Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2021, Psychology/Industrial-Organizational

Creativity is essential for organizational progress and functioning, yet an important part of the creative process, idea selection, has received comparatively little research. Existing research on this process has shown that creative idea selection is particularly difficult, and people may select at no better than chance levels. The idea that there exists a bias against creativity has been proposed to explain the difficulty in effectively selecting creative ideas. This bias against creativity is thought to exist because creative ideas are by definition novel, and novelty carries with it a level of ambiguity that is aversive to many people. This study built upon previous research, using the bias against creativity as an explanatory framework to investigate how dispositional ambiguity tolerance and deliberative or intuitive processing instructions relate to the creativity of selected ideas. It was hypothesized that ambiguity tolerance and instructions to engage in intuitive processing would improve creative idea selection, reduce uncertainty experienced during the task, and increase confidence in ideas, perhaps by reducing the bias against creativity. 221 participants were randomly assigned into an intuitive, deliberative, or control condition and completed an idea selection task. Hypotheses were largely unsupported by the data.

Committee: Melissa Keith Ph.D. (Advisor); Scott Highhouse Ph.D. (Committee Member); Howard Casey Cromwell Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2024, East Asian Languages and Literatures

The connective shi in Japanese makes a connection between reasons or between reasons and a conclusion. English-speaking learners of Japanese learn the connective shi through a variety of simple grammar instructions with a few examples, and they are often said to use it erroneously. Previous studies have explained how Japanese speakers use the connective shi, but few have compared the connective shi used by native speakers of Japanese and English-speaking learners of Japanese based on large-size conversation data. I used the International Corpus of Japanese as a Second Language (I-JAS) (Sakoda et al., 2020) to examine how native speakers and learners use the connective shi in the interview task about the same topics in the same amount of time. I found that both native speakers and learners used the connective shi equally well, providing reasons first and then giving a conclusion. However, when giving a conclusion first and then providing reasons, learners could not add reasons accurately with the connective shi compared to native speakers. I analyzed learners' errors and found that they made these errors due to coming up with more than one conclusion or providing wrong reasons for a conclusion. I propose that we can understand what learners are doing in those errors if we use Schiffrin's (1987) idea structure, which divides a paragraph into a position and supports. A position is the speaker's commitment to his opinion, and supports are the explanations of his commitment. I also propose that we can assist learners in explicit instruction. The instructor can explicitly present different patterns of the connective shi in the basic grammar rules with examples. After learners can use the explicitly presented information to identify a conclusion and reasons at the sentence level, they can organize the idea structure with the connective shi and other connectives at the paragraph level. They can express their opinions about debatable topics in the idea structure.

Committee: Etsuyo Yuasa (Advisor); Mineharu Nakayama (Committee Member) Subjects: Pedagogy

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, EDU Teaching and Learning

Abstract This research attempted to begin to examine the problem of why youth and consequently, adults with complex disabilities, are not being employed in competitive, integrated environments. As policy, WIOA mandates this status with few exceptions. The study asked, “who and/or what state, and local agencies provide services that mean to support employment and community access?” The study also questioned what services are successful in providing employment supports to consumers with complex disabilities, as well as the barriers to providing supports. The study used a theoretical framework that combined a Stages-Heuristic policy model and Organizational Niche Theory in which to view the problem. A qualitative research design was used along with descriptive statistics of an electronic survey sent to 123 VR, DD agency and Blind/VI services personnel. A Focus Group was facilitated to expand on survey responses and help discover or add to emerging themes from open- ended survey questions. The results of the survey were limited, with only 17 participants responding to questions. The Focus Group with three members, was also limited in geographical regions, as well as representative agencies. Therefore, it was impossible to answer the main questions regarding what state agencies provide specialized services to individuals with complex disabilities for the purpose of competitive, integrated employment. However, the open-ended questions/responses gave good insight into what services are provided, which are successful, and what barriers the responding agencies have in providing specialized services. The Focus Group discussion added to the survey responses, and several themes were apparent. The responses also reinforced much of the current literature (of which there is little) around employment attainment for individuals with significant disabilities.

