This dissertation work considers communication between people. I look at coordinating dyads (couples in relationships) and people in working relationships to develop an understanding of how people engage in high-stakes, or emotional communication via various communicative media. The approach for this research is to observe and measure people's behavior during interaction and subsequent reporting of that behavior and associated internal experiences. Qualitative and quantitative methods are employed. Quantitative data are analyzed using a range of statistical analyses, including correlations matrices, ANOVAs, and multivariate statistics. Two controlled laboratory experiments were conducted for this research. These experiments involved couples in relationships. Couples were brought into the lab and argued with each other across one of three technological media: face-to-face, telephone, and instant messaging (IM). In one set of couples' experiments, the couples argued for twenty minutes; in the subsequent couples' experiment, couples were encouraged to take as much time as they needed for their arguments. One of the main results from the first experiment is that couples did, indeed, argue when brought into a laboratory setting. One of the important findings for the second experiment is that time did not affect couples' tendency to reach closure during their arguments. This research is a contribution in that it examines how people engage in highly emotional communication using various technological media. In a society with ever-increasing communication needs that require technology, it becomes necessary to study its communicative affordances. Understanding the context of highly emotional interactions between members of couples gives insight into how technology meets (or fails to meet) these communication needs. / Ph. D.

In order to illustrate, I begin this report with an account of some of my experiences as a bilingual teacher, instructing curriculum designed to elicit student reflections their language ideologies and engaging praxis. The data includes student responses to a writing prompt and interview which elicited their language ideologies. Some of the student comments were striking due to their recognition of the higher status of English. The student-collected data aided me in evaluating my curriculum and instruction and inform my future practice. My report ends with a proposal to investigate these issues more deeply by conducting a study on student language ideologies. / text

The present study investigated teacher motivation in a high-stakes accountability context. Specifically, this study examines elementary teachers' achievement goal orientations, self-efficacy for teaching, and perceptions of help-seeking in the context of high-stakes testing and school accountability under No Child Left Behind and an Elementary and Secondary Education Act waiver. Butler's (2007) teacher achievement goal orientation framework provided the theoretical basis of the present study; high-stakes tests and school accountability status were thought to impact teachers’ achievement goal orientations. Additionally, teachers' achievement goal orientations were thought to impact teaching self-efficacy and perceptions of help-seeking. The sample included 381 elementary school teachers. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and hierarchical multiple regression were used to examine the relationships between and among high-stakes testing and issues teachers perceive to be related to these tests, stress related to high-stakes tests, school accountability status, teachers’ achievement goal orientations, teaching self-efficacy, and perceptions of teacher help-seeking. Results suggest that, for this sample, dimensions of teachers’ achievement goal orientations differ from the dimensions characterized by Butler and colleagues (Butler, 2007; Butler & Shibaz, 2008; Nitsche et al., 2010; Cho & Shim, 2013; Shim et al., 2013). Specifically, teachers in this sample exhibited mastery and work-avoidance goals, as characterized by Butler (2007), but not performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals. Teachers here distinguished between personal performance orientation, or motivation driven by external factors (e.g., recognition from administrators) and using others as the referent to which they compared their own performance (e.g., colleagues). Additionally, class performance orientation emerged as a distinct dimension of teachers’ achievement goal orientations for this sample. Those who espoused this orientation sought for their classes to compare favorably with other classes and were motivated by external factors, such as their class scoring high on state-wide tests. Teacher achievement goal orientations were related to high-stakes testing, but school issues related to high-stakes testing and stress associated with these tests were more salient predictors of teachers’ achievement goal orientations than whether teachers taught in testing grades or not. Finally, teachers’ achievement goal orientations were significant predictors of self-efficacy for teaching and teachers’ perceptions of their own help-seeking.

