8110 Wk5 Dis

8110 Colleague Responses Week 5

Assignment Task Part 2

Respond to a classmate who was assigned a different article than you by further supporting his or her critique or respectfully offering a differing perspective in a

250- Word response.

Colleague #1 Response– Janelle Pierce

Evaluation of Quantitative Research

            When conducting quantitative research, the researcher is trying to understand and explain a particular behavior using data and statistics (Burkholder, 2020). In the article Indicators of Postsecondary Employment and Education for Youth With Disabilities in Relation to GPA and General Education, the authors used a nonexperimental correlational research design. According to Burkholder, if the goal of the study is to understand the nature of the relationships or the associations between natural variables that cannot be manipulated, then it is best to use a correlation design (Burkholder, 2016). The educators who were included in this study had to complete demographic information for themselves and for their students.  Participating families completed their demographic information.  Educators then completed TAGG, the Professional Assessment Goal Generator.  Students and family members also completed TAGG. Lastly, the educators gave all the results, demographics forms, and transcripts from students to the researchers for analysis.

Research Questions and Hypotheses Checklist

            The article does show the relation between nonacademic behaviors that the researchers were able to measure using TAGG and that students spent in general educations and GPA. The article was also able to state what would have been able to be determined if there was not a relation between the variables.  The hypothesis remained consistent with the research question.  There was no null or alternative hypothesis provided by the researchers. They hypothesis itself does not specifically state the participants or research site, however these are provided within the article.

 

Analyze Alignment

            Alignment is an important issue in research.  Alignment ensures that provides evidence of coherent research design and scientific rigor (Burkholder, 2020).  There was alignment in this study.  The researchers stated the theory and purpose of their study. Researchers were then able to use their data to find that TAGG scores were not sufficient to determine if there was a correlation between the time spent in general education classrooms and GPA.

References

Burkholder, G.J., Cox, K.A., & Crawford, L.M. (2020). Research designs and methods: An applied guide for the scholar-practitioner. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

McConnell, A. E., Martin, J. E., & Hennessey, M. N. (2015). Indicators of postsecondary employment and education for youth with disabilities in relation to GPA and general education. Remedial & Special Education, 36(6), 327–336. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741932515583497

Colleague #2 Response- Lori Platko 

Evaluating Research Questions, Hypotheses, and Quantitative Research Designs

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Purpose

            In the research study conducted by McConnell et al. (2015), the research questions posed are a logical extension of the purpose of the study.  The research questions posed involve the correlation between Grade Point Average (GPA) in the general education setting and non-academic behaviors as indicators of a students’ post-school employment to their education (McConnell et al., 2015).  This comparison was made with students identified with disabilities using the Transition Assessment and Goal Generator (TAGG) and students. They have a lower GPA due to their disability and less access to the general education curriculum. The research extrapolated on considering a student’s GPA directly relates to the readiness of post-school education and employment or are other factors (social skills, communication) indicators.

Problem

           The research question regarding a correlation between general education and GPA ad non-academic behaviors with career readiness and academics reflects a problem stating that there is little prior research on the correlation of GPA and non-academic skills. Furthermore, there is little research on whether there is a relationship between having non-academic skills and increased GPAs (McConnell et al., 2015).  If there is no relationship between the two, then those skills will need to be taught explicitly. If there is, then students with disabilities will need further access to the general education setting to attain these skills in that environment.  

Design

           Alignment of the research question and the design of the study exists. Their research design is one of a correlational research design (McConnell et al., 2015). The researchers gained an understanding of the nature of the relationship between naturally occurring variables. Here, the variable involved were the GPA and TAGG scores established in the general education setting.

Methods

           There is an alignment between the research questions and the methods used to collect the data.  This quantitative study used both independent variables and dependent variables (McConnell et al., 2015). These independent variables consisted of time spent in the general education setting and the student’s GPA.  The dependent variables consisted of the TAGG scores to measure the non-academic behaviors. The reliability and validity of the TAGG scores were considered and measured accordingly.  

Questions/Hypothesis

           The descriptive questions described the responses to the variables (Babbie, 2016). The reported data indicated that non-academic behaviors measured by the TAGG scores did not correlate with the number of times students were in a general education setting, resulting in higher GPA scores (McConnell et al., 2015). These basic skills may be explicitly taught in settings other than the general education setting and still have the same result.  

The inferential questions about the correlation between GPA scores and time allotted in general education settings were sought out among the independent variables; however, after the data was analyzed, it did not follow the theory (McConnell et al., 2015). The variables were consistent between the independent variables and the dependent variables, where both GPA (independent variable) and the TAGG scores (dependent variable) were both measured (McConnell et al., 2015). A null hypothesis (Burkholder, 2019) was provided, stating that there was no correlation between GPA and non-academic behaviors for post-secondary employment due to the exposure of students being served in the general education setting. This hypothesis was consistent with the research question referring to the correlation of students with high GPAs having a higher measure in non-academic skills than those students with a lower GPA due to an identified disability, thus less exposure to a general education setting. The research questions or hypothesis indicated the participants and research site. The participants and site were clearly stated in the abstract and the method. 

References

Babbie, E. R. (2016). The Basics of Social Research (7th Edition). Cengage

Limited.  https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/books/9781337268622

Burkholder, G. J., Cox, K. A., Crawford, L. M., & Hitchcock, J. H. (2019). Research Design and

Methods. SAGE Publications, Inc.

(US).  https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/books/9781544342375

McConnell, A. E., Martin, J. E., & Hennessey, M. N. (2015). Indicators of postsecondary

employment and education for youth with disabilities in relation to GPA and general

education. Remedial & Special Education, 36(6), 327–336.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0741932515583497

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