senior_490

Spring 2022 Senior Seminar: CAS 490T Children & Adolescents At-Risk Senior Paper Rubric

Total Score: /100 points Student Name:_____________________________

APA Formatting

Cover Page has APA running head, page number, title, author name, school and department affiliation, author note 1 2

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12-15 double spaced times new roman 12pt font pages excluding cover page, abstract page, and references list. 1- inch margins all around. Abstract and keywords are on their own page and follow APA.

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All pages have APA running head + page numbers & If including footnotes, tables, figures, appendices/supplemental material – follow APA formatting. All headings & subheadings are in APA formatting

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Properly cites prior work using quotation marks, block quotes, paraphrasing, etc avoiding plagiarism 1 2 3

Title + Abstract + Keywords Title, abstract, & keywords offer key insights into what the paper is about.

Title goes beyond the general topics (e.g., teacher training) or outcomes (e.g., social-emotional learning) and gives insight into the issue, relationships or cause-effect, and/or research question being asked and/or the method being used.

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__/10 Abstract clearly describes the big picture problem statement, what the proposal RQ is, how the author plans to address that RQ, and the potential implications/contributions of this proposal to the literature, practice, policy, and/or society at large.

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Keywords go beyond listing all the outcomes or independent variables and touch on research design and who this proposal may be useful for/implications.

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Introduction (1-2 pages inclusive of RQs)

Captivating intro sentences that clearly communicate the problem statement (use prior literature to support your argument/the way you set-up your problem statement).

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__/8 Clearly describe what gap your proposal is aiming to fill or how it will address the problem stated. It does not have to a big creative innovative contribution but it should show an understanding of where the current body of knowledge lies and using that add a new perspective or push things forward even slightly.

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Research Question(s)

Research question(s) are clearly listed either within a paragraph, with bullet points, or numbered after the introduction body

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Research questions are written as questions not as statements. If questions are related there is proper use of sub- questions as opposed to a long list of individual questions. No more than 3 key/major RQs listed but each question can have a sub-question if absolutely needed.

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Research questions appropriately match the methods being used. For example, do not use a question asking about A “causing, impacting, or having an effect” on B and then propose a qualitative research design. Use the resources on canvas for how to form proper research questions.

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Spring 2022 Senior Seminar: CAS 490T Children & Adolescents At-Risk Senior Paper Rubric

Background/Relevant Literature (3+ pages)

Organized in a cohesive manner with logical sequence of sub-headings/topics. 1 2 3

__/8 Goes beyond summarizing prior studies and discusses how they relate to one another and how you as the author are thinking of them as they relate to your study. Describes key seminal pieces in the literature informing the RQs or proposed program. Remember, your job is to present all relevant knowledge not only what confirms your prior biases or hypothesis.

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Conceptual or Theoretical Framework (~2 paragraphs)

Effectively describes the chosen model, framework, or theory driving your research proposal. This includes discussing who the key scholar behind the model, framework, or theory is…when the theory was originally conceptualized and why. What data if any was used to generate said model, framework, or theory?

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__/8 Effectively discusses why the chosen model, framework, or theory makes sense and is a good fit for your proposal. In what ways does it inform the way you ask your RQs, the recruitment or data collection strategy, the analysis and interpretation of findings, the measures or survey/interview questions being asked to participants, the kind of dataset(s) you propose using.

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Positionality Statement (1- 2 paragraphs)

Clearly connects your identity and experiences to the proposal by discussing concrete examples of how those inform your approach and understanding of the issue and each aspect of the proposed study/program. For example, If you are proposing to interview or survey immigrant students but you are not an immigrant student yourself, will you collaborate with a peer/colleague who does have that experience and/or an expert in that area and/or do member checks etc. Another example is, if you are using a city, county, state, or national dataset to investigate issues within special education instruction or systems and you or a family member has experienced the special education system first-hand how does that influence your understanding of potential findings (e.g., you bring a nuanced perspective that others may not and you see areas where future surveys or data collection efforts can improve on). Those are only examples but essentially how are you accounting for potential biases and blind spots and/or how does your positionality shed a new light or meaningfully contribute to the work.

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Research Design/Methods

Enough detail is provided so that someone else can replicate your proposed research design and cite proper references informing your research design decisions. Covers sites/location, target population and sample being recruited. If using a dataset describe how that dataset was generated. Where and from who was data collected and when. Who collected the data and cleaned it? Who is the dataset available to? Explains reasoning behind these decisions. These pieces should be several paragraphs or subsections.

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__/15 Describes data collection strategies and the measures. Will you use surveys, interviews, focus groups, or will you do classrooms, community, teacher, child, or parent observations? Will data be collected in-person, over the phone, online (what websites or software will be used – google forms, Qualtrics, survey monkey, etc). Will you not collect your own data and instead use a dataset already available (e.g., NCES, IES, School District, City, County, State, National datasets)? Or will it be a combination of data forms? Explain reasoning behind these decisions and offer detail descriptions of the surveys, interviews, datasets etc. that you created for your proposal or are using for your

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Spring 2022 Senior Seminar: CAS 490T Children & Adolescents At-Risk Senior Paper Rubric

proposal (if you did not develop the scales or measures being used than cite where you are getting them from). Are you doing an intervention or implementing a pilot program and if so, how are you measuring its success? How are you measuring all the variables/factors at play? Don’t just say cognitive development tell me what specific construct/scale/measure you are using to operationalize cognitive development or academic progress or self- esteem or any other outcome. These pieces should be several paragraphs or subsections.

Give a clear timeline of your recruitment, data collection, data cleaning, and analysis. If it is a longitudinal study, what measures or data will be collected at every wave? How often will you do data collection (once a week, once a month, every 3 months, every semester, every 6 months, every year, etc)?

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Analytic Plan Strategy + Budget Justifications

Enough detail is provided so that someone else can replicate your proposed analysis. Describe how you are cleaning and organizing the data. Where/what software are you using to store the data? Why?

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__/15 Explain how you are going to analyze the data citing proper references that are informing your analytic plan. Use the resources on canvas and the analytic sections of other papers related to your topic to help guide you. Don’t just say you are doing a thematic analysis, a meta-analysis, or a regression analysis. Explain what those look like in more detail (what steps are involved). These pieces should be several paragraphs or subsections.

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References

Minimum of 12 scholarly sources cited. References are timely and relevant pieces. 0 1 __/6 If they are in your references list, they must be cited at least once in your paper. References list and in-text citations

follow APA formatting. 1 2 3 4 5

Writing

Free of grammar and spelling errors. 1 2 3

__/7 Smooth transitions used throughout. Sentence structure is simple and clear. Free of run on sentences or convoluted sentences. Free of jargon language and is written in a clear easy to follow manner. Technical terms are readily and clearly defined.

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Spring 2022 Senior Seminar: CAS 490T Children & Adolescents At-Risk Senior Paper Rubric