Thomas O. Williams

Who Is Teaching Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders?: A Profile and Comparison to Other Special Educators.

This national study of 859 teachers of students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) provides a profile of their characteristics and preparedness to teach and compares these teachers with 3,687 other special educators. Teachers of students with EBD were disproportionately male, were more diverse, and had significantly fewer years of teaching experience than other special educators. A smaller percentage of teachers in the EBD group was certified and a greater percentage entered through alternative programs than the other special educators. Only a small percentage of respondents teaching in grades 6–12 holds certification in the core academic areas defined under the No Child Left Behind Education Act (2001). Respondents felt least prepared to meet the needs of students from culturally and linguistically different backgrounds and to use technology in instruction.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis of an Instrument Designed to Measure Affective and Cognitive Arousal

The Visual Similes Test II is a research instrument designed to measure the construct of arousal. The test consists of two forms: an affective form and a cognitive form. Previous research has indicated that a strong negative relationship exists between affective arousal and behavior problems; likewise, cognitive arousal has a strong positive relationship with measured intelligence. This investigation examined the rationale behind the development of the Visual Similes Test II. In addition, the construct validity of scores produced by the Visual Similes Test II was examined with a sample of 216 children ranging in age from 10 to 12 years through confirmatory factor analysis using the AMOS program. The results of the analysis supported previous research findings and the hypothesis that the Visual Similes Test II measures the concepts of affective arousal and cognitive arousal.

Three Human Attributes.

This study represents a beginning step in research that may ultimately show that the multitudes of human behavior that educators currently encounter may be reduced to three broad human attributes: arousal, affect, and cognition. The resulting simplicity should lead to improved understanding and better decision making by practitioners. Four measures were selected to represent each of the three attributes and data were collected for four age groups. In each case, when the data were submitted to principal axis factor analysis, three factors emerged in which the 12 variables were clearly aligned with their hypothesized factors. In each analysis more than 70% of the total variance was recovered (M=75.39%). Across four analyses, each variable had only one salient pattern coefficient, and none of its remaining pattern coefficients approached saliency. Following oblique rotation, factor one (arousal) accounted for an average of 50.00% of the explained variance; factor two (cognition) accounted for an average of 28.25% of the explained variance; and factor three (affect) accounted for an average of 21.75% of the explained variance. The implications of these findings and limitations of the research design are discussed.

STABILITY OF SCORES FOR THE SLOSSON FULL-RANGE INTELLIGENCE TEST '

The test-retest stability of the Slosson Full-Range Intelligence Test by Algozzine, Eaves, Mann, and Vance was investigated with test scores from a sample of 103 students. With a mean interval of 13.7 mo. and different examiners for each of the two test administrations, the test-retest reliability coefficients for the Full-Range IQ, Verbal Reasoning, Abstract Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning, and Memory were .93, .85, .80, .80, and .83, respectively. Mean differences from the test-retest scores were not statistically significantly different for any of the scales. Results suggest that Slosson scores are stable over time even when different examiners administer the test.

Factor Structure of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests-Revised, Forms G and H

The Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests-Revised (WRMT-R) is a test battery that is used to measure basic reading skills, reading comprehension skills, and total reading achievement. According to Woodcock (1987), the Word Identification and Word Attack tests measure two elements of basic reading skills, whereas the Word Comprehension and Passage Comprehension tests measure two elements of reading comprehension. Collectively, according to Woodcock, the four tests measure an individuals total reading achievement. This study evaluated Woodcocks claims by analyzing the factor structure of the WRMT-R for Forms G and H. Principal axis factor analyses with promax rotations were used to evaluate evidence that the WRMT-R contains a large unrotated general factor and, when rotated obliquely, two correlated factors representing basic skills and reading comprehension. Variables with pattern coefficients of .55 or greater were considered to be significant. Using these criteria, the WRMT-R produced a robust unrotated general factor for both forms. When the factor matrices were rotated obliquely, two factors emerged for each form based on the pattern coefficients. However, based upon the large interfactor correlations ( rs = .84, and .77), one might question the practical distinction between the two factors. Thus, Woodcocks assertions regarding the factor structure of the WRMT-R were partially supported.

