About

Cathy Crossland is a Professor of Special Education and the Director of the Diagnostic Teaching Clinic at NC State University. Her role involves providing diagnostic-prescriptive educational services to students and families from childhood through post-secondary levels. The Clinic also functions as a laboratory to help prepare graduate students in Special Education. Her research interests and activities focus on clinical assessment and instructional interventions for children and adolescents with specific disorders of learning. Dr. Crossland's expertise is frequently sought by school districts in resolving disputes related to the design and delivery of Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) for K-12 students.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Computer Science
• Psychology
• Engineering
• Law
• Engineering management
• Criminology
• Mathematics education
• Geography
• World Wide Web

Selected publications

• Understanding How Freshmen Engineering Students Think They Learn

  2020 · 7 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Mathematics education
  • Psychology

  Abstract NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract Session 2793 Understanding How Freshmen Engineering Students Think They Learn Joni E. Spurlin, Leonhard E. Bernold, Cathy L. Crossland, and Chris M. Anson, Ph.D. North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC 27695 Introduction The work in this project is founded on an ongoing effort sponsored by the National Science Foundation* which has as its goal the establishment of a thorough understanding of “what freshmen do” when it comes to “college study” and how or whether their behavior changes during the first year. This new research effort, lead by the authors at North Carolina State University, is presently surveying 930 freshmen engineering students who started their college career in August 2002. The main data collection tools include: a) Pittsburgh Freshman Engineering Attitude Survey, b) Learning and Study Skills Inventory (LASSI), c) Learning Type Measure (LTM), and d) bi-weekly questions developed by the authors which students answered throughout their first semester. The Pittsburgh Freshman Engineering Attitude Survey is designed to assess their opinions, feelings, and confidence about engineering and learning engineering. The survey was given again at the end of the first semester to assess any changes. The LASSI and LTM are designed to help students understand and identify the ways they learn. The surveys questions that the students answered throughout the semester were focused on how they were learning, access to faculty and academic services, and changes during the first semester. One of the key premises of this project is that making them effective learners within the college environment, which is very different to what they are used to, may reduce the 57% attrition rate of freshman engineering students. Studies have shown that failing engineering freshman don’t have lower academic abilities; in fact, some of them have higher IQ’s than the average engineering student.1 Other studies demonstrate that traditional lecture oriented teaching leads to lower performance, negative attitudes towards engineering, and decreased self-confidence of some of the students.2 Hermann 3 concluded that , although employers need innovative engineers with strong communication and open-ended problem-solving skills, the heavily analytical and rote problem-solving orientation of current engineering curricula does not foster those needed skills. In a positive national context for employment in engineering, there is an urgent need for research to examine the institutional, pedagogical, and personal reasons for students to give up their pursuit of a career in engineering. Our study is investigating this phenomenon in ways that can help to inform and reform undergraduate education in engineering. * Grant funded by National Science Foundation, Division of Engineering Education and Centers, Award # 0212150 “Proceedings of the 2003 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition, Copyright © 2003, American Society for Engineering Education”

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Crime, Violence, and Suspensions in Traditional Versus Public Charter Schools: Large Scale Evidence From One U.S. State

  Journal of Leadership Accountability and Ethics · 2020 · 1 citations

  • Political Science
  • Criminology
  • Political Science

  We compared the student, school-related crime and violence in all the traditional public versus public charter schools in the state of North Carolina during school year 2015-2016. Results showed that traditional public schools demonstrated higher crime and violence rates than did public charter schools. Risk ratios related to lower rates of crime and violence in school greatly favored students attending public charter schools. Implications concerning the school-related crime and violence characteristics of two different types of schools, on a large scale, are provided.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Less is more

  Phi Delta Kappan · 2017-03-22 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author

  Teacher perceptions of student abilities can affect crucial placement decisions that, in turn, affect student opportunities to learn. The author’s research shows that this is particularly the case with black students who have earned high scores on math assessments but who, on the basis of teacher judgment, have not been recommended for placement in algebra in 8th grade. The author suggests a “less-is-more” approach — that is, remove teacher judgment from placement decisions and use universally available academic achievement performance data. This will increase the true identification of high-performing students, thereby increasing the opportunity to learn among students of different demographic backgrounds and reducing achievement gaps.

