Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons^™

Teaching In A Digital Age: Internet Safety Education, Christina Putnam

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This paper is an exploration into internet safety education for elementary age students. The participants for this Capstone Project included 22 fourth-grade students that attend a free after school program, located in the Bay Area of California. This paper took a look at the issues that arise for children on the internet and what is important for them to know for their well being while using it. This Capstone will describe a four-week program created in effort to better educate students on how to stay safe and act appropriately while being a part of the online community. The findings that …

The Correlation Between The Act, Inc. Explore Test And Student Success In High School Advanced And Advanced Placement Mathematics Courses, Virginia Story

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to compare the relationship between the mathematics portion of the EXPLORE test with students successes in advanced and Advanced Placement(AP) mathematics courses in high school. The data was collected from a rural Tennessee school system consisting of five years of data among graduated seniors. Analysis was completed to determine the difference between the two county high schools in advanced coursework. The findings of this study concluded a positive correlation between EXPLORE scores and the frequency of students who took advanced mathematics courses. Positive correlation between EXPLORE scores and student successes in advanced courses was …

The Influence Of Noncognitive Skills In Physician Assistant Education, Lynn Eckrote

All Theses And Dissertations

A holistic approach to the admission process in a physician assistant (PA) program can emphasize skills beyond the traditional measures of cognitive skills. The purpose of this study was to investigate the experiences that directors of physician assistant programs have with applying the MMI as a measure of noncognitive skills in the admission process. Physician assistant programs often do not put an equal focus on cognitive and noncognitive skills. This study addressed the research question: What experiences have PA directors had with applying the MMI as a measure of noncognitive skills in the admission process? The participants of this study …

The Mathematics Achievement Gap In Virtual Education, Sara Glover

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This phenomenological study examined the lived experiences of online Algebra I teachers as they relate to the instruction of minority students. There is an academic achievement gap that exists between minority students and their non-minority peers in United States public education (Sousa & Armor, 2016). Although national educational policy has sought to narrow the academic achievement gap, it is persistent and must be addressed because public education affects the future of our nation (Fullan & Quinn, 2016). Virtual education is a growing platform for learning, with nearly 300,000 students enrolled across the United States. Achievement data demonstrates the existence of …

An Analysis Of Novice Teachers’ Perceptions Regarding Their Teacher Preparation Program, Professional Support, And The Purpose Of School, Maria Veronica Paz Tagle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify existing relationships between the perceptions of novice teachers regarding their teacher preparation programs, the support given to teachers from their schools, and the purpose of school. The study took place in Northeast Tennessee. Seventeen teachers from three different school systems participated in individual qualitative interviews, which lasted about one hour each.

The finding corroborated the theory analyzed for this study and revealed areas for improvement in all levels of the education system. Teachers suggested meaningful changes to teacher preparation programs, including changes to general prerequisites and reorganizing education programs around meaningful field …

Beyond Right Or Wrong: The Influences Of Thinking Disposition And Item Difficulty On Student Behavior During High-Stakes Testing, Kristina Lindquist

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A hallmark of clinician decision making is the ability to know when to make quick decisions and when decision making should be slowed to account for complicating factors. Throughout the physician training process, multiple choice test items are used to assess student knowledge however, these items do not assess the process used by a student to arrive at the answer choice. If an important characteristic of decisions in clinical practice is timing, then decision timing could be an important consideration for medical school assessments. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to investigate factors that may affect the amount of …

The Influence Of Sense Of School Community On Korean Students’ Life Satisfaction And Comparison Of Sense Of Community For Students’ Gender And High School Specialties, Hwachoon Park, Sangsoo Lee

Journal of Research in Technical Careers

The purpose of this study was to compare the sense of community of South Korean high school students as measured by a Korean version of the Sense of Community Index 2 (KSCI2) and examine the effect of two factors of the KSCI2, reinforcement of needs and influence, on students’ life satisfaction as measured by the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS). A total of 375 Korean high school students provided usable data from three vocational high schools specializing in agriculture, electronics and engineering, and business and marketing, and one Meister high school specializing in automotive. Descriptive statistics, independent t-test, one-way …

Comparing Absorbed Doses Of Properly And Improperly Collimated Abdominal Exposures, Ignacio Birriel

Faculty Research at Morehead State University

The purpose of this study was to calculate and compare the absorbed doses of properly and improperly collimated repeat examination exposures and to measure the anode heel effect to determine the difference in intensity between the cathode and anode ends of the x-ray beam. The investigators wanted to document the amount of additional radiation a patient receives due to improper collimation techniques and determine whether the difference in intensity between the anode and cathode ends of the x-ray beam was large enough to cause concern for increased patient absorbed doses for specific radiography examinations.

