The Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) is Florida's annual measure of student yearly academic progress with major implications for individual students and schools. The present study explored the inter-relationships among student background and reading performance indicators and the predictive utility of those variables as a means to identify students at risk for FCAT failure. The following indicators were incorporated into this study: student demographics (gender and socio-economic status), academic history (attendance rate and number of prior grade retentions), teacher-rated evaluation of student performance (student participation in Reading activities and Reading grade), and reading skill (decoding and oral reading fluency). Decoding and oral reading fluency were measured using the DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) and Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF) subtests (Good and Kaminski, 2002b), three months prior to FCAT administration. The student background and performance variables were first used in a multiple regression analysis to predict FCAT Reading achievement. Among these predictor variables, ORF, student's third quarter Reading grade, and SES were found to be statistically significant predictors of Reading FCAT-SSS scores. The strong correlation found between ORF and FCAT achievement in this study was congruent with results in previous studies, whereas the addition of Reading grade and SES as significant predictors of Reading FCAT-SSS scores were new findings in this study. Next, it was of interest to determine whether any of the aforementioned indicators also predicted ORF ability. Reading grade and NWF scores were both statistically significant predictors of ORF performance. Lastly, this study examined the utility of two risk models of Reading failure that use cutpoint guidelines for student performance on the DIBELS ORF subtest to determine risk level. These cutpoint models were applied to this data set to determine the usefulness of these models in identifying students who may be at risk for reading difficulty. Both models explored were moderately effective in identifying at-risk students. However, a three-category risk model (low, moderate, high) was determined to be of greatest assistance to educators for efficiency and ease. In conclusion, this author identified limitations inherent in the present study and offered recommendations for future research directions. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2006. / Date of Defense: February 24, 2006. / Grades, ORF, High Stakes Testing, DIBELS, CBM, Failure Risk / Includes bibliographical references. / Briley E. Proctor, Professor Directing Dissertation; Stephanie Dent Al Otaiba, Outside Committee Member; Frances Prevatt, Committee Member; Gary Peterson, Committee Member.

Many post-secondary institutions now have programs for special admission considerations for students with learning disabilities (LD's). These programs review information to determine the eligibility of students with disabilities who may not otherwise meet minimum standards for admissions. This study examines the academic success of students with LD's admitted through a Special Admissions Committee (SAC) when compared to students admitted through the "normal" process. An analysis of documentation of 45 undergraduate students submitted to an SAC indicates that they have lower high school GPA's and lower standardized test scores than their non-LD counterparts, but have similar levels of success (as measured by comparing cumulative college GPA's, number of failed courses, and outcome status three semesters after matriculation). / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2005. / Date of Defense: November 8, 2004. / College success, college students, learning disabilities, special admissions / Includes bibliographical references. / Briley Proctor, Professor Directing Thesis; Frances Prevatt, Committee Member; Huijun Li, Committee Member.

Historically, public colleges and universities have been thought of as places where free speech and free inquiry abound. Institutional policy makers, however, have occasionally placed restrictions on student expression. When students have challenged these restrictions, courts have used public forum analysis to delineate the balance of student rights to free speech and the institution's right to self-governance. Using legal-historical research methods, this study traced the development of the public forum doctrine in the case law and its application to students in higher education. Employing Edward H. Levi's three-stage evolutionary theory on the development of a legal concept, the study concluded that the public forum doctrine had completed the first two stages, which involved creation, development and classification. The doctrine, however, has not lost its viability, which is Levi's final stage. Other conclusions of the study: 1) Institutions have broad authority to make regulations that are consistent with their missions. 2) Despite this authority, policy makers are constrained by First Amendment principles. 3) Forum analysis enables administrators to designate areas for student speech. 4) The protection of student speech on campus is influenced by the context of the speech. 5) Administrators may exercise the greatest control over campus areas characterized as closed fora. 6) Although, the distinction between designated and limited fora remains ambiguous, courts have begun to suggest differences. 7) Content-based and viewpoint-based regulations on public forum speech are disfavored. 8) Regulations on public forum speech must be narrowly tailored to achieve a compelling government interest. 9) The judicial characterization of student publications as limited fora is undergoing legal challenge. 10) The conflict between the students' right to free expression and the public institutions' right to govern is dynamic and ongoing. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2007. / Date of Defense: March 16, 2007. / College Media, University Administration, Administration, Freedom of Expression, Colleges and Universities, Freedom of the Press, Free Speech Zones, Free Speech, College Press, First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, Freedom of Speech, U.S. Supreme Court / Includes bibliographical references. / Joseph Beckham, Professor Directing Dissertation; Jay Rayburn, Outside Committee Member; Jeffrey Brooks, Committee Member; Robert A. Schwartz, Committee Member.

