Digital Commons Network^™

Implementing Stem In Elementary Schools: Teacher Perceptions, Practices, And Supports, Casey Wester

Doctor of Education Dissertations

STEM education is a critical component of maintaining global competitiveness, underscoring the need to begin it in early childhood. Integrating STEM education requires teachers to move beyond traditional teaching methods toward a transdisciplinary approach. Research has shown that there can be a variety of barriers to integrating STEM into the classroom. This explanatory mixed methods research study investigated elementary school educators' perspectives on implementing a STEM initiative, the fidelity of implementation post-initiative, and the current supports and additional support needed to sustain implementation. To carry out this investigation, a survey was deployed to elementary educators in three elementary schools, and …

Supporting Core Instruction: A Mixed Methods Study Of Foundations Of Math Training For Elementary Teachers, Naomi C. Mallory

Doctor of Education Dissertations

Effective Tier 1 mathematics instruction within a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) depends on the teacher’s ability to implement research-based instructional practices with confidence and fidelity (Berkeley et al., 2020; Cleaver, 2023). The purpose of this study was to explore educators' perspectives on how explicit, research-based mathematics professional development influenced their perceived capacity to deliver effective core instruction. Specifically, the study explored how the Foundations of Math (FoM) professional development course affected teachers’ confidence and instructional decision-making. This study was conducted within one public school district and included elementary educators who had participated in the FoM course. Data were collected …

Perceptions Of Intracurricular And Extracurricular Activities On Student Academics In An Eastern North Carolina High School: A Qualitative Study, Demarcus Jones

Doctor of Education Dissertations

This qualitative study explored educator perceptions of the impact of intracurricular and extracurricular activities on student academic achievement in a rural high school in Eastern North Carolina. Grounded in Bandura’s (1986) Social Cognitive Theory and Maslow’s (1962) Hierarchy of Needs, the study examined how structured school-based programs influence student motivation, engagement, and academic performance. Data were collected through three rounds of semi-structured interviews with purposive groups of core teachers, elective teachers/sponsors, and school administrators, followed by a culminating focus group to confirm emerging themes. Inductive thematic analysis revealed that participation in structured programs positively influenced academic outcomes by promoting accountability, …

Beyond The Classroom: Exploring High School Graduates' Perceptions Of How Extracurricular Activities Influence College And Career Readiness, Miranda B. Grigg

Doctor of Education Dissertations

This mixed methods study explored high school graduates’ perceptions of how participation in extracurricular activities influenced their college and career readiness. Grounded in Bandura’s (1986) Social Cognitive Theory and Deci and Ryan’s (1985) Self-Determination Theory, the study examined how experiences in athletics, clubs, organizations, and leadership roles contributed to graduates’ development of confidence, motivation, leadership skills, belonging, and real-world competencies. A sequential explanatory mixed methods design was employed. The quantitative phase consisted of a 20-item survey completed by 67 graduates of a rural South Carolina high school, with responses analyzed using descriptive statistics and chi-square goodness-of-fit tests. Reliability was further …

Developing Collaboration And Community Through An Online Virtual Modality: Participatory Action Research, Jennifer Reed

Doctor of Education Dissertations

This action research study examined educators’ perceptions of collaboration and community within a virtual professional learning community and investigated how participation influenced collaborative actions over time. The study also compared the needs and goals of secondary and postsecondary educators participating in a shared VPLC model. Grounded in the Community of Inquiry and Online Collaborative Learning theoretical frameworks, this study addressed a growing need for effective, flexible professional learning structures that support collaboration across educational contexts. Data were collected from six educators, including three secondary and three postsecondary instructors, through pre- and post-administration of the Professional Learning Community Assessment–Revised, recorded virtual …

Exploring A School District's Alternative Licensure Pathway Preparation: Experience And Self-Efficacy Of Black Male Educators In North Carolina, Marquise K. Smith

Doctor of Education Dissertations

This qualitative study explored the perceived effectiveness of licensure exam preparation, student teaching experiences, and personal and professional support systems among Black male educators in North Carolina, with particular attention to self-efficacy and imposter syndrome as factors influencing licensure success. Grounded in Bandura’s (1977, 1986) Social Cognitive Theory and Self-Efficacy Theory, as well as Huecker et al.’s (2023) Imposter Syndrome Theory, the study examined how environmental structures and psychological experiences interact to shape professional outcomes. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 13 Black male educators and a follow-up focus group designed to confirm and elaborate on emergent themes. …

