Digital Commons Network^™

Intervention Program For Long-Term English Learners: A Study Of Long-Term English Learners' Literacy Performance In A Reading Intervention Program At Falcon School District, Erika Ayala

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this sequential explanatory embedded mixed methods study was to: (a) investigate and describe the academic performance of eighth grade students in the Falcon School District (FSD) who were designated as Long Term English Learners (LTELs) and participants in FSD’s reading intervention program during their fourth through eighth grade years from 2009-2013, (b) explore the insights of FSD reading intervention teachers as related to LTELs’ academic performance data, and (c) discern the strengths and weaknesses of the reading intervention program in general and as related to Olsen’s recommend components for a successful Long Term English Learner program. This …

Common Leadership Strategies And Practices Among Authentic Senior Leaders, Michael G. Ehret

Theses and Dissertations

From the early 2000s onwards, authentic leadership has continued to garner growing interest from academia, the public sector, and across multiple industries. Perhaps the reason for the increased focus on authenticity is the unethical behavior demonstrated by a number of leaders from 2000 to 2010. While there is growing interest in demonstrating authenticity as a situational leadership style or even an inherent trait, there is limited research on what leadership strategies or practices are most effective for authentic leaders. This study was designed to apply a common definition, or set of criteria, to identify leaders that are authentic. Once this …

Functionalized Bodipy Dyes For Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells, Mahmoud A. Elkhalifa

Masters Theses

It is predicted that more than 20 terawatts of carbon-free energy will be demanded by 2050 to maintain a sufficient energy supply for the increasing global population, and photovoltaics are predicted to contribute significantly to the global energy needs. Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) are an emerging class of photovoltaics (PV) that has produced promising power conversion efficiencies at low costs. Currently, electron recombination, dye aggregation, weak adsorption, and inefficient absorbance are among of the largest contributors to low DSC efficiencies.

BODIPY dyes are one of the most promising classes of dyes emerging for DSC application. These low molecular weight fluorophores …

Holography In The Secondary Physics Curriculum, Stephen P. Hogan

Masters Theses

This paper presents a unit plan for effective implementation of a holography learning activity in the secondary science physics classroom. The study of holography has traditionally been limited to collegiate optics courses due to financial and physical constraints. Recent developments in the technology of holographic film has eliminated these two limiting factors. Recent secondary educators who have introduced holography with their secondary science classes have completed the activities, without much discussion or explanation regarding the scientific principles that allow the phenomenon to occur. In this paper we develop a foundational unit plan that finishes with holography as the pinnacle activity, …

An Exposition Of The Eisenstein Integers, Sarada Bandara

Masters Theses

In this thesis, we will give a brief introduction to number theory and prime numbers. We also provide the necessary background to understand how the imaginary ring of quadratic integers behaves.

An example of said ring are complex numbers of the form ℤ[ω] = {a+bω ∣ a, b ∈ ℤ} where ω² + ω + 1 = 0. These are known as the Eisenstein integers, which form a triangular lattice in the complex plane, in contrast with the Gaussian integers, ℤ[i] = {a + bi ∣ a, b ∈ …

Design Of An Intrusion Detection System (Ids) And An Intrusion Prevention System (Ips) For The Eiu Cybersecurity Laboratory, Adekunle Adeyemo

Masters Theses

Cyber Security will always be a subject of discussion for a long time to come. Research has shown that there is massive growth of cyber-crime and the currently available number of Cyber Security experts to counter this is limited. Although there are multiple resources discussing Cyber Security, but access to training in practical applications is limited. As an institution, Eastern Illinois University (EIU) is set to start Masters of Science in Cyber Security in Fall 2017. Then the challenge is how EIU will expose students to the practical reality of Cyber Security where they can learn different detection, prevention and …

Transferring Writing Skills To A 3rd Grade Music Classroom, Megan A. Wilson

Masters Theses

The purpose of this action research study was to examine the use of writing skills in a third grade general music classroom. Students wrote narratives based on music they heard, used an interactive notebook to reflect on musical experiences, conducted a short composer research project and wrote a biography about the composer. The study was designed to investigate the following research question: Will the use of writing in the music classroom help the students apply writing skills from their general education classes while learning music content? The duration of the study was for an entire semester and the students attended …

Development Of Learning Objectives For An Undergraduate Computer-Aided Drafting And Design Animation Using The Delphi Technique, Gavin M. Wilk

Masters Theses

This study reflects on learning objectives created for an advanced computer aided drafting (CAD) learning module(s) or course with the emphasis on simulation and engineering animations. These objectives were derived by using the Delphi technique by access the support of a panel of subject matter experts (SME) from academia and industry that are interested in CAD. The results of this study are intended for the use of creating instructional modules for undergraduate studies.

