No description available.

In the American public school system, as of 2011, over 8% of students are placed in special education programs. To provide early intervention for struggling students before placement into special education services, three-tier model called Response to Intervention (RtI) was put into effect (FDOE, 2009). RtI (currently known as, Multi-Tiered System of Support-MTSS) is a multi-tiered system for struggling learners that provides increasingly intense levels of academic interventions and assessment (Bryd, 2011). Early intervention is a set of services for students who are at risk of, or who currently have, developmental delays or social emotional problems (Guralnick 2005). MTSS focuses on six core components: (1) evidence-based curriculum, instruction, intervention, and extension; (2) assessment and progress monitoring; (3) data-based decision making; (4) leadership; (5) family, school and community partnerships; and (6) cultural responsivity (Kashima, Schleich, & Spradlin, 2009). The goal of this research is to gain a clearer understanding of parents' perception of the MTSS process, their knowledge of the MTSS process, and their involvement in school-based reading interventions for their children who are receiving intensive interventions at the UCF Reading Clinic. I discovered that overall there was a dissatisfaction with both the communication between the parents and school, and the support that is provided for students. The majority of the parents surveyed recognized the term MTSS but they lacked a deep understanding of the process. Overall, there seemed to be a lack of understanding about how MTSS related to their student and what it meant for their child's education.

Decades of research studies suggest that the quality of parenting skills and parenting knowledge about children’s development have profound effects on children’s development. Studies to date show that most adults lack knowledge of child development and developmentally-appropriate child guidance. These studies, however have focused on white, middle-class, well-educated women and are limited in the range of issues addressed. The purpose of this study was to gain a more accurate understanding about adults’ knowledge of child development and child guidance by assessing female and male adults using an ethnically diverse population. Data from 705 adult participants showed that adults knew more than expected about child development, but lacked knowledge about developmentally-appropriate child guidance. Knowledge also varied by the amount of child development coursework taken. Results also showed that females were more knowledgeable than males, and knowledge varied somewhat by ethnicity with European-Americans being more knowledgeable in both child development and child guidance than other ethnic groups. These findings suggest that more work needs to be done to disseminate research- and evidence-based findings about child development and child guidance as the implications of this knowledge for child well-being are profound. The results of this study help to inform the design and content of parent education classes and related interventions to address gaps in knowledge and skills.

ABSTRACT In this narrative inquiry, I examined parents’ stories to gain insight into their journey toward selecting a French Immersion Catholic stream of education for their Kindergarten-aged children. As a teacher, I first noticed a pronounced shift in the parents who were choosing Catholic French Immersion for their school-aged children and, then, as I formed close relationships with a diverse range of parents, I became cognizant that many families were deeply rooted in a faith other than that of Catholicism. With my curiosity piqued, I engaged in research to explore what these diverse parents believe Catholic French Immersion schools have to offer them. Utilizing both Joseph Schwab’s (1973) notion of curricular commonplaces and Allen’s (2007) web of caring as a framework for my research, I demonstrated how important it is that educators invite parent knowledge (Pushor, 2011, 2013) onto the school landscape as they attend to parents’ intentions in making particular school choices for their children. Using a metaphor of painting, and to paint both individual stories and a triptych of stories to capture parents’ influences, thoughts, hopes and dreams for their children that led them to Catholic French Immersion, I chose narrative inquiry methodology. I utilized field texts gathered from three sets of parents, including stories, journals, field notes, letters, conversations, and family stories, to paint an intimate understanding of the research puzzle. In terms of Catholic education, these families value a faith-based school environment but for different reasons. The Nelson family, rooted in Baptist faith, felt it was important that their child be schooled alongside other faithful children and also believed that Catholic schools inherently value the sanctity of each child. The Padrique family, newcomers to Canada, assumed that Catholic education would teach their child important values and that parents in the Catholic system would share parenting philosophies similar to their own. The Larocque family saw that through learning Catholic doctrine in school their children would be provided an opportunity to be exposed to, and to accept or reject, a system of beliefs not taught to their children at home. In terms of French Immersion, the families understood that their children’s ability to speak French would enhance their employment opportunities in the future. Both the Nelsons and the Padriques further viewed French Immersion as a program choice for the more academically inclined. Similarly, the Larocques, whose children have Treaty Status, understood French Immersion as a more challenging program where children become accustomed to working hard. This research will help deepen educators’ understanding of parent motivations for choosing this stream of education and more fully attend in their practice to parent intentions and parent knowledge.