Browsing by Author "Jones, P."

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    Characteristics of mildly handicapped children in a small school district
    Trump, Karen E. (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1988)
    The study was designed as one component of a program evaluation in special education funded by the State Department of Education in Virginia. The purpose was to identify the characteristics of mildly handicapped children who had been identified as learning disabled, educable mentally retarded and emotionally disturbed in a small school district. The parameters of the study included demographic information, school-based characteristics and assessment data. Student data were collected from the confidential folders maintained by the school district which included all written reports required for assessment and placement. Demographic data were taken from cumulative folders maintained in the schools for the students and reports developed by the building principal. A regression formula was used with the assessment data to determine if learning disabled students exhibited a severe ability-achievement discrepancy statistically. The regression formula and grade equivalent comparisons were conducted with emotionally disturbed students to determine if the emotional disturbance was adversely affecting their educational performance as measured by standardized tests. A constant comparative method was used to analyze the minutes from eligibility committee meetings to determine the important features school-based teams used for their assignment of labels to handicapped children. Comparisons were made between the characteristics of the children identified as handicapped and the state and federal definitions for those handicapping conditions. A discriminant analysis was used to investigate the possibility of predicting which students considered eligible for special education services would be classified learning disabled or emotionally disturbed based on 10 variables. Interviews were conducted with the program evaluation stakeholders committee to solicit their feedback concerning the results of the study.
  • Mapping hotspots of climate change and food insecurity in the global tropics
    Ericksen, Polly J.; Thornton, P. K.; Notenbaert, A.; Cramer, L.; Jones, P.; Herrero, M. (CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), 2011)
    "This report describes a study undertaken to identify areas that are food insecure and vulnerable to the
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    Pupil socioeconomic status, pupil race, and racial composition of the school district as components of the special education placement decision
    Keyes, Joyce Ann Hester (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1982)
    In an attempt to alleviate subjectivity in special education placement decisions, Congress mandated that such decisions be made by a multidisciplinary team (P.L. 94-142). Minority students are consistently overrepresented in special education classes (Mercer, 1973; Tucker, 1980; Keyes, 1981). The research problem that was the concern of this study was: do race of the child, socioeconomic status of the child, and racial composition of the school district affect special education placement decisions? It was hypothesized that: there would be no difference in-the special education placement decisions made for white pupils and those made for black pupils; decisions made for low SES children and those made for high SES children; decisions made by special educators from school districts with a high percentage of black pupil enrollment and those made by special educators from school districts with a low percentage of black enrollment; there would be no relationship between the identification of a handicapping classification and the recommendation of time to be spent in a special class; and, that there would be no significant first or second order interactions. Crosstabulation, 2x2x2 analysis of variance, point biserial correlation coefficient, and multiple regression analysis were used to test the hypotheses. Data were obtained from 81 school district directors of special education programs in Maryland and Virginia. These respondents made special education recommendations for a hypothetical child. Findings observed included: no correlation between amount of time recommended and the identification of a handicapping classification; SES, race and district proportion explained a significant amount of variance in EMR classification; SES alone accounted for significant variance in EMR and LD classifications; and SES and race combined significantly affected the recommendation of EMR classification, SES and district racial proportion combined significantly affected the recommendation of the other than EMR or LD category.