Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) frameworks, formerly known as effective school-wide discipline, started in 2005 as a State initiative to help raise student achievement by addressing the overlapping relationship between classroom conduct and academic achievement (Virginia Department of Education, 2009, superintendent's message). Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports implemented as part of the effective school-wide discipline practices in the Commonwealth of Virginia are seeing strong reductions in referrals and student exclusions/suspensions from school (Ciolfi, Shin, and Harris, 2011). Over 90,500 individual students were suspended or expelled from a Virginia school in 2010-2011; many of them more than once (2011 p.1). As paradigms switch from reactionary to prevention, school-wide approaches to discipline utilizing Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports are becoming more frequently used as a tool to reduce the number of office discipline referrals (ODR) and to keep students in class. Since the state has now 223 schools supporting the PBIS framework from 43 different school divisions, a study of the principles and practices of the most successful high school implementations could help high schools which are struggling with managing student conduct issues. By providing a compilation of those principles and practices that school leaders utilized to implement a highly effective Positive Behavioral Intervention Process, schools could focus on them to more successfully incorporate Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports frameworks in their high schools. Three questions guided the work for this study. First, were there specific principles that the high schools using Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports operated by to successfully implement and reduce office discipline referrals? Secondly, were there certain practices that these high schools also employed which garnered success? Lastly, what artifacts could the successful schools provide demonstrating their successful implementation of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports framework that would provide benefit to beginning or struggling high schools implementing Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports? A qualitative study was used utilizing the grounded theory method and cross school comparisons of data. Interviewing superintendent-designated leaders from nine high schools that reduced office discipline referrals (ODR), uncovered the principles and practices common to the successful high schools employing Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. There were twelve interviews: three group interviews with 2 respondents each and nine individual interviews. The twelve interviews involved 15 people: • four division-level personnel: three were division leaders who were also PBIS Division Coaches and one who was titled PBIS Division Coordinator • eight school administrators (five principals and three assistant principals) • three teachers who also were designated as PBIS School Coaches No interviewee designated by the superintendent refused to be interviewed. Reviews of the data collected were analyzed across all divisions to report these principles and practices. These principles and practices could be shared with new high schools to consider prior to Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports framework programs being implemented. As more high schools employ Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports and are studied regarding reducing the number of office discipline referrals, the Commonwealth of Virginia's Department of Education can utilize these longitudinal data to craft more effective support for the programs across the Commonwealth of Virginia. All data were extracted from the recordings and then charted for common elements. Three principles emerged that led to the theoretical propositions those high schools that reduced ODR had: 1. PBIS Leaders who created a minimal set of school-wide rules. 2. PBIS leaders who believed improving school climate for staff learners improved student behaviors. 3. PBIS leaders who asserted that all school staff must be consistent with application of rules. Additionally the data reviewed were analyzed and the researcher discovered that high schools that reduce office discipline referrals (ODR) have common practices where: 1. PBIS leaders recognized positive behaviors and defined the expectations to the school. 2. PBIS leaders involved other learning community members and empowered students. 3. PBIS leaders analyzed and disaggregated data to inform their procedures. 4. PBIS leaders trained staff members and promoted school expectations. Additionally the data collected from the 12 interviews had respondents stating the single greatest obstacle that they encountered while implementing PBIS to reduce ODR which led to more implications for practice. Thus, the following lists the top obstacles that all respondents referred to in their interviews: 1. Nine interviews had respondents who listed the top obstacle as establishing consistency in both staff participation and rule application. 2. Six interviews also had respondents that listed finding time to implement PBIS strategies and interventions was their greatest obstacle. 3. One interview had a respondent who also stated finding funding was his main obstacle. Providing these data enabled high schools interested in implementing PBIS to be aware of these obstacles so those schools may avoid the pitfalls encountered as high schools employed PBIS frameworks to reduce ODR. However, all twelve interviews were noted with success stories that respondents felt were directly related to their reduction of ODR. 1. Six interviews had respondents that reported enhanced relationships between students, teachers, and administrators (within the school). 2. Seven interviews had participants that described how student successes enhanced school pride and school promotion. 3. Three interviews had respondents that discussed the improved relationships with community partners and parents. / Ed. D.