Committee: Tiffany Wild PhD (Advisor) Subjects: Education; Public Policy; Special Education

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, Educational Studies

The purpose of this dissertation was to explore the impact of one educator's EnvisionIT (EIT) curriculum implementation on transition-related outcomes for a select sample of the educator's students with disabilities who received EIT instruction, namely: (i) the students' Individualized Education Program [IEP] transition goals; and (ii) the students' participation in their IEP transition planning process. A qualitative case study was designed to: (i) examine a secondary dataset of student IEP transition goals, including age-appropriate transition assessment results, written by the educator who implemented EIT with students; and (ii) conduct a follow-up interview with the educator to learn more about his EIT implementation practices and perceptions of student involvement and transition-related outcomes. Thematic analysis of datasets revealed the following key findings: (i) strategies to write effective IEP transition goals; (ii) barriers to EIT curriculum access and student participation in transition planning; and (iii) strategies to support student success. Implications for implementing EIT and writing IEP transition goals with meaningful student participation is discussed alongside recommendations for future research.

Committee: Antoinette Errante (Advisor); Ann Allen (Committee Member); Bryan Warnick (Committee Member); Mei-Wei Chang (Committee Member) Subjects: Education Policy

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2022, Engineering and Applied Science: Computer Science and Engineering

The emergence and evolution of ideas is one of the most important processes in human society, and has been a topic of great interest for philosophers and historians. Psychologists have also attempted to develop models of how new ideas arise from the recombination of existing ones, and have proposed to model this process as being similar to biological evolution. However, studying the evolution of ideas has been limited by the difficulty in obtaining systematic data. The recent exponential growth in electronic data promises a solution, but several impediments remain, including a systematic process for extracting ideas and methods for analyzing their dynamics over time. While the general problem of identifying ideas in texts is extremely complex, one possible approach is to look at how meaning is distributed in documents, and to study the evolution of this structure across documents and over time. The research in this dissertation develops a framework for doing this in large, longitudinal corpora of documents. This system, called the Framework for the Analysis of Semantic Structure Evolution in Text (FASSET), exploits the statistics of changing word usage within the corpus in combination with machine learning techniques, including topic analysis, semantic embedding, adaptive clustering, and dimensionality reduction for visualization. It represents an integrated model for extracting semantic structure within single documents, within text corpora with a single time-stamp, and across a longitudinally extensive corpus. It includes new methods for text segmentation, longitudinal topic identification, and longitudinal semantic clustering. The goal is to provide a system for exploring a simplified "systems biology" of ideas through which the evolution of ideas can be studied at various levels. The FASSET system is applied to two large longitudinal corpora: Speeches in the U.S. Congress over a period of 36 consecutive years, and papers presented at the Int (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Ali Minai Ph.D. (Committee Member); Gowtham Atluri Ph.D. (Committee Member); Carla Purdy Ph.D. (Committee Member); Simona Doboli Ph.D. (Committee Member); Raj Bhatnagar Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Computer Science

Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Education, Cleveland State University, 2020, College of Education and Human Services

The largest group of students receiving special education services in the United States qualify under the category of Specific Learning Disability (SLD) (Cottrell & Barrett, 2015). The most recent reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA 2004) was the first time that federal special education law substantially changed the way in which Multidisciplinary Teams (MDTs) could identify students with SLDs. Because of their specialized training, school psychologists are considered to be the disability identification expert of the team (NASP, 2010). This instrumental case study investigated school psychologists' experience of identifying SLDs in urban schools and how they make sense of the process. This study was conducted with school psychologists who have at least five years of experience and currently work in an urban school in Cuyahoga County. Seven school psychologists from six districts consented to participate in this study. Participants completed a brief demographic questionnaire and two semi-structured interviews, answering interview questions to address the following primary research questions: (1) What resources and existing knowledge do school psychologists draw on in the processes of SLD identification; and (2) What challenges occur for them in the SLD identification process. Participants identified themes regarding resources and existing knowledge that they use during the identification process as well as challenges related to their training, professional development, team dynamics, school and community resources, the legal definition of SLD, inconsistent application of policy, and SLD guidance and policy during this study. These findings highlighted the need for changes to university-level educator training programs, professional development, and community outreach and inclusion, as well as the need to recommit to students' right to a Free Appropriate Public Education.

