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Empowering Educators to Implement Florida's Resiliency Standards: From Social Emotional Learning to Resiliency at St. Lucie Public Schools
No full textLeadership and Learning in Organizations capstone projectSt. Lucie Public Schools (SLPS), located in one of Florida’s fastest-growing metro areas, serves a diverse population of over 49,000 students across forty-one schools. The district quickly acted to meet Florida’s mandate to replace Social Emotional Learning with resiliency standards. The challenge to immediately implement the new resiliency standards instruction and provide effective professional development (PD) and on-site support for teachers, amid rapid growth and limited state-released resources. Prior surveys revealed that only 54% of teachers viewed existing PD favorably, and student feedback indicated low confidence in emotional self-regulation.The study was guided by two primary project questions designed to explore the effectiveness of the professional development and support systems provided to SLPS K–8 teachers, as well as their perceptions and experiences in implementing the Florida resiliency standards:
Project Question 1: What is the nature and quality of the on-site support systems (e.g., materials, resources, instructional coaching) and professional development that SLPS kindergarten through eighth-grade teachers receive to effectively implement the Florida resiliency standards?
Project Question 2: What are SLPS K–8 teachers’ attitudes and beliefs regarding the on-site support systems and professional development they receive, in relation to their perceived needs and challenges in implementing the Florida Resiliency Standards? To address the project questions, a sequential mixed-methods approach was used, including quantitative teacher surveys, qualitative focus groups, principal interviews, and document analysis. Data triangulation ensured credibility and depth, with instruments aligned to situated learning theory, communities of practice, and resiliency theory.
Key findings included:
• Dedicated time was provided for PD and coaching, but formats, naming, and access varied.
• Resiliency PD was fragmented and often misaligned with teacher needs.
• Barriers included limited time, integration challenges, and resource gaps.
• Teachers observed positive student impacts from resiliency instruction.
• Access to coaching, resources, and student materials was inconsistent.
Recommendations are to:
• Focus PD on actionable, grade-level strategies for resiliency standards integration.
• Provide a continuous PD cycle.
• Use flexible scheduling and provide state resources.
• Share success stories and student outcomes.
• Standardize access to support and monitor for equity across schools.
These recommendations aim to strengthen SLPS’s support systems for resiliency standards implementation
Examining General Education Access for Students with Extensive Support Needs in Kindergarten Through Third Grade
No full textSpecial education researchers argue about the provision of general education access for
students with disabilities. In the United States, parents and school-based professionals
collaboratively make two important decisions that relate to general education access. These decisions deal with ensuring a child's free and appropriate public education and the child's least restrictive environment. This study aimed to gain insight into the processes used to construct individualized educational programs (IEPs) while making these decisions. Respondents included 115 special education teachers of students with extensive support needs in kindergarten through third grade, each of whom filled out an anonymous, web-based survey about themselves, the students on their caseloads, their schools-classrooms, and school practices concerning IEP meetings. Specific information was collected about the extent of conversations around four items dealing with selecting educational placements, as well as about 15 types of supplementary aids and services. Findings revealed that the common use of draft IEPs related to greater levels predetermination (i.e., placement decisions made prior to the IEP meeting itself). Greater levels of predetermined placements, in turn, were tied to educational placements that were more restrictive. Although greater use of draft IEPs did not correlate with conversations that should be happening in IEP meetings, such general education-oriented discussions were related to greater sharing of different views about educational placements, about supplementary aids and services, and about the general education curriculum. As opposed to mandating inclusive placements, this study's recommendations aim to reform problematic practices. As such, this study's findings support additional oversight mechanisms for districts, schools and teachers, as well as free special education trainings, by state or district entities, for parents and school personnel
Monitoring and Control of Quantity-Quality Dynamics for Resilient Drinking Water Networks