Grammatical Accuracy Of Narratives Produced By Typically Developing Children Ages 4-7 In Three Story Contexts, Sierra Martin Southwick

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Guo & Schneider (2016) explored different approaches to identifying grammatical impairments in 128 children developing typically (TL) and those with language impairments (LI) between the ages of 6 and 8. The measures that they explored included: calculating the finite verb morphology composite (FVMC), the number of errors per C-unit (Errors/CU), and the percent of grammatical C-units (PGCUs) in narrative samples. They found that all three outcome measures provided acceptable diagnostic accuracy when applied to six-year-olds, but PCGUs were found to be the most accurate tool with eight-year-olds.

The purpose of the current study was to analyze the narrative samples of …

Effects Of Critical Reflection On University Students’ Cognitive Achievement In Agricultural Mechanization, Patterson P. Hilaire

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Experiential learning continues to play a vital role in agricultural education and mechanization laboratories (Shoulders & Myers, 2013). An essential component of experiential learning is critical reflection. Critical reflection helps students process and construct meaning from laboratory experiences. A study conducted by Shoulders and Myers (2013) revealed that only 15.4% of the agricultural educators the researchers interviewed incorporated reflective practices laboratory experiences. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of critical reflection on students’ achievement following five agricultural mechanization laboratory activities. The results from this study revealed that critical reflection had a consistently positive effect on immediate …

School Entry Age And School Readiness., Robin Berry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Beginning with the 2017-2018 school year, there was a change in School Entry Age (SEA) legislation. This dissertation analyzed the relationship between SEA and school readiness after the enactment of the new legislation. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to control for student demographics to ascertain the relationship between SEA and school readiness. Findings were as follows: older students scored significantly lower than younger students on the BRIGANCE Kindergarten Screen (BKS), students who had exposure to private child care outside of the home fared much better than students who were kept at home the year prior to kindergarten, and female students …

Using A Student Success Course And Transferred Credit Hours To Predict Student's Likelihood To Retain In Online Higher Education, Bailey Patricia Anderson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

As online education permeates a larger percentage of postsecondary student attendance, higher education institutions place a greater focus on online student retention. Online learners are entering college with varied backgrounds, demographics, and prior experience, yet most institutions are not differentiating the first-year programs for their incoming students with previous college-level experience. The following research used a binomial logistic regression analysis to explore existing, archival data to determine whether college transfer credit and a student success course can predict short- or long-term online student retention. This correlational study evaluated a randomized sample of 3,000 students who took a student success course …

Mathematics Attitudes And Mathematics Performance: Novel Approaches Towards Noncognitive Educational Measurement, Applications To Large-Scale Assessment Data, And Examinations Of Multigroup Invariance, Kalina Gjicali

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Academic performance is predicted by a multitude of demographic, contextual, cognitive, and noncognitive constructs. The noncognitive factors of achievement in mathematics that have previously been explored in depth are study skills, collaborative problem-solving, confidence, self-efficacy, and personality traits (Kyllonen, 2012). Limited applied research has explored the predictive value of noncognitive factors such as attitudes and beliefs in mathematics achievement – even though attitudes towards mathematics are a promising avenue for understanding the variability in mathematics achievement. The current research uses the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to explain high school students’ performance in mathematics in a series of three studies. …

Russian University Efl Students’ Perceptions Of A Two-Week Online Academic Writing Course, Nataliia Borozdina

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This case study analyzes Russian university EFL students’ perceptions of a two-week online academic writing course. The researcher investigated 13 students’ attitudes towards an online academic English writing class offered at Kursk State University, Kursk’s oldest higher education institution, founded in 1934. In 1994 it was transformed into Kursk State Pedagogical University, and in 2003 it became Kursk State University. Along with the two-week online course assignments, the students completed pre- and post-questionnaires, reflections about the course, and participated in individual and group interviews. The findings of the study indicate that all of the participants had positive perceptions about the …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Motor Planning With Core Vocabulary: A Behavior Analytic Account, Alison Judith Karnes

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) increases, it is important for practitioners to continue to improve evidence-based practices (EBP) for the treatment of ASD symptoms (i.e., impairments in social communication and repetitive behaviors and restricted interests; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013). It is estimated that 30-50% of individuals with autism do not acquire functional speech (Wodka, Mathy, & Kalb, 2013). These individuals would make appropriate candidates for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC; Mirenda, 2003). One form of AAC is the speech-generating device (SGD). Over the last ten years, tablet-based technologies including iPad minisⓇ have been emphasized in the …

