This research evaluates current home energy assessment tools and practices and investigates their applicability in terms of relevance supporting retrofit decision making in Southwest Virginia. Home energy assessments and audits are comprised of many different tools, strategies, and practices all with the same goal, to achieve accuracy in assessing performance as well as confidence in achieving energy savings from retrofit recommendations. Differing opinions, training, and standards in energy assessments have led to a reduced confidence and reliance on energy assessments, which can ultimately lead to poor retrofit decisions and undesired outcomes. This research undertook an investigation of current tools and practices as well as modeling studies to reveal insights into strengths and weaknesses, and to refine home energy assessments. The goal was to identify opportunities to increase confidence for stakeholders by analyzing energy assessments in terms of what strategies are most suitable to increase the accuracy of capturing different energy influence parameters, as well as to provide a basis for future research and development in this subject area. / Master of Science

Quality of life for adults living in adult family homes requires further attention as the elderly population continues to grow and moves from minority to majority. There is a lack of data on residents in adult family home settings and their quality of life. The purpose of this project was to identify if individualized nursing care plans had an impact on the residents' quality of life in the adult family home. In this study, a registered nurse assessed the residents to create an individualized nursing care plan that would be implemented to improve quality of life. These care plans were comprised of 3 distinct nursing needs: risk of falls, self-care deficit, and nutrition imbalance less than the body needs. Each care plan was created with nursing-specific interventions that could be tested, replicated, and evaluated. A test of this premise was conducted using a sample of 6 residents in an adult family home. Only one resident met the criteria of mild to moderate dementia for testing. The single qualifying resident who participated in the project demonstrated improvement in her quality of life after the proposed intervention was implemented. This change was evaluated using quantitative data gathered with the Dementia Quality of Life assessment, and qualitatively with the caregiver and registered nurse evaluation tool. The interventions of the nursing care plans were relevant and as a result, the Dementia Quality of Life assessment did show an improvement in scores, which reflected an improvement in quality of life. Elderly adults with dementia living in an adult family home may benefit from individualized nursing care plans, which may improve their quality of life.

No description available.

This study was conducted to determine if a significant difference existed based on the reading achievement of 3rd grade students as measured by the Mississippi Curriculum Test Reading Scaled Score of those students who utilized the Renaissance Learning’s Accelerated Reader Software Management Program and those who did not participate in the program. The impact of gender and ethnicity on reading achievement and the relationship between the STAR Test for Assessment of Reading and the Mississippi Curriculum Test (MCT) as measures of reading achievement were also studied. The findings indicate students who participated in the Accelerated Reading Program achieved significantly higher reading scores than students who did not participate in the program. Within the Accelerated Reading Group, Caucasians earned significantly higher scores than the African-American/Other group. Female participants scored significantly higher scores than males. There was a strong association between the scores students on the STAR Test for Reading Assessment and the Mississippi Curriculum Test. The findings of this study indicated that gender, ethnicity, and the Accelerated Reading Program impacted MCT scores. There existed a strong association between scores on the Mississippi Curriculum Test and the scores on the STAR Test for Reading Assessment. Conclusions that emerged from the study suggest that Renaissance Learning’s Accelerated Reader software when used in conjunction with the regular reading series seemed to have a positive impact on reading achievement. Recommendations for future research include investigating a possible gender bias in literature that could impact reading achievement and the impact of ethnicity on reading achievement.

No description available.

Functional analyses are the gold standard of confirming maintaining variables of problem behavior. Despite widespread support, many clinical settings instead use anecdotal assessments. These have been shown to have poor reliability when used by non-experts but can be useful for confirming maintaining variables of problem behavior when agreement has reached a certain level. We used behavior skills training to teach new staff member pairs behavior function to increase their reliability on these assessments. We found that although agreement increased slightly, this was not clinically significant. Out of the two pairs of participants one pair of participants was able to identify their client's maintaining variable of problem behavior. Future research should investigate the type of training used for non-experts for example training non-experts to state problem behavior in objective operational terms.

