Including the Arts in the Generalist Classroom is an integrated arts curriculum within a 6th grade classroom in Eagle Mountain Utah. This project describes the process of putting an art curriculum into an elementary 6th grade where there is no art specialist and no means of getting one. This project focuses on four lessons that have been written using the 6th grade Science and Social Studies Utah Core. Each lesson is written to ensure that a teacher and/or a parent volunteer can give instruction without any prior knowledge of content and/or technique in art.The Appendices describe the curriculum and more fully include essential information for proper lesson instruction. They include background information, websites, vocabulary, studio techniques, etc. are all there for the convenience of the teacher. The ultimate goal in creating these lessons is to help create an art curriculum for a school without an art specialist and have the instruction be not only art based, but also integrated withother core subjects in ways that enrich student learning through art instruction.

This study collected evidence to address the assumptions underlying the use of the Utah Core Assessment to Pre-Algebra (UCAP) to (a) measure student achievement in pre-algebra, and (b) assist teachers in making adjustments to instruction. An evaluative argument was defined to guide the collection of evidence. Each of the assumptions in the evaluative argument was addressed using data from a suburban northern Utah school district. To collect the evidence, test content was examined including item match to course objectives, reliability, and subtest intercorrelations. Analyses of correlations of the UCAP with convergent and discriminant measures were completed using student test data (N = 1,461), including an examination of both the pattern of correlations and tests of statistical significance. Pre-algebra teachers (N = 12) were interviewed to ascertain the degree to which UCAP results were used to make necessary adjustments to instruction. It was found that the UCAP was technically sound, but measured only 65% of course objectives. Correlation coefficients were analyzed using pattern comparisons and tests of statistical significance. It was found that the pattern of correlation coefficients and the distinction of convergent and discriminant measures supported the UCAP as a measure of mathematics. Teacher interview data revealed that teachers did not make substantive adjustments to the instruction of pre-algebra based on test scores. Based on these results it was concluded that the underlying assumptions concerning the use of the UCAP were not fully supported. The lack of complete coverage of the pre-algebra course objectives calls into question the ability of the UCAP scores to be used as measures of student achievement, in spite of the technical quality of the test. There was support for the assumption that the UCAP measures mathematics. There was little evidence that teachers use the UCAP score reports to make meaningful and appropriate adjustments to instruction. More evidence is needed to understand the factors that may have led to this lack of use. The evaluative argument framework defined in this study provides guidance for future research to collect evidence of the validity of decisions based on UCAP scores.

The goal of this study was to examine the professional development experiences of two participants while they were creating standards-based individualized education plan (IEP) goals using a virtual world called TeacherSim. The focuses of the study were how did special educators engage with the task of creating standards-based IEP goals using TeacherSim and how did TeacherSim support or hinder this? This research used a descriptive case study selecting two participants from the larger data set of seven participants. The data was analyzed using qualitative coding which compared the observed experiences with the case propositions. This case study demonstrated that special education professionals can work at a distance to learn the process of creating standards-based IEP goals while using the technology of a virtual world. Similarly, the use of virtual world technology appeared to facilitate feelings of physical and social presence, which aided in online collaborative activities.