No full textThe operation of drinking water distribution networks (WDNs) involves complex processes aimed at delivering sufficient water quantity while preserving its safety. These processes are governed by hydraulics and water quality (WQ), with hydraulics focusing on maintaining adequate pressure for efficient delivery and supply, and WQ ensuring compliance with safety standards. The objective of this dissertation is to address the challenges inherent in managing hydraulics and WQ within WDNs through a holistic monitoring and feedback control framework. This framework is based on: (i) advanced WQ modeling of the system's disinfectant (i.e., chlorine), incorporating nonlinear multi-species dynamics for a more realistic representation of real-world scenarios, including contamination events; (ii) acknowledging the dependency between the hydraulic and WQ dynamics and analyzing its influence on system performance, and using these insights to guide; (iii) the development of a joint control approach with the objective of obtaining optimal hydraulic settings while attaining an adequate level of chlorine control coverage across the system; and (iv) control-oriented strategic placement of actuators and sensors to maximize the performance of the monitoring and control computational algorithms while ensuring responsiveness and adaptability to dynamic conditions. This framework bridges significant research gaps in the literature, which often rely on oversimplified single-species WQ models, treat hydraulic optimization and WQ regulation as independent problems, or couple these problems without performance guarantees, leading to trade-offs between objectives. Additionally, traditional methods for determining actuator and sensor placements often prioritize specific objectives, such as cost minimization or simplified design, without considering their influence on the system's controllability, observability, and overall operational efficiency. The presented computational algorithms are validated through different case studies, demonstrating their operational effectiveness, practicality, scalability, and contribution to enhancing the resilience of WDNs in the face of dynamic and uncertain challenges
"We're not just fighting for something that's outside of us; we're fighting for something that's inside of us:" A decolonial examination of queer youth's sources of resilience in Madagascar confronting cultural stigma
No full textThis thesis explores the intersection of queerness, colonial legacy, and resilience in Madagascar. Through the lens of decolonial theory, Soloharison investigates how queer Malagasy youth navigate environments shaped by both colonial impositions and indigenous cultural possibilities. Rather than viewing resilience as an individual trait, the research reveals it as knowledge-generating resistance—sophisticated practices developed collectively through shared experiences of navigating hostile environments.
The study uniquely conceptualizes cultural stigma as a form of collective emotional abuse perpetrated simultaneously through multiple societal channels, creating an inescapable environment of invalidation. By relocating the deficit from marginalized individuals to oppressive systems, Soloharison challenges conventional intervention approaches that focus on individual adaptation rather than structural change.
Through community-based participatory research methods, the thesis documents how queer Malagasy youth actively transform colonial disruption into cultural regeneration, moving beyond mere survival to active creation of new cultural possibilities. This work represents one of the first academic studies centered on queer Malagasy voices, filling a significant gap in literature that has historically excluded these perspectives from both Western queer theory and Malagasy cultural studies.This study examines the sources of resilience among queer youth in Madagascar as they navigate cultural stigma rooted in colonial impositions. Utilizing a decolonial framework, this research challenges Western conceptualizations of resilience by recognizing how colonial legacies have disrupted indigenous understandings of gender and sexuality in Madagascar. Through semi-structured interviews with six queer Malagasy youth (ages 18-30), this community-based participatory research illuminates how cultural stigma functions as a form of collective emotional abuse while revealing sophisticated knowledge systems youth develop to maintain authenticity and wellbeing.
Findings reveal four key dimensions of resilience: strategic navigation between visibility and concealment across social contexts; reclamation of pre-colonial cultural acceptance as psychological protection against stigma; cultivation of chosen family and community despite limited options; and creative expression as emotional processing. Participants demonstrated remarkable agency in transforming colonial disruption into cultural regeneration, moving beyond mere coping to active creation of new cultural possibilities.
The research reframes cultural stigma as collective emotional abuse perpetrated through multiple sources simultaneously—family members, religious institutions, healthcare providers, and strangers—creating an inescapable environment of invalidation. This perspective relocates the deficit from marginalized individuals to oppressive systems, suggesting interventions should target colonial knowledge systems rather than helping youth "adjust" to oppression.
