UMD Theses and Dissertations

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3

New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

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Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    The Impact of the Five Day Rule on the Practice of School Psychology in Maryland
    (2014) Hughes, Kevin A; Strein, William O; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    In 2010, Maryland passed a law that required parents to have access to all relevant documents at least five business days in advance of an Individualized Education Program (IEP) meeting. This study, a follow-up to a 2011 survey, was conducted to determine whether school psychologists' concerns about the law have merit and whether the law has achieved its intended purpose. Results showed that since the law's implementation, school-based psychologists have experienced, on average, an increase in the amount of time they spend in special education activities and a decrease in time devoted to consultation and direct services. This impact, however, was not felt by all; further analyses of quantitative and qualitative data investigated what characteristics led to the greatest effects. For most respondents there had been no changes in student testing practices, report writing, or IEP team decision-making, while time constraints and work-related stress have worsened.
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    An Investigation of the Effect of Instructional Consultation Teams on Special Education Placement Rate
    (2007-11-30) Newman, Daniel Seth; Rosenfield, Sylvia; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The main goal of Instructional Consultation Teams (IC Teams) is to promote and sustain student academic success within a general education environment. Research suggests that the implementation of IC Teams is followed by decreased referrals for special education and decreased overrepresentation of minority students in special education. Yet only a limited research supports these suggestions. In the current study, special education placement rates for 46 treatment schools and 46 matched comparison schools are analyzed in a multiply replicated interrupted time series design. This provides a powerful basis for examining the effect of IC Teams by limiting threats to internal validity, thereby increasing certainty about causality. A HLM statistical analysis of the data suggests that the implementation of IC Teams is not significantly effective in reducing special education placement rates. Statistical and visual analyses suggest that IC Teams may have a differential effect with schools with different socioeconomic standings.
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    Comprehensive crisis training for school-based professionals: The development, implementation, and evaluation of a crisis preparation and response curriculum
    (2006-11-21) Ridgely, John Timothy; Strein, William; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Schools and school systems are increasingly expected and legally obligated to be prepared for and respond to crises impacting school communities. However, there have been few systematic efforts to develop research-based training programs designed to increase the crisis preparation and response abilities of school-based professionals. The purpose of this study was to develop, implement, and evaluate a comprehensive crisis preparation and response curriculum for school system staff. The curriculum in this study was developed following a thorough review of the school-based crisis intervention literature and the research on key principles of adult learning. Members of the district's crisis response leadership team and other school-based staff helped pilot and fine-tune aspects of the curriculum prior to implementation. The curriculum was subsequently implemented with twelve school-based professionals who enrolled in the 15-hour course. The evaluation of the curriculum focused on identifying changes in the participants' learning and behaviors throughout the course, documenting the effectiveness of crisis simulations as a training tool, and looking for themes and patterns across the various data collection tools that could assist in improving the scope and sequence of the curriculum for future trainings. The findings for each of these evaluation goals were very positive. The course participants' ability to effectively apply crisis preparation and response skills during extended simulations improved substantially throughout the course based on group performances on a crisis simulation rubric. The participants also consistently reported that they felt more comfortable and confident applying these skills, with many planning to take leadership roles on their school-based crisis teams. The crisis simulation activities were found to be excellent tools for learning and practicing crisis intervention skills in a safe setting, and the course participants agreed that these simulation activities were realistic, valuable teaching techniques. The themes and patterns related to the scope and sequence of the curriculum were extremely positive, with few changes suggested. The participants reported that the content and teaching strategies utilized were effective and fostered learning. Implications for future research and practice were discussed.
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    A STUDY OF FACTORS IMPACTING UPON THE PERCEIVED ROLE AND PRACTICE OF SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGISTS WORKING WITH SEXUAL MINORITY YOUTH
    (2006-01-05) Gorenstein, Sharon F.; Strein, William; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The present study examined the archived results of a national survey involving the perceived role and actual practices of school psychologists working with sexual minority youth. The study focused on identifying factors associated with the perceived role and responsibility of school psychologists when working with this population and subsequent provision of support services. The majority of school psychologists agreed addressing harassment should be a part of their role while only one-third gave such ratings in regard to addressing sexual risks. There was wide variability across differing types of actual services provided. Less than one-quarter of the respondents reported involvement with sexual health related issues and one-quarter had intervened to address harassment of LGBQ youth. Survey responses demonstrated a significant relationship between the amount of services delivered to LGBQ youth by school psychologists and the amount of both formal and professional development training these psychologists received related to LGBQ youth. However, only professional development training was related to perceived role. No relationship between the time elapsed since graduate training and services provided to LGBQ youth was found. Although attitudes about the role and responsibility of the school psychologist in working with LGBQ youth may not have changed, some individuals had the skill base to deliver such services. Clearly, given the literature's emphasis on viewing the school psychologist's role within this comprehensive health care model, it would be imperative to provide professional development and pre-service training in both the role and the skills needed for addressing the multiple needs of sexual minority youth.
