Education Commons^™

Walking The Line: Understanding The History And Development Of The Nhtsa Standardized Field Sobriety Tests, Jon D. Gurney

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the early 1980’s within the United States, state legislatures criminalized the practice of driving under the influence of alcohol due to the efforts of moral entrepreneurs such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving that served to vilify the drunk-driver. During the political culture of the early 1980’s, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sought to develop field sobriety tests that would assist law enforcement in the detection and arrest of drunk drivers.

This study provided a brief historical account of the development of the NHTSA Standardized Field Sobriety Test battery, which consisted of the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus test, the Walk …

Exercise Prescription Practices In University Counseling Centers: Testing The Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills Model, A'Naja M. Newsome

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The co-occurence of physical inactivity and poor mental health in the college student population can lead to chronic health issues that have negative short-term (e.g., academic success and weight gain) and long-term (e.g., obesity, serious mental illness, and premature mortality) impacts. Integrating exercise prescription into the mental health treatment plan of college students could enhance the holistic care model described by The American College Health Association (ACHA) and Healthy Campus task force. Understanding the knowledge, attitudes, and skills that mental health professionals (MHPs) hold regarding exercise prescription is important for policy formation and program development for college student health. The …

An Evaluation Of Student Participation In The Student Alumni Association Program At The University Of South Florida, Latoya Wider

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper is an evaluation of undergraduate college students’ participation in the Student Alumni Association (SAA) at the University of South Florida. I evaluated benefits of participating in the program, why students do not participate in the program, and if participation affected students’ persistence through college. Undergraduate students and alumni who are or once were members of the SAA participated in focus groups and interviews to evaluate their involvement in the program. Questions addressed benefits of being involved in SAA, why students do not participate in SAA, and factors that contribute to students’ involvement or lack of participation in SAA. …

Impacts Of Model Misspecification On Individual-Level Differential Item Functioning Detection In Multilevel Data Using Hierarchical Generalized Linear Model, Yue Yin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hierarchical generalized linear modeling (HGLM) has become more and more popular in detecting differential item functioning (DIF) items in multilevel contexts due to its flexibility and efficiency. This dissertation aims to investigate and compare four different HGLM DIF detection models under various DIF conditions with multilevel data. Three studies were conducted in this dissertation. The first two studies were simulation studies and the third one was an empirical study. Simulation Study One compared the performance of two-level HGLM and three-level HGLM with the individual-level covariate (HGLM-IL) on detecting individual-level DIF items with two-level and three-level data structures. Simulation Study Two …

Admitting Smarter: Refining The Admission Process Through Professional Dispositions, Catherine Snyder

University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing

Since 2018, news agencies have shifted from reporting teacher layoffs to teacher shortages. This swift shift in the industry left many floundering to recruit enough teachers to fill classrooms. Even in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis, there is still a demand for teachers, now with added online teaching skills. This article addresses one program’s admissions improvement process: an analysis of the acceptance process, improvements and changes in the process with the goal of reducing attrition, and improving the quality of candidates admitted. Several improvements were made, specifically related to introducing dispositional tools and standardizing the acceptance process across the …

Interpreting School Neuropsychology Reports For Educators, Robert H. Martin

University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing

School neuropsychology is a field of study that is seeing rapid growth in institutions of higher learning, and subsequently in public and private schools. School neuropsychology assessments are substantially more extensive than traditional psychoeducational assessments reports. The reports are discussed at the student’s Individual Educational Plan (IEP) meeting and school educators need to be present at the meeting. Educators have often expressed that it is extremely difficult to understand the complicated reports. It is often viewed as too complex to grasp and too overwhelming. The purposes of this paper are to help educators understand and interpret the information that comes …

Rubrics That Systematically Identify Areas For Improvement, Judy R. Wilkerson, W. Steve Lang

University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing

Commonly used analytic and holistic formats for rubrics have significant limitations in their potential to yield meaningful feedback to students. This inhibits students’ potential to improve their work. Consistent with the recommendation of the Gordon Commission for the Future of Assessment in Education that the focus of assessment shift from accountability to improvement, this research presents one easily-implemented step toward that goal. An alternative rubric format that is designed to provide meaningful feedback to students in order to trigger necessary learning and improvement is illustrated, and feedback from students on its utility is documented. The alternative rubric format, which focuses …

A Gap Analysis Of Satisfaction Among International Students Studying In The United States, Sandy C. Chen

University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing

International students brought a broad range of benefits to the United States before the COVID-19 pandemic, from billions of dollars of tuition and fees directly paid to host universities to economic impacts on the country’s inbound tourism made by the students’ families. Nevertheless, the choice to study in the United States presented many challenges and problems for them. A survey of the existing literature showed that expectations of and perceptions toward their academic studies and professional development of these students, particularly those from mainland China, has been less explored. This paper was thus designed to fill this void by collecting …

Proceedings Of The Global Conference On Education And Research: Volume 4, Waynne B. James, Cihan Cobanoglu, Muhittin Cavusoglu

University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing

This is the fourth volume of the Global Conference on Education and Research Proceedings Series.

ISSN: 2572-6374

DOI

10.5038/2572-6374-v4

Students’ Perceptions Of Factors Contributing To Enrollment In Arabic Courses At A College Level, Qays Q. Majeed

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this evaluation was to investigate the factors that contribute to students’ recruitment and retention in the Arabic program at my college. The two questions guiding this evaluation were: (1) what factors influence students to join the Arabic program at my college and (2) what factors influence students to continue to enroll in subsequent higher-level Arabic courses? To accomplish this evaluation, I conducted interviews with six former students --four women and two men--in the Arabic program. Eight themes emerged following analysis of data. The findings show that students joined the Arabic program for a variety of reasons. Several …

Educators’ Sensemaking Of Data Within An Mtss Framework: An Exploratory Case Study, Stephanie Marie Green

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine how educators working within a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) framework make sense of data, how they use data for instructional decision-making, and how the data use cultures at the district and school levels influence this data use. The study was designed with a theoretical framework informed by the sensemaking about student outcomes model (Bertrand & Marsh, 2015), the data literacy for teaching framework (Mandinach & Gummer, 2016c), and the data use cultures framework (Firestone & Gonzales, 2007). I explored these issues through a case study methodology, utilizing semi-structured interviews, observations, document …

Relationship Between Working With Professional Evaluators And An Organization’S Evaluation Culture, James M. Wharton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mission-based organizations like zoos and aquariums are investing in evaluation capacity to help them improve their mission performance, but are these resources improving their professional culture, or merely creating evaluations? This study surveyed the leadership from 100 programming departments at accredited U.S. zoos and aquariums to learn how work with professional evaluators might be related to the nature of an organization’s evaluation culture. Survey results showed no statistically significant relationships between a self-reported measure of evaluation culture and either institutional demographics or work with professional evaluators. Follow-up interviews with nine case study organizations, however, were more supportive of the role …

Success And Sustainability Of Sponsored International Development Programs In Education: A Narrative Inquiry, Sara Beth Leikin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In a 2008 working paper published by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the authors lamented that, despite billions of dollars in investment in global education initiatives, access to education had been improved in targeted areas, but the return on investment with regards to learning outcomes was “much less impressive” (Gillies & Jester Quijada, 2008). From 2012-2017, USAID engaged in the Egypt STEM Schools Project (ESSP) along with four partner organizations with the goal of building model science and mathematics public schools that would challenge the educational status quo by providing students with hands-on, constructivist learning and providing an alternative …