  PublisherDOI

• Race and Teacher Evaluations as Predictors of Algebra Placement

  Journal for Research in Mathematics Education · 2014-04-16 · 45 citations

  articleSenior author

  This study is a longitudinal look at the different mathematics placement profiles of Black students and White students from late elementary school through 8th grade. Results revealed that Black students had reduced odds of being placed in algebra by the time they entered 8th grade even after controlling for performance in mathematics. An important implication of this study is that placement recommendations must be monitored to ensure that high-achieving students are placed appropriately, regardless of racial background.

  PublisherDOI

• Predicting Eighth-Grade Algebra Students with Individualized Education Programs.

  Exceptional Children · 2013-03-22 · 20 citations

  article

  In this era of data-based decision making, it is important to understand whether student performance indicators are driving important placement decisions. This is particularly true for students with disabilities, who have specific legal protections in place (i.e., the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, IDEA). Research and policy recommendations in both special and general education have begun to turn toward academic indicators and responsiveness to instruction to assess students' risks and needs (Fuchs et al., 2005; Fuchs, Fuchs, & Hollenbeck, 2007; Marzano, 2003; Stecker & Fuchs, 2000). The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the interplay of teacher perception of student mathematical performance, actual student math performance, and eventual eighth-grade placement in Algebra I demonstrate patterns different for students with individualized education programs (IEPs) than for students without IEPs. Because the level of mathematics placement in middle school is often the primary determinant of how a student will be in high school mathematics courses, and because these high school placements in turn have a large influence on student educational outcomes (Burris, Heubert, & Levin, 2004, 2006; Catsambis, 1994; Dauber, Alexander, & Entwistle, 1996; Gamoran & Mare, 1989; Geiser & Santelices, 2006; Hallinan, 2003; Oakes, 1990), it is essential to understand if students with IEPs are being properly placed into their middle-grade mathematics courses. STUDENT TRACKING, TEACHER PERCEPTION, AND SPEClAL EDUCATION For decades, researchers have investigated issues that arise when students are into different groups or classes according to perceived ability. Initially, research focused on macro-analyses of the sociological and academic causes and effects of schooling andof tracking students (Bowles & Gintis, 2002; Cahan & Linchevski, 1996; Gamoran & Mare, 1989; Hallinan, 1994; Oakes, 1990). These studies led to a general understanding that tracking practices affect students differently according to socioeconomic status and face. During the same general period, the risk model was first popularized as a means of finding students in need of intervention by considering socioeconomic status and face (Donnelly, 1987; Slavin, Lake, & Groff, 2008). Eventually, and concurrently, researchers began to investigate smaller-scale issues regarding tracking and student academic placement, issues that are best investigated at the teacher and classroom level (Eder, 1981; Finley, 1984; Rist, 1970; Ritts, Patterson, & Tubbs, 1992; Useem, 1992). This included research on teacher expectations of student performance (Brophy & Good, 1986; Good & Brophy, 1974; Good, 1987). These studies contributed to the understanding of the dynamic of student placement in academic trajectory. Issues regarding special education dovetail with these issues regarding the dynamics of academic placements for two primary reasons: (a) minority students continue to be identified for special education at a higher rate than majority students (Artiles & Trent, 1994; President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education, 2002); and (b) special education students, regularly served in a setting separate from their peers, are thus routinely tracked in their own right (Lipsky & Garmer, 1987). Currently, research and policy recommendations in both special and general education have begun to turn toward academic indicators and responsiveness to academic treatments to assess a student's risks and needs (Fuchs et al., 2005; 2007; Marzano, 2003; Stecker & Fuchs, 2000). TEACHER PERCEPTION AND IMPACT ON PLACEMENT FROM ELEMENTARY TO MIDDLE SCHOOL Research on the teacher's role in student placement in mathematics during the transition from elementary to middle school is limited. In 1990, Oakes characterized studies that investigated teacher judgment of student intellectual ability and the impact of that judgment on outcomes as an often neglected key to understanding the distribution of critical features of mathematics (and science) classrooms (p. …

