Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
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Item An Analysis of a Project Management Oversight Committee as a School Improvement Model in One School District(2018) Alston, Anthony Reginal; Imig, David G; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)There are persistent and significant gaps in performance between various racial and ethnic sub-groups, particularly between African American and White groups of students, on both state assessments and discipline measures (Rothstein, 2014). Effectively closing the gap requires improving the performance of all students while accelerating the achievement of low-performing student groups in order to catch up to their higher-performing peers. Researchers have found that a variety of school, community, economic and familial factors correlate with low student performance and the achievement gap, but views are mixed on how to improve performance for all and narrow the gap (Alliance for Excellence Education, 1999; Cancian & Danziger, 2009; Jacob & Ludwig, 2009; Janet, 1999; Mitra, 2011; Organization for Economic Co-Operation (OECD), 2012). Over the past decade, federal, state and local policies have made the improvement of low-performing schools and the closing of the achievement gap a top priority. This descriptive quantitative study focused on the efforts of one Mid-Atlantic system to address low performance among certain groups of students using a Project Management Oversight Committee (PMOC) model. The model utilizes data and a heightened level of accountability to yield quick, yet sustainable growth and progress. For this study seven schools (three high schools, two middle schools and two elementary schools) were identified as a result of persistent participation in the process. The academic and discipline data were reviewed to determine trends in performance. In addition to the achievement and demographic data, a satisfaction survey was reviewed to understand the impact of the PMOC process in improving low student performance. Analysis of the data did not find any relational impact upon achievement data. Although the PMOC process did not have the promised impact, it does not deminsh the possibilty that there were gains that would not have occured if the process had not been used. Based on these findings,it is recommended that the system consider allocating funding for further studies to examine the impact of the PMOC process.Item Which Skills Predict School Success? Socioemotional Skills and the Achievement Gap(2016) Boyars, Michal Y.; O'Neal, Colleen R; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This cross-sectional study examined the relations of four socioemotional skills with academic achievement among ethnic minority (e.g., Asian, Black, Latino/a, and multiethnic) and White elementary school students. Method: Participants included public school upper elementary students (N = 257; Mage = 9.71; 58% female; 10% Black, 5% Asian, 6% Latino/a, 12% multiracial; 61% White). Measures included student-reported grit, growth mindset, engagement, and emotion regulation, in addition to a student literacy achievement performance task (Test of Silent Reading Efficiency and Comprehension, TOSREC) and student reading achievement scores (Measures of Academic Progress in Reading; MAP-R). Results: Across all analyses, socioemotional skills were more related to literacy achievement for ethnic minority students than for White students. While simple regressions supported several skills’ relation to achievement for both groups of students, multiple regressions suggested that grit was the sole significant predictor of achievement, and it was only predictive of minority students’ achievement. Although literacy achievement differed between the full samples of ethnic minority and White students, moderation analyses indicated that this achievement gap disappeared among high grit students. Yet, while these regression and moderation results suggested grit’s unique role as a predictor, SEM analyses suggested that the magnitude of all of the socioemotional skills’ prediction of achievement were more similar than different. These findings support a novel but cautious approach to research on socioemotional skills and the achievement gap: results suggest that the skills operate differently in students of different ethnicities, with grit playing a uniquely predictive role for minority students. The skills, however, may be more similar than not in the strength of their association with literacy achievement.Item Supporting Community-Based Summer Interventions Serving Low-Income Students to Narrow the Achievement Gap: An Analysis of the Challenges of Securing and Maintaining Funding(2014) Hall, Lavinia Jane; Rice, Jennifer K.; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Research suggests that the summer learning gap between lower- and upper-income students makes a significant contribution to the achievement gap and that quality summer programs can be important interventions in addressing the differential learning over the summer months. Because the quality and effectiveness of summer interventions may be related to their funding, this multi-site case study analyzed the challenges of securing and maintaining funding for four community-based summer interventions located in Maryland. I used resource dependence theory in my study to highlight the dependence of community-based summer interventions on external providers to fund their summer programs. This theory draws attention to the demands that external providers place on community-based summer interventions for funding as well as highlights the role of internal capacity in how organizations respond to those demands. I focused on community-based summer interventions, and not school-based summer interventions, because community-based summer interventions may be a productive means to implement summer programs and address the summer learning gap. Literature suggests that, in comparison to school-based summer interventions, community-based summer interventions may face unique challenges in funding their programs and utilize different internal resources to respond to the demands of external providers. My four cases were community-based summer interventions that focused on academic goals, targeted low-income, elementary or middle school students, and offered a minimum of 80 hours of programming. To create a purposeful sample of cases that reflect potential differences in internal capacity, I selected programs that varied in the type of community-based summer intervention (e.g., nationally-affiliated versus grass-roots), whether or not the program received 21st Century Community Learning Center funding, and location. To provide contrast in the challenges of funding summer interventions, I allowed several criteria to vary, including funding sources and quality indicators of the program. To understand the challenges of securing and maintaining funding for community-based summer interventions, I interviewed administrators, staff members, and