Daily Archives: November 2, 2017

Darren Walker Dissertation Final Defense

The College of Education announces the final Dissertation of

Darren  Walker

for the degree of Doctor of Education

November 09, 2017 at 10:00 am in Ball Hall 123

Major Advisor: Charisse Gulosino, EdD

The Effect of the Four Quadrants of the Competing Values Framework on Elementary School Student Achievement

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between longitudinal assessments of student achievement at 1187 elementary schools and educators’ perceptions of the manner in which their school resolves the “organizational tensions, trade-offs, and conflicts” (Cameron, Quinn, DeGraff, & Thakor, 2006, p. 50) embodied in the Competing Values Framework (CVF). With this end in view, some 24 items were selected from the 2013 state-wide administration of the Teaching, Empowering, Leading, and Learning survey in Tennessee (TELL Tennessee) and used to represent the eight organizational functions residing in the four quadrants of the CVF. After aggregating person-level observations to that of the institution, the result was merged with information pertinent to student and faculty demographic characteristics and with archived Tennessee Department of Education student achievement data in reading and in mathematics, averaged over three years. In the five sets of multiple regression analyses subsequently conducted, student demographic characteristics proved to be the most important factors in explaining variation in student achievement, whether measured as three-year averages of students’ NCE scores in reading and mathematics or as three-year averages of the percent of students proficient in reading and mathematics. Although higher levels of faculty tenure regularly emerged as a statistically significant, if only slight, influence on student outcomes, no such influence was observed with respect to higher levels of faculty experience. Over and above these background variables, the Competing Values Framework (CVF) profiles concerning ‘balance,” “stability,” an “external” orientation, and a disposition towards “rational goals” were all associated with higher NCE scores, but only the CVF “balance” profile was statistically significantly linked to student proficiency scores. While the findings concerning “balance” were consistent with standard CVF expectations and prescriptions, those concerning a disposition towards higher NCE scores and “rational goals” were seen to resonate with the educational reformist literature on magnet schools, charter schools, and the adoption of comprehensive school reform models. Common to all of these strategies is the intent to leverage school improvement by endowing schools with a visible focus and lending their instructional programs a greater coherence.

Benjamin Brett Dissertation Final Defense

The College of Education announces the final Dissertation of

Benjamin Brett

for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

November 17, 2017 at 1:00 pm in Ball Hall 103

Major Advisor: Suzanne Lease, PhD

Neurocognitive Impairment in Parkinson’s Disease Patients: Assessing the Unique Contributions of Depression and Fatigue While Controlling for Disease Severity

ABSTRACT: Background: While individuals diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease (PD) often experience cognitive deficits, depression, and fatigue, the relationships among these nonmotor sequelae throughout the progression of the disease are unclear. Objective: To examine the relationships among disease severity, depression, and fatigue and investigate the independent contributions of depression and fatigue to a composite measure of cognitive impairment, when controlling for disease severity in PD patients. Methods: A mixed retrospective and prospective sample of PD patients completed a comprehensive neuropsychological battery, as well as self-report measures of depression and fatigue. Cognitive impairment was represented by a summary statistic, or cognitive impairment index (CII). A hierarchal linear regression model, controlling for disease severity, examined the unique contributions of depression and fatigue on cognitive impairment. A Pearson correlation examined the relationship between depression and fatigue. Results: At step one, disease severity significantly contributed to the model, F(1, 41) = 48.06, p < .001, accounting for 52.8% of the variance in cognitive impairment. Introduction of depression and fatigue explained an additional 7.2% of the variance and this change in R2 was significant F(2,39) = 4.68, p < 0.05. Both depression, t = 2.751, B = 0.30, p < 0.01, and fatigue, t = -2.03, B = -0.21, p = 0.049 significantly contributed to the model in addition to variance accounted for by disease severity. Conclusions: Findings suggest that depression is uniquely associated with cognitive impairment observed in PD patients independent of disease severity or level of fatigue. Interventions targeted towards depression may improve cognitive functioning.

Chantal Taylor Dissertation Final Defense

The College of Education announces the final Dissertation of

Chantal Taylor

for the degree of Doctor of Education

November 10, 2017 at 10:00 am in Ball Hall 123

Major Advisor: Charisse Gulosino, EdD

Examining Teachers’ Perceptions of Climate in the Areas of Teachers’ Use of Time, Resources, and the Quality of Participation at Schools with Very Low and Very High Percentages of Learning Disabled Populations

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to determine whether there are differences in how educators view the use of instructional time, the availability of instructional resources, and the quality of parent/community relations at schools with very low and very high percentages of students categorized as learning disabled (LD). Secondary data extracted from the 2013 administration of the Teaching, Empowering, Leading and Learning Questionnaire (TELL) were merged with pertinent school demographic information archived on the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) website. Once combined, these data were subsequently used to identify some 1425 schools with complete information on all variables of interest, including concurrent percentages of LD students. Analysis of the frequency distribution of these 1425 percentages enabled the location of the cut-points marking the lowest and highest deciles and the subsequent categorization of “very low” schools as those with proportions of LD students at or below 9.38% (n = 143) and “very high” schools as those with proportions of LD students or above 20.91% (n = 142). For these 285 schools, means were then obtained on the TELL subsections pertinent to instructional time (seven items), instructional resources (nine items), and parent/community relations (eight items). After controlling for the effects of two covariates, multivariate differences were observed apropos all three outcomes. With respect to time, five of seven item means favored “low” LD schools. Conversely, eight of the nine item means concerning resources favored the “high” LD schools. The most consistent and largest between-group differences were observed with respect to parent/community relations, however, Of the nine means in this set of items, all but one favored the “high” LD group, with the strongest effects observed for item comparisons involving clear, two-way communication (g = .59) and providing parents/guardians with useful information about student learning (g = .59).