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Formative Assessment Practices: A Mixed Methods Study Of New Career And Technical Education Teacher Perceptions Of Their Levels Of Knowledge And Use, Alisha Kay Privette

Doctor of Education Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to examine the implementation of training and practices of formative assessment for new North Carolina Career and Technical Education (CTE) teachers. The study investigated new CTE teacher levels of knowledge, the strategies they use, and the challenges they face. This study aimed to improve the quality of education for North Carolina CTE students and support the training of new CTE teachers by providing insights into the implementation and effectiveness of formative assessment practices. According to research, if new teachers feel empowered and encouraged, they are more inclined to comprehend the benefits of …

An Initial Investigation Of Measuring Change In Reading Proficiency During Letrs Implementation, Beverly Hart

Doctor of Education Dissertations

This study aimed to investigate the impact of LETRS professional development on reading proficiency. I used ANOVA tests to analyze third- through fifth-grade EOG assessment scores for changes in proficiency from 2021-2023. The results indicated a statistically significant change in the means for all grades. Third-grade results reflected the most impact from the professional development. The analysis also showed that the third-grade achievement gap had declined slightly. A dependent t test was conducted to ascertain any change in the growth index scores of schools. The test results showed no statistically significant change. The study's limitations include the lingering impact of …

A Mixed Methods Study Of An Alternative Educational Program For At-Risk Students In South Carolina, Lucia K. Jacobs

Doctor of Education Dissertations

This research study focused on the theories that support and underpin the Nine Characteristics of High-Performing Schools. Much of the data presented about high-performing schools lack data about schools that are nontraditional; the nontraditional school, otherwise known as an alternative school or alternative learning placement, supports students who fail to thrive in the traditional school setting. The study employed a sequential explanatory mixed methods design. This design utilized an initial quantitative phase of data collection and analysis, followed by a qualitative phase of data collection and analysis. The purpose of the qualitative phase was to gain further insight regarding the …

Program Evaluation Of Big Ideas Math Among Third-Grade Students In Polston School District Title 1 Schools, Melissa Pollard-Hudson

Doctor of Education Dissertations

This quantitative study explored how well the Big Ideas Math (BIM) curriculum helped third-grade students in Title I schools within the Polston School District (pseudonym) improve their math skills and high-stakes testing scores. Thirteen elementary schools were selected based on factors such as diversity, poverty rates, and academic performance. The study addressed 2019-2023 except for the COVID-19 year, 2020. Using the logic model and constructivism as the conceptual framework, the study assessed student progress through quarterly benchmarks and the SC READY exam. This analysis was performed using repeated measures and a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The analysis showed progressions …

Examining Implementation Of Science Of Reading Practices In North Carolina Public Schools, Brittany Ramsey Evans

Doctor of Education Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine teacher reactions to the adoption and implementation of the Science of Reading (SoR) in North Carolina public schools. In 2021, North Carolina mandated a shift in literacy instruction that started a change initiative beginning with a 2-year professional development for all PreK-5 public school teachers. As other states implement literacy movements aligned with SoR instruction, findings from this study may help them determine their best course of action. Using the theoretical foundation of change theory, I completed a mixed methods convergent parallel design study to explore the implementation process through the lens …

From Page To Practice: The Impact Of A Guided Book Study On Classroom Teacher Perceptions Of Cultural Proficiency And Culturally Responsive Teaching At One Middle School, Joan T. Dorsey

Doctor of Education Dissertations

This qualitative study investigated the impact of a guided book study on middle school classroom teacher perceptions of cultural proficiency and culturally responsive teaching (CRT) practices in one middle school environment. Data were collected from seven middle school teachers who participated in the study. A participatory action research (PAR) approach, an online interest survey, reflection questions, an anticipation guide, Get Centered questions, interview questions, and field notes were utilized to gather the perceptions. The outcome of the study demonstrated a shift in teacher perceptions regarding cultural proficiency and CRT practices. The participants shared an increased understanding and willingness to attempt …

A Phenomenological Study Of Middle School Reading Teachers' Lived Experiences Of Learning Management Systems During The Covid-19 Pandemic And Their Impact On Reading Instruction, Rebekah L. Hadley

Doctor of Education Dissertations

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many school districts were forced to switch to remote learning, which presented a new and challenging experience for teachers. The study described the experiences of middle school reading teachers’ use of learning management systems (LMSs) during the COVID-19 pandemic and their impact on reading instruction. The study focused on a school district in southeastern North Carolina with 19 middle schools and three reading teachers per grade level. The primary method of data collection used in the study was interviews. The interviews revealed that teachers faced several challenges when using LMSs, such as limited knowledge of LMS, …