A panel of experts were chosen through an electronic listserv of engineering and technology supporters. Two rounds of two different Delphi survey instruments were utilized to complete …

A Summer Bridge Program's Impact: Social Engagement And The Building Of Self-Efficacy, Stephen L. Roach

Masters Theses

This two phase study sought to investigate the impact that a summer bridge program (SIHL) at a midsized, public institution at had on participants' academic success through an examination of its effect on their self-efficacy. In addition, this study sought to gain an increased understanding of how the program impacted self-efficacy, by providing a new conceptual model for examining the program and similar programs. Lastly, this study expanded on the research conducted by Lucas (2012), by incorporating both quantitative and qualitative methods. Participants in Phase 1, the quantitative phase, were 322 students of varying ages, races and ethnicities, genders, and …

The Commensurability Myth In Antitrust, Rebecca Haw Allensworth

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Modern antitrust law pursues a seemingly unitary goal: competition. In fact, competition—whether defined as a process or as a set of outcomes associated with competitive markets—is multifaceted. What are offered in antitrust cases as procompetitive and anticompetitive effects are typically qualitatively different, and trading them off is as much an exercise in judgment as mathematics. But despite the inevitability of value judgments in antitrust cases, courts have perpetuated a commensurability myth, claiming to evaluate “net” competitive effect as if the pros and cons of a restraint of trade are in the same unit of measure. The myth is attractive to …

A Framework For Transforming Elementary Literacy Coaches' Professional Learning, Lenora Forsythe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Elementary literacy coaches serve as one component in a professional learning system to support teacher learning. This dissertation in practice intended to highlight the need for an effective professional learning system for elementary literacy coaches that will enable them to impact teacher and student learning. The pilot study explored needs and perspectives of professional learning opportunities for elementary literacy coaches in a central Florida school district. Findings from the pilot study, along with literature surrounding the topic, resulted in the design of A Framework for Elementary Literacy Coaches' Professional Learning. This Framework utilized components from existing resources to develop access …

Learning In The 21st Century: A Study Addressing Educational Trends And Implications, Denise Harshbarger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The 21st century workforce is very different from the workforce of our predecessors. With the rise in automation and technology there are new demands that are being placed on employers to produce goods that are faster, more personalized, and more accessible. In order to meet these demands, this generation of employees must have a skillset that complements these demands. This skillset includes communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity (4C) skills. The problem of practice addressed in this dissertation is the lack of 4C skills among students currently in the K-12 education system, and the lack of opportunities students have to …

Supporting Prekindergarten Teachers Through Appropriate Professional Development Practices, Catherine Twyman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The problem of practice that this dissertation in practice addresses is the creation of a professional development model designed to assist voluntary prekindergarten (VPK) teachers and directors with the implementation of the 2011 Early Learning and Developmental Standards for Four-Year-Olds; specifically the mathematical thinking benchmark. Because the standards serve as a planning guide to assist teachers and directors of VPK children in the attainment of skills required by the end of their prekindergarten school year, it is important that those utilizing the Standards have a concrete understanding of their components and how to use them as the foundation for all …

The Experiences Of School Leaders Who Promote Achievement Among Students With Disabilities, Eric Wells

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Stagnant outcomes for students with disabilities has resulted in an era where results-driven accountability is emerging as the driving force for special education leadership. Students who receive special education services significantly lag behind their non-disabled peers in their performance on required statewide, standardized assessments. The achievement gap between students with disabilities and their non-disabled peers is significant and pervasive. School leadership is central to school performance (Waters, Marzano, & McNulty, 2003). Very few researchers have investigated that experience as it relates to high achievement for students with disabilities. Yet, policy in the field has shifted to emphasize outcomes for students …

An Investigation Into The Use Of Grade Retention As An Intervention Strategy In Volusia County, Florida, Wesley Porter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study was conducted to analyze the performance of 1,493 students in Volusia County from 2003 to 2010, comparing ethnic and socio-economic groups, who had been retained a minimum of one time while enrolled from third grade through 10th grade. This study utilized the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) Reading and Mathematic Developmental Test Scale Scores to evaluate student improvement. The groups compared in this study include Black, White and Hispanic students. Higher and lower socio-economic (SES) rates of retention were investigated for the entire population of retained students in Volusia County from 2003-2010. The groups were compared to see …

An Analysis Of School-District Level Policy And Guidelines Related To English Language Learners' Enrollment And Achievement In Advanced Courses, Marjorie Ceballos

