Digital Commons Network^™

Effects Of A Middle Grade Family-School Partnership Program At A Southeastern Charter School, Fayette Nick

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

The purpose of the study was to determine the effects of a middle grade family-school partnership program at a southeastern charter school that served students in kindergarten through Grade 12. In 2009, the state charter school advisory board surveyed parents of students in kindergarten through Grade 8 and found that parental involvement decreased drastically after Grade 5. The state board advised the school to develop a plan of action to increase parental involvement in Grades 6 through 8. It was decided to implement a family-school partnership program in the middle grades. The program was guided by Lueder’s (2011) self-renewing partnership …

Critical Resiliency: A Case Study Of Latino Students’ Experiences In Advanced-Level High School Courses, Eric J. Chagala

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

The achievement gap has been at the center of much educational discourse for the past 20 years, and it has become even more prevalent since the introduction of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001. References in the literature regarding the achievement gap often center on raising ethnic minority and low-socioeconomic students to the same average academic performance as White, middle-class students (Gandara, 2005). This case study went beyond that and examined the achievement gap in terms of the experiences of 1stgeneration, college-bound, and low-income Latino students in advanced-level high school courses, such as advanced placement (AP) and international …

Teaching Presence And Communication Timeliness In Asynchronous Online Courses, Erik Skramstad

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

The purpose of this study was to examine student perceptions of teaching presence and communication timeliness in asynchronous online courses using a survey research methodology. The community of inquiry model developed by Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2000) provided the framework of the study while asking the following research questions:

1. What are student perceptions of teaching presence in asynchronous online courses?

2. What is the communication timeliness of instructors for direct feedback on students’ assignments?

3. What is the relationship between instructor communication timeliness for direct feedback on students’ assignments and student perceptions of teaching presence?

Participants were 59 anonymous …

Assessing The Effect Of Mentoring On First-Semester Associate-Degree Nursing Students, Arlene Walker-Adams

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

This research study assessed the perceptions of first-semester nursing students about mentoring. The first purpose of the study was to describe the perceptions of first-semester nursing students in an associate-degree nursing program about mentoring. The second purpose was to ascertain the students‟ perceived values of mentorship as a strategy to support their learning and promote retention.

The sample population consisted of 10 first-semester nursing students who participated as mentees. The researcher utilized a qualitative methodology to assess the perceptions of first-semester nursing students. The researcher used three instruments to collect the data: focus groups, individual interviews, and a demographic questionnaire. …

Program Evaluation Of A Dropout-Prevention Academy, Kendra W. Harvin Green

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

This applied dissertation study evaluated a dropout-prevention program in a South Carolina school district. The dropout problem was identified by school and district administrators and discussed at county board meetings among community members, faculty, and parents of children attending school in the district. A dropout-prevention program was implemented 3 years prior but, had never been evaluated.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the Dropout-Prevention Academy program. The study determined how the program design matched effective dropout-prevention programs described in the literature; stakeholders’ (e.g., teachers, administrators, and parents) perceptions of the program; and any changes that occurred in student …

Effects Of Remedial Reading On The Oral Fluency Skill Of Students With Disabilities Enrolled In An Inclusive Setting, Willie B. Green

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

Research showed students with poor reading skills face difficulties in general education classes. Schools are face with the challenge of meeting the needs of all students. Therefore, researchers recommended using a research-based reading intervention program to improve students’ reading achievement.

The Reading to Read intervention program was used to supplement reading benchmarks for each student. Instructions were provided and monitored by assistant teachers trained in the Reading to Read procedure. To measure the effects of the program, pretest-posttest scores were compared for 20 students in the treatment group who participate in the interventions and 20 students in the control group …

Applying Peer Modeling In Inclusion Classrooms: A Study On Educators’ Perception, Rossana I. Chiarella

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

This study evaluated the effects of educators’ perception on the application of peer modeling strategies in the classrooms. Without teachers’ positive attitude towards peer modeling, it was difficult to apply these strategies effectively. Teachers’ attitudes were determined by their existing perceptions, whereas different perceptions resulted in different dispositions to act and different outcomes. The purpose was to determine how teachers in a school located in south Florida applied peer modeling, and how their perceptions over it played an important role. The researcher attempted to evaluate the importance of peer-model strategies and to demonstrate the true benefit of their proper application …

Does The Current Inclusion Program Provide Skills Needed By Students With Disabilities To Meet Standards On The Georgia High School Graduation Test?, Kathy Lynes-Jordan

