Date of Graduation

5-2018

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

College/School

School of Education

Department

Learning and Instruction

Program

Learning & Instruction EdD

First Advisor

Robert Burns

Second Advisor

Patricia Busk

Third Advisor

Helen Maniates

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to perform a secondary data analysis to investigate the relationship between preschool setting and the developmental growth of all children receiving state-funded preschool special-education services in California in inclusive settings compared with all children receiving state-funded preschool special-education services in California in noninclusive settings.

To accomplish this purpose, a secondary data analysis of a longitudinal data set was conducted using the Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP, 2015) to measure progress across eight domains of child development over a 2-year time span and four assessment time points. This study used individual growth modeling to analyze developmental growth; more specifically, this study used hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). The study included all children receiving preschool special-education services in California (N = 78,999), in both inclusive and noninclusive settings and investigated differences between groups based on preschool setting.

The response variables for the study included eight domains scores that are combined into three Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) outcome measures. Statistically significant differences were found between the developmental-growth trajectories of preschool children receiving special-education services in inclusive settings versus noninclusive settings. The results indicated that children served in inclusive settings have a higher developmental-growth trajectory over time across all three OSEP outcome measures. In addition, statistically significant differences were found between the developmental-growth trajectories of preschool children receiving special-education services in inclusive setting versus noninclusive for seven of the eight domains on the DRDP (2015). The only domain that was statistically significant was the English Language Development domain. For preschool children diagnosed as having other health impairments, there is a statistically significant difference in developmental-growth trajectories between the two groups based on setting for the OSEP 1 and OSEP 3 scores.

Overall, these results indicate that children served in inclusive settings have a slightly higher developmental-growth trajectory than children served in noninclusive settings. Future studies may be conducted to build upon the HLM models that were used in the analyses as well as include additional information about severity of disability and other outcome measures in order to improve upon the present results.

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