An Investigation Of The Common Reason Special Education Students Fail Dissertation

An Investigation Of The Common Reason Special Education Students Fail To Graduate From High School - Dissertation Example ACKNOWLEDGMENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii CHAPTER ONE 1 INTRODUCTION 1 Background 2 Problem Statement 12 Purpose of the Study 15 Research Questions 16 Scope of the Study 16 Limitations and Delimitations 17 Definition of Terms 20 Research Plan 21 CHAPTER TWO 25 LITERATURE REVIEW 25 Introduction 25 Overview 26 Institutional reasons for dropping out 39 School belonging and dropout rates 45 Special education services and dropout rates 48 Exit exams 50 Inclusion: Does it reduce dropout rates? 55 Teachers and inclusion 65 Dropout prevention programs 72 IEP programming 75 Transition programming 77 Programs attending to social and academic elements of student lives: Finn’s participation-identification model of school engagement-belonging 80 School belonging and engagement and special education 92 Case studies of best practice school engagement programs that have improved the retention level of special education students in high school 100 C onclusion 103 CHAPTER THREE 105 METHODOLOGY 105 Introduction 105 Research Questions 106 Design 107 Active Observation 113 Intensive Interview 115 Replication of the Study 117 The Researcher’s Role 118 Data Collection Procedures 118 In-depth Interviews 119 Qualitative Data Analysis 122 The Coding Process 123 Trustworthiness 127 Ethical Considerations 129 APPENDIX A 143 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION High School Dropout Concerns Educators, policy makers and researchers have consistently tied the achievement gap to the student dropout rate (Ladson-Billings, 2006). As a result, educators, parents, employers and policy makers have expressed concerned over the persistent high drop-out rate particularly among high school students (Burris & Welner, 2005). For instance, reports from the US Census Bureau...For instance, reports from the US Census Bureau indicate that over the last 20 years or so, high school rates in the US have steadily declined to such an extent that it reached 90% (Barton , 2006). There has been a corresponding decline in labor force numbers indicating that fewer and fewer under-educated persons are entering the workforce (Lee and Mather, 2008). Tyler and Lofstrom (2009) reviewed US student data and concluded that dropout rate consistently fluctuates between 22 and 25 percent. The Editorial Projects in Education (EPE) Research Center (2010) conducted a national report, which found that approximately 1.3 million youth drop out of high school every year. However, the White House (as cited in America’s Promise Alliance, 2009) reported the number as a slightly lower figure of 1.2 million. A quantitative review of statistics by Sum et al (2009) demonstrates that â€Å"the incidence of institutionalization problems among young high school dropouts was more than 63 times higher than among young four-year college graduates† (p. 9). The need for effective dropout prevention strategies is important because the increasingly significant gap between the student who leaves high school without earning his/her diploma and the high school graduate has increasingly widened since the 1970s with regard to career mobility, unemploy ment rates and wages.

History of the Cold War Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

History of the Cold War - Research Paper Example The Soviet power was never able to expand much under the influence of the U.S agenda. It was under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev that Russia began to undergo a political change which could not be handled and thus led to a political turmoil. The United States itself did not play a direct role in the collapse of Soviet Union but it did play an indirect role in the collapse. This essay would further analyze different events which led to the occurrence of cold war (Leffle & Westad, 2010). After the World War II it was seen that the United States and Russia underwent a competition in the field of economics, race and politics to gain superiority in the world. The Cold War for Soviet Union was to take control of the communist nations under their policy whereas the United States had the aim of removal of communism from the world. The relationship of the Soviet Union and America was never to the par as the communist nation was an ally of the Germans before it attacked them. Communism wa s prevalent in the Soviet Union since its birth under the leadership of Lenin. This was followed by the rule of Joseph Stalin who further enforced communism over the states that fell under the jurisdiction of the Union. It was then that anti communist policies started to escalate in the United States creating hate amongst the masses. Yalta Conference which took place in February 1945 was start of rough relations between the two superpowers of the world. The American President at that time was Truman who was strictly against the communists and this led to the worsening of bilateral relations between the two countries. The invention of atom bomb and the use of it in the World War II created fears for the Russian government which further led to the Cold War (Painter 2002). After the victory in World War II events followed which led to the Cold War among the superpowers. The Iron Curtain Speech was delivered by Winston Churchill on March 5 1946. He urged the United States for a coalitio n against the union because of their policies against the democracy of the world. He stated that â€Å"From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the States.... and all are subject in form or another, not only to Soviet influence, but to a very high and increasing measure of control from Moscow† (4 Gottfried). In 1946 it was found that Soviet spies were in America looking for information regarding the atomic bomb. Moreover an agreement was violated by the Soviet Union when they did not withdraw their troops from Iran because of its resources of oil. Instead a region of Iran was annexed by the Soviet Union which later came to be known as the Soviet Socialist Republic of Azerbaijan (Leffle & Westad, 2010). In the latter part of the 1950s it was seen that the Russian President got even more furious at the actions of the United States. After the World War II it was seen that se veral of the nations faced the problem of famine. It was here that the United States launched a plan known as the Marshall Plan to provide the famine struck places with food and other supplies. The foreign ministry of the Soviet Union replied to the Marshall plan in a negative manner stating it as an act sought to infiltrate the