Significantly, participants expressed a profound longing for intergenerational connection with queer elders, highlighting how colonial disruptions severed traditional knowledge transmission about gender diversity. This study contributes to filling critical gaps in academic literature by centering Malagasy voices in conversations about queerness that have historically excluded them, challenging both colonial legacies and Western assumptions about gender and sexuality while documenting the extraordinary resilience of queer Malagasy youth who aren't merely surviving colonial legacies but actively creating new possibilities for authentic existence.Advisor: Andrew Nalan
UI Design and Repetition in Social Media on Users’ Perception of Truth
No full textPSY 4998 Honors Thesis, Faculty Mentor: Lisa Fazio.In the digital age, misinformation spreads rapidly, often fueled by psychological biases and platform design. This study investigates the influence of social media user interface (UI) design, specifically source credibility labels, and repeated exposure on users' perception of truth. The research explores how these factors contribute to the spread of misinformation. Results indicate that credibility labels and repetition significantly affect perceived truthfulness. Specifically, posts with credible labels were rated as more truthful than those with non-credible labels. Moreover, repeated exposure increased perceived truthfulness, consistent with the Illusory Truth Effect (Fazio et al., 2019). These findings highlight the potential for UI design and repetition to shape beliefs, with implications for addressing misinformation in social media, politics, and education.Thesis completed in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Honors Program in Psychological Science
Informatics Resources for Social Determinants of Health in School-based Health Centers
No full textThis doctoral research focuses on how school-based health providers collect and use data related to social determinants of health, particularly in the context of asthma management. School-based health centers are crucial for delivering health services to children, yet there is a gap in consistent social risk data collection and use. The goal of the research was to understand school-based health providers' information-gathering behaviors and develop a user-centered informatics resource to help with social risk factor screening and assessment. This dissertation provides insights on how providers assess for and address social determinants of health in relation to asthma exacerbations in schools. The research identifies key challenges and gaps in using social determinants of health and social risk data, emphasizing the need for more comprehensive and accessible data at the point of care. A key finding from the research is the positive feedback on an informatics resource designed to help providers manage and interpret social determinants of health data. Participants expressed a need for clear, actionable data, such as GIS-based visualizations and connections to community resources. Further testing of this resource will engage diverse groups of stakeholders, including school nurses and social workers, and evaluate its usefulness in different settings and geographic areas. This dissertation contributes to nursing science by highlighting the need for comprehensive approaches to address social needs with the goal of improving quality of life for children with asthma. By integrating social risk factors into clinical workflows and promoting shared decision-making, the research aims to contribute to the research and policy to reduce health disparities and improve patient health and educational outcomes
The First 100 Days: Trajectory of Relational Memory Ability After Traumatic Brain Injury
No full textAt least 2.5 million people acquire a traumatic brain injury (TBI) every year; the incidence is plausibly higher, considering not everyone seeks medical attention. The impairment in relational (declarative) memory that often accompanies TBI can greatly impact recovery and future functioning. These deficits in memory can be a barrier to rehabilitative success (i.e., may impede learning of compensatory strategies and medication management). Traditional assessments, both formal and informal, of relational (declarative) memory are possibly impacted by other disrupted functions after TBI due to reduced sensitivity. These measures are used to make clinical decisions during the immediate acute stage of injury that have long-term effects on functional outcomes. The acute phase (i.e., first 100 days) after a TBI is a time of rapid change, and ability in this period is used to predict long-term cognitive functioning. However, little is known about how memory changes over this period in the TBI population. A longitudinal study was undertaken measuring relational (declarative) memory to examine how it changes over time during the acute stage of TBI. This measurement was approached using a promising research tool, a spatial reconstruction (SR) task. It was first necessary to establish the feasibility of using an SR Task with the acute TBI population soon after injury. It was demonstrated that the SR Task was feasible in an acute setting, could be administered remotely for patients with TBI who were quickly discharged to another setting, and was sensitive to the presence of relational memory impairment between individuals with and without TBI (acute and chronic). Further usage of the SR Task over time revealed initial evidence of general group improvement in SR Task accuracy. Within the general group trajectory, there were individual participants who seemed to demonstrate degradation or stable relational memory ability. This is suggestive of the distinct subgroups observed in chronic TBI trajectory over time may be present early after injury. This work supports continued evaluation of changes in memory during the acute phase of injury to better inform clinical recommendations for individuals with TBI both in the acute and chronic phases of injury