An Evaluation Of The Process For Assigning Standardized Testing Accommodations For Students With Autism, Lisa Ober

Doctor of Education Dissertations

This dissertation evaluated the process for assigning standardized testing accommodations for students with autism on the standard course of study. The study captured current levels of teacher understanding, their perceptions regarding how testing accommodations might increase equitable access for students with autism, and how these beliefs influence the process of assigning accommodations. The study identified key themes surrounding current processes and equity through qualitative methods, including in-depth interviews with exceptional children and general education teachers and observation of professional learning communities and individualized education plan meetings. The findings revealed that inadequate teacher training and the lack of universal protocols for …

Measuring The Impact: Teacher Self-Efficacy In Literacy Instruction Following Letrs Professional Development, Elizabeth Younger

Doctor of Education Dissertations

North Carolina passed legislation that required all elementary literacy teachers to be trained in the Science of Reading (SOR). The North Carolina Public Department of Education (NCDPI) partnered with Lexia Learning to provide training on the SOR to all public-school Pre-K-5 literacy teachers using the professional development (PD) program Language Essential for Teacher of Reading and Spelling (LETRS). This study looked at how teachers in one North Carolina school district perceive the LETRS program to have impacted their efficacy in literacy instruction. This study used a mixed-method design using an explanatory sequential design with two phases. The first stage included …

The Impact Of I-Ready In Title I Elementary Schools In A Rural District In North Carolina, Davisha Covington Moore

Doctor of Education Dissertations

This study evaluated the impact of the Curriculum Associates i-Ready math program, specifically its online personalized pathways, on Title I elementary schools. The primary goals were to determine if the adaptive, personalized learning program positively impacts student achievement and growth in end-of-grade (EOG) assessments and helps students below grade level make academic gains toward proficiency, and if the i-Ready program is a worthwhile investment for renewal while meeting students' educational needs. In the study district, math scores had not met strategic academic goals, prompting the adoption of the i-Ready curriculum. An explanatory sequential mixed methods study was conducted in three …

Perceptions Of Principal Instructional Leadership In High-Performing, High-Poverty Elementary Schools In South Carolina, Labrenthia Denise Khaalid

Doctor of Education Dissertations

The achievement gap between high-poverty and low-poverty schools is well documented. Principals play a key role in creating the conditions and instituting practices that help ensure students achieve regardless of socioeconomic status. In addition to teachers’ direct effect, strong principals have a positive, though primarily indirect, effect on student achievement. Highly effective principal instructional leadership is crucial. The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a significant difference in principal, teacher, and supervisor perceptions of principal instructional leadership in high-performing, high-poverty (HP-HP) elementary schools in South Carolina. The Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale (PIMRS), comprised of 10 …

#Booktok: Social Media’S Influence On Literature, Madison Hyatt

Honors Theses

Exploring the social media phenomenon, TikTok, and its influence on the community, #Booktok is the newest way readers stay up to date on new books, and what to read. Is this a good thing? A bad thing? And how has this new way of consuming books influenced reading and literature?

Departure From Magical Realism: Female Agency In Latin American Post-Boom Literature, Nicole Darian Llacza Morazzani

Honors Theses

his thesis explores depictions of female agency in post-colonial Latin American literature. I highlight three primary texts: Gabriel García Márquez's (1927-2014) 1967 One Hundred Years of Solitude, a canonical magical realist novel; Isabel Allende's (1942-present) 1982 The House of Spirits, her debut novel and a multi-generational story similar to Márquez's, and Isabel Allende's 2022 Violeta, a historical novel offering an autodiegetic narrative of a woman's 100 years of life in an unnamed South American country, to analyze how female characters evolve in response to changing sociopolitical landscapes and literary movements in Latin America. My central focus is Allende's most recent …

The Value Of Prison Education: Evaluating The Impact Of Education Through Desistance, Cheryl Chan

Honors Theses

The United States faces an epidemic of incarceration, draining resources, disrupting families, and hindering societal participation. Prison education emerges as a method to address this cycle, with vocational and academic programs being pivotal. While vocational programs are more common, their long-term efficacy remains uncertain. Academic education, exemplified by programs like the Bard Prison Initiative, provides incarcerated individuals with an opportunity to change. Typically, the success of these programs are measured using recidivism. However, recidivism has become too narrow of a measure to properly capture the nuances of an education. There has been an emerging body of scholarship studying desistance and …