board members in each program. I collected documents from each program to provide additional insights into the summer programs and their funding. This exploratory study answers questions about the challenges of funding community-based academic summer programs serving low-income students. Four findings emerged. First, the community-based summer interventions included in this study relied upon multiple funding sources, but different primary funders to support their summer programs. Second, the most persuasive challenges in depending upon external providers for funding were revenue volatility and the pressure for accountability. Third, the community-based summer interventions mediated their funding challenges through a unique combination of their internal capacity and program characteristics. Data highlights the role of human and social capital and the importance of program location, type of community-based organization, program size, and years of operation in the response of programs to funding challenges. Fourth, funding challenges were most likely to affect the quality indicators of differentiated or advanced-skills instruction, prior interaction between students and teachers, and adequate contact hours through limited teacher salaries, teacher training, and materials. This study is significant because it begins to answer questions about the challenges of funding community-based summer interventions, the role of internal capacity to mediate the funding challenges, and the relationship between funding sources and challenges and the quality indicators of summer interventions.Item SCHOOL AND INDIVIDUAL FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP IN COLLEGE ADMISSIONS TESTS IN CHILE(2012) Perez Mejias, Paulina; Cabrera, Alberto F.; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In Chile, reports and research papers have shown that there is an achievement gap in college admissions tests mostly associated to students' gender, socioeconomic status and type of school attended. This gap represents a barrier for low-income and female students to access higher education, as well as for graduates of public schools. Prior studies have used descriptive analyses and single-level linear regression to study this gap, which do not take into account the nested structure of the data (students nested within schools). This study uses multilevel linear modeling to concurrently estimate the effect of student and school characteristics on individual performance in admissions tests in Chile. The findings revealed that more than half of the variation in college admissions test scores happens at the school level. This variation between schools is mostly explained by school sector (private, subsidized private, and public) and the average school socioeconomic status. At the individual level, the most influential factor is individual high school GPA. These findings have important implications for policy and practice, as publicly funded universities in Chile rely almost exclusively on test scores to select students and need-based financial aid requires students to score above a minimum threshold. The results of this study suggest that these admission and financial aid policies need to be reconsidered in order to increase opportunity of access to higher education for traditionally excluded students.Item A STUDY DETERMINING SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES IN TERRANOVA READING AND MATH SCORES BETWEEN EIGHTH GRADE AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN AMERICAN STUDENTS(2011) Smith, Barriett Jackson; McLaughlin, Margaret J.; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The participating school system's minority population, notably African Americans, ranked in the top five school systems in academic performance in reading and math when compared to other states and other African American populations across the United States. These measurements were taken from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The purpose of this investigation was to examine whether there was a significant achievement gap between races across system-wide assessments on a yearly basis. Results of the multivariate analyses of reading and mathematics scores indicated there were significant differences in both areas at the p <.05 level on the TerraNova, Third Edition. These significant differences lend support to the results of the NAEP testing in 2007 and again in 2009 that demonstrated the gap. Discussion of the implications of this gap for the school system was presented.Item The Influence of a School District's Early Childhood Education Policy on Urban Students' Academic Achievement Towards Advanced Class Placement(2008-08-18) Bartley, Alice P.; Johnson, Martin L.; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: THE INFLUENCE OF A SCHOOL DISTRICT'S EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION POLICY ON URBAN STUDENTS' ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT TOWARDS ADVANCED CLASS PLACEMENT Alice P. Bartley, Doctor of Philosophy, 2008 Dissertation Directed By: Professor Martin L. Johnson, College of Education, Department of Curriculum and Instruction Kindergarten is one of the most important years of schooling, as it builds the foundational skills needed for later learning. This study explored school district's early childhood education policy reform initiative specifically designed to accelerate the early learning of students in high-need Title I schools. The purpose of this study was to discover if the reform intervention influenced disadvantaged students' enrollment in advanced mathematics classes in grade six. Mathematics and reading assessment data at the second and fifth grades were examined to determine if the kindergarten intervention influenced students' achievement as they progressed through the elementary school years into middle school. This study focused on achievement gains, sustainability, reduction in special education placement, and increase in advanced mathematics classes. This longitudinal study included a sample of 9858 cases which were distributed among nine kindergarten cohort groups (three intervention cohorts and six comparison cohorts) for three consecutive years (one pre-intervention year and two intervention years). One-way analysis of variance, hierarchical regression, and logistic regression were used to analyze the dataset. The major findings of the study indicate the intervention cohorts of students demonstrated mean score gains in mathematics and reading when compared to the cohort group from the same population prior to the intervention. Mean score gains were also found when comparing the intervention cohorts to the six more economically advantaged comparison cohorts. The findings also indicate a reduction in special education enrollment and an increase in enrollment in advanced mathematics at the sixth grade level for the high-need Title I intervention cohorts. The findings of this study contribute to the very limited body of literature on accelerated early learning and later advanced class placement.