Primary studies are using complex models more and more. Slopes from multiple regression analyses are reported in primary studies, but few scholars have dealt with how to combine multiple regression slopes. One of the problems in combining multiple regression slopes is that each study may use a different regression model. The purpose of this research is to propose a method for combining partial regression slopes from studies with different regression models. The method combines comparable covariance matrices to obtain a synthetic partial slope. The proposed method assumes the population is homogeneous, and that the different regression models are nested. Elements in the sample covariance matrix are not independent of each other, so missing elements should be imputed using conditional expectations. The Bartlett decomposition is used to decompose the sample covariance matrix into a parameter component and a sampling error component. The proposed method treats the sample-size weighted average as a parameter matrix and applies Bartlett’s decomposition to the sample covariance matrices to get their respective error matrices. Since missing elements in the error matrix are not correlated, missing elements can be estimated in the error matrices and hence in the parameter matrices. Finally the partial slopes can be computed from the combined matrices. Simulation shows the suggested method gives smaller standard errors than the listwise-deletion method and the pairwise-deletion method. An empirical examination shows the suggested method can be applied to heterogeneous populations. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester 2017. / November 17, 2017. / bartlett decomposition, cholesky decomposition, conditional covariance matrix, dependency in sample covariance matrix, meta-analysis, multiple regression analysis / Includes bibliographical references. / Betsy Jane Becker, Professor Directing Dissertation; Fred Huffer, University Representative; Yanyun Yang, Committee Member; Insu Paek, Committee Member.

Aging is associated with a decline in cognitive and psychomotor functions, resulting in difficulties with daily activities such as driving. Cognitive function has been found to be associated with arterial stiffening. These age-related decrements can be mitigated through routine aerobic exercise. To determine the effects of life-long aerobic exercise on cognitive function, driving performance, and cardiovascular health (i.e., arterial stiffness and thickness) among older adults (65 – 84 years old). A cross-sectional design was utilized to compare 27 endurance-trained older adults with 35 sedentary counterparts. Driving performance and cognitive function were measured via driving simulator and a cognitive battery, respectively. Cardiovascular health was assessed via a perceptually-regulated exercise test, carotid-intima media thickness (IMT) via Doppler ultrasound, and carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cf-PWV). Fitness comparisons were made using an independent sample t-test. Cognitive function and driving performance scores were transformed to Z-scores. VO2max was higher in the endurance-trained group compared to the sedentary group (41±9 vs 25±3 ml/kg/min, p<.01). There were no differences between the groups in cf-PWV (12±2 vs. 12±2 m/s), carotid-IMT (.74±.15 vs .76±.13 mm), nor cognitive function scores (-.01±.57 vs -.09±.97). However, the endurance-trained group performed better on the driving simulator (.18±.58 vs -.28±.92, p<.05). Enhanced cardiorespiratory fitness may mitigate age-related decrements to driving performance. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester 2017. / November 8, 2017. / Includes bibliographical references. / Gershon Tenenbaum, Professor Directing Dissertation; Lynn Panton, University Representative; Graig Michael Chow, Committee Member; Yanyun Yang, Committee Member.

Injury in sport is a frequent occurrence that often causes athletes to experience stress, frustration, anger, depression, and pain. Mindfulness practice has shown to be efficacious in reducing stress and pain, while improving well-being. Despite this, there is limited research investigating the effects of mindfulness-based interventions with injured athletes. In the current study, the Mindfulness Meditation Training for Sport 2.0 (MMTS 2.0; Baltzell, Caraballo, Chipman, & Hayden, 2014) was implemented and evaluated with three high school female athletes. Utilizing a nonconcurrent multiple baseline among subjects design, participants completed measures of pain, stress, well-being, self-compassion, and mindfulness throughout the intervention. Two participants improved in mindfulness and self-compassion relative to baseline levels. The same two participants also reported reductions in pain and stress, and improvements in psychological well-being subscales autonomy and self-acceptance. Improvements in mindfulness and self-compassion corresponded with adherence to between-session meditation exercises. The participant with the lowest adherence reported reductions in mindfulness, self-compassion, and well-being, and did not complete post-intervention follow-up assessment. Overall, results were mixed and should be interpreted with caution. Future research should continue to evaluate the impact of mindfulness and self-compassion interventions like the MMTS 2.0 with injured athletes to determine its utility. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Fall Semester 2017. / November 14, 2017. / Injury, Meditation, Mindfulness, Pain, Rehabilitation, Self-Compassion / Includes bibliographical references. / Graig Michael Chow, Professor Directing Thesis; Gershon Tenenbaum, Committee Member; Angela Canto, Committee Member.