Dominant Leadership Dynamics Of School Administrators Leading Non-Instructional Personnel, Michael Ewton

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the literature and many schools and school districts advocating for enhanced communication and engagement with parents, families, and the community at large, it is advisable that school-level administrators consider the manner in which they engage the non-instructional employees who serve their schools. This dissertation explores the dominant leadership dynamics experienced by high school principals responsible for supervising non-instructional support services and leading non-instructional operations personnel in their schools. Trained and expected to be instructional leaders, principals must still ensure their students receive the basic services necessary to maintain a safe and effective learning environment. Ensuring students receive the benefit …

Project Luminous: An E-Textiles Workshop Study To Increase Science Technology Engineering Mathematics/Science Technology Engineering Art Mathematics Interest In Middle School Girls, India Semone Callahan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this research study, young middle schoolers engaged in a stimulating workshop that seamlessly merged fashion with technology and electrical engineering. Students learned how to use simple hand sewing skills to create wearable-tech items using conductive thread, sewable LED lights, and sewable battery packs. The objective of the study was to increase young women’s interest in Science Technology Engineering Mathematics/Science Technology Engineering Art Mathematics (STEM/STEAM).

Forty-eight middle school girls spent a day learning about the basics of e-textiles and building working products using their new knowledge. The day is split into three lessons. In lesson one students build a simple …

Master’S-Level Counseling Students’ Experience Of Expressive Arts Techniques In A Cacrep Multicultural Counseling Course, Cameron Houin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Counseling governing bodies have defined what should be prioritized in multicultural counseling courses, including students’ multicultural knowledge and awareness; however, best practice regarding how to teach these multicultural concepts has largely been left up to the counselor educator. Counselor educators have begun implementing expressive arts techniques in the classroom, but very little literature exists related to using such techniques in a multicultural course in a manner that positively influence counseling students’ multicultural competency.

The purpose of this study was to explore master’s-level counseling students’ experience of expressive arts techniques utilized during their multicultural counseling course. Ten student participants took part …

The Effect Of Using Technology On Students’ Understanding In Calculus And College Algebra, Razieh Shahriari

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This mixed qualitative and quantitative methods study addressed the effect of technology on college algebra and survey of calculus students’ understanding. This research study was conducted in fall 2016 on eight college algebra classes with a total of 315 students, and in summer 2017, on two survey of calculus classes with a total of 40 students at the University of Arkansas.

Several sources were used to collect data. A pre- and post- student attitude survey was administered during the first and last week of the semester for both college algebra and survey of calculus courses. Students’ scores and paper work …

A Comparison Of The Curricula Of The Top-Ranked Prelicensure Baccalaureate Nursing Programs In The United States, Silvia Imanda

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

What constitutes an ideal prelicensure nursing curriculum is not well understood. Specifically, what are the strategic curricular sequencing and curricular themes or focus might be included to contribute to producing high quality graduates? The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study investigation was to look at successful programs and identify effective curricular sequencing and curricular themes or focus that might be inferred to have contributed to producing high quality graduates. Seven top-ranked prelicensure baccalaureate nursing programs were selected based on three national college rankings services. Based on data from interviews and publicly accessible documents, seven case studies were compared and …

Teacher Diversity Issues Among Hispanics And English Language Learners (Ells): Perspectives Of Administrators And Teachers In A Mid-South Town, Samantha Juncia Julien

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although the English Language Learner (ELL) student population is steadily increasing, the American teaching workforce remains mainly white and monolingual. This sector has yet to reflect the change in ELLs and teachers of color, who will be able to adequately provide culturally responsive instruction to these students. There is an urgent need to recruit and train teachers in culturally responsive pedagogy with the purpose of providing educational, cultural and social supports for the growing ELL population in the country (Farahnaz, 2012). Because of this, the American educational system is revamping some of its earlier pedagogical approaches, including the introduction of …

Testing Measurement Invariance In Multilevel Data With Unequal Cross-Level Factor Structures, Lihua Yang

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The test of measurement invariance (MI) investigates whether observed items measure a construct in the same way across different groups or over times. Examining MI is a prerequisite for multiple group comparisons in psychological tests (Schmitt & Kuljanin, 2008). With the prevalence of multilevel data in educational research (e.g., students nested within schools), establishing MI across multiple groups or waves of nested data has brought increasing attention. Two popular techniques for the test of multilevel MI include the multiple-group multilevel confirmatory factor analysis (MMCFA) and the design-based approaches. The MMCFA approach estimates sample covariance matrices at different levels separately. The …

