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Cayemite, Edner J University of Massachusetts Boston 2005 해외박사(DDOD)
In response to the widespread decline in students' achievement facing the public schools in the United States in the early 1980's, the New York City board of education took initiatives to enhance the system through drastic comprehensive school reform. Some of the initiatives adopted range from Small School Network, The Small Schools Workshop, to the Coalition of the Essential School. In an effort to address the educational dilemma, many states and districts engaged in a systemic challenge to look at various service delivery models and methodologies aiming at students' outcomes. Since the 1990's, schools around the country embarked on the change of organizational structures to support learning. Federal, state, and private organizations have spent billions of dollars in our secondary schools by developing initiatives to increase students' academic achievement. As a result, during the past decade many school districts in cities such as Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Newark, San Francisco, and other cities have attempted to subdivide big high schools into small learning communities (SLC) as an intervention program aimed at raising student achievement. Two in five of all U.S. secondary schools either implemented small learning communities to deliver services or are about to use this strategy. Although some SLCs do experience an increase in students' achievement, others suffer severely in meeting the needs of their students' population. Given this situation, the necessity to look at how different SLCs promote achievement was particularly evident. This study focused on two schools that have implemented small learning communities in the Boston school district as service delivery. This study included a review of current literatures on SLC, a brief history of small schools/SLC, and the reform movement in Boston. This dissertation is a descriptive study, which explores the factors in small learning communities that impact students' academic achievement. As measures to evaluate level of students' academic achievement in relation to teachers' perceptions of students' participation in small learning communities, data was collected through school documents, a structured survey, and interviews. To determine the performance level of the small learning communities, an analysis of the MCAS (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System) tests of the 10th grade students in the seven SLCs was performed. Comparison of responses from the respondents between the schools and among the seven SLC was made to evaluate the perception of the teachers in high-ranking SLCs as opposed to those in the low ranking one. The 2003 MCAS scores data showed statistically significant differences when comparing the rate of student attendance, student socioeconomic status, student race/ethnicity, and student academic status among the seven small learning communities. While students who were members of the highest-ranking SLC scored higher than students in other SLCs with respect to both scores in English and math, a gap was also found when comparing the demographic variables (attendance, socioeconomic, status, race/ethnicity). Furthermore the survey and the interview data of the current study found that the high-ranking SLC respondents were consistently more positive than the low ranking SLC respondents in most areas. However, students' demographic data showed disheartening facts that points to a systemic culture of tracking that may exist in the schools.
Becker, Linda K. Weinstein University of Massachusetts Boston 2005 해외박사(DDOD)
Higher education has grown increasingly global in scope. There is an understanding that complex world events create a demand for universities to educate students to become culturally competent global citizens. Since the late 1980s, the Australian government has advocated international education, primarily for economic reasons. Universities have responded by encouraging the development of international practice and perspective for academic professionals. The objective of this study was to provide information on the strategies employed by Australian librarians in internationalizing their practice and perspective in the library, the university, and within higher education. Post-modern frameworks for globalization and internationalization, as well as the literature on academic librarianship, were applied in this study. The research employed a mixed methodology and included a survey of thirty-six university librarians in Australia and extensive case studies at two public universities whose practice, as revealed through the survey analysis, indicated a commitment to the goal of internationalization. The study revealed that models of internationalization at universities vary widely according to the institution's values, mission and goals. Study findings showed that internationalization is stimulated when librarians are proactive in international activities; a stable budget is established for internationalization; librarians engage in strategic planning; library leadership is consistent; and sufficient time is allotted to achieve the goal of internationalization. These patterns and strategies may be employed at any academic library to effect change for internationalization.
