Counseling, Higher Education & Special Education
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2226
The departments within the College of Education were reorganized and renamed as of July 1, 2011. This department incorporates the former departments of Counseling & Personnel Services; Education Leadership, Higher Education & International Education (excluding Organizational Leadership & Policy Studies); and Special Education.
Browse
4 results
Search Results
Item Math course taking and achievement among secondary students with disabilities: Exploring the gap in achievement between students with and without disabilities.(2008-05-09) Wilson, Michael; Leone, Peter E; 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 extend school effects research to explore the influence of specific school-level factors on the math course-taking behaviors of students with disabilities and to determine whether the level of math courses taken affects the math achievement of students with disabilities. I also sought to examine these effects relative to the performance of students without disabilities. I analyzed school and student level data for 6,398 students in 608 schools from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002. Using a 2-level hierarchical linear model, I found that school composition and curriculum structure affect the average 12th grade math achievement of students with disabilities. I also found an association between curriculum structure and advanced math course-taking by students with disabilities. I discuss the implications of these findings on policy and future research.Item The Impact of Vocabulary Instruction on the Vocabulary Knowledge and Writing Performance of Third Grade Students(2007-11-16) PAPADOPOULOU, ELENI; SPEECE, DEBORAH; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)I examined the effects of vocabulary instruction in theme-related words on students' knowledge of these words, knowledge about the themes, use of these words in their writing, and quality of their writing. Thirty-one third graders, identified as average and below average writers, based on their pre-intervention scores on the Test of Written Language-3 (Hammill & Larsen, 1996) participated in this study. Participants were randomly assigned to two treatment groups; an experimental that received instruction on adventure and mystery words, and a control, minimal-treatment that did not receive vocabulary instruction on these words. Vocabulary instruction was delivered over two consecutive weeks (six sessions) for each set of words and consisted of activities such as story reading and writing, sentence completion, vocabulary card games, and review sessions. Students in the control condition were introduced to adventure and mystery through reading and writing activities during two instructional sessions for each theme. The effects of vocabulary instruction were assessed using: (a) a multiple-choice vocabulary test used to assess students' vocabulary learning; (b) a story writing task used to determine whether vocabulary instruction resulted in better writing quality ratings and larger number of instructional words included in students' adventures and mysteries, and (c) a knowledge telling task where students were asked to tell everything they knew about adventures and mysteries. Additionally, a social acceptability inventory was administered to all experimental students to assess whether the instruction implemented was perceived as socially acceptable for learning adventure and mystery words. Analysis revealed several statistically significant findings. Vocabulary instruction enhanced students' knowledge of adventure and mystery words taught (eta squared, 0.937 and 0.905), the use of mystery words taught in students' writing (eta squared, 0.293) and the writing quality of students' mystery stories (eta squared, 0.183). Vocabulary instruction was also perceived as socially acceptable for learning new adventure and mystery words and enhancing students' vocabulary and writing performance about both themes. More research is needed to examine the relationship between vocabulary instruction in theme-related words, knowledge about the theme, and writing about the theme. Limitations of the present study and directions for future research are also discussed.Item The Relationship between the Level of Implementation of Instructional Consultation Teams and Student Goal Attainment(2006-05-01) LaFleur, Allison Marie; Rosenfield, Sylvia; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)A number of prereferral and problem-solving teams have emerged since PL 94-142 to provide consultation and intervention planning for teachers with difficult to teach students. Instructional Consultation Teams (IC Teams) is one model that attempts to improve student academic and behavioral performance through the use of a structured problem-solving process. This study examined the archived data of 417 IC Team consultant-teacher dyads to determine the relationship between implementation of the collaborative process and student goal attainment.
High levels of goal attainment were assessed for cases that provided full SDF documentation. Implementation in the dimensions of Clear Communication, Intervention Implementation and Intervention Evaluation related to a small degree with student goal attainment. However, 42% of cases did not provide sufficient information to determine goal attainment. Those cases that did fully document SDF data had higher implementation scores than did those that provided partial or insufficient documentation of critical SDF components.Item Investigation of Primary Grade Writing Instruction(2005-07-13) Agate, Laura Elizabeth; Graham, Steve; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study was designed to gather information regarding the writing practices of primary grade teachers across the United States. Surveys were sent to a random sample of 300 first, second, and third grade teachers (100 at each grade level) asking them a variety of questions regarding their writing programs. Of these teachers, 178 responded to the survey (61% response rate). Results showed that 72% of teachers employed a writing approach that combined traditional skill instruction with process writing, and that 65% of respondents utilized a commercial program during writing instruction. Statistically significant differences were found by grade for the types of writing activities students do throughout the year. In addition, parent-teacher communication regarding students' writing was found to be low, and most teachers reported making personal changes to their writing programs due to recent No Child Left Behind legislation. Suggestions for future research and limitations are also addressed.