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Kindergarten Aimsweb Ela Composite As A Predictor Of Third-Grade Reading Proficiency In A Rural, High-Poverty School District, Christi J. Gentry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Reading proficiency by the end of third grade is a critical milestone as students transition from learning to read to using reading as a tool for learning. In Tennessee, this proficiency is especially significant because promotion and retention decisions are linked to student performance on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) ELA assessment. This quantitative, longitudinal study examined the extent to which kindergarten readiness, operationalized as kindergarten AIMSweb ELA Composite scores, predicts third-grade reading proficiency status in one rural, high-poverty school district. Using archival student-level data, this study analyzed kindergarten AIMSweb ELA Composite scores and third-grade TCAP ELA proficiency. Logistic …

Staying The Course: Community College Student Lived Experiences On Program Completion And Motivation, Jessica Leigh Mills

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of former community college students who successfully completed an associate degree, certificate, or program of study and to understand how they experienced the personal, institutional, and environmental factors that supported their persistence to completion. The study, guided primarily by Tinto’s (1975,1988) Model of Student Departure and was complemented by Bandura’s (1988) Social Learning Theory (SLT), and Maslow’s (1943) Hierarchy of Needs, explored the extrinsic and intrinsic motivations students attributed to their successful completion of their associate degree, certificate, or program of study. Twelve former community college students who …

Teacher Autonomy In Accountability-Driven Contexts: A Phenomenological Study Of Middle School Mathematics Teachers In East Tennessee, Hollyann Perdue

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore East Tennessee middle school mathematics teachers’ experiences of professional autonomy and how those experiences relate to institutional decision making within the accountability-driven educational environment. This study utilized the Self-Determination Theory (Ryan & Deci, 2017) as a framework to examine how teachers perceived their ability to make instructional decisions while navigating district expectations, pacing requirements, mandated curriculum, and state testing pressures. Data were collected through one-on-one semi-structured Zoom interviews with 12 East Tennessee middle school mathematics teachers representing varying levels of teaching experience, effectiveness ratings, and instructional settings, including both general …

Remotely Assessing Foundational Skills Of 5–14-Year-Old Children: A Six-Country Psychometric Evaluation Of The Remote Assessment Of Learning (Real), Elizabeth Hentschel, Sascha Hein, Nan Li, Clay Westrope, Julia Taladay, Gillian Valentine, James Leckman, Amira Abdurahman, Fatime Bachir, Farah Darwazeh

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

Approximately 250 million children worldwide are out of school. There is growing consensus for investing in feasible, contextually appropriate, psychometrically tested, remote tools to support quality education in low-resource contexts, including low- and middle-income countries and crisis-affected contexts. Save the Children developed the Remote Assessment of Learning (ReAL) to assess 5–14-year-old children's foundational learning. Children (N = 4,840) were sampled from Cambodia, Mozambique, Niger, the occupied Palestinian territories, the Philippines, and Sudan, with an approximately equal proportion of male and female children within each country. The study assessed inter-rater reliability, factor structure, item slope and difficulty, criterion validity, …

On The Operation Of A Proteomics Core Facility: Selected Mass Spectrometric Studies And Methods, Rachel E. Muriph

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Mass spectrometry has become an indispensable analytical platform for investigating complex biological systems owing to its sensitivity, selectivity, and molecular specificity. This Dissertation demonstrates the versatility of liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) through three studies focused on nanoparticle characterization, protein structural analysis, and plasma proteomics. In Chapter 2, LC-MS methods were developed to characterize novel lipidoid incorporated into lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) and to evaluate their in vivo biodistribution following systematic administration. Comparative proteomic analysis of the resulting protein coronas revealed distinct differences between liver and lung targeting LNP formulations, providing insight into the potential role of adsorbed blood proteins in …

Comparing Online Versus In-Person Administration Of Cognitive Tasks And Evaluating Their Predictive Utility Of Inattention Symptoms And Related Behaviors, Cameron Pothoven