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

This applied dissertation proposal was designed to evaluate whether the current inclusion program contributed to the development of skills needed by 11th-grade students with disabilities (SWD) in meeting the Georgia High School Graduation Test (GHSGT) by the time they graduated. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the present inclusion model had any impact on SWD achievement in English Language Arts (ELA). This study had 2 foci: (a) to explore affects of inclusion on special education students at the 1st administration of the GHSGT and (b) to explore the effects of inclusion on SWD passing the GHSGT by …

Process Evaluation Of The Bully Proofing Your School Program, Donna D. Wilkes

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

This applied dissertation was designed to evaluate the Bully Proofing Your School curriculum and safe-school initiatives, at the researcher’s school site. School bullying is an international problem that can have negative social, emotional, and academic consequences in the life of a child. The writer developed a logic model, as an analytical framework, for evaluating the bullying prevention curriculum. The objective of the study was to develop a process evaluation, utilizing the model to review staff training, student behavior initiatives, survey results, and security measures.

An analysis of the data included survey results from 2003 in comparison to student survey results …

The Impact Of Social Work Services On Students With Disabilities, Bridgette D. Webster Wade

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

This study assessed the impact of social work services on middle school students with disabilities at a selected district in Louisiana. Students with disabilities who received multiple office discipline referrals and suspensions were referred for social work services assessment. Many had a mental health diagnosis. The majority of infractions were disrespect to authority, willful disobedience, class or school disruption, fighting, dangerous substance, and profanity. The goal of the study was to determine whether social workers adhered to the district’s benchmarks of quality guidelines during the assessment and intervention processes and to ascertain whether there was a decrease in office discipline …

Effects Of An Extended-School-Year Summer Program On The Language-Arts Achievement Of At-Risk Students, Jeffery S. Zito

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

The purpose of the study was to improve the reading and writing skills of underperforming students in Grades 3 through 5 at an elementary school located in the northeastern United States. Proficient literacy skills are essential for future academic success (National Early Literacy Panel, 2009). Because acquiring literacy skills is a prerequisite to the attainment of all other academic skills, learning to read is considered a necessary foundational ability by researchers (Krezmien & Mulcahy, 2008; Lo, Wang, & Haskell, 2009; Murphy, 2004). The problem addressed in this study was that, in the 2004-2005 to 2006-2007 school years, a mean of …

Analysis Of The Retention Level Of A Foreign Language Among High School Students After Graduation, Obed Barrientos

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

This applied dissertation was designed to measure student retention levels of the Spanish that they learned during high school. The researcher compared the scores of participants who took Spanish in college to the scores of participants who did not attend college. In addition, the purpose of the study was to (a) see if motivation had an impact on retention, (b) see if high school grade point average correlated with retention, and (c) investigate specific topics of the curriculum that former students remembered the most. The researcher tested former students who graduated from high school between 2002 and 2011.

Students completed …

Developing A Recognition Program To Boost Teaching Faculty Morale At A University In Belize, Bernard Kelvin Watler

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

This study investigated the level of morale and the nature of the current recognition program/policies at the Faculty of Management and Social Sciences (FMSS) at a major university in Belize. The main objective of the study was to answer the following research questions:

1. What is the overall level of lecturer morale at the FMSS as well as the components of morale?

2. How adequate is the current level of recognition received by lecturers for their contributions to the FMSS?

3. What is the relationship between lecturers‘ recognition and morale?

4. To what extent do lecturers believe that a comprehensive …

Preparation, Development, And Transition Of Learning-Disabled Students For Workforce Success, Donna Elizabeth Williams

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

This study examined the preferences of career choice and personality topology of students with learning disabilities (SWD) in a public school setting located in the southeastern region of the United States. One purpose of the study was to increase participants’ awareness of the kind of work they are most compatible to do. Another purpose was to define the means by which participants develop, prepare for, identify, and obtain employment. The study consisted of a sample population of 50 SWD and another 50 students without learning disabilities (SWOD). The participants were given 2 self-assessments that provided awareness of personality and vocational …

Developmental Higher Education: Exploring Time Lapse As A Precursor To Mathematics Developmental Education Placement, Debra Satterfield Holley

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

Developmental Higher Education: Exploring Time Lapse as a Precursor to Mathematics Developmental Education Placement: This dissertation attempts to elucidate two of the many factors that could be contributing to the high rate of students who take developmental or remedial mathematics classes. Because many possible causal factors exist, the current focus was on examining the time lapse between the student’s most recent mathematics course and taking a placement test on course placement. Mathematics instructors at a community college in Eastern North Carolina indicated that this factor appears to be significant among the students at the college based on their informal observations. …

