Digital Commons Network^™

Special Education Remediation Programs Promote Hspa Success, Diane L. Garrison

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to analyze the results of New Jersey's March 2004 High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA) and the 2001 Grade Eight Proficiency Assessment (GEPA) to recommend remediation opportunities for high school students with special needs. Student demographics and content area scores on the GEPA and HSPA were collected. The population included: special education students who took the March 2004 HSPA test, five mathematics and language arts special education teachers, and five Child Study Team members. An analysis of the test scores and student demographics resulted in extensive correlations and percentages used for comparison. The research revealed …

What Effect Might The No Child Left Behind Act Have On Administrators' And Teachers' Decisions To Promote Or Retain The Low Achieving Student In The Elementary Grades?, April M. Maska

Theses and Dissertations

This study attempts to determine how this Act impacts professional educators in their decisions regarding promotion or retention of the low achieving student. Regular Educators in the West Deptford School District were asked to participate to show whether NCLB impacts the professional educators within this district when deciding whether to promote or retain the low achieving student. A Likert survey was designed and'distributed to 51 professional educators within the district. Of the educators asked, 21 responded. The survey results were graphed and analyzed. The scores of the West Deptford School District participants were compared to a hypothetical school district of …

Disproportionate Representation Of Minority Students In The Special Education Program At The Kingsway Regional School District, Anthony J. Fitzpatrick

Theses and Dissertations

The purposes of this study were to (a) determine the proportion of representation of minority students in special education programs on a federal, state, and district-wide level; and (b) determine the needs of the Kingsway Regional School District in addressing any disproportionate representation that exists. The subject sample was the special education population in the United States as determined by IDEA. The sample population would be studied to ascertain the proportion of representation and the determination standards used to classify them. It was concluded that Kingsway did not have a problem with disproportionate representation but rather an issue with consistent …

The Effects Of Professional Development On The Staff's Increased Awareness Of Program Changes At The Warren E. Sooy, Jr. Elementary School, Renee' C. Clark, Jennifer Peeke

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of professional development on elementary school teachers at the Warren E. Sooy, Jr. Elementary School. The study did not result in an increased awareness about program changes at the school in order to inform educators. The study's findings were reported to the teachers, staff members, and administration.

Before the study, staff members completed a Needs Assessment which recorded the attitudes of staff members concerning the most important areas of need referable to professional development. After the study, a final survey was utilized to determine if the school's professional development opportunities …

Computer Use And Integration Of Middle School Teachers, Susan Panco Medio

Theses and Dissertations

The problem in this study asks: Could it be that teachers who have high integration of computer use have different identifiable characteristics than teachers that have a low integration of computer use?

A data collection instrument was developed and distributed to 56 teachers at Landis Intermediate School in Vineland, New Jersey. The 20 questions on the survey that pertained to computer use and integration were assessed and a score was given to each subject. These scores were used to run independent sample t tests.

As a result of this study it was found that teachers that have a high computer …

Performance Intensity Functions For Digitally Recorded Japanese Speech Audiometry Materials, Tanya Crawford Mangum

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to develop digitally recorded speech audiometry materials in the Japanese language to evaluate Speech Reception Threshold (SRT) and speech discrimination. Trisyllabic words were used to evaluate the SRT and bisyllabic words were used for speech discrimination. Words were recorded by one native female talker and one native male talker who were judged as having standard Japanese dialects. Twenty native Japanese speakers between the ages of 20 and 32 were used as subjects to evaluate 69 trisyllabic words across 13 different intensity levels. The 25 trisyllabic words with the steepest psychometric function (%/dB) were selected …

An Improved Music Model For Gibbsite, Scott Christian Mitchell

Theses and Dissertations

Several recent studies that have proposed MUSIC models for gibbsite surfaces have purported to achieve a very good fit with potentiometric titration data. However, in order to achieve such results, several significant parameters, such as the number of surface sites, site densities, and pKa values were sometimes re-introduced in the model as fitted parameters, and physically unrealistic modeling assumptions were sometimes used. In addition, recent evidence supports the idea that some of the gibbsite potentiometric titration data from these studies may be unreliable. In order to re-interpret the potentiometric titration data, we used several recently published methods. In order to …

Effects Of Fuel Molecular Structure And Composition On Soot Formation In Direct-Injection Spray Flames, Kenth Ingemar Svensson