Committee: Tachelle Banks (Committee Chair); Anne Galletta (Committee Member); Shereen Naser (Committee Member) Subjects: Continuing Education; Education Policy; Educational Evaluation; Educational Leadership; Educational Psychology; Special Education

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2020, Elementary Education

The purpose of this dissertation study is to reveal constructs that determine how federal and state policies for identification of and services for students with dyslexia are implemented in Ohio public schools. The study aims to find the answer to the following question: How do Ohio K-12 public educators (a) interpret and (b) implement federal and state policies for the identification of students with dyslexia or showing dyslexic tendencies? Three Ohio K-12 suburban public-school districts were selected for this collective, instrumental case study research. Five personnel, district special education directors, principals, school psychologists, and a general and special education teacher, at each district were interviewed to share their experiences with students with dyslexia or showing dyslexic tendencies and district documents were collected and analyzed. Interviews were conducted face to face and then transcribed. The meaning was extracted from the data using a coding procedure which allowed chunks and segments to be labeled and themes, patterns, ideas, and concepts to be organized. A focused coding procedure allowed for building and clarifying concepts within categories and codes were organized by relevance to each other in a way that helped in providing thick descriptions of participants' experiences. Constant comparison analysis was used to systematically reduce the data to codes, then develop themes from the codes and classical content analysis was used to count the number of codes to determine which concepts occurred throughout the data for descriptive statistics. Five emergent themes were discovered during this study: (a) inconsistencies in handling identification of dyslexia as district practices (b) perceptions and misperceptions of dyslexia (c) varied screening and assessment practices for dyslexia (d) district challenges related to meeting the needs of students with dyslexia (g) parental lack trust in districts when it comes to identification of d (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Lisa Lenhart PhD (Advisor); Xin Liang PhD (Committee Member); Judith Juvancic-Heltzel PhD (Committee Member); Monica Gordon-Pershey EdD (Committee Member); Harold Foster PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Early Childhood Education; Education Policy; Elementary Education; Literacy; Special Education

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2018, Leadership and Change

This study explored open innovation activities in small and medium-sized enterprises. Most open innovation research to date has focused on large organizations; however, how large organizations engage in open innovation is very different from that of small and medium-size enterprises. The embedded design, mixed methods study utilized a survey delivered to owners or other organizational executives and employees of small and medium-size enterprises to solicit information regarding whether small and medium-size enterprises are actively engaging in inbound open innovation activities, their motivation for engaging in open innovation, and the sources they are utilizing to obtain new ideas for products and services. The survey also solicited the perception of executives and employees as to organizational processes for open innovation and their organization's receptiveness to open innovation and employee ideas and compared the responses. Qualitative questions elicited employees' experiences with regards to idea sharing within their organization. The majority of the 320 participants, almost evenly split between executives and employees, were recruited using Amazon's® Mechanical Turk® platform. Results were analyzed using independent-samples t-tests and Chi-Square analysis. The study found that 91.2% of small and medium-size enterprises engaged in some level of open innovation activity. Executives from small and medium-size enterprises engaging in open innovation reported that 97.6% had open innovation formally or informally as part of their organization's business model and that they utilized employees as an important source of ideas. The results of this study exploring the presence of processes to facilitate open innovation and receptiveness to employee ideas in small and medium-size enterprises, found a clear disconnect between executive and employee perception of what organizations are communicating and doing with executives perceiving a greater level of support for open i (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Lize Booysen DBL (Committee Chair); Carol Baron Ph.D. (Committee Member); Joseph P. Lakatos LL.M. (Committee Member) Subjects: Entrepreneurship; Management; Organization Theory; Organizational Behavior