Automated Analytical Investigations of Quantum Emission in Hexagonal Boron Nitride
No full textThe next generation of computer security will depend on new levels of quantum mechanical in- teractions. These interactions can be made to occur on demand in such ways that their resultant properties are indeterminable without direct observation, and protocols for such transactions do not necessarily need to be Turing complete. This enables quantum emitters to rapidly meet these growing demands. One important distinction in quantum emitters over conventional light sources is their in- distinguishable and pure emission from one reliable atomic interaction. Recently, room-temperature single-photon emission has been demonstrated in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN). While its emis- sion is still poorly understood, it’s room-temperature appeal would significantly lower operating costs compared to leading competitors like quantum dots, which must be cooled to liquid nitrogen temperatures or below to operate reliably. Any engineering efforts to improve emission efficiency and purity in hBN require a more informed understanding of the available excitation and relax- ation mechanisms involved in and around optical transitions. These understandings are gained from multiple characterization techniques to probe the underlying energy structure, and are especially important in building analytical models for and designing 2D and other lower-dimensional proto- types. This thesis investigates an automated mechanism to quantify and correlate measurements in hBN that reveal its single-photon emission. Specifically, bulk photoluminescence measurements are used to screen candidates for potential quantum emission, which can be further investigated with Hanbury–Brown Twiss interferometry to validate their single-photon nature. The tools and analysis used in this investigation translate well to other material investigations
Fractionating the Neural Circuits of Human Attention
No full textAttention can be goal-directed (willfully allocated), or stimulus-driven (captured by salient events). These two forms of attention are supported by at least partially distinct neural networks, and further, they can be fractionated into subprocesses. Specifically, for stimulus-driven attention, we sought to dissociate the neural substrates associated with dynamic attentional (orienting and reorienting), static attentional (maintenance), and evaluative processes. Here, we present preliminary results from a high-field fMRI study utilizing an extended-oddball paradigm to fractionate these processes using eye gaze as a proxy for the focus of attention. Salient, distracting, task-irrelevant videos appear in the visual periphery while participants perform a tedious discrimination task. Our results confirm the role of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and anterior insula (AI) in contextual updating during the orientation of attention. Further, instead of the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) playing a primary role in the orienting of attention, this area was primarily active during the evaluation of the oddball stimuli. Finally, we observed an intriguing dissociation between orienting and reorienting, with the former engaging more medial parietal cortex when compared to the latter. The present results provide a mechanistic blueprint of the neural network subserving stimulus-driven attention
The Bloodless Diaspora: Queering Genealogy to Resist Assimilation into Whiteness in Twenty-First Century Media
No full textMy project proposes a new way of interpreting the natures of diaspora and belonging in early twenty-first century literature, film, and other media in North America. The literature of migrants and their North American-born descendants often traffics in tropes of cultural identity, biological inheritance of communal membership, and establishing binaries between “old world” and “new world” that their characters seek to recreate. Ultimately these authors and their disaffected descendants become estranged from their homeland and acculturate and assimilate more rapidly into white North American normativities. My paper introduces the concept of the bloodless diaspora to combat systematic assimilation into social and political whiteness. I use queer genealogical practices to suggest that one’s sense of belonging to a diasporic community can be forged not just through a birthed inheritance, but by creating intimate links with diasporic figures past, present, and future and forming a chosen family or chosen ancestry. I look at literature and film from three different diasporas, Arab-North American, Ashkenazi Jewish-North American, and Chinese-North American, to illustrate diaspora as a shared, active literary and communal practice, rather than a condition into which you are born. Ultimately, the bloodless diaspora resists the ever-present gaze or normative, North American whiteness and uses speculative storytelling to craft a potent imagined community