HOW DOES EARLY ACADEMIC INTERVENTION WITH LOW-SOCIOECONOMIC MINORITY STUDENTS AFFECT THE SPECIAL NEEDS CLASSIFICATION?
Date
2023-05
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Early academic intervention programs are designed to support struggling students to assist in overcoming their challenges and having a greater chance of maintaining success throughout school. Studies reveal that children exhibiting weaknesses in emerging skills that lead to reading failure, is most prevalent in low-income communities of color (Ramey & Ramey, 2004). This study investigated the impact of early academic intervention services or response to intervention (RtI) with low socioeconomic minority students and teachers’ perceptions and expectations on the special education classification process. The research was conducted using a mixed-method approach with surveys and interviews. The first method used a snowball sampling technique, with 79 participants. The second method was five structured interviews with two reading specialists and three classroom teachers. The methodological data collection was conducted using a 5-point Likert scale, four open-ended questions, and five interview questions to understand the effect of early academic interventions when implemented with fidelity to low socioeconomic minority students. The quantitative data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel sheet and StatPlus for descriptive results. The qualitative data were analyzed using MAXQDA and REV recording and transcription software to identify similarities, patterns and themes. The findings provided insightful recommendations for teachers when implementing academic intervention services and the impact of teachers’ perceptions and expectations on at-promise student performances. There were significant positive association between implementing the academic interventions with fidelity and using highly effective programs, r(77) = 0.67, p < 0.001 with low SES minority students.
Description
item.page.type
Thesis