Does Grit Matter? A Correlational Study Of The Relationship Between Grit-S Assessment Scores And Student Retention In Undergraduate Online Programs, Kay Best Murphy

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Historically, colleges and universities have used intelligence-based admissions tests to select students who demonstrate the intelligence to succeed academically. These institutions also have employed strategies to help students stay in school and graduate. However, despite tests and support strategies, the National Center for Education Statistics in 2018 reported a six-year completion rate of about 60% of first-time, full-time bachelor’s degree-seeking students for the 2010 cohort, including both traditional and online students. One study shows retention in online classes can be 10% to 15% lower than in traditional face-to-face courses (Carr, 2000). Meanwhile, higher education institutions today face increasing pressure to …

Positioning Of English Language Learners And Its Power On Classroom Learning Opportunities And Interactions, Hawraa Nafea Hameed Alzouwain

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this qualitative study, the researcher investigated four aspects of positioning used by teacher and ESL students in a mid-south state of the United States. This study was based on the Positioning Theory of Davies and Harré (1990). The study aimed to explore various types of positioning used by the participants and how they impacted social interactions among the students and between them and their teacher. The researcher used four questions to outline the scope of the research, focused on: 1) how ELLs’ different positioning in the ESL classroom promoted or limited their learning opportunities; 2) how the ELL teacher …

Leadership Succession And Onboarding Processes Of: Mid-West United States International Baccalaureate (Ib) Primary Years Program (Pyp) Schools, Mary Nandra Kay Campbell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Programme (PYP) model of education is unique and comprehensive, and so is the PYP principal. This qualitative study examined the perceptions of Mid-West United States IB PYP leaders related to leadership succession, the onboarding processes experienced by the new leaders, and the effective leadership traits possessed by the new leaders. This study involved a phenomenological study in nature. A criterion sampling approach was used to identify six participants of the study. A semi-structured interviewing protocol allowed elaboration by participants and to discover aspects not originally considered. The key findings included the following: lack of …

Students' Perspective On Enjoyment In Mathematics Classes, Yasmine A. Soofi, Miralia Moreou, Nadia Kennedy

Publications and Research

The project will focus on students’ perspective of enjoyment in mathematics. The research questions that will be explored are: 1) Do students enjoy math classes? If so, what aspects of the classes they find enjoyable and why? If not, what aspects they do not enjoy and why? and 2) What do students think would make the math classes more enjoyable? Data will be collected by administrating surveys to students from two mathematics courses. The data will be organized, analyzed and presented at the poster session.

The Need For Academic Reform In Vietnamese Higher Education (Vhe) To Align With Employers’ Expectations, Hoang-Yen (Maya) T. Dang

All Theses And Dissertations

The effort to comprehensively reform Vietnamese higher education (VHE) in order to produce an educated workforce better able to contribute to economic development is a major concern not only of educators and the Vietnamese government but also of employers, workers, and the general populace.

Successful implementation of VHE’s “Vision 2020” relies on legal change together with macro-policies to support these educational initiatives. For the purposes of this study, however, the author focused on the current state of VHE in providing employable graduates to meet the needs of Vietnam’s knowledge economy in the 21st century. In particular, through an analysis of …

Improving Kindergarten Transition Practices For Students With Special Needs, Julia "Sandy" Flacke

All Theses And Dissertations

The transition to kindergarten is a magical milestone for children and families. For students identified with special needs, there are additional worries and celebrations to share with the transition team. The research site included in this study comprises pre-K programs that operated through a cooperative agreement between a Maine school district and Head Start. In the State of Maine, preschool students who are identified with a disability are provided services and programming through a Maine Department of Education (MDOE) agency: Child Development Services (CDS). For public pre-K programs in Maine, this created a unique situation. While the pre-K programs are …

A Space To Learn, Amy R. Goods

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation, I explore what it means to different people, in different places throughout life’s spectrum to create a space to learn. This dissertation is a collection of work that I have written throughout my time at the CUNY Graduate Center. The chapters herein represent an arch of my learning over the past five years. The title, A Space to Learn, has multiple meanings. For one, writing this dissertation has provided me a space to explore and reflect on a variety of topics, ranging from memory loss, to teacher preparation programs, to eugenics and special education, to tracking and …

A Curriculum Project For Itinerant Teacher’S Guidebook For Best Trauma Informed Practices, Mark Ripper

Masters Theses/Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.