A Regional Multimethod Study On The Impact Of Identification Practices For Diverse Populations In Academically Gifted Programs During The 2022-2025 Aig Plan Implementation, Stephanie G. Revis

Doctor of Education Dissertations

Historically, many North Carolina Local Education Agencies (LEAs) have not prioritized diversity in Academically and Intellectually Gifted (AIG) programs, and local control over funding and policies has led to wide variations in how identification and services are implemented. As a result, persistent equity gaps exist between the proportion of culturally, linguistically, and ethnically diverse (CLED) students in the overall population and their representation in AIG programs. The purpose of this study was to examine identification practices implemented by LEAs and determine their impact on the Relative Difference in Composition Index (RDCI), as well as to identify which practices contribute to …

Understanding Teacher Self-Efficacy And Its Influence On Teacher Effectiveness: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis-An Extension, Valene Williams

Doctor of Education Dissertations

This study examined teacher self-efficacy and its influence on instructional effectiveness within a high school mathematics context. The study was grounded in the work of Bandura (1997), in addition to an extension of Benitez's (2020) research. This replication-by-extension study sought to explore how teachers’ lived experiences shape their self-efficacy beliefs and how those beliefs influence classroom practice. The study addressed two research questions: (a) What can we learn about self-efficacy sources from teachers’ experiences? and (b) How do teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs influence their effectiveness? This research is important given ongoing concerns regarding mathematics achievement and the role of teacher beliefs …

Comprehending Teacher Retention: A Qualitative Study Of Job Satisfaction Viewed Through The Frameworks Of Maslow And Herzberg, Shakeria G. Mccullough

Doctor of Education Dissertations

Teacher shortages pose a significant concern, as numerous educators are departing from the profession (OECD, 2025). Schools are encountering difficulties in filling vacant positions with droves of individuals planning to depart the profession (Lurye & Griesbach, 2022). This qualitative study investigated alternatively certified and traditionally certified teacher perceptions regarding job satisfaction and teacher retention within a single public school system. Findings showed the need for policy shifts that address organizational challenges, an increased focus on pathway-specific and individual supports, a procurement of purposeful and meaningful instruction, greater attention to the realities of teaching and the well-being of teachers, and a …

Exploring Teacher And Business Partner Perspectives On Cte Effectiveness, Jada Owenby

Doctor of Education Dissertations

This study explored stakeholder perceptions of Career and Technical Education (CTE) program effectiveness for preparing students for postsecondary pathways. The investigation focused on CTE teachers’ and business partners’ perspectives about student readiness and workforce preparation. This study used qualitative research and a theoretical framework from the Human Capital Theory, the Social Cognitive Career Theory, and the College and Career Readiness Framework. Participants included nine high school CTE teachers from different career clusters and five local business partners who were currently aligned with the district CTE program. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews. Interview data were analyzed using theme analysis. Both …

2026 Engage For Change Awards Program, Bonner Center For Civic Engagement

Engage for Change Awards

2026 Award Print: Hamilton Glass, Artist

Keynote Speaker: Hamilton Glass, Artist

Differential Impact Of Admission Type And Clinical Complexity On Diabetes Hospitalization Costs Among African American And Hispanic Patients In Southeastern Virginia, Ismail El Moudden, Asra Amidi, Reem Sharaf-Alddin, Michael C. Bittner, Qi Zhang

Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology Faculty Publications

Background

Diabetes mellitus (DM) imposes substantial healthcare costs with documented disparities among African Americans and Hispanic patients. To inform care delivery and resource allocation, this study identified hospitalization cost predictors among African American and Hispanic patients with diabetes in Southeastern Virginia.