Many topics in science are notoriously difficult for students to learn. Mechanisms and processes that exist on a scale outside student experience present particular challenges. While instruction often involves visualizations, students typically explain in words, spoken or written. Visualizations have many advantages over verbal explanations, especially for science, so asking students to produce visual rather than verbal explanations should improve their learning. This hypothesis was tested in two domains, a mechanical system and a chemical system. The explanations were analyzed for content, and learning assessed by a post-test. Participants' spatial ability was also assessed as spatial ability often correlates with learning science. For the verbal explaining of a mechanical system, the bicycle tire pump, high spatial participants performed better than low spatial participants. However, low spatial participants performed better and as well as high spatial participants after producing visual explanations. Visual explanations included significantly greater amounts of structural information, as well as other features essential to understanding function, for example a complete explanation of the inlet valve, a crucial but invisible structural component. In the domain of chemical bonding, visual explanations were more effective than verbal explanations, and high spatial ability participants showed greater learning than low spatial ability participants. Visual explanations contained a significantly greater amount of structural information, made reference to specific examples of chemical compounds, and often contained supplementary text. Text added to visual explanations predicted post-test scores, as did the inclusion of invisible features. Many participants who drew identified actual examples of ionic and covalent molecules. Written explanations often used general terms and presentations of definitions. Explanations generated by high spatial ability participants contained greater amounts of function and were more likely to include specific examples. In both domains, text was often spontaneously added to visual explanations. In Experiment 1, added text was equally likely to describe structure or function; in Experiment 2, added text was more likely to describe function. Taken together, the studies provide support for the use of learner-generated visual explanations as a powerful learning tool and suggest that visual explanations are superior because they demand and provide a check for completeness of explanations.

This study examined the various ways in which students who participated in a two-year-long evidence-focused argument curriculum use evidence when engaging in argumentation. The experimental group was compared to groups who received either no such argument curriculum, or one year of an argument curriculum without focus on evidence. A total of 93 students participated in the study; at the end of the two-year period, all students were assessed on various dimensions of their evidence use during an assessment of their argumentation on topics not part of the intervention. One assessment was dialogic, the other an individual argumentive essay. In addition, intervention dialogs of the experimental group were studied at the beginning and end of the second year, to assess change. Both final assessments showed that experimental group students more frequently incorporated evidence - in particular, shared evidence- in their arguments, relative to the comparison groups. Also, students in the experimental group generated more factual questions that would help inform their arguments on the topic. Analysis of experimental students' evidence use during dialogs throughout their second, evidence-focused year of the curriculum showed an increase in meta-level dialog with their peers about the use of evidence. Across the intervention dialogs and both final assessments, however, the functions which evidence served in students' argumentation remained consistent: At most one third of statements invoking evidence sought to weaken a claim of the opponents. The more common function of evidence, occurring in about two thirds of uses, was to support one's own claims. Implications are discussed regarding our understanding of how evidence is used in argument and how sustained practice in argumentation, afforded by the curriculum studied here, affects this use.

Retrieving information from memory via a test has long been considered primarily a method of evaluating knowledge. However, a growing body of experimental research has demonstrated that taking tests also helps to strengthen memory. In both experimental and naturalistic settings, research has established that, compared to rereading or reviewing, practicing retrieval through test taking leads to poorer performance on immediate tests but superior and more durable long term memory on delayed tests. The interaction between time of test and method of study is called the testing effect. To date, very few attempts have been made to determine what cognitive variables might affect the existence or size of the testing effect, and none have done so using correlational research designs. This dissertation examined the effects of language comprehension, background knowledge, and metacognition on individuals immediate and delayed recall when they studied by review and when they studied by taking a free recall test. A sample of 90 undergraduate students read and studied two passages. They studied one passage by repeated reading, and the other by repeated testing. After studying, they took two short answer comprehension tests on each passage, the first immediately after reading the passage and the second after a week long delay. The independent variables included time of test, method of study, type of question (factual recall or inference), language comprehension, background knowledge, and participants' metacognitive judgments about their learning and future performance. The dependent variable was performance on the comprehension tests. Results indicated that a testing effect was not clearly established. Although there was less forgetting in the repeated test condition than in the repeated review condition, which is consistent with a testing effect, the review condition consistently outperformed the testing condition, which is not consistent with the testing effect. Differences between the results of this study and those from other testing effect research are hypothesized to be due to the detailed nature of the test questions. Regarding the cognitive variables, metacognitive judgments of learning (JOLs) were not consistently predictive of test performance, background knowledge predicted performance on tests in the repeated review but not the repeated test conditions, and language comprehension, which was the best predictor overall, was a significant predictor of performance on the immediate test in the repeated test condition, and the delayed tests in both conditions. Future research should focus on examining the effects of individual differences on the efficacy of studying via retrieval on immediate and delayed recall.

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