  Publisher

• Empowerment to Learn in Engineering: Preparation for an Urgently-Needed Paradigm Shift*

  2003-01-01 · 27 citations

  article
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• The FORESEE Project: Connecting Communities to Create Competence.

  Educational Technology & Society · 2000-01-01 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
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• The FORESEE Project: Connecting Communities to Create Competence.

  WebNet · 2000-01-01

  article

  This case study describes Project FORESEE, a tutoring system utilizing a computer-based network under development at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina. The project is a collaboration among university faculty and students in the Colleges of Engineering and Education and Psychology, teachers, administrators, students and parents in a public school system, and a cadre of volunteer tutors. The interactive system is directly linked to the curriculum and instruction in the classroom to support tutoring in mathematics for a group of third grade students in a single elementary school. Tutoring is enabled by a point-to-point telephone line connection between the tutor’s computer and the student’s computer. Voice, video, and white board enabled by Microsoft NetMeeting are used to provide an interactive virtual tutoring environment (VirTuE). Hardware includes a PC with multimedia capabilities, a 56K modem, a digital camera, Microsoft NetMeeting, and a Cross iPen Pro tablet. The VirTuE server is capable of receiving and directing telephone calls from the student’s PC and functions as a web server for delivery of instructions and resource materials for the tutors. Tutoring occurs with virtual worksheets that simulate pencil and paper on the computer screen. Results of the first phase of implementation indicate students made significant individual progress in the mastery of basic grade-level number facts in a 15-week period of time. Teachers, parents and tutors corroborate through anecdotal information the potential for the FORESEE approach to effective tutoring of elementary age students. The pilot-phase evidence supports the goal of development of a high-quality, low-cost, widely-deployable, interactive tutoring environment that will promote the recruitment of large numbers of persons to be volunteer tutors for schools and students. Future activities include the development of interactive simulation tools that can be manipulated by both the student and tutor, and the application of the technology to other academic subjects in elementary, middleand secondary schools.

  Publisher

• Project FORESEE: Connecting Communities to Create Competence

  World Conference on WWW and Internet · 2000-01-01

  article
  Publisher

• Strategies, guidelines, policies and standards: the search for direction in community health promotion

  Health Promotion International · 1995-01-01 · 3 citations

  articleSenior author

  Journal Article Strategies, guidelines, policies and standards: the search for direction in community health promotion Get access GORDON H. DeFRIESE, GORDON H. DeFRIESE Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillUSA Address for correspondence: G. H. DeFriese Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research 725 Airport Road, Campus Box 7590 University of North Carolina Chapel Hill NC 27599-7590 USA Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar CATHY L. CROSSLAND CATHY L. CROSSLAND Department of Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education and Psychology, North Carolina State University at RaleighUSA Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Health Promotion International, Volume 10, Issue 1, 1995, Pages 69–74, https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/10.1.69 Published: 01 January 1995

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Gordon H. DeFriese

  5 shared

• Edward J. Sabornie

  4 shared

• Ted S. Hasselbring

  Vanderbilt University

  4 shared

• Michael F. Durfee

  Los Angeles County Department of Health Services

  3 shared

• Valerie Faulkner

  North Carolina State University

  3 shared

• Lee V. Stiff

  3 shared

• Lynne B. Brock

  3 shared

• Leonhard E. Bernold

  Federico Santa María Technical University

  2 shared