This study examined the policy letters and verbal testimony transcripts submitted by interest groups to the United States Department of Education (USDE) in response to the proposed regulations pertaining to the implementation of the 1997 reauthorization of P. L. 105-17, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Specifically, this study analyzed the emerging themes in the area of discipline. Responses were received from the following interest groups: (a) school administrators, (b) parents, (c) teachers, (d) state educational agencies (SEAs), (e) national educational organizations, and (f) members of the United States Congress. In addition to analyzing the emerging themes, the study compared these themes to ones found in the current literature and court cases.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of four learning styles (accommodator, assimilator, converger, and diverger) and two different presentation methods (traditional and computer-based) on knowledge acquisition in a university classroom.

Aircraft maintenance training programs in the Air Force have evolved from an almost exclusively mechanical orientation to one that is largely electronic. The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) with its four selector composites (Mechanical, Administration, General, and Electronic) has been in use for over 20 years. The mechanical (M) composite score is used to identify those who will be trained in aircraft maintenance.

This study examined the correlation between two commercially available behavior rating scales. The two scales used were the Behavior Dimensions Rating Scale (BDRS) and the Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC). Students from a special education behavior management class (primarily students with emotional disabilities) were rated on the two scales and students from a general education behavior management class (primarily students with conduct problems without disabilities) were rated on the two scales.

This study examined the perceptions of school superintendents of districts and building principals of schools within selected shared service arrangements in the state of Texas who receive services from the cooperative, and selected directors of rural shared service arrangements pertaining to the responsibilities and roles of shared service arrangements when site-based decision-making (SBDM) was used as the guiding philosophy.

The Ecologically-Based Activity Plan (EBAP) is proposed as a method to create a transition between special education and general education. It serves as a tool to help classroom teachers assess the environment of the class and as a method for embedding instruction within the naturally occurring context of the endogenous constructivist classroom. In this study the EBAP was used to reduce aggressive behavior and increase prosocial behavior among five children who displayed developmental delays in the social and emotional domains.

This research sought to determine what relationship exists between time-on-task in computer-aided instruction (CAI) using Destinations courseware and progress in reading ability of developmental reading students as indicated by the reading portion of the Texas Academic Skills Program (TASP) test. Time-on-task is the time during which a student actively works on Destinations activities, as recorded by the software management system. TASP, an exam required of all students in Texas public colleges, assesses reading, math, and writing skills. The population was made up of 482 students who took the TASP exam before and after CAI and who used Destinations CAI for remediation of reading skills. Null hypotheses were explored using Pearson correlation and linear multiple regression. The findings for the null hypotheses were the following: Ho1 - Correlation and linear regression correlation showed that time-on-task in Destinations CAI had no significant effect on the TASP scores of the population studied. Ho2 - Correlation and linear regression correlation showed that females made significantly better gains on the TASP test from CAI than males. Ho3 - Correlation and linear regression correlation showed that low-achiever students made no better gains on the TASP test from time-on-task in CAI than high-achiever students. Difference between the …

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of self-management strategies as a means of reducing off-task and disruptive behaviors of elementary school children identified as emotionally disturbed or behavior disordered (E/BD). This study provided a practical approach for classroom teachers to implement self-management strategies in classes that include children identified as having E/BD. Five elementary school children who were formally evaluated and enrolled in a special education classroom for students with E/BD were selected to participate in the study. The study also examined the effects of the self-management procedures when targeted behaviors were monitored by peers. Four resource students from the regular education class served as peer monitors. An ABAB reversal design was used to assess the effectiveness of the self-management strategy in the special education classroom. A behavior rating scale was used at the beginning of the study to develop a baseline of student behavior and during the final phase of the intervention to measure progress. The data indicated that the self-management strategies decreased the levels off-task and disruptive behaviors for all participating students. The findings of this study substantiates previous research that suggests self-management techniques help student to manage their own behaviors.

With the growing use of teams in organizations and schools there is a need to better understand the individual differences of employees that might potentially increase performance and improve attitudes. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of locus of control, which was the individual difference of interest in this study, and incentives on team performance and job satisfaction.