Theses and Dissertations

Numerous investigations have been conducted to determine the effect of fuel composition and molecular structure on particulate emissions using exhaust gas analysis, but relatively few measurements have been obtained in-cylinder or under conditions where fuel effects can be isolated from other variables. In this work, dimethoxymethane was used as the base fuel to produce a non-sooting flame in a constant volume combustion vessel at 1000 K, and a density of 16.6 kg/m3. A second fuel was then added incrementally to determine an incipient soot limit. Line-of-sight extinction measurements were used as the primary diagnostic tool to determine if a correlation …

New Jersey's School Funding Policy From 2002 To The Present And Its Impact On Student Achievement, Marjorie M. Workman

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to identify how school districts were impacted by the state aid decisions made from 2002 and to then determine if there was a relationship between the excess or shortfall of state aid received and the achievement of students in each district during the same period as measured by standards used to identify schools in need of improvement. The study included 540 non-Abbott school districts and considered enrollment growth, change in total budget, and change in state aid. It used the 2004-2005 report of schools in need of improvement to identify districts that were failing …

Effectiveness Of A Treatment Approach For Major Depressive Disorder: A Case Study, Lisa Gail Mazzagatti

Theses and Dissertations

This case study assessed the efficacy of a treatment approach for a thirty-seven year old Caucasian female who was diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder. The intervention utilized techniques from several therapeutic approaches including cognitive-behavioral, psychoeducational and gestalt. The Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II) was used as an outcome measure. It was administered at the third, seventh, eleventh, fifteenth, and nineteenth session. Results indicated a decrease in depressive symptomotology over the course of treatment. Client self-report, clinical observations and a client satisfaction survey also supported the overall effectiveness of the treatment approach. The case study presents a psychosocial assessment, literature review, …

Transition Services For Non-Mainstreamed Students, Rosemary F. Dobbins

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the vocational needs and transition services for non-mainstreamed high school students. Two transition needs and service surveys were conducted to 46 high school students under special education services and to 6 professionals who provide services. It was to determine if the services that the juniors and seniors were receiving would either prepare them to enter into the work force or to continue with their education. The findings show that there is some discrepancy between students and professionals about the existence of a transition plan, students' involvement in the plan-making process and their …

The Effects Of The Accelerated Reader Program On The Reading Habits And Reading Frequencies Of Fourth Grade Students, Kathleen Wendt

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if participation in the Accelerated Reader program affected the reading habits and reading frequency of fourth grade students. This study focused on two fourth grade classes at Folsom School. The two fourth grade classes had used the Accelerated Reader (AR), as part of their reading program in the library, since the beginning of the 2002-2003 school year.

A total of 38 students participated in this survey. The students were encouraged by the researcher to read and take quizzes on books supported by the Accelerated Reader program. All 38 students took both the …

An Experimental Study In Promoting Collaborative Instructional Activities, Kathleen Galarza

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this experimental study was to determine which public relations methods would best inform the first through fifth grade classroom teaching staff at Holly Heights School about the work of the library media center, the roles of the library media specialist, and the research that states how important collaborative educational activities are for students, so that teaching staff members would choose to participate in some type of collaborative instructional activities with the library media specialist to benefit the students. This study was conducted with 18 first through fifth grade teaching staff members at Holly Heights Elementary School in …

The Artistic And Architectural Patronage Of Countess Urraca Of Santa Marã­A De Caã±As: A Powerful Aristocrat, Abbess, And Advocate, Julia Alice Jardine Mcmullin

Theses and Dissertations

Countess Urraca Lope de Haro was the daughter of the noble Lord Diego Lope de Haro, friend and advisor to King Alfonso VIII of Castilla-León and granddaughter of Lord Lope Díaz de Haro and Lady Aldonza Ruiz de Castro, aristocratic courtiers as well as popular monastic patrons. As a young and wealthy widow, Countess Urraca took monastic vows at the Cistercian nunnery of Santa María de Cañas founded by her grandparents. Within a short time of uniting herself to this monastery, she was chosen as its fourth abbess in 1225, a position she held for thirty-seven years until her death …

An Exploratory Investigation Of Charter Schools And Special Education, Kimberly Mulligan

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this investigation was to determine how well charter schools are able to comply with the many laws in special education. All of the charter schools in both Atlantic and Camden counties were sent surveys that asked various questions about their programs in special education. The surveys addressed special education class size, proper teacher certification, different classifications, placement, and services offered. Each school was asked to answer the questions on the survey to the best of their knowledge about their school. The results of the surveys were then collected and charted in graph form in order to compare …

Evaluating The Web Sites Of County Public Libraries In New Jersey For Hispanic Accessibility, Geraldine Paolini