Technology and Engineering Education has deep roots in Project Based Learning, with its beginning in the Industrial Arts, and tracing its ancestry to craft apprenticeships. This constructivist philosophy supports the idea that the creation of an artifact lends itself to higher order cognitive processes. This study analyzed the content of middle school Technology and Engineering Education Rubrics for evidence that higher order cognition was being assessed. Five raters coded ninety-eight performance indicators from six rubrics for the evidence of declarative, procedural, schematic, and strategic knowledge. Gwet's AC1 and percent agreement were calculated to determine inter-rater reliability. Additionally, the performance criteria were coded for six engineering constructs. The Engineering Constructs from the performance criteria were extrapolated to the performance indicators to see which Engineering Constructs were supporting higher order cognition. Analysis included the determination of whether or not the rubrics that were analyzed supported higher order cognition as well as their performance indicators, performance criteria, and which Engineering Constructs support higher order cognitive processes. / Doctor of Philosophy / What used to be known as the shop class, or Industrial Arts, has morphed into Technology and Engineering Education. With the emphasis now on teaching engineering processes and Project Based Learning instead of manual skills, there is a lack of research on whether or not the assessments have evolved enough to assess higher levels of cognition. Higher level cognitive processes in engineering design are defined as those processes that are used to troubleshoot and create. This study analyzed middle school Technology and Engineering Education rubrics to look for evidence of assessing higher order cognition. Rubrics are a commonly used tool in Project Bases Learning as a form of assessment. Rubrics are separated into two distinct parts: performance criteria; and their performance indicators. The performance criteria were analyzed for six different Engineering Constructs, and the performance indicators were analyzed for four cognitive constructs. The analysis looked for evidence of higher-level cognitive constructs, and which Engineering Constructs supported higher level cognitive constructs.

This grounded theory retrospective case study examined whether the development of the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS) supported Lasswell's (1951) policy process framework and the ecological adaptation of Marshall, Mitchell and Wirt's policy actors model. The study was a retrospective case study employing semi-structured interviews, analysis of documents, and archival records. The following research questions guided the study: Did the policy process evolve linearly as in Lasswell's theoretical model? If it was different, how? With respect to Marshall, Mitchell, and Wirt's ecological model of policy actor behavior, how was this theory consistent with the evidence from this case study? How did the political culture affect the policy process? How did the selected participants interpret their roles in the different policy stages? What issues developed during the stages of the policy process? How has the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System as a codified policy changed? The study concluded that the policy process evolved linearly, but took multiple cycles. The Small School Lawsuit precipitated events that suggest features of Punctuated Equilibrium and Multiple Streams theories during the agenda setting stage. The Advocacy Coalition Framework theory underscored many of the events that occurred in later stages. Policy actor behavior changed relative to actor proximity to the inner circle. The traditionalistic policy culture of Tennessee influenced the policy process largely through the elite's inclusion of the TVAAS policy in the omnibus Education Improvement Act (EIA) Bill. The interviewee/participant's roles during the policy process varied at the different policy process stages. Several issues (superintendent elections, teacher evaluation) with the omnibus EIA bill emerged during the policy process that threatened its passage; however, the bill passed due to the initial urgency of fiscal litigation concerns. Since its passage, TVAAS as a codified policy has not experienced any significant changes, except No Child Left Behind has necessitated changes to the types of assessments and indicators. This study may be very useful to policy analyses and policy-makers interested in state level policymaking. / Ed. D.