The purpose of this study was to delineate the differences between the types of behavioral management techniques used by teachers of students with emotional/behavioral disorders.

Proponents of special education early childhood interventions programs have promoted the assumptions that these programs: (a) will have a positive effect on the long-term outcomes of preschool children with disabilities; (b) will result in some children no longer requiring special education services throughout their elementary school years; and (c) will facilitate the need for fewer services for those students who do remain in special education programs throughout their education. The purpose of this follow-up study is to identify and describe the placement decisions and the changes of exceptionality classification for children identified as special education early childhood students over the course of six follow-up years. This study (a) identifies 108 children from rural and urban school settings who were enrolled in Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) programs in 1990-91, (b) documents their categorical label and educational placement six years later, and (c) then determines the differences in the number of hours rural and urban students receive special education and/or related services in 1996-97.

This study identified the attitudes of paraeducators toward students with disabilities and the implications for staff development. The purpose of this study was to survey attitudes of paraeducators toward students with disabilities. The attitude and demographic information obtained through the survey were analyzed for its implications for staff development with paraeducators.

This study had a two-fold purpose. The first purpose was to compare the rankings of a set of knowledge/skills statements as reported by teachers of students with emotional behavioral disorders and teachers in juvenile correctional special education settings. A survey instrument designed to measure the importance, proficiency, and frequency of use of clusters of knowledge/skills statements was administered to 123 teachers in juvenile correctional special education settings in state institutions. Mann Whitney U analyses were calculated to compare the mean rankings of the two groups of teachers. The findings indicated that teachers in juvenile correctional special education settings and teachers of students with emotional and behavioral disorders were very similar as to which knowledge/skills clusters were important to their job performance, which clusters they were most proficient at using, and which clusters they utilized most frequently. The second purpose was to compare the teachers in juvenile correctional special education settings and to determine whether their mean rankings of the knowledge/skills clusters varied when analyzed by differing categories of age, type of certification held, years of teaching experience, and level of the teachers' education. Analysis of variance revealed no significant difference in the mean rankings in any of the comparison groups. …

This study examined the effects of test anxiety reduction strategies on U.S. Air Force allied health care students and had a fourfold purpose. The first was to estimate the extent of student test anxiety in allied health care students. The second was to determine the predictors of student test anxiety. The third was to determine if the Student Learning Center provides an effective method of reducing test anxiety in the subjects. The final purpose was to recommend areas for future research.

The purpose of this study was to determine if extended periods of time out of the training environment has an effect on the retention of training. The rationale for conducting this study was based on the fact that little research has been done in this area. The findings of the study indicated that extensive periods of time out of training do significantly influence the amount of training retained fromone loadmaster course to the other. Additionally, there was a significant relationship between the number of days out of training and the posttest scores. The optimum training break between courses appears to be between 10 and 20 days. Training retention is apparently affected by time.

This study researched effect of selected demographic variables on the self-perceived competencies of career counselors at secondary and post secondary institutions in Texas. Demographic variables were years of service, educational level, type of institution, age of counselor, size of institution, and percentage of vocational enrollment. One hundred career counselors, fifty secondary and fifty post secondary career counselors were mailed copies of the Professional Needs Assessment and a Demographic questionnaire.

Researchers who make predictions from educational data are interested in choosing the best regression model possible. Many criteria have been devised for choosing a full or restricted model, and also for selecting the best subset from an all-possible-subsets regression. The relative practical usefulness of three of the criteria used in selecting a regression model was compared in this study: (a) Mallows' C_p, (b) Amemiya's prediction criterion, and (c) Hagerty and Srinivasan's method involving predictive power. Target correlation matrices with 10,000 cases were simulated so that the matrices had varying degrees of effect sizes. The amount of power for each matrix was calculated after one or two predictors was dropped from the full regression model, for sample sizes ranging from n = 25 to n = 150. Also, the null case, when one predictor was uncorrelated with the other predictors, was considered. In addition, comparisons for regression models selected using C_p and prediction criterion were performed using data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988.