Health reform challenges: Understanding low-income Massachusetts residents who remain uninsured
Tutty, Michael A University of Massachusetts Boston 2012 해외박사(DDOD)
In April 2006, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts passed one of the most significant pieces of health care reform legislation of any state, Chapter 58 of the Acts of 2006, creating sweeping changes to public health insurance programs and health insurance regulations. This comprehensive health reform has been very successful in creating the lowest uninsurance rate in the nation, below 2 percent by 2010 (Division of Health Care Finance and Policy, 2010b). Even though Massachusetts passed these reforms and offers subsidized public health insurance programs to many earning below 300 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL), some 120,000 Massachusetts residents remain uninsured (Division of Health Care Finance and Policy, 2010b). Individuals earning below 300 percent FPL have uninsured rates significantly higher than the state average (3.4 percent as compared to 1.9 percent statewide). This study sought to determine the perceptions, beliefs, situations, and decision-making strategies that lead low-income adults, earning less than 300 percent FPL, to remain uninsured. This research study utilized the Anderson Behavioral Model of Health Services Use as a conceptual framework to categorize and identify themes, variables, and issues that lead to uninsurance. In addition, adaptations to the model were offered to make it more relevant to understanding why individuals obtain health insurance or remain uninsured. Study findings cluster into five categories for causes of uninsurance: health insurance is a low priority, changes in personal status lead to intermittent health insurance coverage, system engagement barriers prevent enrollment and the maintenance of coverage, lack of awareness of available programs prevents enrollment, and affordability issues hinder enrollment. These findings can be useful in furthering Massachusetts health reform efforts and the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA) implementation.
Evaluating the Impact of Session Length on a Math Computation Fluency Intervention
DeFouw, Emily R University of Massachusetts Boston ProQuest Disser 2020 해외박사(DDOD)
Interventions must not only be effective, but also implemented with fidelity and accordingly to strength, or treatment intensity (Yeaton & Sechrest, 1981). Understanding how to intensify an intervention between tiers is critical to Response-to-Intervention (RtI), a student-focused, tiered, problem-solving approach to delivering evidence-based intervention (Fuchs & Fuchs, 2006). When consulting research and practice guidelines, inconsistencies exist for how to most effectively and efficiently deliver math interventions (DeFouw et al., 2018). The present study used a packaged intervention (i.e., Cover-Copy-Compare and Words Problems; Codding et al., 2016) to examine the impact of varying the session length, or number of minutes per intervention session, on student outcomes (i.e., DCPM). The math intervention lead to improvements during the intervention phase and continual fluency gains during the verification phase.
Garg, Priya University of Massachusetts Boston ProQuest Disser 2020 해외박사(DDOD)
This dissertation is composed of three related essays, with the first essay exploring the financial policy implications of documented economic linkages across firms, and the other two essays documenting new text-based linkages across firms and the asset pricing implications of capital market participants overlooking these. The first essay examines the impact of cybersecurity breaches on attacked firms’ cash holding reactions, as well as those related and similar to it. Literature finds that attacked firms are more prone to litigation and credit risk, both factors that can lead to precautionary cash holding behavior. I then examine if other firms, especially those that are related to an attacked firm, take any precautionary measures, after their peer gets attacked. Results of increased cash holdings by attacked firms, and its peers through industry, location and supply chain linkages, indicate that cybersecurity attacks are a motivation for precautionary cash holding. As firms increasingly rely on technology for success, this essay contributes to the links between firms’ operational and financial policies. The second essay contends that overlaps in offshore sales activities of peer firms subject them to identical foreign shocks, and therefore generate a complex economic linkage between them that that is not captured by proximity on other fronts. The literature suggests that investors are slow in pricing geographic dispersion in firms, and the central hypothesis is therefore that focal firms exhibit predictive lag in their returns relative to peers they share offshore sales destinations with. It adds to the literature by indicating that while firms are increasing their geographic foothold internationally, capital markets are slow to price the impact of such actions. The third essay examines the impact of overlaps across narrative-based risk disclosures across firms that are beyond the traditional industry and momentum variables discussed by literature. It uses machine learning techniques to identify latent topics discussed in Item 1A of annual reports issued by firms and then gauges proximity among firms using cosine similarity. The findings also echo the importance of narrative disclosures in analyzing the risk environment of firms and the need for more concise, yet effective, reporting on that front.