Exploratory Study Of Preferred Learning Styles Of Maine Family Forest Owners, Kevin D. Doran

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

The purpose of this exploratory study was to provide natural resource educators with an understanding of Maine family forest owners’ preferred learning styles. The problem was that despite a legislative mandate to provide information and education to Maine family forest owners, students, and adults in a manner that leads to informed decisions regarding their forests, limited research existed about instructional best practices to accomplish this mandate. A major tenet of andragogy, the art and science of teaching adults, is that content geared to the specific learning needs of an individual results in more effective education. By determining preferred learning styles …

La Integración De La Dimensión Ambiental En Una Institución De Educación Superior, Geralda Díaz

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

El estudio consistió en identificar los conocimientos y actitudes ambientales en los estudiantes de Psicología, a partir de los cuales se proponen estrategias de aprendizaje para la inserción de la dimensión ambiental como herramienta para aumentar el grado de conocimiento y actitud proambiental en una Institución de Educación Superior. Existen estudios que demuestran que las universidades han hecho esfuerzos por actualizar el currículo en todas las carreras, con el propósito de dotar de conocimientos y competencias a sus egresados sobre la dimensión ambiental. Sin embargo, los esfuerzos no han logrado materializarse en todas las universidades. La institución objeto de estudio …

An Ethnographic Case Study Of Elementary Principal Leadership Strategies And The No Child Left Behind Act, Cassandra J. Poole

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

Leadership is regarded as the key to comprehensive school improvement efforts and the principal is expected to lead the charge/change. Book knowledge is good, but the difference between effective and less effective principals is not what they know but what they actually do. What do principals do to meet AYP? Young (2004) pointed out that some principals recognize they can gain the edge and survive by learning from other effective practitioners. NCLB and AYP demand change to meet the mandates that will bring about improvement in student achievement. NCLB has changed the educational landscape. Numerous articles and literature exists on …

Evaluation Of A Special Education Reading Program For Secondary Students, Lorraine Yonally Kibler

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

This applied dissertation was designed to provide information regarding the training of personnel, implementation of the programs within the classroom, and outcome results of the “Plugged-in to Reading” program for special education students and staff at two high schools. The reading programs were intended to serve adolescents who are at-risk. The programs had been in use for an average of four years and no evaluation had been done to determine if using the program had improved reading levels for these students.

The researcher designed this study to evaluate the training, utilization, and outcome data of a reading program utilizing a …

Examining The Effects Of Extracurricular Activities On Grade Point Averages And Discipline Referrals, Jessica Keaton

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

This applied dissertation was designed to provide information for school administrators, school board members, instructional staff, parents, and students. Expectations for student achievement continue to increase due to many federal, state, and local initiatives. Many schools are analyzing current programs to determine what programs have the most effect on students‘ achievement. Additionally, schools are faced with reduced budgets, so it is imperative that the most effective programs are maintained while less effective programs are discontinued in order to spend funding in the areas that most directly impacts student achievement.

This causal comparative study compared Grade Point Averages (GPA) and discipline …

A Preliminary Examination Of A Program That Provides Free Blood Glucose Testing Meters, And Subsidies On Test-Strips To Adult Diabetics, Cecil White

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

This applied dissertation was designed to conduct a preliminary examination of the effects of the provision of free glucose testing meters, and test-strips subsidies on blood glucose control among diabetics. The study examined whether there was any impact on the frequency of testing, and whether there was a correlation between the frequency of testing and blood sugar control, as measured by HbA1c tests.

The researcher conducted a study of the program using a quasi-experimental design, and used the Glucose Monitoring Patient Questionnaire to compare the results between a test group and a control group of participants. Independent t tests were …

The Effectiveness Of A Ninth-Grade Mentorship Program For Increasing Reading Comprehension, Yolanda M. Tucker

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

This applied dissertation compared 50 Grade 9 students’ reading and English language arts performance before and after a mentoring program focused on reading. There were no instructional support programs at this high school that could assist struggling students in the area of reading and English language arts. This high school mentoring program was implemented during the 2008–2009 school year to help students in areas such as oral reading fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension in response to a growing number of Grade 9 students failing the state’s annual reading assessment. Foundational reading skills are needed to succeed in all subject areas. …

Impact Of A Rural Elementary School Closing On Parents’ Satisfaction Level, Crycynthia F. Gardner

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

This applied dissertation study sought to determine what impact the closing of a small elementary school whose students were predominately Black had on parents’ levels of satisfaction with their children’s education now that they attended an integrated school and what cultural differences, if any, existed among and between different ethnic groups of parents. The Parent Opinion Inventory and an open-ended, structured interview were used to gather data in this mixed-method study.

