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
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item Alternative Education and Student College and Career Readiness: An Examination of One Urban School System(2018) Fossett, Mark Eric; McLaughlin, Magaret J.; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION AND STUDENT COLLEGE AND CAREER READINESS: AN EXAMINATION OF ONE URBAN SCHOOL SYSTEM Mark E. Fossett, Doctor of Education, 2018 Dissertation directed by: Magaret J. McLaughlin, Ph.D. A quantitative causal-comparative study was conducted in one large urban school system, in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States to examine the efficacy of alternative high schools for students at high-risk of academic failure as compared to students at high-risk of academic failure in comprehensive high schools. The investigation revealed that there is a significant difference in the academic and sociocultural variables related to college readiness and successful learning outcomes for high-risk students enrolled in alternative schools versus high-risk students enrolled in comprehensive schools. The research was conducted in one large urban school system, and will be referred to as DeKota County Public School System(DKCPS). DKCPS opened their alternative school program in 2003. Through a casual-comparative longitudinal analysis of one graduation cohort’s four-year journey through high school, we will examine the differences in academic and sociocultural variables related to college readiness and successful learning outcomes. Severn variables emerged as being relevant and four of those variables emerged as being significant. They were four different types of quantitative analysis done to validate the variables and the strength of their inclusion in the analysis and outcomes. The data collected provided an opportunity to make recommendations to DKCPS on the benefits that alternative schools have on high-risk alternative school students in their system. Additional research was also recommended to expand this research to multiple school districts to further identify the significant variables that are explanatory of college readiness and successful learning outcomes for high-risk students enrolled in alternative high schools versus high-risk students in comprehensive high schools.Item Framing the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.: A Comparative Analysis of Mainstream and Alternative Newspaper Coverage, 2007-2008(2015) Morganfield, Robbie Rene; Beasley, Maurine; Journalism; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This case study examined through qualitative textual analysis how a group of mainstream and alternative publications framed their coverage of the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. during the historic 2008 U.S. presidential primary campaign when Wright was the pastor of Barack Obama, who emerged from the campaign to become the nation's first black president. Prior to the campaign's conclusion, Obama parted ways with Wright as a result of heightened news coverage of statements Wright had made about the nation's politics and treatment of black people. The study analyzes 216 news stories, commentaries and editorials produced by The New York Times, Chicago Sun-Times and The Washington Post, which are mainstream daily newspapers, as well as the Chicago Defender, Washington Afro American and The Christian Century, which are alternative news publications. The analysis of their coverage of Wright was further explored by the use of two framing theories to determine what values might have influenced the ways journalists made sense out of Wright's religious speech and practices. Mark Silk's "Unsecular Media" theory posits that journalists typically rely on a set of religious values to frame their reports of religious issues and figures. Herbert Gans' "Enduring Values" theory posits that journalists typically rely on mainstream secular values to frame their reports of news subjects. The study's findings showed that on the whole the mainstream publications included in the sample produced coverage that strongly correlated with Gans' secular theory, which holds that subjects often become news worthy because they deviate from mainstream values associated with moderatism and ethnocentrism. The study's comparative analysis concluded that coverage of Wright produced by journalists working for alternative publications consistently reflected values identified by Silk, whose original study was only focused on mainstream publications. The present study's findings demonstrated that mainstream journalists rarely relied on religious sources to produce their reports while many of the writers for the alternative press were themselves religious officials or experts. The study points out ongoing challenges faced by the mainstream press in covering religion as well as the challenges religious figures face when they become the subject of coverage.Item Fire Safety of Today's and Tomorrow's Vehicles(2008-05-02) Levy, Kevin Martin; Sunderland, Peter B; Milke, James A; Fire Protection Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis considers fire hazards in the existing vehicle fleet and uses failure modes and effects analyses of three generic designs to identify and rank potential fire hazards in the Emerging Fuel Vehicle (EFV) fleet. A statistics based predictive quantitative risk assessment framework and estimated uncertainty analysis is presented to predict risk of EFV fleets. The analysis also determines that the frequency of fire occurrence is the greatest factor that contributes to risk of death in fire. These preliminary results predict 420±14 fire related deaths per year for a fleet composed entirely of gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles, 910±340 for compressed natural gas vehicles, and 1300±570 for hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles relative to the statistical record of 350 for traditional fuel vehicles. The results are intended to provide vital fire safety information to the traveling public as well as to emergency response personnel to increase safety when responding to EFV fire hazards.