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2018, Kinesiology

Androgen deprivation therapy is a foundation of treatment for a majority of prostate cancer patients. However, the adverse effects of androgen suppression on body composition places prostate cancer patients at increased risk for sarcopenic obesity, cardiovascular disease, and metabolic syndrome. The synergistic benefits of promoting concomitant change in both exercise and dietary behavior could represent an optimal lifestyle intervention approach for offsetting the adverse effects of ADT on body composition. Nonetheless, knowledge of the effects of lifestyle interventions on treatment-related body composition change in prostate cancer patients undergoing androgen deprivation therapy remains relatively limited. The purpose of the single-blind, randomized controlled Individualized Diet and Exercise Adherence-Pilot (IDEA-P) trial is to evaluate the preliminary efficacy of an exercise and diet intervention, implementing a group-mediated cognitive behavioral (GMCB) approach, relative to standard of care treatment among prostate cancer patients undergoing androgen deprivation therapy. In the current study, we evaluated the effects of the exercise and diet intervention on select body composition outcomes. A total of 30 PC patients (M age = 66 years) on androgen suppression were randomly assigned to the exercise and diet (EX+D) (n = 14) or standard-of-care (SC) (n = 16) interventions. Measures of body composition were obtained via dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) at baseline and 3-month follow- up assessments. Results Separate, univariate analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) models were used to examine the effect of Treatment (EX+D and SC) on the change in body composition outcomes observed from the baseline and 3-month assessments. Effect sizes (Cohen's d) were calculated by taking the adjusted mean difference and dividing by the pooled standard deviation to determine the magnitude of differences observed for each outcome. Significant treatment main effects for the l (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Brian Focht (Advisor); Carl Maresh (Committee Member); Jeff Volek (Committee Member) Subjects: Aging; Health; Health Sciences; Kinesiology; Medicine; Oncology

Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Education, Cleveland State University, 2017, College of Education and Human Services

Minority students have historically been disproportionately identified as requiring special education services. This disproportionality is interpreted as symptomatic of biased referral procedures and as evidence of inequity in public education. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) addressed this issue for the first time in 1997, and formally defined consequences for school districts that demonstrate evidence of minority disproportionality as a result of inappropriate special education referrals. The purpose of this study was to determine if rates of minority disproportionality in special education have changed since the IDEA regulations regarding disproportionality were operationalized in 2006, and whether the method of calculating the disproportionality index impacted a district's rating. Data from 608 school districts in the state of Ohio were examined using a paired samples t test and latent growth modeling in Hierarchical Linear Modeling. Significant differences were found between districts' mean disproportionality indices, depending on the method of calculation. Where significant change over time was found in the latent growth models, the rate of change was either a nearly imperceptible decrease or an increase in disproportionality indices. The findings suggest that the requirements in IDEA and associated policies have not had the intended effects. There is a need to examine the ways in which conditions and policies external to schools impact disproportionality in special education, as well as an opportunity to develop an equitable and sound method of measuring disproportionality.

Committee: Anne Galletta Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Adam Voight Ph.D. (Other); Amanda Yurick Ph.D. (Committee Member); James Moore Ed.D. (Committee Member); Daniel Jaffe J.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Education Policy; Special Education

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1992, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Philosophy

PHD, Kent State University, 2014, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Foundations, Leadership and Administration