A random select technique was used to generate a pool of 226 participants from 1 rural elementary school in the southern part of the United States. Eighty of these …

A Study Of The Leadership Dimensions Of National Distinguished Principals, Judith Mccollum

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

The identification and recruitment of effective school principals who can transform schools in the midst of today’s chaotic economic, social, and global environments require a thorough understanding of the research on effective leadership. Current research indicates that principals who exhibit transformational leadership and, most recently, instructional leadership, are the most successful by all measures, including school climate, teacher empowerment, community support, and high student performance results.

This study focused on a sample of principals from a population who recently received the distinction of a National Distinguished Principal (NDP) to determine if a correlation existed between their leadership dimensions and that …

Exploring The Impact Of Digital Publishing: A Case Study Involving Service-Learning Integrated With Technology, Bridget Ann Bonczyk

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

The study explored the long-term academic effects on the educational progress for three students who participated in a technology driven service-learning program. The purpose of the study was to describe the long-term effects of the program on the students’ academic experiences and students’ sense of self-efficacy. The study examined whether or not the associated activities involved in the creation of digital books had an impact on the technology skills the students were presently learning.

The writer developed the child-centered service learning project entitled, RealeWriter and RealeLibrary ~ Leading English Language Learners to Learn and Serve in the spring of 2006. …

An Evaluation Of A High School General Educational Development Program: Work Plus Academics, Andrea Tillery Wilkins

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

Students deal with conflicts every day. In their quest to survive peer pressure and other conflicts in their lives, they often find themselves at a crossroads where they have to solve dilemmas. Some of those dilemmas cause students to contemplate dropping out of school. Some schools have accepted the challenge of helping those students by creating alternative programs that give nontraditional students a way to complete their education. In one school district, a General Educational Development (GED) program named Work Plus Academics was created to assist at-risk high school students in completing their education. Even though the program has been …

An Investigation On Self-Esteem And Battered Women In A Shelter In Belize: A Guide To Treatment Intervention, Dorla E. Rosado

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

The problem investigated involved the increasing numbers of reported cases of domestic violence in Belize between 2000 and 2009. As a result of this situation, the purpose of this applied research was to investigate the self-esteem of battered women who access the services of a shelter in Belize. This first of its kind study in Belize provided baseline data on the self-esteem of battered women to guide the development and implementation of treatment intervention for the women. Key to developing any treatment intervention is that the format is based on data-driven evidence that indicates how battered women in the shelter …

Impact Of A Supplemental Instruction Model On The Mathematics Skills Of College Students, Cara S. Harrell

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

The applied dissertation was designed to determine if a supplemental tool would improve the achievement of students enrolled in an introductory college mathematics course. The study was conducted to determine if students who were exposed to a mathematical model would learn information at a more significant level than those students who did not use the mathematical model.

Four research questions were investigated. During this study, 53 students were members of the experimental group and control groups. Eight individuals were part of the evaluation committee. The experimental group consisted of 26 participants who were exposed to the mathematical model, and the …

Challenges In Conducting Research After Family Presence During Resuscitation, Jane S. Leske, Natalie S. Mcandrew, Crystal-Rae Waltons, Annette E. Garcia, Karen J. Brasel

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

Family presence during resuscitation (FPDR) is an option occurring in clinical practice. National clinical guidelines on providing the option of FPDR are available from the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, American Heart Association, Emergency Nurses Association, and Society of Critical Care Medicine. The FPDR option currently remains controversial, underutilized, and not the usual practice with trauma patients. This article is based on the methodological and practical research challenges associated with an ongoing study to examine the effects of the FPDR option on family outcomes in patients experiencing critical injury after motor vehicle crashes and gunshot wounds. The primary aim of …

Oh Canada, Your Home On Native Land: Settlement, Development, And Conflict In Southern Ontario, Shana Siegel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

On February 28, 2006, members of the Haudenosaunee Six Nations reserve in southern Ontario physically occupied and halted construction on a housing development bordering their reserve. The Haudenosaunee claimed that the site was part of a larger tract of land that they had never surrendered, and they vowed to remain on the land as long as necessary prevent the planned development from taking place. When police had still not removed the Haudenosaunee protesters almost two months later, some 2,000-3,000 local non-Native residents began voicing their frustration and anger in regular anti-protest rallies. On some occasions, these rallies escalated to the …