Content Validity of the Visual Similes Test II

This study examined the content validity of the Visual Similes Test II, designed to measure affective and cognitive arousal in individuals 5 to 21 years of age. The 54 participants were asked to rate the affective and cognitive content of un-occluded stimuli from the Visual Similes Test II. The participants, whose mean age was 27.0 yr. (SD = 8.6), included 1 (2%) man and 53 (98%) women who were enrolled in undergraduate and graduate special education courses. Paired-sample t tests comparing the affective and cognitive ratings for each item were significant for 53 of the 55 stimuli. The mean effect size (Cohen d) was 1.49 (range=.08 to 1.9).

Pervasive Developmental Disorders Rating Scale : Development and construct validity

The Pervasive Developmental Disorders Rating Scale was designed for use in screening of pervasive developmental disorders. This paper describes the rationale and development of the scale and assesses its construct validity with ratings from a sample of 362 children ranging in age from 1 to 12 years and diagnosed with autistic disorder. The hypothesized heirarchical factor model and two competing models were examined through confirmatory factor analysis. The analysis supported the factor structure of the hypothesized model in this particular sample of children with autistic disorder. Limitations and areas for research are discussed.

Teacher Racial/Ethnic Diversity: Distribution of Special and General Educators of Color Across Schools:

Students benefit from a teacher workforce that represents the full racial/ethnic diversity of the United States. We examine racial/ethnic composition of general education teacher (GET) and special education teacher (SET) workforce using the Schools and Staffing Survey. We find that the teacher workforce continues to be primarily White. In 2011–2012, 18% of SETs and GETS were people of color; however, 47% of students with disabilities were students of color. Among teachers of color, the majority identify as Black or Hispanic, with a smaller proportion of Hispanic SETs than GETs. Early career SETs are racially/ethnically similar to experienced SETs, while early career GETs are somewhat more diverse. There were dramatic differences across regions, type of districts, and schools; higher percentages of teachers of color taught in high-poverty and urban schools as well as in schools with higher enrollments of students of color. Results have important implications for education policy and teacher preparation.

Supporting students with disabilities and limited English proficiency: STEM educator professional development participation and perceived utility

Background: Professional development offerings assist K–12 educators in addressing new and evolving classroom dynamics, circumstances, and situations. With the emerging demands of an increasingly science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-infused society, teachers are challenged to provide high-quality service and equitable educational opportunities to all STEM education students, particularly to those students who traditionally are underrepresented in comparison to their peers in STEM education and/or have aspirations of participation in STEM-related careers. This study investigated K–12 STEM educator participation and perceived utility regarding professional development addressing specific needs of students with identified categorical disabilities and limited English proficiency (LEP). Results: Collection and analysis methods employed data retrieval and tabulation from the 2011–2012 School and Staffing Survey (SASS) Teacher Questionnaire (TQ). The national restricted access dataset was used to identify targeted teacher populations as well as provide a profile of STEM teacher participation in practice-oriented professional development activities regarding the two specified student groups. The results were categorically summarized and compared across science, technology, and mathematics (STM) disciplines and also between STM educators, non-STM educators, and educators in general. Conclusions: The results indicated that STM teachers tended to engage in fewer professional development opportunities and dedicated fewer hours in the professional development regarding students with categorical disabilities and LEP than the remainder of the teaching population. Overall, STM teachers’ perceived utility of the provided professional development experience was lower than that of the remainder of the teaching population.

Modeling First Grade Reading Development

This study tested a hypothesized model examining reading proficiency across first grade. It addressed how alphabetics at the beginning of the year were mediated by applied and automated skills at the middle of the year to explain actualized reading at the end of the year. The alphabetic skills of 102 first graders were measured in October and the applied and automated skills measured in January. In May, actualized reading was measured. Using structural equation modeling, the model produced acceptable levels of model-fit across all indices. Reading fluency is an important developmental step in first grade that mediates foundational alphabetic skills.