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 Speech-language Pathologists' Services for Children with Co-occurring Language and Executive Function Deficits(2022) Senter, Reed; Chow, Jason C.; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)There is a well-documented association between developmental language disorder (DLD) and executive function (EF) deficits. These co-occurring deficits pose risks to students’ short- and long-term academic and social outcomes. In the United States, school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are tasked to ensure that students with DLD are able to achieve academic success, and though EF generally lies within their scope of practice, it remains unclear the extent to which SLPs are equipped to address these deficits. This dissertation consists of three related studies, the sum of which shall provide insight into the SLPs’ services. The first of these studies, Chapter 2, offers a systematic literature review of the evidence supporting intervention for children with co-occurring deficits, as well as a synthesis of the guidance for SLPs addressing EF deficits in their services. I found a dearth of empirical studies for interventions targeting this population, though a relative abundance of practitioner papers provides a foundation of best practices for direct and indirect services. Chapter 3 presents the second study, an exploratory latent profile analysis of 167 Kindergarteners’ receptive language, expressive language, and working memory (WM), as well as follow-up analyses of variance which examine children’s average behavior ratings by profile. I identified a suitably-fitted three-profile model of language and WM, and I found that low-performing children, on average, were rated lower in social competence. Finally, Chapter 4 contains a mixed-methods analysis of school-based SLPs’ interventions for children with EF deficits. Following an explanatory sequential design, I first surveyed 350 SLPs, then followed up with eight interviews designed to explain and contextualize the survey results. I found that most SLPs support EF deficits through indirect services or embedded strategies, though fewer provide direct intervention. However, direct intervention is feasible, and SLPs’ knowledge and confidence about EFs influence their service provision. Overall, the findings of this dissertation support the notion that SLPs can be active and involved service providers, addressing EF deficits that are abundant in children with DLD, and which may otherwise hinder students’ education. However, to optimize these services, the field of SLP requires further empirical intervention research and improved SLP preparation to ensure that SLPs can meet all the needs of students with co-occurring deficits.Item THE IMPACT OF ETHNIC AND RACIAL IDENTITY ON THE RELATION BETWEEN AFRICAN AMERICAN TEST ANXIETY AND LATER ACHIEVEMENT(2019) Daye, Alyssa Lauren; O'Neal, Colleen; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The present study tests a protective factor which may mitigate the negative impact of test anxiety on academic outcomes. This study examines ethnic and racial identity as a moderator of the impact of test anxiety on grades and academic ability self-concept among African American adolescents. The study relies on the existing longitudinal Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study (MADICS) dataset, a public use dataset collected from 1991-2000. The subsample consists of 533 African American youths in Wave 3 and 399 African American youths in Wave 4. The present study uses two waves of data from participants aged 13 to 18. This study employs self-reported questionnaires of test anxiety, ethnic and racial identity, grades, and academic ability self-concept. Moderation analyses are conducted to test ethnic and racial identity as a protective factor mitigating the impact of test anxiety on later grades and academic ability self-concept, while adjusting for gender, socioeconomic status, and age. Results indicate that ethnic and racial identity moderated the relation between test anxiety and GPA, such that the lower the level of ethnic and racial identity, the more protective it becomes. Discussion centers on potential causes for the unexpected trend in moderation.Item Building Education: Creating a Flexible Model For Sustainably Developing Communities In Latin America(2019) Nicolich, Ana Maria; Burke, Juan; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Latin America has a deep-rooted history with issues of poverty. Education is a vital part of the solution. Education and increased literacy can help communities break away from a cycle of poverty by opening doors and creating opportunities for independence. Many impoverished countries in Latin America rely on the cultivation of primary products to sustain their economies. Unfortunately, the high number of illiterate and untrained laborers in these parts of the world halts their progress. These are recurring issues in many underdeveloped countries. Rural communities tend to be deprived of resources and this leads to an exodus of the young as they are looking for opportunities for growth. They leave their villages and don’t always come back having completed a full education. This thesis intends to create a model for an educational facility that can be applied to multiple contexts, with an effort to empower communities through providing education for children to achieve their full potential, and for agricultural workers to heighten their knowledge about the trades that affect their