The practice of double-loaded corridors and circulation cores only serves to segregate spaces and develops no relationship between one space and another. In a contemporary society based on human interactions, should the conduit for delivering human-to-human connections be confined simply to notions of “horizontal circulation” and “vertical circulation”? Do we deserve better? This thesis proposes that a measure of continuity can unify disparate spaces. This continuous architecture can join these spaces in series resulting in an instant and direct relationship of one space to another. Continuity can facilitate not only the interaction of spaces but also the interaction between occupants. / Master of Architecture

There appears to be little difference in student accomplishment on the operations of the different machines regardless of the number of hours of training. There was no significant increase in the number of correct problems from the lâ 5 hour training period to the 16-20 hour training period on many of the machine operations. / Master of Science

Framing analyses have been among the most popular areas of research for scholars in political communication. Similarly, minimum wage legislation has been a popular topic for researchers in labor economics. However, few studies have used framing analysis to investigate the issue of minimum wage. This exploratory quantitative content analysis coded 45 variables in 236 lengthy press documents spanning 84 years of Democratic presidential administrations. More specifically, this study explored presence of generic frames, stakeholders, and ideological identities employed by Democratic presidential administrations since 1933. Results found that Democratic presidential administrations have been generally consistent in framing minimum wage policy. However, ideological discrepancies in Democratic presidents' actual framing practice were detected: a deepening pro-fairness attitude in specific frames and a growing pro-business empathy in stakeholder presence. The study concluded that framing minimum wage policy has become increasingly expressive: partisan identities transcend ideological positions. Democratic administrations generally maintain a single approach when highlighting minimum wage increase and endorse the Fair Labor Standards Act, albeit using different and even conflicting framing practices over time. To sustain the findings, this study suggests an equivalent study on Republican presidential administrations and their framing of minimum wage policy. / Master of Arts / Framing analyses have been among the most popular areas of research for scholars in political communication. Similarly, minimum wage legislation has been a popular topic for researchers in labor economics. However, few studies have used framing analysis to investigate the issue of minimum wage. This exploratory quantitative content analysis coded 45 variables in 236 lengthy press documents spanning 84 years of Democratic presidential administrations. More specifically, this study explored presence of generic frames, stakeholders, and ideological identities employed by Democratic presidential administrations since 1933. Results found that Democratic presidential administrations have been generally consistent in framing minimum wage policy. However, ideological discrepancies in Democratic presidents’ actual framing practice were detected: a deepening pro-fairness attitude in specific frames and a growing pro-business empathy in stakeholder presence. The study concluded that framing minimum wage policy has become increasingly expressive: partisan identities transcend ideological positions. Democratic administrations generally maintain a single approach when highlighting minimum wage increase and endorse the Fair Labor Standards Act, albeit using different and even conflicting framing practices over time. To sustain the findings, this study suggests an equivalent study on Republican presidential administrations and their framing of minimum wage policy

Dear All, Eros moves. In January of 2007 I decided to do research about Eros and his presence in architecture. I decided to do a thesis about LOVE. This thesis it is a story about me, since when you love architecture you give yourself completely to it. What you see in these pages, it's me: my life, my desires, my passion for architecture, my fears, my bad moments, my good moments, my joy--all of me. Desire in architecture seemed to me at that moment something with which I didn’t know how to start working. It was so abstract that, when considered, almost anything can be a desire, and maybe it is. But this thesis is a story of how desire opened for me an infinite world of imagination and wonder--how Eros made me love the drawing, the line, the color, the wall, the shadow, the material....the architecture. I have chosen to explore desire through the designing of a post office, theatre school, and retail shops. The site is in Washington DC, in between 7th and 8th streets SE, adjacent to Eastern Market. / Master of Architecture

In this thesis, I explored approaches to convert an office building to a residential building considering social activities and new normal. Focused, productive work is likely carried out a home, at times which best suit individual lifestyles, while collaborative and socially interactive activities bring people together in a variety of spaces. We saw this leading to the need for resilient homes, homes with the adaptability to support a range of activities throughout people's days. Homes need to provide spaces for exercise, entertainment, digital collaboration, connection, and focus (without becoming isolated), alongside the traditional activities of eating, sleeping, and washing. / Master of Architecture / Architecture finds new meaning or loses the old ones, depending on what is happening in the world and how human lives changing. Since pandemic hit in 2020, life has been abnormal in most aspects. Quarantine, remote working, and online activities are some of the new normal that inevitably became a part of human lifestyle. Even after the quarantine, the Internet-based communications is continued, and many office buildings left vacant while the need of more spaces for different activities felt in the residential buildings. Converting office buildings into housing is new 'normal' in this post pandemic era.

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