Theses and Dissertations from UMD
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2
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 give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item CHARACTERISTICS, PREDICTORS, AND GROWTH TRAJECTORIES OF CHILDREN WHO EXIT SPECIAL EDUCATION AND THEIR GENERAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION PEERS(2013) Dragoo, Kyrie Elizabeth; McLaughlin, Margaret J; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this study was to examine the characteristics and predictive factors for children receiving special education services, and if they received special education services, factors associated with them discontinuing those services before eighth grade. In addition, a second purpose was to determine whether there are differences in the reading and mathematics growth trajectories of children who exit special education, children who remain in special education, and children who attend general education classes and how those growth trajectories vary by characteristics such as race and gender. I used data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study - Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K), a study of a nationally representative sample of children attending kindergarten during the 1998 school year and followed through eighth grade. I used a subsample of the data to compare the characteristics and predictive factors of children receiving special education services or exiting from special education using chi-squares, t-tests, and logistic regression analyses. Using hierarchical linear modeling, I analyzed data on the academic growth trajectories of children who exited special education, remained in special education or never received special education. The results of my study indicate that large number of children exit special education between kindergarten and eighth grade and the children who exit special education differ from their general and special education peers both in their characteristics and their academic growth rates in reading and mathematics. Finally, I discuss the implications of these findings for policy and future research.Item An Investigation of the Characteristics and School Readiness of Children with Disabilities who Attend Head Start Programs(2010) Smith, Amy Falk; McLaughlin, Margaret J; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this study was to examine the characteristics and school readiness of children with disabilities who attend Head Start programs, as well as the characteristics of the programs they attend and the school districts in which they receive special education. In addition, a second purpose was to determine whether there are differences in these characteristics of children who attend Head Start programs and those who attend other early childhood education programs. I used data from the Pre-Elementary Education Longitudinal Study, a study of a nationally representative sample of preschool children with disabilities. I used a subsample of the data to compare the characteristics and school readiness of children with disabilities who attended Head Start to those who attended other early childhood education programs using chi-squares, analysis of variance, and ordinary least squares regression analyses. The results suggest that there is no difference in the school readiness of children with disabilities who attended Head Start and those who attend programs in elementary schools. However, in comparison to children who attended other programs, children with developmental delays who attended Head Start had more advanced receptive language skills and those with other disabilities had less advanced pre-reading skills. Additionally, the results of this study show that there is some variation in the characteristics of children with disabilities who attend Head Start and those who attend other programs. Children who attended Head Start were more likely to be Black or Hispanic and from low socioeconomic families. They were also less likely to have disabilities other than speech impairments or developmental delays and, on average, received fewer special education services. Finally, children who attended Head Start were more likely to be from rural school districts and districts with higher rates of poverty. These findings indicate that children with disabilities who attend Head Start programs face additional risk factors that are associated with poor school readiness and emphasize the need to ensure that the programs provide services that are adequate to meet the needs of the diverse population they serve and to prepare those children for the onset of formal schooling.