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.

Microwave dielectric resonators (DRs) are being widely used in microwave telecommunication devices owing to their excellent characteristics of suitable dielectric constant, good temperature stability, and low dielectric loss. In this study, the crystalline phase and the microwave dielectric properties of the (1-x)Al2O3 - xTiO2 (x=0.08, 0.12, 0.16) compositions with 2wt%, 4wt%, 6wt%, and 8wt% MgO-CaO-Al2O3-SiO2 (MCAS) glass addition have been investigated. By combining the material Al2O3 with negative temperature coefficient of the resonant frequency (£nf = -55 ppm/¢J) and the material TiO2 with positive £nf value (£nf = +450 ppm/¢J), it is desired to produce the ceramics with £nf ~0 ppm/¢J. The MCAS is used as liquid-phase sintering aid to lower down the sintering temperature. In the MCAS-doped (1-x)Al2O3 - xTiO2 system, the Al2TiO5 phase starts to appear at about 1250¢J, and then the crystalline intensity of Al2TiO5 phase increases with the increase of sintering temperatures and MCAS glass content, until the temperatures that TiO2 is consumed. As the sintering temperature increases, the maximum dielectric constants and Q¡Ñf values can be obtained at 1250¢J, and the £nf values shift from positive to negative. The optimum £nf value of ¡V0.6 ppm/¢J exists in the 88mol%Al2O3 - 12mol%TiO2 composition with 2wt% MCAS addition and sintering temperature of 1300¢J. The MCAS content, TiO2 content, and sintering temperature will result in the variation of microwave dielectric properties. In this study, MCAS-doped (1-x)Al2O3 - xTiO2 system exhibits the microwave dielectric properties of¡G £`r=7~9.5, Q¡Ñf=6500~11000, and £nf = -60 to +40ppm/¢J. By adjusting the MCAS content, TiO2 content, and sintering temperatures, ceramics with good microwave properties can be obtained in the MCAS-doped (1-x)Al2O3 - xTiO2 system.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of self-efficacy for Enlisting Social Resources, Self-Regulatory Efficacy, self-efficacy for Self-Regulated Learning, and self-efficacy for Academic Achievement (Bandura's Children's Self-Efficacy Scale, 2006) of urban public school students to performance on the high stakes Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) math test. A survey questionnaire was administered to eighty three participants and the data, analyzed using linear regression, conformed to the assumptions of Independence, Linearity, Normality, and Homoscedasticity. Self-Regulatory Efficacy, Academic Achievement, and Socio-economic Status were statistically significant bivariate predictors of performance on MCAS math test. Self-Regulatory Efficacy was the only consistent statistically significant predictor of MCAS math performance. Gender interaction with Self-Regulatory Efficacy was statistically significant in isolation but was not when other variables were accounted for.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / The purpose of this study was to determine the relative contribution to the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) English Language Arts (ELA) of five variables: Type of Community (Urban or Suburban), Gender, Race, Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT) Verbal, and PSAT Writing. MCAS is a criterion-referenced examination administered to students at various grade levels to determine their knowledge of approved curriculum. As of 2003, students must pass the mathematics and English language arts sections in order to receive a diploma. Data for the study was gathered from three urban and four suburban school districts in Massachusetts. Data about 914 students was collected from Summer 2001 - Winter 2002. Multiple regression statistical analysis was used to examine the collective and separate contributions of five independent variables; gender, race, type of community (urban or suburban), score on the verbal subtest of the PSAT, and score on the writing subtest to the findings on the dependent variab le - tenth grade language arts achievement on the MCAS. Results of the statistical analyses showed a strong relationship between MCASELA and the five independent variables, with most of the relationship attributable to the PSAT Verbal test results. Three other variables combined - PSAT Writing, Type of Community, and Gender - accounted for just 4% of the additional variance. Step-wise multiple regression analysis indicated that exclusion of Race did not diminish predictiveness, and Gender added very little to predictiveness. PSAT Verbal, PSAT Writing, and Type of Community were the principal contributions to variation in MCAS-ELA in the study. The four null hypotheses and results follow: There is no significant relationship between the dependent variable - MCAS-ELA -- and the independent variables -- Type of Community, Gender, Race, PSA T Verbal, and PSAT Writing - rejected. There is no significant relationship between each independent variable and each of the other independent variables - rejected. There is no significant relationship between the dependent variable and the other variables taken together - rejected. There is no significant additional vanance m MCAS - ELA accou nted for by an independent variable after other variable (s) - responsible for greater contributions to variance - (have) accounted for as much of the variance as possible - accepted. / 2031-01-01

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