A fundação profunda tem como objetivo realizar a transferência das cargas provenientes da superestrutura ao solo, ou seja, deve-se considerar sempre a interação fundação-solo, para estimativa da capacidade de carga de suporte da estrutura. Segundo Avelino (2006) com o surgimento dos ensaios de carregamento dinâmico, o controle do estaqueamento de fundações profundas desenvolveu-se significativamente nos últimos vinte anos devido à facilidade na execução desses ensaios e seu relativo baixo custo. No Brasil, há um predomínio praticamente absoluto dos métodos CASE e CAPWAP. O trabalho tem por objetivo analisar o método semi-empírico que preveja com maior confiabilidade a capacidade de carga de estacas pré-fabricadas cravadas em região de solo mole. Para atingir este objetivo serão analisadas estacas de concreto protendido com seção transversal quadrada 230mmx230mm, utilizadas como fundação de habitações populares em uma obra promovida pela Companhia de Desenvolvimento Habitacional e Urbano do Estado de São Paulo (CDHU), na cidade de Cubatão, São Paulo. Neste trabalho serão apresentados os resultados de capacidade de carga das estacas determinados através da aplicação de alguns métodos consagrados, como o Decourt-Quaresma (1978) e Aoki-Velloso (1975), que utilizam resultados de sondagens a percussão de simples reconhecimento. Estes valores de capacidade de carga serão comparados aos obtidos através de uma série de ensaios de carregamento dinâmico tendo como foco a capacidade de carga da estaca, através das analises CAPWAP. Estes ensaios são localizados próximos aos respectivos furos de sondagens cujos resultados foram utilizados para previsão da capacidade de carga. / A deep foundation is a structural element that aims to conduct the transfer of loads from the superstructure to the ground, ie, one should always consider the foundation-soil interaction to predict the load capacity of the frame support. According to Avelino (2006) with the emergence of dynamic loading tests, the control staking of deep foundations has developed significantly over the last twenty years due to the ease in performing those tests and their relative low cost. In Brazil, there is an almost absolute predominance of CASE and CAPWAP methods. The work aims to compare the values of load capacity predicted by semi-empirical methods of prefabricated concrete piles driven in to the soft soil with the values obtained through dynamic load tests. For this, pre-stressed concrete piles were analyzed with square cross section 230mmx230mm, used as popular housing foundation in a project promoted by the Company of Housing and Urban Development of the State of São Paulo (CDHU) in the city of Cubatão, São Paulo. The semi-empiric methods used follow the Decourt and Quaresma (1978), Aoki and Velloso (1975), methods, using results of standard penetration test (SPT). These load capacity values will be compared to those obtained through a series of dynamic loading test focusing on the load capacity obtained through the CAPWAP analysis.

A fundação profunda tem como objetivo realizar a transferência das cargas provenientes da superestrutura ao solo, ou seja, deve-se considerar sempre a interação fundação-solo, para estimativa da capacidade de carga de suporte da estrutura. Segundo Avelino (2006) com o surgimento dos ensaios de carregamento dinâmico, o controle do estaqueamento de fundações profundas desenvolveu-se significativamente nos últimos vinte anos devido à facilidade na execução desses ensaios e seu relativo baixo custo. No Brasil, há um predomínio praticamente absoluto dos métodos CASE e CAPWAP. O trabalho tem por objetivo analisar o método semi-empírico que preveja com maior confiabilidade a capacidade de carga de estacas pré-fabricadas cravadas em região de solo mole. Para atingir este objetivo serão analisadas estacas de concreto protendido com seção transversal quadrada 230mmx230mm, utilizadas como fundação de habitações populares em uma obra promovida pela Companhia de Desenvolvimento Habitacional e Urbano do Estado de São Paulo (CDHU), na cidade de Cubatão, São Paulo. Neste trabalho serão apresentados os resultados de capacidade de carga das estacas determinados através da aplicação de alguns métodos consagrados, como o Decourt-Quaresma (1978) e Aoki-Velloso (1975), que utilizam resultados de sondagens a percussão de simples reconhecimento. Estes valores de capacidade de carga serão comparados aos obtidos através de uma série de ensaios de carregamento dinâmico tendo como foco a capacidade de carga da estaca, através das analises CAPWAP. Estes ensaios são localizados próximos aos respectivos furos de sondagens cujos resultados foram utilizados para previsão da capacidade de carga. / A deep foundation is a structural element that aims to conduct the transfer of loads from the superstructure to the ground, ie, one should always consider the foundation-soil interaction to predict the load capacity of the frame support. According to Avelino (2006) with the emergence of dynamic loading tests, the control staking of deep foundations has developed significantly over the last twenty years due to the ease in performing those tests and their relative low cost. In Brazil, there is an almost absolute predominance of CASE and CAPWAP methods. The work aims to compare the values of load capacity predicted by semi-empirical methods of prefabricated concrete piles driven in to the soft soil with the values obtained through dynamic load tests. For this, pre-stressed concrete piles were analyzed with square cross section 230mmx230mm, used as popular housing foundation in a project promoted by the Company of Housing and Urban Development of the State of São Paulo (CDHU) in the city of Cubatão, São Paulo. The semi-empiric methods used follow the Decourt and Quaresma (1978), Aoki and Velloso (1975), methods, using results of standard penetration test (SPT). These load capacity values will be compared to those obtained through a series of dynamic loading test focusing on the load capacity obtained through the CAPWAP analysis.