Master's Theses

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder associated with less developed working memory (WM) processes, theorized to be a core contributing factor in the development of ADHD and a predictor of ADHD symptom severity (Alderson et al., 2013; Rapport et al., 2008). Objective measures inclusive of working memory tasks, when used in conjunction with self-report measures, have been previously shown to increase the accuracy of diagnosing ADHD (Marshal et al., 2021. However, given that WM is typically assessed by a trained clinician, it is unclear how accurate and comparable online administration of adapted WM tasks are to their in-person counterparts. …

Modeling Intercellular And Intracellular Organization And Dynamics Of The Bacteria Escherichia Coli : From Population Dynamics In The Gut Microbiome, To Condensate Formation In Starved Cells, Alberto Alonso

Theses

Escherichia coli is a predominantly non-pathogenic species of bacteria present in the gut of most healthy adults. It plays a critical role in the health of the gut microbiome and is also widely used as a model organism in microbiology and synthetic biology studies. This thesis discusses results from two ongoing projects on E. Coli organization and emergent biophysical properties at two very distinct length scales. The first project focuses on using genetically modified engineered E. coli bacteria for early detection and intervention in colorectal cancer (CRC), a significant public health issue in the US. The success of these engineered …

2026-2027 Lindenwood University Graduate Course Catalog, Lindenwood University

Course Catalogs

Lindenwood University Graduate Course Catalog

2026-2027 Lindenwood University Undergraduate Course Catalog, Lindenwood University

Course Catalogs

Lindenwood University Undergraduate Course Catalog

Student Attitudes And Perceptions Of Proof In Mathematics, Emelin G. Sibrian Marquez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Traditionally, mathematical proof is viewed primarily as a tool for validation or verification. However, proof holds many other important roles such as discovery, reasoning, explanation, and justification. For many students, these other roles are not always obvious. Those encountering rigorous proof for the first time often find the process abstract, intimidating or disconnected from their previous learning. This disconnect can lead to negative attitudes as students transition from computational mathematics to advanced proof-based mathematics. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, this study examined undergraduate and graduate mathematics students at a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) in Southern California. We investigated what students perceive the …

A Four-Year Mixed Methods Cohort Study Of Professional Learning Interventions In Teacher Education Colleges In Kenya, Tanzania, And Uganda, Nyagwegwe Wango, Nipael Mrutu, Jane Rarieya, Fortidas Bakuza

Institute for Educational Development, East Africa

In teacher professional learning reforms, maintaining pedagogical transformation is still a major problem, especially in settings with limited resources and policy transitions. During the four years that the Foundation for Learning (F4L) initiative was implemented in teacher education institutions in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda (2022–2025), this study looks at longitudinal patterns of improvement. The study employs a retrospective mixed-methods approach to examine two structured cycles of cohort-level data, which include interview datasets, lesson plan documents, mentoring records, questionnaire summaries, and classroom observation reports. Cycle comparisons show enhanced consistency in structured practicum feedback systems over time, better alignment between lesson objectives …

Evolution Of Propagator Wakes On The Kolbeinsey Ridge From An Integrated Geophysical Perspective, Ethan Stowell

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Oceanic lithosphere is formed following the extension and rifting of a continent, with new material generated at mid-ocean ridges. While ridges generally spread in the direction of extension, individual spreading centers are offset by perpendicular transform faults that break the ridges into individual segments. Ridge propagation, in which one ridge segment grows at the expense of another’s shortening, has been identified in global investigations as a poorly understood component of axial reorganization. This process leaves propagator wake structures composed of faults and pseudofaults visible as lows in Earth’s gravitational field, and transferred lithosphere with a distorted magnetic signature. This study …

Optimal Management Of Electric Vehicle Fast Charging Stations Via Lyapunov Optimization And Reinforcement Learning, Mohammad Hossein Abbasi

All Dissertations

The transportation sector is responsible for 28% of global energy-related emissions, with road transport accounting for most of these emissions. While electric vehicles (EVs) are essential for decarbonizing transportation, widespread adoption depends on fast, efficient charging. Fast charging reduces charging time but accelerates battery degradation, whereas slow charging increases range anxiety. In addition, fast charging stations (FCSs) impose significant stress on distribution grids, making their operation a critical challenge. Optimizing FCS operation can conflict with EV fast-charging objectives, yet existing research largely treats these problems independently despite their strong interdependence.