Shifting Grounds: Movement And Continuity In Mustang, Nepal, Lauren Carter

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the socio-cultural and economic transformations in the Mustang region of Nepal. Drawing from fieldwork conducted over a month, this study examines how traditional economic activities, particularly yak herding, are being replaced by tourism and agriculture due to shifting socio-economic conditions and global influences. The concept of 'adaptive traditionality' is introduced to describe how the community in Mustang actively engages with both internal pressures and external changes to reshape their socio-cultural landscape. This adaptability is evident in the transition from nomadic pastoralism to more sedentary agricultural practices and tourism, which not only reflects a survival tactic but also …

Black And Blue All Over: Whose Lives Matter?, Bella Purvis

Honors Theses

This study investigated the influence of beliefs about race on support for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) and Blue Lives Matter (BluLM) movements, mediated by attitudes towards police and beliefs about white privilege. Utilizing a sample of undergraduate university students, data were obtained through a survey measuring beliefs in the biological and social constructs of race, support for police, belief in white privilege, and attitudes toward BLM and BluLM. Results indicated that individuals who perceive race as a biological construct are less likely to support BLM and more likely to support BluLM, while beliefs in white privilege and attitudes towards …

Trading Perspectives: The Impact Of Gender In Shaping National Trade Policies, Katherine Kwiatkowski

Honors Theses

Economic and political factors have been shown to influence the trade policy decisions of national leaders. The impact of a national leader’s gender on their trade policy preferences remains an underexplored area of research. The increasing share of female national leaders raises the question of whether their policy preferences vary from those of male leaders because of their gender. In this study, I utilize the gender of a nation’s leader to implement a two-way fixed effects regression that analyzes the impact of gender on a leader’s trade policy preferences. Controlling for factors that could also impact a leader’s trade policy …

Updating Nuclear Recoil Models In The Noble Element Simulation Technique For The Lux-Zeplin Experiment, Ryan J. Mcmonigle

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

There is a substantial amount of evidence that a majority of the mass in the universe is comprised of a non-luminous substance, given the name dark matter. Many candidates have been theorized as the solution to the dark matter mystery, with the Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) being a favorable candidate. WIMPs may be detectable via interactions with nucleons, a method known as direct detection. The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment is a xenon-based dual-phase Time Projection Chamber (TPC), that specializes in searching for WIMP-nucleon interactions. TPCs are used to reconstruct event information using scintillation and ionization, which are products of interactions …

The Repeal Of Religious Accommodations – A Constitutional Analysis, Ronald J. Colombo

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

Under modern Supreme Court jurisprudence, the First Amendment ordinarily imposes no heightened standard of review upon neutral laws of general applicability that coincidentally burden the free exercise of religion. To relieve or minimize this burden, however, lawmakers are generally free to promulgate exemptions from or accommodations to such laws for the benefit of religious adherents. Such exemptions and accommodations are common.

When a law is not neutral with respect to religion, or when the law is not generally applicable, then it will be subject to the exacting test of strict scrutiny to the extent that it burdens the free exercise …

Book Challenges Popping Up All Over: What Do School Principals Need To Know?, Samantha Laine Hull, Sue Kimmel

STEMPS Faculty Publications

This chapter provides practical advice and reasons for school leaders to support students' intellectual freedom through their support of school libraries and school librarians. The chapter begins with a short but critical literature review that includes case law on the topic of censorship in schools. The concerns of teachers and librarians from a recent study are summarized and help build the foundation for practical and ready to use advice for any school leaders to uphold the intellectual freedom of all students.

The Promise And Pitfalls Of Genai In Education, Helen Crompton

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Since ChatGPT was made available to the public, artificial intelligence (AI) has had accelerated growth in the field of education at an unprecedented rate. This study examined the misuses and limitations of ChatGPT and similar generative AI as well as the affordances of these tools for teaching and learning. Using PRISMA protocol, this thematic systematic review examined extant literature from November 2022 to June 2024. The findings reveal five misuses and limitations trends in the literature of cheating, inaccuracies, plagiarism, bias, and data privacy. Affordances highlighted six areas of content creation, personalization, engagement, student coaching and assistance, assessment, and task …

University Of Texas At Tyler Course Catalog, 2024-2025, University Of Texas At Tyler

Catalogs

No abstract provided.