Methods

We analyzed 6,011 hospital discharges from the Virginia Health Information database (2016-2020) for adults aged 18-85 with diabetes. Discharges were classified by Medicare Severity Diagnosis-Related Groups: DM with complications/comorbidities (DCC, n = 3,328), DM with major complications/comorbidities (DMCC, n = 1,518), and DM without major complications/comorbidities (DWO, n = 1,165). Because cost distributions were right-skewed (skewness 3.5-8.24), we …

Medical Image Feature Extraction And Selection Based On Inception V3 And Gini Index For Cervical Cancer Cells Identification, Rachida Assawab, Mounir Ouzir, Badreddine Benyacoub, Abderrahim Electrochemical Sensor For Tenofovir Allati, Ismail El Moudden

Research and Infrastructure Service Enterprise (RISE) Faculty Publications

Background: Cervical cancer remains the fourth most common cancer in women globally, with 604,000 new cases annually. Early detection through cytological screening is critical, but manual interpretation suffers from high false negative rates and requires expert pathologists often unavailable in resource-limited settings.

Methods: We developed a novel hybrid framework combining InceptionV3-based deep feature extraction with Gini Index feature selection for automated cervical cancer cell classification. Using the Herlev dataset (917 Pap smear images: 242 normal, 675 abnormal), we extracted 2048 deep features and applied systematic feature selection to identify optimal discriminative subsets. Comprehensive clustering analysis (K-means, K-medoid, Fuzzy clustering) validated …

Selecting Plants And Informational Resources, Kat Kelleher

UNH Cooperative Extension

Considerations that go into plant selection on a site when thinking about creating resilient spaces that are able to provide more than one function.

Ecosystem Functions And Services - Landscaping For Water Quality (March 25, 2026 Gbnerr), Julia Peterson

UNH Cooperative Extension

No abstract provided.

Marketing Water Quality Friendly Services, Julia Peterson

UNH Cooperative Extension

No abstract provided.

Estuary, Kelle Loughlin

UNH Cooperative Extension

No abstract provided.

Water Resource Protection Principles And Strategies, Julia Peterson

UNH Cooperative Extension

No abstract provided.

2026 Water Quality Considerations In Landscaping, Thomas Swenson

UNH Cooperative Extension

2026 Water Quality Considerations in Landscaping

Stormwater Best Management Practices, Kat Kelleher

UNH Cooperative Extension

No abstract provided.

Assessing And Understanding Soil Characteristics, Amy Papineau

UNH Cooperative Extension

No abstract provided.

Nh State Shoreland Water Quality Protection Act (Landscaping For Water Quality Workshop - 2026), Jay Aube

UNH Cooperative Extension

No abstract provided.

Utilizing Emergency Management Audio Messages For Traffic Incident Management Performance Measures, Christopher Gartner, Vihaan Vajpayee, Jairaj Desai, Darcy M. Bullock

JTRP Technical Reports

Timely and accurate information regarding roadway incidents is critical for Traffic Management Centers (TMCs) to maintain safety and mobility. While Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) cameras and crowdsourced data provide significant visibility, rural interstate corridors often suffer from coverage gaps, or "blind spots," where incidents go undetected until significant queuing occurs. Public safety radio communications serve as the primary coordination method for first responders, creating a "verbal infrastructure" that contains vital information regarding incident location and severity. This study evaluates the feasibility of using Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) to bridge these gaps by monitoring and analyzing radio traffic. The project developed …

The Nature And Origin Of The Strodes Creek Member Of The Lexington Limestone, Central Kentucky, Claire J. Mendenhall

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

The Strodes Creek Member of the Lexington Limestone is a small, unusual member that is largely known for its beds of fragmented and overturned stromatoporoids. The Strodes Creek Member occurs as two distinct stratigraphic bodies, wholly encompassed by the Millersburg Member, which represents a shallow, open-marine, mixed-clastic-carbonate platform, characterized by thin-bedded to nodular, fossiliferous calcarenites and calcirudites interbedded with shale. In contrast to the Millersburg, the Strodes Creek exhibits a lithologic background of dark, organic-rich, calcareous shales with a westward-thickening section of very irregularly bedded, stromatoporoid-rich, fossiliferous calcisiltites (packstones and wackestones). The calcisiltites are commonly associated with hummocky crossbedding, pinch-and-swell …

