The purpose of this quantitative quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest, control group design study was to investigate the effects of Response to Intervention (RtI) and computer-based programs on addressing literacy acquisition skills. This study is important because there is an inordinate number of students who are designated as requiring special…

School-based mental health treatment programs are vital for providing access to care, assessing trauma and risk to decreasing negative coping mechanisms for students attending public school in marginalized communities. This doctoral project focuses on a school-based mental health intervention program called PATHWAYS, which has been implemented in…

The COVID-19 pandemic has complicated the identification and delivery of special education services for students across the United States. Many students, regardless of previous disability status, are demonstrating increased academic, social-emotional, and medical needs in school in response to instructional disruptions and other impacts of the…

Teachers focused on prevention of academic problems should apply procedures that enhance learning speed, or learning as a function of the time that the learner spends engaged in the intervention(s). Although few researchers evaluate or compare academic interventions using precise measures of learning speed, several strategies for modifying…

The psychometric integrity of a curriculum-based measure to screen for academic giftedness (Monitoring Instructional Responsiveness: Reading [MIR:R]) was evaluated by examining its ceiling, item gradient, and predictive capacity using 460 fourth grade students. Eighty fourth graders (17.39%) scored one standard deviation above the MIR:R mean. Ten…

We replicated a study of a kindergarten mathematics intervention, ROOTS, delivered in the context of a research-based core program. We randomly assigned 62 classrooms to treatment (ROOTS) or a business-as-usual control. All classrooms implemented the research-based core program (Early Learning in Mathematics). Participants included 163 treatment…

The purpose of this study was to conduct a replication study of a kindergarten mathematics intervention, ROOTS, delivered within the context of a research base core program. In the study, sixty two classrooms were randomly assigned to treatment (ROOTS) or a business as usual control. All classrooms implemented a research based core program (Early…

The purpose of this descriptive qualitative study was to describe general education teachers' Response to Intervention (RTI) experiences, how they construct their knowledge about RTI guidelines, and how they relate their RTI experiences and knowledge as self-confidence for referring a student to special education services. The conceptual framework…

This study examined how a structured voluntary reading intervention supports students in becoming better readers. A one-group pretest/posttest design was used to measure changes in elementary student's reading fluency, reading comprehension, and attitude towards reading in response to receiving an 8-week structured reading intervention. The 8-week…

The state of Texas has been cited through the U.S. Department of Education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) as failing to identify students under the Child Find component of the law using Response to Intervention/Multi-Tiered System of Support (RtI/MTSS). The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to identify…

Response to intervention (RTI) is a method for providing academic support to students and for identifying specific learning disabilities (SLDs). Using interrupted time series and hazard models, we examined if statewide RTI adoption in the U.S. state of Tennessee was associated with changes in rates of SLD and first-time SLD identification in…

Background/Context: Spurred by changes in federal policy, Response to Intervention (RTI) has witnessed increased adoption across states and districts in the past several decades (Berkeley et al., 2020). Originating in the special education field, RTI involves a shift from a uniform instructional approach to a tiered instructional approach…

Response to Intervention (RTI) is an approach that can address children's problems in school. However, research has not consistently supported positive effects of RTI. I use the dialectical method to suggest RTI researchers have not adequately focused on children's personal experiences. The effects of persistent, negative experience are observable…

Anxiety is a common emotional problem across development. Given that children spend approximately 50% of their waking-hours in school, it is important to consider how anxiety manifests within this setting and the unique difficulties that anxious children may experience while at school. The current paper reviews the impact of anxiety in children at…

Section 162.675. RSMo defines gifted children as "those children who exhibit precocious development of mental capacity and learning potential as determined by competent professional evaluation to the extent that continued educational growth and stimulation could best be served by an academic environment beyond that offered through a standard…