Dr. Justin Garwood, an assistant professor in the Department of Reading Education and Special Education at Appalachian’s Reich College of Education, has received the 2018 Division of Research Early Career Publication Award from the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC).
Garwood was hired at Appalachian in 2016. He earned his Ph.D. in Special Education and Literacy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, M.Ed. in Secondary English Education from Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, and dual bachelor’s degrees in English and Criminal Justice from the State University of New York (SUNY) College at Brockport. Garwood is a licensed teacher in Special Education K-12 and English Education 7-12, and a certified classroom management professional development workshop facilitator.
His overarching research goal is focused on improving the educational and life outcomes of students with EBD. He serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders and Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, and his published work can be found in journals such as:
- Exceptional Children
- Intervention in School and Clinic
- Journal of Early Intervention
- Remedial and Special Education
- Rural Special Education Quarterly
- Teacher Education and Special Education
- TEACHING Exceptional Children.
Garwood and other award recipients will be recognized at CEC Convention and Expo in Tampa, Florida in February 2018.
About the 2018 Division of Research Early Career Publication Award
The Division of Research Early Career Publication Award recognizes an outstanding research publication by an individual within the first five years of receipt of the doctoral degree. Garwood is recognized for his paper in Exceptional Children, "Classroom management affects literacy development of students with emotional and behavioral disorders" (Garwood, Vernon-Feagans, & the Family Life Project Key Investigators, 2017).
This paper reports the results of a longitudinal study in which the overall quality of classroom management children experienced in kindergarten though third grade was examined as a potential predictor of literacy development in a sample of 235 students identified with or at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD).
Garwood and colleagues used the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) as an indicator of overall classroom management quality, and both Passage Comprehension (PC) and Letter-Word Identification (LW) subtests of the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement as indicators of literacy achievement. They also assessed a number of potential moderator variables, including race, gender, and SES.
According to Garwood et al., their major finding was that:
“Overall higher quality of classroom management experienced across the first 4 years in school was significantly related to higher scores on standardized measures of reading achievement in third grade for boys with and at risk for EBD, but girls appeared unaffected by the quality of teachers’ classroom management during this same time” (p. 134).
The study is important in several ways, including that it is the first study of its kind to document the variability in and potential impact of classroom management quality on academic outcomes for students with or at risk for EBD.
Garwood, J. D., Vernon-Feagans, L., & the Family Life Project Key Investigators. (2017). Classroom management affects literacy development of student with emotional and behavioral disorders. Exceptional Children, 83, 123-142. doi: 10.1177/0014402916651846
About the Council for Exceptional Children Division for Research
The CEC Division for Research (CEC-DR) is a division of The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) devoted to the advancement of research related to the education of individuals with disabilities and/or who are gifted. The goals of CEC-DR include the promotion of equal partnership with practitioners in designing, conducting and interpreting research in special education.
Justin Garwood