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of school district policy, guidelines, and practices related to the enrollment and achievement of English learners (EL) in advanced coursework in middle school and high school in a large urban school district in the United States. There is a dearth of research on the effect that school district-level policies, guidelines, and practices have on the enrollment and achievement of ELs in advanced courses in middle school and high school. Existing research on ELs provides information on this group's academic achievement on national and state standardized measurements of achievement (Walqui & …

Content And Effects Of Specific Targeted Feedback From Teacher Observations On Student Achievement In A Large Urban School District., Rachel Larsen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between the content of specific targeted feedback and student achievement and to identify student and teacher knowledge voids from the content of feedback in relationship to achievement level outcomes. This study aimed to deeply analyze the effects of specific targeted feedback as researched by Rafalski (2015). De-identified data from a purposive sample of Rafalski's (2015) original study were selected from a large urban school district in Central Florida as well as student achievement level outcome data from the 2013-2014 Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test 2.0 (FCAT 2.0). Raw observation data were …

The Comparison Of The School District Curriculum Alignment With Algebra Content Standards, Karen Lipscomb

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to analyze school district curriculum alignment with state and national standards to find content omissions that may contribute to low Algebra End-of-Course exam scores in ninth grade. The study primarily looked for algebra course content omissions in the algebra, functions, and statistics' domains of the algebra curriculum. These three categories were chosen because low achievement for ninth grades students was recorded in each category for a Medium Sized Rural School District. The study also examined the pre-algebra curriculum for a Medium Sized Rural School District to see if alignment was present with the algebra …

Ubiquitous Computing In Public Education: The Effects Of One-To-One Computer Initiatives On Student Achievement On Florida Standardized Assessments, Fernando Lobeto

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of one-to-one computer initiatives on student achievement in reading and mathematics. This study compared the differences in FCAT 2.0 Reading and Mathematics scores between schools implementing one-to-one computer initiatives and schools implementing traditional modes of instruction. A second purpose of this study was to determine what effects one-to-one computer initiatives had on student FCAT 2.0 scores overall and by grade level, gender, and socio-economic status. The study used an independent-samples t-test, a repeated measures ANOVA, and a factorial ANCOVA to answer four research questions in order to achieve the purpose …

The Lived Experiences Of Elementary Students With Disabilities Self-Advocating Through Speaking And Writing, Lindsey Massengale

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Writing and self-advocacy skills are important for all students, including individuals with disabilities. Within the K-12 setting, those skills are taught, but emphasis changes as students progress through the grade levels. At the elementary level, writing is more prominent; whereas, in high school, self-advocacy becomes a focus. In this study, the researcher used a phenomenological research design to explore the lived experiences and preferences of elementary students with disabilities and their use of self-advocacy strategies in the inclusive setting, both in writing and speaking. The phenomenon was explored over an eleven-week period in a second grade, inclusive classroom. The conceptual …

Setting The Agenda For Stem Literacy In Higher Education: A Content Analysis Of The Chronicle Of Higher Education, Maya Abdallah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Enhancing achievement in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) is a long-standing national concern. The current national agenda, to instill an "all hands on deck" approach to creating a STEM literate citizenry, calls for broadening the scope of inclusion in STEM efforts. A critical population, higher education administrators, faculty, and staff are a valuable resource to advancing this agenda. Under the proposed Agenda Setting Communication Theory (ASCT) model developed for this study, their level of exposure to needed information is an important indicator of their potential participation in this agenda. As the leading news medium for the higher education community, …

Sensing Using Specialty Optical Fibers, Amy Van Newkirk

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Fiber optic based sensing is a growing field with many applications in civil and aerospace engineering, oil and gas industries, and particularly in harsh environments where electronics are not able to function. Optical fibers can be easily integrated into structures, are immune to electromagnetic interference, can be interrogated from remote distances, and can be multiplexed for distributed measurements. Because of these properties, specialty fiber designs and devices are being explored for sensing temperature, strain, pressure, curvature, refractive index, and more. Here we show a detailed analysis of a multicore fiber (MCF) for sensing, including its design and optimization in simulation, …

Size, Shape, Composition And Chemical State Effects In Nanocatalysis, Mahdi Ahmadi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The field of nanocatalysis has gained significant attention in the last decades due to the numerous industrial applications of nanosized catalysts. Size, shape, structure, and composition of the nanoparticles (NPs) are the parameters that can affect the reactivity, selectivity and stability of nanocatalysts. Therefore, understanding how these parameters affect the catalytic properties of these systems is required in order to engineer them with a given desired performance. It is also important to gain insight into the structural evolution of the NP catalysts under different reaction conditions to design catalysts with long durability under reaction condition. In this dissertation a synergistic …