University Of Texas At Tyler Catalog, 2024-2025, University Of Texas At Tyler

Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Remedying Educational Opportunity Program Freshmen's Knowledge Of Fractions And Views Of Mathematics Learning With Serious Video Games, Yan Tian

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Well-designed serious video games have great potential in mathematics education. This study aims to enrich our understanding of Slice Fractions and Slice Fractions 2 as remedy tools for college freshmen in an educational opportunities program. Specifically, drawing on resources-based epistemic cognition theory and scheme theory, the study investigated fourteen participants’ perspectives and experiences of playing these games, the impacts of the gameplay on their fraction schemes/operations and explicit conceptions of fractions, practices in fraction problem-solving, and views of mathematics learning. With a quasi-experimental design, each participant finished a pre-game interview and assessment, played SF1 or SF2, and completed a post-game …

Let Your Head Hang Down: A Narrative Examination Of Cultic & Conspiratorial Romance, Kyle Macy

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

A response to recent cultural trends of radicalization, extremism, and violence in American society, this dissertation, a novel rendered in ephemeral fragments of oral histories, interrogates the romanticist postures that compel a community of musical artists, the so-called “Folk Revival Revival,” toward infamy and tragedy. Where more traditional sociological approaches to cultic formations stress the importance of centralized charismatic authority, and more traditional psychological approaches rely upon a conspiratorial Cold War ethos of cognitive bias and coercive control (i.e. “brainwashing”), this project meets such assumptions with incredulity, asserting instead that cultic and conspiratorial entrancement awakens first from within, and may …

A Comparison Of Arctic And Atlantic Basin Cyclone Predictability From A Climatology And Case Study Perspective, Peyton Capute

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Arctic cyclones (ACs) can transport warm, moist air into the Arctic region, which combined with strong winds may lead to rapid declines in sea ice during the summer. As a consequence, accurate sea ice predictions during the summer may rely on being able to predict cyclone-related wind speed and direction, which critically depends on the cyclone track and intensity. Despite this, there are relatively few studies that have documented the predictability of ACs during the summer, beyond a few case studies. In addition, there has been no extensive comparison of whether these cyclones are more or less predictable relative to …

Development And Initial Validation Of The Supervisor Responsiveness Scale, Ramon Garcia

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Theoretically, responsiveness to the emergent needs of supervisees and clients is the primary means by which clinical supervisors help trainees become effective psychotherapists (Friedlander, 2012). To advance understanding and research on this aspect of supervision, the Supervisory Responsiveness Scale (SRS) was developed and assessed psychometrically.

First, 35 items reflecting trainees’ perceptions of their supervisor’s responsiveness, as defined by Friedlander (2012), were developed and rated for clarity, face and content validity by a panel of 12 experienced supervisors. After the item pool was refined based on these ratings, 216 supervisees representing all training levels rated each item on a 1 ( …

Chemical Reduction Of Curved Molecular Nanographenes: Metal Intercalation And Core Transformation, Yikun Zhu

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

The promising lithium storage capacity and fast charge transport rate make graphene a great candidate for energy storage applications. However, the harsh synthetic conditions lead to uneven size distribution and poor solubility, posing limitations on further applications and modifications of graphene and its derivatives. Molecular nanographenes, as graphene cutouts, possess outstanding chemical and physical properties stemming from their parent graphene but also demonstrate such unique features as controllable synthetic conditions, defined molecular structures, uniform size, and relatively good solubility. The improved solubility enables the use of solution chemistry methods for design modifications of molecular nanographenes and for systematical investigation of …

An Exploration Of The Depictions Of Queerness In Yuri!!! On Ice, Kenneth Broughton

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the show Yuri!!! On Ice, specifically its portrayal of gay men. It 1) explores the themes present in the work, with a focus on the depiction of queerness as a transformative force, 2) examines the audience’s opinion of the work via content analysis, and 3) discusses the representation of queer people within the work. The representation of gay men in the show is discussed within the larger framework of Western media, and I also provide context from histories of queer representation in both America and Japan, review common trope usage (both within the story and in Western …

Environmental Sustainability, Healthcare Workers And Healthcare Students: A Literature Review Of Attitudes And Learning Approaches, Pamela R. Mccauley, Kavita Mathur, Reza Kamali Miab, Nina Cohen, Kedena Henriques-Thompson, Jyo Gopinath

Health Professions Education

Purpose: Today, increased attention has been placed on the healthcare industry and its workers in the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Increases in facemask production, personal protective equipment, and the number of patients admitted into hospitals have resulted in a sharp rise in medical waste and environmental concerns. This has led to a greater interest by the research community to study the type of training and education that healthcare workers and students receive which could facilitate the implementation of sustainability activities during their work.

Design/Methodology: We have conducted a literature review (2010 to 2024) on healthcare worker …