GATES, JUSTIN J., Ph.D., December 2014 Education, Health, and Human Services A LEGISLATIVE AND JUDICIAL ANALYSIS OF INDIVIDUALIZED EDUCATION PROGRAM RELATED SERVICES (439 pp.) Director of Dissertation: Stephen B. Thomas, Ph.D. The purpose of this research is to analyze U.S. and Ohio legislation and case law as they relate to related services provided through an individualized education program for students with disabilities. Chapter one provides an introduction to the study. Chapter two provides a review of literature associated with related services as part of a student's individualized education program, as well as the legislative history of the Education of All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (PL 94-142) and in 1990 renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Chapter three details the methodology with which the study will be conducted. Next, in chapter four case law is reviewed to determine how state and federal courts have ruled in disputes between parents and local education agencies regarding the provision of related services as part of a student's individualized education program. In chapter five, the dissertation identifies IDEA's intended purpose specifically regarding related services. Additionally, chapter five also ascertains the specific outcomes of case law pursuant to the IDEA and related services, details the similarities and differences in cases involving related services, and specifies the trends in case law and judicial decisions. Finally, chapter six provides guidelines concerning the provision of related services for students with disabilities to school board members, superintendents, district and building administrators, general and special education teachers, related service providers, the Ohio Department of Education, and Ohio and Federal legislators. Disagreements can occur between parents and school districts on the provision of related services to (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Stephen Thomas (Advisor); Joseph Giancola (Committee Member); Thomas Brewer (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Educational Leadership; Special Education

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2014, Psychology-Industrial/Organizational

In order to better understand the creative process it is necessary to understand how a person evaluates creative ideas, not just how they are generated. This study examines how people might choose as best ideas higher in originality or in practicality from a standard list of TV show ideas. This series of studies uses the model of idea evaluation proposed by Mumford, Lonergan, and Scott (2002) which says that people first forecast how the idea will work out if implemented, then compare the ideas against each other before finally choosing a single idea to pursue. Study 1 examined whether this model matched how people naturally evaluate ideas, but the results did not support the model. Study 2 examined if people can be influenced to favor originality or practicality by going through the process in different ways. Changing the process did affect idea evaluation as expected, especially for those low in divergent thinking, an individual difference related to generating new ideas. Study 3 tested whether the regulatory focus context could affect idea evaluation. The regulatory focus context did affect idea evaluation; those with a promotion focus favored original ideas and those with a prevention focus favored practical ideas. Further research is needed into the way people naturally evaluate ideas and also research is needed into idea evaluation in a setting that is more real world.

Committee: Andrea Snell Dr. (Advisor); Paul Levy Dr. (Committee Member); James Diefendorff Dr. (Committee Member); Joelle Elicker Dr. (Committee Member); R. Ray Gehani Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Cognitive Psychology; Personality Psychology; Social Psychology

MS, University of Cincinnati, 2012, Engineering and Applied Science: Computer Engineering

Influence propagation in social networks has been studied extensively in recent years, but in rather ad-hoc or simplistic frameworks. This thesis presents a multi-agent social network model where both the connectivity patterns and the interaction behaviors of agents are taken from a real-world network. Additionally, the agents modeled have plausible cognitive and social characteristics that determine the degree to which they can be influenced by other agents. The agents are classified into different classes based on their relative frequency of interaction with other neighboring agents. Opinions are injected into the system by agents of specific classes and their spread is tracked by propagating tags. The resulting data is used to analyze the influence of agents from each class in the viral spread of ideas under various conditions. The analysis also shows what behavioral factors, at the agent level, have the most significant impact on the spreading of ideas.

Committee: Ali Minai PhD (Committee Chair); Raj Bhatnagar PhD (Committee Member); Karen Davis PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Computer Engineering

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2009, Art

This research explores a new methodology for idea-generation with multi-disciplinary design teams demonstrating alternative ideation techniques and brainstorming facilitation. Innovators may use this methodology to enhance their company's enthusiasm toward a project, link and generate different ideas together, or train newcomers in a team-building exercise. Researchers can use this dynamic moderator approach that involves careful timing to conduct a compact brainstorming session. Design educators may challenge their teaching styles with various parts of this methodology to encourage their students to practice thinking more broadly and gathering out-of-the-box ideas into one narrative by using the compiled, tested techniques in this study. Current idea-generation methods range from traditional methods such as focus groups, to non-traditional social networking platforms such as GUNGEN used in Japan. However, little to no information details an approach that leverages a combination of social networking channels such as wiki communities to co-create with design teams, while combining generative tools and free association for storytelling during the pre-design phase. Six separate workshops were facilitated at the respective job sites of the participants. Each group was comprised of six to eight professionals screened and recruited through a contact person who also participated in the hour-long ideation workshop. A total of twenty-nine participants tested the methodology. The results reveal novel associations with mundane objects, which add imagination and cohesion to these objects when formulated into storytelling. As a vehicle for collaborative ideation, this methodology is intended for group motivation and idea enhancement in a cost-effective way. It is aimed to benefit those who are thought leaders, and regularly work with ideas to innovate, manage, strategize, educate, moderate, research, and design, without the time or money to go on a creative retreat. A qua (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: R. Brian Stone (Advisor); Elizabeth B.-N. Sanders PhD (Committee Member); James W. Arnold (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education; Business Community; Communication; Fine Arts; Higher Education; Management; Social Psychology; Teaching

