Date of Award

8-2026

Degree Type

Creative Project

Degree Name

Master of Education (MEd)

Department

Special Education and Rehabilitation Counseling

Committee Chair(s)

Stephen Kwiatek

Committee

Stephen Kwiatek

Committee

Kaitlin Bundock

Committee

Kimberly Snow

Abstract

This project explores the challenges associated with the teacher referral process for students at risk of academic and behavior difficulties in a rural school. The Student Study Team (SST) plays an important role in identifying and supporting students; yet, teacher engagement with the referral process is inconsistent in my K-4 school. Teacher participation in our school is low.  Referrals mostly occur after parent-teacher conferences, and teacher participation in the lower grades (K-2) is noticeably lower than referrals from our 3rd and 4th grade teachers. Many factors, including limited understanding of the SST’s purpose, time constraints, and perceived effectiveness of the team-recommended teacher interventions, could be contributing to the lack of student referrals submitted to the SST during the school year. This project seeks to help make meaningful changes in my school SST by reviewing literature on SSTs to understand best practices in implementing changes in school settings, along with collecting and analyzing prior SST student and teacher data and teacher perceptions and barriers to participation.

This project will include two reports: assessment and collaboration. An assessment report will involve a review of the SST referral data from the past four years. It will also include the results of a survey sent to teachers through a Google Form to gather their experiences with the SST process. Together, the data will help to inform us of the effectiveness of the current SST. The second report, the collaboration report, will be based on the findings of the assessment report. It will involve presenting the student data and teacher data to the SST.

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