College of Education
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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations..
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Item PLACE VALUE: A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF BEING A BLACK GIRL IN URBAN MATHEMATICS CLASSROOMS(2020) Fair, Camille; Clark, Lawrence M.; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This qualitative study documents and examines what it is like being in a Black girl body while learning math in urban schools. The ten participants in this study self- identified as Black and female, and they graduated from three high schools in an urban school district in the Northeast between 2017 and 2019. Despite demonstrating excellence in and out of school, participants’ stories were burdened by experiences of exclusion, marginalization and oppression in their K-12 math learning. Drawing on Critical Race Feminism (CRF), a framework used to theorize interlocking oppressional forces, I designed this qualitative study after conducting a pilot program to improve Black girls’ math experiences. Preliminary findings from the pilot study suggest that Black girls’ math experiences and performance outcomes are largely shaped by the extent to which they are given or denied social place and intellectual value in math classrooms. I appropriate the math concept of place value, and I use it as a metaphor in a framework I developed called Human Place Value. This study examines three questions to understand Black girls’ lived experiences in urban math classrooms: 1) How do Black girls face exclusion, marginalization, and other forms of oppression in math classes? 2) How do Black girls identify and recognize negative attitudes and beliefs about their identity in math classes? 3) How do Black girls respond to and navigate their experiences in math classes? I collected personal data about my participants through background questionnaires and one-on-one semi-structured interviews. I analyzed the data using tenets of CRF and classroom interaction frameworks to distill three themes across social place and intellectual value: visibility, positionality and knowledge production. Key findings from the study suggest that being in a Black girl body renders students particularly vulnerable to math marginalization in the form of hostility, maltreatment and instructional neglect. The data collected from the ten participants tell a collective story that warrant consideration for the role Human Place Value plays in teaching and learning that yields disparate mathematical outcomes. This study concludes with a presentation of counternarratives from two participants and cross-case insights that detail implications for theory and practice.Item VIOLENCE AND DISORDER, SCHOOL CLIMATE, AND PBIS: THE RELATIONSHIP AMONG SCHOOL CLIMATE, STUDENT OUTCOMES, AND THE USE OF POSITIVE BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTIONS AND SUPPORTS.(2013) Eacho, Thomas Christopher; Leone, Peter E; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The primary purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between school climate and student outcome variables. The secondary purpose was to examine the relationship between the use of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and the same student outcome variables. Variables depicting student perceptions of school climate, self-reported student academic achievement, student perceptions of physical safety in school, and school use of PBIS were drawn from the baseline data collection of the Maryland Safe and Supportive Schools (MDS3) Initiative. Descriptive statistics, bivariate correlations, and multilevel modeling were used to analyze the MDS3 data and to answer four research questions. Descriptive results showed that greater risk factors including feelings of being unsafe, involvement in violence, and poor academic achievement were associated with being male, nonwhite, and in the ninth grade. Bivariate correlations showed statistically significant relationships between student academic achievement and perceptions of school climate, race, gender, and grade level. Average academic achievement at the school level was statistically significantly associated with average school climate, school minority rate, high free and reduced meals (FARM) rate, and use of PBIS. Student perceived physical safety had statistically significant associations with perceptions of school climate, race, gender, and grade level. Average physical safety at the school level was statistically significantly associated with average school climate, school minority rate, high FARM rate, and use of PBIS. Multilevel models of academic achievement showed disparities based on race, gender, grade level, perceptions of school climate, and enrollment in schools with high FARM rate. Multilevel models of physical safety showed disparities based on gender, grade level, perceptions of school climate, enrollment in schools with high FARM rate, and average school level perceptions of school climate. The use of PBIS in schools had little impact on either multilevel model. Recommendations include examining school climate carefully and implementing practices that aim to improve school climate, particularly for those students with the most risk factors.Item WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIAL SUPPORT AND ACHIEVEMENT FOR STUDENTS WITH AND WITHOUTHOUT LEARNING DISABILITIES FROM BLACK AND LATINO BACKGROUNDS?(2011) Jacobs, Dawn Marie; Silverman, Rebecca; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between social support sources (i.e., Parents, Teachers, Classmates, and A Close Friend) and subtypes (i.e. Emotional, Instrumental, Appraisal, and Informational) on academic success. Specifically, social support perceptions and achievement outcomes of adolescents with and without learning disabilities were examined. Adolescents in 6th through 8th grade participated by completing a survey, the Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale (CASSS; Malecki, Demaray, & Elliott, 2000). Moreover, following survey administration student achievement was assessed through mathematics and English Language Arts (ELA) scores on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS). The results from the investigation suggest that students with and without learning disabilities are similar in the area of support and achievement. Furthermore, negative and positive effects resulted in the areas of classmate and parent support. Based on these findings, implications and future directions for research are discussed.