Current fast-charging methods focus on individual cells or small battery …

Theory-Informed Generative Agents For Human Behavioral Modeling In Disasters, Liming Lu

All Dissertations

This dissertation develops a theory-informed generative-agent framework for modeling human behavioral decisions in disasters. Existing flood and disaster preparedness models often emphasize physical hazards, infrastructure exposure, or statistical correlations, but they struggle to capture the heterogeneous and evolving choices households make. This limitation is especially important for climate-related hazards, where future damage depends not only on changes in rainfall, inundation, and urban development, but also on decentralized protective actions such as house elevation, flood insurance, evacuation, and early preparedness. The dissertation integrates two empirical studies: a flood-risk study in Charleston, South Carolina, and a household disaster-preparedness study across hurricane contexts. …

Leveraging Deep Learning Recurrence And Attention Mechanisms For Flood Forecasting And Assessment, Elnaz Heidari

All Dissertations

Predicting how much water will flow in rivers and streams is important for managing floods, water supply, and the environment. Traditionally, government agencies have used complex models, such as the National Water Model (NWM), which simulate how much water moves through landscapes using physical laws and real-world data. However, recent advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have enabled new ways to make these predictions. This research explored whether AI-based models could predict river discharge more accurately. These AI models learn patterns from past data instead of relying only on physical rules. To find out how well they work, the AI models …

An Investigation Of The Use Of Self-Regulated Strategy Development With A Mnemonic On The Fraction Computation Performance Of Students At-Risk For Emotional/Behavioral Disorders, Melissa D. Hullett

All Dissertations

Interventions that help students organize their thinking can reduce cognitive load and support academic, behavioral, and social success. Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) is an evidence-based instructional framework that combines strategy instruction with self-regulation to promote student independence and improve student confidence. A mnemonic has been shown to help scaffold support across all content areas to the level of mastery required by Stage 4 of the SRSD framework ("Memorize It"). In mathematics, where executive functioning demands are high, interventions to scaffold content must provide the metacognitive support needed for a diverse student population. This study used a multiple-baseline design to examine …

Investigating The Impacts Of Information Framing And Representation On Multi-Stakeholder Decision-Making For Tradespace Exploration, Meredith G. Sutton

All Dissertations

Tradespace exploration (TSE) is a decision-making process used in engineering design to search through a tradespace, containing all potential solutions to a design problem and their performance evaluations, in order to select optimal or near-optimal solutions. Solution optimality is driven by a desire to maximize the overall utility of a solution, which often cannot be done without making tradeoffs or compromises. The TSE process requires vast amounts of information which can be difficult to generate and understand, often leading to challenges including information overload, delays in decision-making, and suboptimal decisions, even for the most experienced designers. To address the challenges …

Imaging Oxygen Near Implanted Medical Devices Through Tissue With X-Ray And Ultrasound Modulated Luminescence Chemical Imaging, Vigjna Abbaraju

All Dissertations

Oxygen plays a crucial role in stem cell maintenance, tissue regeneration, disease progression, and treatment efficacy. For example, understanding oxygen dynamics within implanted medical devices, such as bone scaffolds, is essential for successful tissue regeneration and can serve as an early indicator of infection. The existing oxygen sensing and imaging techniques are often limited by narrow imaging depth, low spatial resolution in vivo resulting in poor understanding of oxygen dynamics in tissue microenvironments. This dissertation describes the development of implantable sensors using X-ray scintillators and thermochromic leuco dye paired with phosphorescent oxygen dye (PtTFPP) to image oxygen using X-ray luminescent …

Nanostructured Insulated Electrodes For Directed Nanoparticle Assembly: Development And Characterization, Thomas F. Burgess