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2006, Political Science

How could one explain and characterize relative peace, security and prosperity in Northeast Asia (NEA) for the last two decades? What have we missed out theoretically in terms of seeing the then future of NEA? The dissertation challenges the prevailing pessimistic arguments about NEA security by criticizing their analytical failure to assess the progressive trends of regional interactions. In this vein, the dissertation re-characterizes the 17 years of the Post Cold War in the region as the surprising peace where regional states have achieved a progressive, relatively well–coordinated, cooperative, and prudent regional order. This dissertation provides a new framework of explaining NEA's regional order throughout the Post Cold War period. I argue that many different stimuli at structural level occurred for the last 17 years in NEA. But I also find the persistence of such ideas as war aversion, stability for development and regional prosperity throughout the region. And the overall outcome in Northeast Asian for the last 17 years is the avoidance of major harm and the progressive development of regional order. In order to explain the progressive regional order in NEA, I develop an analytical construct, Vision of Regional Order (VRO), to account for the unfolding of regional interactions for the past 17 years from a phenomenological approach. A VRO is states' expectation and understanding about what constitutes suitable behaviors towards neighboring states based on historical memories, perceived threat and perceived economic opportunity. Each VRO provide insights into behavioral disposition, which I call a vector or orientation of the major policy behaviors. I examine the four empirical cases – the end of the Cold War, the 94 North Korean nuclear crisis, the 97 Asian Financial Crisis, the 2001-5 historical disputes. I find that the goals and preferences of NEA states have affected patterns of regional interactions and produced the surprising peace in the region. Regio (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Richard Herrmann (Advisor) Subjects:

Specialist in Education, Miami University, 2005, School Psychology

This paper examined how the advocacy movement leading up to the passage of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (P.L. 94-142) succeeded. Extensive interviews were conducted with key players in this movement and findings were triangulated with the literature to generate a more comprehensive schema of the factors involved in the passage of P.L. 94-142. The P.L. 94-142 schema was then compared and contrasted with advocacy schemas from other landmark movements to highlight the unique nature of this movement and to illustrate that different movements require different advocacy schemas. This paper also presents limitations and recommendations for future research and practices.

Committee: Doris Bergen (Advisor) Subjects: Education, Special

Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Studies and Public Affairs, Cleveland State University, 2011, Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs

The importance of knowledge creation in economic development has been enormously emphasized in recent years. Inventions are the first step for innovations that leads to further economic growth. Moreover, when new ideas are created endogenously from within a regional system, rather than from outside, they may lead to internally-generated economic growth and development. Accordingly, this study aims to understand ‘the process of generating creative ideas' for endogenous regional economic growth. On the basis of data that reflects the perspectives of actual inventors, the researcher adopted both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The qualitative methods were oriented toward phenomenology and were based upon interviews designed to understand how inventors personally experience the process of invention. The quantitative methods were based upon a mail-out survey of inventors and an in-class survey of students. The surveys were designed to test hypotheses about Darwinian theories of creative thought processes. Interview results provide evidence of both Darwinian theory and Lamarckian theory. Survey results reveal that students' perspectives on invention are more consistent with Darwinian theory than are the perspectives of inventors. From these empirical results, the Darwinian hypothesis for the generation of creative ideas is disconfirmed; however these results do not definitely prove Darwinian theory to be incorrect. From a Darwinian point of view, endogenous economic growth led by new ideas takes the form of “blind-variation and selective-retention.” Economic development policy based on Darwinian theory should encourage people to generate various ideas and select one of them at the local and individual level. This can also be applied to regional policies that focus on various industries and academic fields. In contrast, Lamarckian theory supports top-down approach and focuses on few promising industries and academic fields that are designed from centralized (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: William Bowen PhD (Committee Chair); Camilla Stivers PhD (Committee Member); Chieh-Chen Bowen PhD (Committee Member); Roger Stough PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Economics; Psychology; Urban Planning

Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Education, Cleveland State University, 2010, College of Education and Human Services

The Individual with Disability Educational Improvement Act (IDEA-2004) (P.L. 108-446) includes a policy called Early Intervening Services (EIS) which makes it permissible, but not mandatory, for a school district to use 15 percent of their IDEA Part B funds to provide services to non-disabled at risk students. However, a school district cited for disproportionality because of an overrepresentation of racial or ethnic minorities or second language learners receiving special education services or disciplinary action is required to use 15 percent of their special education funding to address these issues. The purpose of this study was to obtain knowledge on the impact of this IDEA policy at the local public school district level on the overidentification of students in general and specifically on the overrepresentation of African Americans in special education services. The design of the study utilized parallel case studies in six Northeast Ohio school districts. Three of these districts were cited for disproportionality and three districts were not cited for disproportionality. The design relied on two interviews in each district. Additional data was obtained from reviews of federal, state and school district records and relevant secondary sources. Four policy themes emerged from the Study: EIS policy was confusing because it lacked clarity on how disproportionality was determined; funding was punitive because it reduced funds for students with disabilities to provide interventions for general education vi students; implementation was unfair because some districts were required to establish EIS services and some were not; and the additional workload created for administrators was excessive. The three districts that used EIS funding to address a disproportionate number of African American students assigned to special education categories showed a reduction in disproportionality and were not cited after a year of EIS. However, the cause of this success was questioned be (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Judy Stahlman PhD (Committee Co-Chair); James Carl Ph.D (Committee Co-Chair); Dwayne Wright PhD (Committee Member); Anne Galletta PhD (Committee Member); Kathleen McNamara PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Special Education

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2010, Leadership Studies

The primary purpose of this correlational study was to examine the impact of IEP team composition (team member attendance) and transition planning (types of transition outcomes) upon the success (graduation) of students with disabilities in urban districts. Other factors also included gender, academic status of school, socioeconomic status of the students, and age of students at graduation. Transition is defined as the point at which change occurs in somebody's life (Cimera & Rusch, 2000). All humans are affected or impacted by transitions occurring in their lives. Some researchers agree that transition for students with disabilities can be more difficult than transition for students without disabilities, reflecting the need for the participation of students with disabilities in their IEP development specifically transition planning (Cimera & Rusch, 2000; Furney & Salembier, 2000; Gargiulo, 2003; Kohler & Chapman, 1999; Martin, Marshall & Sale, 2004; Patton, 2004; Trach & Sheldon, 2000; Wagner & Blackorby, 1996). Furthermore, planning and implementing transition services for students with disabilities is mandated by federal law. The evidence of transition planning is the development of the transition page of the student's individual education plan (IEP). Every sixteen year old student with disabilities should have a transition page developed and incorporated into the IEP and every fourteen year old student with disabilities should have a statement of needed transition services incorporated into the IEP. The development of the transition page is critical because the goals of these transition services address the following areas: instruction, community service, employment, and other adult-living objectives (Yell, 2006). The achievement of these transition goals translates to a better quality of life in adulthood for students with disabilities (Gargiulo, 2003). For example, Benz, Lindstrom, and Yovanoff (as cited in Conderman & Katisyannis, 2002) identified that caree (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Judith Jackson May (Advisor); Mark A. Earley (Committee Member); Patrick D. Pauken (Committee Member); Larry Small (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; School Administration; Secondary Education; Special Education