livelihoods directly Research will explore modular design as a means to cater to the diverse contexts with a changing demand and whether a possible model can be self-sustaining. It will also explore how a building can bring a community together. Could a deployable model be effective cross culturally? Can flexible design help mobilize a struggling community? How to create an environment that can be conducive to learning?Item Taxing Ourselves: Understanding School Tax Elections(2015) Kobren, Martin Edward; Morris, Irwin L; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Americans have increasingly segregated themselves over the last 40 years by wealth and political orientation. I argue that this segregation affects the way communities react to school tax ballot issues, which are ostensibly non-partisan matters. Using a database containing 232 school tax elections that took place during 2011 in 10 states, I show that in affluent communities that favor Democrats, high levels of educational attainment make it more likely that a community will adopt a tax increase. By contrast, in downscale communities that favor Democrats, economic concerns play an important role in election outcome; large percentages of homeowners decrease the likelihood of passage while large percentages of renters and poor people make tax increases more likely. In downscale Republican leaning communities, a sense of attachment to the community, indicated by large percentages of households with members who are at least 60 years of age, small community sizes and long tenures in the same house, make it more likely that the community will adopt a school tax increase. Finally, in affluent Republican oriented communities, school tax increases are extremely difficult to pass and become more so as community size increases. High levels of educational attainment tend to moderate the impact of Republican anti-tax ideology and high population sizes to make school tax increases more likely.Item Individual and School Characteristics as Predictors of Parental Involvement(2014) Grossman, Julie Adina; Strein, William O; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Parental involvement in children's education is of critical importance in the U.S. educational system. Therefore, it is useful to identify effective predictors of parental involvement. The present study used multi-level analyses to examine how individual and school-level characteristics impact two forms of parental involvement (school-based and home-based parental involvement) in first grade and eighth grade. Several child/parent level characteristics significantly predicted parental involvement. Parent interaction/social capital demonstrated medium to large effects across both forms of parental involvement in both first and eighth grades. Many of the other child/parent level characteristics produced small effect sizes. Across both forms of parental involvement there were few school-level effects that were statistically significant. Those that were statistically significant were very small in magnitude. The results of the present study may serve to inform school practices and research in the field of parental involvement.Item Sleep Duration in Adolescent Girls: Correlates and Association with Obesity Risk(2013) Moshkovich, Olga; Saksvig, Brit I; Epidemiology and Biostatistics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The present study aimed to identify demographic, behavioral, and school-related factors associated with week night sleep duration among an ethnically diverse sample of 582 adolescent girls from the Trial of Activity for Adolescent Girls (TAAG) 2. The distribution of sleep duration categories (<7 hours, 7-9 hours, and >9 hours) differed significantly among ethnic groups in bivariate analyses, but not in the final multivariate model. Additionally, sleep duration was negatively associated with distance to school from home, typical time spent on the computer, and school start time. In contrast to previous findings, shortened sleep duration was not associated with increased body mass index (BMI), body fat percentage, or quantity of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Findings show support for delayed school start times. In addition, future research should examine whether interventions to reduce screen time activities among adolescents is effective in increasing their sleep duration.Item Unsatisfactory Progress: The Pursuit of Good Schools in Suburban America, 1940-1980(2011) Sullivan, Jeremy Patrick; Gerstle, Gary; Sicilia, David B.; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This project is a case study of educational politics in Montgomery County, Maryland, an affluent suburban county bordering Washington, D.C., from 1940 to 1980. Following World War Two the county experienced significant population growth due to the baby boom and migration, transforming it into a thriving suburb. Concurrently, state party control over the county's school system was replaced by a pluralist system characterized by local grassroots activism, allowing groups of citizens to articulate and organize around distinct educational visions influenced by attitudes about race, class, and political ideology. Citizens debated the meaning of good schools and discussed the best way to achieve them, and over time conflicts between proponents of different educational philosophies revealed clearly defined segments of people within the county. These divisions developed within a consensual yearning for excellent public schools, and this dissertation explores