All Dissertations

Nanoparticles exhibit unique properties dependent on their size, shape, and arrangement that are critical for sensing applications, such as the localized surface plasmon resonance of silver nanoparticles. Therefore, control over their assembly facilitates control over these properties. For this purpose, nanostructured insulated electrodes were developed and characterized for directed assembly of nanoparticle clusters. Electrode characterization required a new method for relative electric field quantification from electric force microscopy (EFM) measurements, implemented via an extended Hudlet model to estimate the field between the sample and the EFM probe apex. Restricting analysis to the apex – sample interaction improves spatial resolution and …

Structure And Dynamics Of Associative Polymers Under Quiescent State And Flow, Rosita Sivaraj

All Dissertations

Associative polymers, including ionizable polymers, are widely used in membranes, coatings, fuel cells, energy storage, and other advanced soft materials. Their properties are governed by ionic aggregation and associative interactions, which influence chain mobility, phase behavior, self-assembly, interdiffusion, and flow response. This dissertation employs large-scale molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to investigate the structure, dynamics, phase behavior, interdiffusion, and extensional flow response of ion-containing and associative polymer systems under quiescent and nonequilibrium conditions.

The influence of molecular architecture is first examined by comparing ring and linear associative polymers using the Kremer–Grest bead-spring model. In linear chains, their closed-loop architecture reduces interchain …

The Exploration Of One-Dimensional And Two-Dimensional Frustrated Magnetic Transition Metal Phosphates And Arsenates Via Hydrothermal Synthesis, Emily D. Williams

All Dissertations

Geometric magnetic frustration is a term that refers to magnetic spins that are “confused” or frustrated due to geometric arrangements of magnetic ions that prohibit the spins from magnetically ordering. This phenomenon has been subject to much research due to the ability to study exotic magnetic states and expand upon knowledge that would allow for materials to be implemented into quantum computing, memory storage and advanced sensor processing. One of the most exotic magnetic states, quantum spin liquids (QSL), has never been achieved but shows much promise. In the QSL state, magnetic spins do not order down to 0 K …

From Gatekeeping To Opportunity: Authentic Assessment In Natural Resources Education, Aradaryn Marsh

All Dissertations

Assessment practices play a central role in shaping how students engage with learning, demonstrate understanding, and participate in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. Despite increasing calls for more inclusive and professionally relevant educational practices, undergraduate STEM assessment remains heavily dominated by traditional examinations emphasizing memorization, speed, and standardized performance. These concerns may be particularly important within Natural Resources (NR) education, a field that requires students to integrate scientific knowledge with communication, collaboration, and applied problem-solving. This dissertation explores authentic assessment within undergraduate NR education through a multi-phase investigation examining assessment prevalence, student experiences, racially marginalized (RM) student perspectives, …

Can Kinematics Specify Tool Use Affordances?, Tyler Duffrin

All Dissertations

Object properties such as length, shape, and heaviness, as well as affordance-based properties such as strike-with-ability and poke-with-ability, can be perceived via dynamic touch as functions of inertia tensor invariants. The primary question addressed here was whether people can perceive these same power and precision properties for purely virtual objects, which lack dynamic physical forces. The Kinematic Specification of Dynamics (KSD) principle asserts that missing dynamics are lawfully specified by kinematic (visual) motion patterns, such that kinematic information alone may support successful interactions with virtual objects. In three experiments, we investigated (1) whether virtual reality (VR) users could calibrate to …

Efficient And Scalable Visual Computing For Nanoscale Imaging, Hao Wang

All Dissertations

Nanoscale analysis often relies on instrument-mediated scientific imaging methods to capture visual signals that are difficult to observe, interpret, or quantify through ordinary perception alone. These domains are often characterized by low signal quality, limited annotations, complex morphology, non-natural visual statistics, and strong dependence on physical acquisition processes. This dissertation focuses on efficient visual computing for nanoscale imaging, with an emphasis on the representation, reconstruction, and analysis of high-resolution scientific visual data. In our early work, we relied on rule-based algorithms and conventional machine learning methods for feature extraction. However, these approaches struggle to scale with the increasing complexity and …