An increasing number of parents are opting-out their children from high-stakes. Accountability systems in education have used students' test scores to measure student learning, teacher effectiveness, and school district performance. Students who are opted-out of high-stakes tests are not being evaluated by the state tests, making their level of achievement or proficiency unknown by the state government. The purpose of this basic interpretive qualitative study was to gain an understanding of the various reasons, factors, experiences, and personal events that led parents to opt-out their children from at least one 3rd through 8th grade high-stakes test. Data were collected using a researcher-designed semi-structured interview protocol developed using ecological approaches to systems theories and critical pedagogy theories. The study was set in New York and 10 participants were interviewed, all from different rural or small suburban school districts throughout the state. Five themes and 12 subthemes emerged from first and second cycle coding. Key findings indicated that parents decided to opt-out their children from high-stakes tests because they felt high-stakes were inappropriate and unfair. Further, parents were dissatisfied with current high-stakes testing practices. Previous 3rd through 8th grade testing procedures that allowed teachers to make and grade the state tests were seen as acceptable. Parents indicated no issue with testing. However, from a social change perspective they felt the current system of high stakes testing was used improperly to rate students, teachers, programs, and school districts, and that testing should be used to drive instruction and help struggling students. This study is beneficial for school personnel and policy makers because it provides different ways to assess student achievement.

The ability to read is highly valued in American society and important for social and economic advancement. One of the best strategies to prevent reading difficulties is to build basic literacy skills, thereby ensuring that all children are readers early in their educational careers. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between third-grade students' oral reading rate and scores on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. The present study examined the relationship between the independent variables of Curriculum-Based Measurement Reading (R-CBM), ethnicity and socioeconomic status and the dependent variable of performance on the reading portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) in 215 third-grade students. The data presented in this study were collected by the Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR) as part of a larger assessment battery across three school districts and nine elementary schools in Florida. Student demographic variables as well as performance on three different types of oral reading probes (generic, content, and FCAT passages) were investigated in relation to each student's performance on the reading portion of the FCAT. Results of the current study were similar to investigations in other states; the correlations among the R-CBM probes and between all R-CBM probes and FCAT scores were high and statistically significant. These results indicate that student performance on any or all R-CBM probe types can be used to predict FCAT score. Ethnicity and SES were not significant predictors of FCAT score above R-CBM score. Implications for educators and specifically school psychologists are discussed including opportunities for school psychologists to train educational personnel in the use of R-CBM. As evidenced by the current study, R-CBM may help identify students who are at-risk for reading failure and FCAT failure so that intensive interventions can be implemented early and student progress frequently monitored.

Le petit bassin minier de Ronchamp Champagney, situé dans les Vosges saônoises à environ soixante-dix kilomètres au Sud de Mulhouse, a été exploité de 1750 à 1958. Ce mémoire retrace l’histoire de l’exploitation charbonnière de 1812 à 1867, période de basculement technique au moment de la première révolution industrielle. Le mode d’extraction change de technologie et d’échelle pour stabiliser à la fois ses structures techniques et son espace d’exploitation. L’analyse prend le parti d’un double regard celui des enjeux de fond et des contraintes de surface, appréhendés principalement à partir des procès-verbaux des délibérations des conseils d’administration et des assemblées générales. Cette histoire reste liée à la vision entrepreneuriale de quelques notables locaux et à la persistance de relations familiales et personnelles. Ignorée par une métallurgie comtoise agonisante, paradoxalement la concession houillère contribue fortement au processus d’industrialisation alsacien, fournissant du charbon aux chaudières des machines à vapeur. L’histoire du bassin minier de Ronchamp, bien qu’enclavé dans son territoire, atteste néanmoins la réalité d’une modernité technique, et la quête permanente d’une rationalité productive. / The small-sized coal field of Ronchamp Champagney, in the Saône Vosges, about 44 miles south of Mulhouse was exploited from 1750 until 1958. This dissertation recounts the history of coal mining there from 1812 until 1867, a period of deep technical changes during the first industrial revolution. The technology and scale of coal extraction changed, which stabilized both its technical structures and its exploitation area. The focus of this analysis is twofold: first the stakes down the pit, second the constraints at the pithead, as they can both be perceived through the minutes of board and general meetings mainly. This history is linked to the entrepreneurial visions of a few local notables as well as to enduring family or personal ties. Ignored by the decaying steel industry of Franche-Comté, the coal concession contributed to the industrialization process in Alsace by feeding the boilers of steam engines with coal. The history of the coal field of Ronchamp – a landlocked territory - testifies to a real technical modernity and a constant search for productive rationality.