Identifying Drivers of and Quantifying North Atlantic Right Whale Local Abundance
Ganley, Laura C University of Massachusetts Boston ProQuest Disser 2020 해외박사(DDOD)
North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) are verging on extinction. The purpose of this dissertation is to quantify local right whale abundance and use biological and physical predictors to explain the variations in abundance. I estimated local abundance using distance sampling methodology of line transect aerial survey data collected in and around Cape Cod Bay. I measured the time a whale would be in view from the aircraft, and collected dive and surface time data to estimate availability bias, which varied monthly (from 0.27 to 0.85). Right whale population estimates increased from 1990 to 2010, and have since declined; however, local abundance estimates in peak months increased at a faster rate (10% yr−1) than the population, with large monthly and yearly variations. To identify the mechanisms driving local abundance I constructed three structural equation models including local (Cape Cod Bay), regional (Gulf of Maine), and basin-wide (North Atlantic) variables. Population size and zooplankton patchiness had a direct positive relationship (90% credible intervals (CI) = 1.00 = 1.01, and 1.02 = 1.18), and the spring transition date had a direct negative effect on local abundance (90% CI = 0.88–0.97). The direct relationship between regional C. finmarchicus density and local abundance varied by month (90% CIs: January = 0.9997–0.9999, February = 0.99–1.00, March = 0.99–1.00, April = 0.99–1.00, May = 0.99–1.00). It is virtually certain that years of earlier spring transition dates had higher local abundance than years of later spring transition dates (≥ 99%). The total effect of the NAO 2 yr-lag on local abundance depended on the month. It was about as likely as not that higher Gulf Stream North Wall latitudes had higher local abundance than years of lower latitudes (51%−63%). My study identifies key variables to track when predicting local habitat use as the Gulf of Maine continues to change. Understanding the differential impact of climate change on these drivers will be imperative for crafting conservation measures.
Aging with Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Analysis of Physical Activity Engagement
Waldron, Danielle A University of Massachusetts Boston ProQuest Disser 2020 해외박사(DDOD)
Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) participate in physical activity (PA) infrequently compared to adults in the general population. Therefore, they do not reap the physical and mental health benefits of PA, which is particularly problematic for a population that suffers from disproportionate physical and mental health co-morbidities, as well as diminished life expectancy. This study used data from the National Core Indicators-In Person Consumer Survey (n = 4,370; age: 18–78) to analyze factors associated with both aerobic PA and muscle strengthening (MS) activity in adults with ASD receiving state Developmental Disabilities Services (DDS) using multilevel logistic regression modeling. Mediation analyses and moderation analyses were also employed to examine associations between varied factors and PA and MS. Findings indicated the following significant associations between community engagement and PA: community contact (OR = 1.17; p < 0.001), community group participation (OR = 1.83; p < 0.001), and employment/day program participation (OR = 1.32; p < 0.01). Similarly, aspects of community engagement that were significantly associated with MS activity include: community contact (OR = 1.07; p < 0.001), community group participation (OR = 1.91; p < 0.001), and employment/day program participation (OR = 1.32; p < 0.001). Additionally, self-respondent status mediated the relationship between intellectual disability and MS engagement. These findings suggest that community engagement may facilitate PA and MS activity in adults with ASD. Other factors such as intellectual disability, executive function (i.e. indicated by self-respondent status), and mental health may also influence PA and MS activity in this population. While results are not generalizable to adults with ASD who either do not qualify or otherwise do not partake in state DDS, this research provides insights into adults with ASD receiving state DDS. Results indicate that policies supporting community inclusion of individuals with disabilities are not only right and just, but may also have health implications for adults with ASD receiving state services.
Babio-James, Phanenca University of Massachusetts Boston ProQuest Disser 2020 해외박사(DDOD)
This study examined Black mothers’ practices related to finding networks of support to advocate for educational opportunities for their Black sons in special education in an era of anti-Black racist education. Using a narrative qualitative research method, the author captured Black mothers’ voices as they told their stories about navigating anti-Black spaces to gain educational access for their sons. Using critical race theory and Yosso’s (2005) community-driven theory of cultural wealth, the author explored Black mothers’ approaches to finding resources and networks of support for their sons in special education. Yosso’s six forms of capital were used to analyze the participating mothers’ narratives as they described their sons’ experiences with their respective special education systems in urban public school settings and to determine the extent that exclusionary practices hindered their sons’ rights to quality educational services as mandated by the Individual with Disability Education Act. The study findings highlight Black mothers’ use of particular forms of cultural wealth to respond to special education’s failure in meeting the educational needs of their sons.