Llm-Based Early Rumor Detection With Imitation Agent, Fengzhu Zeng, Qian Shao, Ling Cheng, Wei Gao, Shih-Fen Cheng, Jing Ma, Cheng Niu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Early Rumor Detection (EARD) aims to identify the earliest point at which a claim can be accurately classified based on a sequence of social media posts. This is especially challenging in data-scarce settings. While Large Language Models (LLMs) perform well in few-shot NLP tasks, they are not well-suited for time-series data and are computationally expensive for both training and inference. In this work, we propose a novel EARD framework that combines an autonomous agent and an LLM-based detection model, where the agent acts as a reliable decision-maker for \textit{early time point determination}, while the LLM serves as a powerful \textit{rumor …

Quantifying Dust Structure In An Elliptical Galaxy Via Optical–Near-Infrared Color Mapping: A Detailed Study Of Ngc 6251, Luke Reed

Theses and Dissertations

The giant elliptical galaxy NGC 6251 is a well-studied active radio galaxy that hosts one of the largest known relativistic jet systems, with a projected size of approximately 3 Mpc. In addition to its large-scale radio structure, the galaxy hosts a prominent circumnuclear dust feature surrounding the active nucleus, previously interpreted as a warped dust disk. This thesis focuses on the inner morphology and dust structure of NGC 6251 using archival Hubble Space Telescope observations obtained with the WFPC2 and NICMOS instruments.

The central structure of the galaxy was investigated across multiple wavelengths through image calibration, PSF modeling and subtraction, …

Use Of Active Learning In The Teaching Of The Veterinary Science Course, Cary Rita

All Dissertations

Agricultural education is rooted in active learning, where students develop skills and learning opportunities through hands-on experiences on classroom farms, greenhouses, and even school-based grooming salons. Recent policy and funding revisions have shifted the measures of success in agricultural education programs towards the number of students earning industry-based certifications. This shift has led to the adoption of a test-focused curriculum, often provided by the company offering the certification exam. While the certification-aligned curriculum provides strong content for veterinary knowledge, the problem is that it is often at the expense of hands-on learning. Balancing active learning while also preparing the students …

Unlocking The Behavior Code: How Function-Based Behavior Skills Coaching Empowers Teachers And Reduces Tier Iii Referrals In Mtss, Erin C. Smith-Harrah

All Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of behavior skills coaching on the percentage of students receiving Tier 3 intervention at an elementary school in South Carolina using a Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) framework. The research site for this study has experienced a significant increase in students referred for and receiving Tier 3 instruction. Whereas Tier 3 instruction typically accounts for 5% of a student population, data indicate that the percentage of students who received Tier 3 instruction at the beginning of the 2025-2026 school year at this campus was 39%, with 14% identified as students …

Increasing General Education Teacher Effectiveness When Working With Students Receiving Special Education Services, Taylor Watson

All Dissertations

Although the number of students identified as having disabilities (SWD) continues to increase, general education teachers continue to demonstrate difficulty adequately supporting these students. At one South Carolina school in particular, SWD demonstrate decreased academic achievement and increased rate of discipline referrals when compared to non-SWD. This study utilized an improvement science approach in order to implement targeted instruction on high-leverage practices (HLPs) and its impact on general education teacher effectiveness.

Preliminary findings of the intervention trended positive. Teacher participants demonstrated increased understanding of HLPs following intervention, although this increased knowledge did not necessarily correlate with increased application. Students whose …

Counting The Days: The Impact Of Career And Advanced Coursework On Academic And Perceptual Outcomes For Eighth Grade Students Who Are At Risk Of Experiencing Adverse Educational Outcomes, Jamie Megna

All Dissertations

This study addressed limited academic achievement and limited access to meaningful learning opportunities among eighth grade students who are at risk of adverse educational outcomes. The purpose of this study was to examine how implementing career-based and advanced coursework opportunities for eighth grade students who are at risk improves student engagement with relevant and meaningful learning while supporting progress in academic achievement. The study achieved this by reducing barriers to career-based and advanced coursework to expand access to these learning environments for students who are at risk.

Using a mixed-methods design, the team collected and analyzed data to monitor the …