with reading disabilities improve their ability to comprehend texts. Before examining the impact of Collaborative Strategic Reading, this research focused on the nature of collaborative importance in multicultural consideration by providing students with opportunities to develop more collaborative abilities. / text

This study looks at two methods of identification for a specific learning disability in reading – Response to Intervention and Discrepancy Testing – and examines their efficacy with English Language Learners (ELL). A McNemar chi square analysis will be used to compare the outcomes of the two methods. Additionally, a multiway contingency table will be constructed and the association between English as a First Language (EFL)students and ELL students will be determined by using a conditional odds ratio. It is expected that both methods of learning disability testing will have difficulty distinguishing between a learning disability in reading and a language acquisition problem. The results will help prevent the misplacement of ELLs into Special Education. / text

The paper is a review of literature on online learning and how it prepares the digital learners into the future work force. Factors contributing to the growth in online education are linked to changing social and economic structures. The College Board Commission on Access, Admissions and Success issued a call for 55% of America’s youth to obtain a postsecondary education credential by 2025 (Bonk, 2015). This is to support and strengthen the position of the United States to be more competitive in a global economy (Burnette & Conley, 2011). There are current questions about student success, open education, informal learning, online plagiarism and principally whether online learning successfully prepare the online student for the future work skills. Keywords: online learning, workforce, digital learners, future jobs

The purpose of this the study was to investigate the ways in which teachers are responding to the implementation of Proposition 203, and how they perceive their abilities to meet the needs of the English Language Learner (ELL) students in their classes. The research was conducted in the form of a case study of four teachers nested in the results of a survey given to Kindergarten-third grade teachers throughout a southern Arizona school district. Results of the case study data collection were compared with those from the survey. The data indicates the following four conclusions:1. Implementation of instructional strategies in SEI classes varies, regardless of the endorsement status or experience of the teacher2. Teachers more easily address the needs of less proficient students than they do intermediate level students3. Teachers use of data and resources to support their instruction of ELL students has been uneven4. The influence of multiple reform efforts has had a confounding effect on the implementation of SEI at both the administrative and classroom levels.The results of the study imply that districts will need to conduct consistent training on the implementation of sheltered English instruction and administration will need to follow the training with monitoring and coaching of teachers to ensure that instruction meets the academic and language needs of ELL students.

Federal mandates require that all students participate in large-scale assessments. A population of students with learning disabilities and who are second language learners are emerging within the schools. The purpose of this descriptive study was to gain additional knowledge about accommodation use by determining what accommodations were provided and whether the accommodations used were related to student achievement. Information was collected on accommodation use by 6th and 7th grade students who participated in a large-scale assessment. A post hoc data analysis was conducted to investigate accommodation use during the AIMS-DPA reading assessment. The collected data indicated a high percentage of accommodations were provided to English language learners, who have learning disabilities in 6th grade than 7th grade. A higher number of non-linguistic accommodations were provided than language-related accommodations. Language-related accommodations were provided more frequently to 6th grade students. Analyses indicated that reading performance and accommodations were not significantly related.

The message that is being preached on the streets on a daily basis is that HIV/AIDS has no cure and that it is a fatal disease. The AIDS pandemic is a serious problem, everybody's concern and nobody's fault. If not attended to accordingly and not controlled properly, the epidemic poses a serious threat to the whole nation, therefore every individual is faced with an enormous challenge, especially young people, since today's youths are tomorrow's future. The HIV/AIDS pandemic is continuing to rob both parents and their children of an opportunity of reaching their last mile of development which is old age. HIV/AIDS is not regarded to be the same as any other disease. The situation is getting out of hand as the HIV/AIDS victims are facing a double jeopardy of fighting for their lives, while at the same time, suffering from negative societal attitudes. They are being discriminated against, rejected, ill-treated and not treated with love and respect Therefore every individual is faced with the huge task of fighting this monster and creating a caring society. A supportive and enabling environment needs to be created so that HIV/AIDS victims can be treated similarly to any other patients. The aim of the study was to explore learners' knowledge of HIV/AIDS and determine their attitudes regarding people living with HIV/AIDS. From the research findings, it was found that learners are knowledgeable about the general facts on the HIV/AIDS pandemic, but that their knowledge concerning certain aspects is limited to some extent, therefore it is deemed necessary to equip and empower them with more and relevant information. With regard to learners' attitudes, it was found that learners have fair and positive attitudes towards people living with AIDS. It is recommended that these positive attitudes and fair knowledge of learners must be sustained. The most effective way to attain this is though education, and schools are the appropriate places to teach young people about HIV prevention. Here they can receive information and skills. It is further recommended that more HIV/AIDS programmes be developed to increase awareness and knowledge with the intention of educating people to recognize and avoid high-risk behaviour. / Thesis (M.A. (MW))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2005.