the tension between the shared desire for educational excellence and the specific, competing desires of activists to define educational quality and influence educational policy. Current scholarship on the history of education in America focuses on urban schools or examines particular issues, like desegregation or teacher unionization, in isolation. This investigation highlights suburban educational politics and explores how suburbanites confronted numerous challenges simultaneously as they worked to make good schools in their community. Four groups of county residents emerged and sorted themselves into associations and activist organizations during the postwar decades: liberals, African Americans, conservatives, and teachers. Members of competing activist organizations defined good schools differently and employed different strategies to implement their preferences, including lobbying, electoral activism, petitioning at public hearings, and direct action such as protests and strikes. Cooperation between activists seemed possible initially, but over time the democratic mechanisms of pluralist educational politics helped cultivate suspicion in the minds of many citizens, splintering the consensus about the quality of the school system and prompting people to view public schools as a limited resource, with benefits available only to some, as opposed to a common good. In this way, the democratization of educational politics constrained what these suburbanites thought public schools could achieve and tempered their hopes for the future.Item Our Musical School: Ethnographic Methods and Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in Elementary General Music(2011) Strab, Emily Theresa; Witzleben, John Lawrence; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The current study has uncovered the complexities of childhood musical culture in a rural public school in Maryland with a diverse student population. Through daily interaction with her students, the researcher learned about their particular culture, including musical preferences, practices of music consumption and expression, and how students conceptualize music. The breadth and depth of knowledge the investigator was able to discover through participant observation during teaching duties demonstrates the usefulness of ethnographic methods in learning about students' musical culture for classroom music teachers. The use of this information proved to be productive in developing culturally relevant lessons that students responded to positively. In conclusion, the researcher found that pursuing an ethnographic project in order to create a culturally relevant pedagogy for her students was a worthwhile undertaking as an elementary general music educator.Item DEAF SPACE AND THE VISUAL WORLD - BUILDINGS THAT SPEAK: AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF(2010) Tsymbal, Karina; Bovill, Carl; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Deaf Space and the Visual World is a set of principles providing understanding of the perceptions and special needs of the deaf. More frequently deaf and hard of hearing school children are attending mainstream public schools, in which deaf-friendly design is not well-understood or implemented. This work analyzes these principles and applies them to the design of a mainstream elementary school at a site within the King Farm community of Rockville, Maryland. Primarily, the ideas of establishing visual connectivity, circulation, collective being, and sense of home guided the school design. These are reflected in numerous design features of the school that will benefit not only the deaf students, but hearing and other special needs children as well. The ultimate objective of this work is to promote understanding of the needs of the deaf in educational settings, as well as to establish a useful set of architectural guidelines.Item RETHINKING THE SCHOOL: A NEW MODEL FOR SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO(2010) Sanchez, Ramon Eduardo; Williams, Isaac S; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)More than a century ago school buildings started to change from a home-like building to a more industrial type. In order to standardize the learning process, a classroom layout that promotes only one type of learning activity while ignoring the compound nature of learning has been created. This layout has promoted a school model that not only repeatedly disregards the building, the site, and the community but also resembles a prison. For decades, research has discouraged use of the "traditional" classroom as the only space for learning yet most school buildings have not responded to that change. In different countries, experimentation with the school building and classroom architecture responds to the necessities of the students. What should be the next step in designing pedagogical environments? In the city of San Juan, Puerto Rico, the public school system has reasonable numbers of students in the classrooms. Although the Department of Education philosophy has started to define some progressive pedagogical ideas, there is no strong articulation of the role of the school building to achieve these. This means that the problem might lie in the architecture of the building rather than overcrowded schools. The goal of this thesis is to produce a model that creates a learning environment that responds to the different natures of the students so that they can become active participants in their education and, eventually, a generation of critical thinkers for the country.