Thesis advisor: Walt Haney / Migration is now a major component of globalization. The combination of better economic opportunities and lower fertility rates in developed nations suggests that the current migratory wave will last for many decades to come (United Nations Population Fund, 2007). In the U.S., immigration over the last thirty years has significantly changed the face of the workforce and the classroom. At the state level, Massachusetts has been one of the top immigrant-receiving states in the Union. Since the 1990's, Massachusetts has been implementing a policy of standardized testing for accountability and graduation. The Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) is a set of standardized, norm-referenced tests administered to comply with the test-based accountability provisions of the 1993 No Child Left Behind federal legislation (NCLB). Used today for high-stakes decisions such as NCLB accountability as well as high school graduation requirements, MCAS has raised a number of validity concerns. Differential item functioning analysis, a technique to statistically identify potentially biased in tests, has not been used to challenge the validity of the tests, although it can provide new insights into test bias that were not previously available. This dissertation investigates the presence of differential item functioning in MCAS between native students and immigrant students. It identifies one test, the 2008 Grade 3 MCAS Mathematics test, as having a significant number of items exhibiting differential functioning and compares the original test version to a purified test version with these items removed. The purified test version results in larger test score improvements for immigrants as well as other non-mainstream students. These alternative test scores are sufficiently large to affect the determination of NCLB-based performance status for many schools and districts that are comparatively poorer and more diverse than the average. While the lack of more precise data on immigrants and other characteristics of the data set reduce the definiteness of the results, there is ample cause for concern about the presence of differential item functioning-based bias on MCAS and the need to further study this phenomenon as NCLB-based accountability determinations impact a growing number of schools, districts and communities. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation.

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University

Thesis. 1975. M.Arch.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. / Bibliography: leaves 50-52. / by Steven C. Hayes. / M.Arch.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1982. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 81). / This thesis addresses the problem of developing continuity between an existing residential area and a design of a medium density housing development. An identification of architectural patterns in the area of the site yields an abstract model of a typical block involving different building types on different zones of the block. This model is applied to the organization of the new housing development and modified to suit new programmatic requirements. Ensuing design development shows that continuity with an urban residential context can be found at both an organizational level and at the level of architectural detail, while responding to the demands of a new housing programme. / by Juan Pablo Molestina. / M.Arch.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1981. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Includes bibliographical references. / by George Smith Jr. / M.C.P.

Thesis. 1975. M.Arch.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. / Bibliography: leaf 98. / M.Arch.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1981. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 190-194). / Play is a form of behavior common to all people. A person's propensity to play depends not only on his physiological and emotional state, but also on his surroundings. This thesis investigates environmental qualities condusive to play, and poses some ideas about how designers can provide opportunities for both active and fantasy play in places that we use on a regular basis. The thesis addresses the issue of 'what is play?' by establishing a working definition of play in terms of an individual player and his surroundings. This definition then serves as the basis for evaluating how a number of quite different environments afford play for their users. These observations provide the framework for developing some design parameters which an architect might use in designing places that afford play. The parameters are then applied to a short design exploration of how the main corridor at MIT might be redesigned to better afford play. / by Paul Eric Fallon. / M.Arch.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1982. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Bibliography: leaves 248-249. / by William C. Wendel. / M.C.P.

Thesis. 1975. M.Arch.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. / Bibliography: leaves 46-47. / M.Arch.