Theses and Dissertations

A library's web site can be an important outreach service for Hispanic patrons. Many county libraries in New Jersey, however, may not have web sites that are easily accessible to Hispanics. The purpose of this study was to evaluate New Jersey county public library web sites to determine if selected access criteria were present. Using a researcher designed criteria checklist, content, language, organization & navigation and services were examined. The existence of these criteria were used to determine if public library web sites provided adequate access for Hispanic patrons. The sample and population consisted of 20 county library, or their …

The Effectiveness Of The Wilson Reading Program In Improving Spelling And Decoding Skills Of A Selected Sample Of Special Needs Children, Helen E. Rosica

Theses and Dissertations

The Wilson Reading Program was designed by Barbara Wilson and published in 1988 for the first time. It was originally designed for students diagnosed with dyslexia, but its focus has been expanded to include struggling readers and spellers who are below their classmates. Wilson is based on the Orton-Gillingham multisensory principle. It is well organized and systematic.

The Wilson Reading Program was administered to a small group of two students, aged nine to eleven who receive all their academic instruction in a self-contained special education classroom. These students have similar intelligence levels, and a similar degree of difficulty with reading …

A Gis Model For Predicting Potential "High Risk" Areas Of West Nile Virus By Identifying Ideal Mosquito Breeding Habitats, Robert Charles Wallis

Theses and Dissertations

West Nile virus has become a major risk to humans since its first appearance in New York City in 1999. Physicians and state health officials are interested in new and more efficient methods for monitoring disease spread and predicting future outbreaks. This study modeled habitat suitability for mosquitoes that carry West Nile virus. Habitat characteristics were used to derive risk maps for the entire state of Mississippi. Statistical significance tests yielded objective evidence for choosing among many habitat variables. Variables that were significantly correlated with diagnosed human cases for 2002 were combined in weighted linear algebraic models using a geographic …

Effective Teaching Strategies Of Foreign Languages In Secondary Diverse Classrooms, Helen Singletary-Brinson

Theses and Dissertations

The traditional style of teaching (teachers solely in charge of the classroom) seems to be a thing of the past, due in part, to the increasing diversity of students in the classroom. How can teachers abandon their traditional roles and adapt to the trends of teaching to promote more meaningful learning for students? To respond to the above question, the researcher investigated the degree of readiness of selected foreign language teachers teaching in culturally diverse classrooms at the secondary level in central Mississippi. All participants were purposefully selected. Methods and procedures employed were limited to observations of teachers, teacher-student interaction …

Teachers' Perceptions And Curriculum Analysis For A Zoo Education Program, Ronald S. Berger

Theses and Dissertations

Study intent investigated teachers' perceptions of a zoo education program and evaluated modules. Study explored program effectiveness by evaluating teachers' motivation to participate, students' engagement, presenter performance, program effectiveness, and teachers' met expectations. Study explored if program addressed New Jersey and Pennsylvania standards, North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) guidelines, and a lesson plan format. Research investigated teachers' perceptions by questionnaire from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Teachers perceived presenters performed well, students engaged, and integrating curriculum the motivation to participate. Research to evaluate modules was subjective. Modules addressed Science and Social Studies for New Jersey, Science and Technology, …

Applying The Social Norms Approach At Rowan University And Its Effectiveness On Correcting Misperceptions And Changing Drinking Behaviors: A Seven Year Trend, Dawn Mcginty

Theses and Dissertations

The social norms approach, being noted for its effectiveness in reducing misperceptions and changing drinking behaviors, has been implemented in college campuses across the United States. This approach was implemented at Rowan University, a public institution located in southern New Jersey, in 1999. The purpose of the current study was to assess the effectiveness of the implementation of the social norms campaign at Rowan University in correcting misperceptions and reducing actual drinking norms on campus. The Core Campus Survey of Alcohol and Other Drug Norms was the survey used to measure the perceived and actual use of alcohol and other …

Do We Really See The World In Black And White?, Christine Deriso

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine whether or not there is a double standard of punishment between Black and White Americans and to evaluate the social perceptions of Black Americans in our society. Seventy-two teachers were given surveys concerning an eleven-year-old boy with aggression. On half of the surveys, the boy's name was Tommy and on the other half of the surveys, the boy's name was Tyrone to allude to differences in race. The teachers were asked to determine the punishment for the boy's latest outburst and to answer questions concerning how they perceived the story. This allowed …

Communication Responses To Positive Or Neutral Facial Expressions Between The Genders, Kimberly R. Hollingsworth

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis was to determine whether or not college students would respond with any communication to a stimulus of nonverbal communication of either eye contact alone or paired with smiling to the same or opposite gender. The characteristics of this study may have implications on how successful nonverbal communication can be.