ABSTRACT SCHOOL SIZE, SCHOOL POVERTY AND SCHOOL-LEVEL MOBILITY: INTERACTIVE THREATS TO SCHOOL OUTCOMES by Sharon M. Thompson School-level mobility is the flow of students moving in and out of schools and has been defined as the rate of student entries and withdrawals per 100 students enrolled in a school during the year (Pike & Weisbender, 1988). Stakeholders report that school mobility disrupts the delivery, pace and effectiveness of classroom instruction, causes problems associated with classroom adjustment, and renders long-term negative effects on schools’ Adequate Yearly Progress rankings (Bruno & Isken, 1996; GAO, 2007; Kerbow, 1996; Lash & Kirkpatrick, 1990; Rhodes, 2005; Sanderson, 2003). Despite these findings very few studies have been conducted to determine the effects of mobility (particularly at the school level) and how it combines with other school-level factors such as school size and school poverty to create threats to positive school outcomes. Of the few relevant studies (e.g., Bourque, 2009; Rhodes, 2007), little attention has been given to understanding mobility’s relationships to achievement in the context of size of student enrollment, degree of poverty and longitudinal examination of achievement across multiple years. To address these gaps in the research literature, this study investigated the effects of school-level mobility on middle school reading achievement after controlling for the effects of school enrollment and poverty. Findings from regression analyses indicated significant relationships between school-level mobility and reading achievement over and beyond the relationships between school size or school-level poverty with achievement. A repeated measures procedure was used to analyze long-term effects on eighth grade reading achievement for Title I middle schools that focused on three, key variables: degree of school mobility (e.g., high versus low rate), size of student enrollment (e.g. big versus small school), test administration year(s) (e.g., 2006, 2007 and 2008) and interactions between these variables. There were significant main effects for school size, school-level mobility as well as for the year of test administration. Reading test scores rose significantly from one year to the next, big schools out-performed small schools , and highly mobile schools performed significantly lower than low mobile schools in reading achievement over a three-year period. No significant interaction effects were found. Results are discussed in terms of research and policy implications.

The purpose of this study is to explore high school students’ understandings of achievement and opportunity through their lived experiences which are constructed under a high-stakes testing environment in Korea. This study undertakes a critical analysis of high-stakes testing and its intersectional effects in terms of structure and culture, attending to students’ everyday experiences in testing practices as these are embedded in certain discourses. Recent scholarship reveals that high-stakes testing reinforces a correspondence between socioeconomic status and educational attainment under the neoliberal educational policies of school choice, privatization, and high-stakes testing. In the analysis of educational policies such as the accountability movement, some studies contend that the political and economic discourses underpinning high-stakes testing are effectively hidden behind educational practices ostensibly aimed at raising standards. To date, however, there has been little attention to how students internalize the logic of neoliberal competition and how they experience educational achievement and opportunity structure within a high-stakes testing environment. Drawing on in-depth interviews of high school students from varying economic and academic backgrounds, this study found that students’ experiences of the high-stakes testing environment are influenced by their social class and achievement levels. High-stakes testing does not contribute to reducing achievement gaps between classes but rather reinforces educational alienation as well as opportunity gaps. Furthermore, high-stakes testing, as a cultural practice which affects students’ daily lives and their experience of curriculum and instruction, contributes to the ideological construction of students’ understandings of achievement and opportunity structure. While students experience structural constraints in achievement, they believe in testing as being a fair and equal opportunity. Concealing students’ struggles within structural barriers as well as their contradictory experiences in relation to ideologies of achievement and success, high-stakes testing becomes the medium through which students’ social desires are reproduced. An intersectional analysis in terms of culture and structure of students’ experiences in relation to high-stakes testing can help us to understand how the achievement ideology responds to students’ aspirations and also how those aspirations help this ideology persist. This study urges educational policies to focus on opportunity gaps and to look at contradictions and struggles that students experience in high-stakes testing. / text