IDEA and Inclusive Education

Federal mandates, most notably the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), guarantee education rights for children classified under one of the 13 categories of disabilities, ensuring that they are educated with their peers in the general education classroom as much as possible based on their ability and needs. State educational agencies and local educational agencies are responsible for ensuring that the pedagogical needs of all children with a disability are met in accordance with the law. This chapter discusses IDEA and the concept of inclusion and how special and general educators must increase their efforts to promote and support equitable opportunities for all students.

Establishing a Data Culture Using a Data-Driven Instructional System for School Improvement

School leaders are faced with enormous responsibilities in addressing student achievement as directed by district, state, and federal mandates. There is a need for school leaders to structure and implement how to acquire, analyze, and commit action from identified gaps in student learning using assessment data. A major part of the process is establishing how teachers use student data to improve teaching and learning opportunities. When discussing school improvement measures and initiatives, one commonly refers to observations, feedback, and professional learning communities as its core components. This chapter provides a framework using a data-driven instructional system (DDIS) as a model for school improvement in establishing a school data culture that can improve student achievement.

Preventing COVID-19 Fatalities: State versus Federal Policies

Are COVID-19 fatalities large when a federal government does not enforce containment policies and instead allow states to implement their own policies? We answer this question by developing a stochastic extension of a SIRD epidemiological model for a country composed of multiple states. Our model allows for interstate mobility. We consider three policies: mask mandates, stay-at-home orders, and interstate travel bans. We fit our model to daily U.S. state-level COVID-19 death counts and exploit our estimates to produce various policy counterfactuals. While the restrictions imposed by some states inhibited a significant number of virus deaths, we find that more than two-thirds of U.S. COVID-19 deaths could have been prevented by late November 2020 had the federal government enforced federal mandates as early as some of the earliest states did. Our results quantify the benefits of early actions by a federal government for the containment of a pandemic.

Teacher efficacy and attributes on the implementation of tiered instructional frameworks

United States federal mandates and reforms to address the needs of at-risk students have resulted in many states being required to implement evidence-based practices (EBP) and tiered systems of support (TSS). We examined the relationships between successful implementation of EBP and tiered frameworks, specifically Positive Behavior Interventions and Support (PBIS) and the constructs of teacher self-efficacy, collective efficacy, and teacher attributions. Data were collected using the School-wide Evaluation Tool (SET), Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale (TSES), the Collective Efficacy Scale (CES), and Teachers’ Attributions for Student Behavior Measure (TASBM). Significant correlations were found between PBIS implementation level and 1) Instructional Strategies subscale of the TSES; 2) Collective Efficacy Scale and both of its subscales; and 3) TASBM and its Stable and Blame subscales. Significant differences in mean ratings were found between high implementing schools and low implementing schools on the Instructional Strategies subscale of the TSES, on the CES, and both of its subscale. Results showed a decrease in mean ratings on the Blame subscale of the TASBM in schools that had higher implementation scores on the SET.

Communication in Healthcare Settings

Deaf persons who use American Sign Language (ASL) as their primary form of communication are members of a cultural and linguistic minority that experiences significant health disparities yet are not recognized as a health disparity population by the National Institutes of Health. Studies have reported ineffective communication in healthcare interactions and reduced access to care experienced by Deaf patients. Requests for sign language interpreters in healthcare encounters are frequently denied, despite federal mandates to provide effective communication. Comprised of three articles, this dissertation investigates the diminished access to communication in healthcare settings experienced by Deaf patients and qualitative research methods when working with Deaf communities. Chapter One provides an overview of the dissertation purpose along with authorship and statement contributions for each article. Chapter Two features an autoethnographic study which recommends specific research methods and paradigms researchers who can hear should consider when conducting research with Deaf people. Reflections on the process of qualitative data analysis in this context is provided. Chapter Three reports the results in article form from a mixed-method, bilingual, and online survey which received 170 responses from Deaf respondents in 42 states. The survey provides a deeper understanding of the communication barriers experienced by Deaf patients than has been available or documented previously. Chapter Four documents the diminished access to care experienced by Deaf patients as documented in a "secret shopper" study. Appointment success rates of Deaf simulated patients compared to success rates of simulated patients who can hear, and reasons associated with denials are reported from a field-experiment audit study of a stratified random sample of primary care and general dentistry clinics throughout Idaho. Chapter Five provides a summary of the dissertation findings, action and policy recommendations, planned and completed dissemination of the research results, and areas of future research.

The Legal Framework

This chapter contains an overview of the legal framework, doctrines, and statutes that have a controlling influence on how police suitability and fitness evaluations are conducted in the United States. In a discussion that is rich in easily understood case law and engaging and practical detail, the authors orient the reader to the major federal laws and regulations governing these evaluations and to how the evaluations’ quality and defensibility can be optimized by compliance with the legal requirements. Emphasizing that psychological practice in the employment context is highly regulated by both federal mandates and local rules, the authors provide several examples of assessment procedures that are well accepted when providing healthcare but are illegal when deployed in the employment arena.

Inside the Flip

In today's educational setting of state and federal mandates, teachers are looking for ways to increase student engagement and collaboration in their classrooms. New educational technologies have many teachers exploring the flipped classroom to meet those mandates. In flipped classrooms, educators flip direct instruction and traditional homework. Students might watch a video over a concept at home and then apply the concept to problems in class. For almost two decades, teachers have implemented and research has been conducted on the flipped model. Little of that research exists at grades 6-12, where the majority of teachers using it teach. This study looked inside the flipped classrooms of seven middle and high school teachers from subject areas including mathematics, science, Spanish, and social studies. Data for the study were collected through interviews, lesson plans and materials, as well as classroom observations in order to gain a full picture of the activities taking place inside of flipped classrooms. This study also looked at the teachers' motivations for using the model.

States’ SORNA Implementation Journeys

Public policies requiring individuals convicted of sex offenses to register with law enforcement authorities, and in some cases granting public access to certain registry information, have been adopted by dozens of nations and provincial governments across the globe. Within the United States, sex offender registration and notification (SORN) policies are primarily established at the state level, but have come under increasing federal purview since the 1990s. Arising from a perceived need for improved interjurisdictional consistency and coordination, the 2006 Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) significantly broadened the scope and range of federal requirements for SORN systems operating within the states. Yet fourteen years following the law’s passage, a significant majority of states have yet to meet SORNA implementation thresholds, amidst an array of legal, political, fiscal, and practical challenges. Prior research has offered aggregate-level insights concerning the barriers to SORNA implementation, but has not captured the “back stories” of state policy experiences. Addressing this knowledge gap, the current study offers an in-depth examination of state experiences in aligning their policies with federal mandates. Drawing on data gathered from a diverse sample of ten states, the analysis reveals significant variation in the breadth and extent of required system changes and in the legal, political, and organizational dynamics surrounding state responses to federal oversight. Ultimately, the study offers insights and perspectives that can inform the continued refinement of federal and state policies, and improve the public safety effectiveness of the nation’s SORN systems.