The problem addressed through this study was the potential effects of the lack of parent participation at individualized education plan (IEP) meetings on students' achievement. The research question in this study examined the relationship between parents of high school students with disabilities (SWD) attendance at annual IEP meetings and…

The purpose of this qualitative, descriptive, single case study was to explore how K-8 teachers, lead teachers, and school administrators in an Arizona school district experienced shared leadership and described its influence on student and school success. The theoretical foundation that provided a lens for this study was the theory of shared…

Each year, millions of students with disabilities receive special education services. The development of an individual education program (IEP) is an important function in determining what services are provided. The IEP is the product of a collaborative effort between stakeholders, including the student (Barnard-Brak & Lechtenberger, 2010).…

Parent engagement in the transition planning process for students with IEPs is an essential indicator for positive post-school outcomes for students with disabilities graduating from high school. Barriers to parent participation include lack of communication, trust, and knowledge of the process in which they are participating. Educators must seek…

This research study focused on the potential factors impacting students with disabilities (SWDs) course placement and graduation rates at Simmons High School (SHS), a large urban school in Massachusetts. Preliminary research found that approximately 50% of SWDs graduate each school year at SHS and are historically marginalized compared to their…

The views of a transition/IEP team members of the collaborative efforts of each other have had little or limited viewing. Annually there are approximately six million special education students in the United States of America (Samuels, 2017). While in high school, these students and their transition/IEP team are tasked with preparing them for…

Co-teaching as a service delivery model requires a special education teacher and a general education teacher to efficiently and effectively collaborate in the same classroom, providing support to students with disabilities in the general education setting. With the vast changes and demands of the educator and the student population in today's…

The current model of teaching where one teacher works individually with a group of learners in a classroom in an alternative educational setting promoted unrealistic expectations by assuming individual teachers working alone could meet the needs of all students. To address this problem, I conducted an action research study in which I explored the…

Middle school students lack coping skills which cause misbehaviors and disruptions to their education. The misbehaviors are higher among middle school students with disabilities and middle school special education teachers are struggling to implement effective strategies to address the disruptive behaviors of their students in a suburban…

Co-teaching is the practice of general educators and special educators sharing instruction in a general education setting to deliberately meet the needs of students with and without disabilities. Co-teacher research tends to focus on the processes of co-teaching, and little is known about how teachers go about creating a system of interconnected…

This study focused on a problem of practice at Mystic River School (MRS), a kindergarten through eighth grade school in an urban district in New England. Schoolwide diagnostic data showed a significant gap between multilingual learners (MLs) and their native English speaking peers in literacy. An analysis of this data, interviews with staff and…

Few studies have examined how professional learning communities (PLCs) engage in collaborative inquiry over multiple years. This dissertation describes how a PLC with high school science teachers, district-based coaches, and university researchers conducted collective inquiries over five years to improve science instruction. The PLC was situated…

Throughout special education history, students with disabilities have been denied appropriate services and excluded from their general education peers. While the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) mandates that all students with disabilities ages 3-21 have access to a Free and Appropriate Education (FAPE) in the Least Restrictive…

Special Education students across the United States are performing less well than their non-Special Education peers (US Department of Education, 2017). At a local level, researcher has observed that Special Education students are not served through the use of adequate accommodations, instructional strategies, or best practices to support inclusion…

The vocational math teachers at a vocational secondary school lack the adequate skills needed to be effective in math classrooms. The vocational teachers who teach math at the local vocational school have been identified as noncertified teachers based on their certification with the state department of education. The purpose of this project study…