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    Effectiveness of School-Based Crisis Intervention: Research and Practice
    (2005-11-23) Croft, Ivan A; Strein, William O; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Research comprehensively examining the efficacy of school crisis intervention procedures and strategies is limited and often restricted to either author-based recommendations or descriptive accounts of crisis responses. The purpose of this study was to identify research-supported practices in school crisis intervention and complete a program evaluation of a local school system's crisis intervention procedures. Three procedures were incorporated. A set of decision rules were developed based on research in evidence-based practices to discern crisis intervention strategies that are strongly recommended, recommended, not recommended, or bearing insufficient data based upon the quality and degree of support available for the practice in the literature over the last 20 years. Upon completion of the literature coding, the crisis intervention procedures employed by a school system were evaluated by assessing the degree of match between the documented procedures and the established research-supported practices in crisis intervention. The third procedure evaluated the perceived level of effectiveness of crisis responses in the school system through structured debriefings completed with school-based crisis teams after a crisis response. Results of the literature coding revealed patterns of scholarship detailing 98 separate crisis intervention strategies with 7 meeting the criteria for strongly recommended, 23 for recommended, 4 for not recommended, and 64 showing insufficient data. A pattern analysis showed the majority of strategies reflecting insufficient data to code due to a lack of operational evidence or inconsistent operational definitions or implementation across studies. Results of the program evaluation indicated that the school system procedures disaggregated more broadly than the literature with fewer discrete strategies identified. A comparison of strategies showed 6 school system procedures matching with strongly recommended practices, 17 with recommended, 19 with insufficient data, and 0 with not recommended. Transcriptions from the structured debriefings were analyzed using the constant comparison method. Results revealed six categories of feedback (crisis preparedness, pre-response planning after a crisis, information flow, student support, staff support, and follow-up) with multiple themes nested within categories. Practices perceived by crisis responders to be effective or ineffective in each category were discussed. Implications on current crisis intervention practices and future research were discussed.
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    A GROUNDED THEORY STUDY OF THE MULTICULTURAL EXPERIENCES OF SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGISTS
    (2005-08-11) Mewborn, Kenya Noreen; Strein, William; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The changing population of public schools demands that school psychologists have the ability to work with diverse students, parents, and teachers. The current project used qualitative methods to explore the experiences of school psychologists working in racially/ethnically diverse schools. Interviews with ten school psychologists and surveys from eight staff members who worked with these psychologists were analyzed using grounded theory methodology. A theory was developed that explains how psychologists manage racial/ethnic differences in the diverse school context. Results indicate that psychologists' efforts focused on bridging cultural differences in the communication styles, beliefs, and behaviors of students, parents, and school staff members. The techniques psychologists used to bridge gaps involved reliance on particular characteristics and strategies. Knowledge, self awareness, cultural empathy, and multicultural interest were the key characteristics psychologists relied on when working in multicultural situations. Related to these characteristics were the main strategies of relationship building, information gathering, and information sharing. Variables that impacted how psychologists responded in diverse settings included multicultural training experiences, life experiences, and issues related to the school systems within which the psychologists worked.
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    Communities of Practice: Study of one school's first year of implementation of a new problem-solving model
    (2004-11-23) Benn, Alicia; Rosenfield, Sylvia A; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The current study used the communities of practice theoretical perspective, an example of a sociocultural learning theory, to examine one school's first year implementation of a new problem-solving model. The grade-level and building-level teams that participated in the program were understood to represent communities of practice, as they worked together to address the learning and behavioral needs of students who were not performing successfully. Program implementation was conceptualized as a manifestation of the communities' understandings about the program and a creative act that further developed this meaning. In addition, the communities' process of collective sensemaking was informed by the individual members' educational beliefs, educational perspectives, and their previous understandings about supporting students. The qualitative research methods used in this study involved the researcher functioning as a participant-observer in the school, conducting reflective interviews with referring teachers, and conducting a document review. The findings from this study indicated that while teachers were invited to refer any student to the program regarding whom they wanted to consult, they overwhelmingly referred students who they perceived to be struggling academically, needed intensive resources, and were not participating in other school-based services. In addition, the teams did not adhere to the structure of the model's stages and attempted to resolve student problems using a more fluid referral process that did not necessarily involve problem solving. The team members supported each other in their negotiated meaning of how to provide student support by adapting the model to their understanding of its purpose, preventing them from enacting the desired change. Additional dynamics were observed in these communities of practice that have not been articulated in previous research on problem-solving teams; they include the practices of gatekeeping, distorting conceptual weaknesses in models to favor deficit attributions of student problems, and creating shared meaning that further entrench the communities in their current practice. Implications from this study address the importance of initial training and ongoing technical support for program implementation. Recommendations include qualitatively studying communities of practices that promote change and their educational beliefs and reflective practice.