Date of Award
2002
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
EdD Program for Educational Leaders
Advisor
William Thayer
Committee Member
Barbara Packer
Committee Member
Claudia Santin
Keywords
academic performance, academic standards, applied dissertation, assessments, Bonny Eagle Middle School, Buxton, classroom involvement, collaboration, curricular standards, curriculum, Department of Education, disabilities, educational methodologies, IEP goals, individual education plan goals, instructional practice, language arts, learning experiences, Maine, Maine Learning Results, optimal learning experiences, organizational legitimacy, parents, regular education teachers, special education, special education teacher attrition, students, teacher collaboration, teachers
Abstract
Instructional practice at Bonny Eagle Middle School in Buxton, Maine, did not fully integrate IEP goals with curriculum and Maine Learning Results developed by the Maine Department of Education in 1997. Students with disabilities were prohibited from optimal learning experiences. In this study, the relationship between a sample group of students, language arts individual education plan goals, and curricular standards were attempted to be strengthened through enhanced instructional methodologies and assessments. The intended results of this study were to impact these students' levels of classroom involvement in addition to building collaboration among special and regular education teachers. Teachers' philosophies about students with disabilities in the classroom were either challenged or broadened. If goals would have been successfully achieved, students, teachers, and parents were impacted in how they worked together as a team in the process of learning.
Special education teacher attrition, a short time line for the applied dissertation, and organizational legitimacy and priority all contributed to a lack of data. Although data do not point to an improvement in the academic performance of students with disabilities, the staff involved in this applied dissertation did create some tools that facilitate the collaboration of regular and special education teachers in providing instruction that supports students with disabilities in meeting academic standards.