One-hundred-sixty students, 8 groups within, were randomly stimulated by either a female or male with either a positive or neutral facial expression and their natural responses were recorded. The responses were coded on a Likert scale and analyzed with a 3 way ANOVA.

The data presented …

An Exploration Of The Impact Of Working Individually Versus Working Collectively On Stress And Performance, Shari L. Satow

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to examine the impact of working alone versus working with others on stress and performance. Gender was also looked at as a variable affecting stress and performance as well. The Block by Block design, a building game consisting of seven different shaped blocks, was used in order to assess the ninety-five participants (23 male & 72 female) recruited from a medium sized university in southern New Jersey. Subjects were assigned to work either alone or with others in recreating specific images using the blocks, and were then asked to report their performance and …

Impact Of The Lack Of Sleep On Academic Performance In College Students, Tammy L. Hampton

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to research the effects that sleep has on a college student's academic performance, measured by the student's self-reported grade point average (GPA), and to examine whether there is a difference between graduate students' and undergraduate students' results. 136 students at Rowan University in southern New Jersey, 61 graduate students and 75 undergraduate students, were asked to complete a short survey on their sleep habits, demographic information, self-reported GPA, and average number of hours of sleep per night that they received. An independent Two-Way ANOVA was then performed to analyze the information indicating the following …

Visual Motor Coordination And Reading: A Correlational Analysis Part Ii, Marita C. Marcionese

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a correlation between reading rate and visual-motor coordination. This study was a replication of the researcher's prior study. The population of interest was the only differing aspect. This study used 32 high school 9^th and 10^th grade students from an all boys college prep school. Reading rate was measured by two tests: the Nelson-Denny Reading Test and a 40-letter test. The game Perfection and a bead stringing task were the measures used to determine visual-motor coordination. Aggregated scores combined the z-scores to create a total score for …

Occupational Stress In Child Protection Social Workers, Kristina M. Narcum

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine if social workers in a child protection agency report greater levels of stress than individuals working in other professions. Paper-and-pencil versions of the Pressure Management Indicator (PMI) questionnaire were distributed to all participants as a measure of occupational stress. Participants' responses were analyzed using an independent samples t-test to examine whether there was a statistically significant difference between the responses of the two groups. There were significant findings in nine out of twenty-four subscales of the PMI. The results from these areas show that the social workers feel more insecure about …

The Effects Of School Uniforms On Self Esteem, Jennifer Rodriguez

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine whether school uniforms have an effect on self esteem. The hypothesis was that school uniforms would increase self esteem. There were 87 total participants in this study; 41 students had uniforms and 46 did not. The Rosenberg Self Esteem scale was used to measure self esteem. The questionnaire was given to teachers to administer to the children in their classroom. An independent samples t test was performed to analyze the data. Results were not significant showing that school uniforms did not have an effect on self esteem.

Does Birth Order Affect Intelligence?, Carolyn M. Lambert

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this exploratory investigation was to determine whether birth order has an effect on intelligence. Seventy-four undergraduate students from Rowan University participated in my study. During class-time, I handed out a questionnaire with questions pertaining to the student's birth order within their family and SAT scores. The SAT scores served as a measure of intelligence. The SAT scores were broken into seven different ranges, between 800 - 1400 & above. The birth order variable was broken down into four levels; firstborn, middle child, youngest and only child. The different levels of birth order and SAT scores were compared …

Teacher Directed Collaboration: Effects On Referrals To Special Education, Lindsey Harbert

Theses and Dissertations

The purposes of this experimental study were to (a) determine if teacher directed collaboration significantly reduced the number of students who were referred for special education placement and (b) if using a pre-referral process, such as consultation, increased the accuracy of teachers identifying children with a qualifying disability. One school that used teacher directed collaboration was compared to two schools that were not in a suburban Maryland community. Data was reviewed from each school on the number of children who were referred, assessed, and qualified for special educational services. Significant results were found using a Pearson Chi-Square (p<.01) for the amount of referrals made at each school, with the school using teacher directed collaboration having a fewer amount. The results of this study support the use of teacher directed collaboration. Further research should include a larger sample size and comparisons to referral rates prior to the introduction of teacher directed collaboration.