Nas últimas décadas, observamos que o debate sobre a qualidade do ensino público intensificou-se e incorporou como um de seus aspectos centrais os resultados obtidos por alunos em avaliações externas, especialmente no Sistema de Avaliação da Educação Básica (Saeb). A centralidade obtida por essas avaliações ensejou discussões, notadamente na literatura da avaliação educacional, sobre a pertinência de sua aplicação e possíveis influências sobre o currículo e sobre o trabalho docente. Entretanto, ainda não se tem uma apreensão mais detalhada dos efeitos dessas avaliações no interior das escolas. Nesse sentido, desenvolveu-se uma pesquisa com o objetivo de apreender influências das avaliações externas nas concepções dos professores sobre avaliação educacional, considerando que essas concepções constituem um fator relevante para o trabalho docente. Foi observado, ao longo de mais de dois anos de investigação em uma escola da Rede Municipal de Ensino de São Paulo (RME-SP), rede exposta a grande quantidade de avaliações externas, que a influência dessas avaliações no cotidiano escolar se dá de modo complexo, não sendo consequência automática de orientações oficiais, mas, antes, trata-se de uma influência dependente de vários fatores, com efeitos diversificados que, para o caso de algumas avaliações externas, chegam a ser nulos. Um desses efeitos, por hipótese, se dá nas concepções que os professores têm sobre avaliação educacional, o objeto desta investigação, sem desconsiderar que essas concepções também pesam para a incorporação das avaliações externas às atividades pedagógicas. No contexto pesquisado, mesmo considerando a pressão por resultados exercida pela Secretaria Municipal de Educação de São Paulo (SME-SP) ou pelo Ministério da Educação (MEC), com destaque para o Ideb, não se verificou que as avaliações externas estejam dominando o trabalho escolar e as concepções de avaliação educacional dos professores. Utilizando como método de pesquisa a triangulação de dados, pudemos inferir concepções de avaliação educacional dos professores e identificar algumas implicações das avaliações externas sobre as mesmas; pudemos, também, constatar que essas concepções ainda precisam ser problematizadas por conta das consequências sobre a aprendizagem e o sucesso escolar dos alunos. Concluímos que os efeitos mais aparentes decorrem, ainda sem estabelecer um condicionamento do trabalho pedagógico, das iniciativas municipais de avaliação externa. A complexidade do cotidiano escolar e o protagonismo que certas concepções de avaliação educacional teriam sobre as formas de agir dos professores, nos obrigam a resistir ao discurso que considera a escola um ambiente estático, que recebe passivamente influências externas, ainda que sob a forma de orientações oficiais, ignorando a diversidade de concepções que coabitam esse espaço e que detêm um protagonismo sobre as práticas ali desenvolvidas. A pesquisa desenvolvida na Emef Sol Nascente lançou luzes sobre as influências exercidas pelas avaliações externas no cotidiano escolar e mostrou que são mais complexas do que apontam certos discursos reducionistas. / Over the last decades, the debate about the quality of public education has enhanced and absorbed as a central aspect the results achieved by students in external assessments, especially in the Basic Education Assessment System (Saeb). The key role played by this kind of assessment gave rise to discussions, notably in the literature of educational assessment dealing with the adequacy of its application and possible influences onto the curriculum and teaching. However, the effects of such assessments within the schools has not yet been captured. Thus, this study had the purpose of learning the influences of the external assessments onto the concepts teachers have about educational assessment, considering that these notions are a key factor in a teacher´s work. Over more than two years of research in a school belonging to the Education System of the City of São Paulo (RME-SP), a network of schools exposed to a great deal of external assessments, I observed that the influence of such assessments in the school´s everyday routine happens in a complex manner, and it is not an automatic consequence of official guidance but rather a influence dependent on several factors with a variety of effects which, in this case, are sometimes null. One of these effects, as an assumption, lies in the concepts teachers have about educational assessment, which is the scope of this investigation, notwithstanding that these concepts are also crucial to assimilate the external assessments to pedagogical work. In the context of this study, even if the pressure for results exerted by the São Paulo City Education Authority (SME-SP) of by the federal Education Department (MEC), with an emphasis to Ideb, it was not found that the external assessments are prevailing over school life and the concepts of educational assessment held by the teachers. Using data triangulation as a research method, I could deduce the concepts teachers had of educational assessment as well as identify some implications of external assessments onto those notions; I could also find that these concepts need to be further problematized due to the consequences on student´s learning and academic achievement. I conclude that the most visible effects result, even if without conditioning the pedagogical work, from the local initiatives of external assessment. The complex nature of the school´s everyday life and the leading role that certain concepts of educational assessment play on teaching, compel me to resist the discourse of the school being a static environment, which passively receives external influences, even if under the form of official guidance; and by doing so, the diversity of conceptions that cohabit in this space is ignored as these notions are relevant for the practices that are implemented there. The study conducted at the Sol Nascente municipal school shed light on the influences exerted by the external assessments onto the school´s daily routine and showed that they are more complex than what is held by reductionist discourses.

The MMPI-2 is the most commonly used self-report measure for the assessment of psychopathology in forensic and psychiatric disability assessments (Bacchiochi & Bagby, 2006; Bagby, Marshall, & Bacchiochi, 2005). The MMPI-2 includes a variety of validity scales designed to detect content responsive faking (e.g., faking good or faking bad) as well as content nonresponsivity (randomly responding). The present study was conducted to determine whether a combination of validity scales to detect malingering of a psychotic disorder in a non-compensatory model would be more or less effective than using only a select few of the validity scales in a compensatory model. The results supported the use of the specified validity scales (F, Fb, Fp, F – K, and FBS) in a non-compensatory model to identify correctly whether test takers faked their profiles. The results also supported the use of a smaller subset of the validity scales (Fp, F – K, and FBS) in a non-compensatory model to identify correctly whether test takers faked their profiles. The results, limitations of the current study, and future research considerations are then discussed.