The purpose of this study was to describe the ways in which one elementary teacher included English language learners (ELLs) in her mainstream classroom. A case study design was chosen to obtain an in-depth understanding of this teacher’s beliefs and practices about ELLs and their inclusion. Descriptive data were collected from teacher interviews, classroom observations, and various artefacts. Data from these three sources were found to be highly consistent, indicating a close relationship between the teacher’s beliefs and practices. Two main themes emerged relating to the teacher’s ways of supporting and including young ELLs. The first theme was concerned with the teacher’s beliefs in and employment of broad-based instructional strategies such as differentiating instruction and assessment; emphasizing engagement through the use of a variety of meaningful activities and materials; focusing on oral language; stressing problem solving and cooperative learning; and encouraging students to take the lead. While the literature endorsed these general practices, it also stressed the need for teachers to address ELLs’ distinct language and cultural needs. Appreciating and incorporating diversity to facilitate ELLs’ inclusion was the second theme. Here, the data primarily came from interviews with the teacher who reported the value of exposing children to diversity and examining one’s and others’ biases, as well as utilizing practices that integrate the cultural knowledge of various groups and involve parents of diverse linguistic/cultural backgrounds. An analysis of these data found that many of the teacher’s approaches to incorporating diversity were integral to her program and addressed diversity from a critical standpoint. It was in this way that the findings connected to Dei et al.’s (2000) work–a key component of the study’s theoretical framework. Upon examining the data through the lenses of various theoretical constructs, one main concern regarding this teacher’s views and practices was raised throughout. Although the teacher appeared to recognize the value of students maintaining their home languages, there was little evidence of her promoting first language usage in the classroom. Ramifications of this omission were discussed, pointing to the need for further research to uncover some of the concerns educators may have about supporting ELLs’ first languages in the classroom. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2009-12-16 12:45:04.765

Research on English Language Learners’ (ELL) test performance in relation to their language use at home and attitudes towards mathematics have rarely been investigated. This study examines the effects of different test formats and constructs, learner characteristics, and attitudes towards mathematics on ELLs’ performance in the Education Quality Accountability Office (EQAO) Grade 9 mathematics test. The participants include a total of 2867 ELLs in Grade 9 who participated in the EQAO Grade 9 mathematics test (1887 from the academic course and 980 from the applied course). The overall results of the study supported the following conclusions. First, ELLs tend to score better in Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) over Open Response Questions (ORQ), and language use at home has interaction effects on their performances on various test formats and constructs. Secondly, significant interactions occurred between language use at home and ELLs’ performance of test formats and constructs. In addition, ELLs who speak another language (only another language) scored higher in performance in both test formats and constructs than ELLs who spoke only English at home. From the ELLs’ questionnaire responses at both the academic and applied levels, two learner characteristics were derived from the section of the questionnaire measuring attitudes towards mathematics: perceived mathematics competency and mathematics interest. The questionnaire also revealed that ELLs in the academic level viewed mathematics in separate constructs (i.e., numerical and spatial mathematics), whereas ELLs in the applied level viewed mathematics as a whole. By extracting from learner characteristics, perceived mathematics competency was found to be the significant predictor for mathematics test performance of ELLs in the academic and applied levels. Moreover, perceived numerical and spatial mathematics ease are significant predictors for mathematics test performance in the academic level. On the other hand, perceived mathematics ease was found to be a significant predictor for the applied level. Results are discussed in relation to second language development, mathematics teaching and learning, and cultural differences. Limitations of the present study were presented where implications for research, test development, and practice are suggested for future research. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2012-06-29 23:49:17.068