Investigating The Predictive Power Of Student Characteristics On Success In Studio-Mode, Algebra-Based Introductory Physics Courses, Jarrad Pond

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As part of a project to explore the differential success of similar implementations of the studio-mode of physics instruction, the objective of this work is to investigate the characteristics of students enrolled in algebra-based, studio-mode introductory physics courses at various universities in order to evaluate what effects these characteristics have on different measures of student success, such as gains in conceptual knowledge, shifts to more favorable attitudes toward physics, and final course grades. In my analysis, I explore the strategic self-regulatory, motivational, and demographic characteristics of students in algebra-based, studio-mode physics courses at three universities: the University of Central Florida …

An Inconclusive Truth: An Evaluation Of Speleothem Evidence For Climate Change As A Driver Of Ancient Maya Culture Change, Benjamin Goldblatt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As anthropologists who focus their scholarly attention on the past, archaeologists are interested in examining past changes in human cultures, which can include investigating the role(s) of climatic conditions in shaping them. Paleoclimatology offers the possibility of reconstructing past climates and demonstrating their variability over time, potentially contributing a great deal to archaeology. However, while paleoclimatology may lead to new discoveries about the human past, it may also lead to new errors in interpreting it. Cave speleothems are sources of paleoclimatic data that have recently attracted attention in Mesoamerican archaeology, particularly in studies of the Maya region. In order to …

Don't Let The World Rot: Anarchism, Hardcore Music, And Counterculture, Pearson Bolt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Hardcore music is intrinsically anarchistic. The hardcore music scene represents a radical departure from contemporary society. Rejecting the materialism, militarism, and hedonism of the mainstream music scene—and, by extension, modern culture—hardcore music presents an alternative lifestyle rooted in solidarity, equality, and liberty. Indeed, the culture of the hardcore scene approaches a transitive, nomadic model of an anarchistic commune built on resistance as a way of life. In this study, I identified the ways music and lyrics craft attitudes and environments for revolt and rebellion, cultivating critical thinking and disobedience in equal measures. In order to understand the hardcore community, I …

Interval Edge-Colorings Of Graphs, Austin Foster

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A proper edge-coloring of a graph G by positive integers is called an interval edge-coloring if the colors assigned to the edges incident to any vertex in G are consecutive (i.e., those colors form an interval of integers). The notion of interval edge-colorings was first introduced by Asratian and Kamalian in 1987, motivated by the problem of finding compact school timetables. In 1992, Hansen described another scenario using interval edge-colorings to schedule parent-teacher conferences so that every person's conferences occur in consecutive slots. A solution exists if and only if the bipartite graph with vertices for parents and teachers, and …

Access And Student Success: An Examination Of The Perceptions And Experiences Of First-Year Seminar Professionals At Florida Historically Black Colleges And Universities., Amanda Wilkerson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this research was to understand the lived experiences and working perceptions of Florida HBCU first-year seminar professionals. Much empirical work has been done to examine the experiences of students transitioning into the college environment. In contrast, there is little work that specifically looks at the professionals that service first-year students within a minority serving context, specifically Historically Black Colleges and Universities. As a result, the findings of this study suggest that Florida HBCU first-year seminar professionals are active partners in the scholastic success of its freshman students.

The Source And Impact Of Student Engagement For Black Students In An Urban High School, Deshawn Sims

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The achievement of Black students has repeatedly met only the lowest standards of performance on standardized assessments, which begs the question; do American schools have the capacity to educate Black children? The purpose of this action research manuscript dissertation was to explore the teacher behaviors and instructional strategies that developed a culture of high achievement among Black students as measured by student engagement and discourse, immediately before and after desegregation, and in classrooms today. The examination of popular theories concerning the education of Black people in the early 1900's and narratives of individuals who attended segregated schools, provided a historical …

The Impact Of Voluntary Prekindergarten On Kindergarten Reading Readiness In A Large Suburban School District In 2012-2014, Brandon Hanshaw

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the effects of participation in the Florida Voluntary Prekindergarten Program are sustained in kindergarten reading readiness for those who participated in the research school district VPK, those who participated in another provider VPK, and compared to those who did not participate in VPK. Select stakeholder perceptions were also gathered and analyzed, to include research school district parents of VPK participants, research school district VPK instructors, and research school district administrators. Academic effects were analyzed for VPK participants and non-VPK participants in 2012-2013 within their kindergarten 2013-2014 school year using the FAIR-K …