N-[3-(N-Tert-Butoxycarbonylaminooxy)Propyl]-2-[2-(3-Butynylcarbonylamino)Ethylthio]-1,3-Benzothiazole-6-Carboxamide, Gabriella G. Meisner, Nora N. Vegas, Christopher R. Shugrue

Chemistry Faculty Publications

We report the synthesis of a modified benzothiazole sulfide. This compound contains a heterocyclic core, a Boc-protected hydroxylamine, and an appended alkyne. This benzothiazole was accessed through three total steps, including an amidation reaction and two nucleophilic aromatic substitutions. The identity of the title compound was confirmed through ¹H, ¹³C, ¹H–¹H COSY, HSQC, and HMBC NMR, in addition to IR, MALDI-MS, HRMS, and HPLC.

Gender-Inclusive Language In Spanish: A Data-Informed Sociolinguistic Exploration Of Naming Variation, Silvia Rivera Alfaro, Jonathan Hanon

Publications and Research

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a data-informed sociolinguistic exploration of the variation in the names given to gender-inclusive language in Spanish. We use publicly available Google Trends (GT) data to describe the frequency of usage of different names over time and explore their geographical distribution. To account for the challenges and limitations of using Google Trends, we compare the data with information from two large linguistic corpora (CORPES XXI and Google Books Ngram Viewer). Using these tools, we generate small datasets to explore the intricacies of the topic addressed in this paper. In our literature review, we identified 17 names for …

Reflection In Still Waters: Generative Ai's Production Of Language, Jonathan D. Hawks

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Language is a conceptual process of meaning-making as well as a social construction as defined by Saussure, Bakhtin, and Lacan. Large Language Models (LLMs) engage with neither process and instead present language as a finished and consumable product which undermines its fundamental aspects. The difference between representing language through probability and its structural components instead of its more inherent qualities is not a pointless distinction. This paper utilizes Narcissus as a central metaphor to show how people misread the outputs of LLMs as language which imparts to those reflected words meaning on par with our own conceptualizations of reality. People …

A Multiple Case Study Exploring The Lived Experiences Of Special Education Teachers Of Students With Intellectual Disabilities, Patrece A. Scott

Doctor of Education Dissertations

Special educators, particularly the teachers of students with intellectual disabilities, remained an understudied group in research. The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to examine how special educators navigated their lived experiences collaborating with three key stakeholder groups: parents, general education teachers, and administrators, particularly working with students with intellectual disabilities. Specifically, this study examined how special educators experienced collaboration with those stakeholder groups through the framework of McClelland's (1961) Theory of Needs. The study involved two semi-structured interviews with each of the 12 participants, all of whom were special educators at the middle or high school level. These …

The Composition Of Gases From A Diffusion Flame Above Longleaf Pine Needle Fuel Beds, David R. Weise, Thomas H. Fletcher, Timothy J. Johnson, Weimin Hao, Russell G. Tonkyn, Catherine A. Banach, Javier Palarea-Albaladejo, Mahsa Alizadeh, Stephen Baker

Faculty Publications

The gas and tar composition of a wildland fire diffusion flame from longleaf pine needles is currently relatively unmeasured and more data are needed to fill in the gap between pyrolysis data and smoke plume data, thus improving physical and chemical modeling of wildland smoke formation. A pilot experiment to measure light gas and tar composition of such a flame is described for three flame zones: persistent flame (flame base), intermittent flame, and smoke plume. Flame gases from 24 experimental fires were collected in canisters and analyzed for CO2, CO, H2, CH4, and C2 to C7 hydrocarbon gases. Other light …

Searching For Nooks And Crannies: Geometric And Mechanistic Perspectives On Transformer Language Model Interpretability, Anna Marbut

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Large language models (LLMs) have demonstrated remarkable linguistic capabilities, but the internal mechanisms driving their performance and behavior remain poorly understood. This dissertation investigates the interpretability of transformer-based language models from two complementary perspectives: the geometric organization of model internals in encoder-only models, and the mechanisms underlying safety behavior in decoder-only generative models.

In Part I, we address the challenge of measuring geometric properties in high-dimensional latent spaces, proposing and evaluating alternative measures of data spread that improve upon commonly used metrics. We then apply these measures alongside quantization-based metrics to examine the relationship between latent space geometry and downstream …