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Does Process Data Add Value to the Analysis of International Large-Scale Assessment Data?:
No full textThesis advisor: Matthias von DavierThe transition of major international large-scale assessments (ILSAs) from paper- to computer-based assessments has made process data increasingly available. While process data is potentially valuable for analyzing students’ test-taking behaviors, it also raises ethical concerns and involves considerable costs. This prompts the question: “Does process data add value to the analysis of ILSA data?” In response, this dissertation explores the utility of process data through three studies. Study 1 proposes a multiple-group hierarchical speed-accuracy-revisits model to examine the gender differences in mathematics ability, response speed, revisit propensity, and the relationships among them. The model’s flexibility allows it to be applied in diverse contexts to investigate group differences in test-taking behaviors and achievement beyond gender.
Study 2 addresses the overparameterization challenge in ILSA scaling by proposing a new approach: adding process variables to the usual contextual variables and replacing principal component analysis with variable selection for latent regression modeling. The findings show that process variables consistently improved measurement precision; using Lasso, random forests, and ultimately gradient boosting for variable selection achieved or surpassed the measurement precision of the conventional approach but with considerably fewer covariates. Integrating variable selection and process data yielded the highest measurement precision while achieving parsimony, demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Study 3 investigates students’ test-taking behaviors in the context of girls consistently outperforming boys on average across countries and assessments. Three types of test-taking behaviors were identified through latent class analysis: “Rapid”, “Challenged”, and “Engaged”. Using Bolck-Croon-Hagenaars and three-step methods reveals that girls in the “Rapid” class outperformed boys on average in all countries, while there were no significant gender differences in the “Engaged” class in three of the four countries. The gender gap in reading achievement may diminish to a mild to moderate extent if boys were to behave like girls, highlighting the importance of addressing disengagement issues in ILSAs.
Collectively, these three papers advance the use of process data and demonstrate its value for analyzing and reporting results of ILSA data.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Education
Health Care Access and Service Utilization among Immigrants in California: Assessing the Influence of Status, Racialization, & Policy Reform
No full textThesis advisor: Thomas M. CreaThe United States is home to over 44 million immigrants, giving it the largest foreign-born population in the world, a number which is projected to roughly double by 2065. Among foreign-born individuals, significant disparities have been uncovered in health care utilization compared to their U.S.-born peers. A growing body of research has recognized the need to assess the institutional and systemic barriers to health care access contributing to this disparity, and how those barriers may be effectively mitigated. My investigation of this topic was based in California and consisted of two analytic components. The first was a quantitative assessment of barriers to health care access and how those barriers were uniquely experienced by subgroups of participants. Utilizing data from the 2015-2019 California Health Interview Survey data collection cycles, latent class analysis was used to investigate unique patterns of barrier endorsement based on participant immigration status, race or ethnicity, and the interaction between the two. Three distinct classes were identified with a low-, moderate-, and high-risk of endorsing multiple barriers to health care access. The hypotheses that legal status, race or ethnicity, and the interaction between the two were partially supported. The second component of this study was a critical policy analysis of California’s SB 54, a package of legislation which aimed to foster trust in public institutions and increase use of health care by limiting the ability of local law enforcement to act on behalf of federal immigration authorities. This analysis determined that county-level implementation was inconsistent, and those differences were associated with mixed success in decreasing immigration contact and increasing service utilization. These findings are leveraged to identify policy and programmatic recommendations that may improve delivery and facilitate increased ability to safely seek high-quality care for medically underserved populations.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Social Work.Discipline: Social Work
Development of Methods for the Synthesis of Boron-Containing Cyclic Structures:
No full textThesis advisor: James P. MorkenThesis advisor: Peter X. ZhangThis dissertation presents research on novel synthetic methodologies and mechanistic studies focused on boron chemistry in organic synthesis. Chapter one introduces the “sam” auxiliary, a chiral ligand designed to enhance stereoselectivity in cycloaddition reactions. The auxiliary's synthesis, installation on alkenyl boron species, and applications in cycloadditions with nitrones, glycine imine ylides, and radicals are discussed, demonstrating high-yielding and stereoselective results. Chapter two introduces a catalytic enantioselective Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reaction for desymmetrizing vicinal bis(boronic) esters, synthesizing enantiomerically enriched substituted carbocycles and heterocycles while retaining a boronic ester. Mechanistic studies highlighted the cooperative effect of vicinal boronic esters, and practical applications were demonstrated through the synthesis of bioactive molecules. Chapter three discusses the catalytic enantioselective synthesis of disubstituted nortricyclanes as meta benzene isosteres and the acid-catalyzed rearrangement of borylated norbornenes. Boron moieties were crucial for enhancing reactivity and selectivity. Overall, this dissertation demonstrates the potential of boron chemistry in developing new synthetic methodologies, offering valuable insights for advancing organic synthesis and medicinal chemistry.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Chemistry
Academic Advising Websites as Indicators of Support for Diverse Student Populations at Highly Selective Institutions:
No full textThesis advisor: Heather Rowan-KenyonAcademic advising can teach students how to engage with postsecondary curricula and connect curricular engagement to career exploration and lifelong learning. However, academic advising is both a one-on-one activity and a systemic enterprise, and institutions should thoroughly communicate the benefits and functions of advising on official platforms such as institutional websites. This study analyzes institutional websites and creates a thematic inventory of their content containing the purpose, strategies, and desired outcomes of undergraduate academic advising at 20 highly selective, four-year liberal arts colleges and universities that are members of the Consortium on Financing Higher Education (COFHE). Additionally, this study explores website content about specific methods and resources for how academic advising supports institutional diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) goals. The major themes emerging from this study include the promise of the continuity of advising, the possibility of advising relationships akin to mentoring experiences with faculty and peers, and holistic advising support provided by several people and aspects of the school’s advising system. However, the promise of advising relationships also hinges on students’ willingness and ability to be self-directed, self-reflective, and advocates for themselves. On these websites, advising was aligned with academic “success” and the journey of liberal learning. The author posits that equitable access to liberal learning for flourishing in college requires aligning academic advising pedagogies and practices with learning processes, equity-minded qualitative assessments, and iterative design practices.Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education
Cultivating Social Justice Pedagogical Knowledge And Skill: Bias, Race, and Critical Consciousness: School Leaders’ Perceptions of Confronting Teachers’ Race-based Bias
No full textThesis advisor: Martin ScanlanMany district and school leaders have leveraged instructional leadership or social justice leadership to advance student achievement for minoritized students. While research has examined these approaches separately, we identify a potential gap at the nexus between instructional and social justice leadership. In particular, we find a need for further research that examines how leaders bridge instructional and social justice leadership practices, to disrupt educational inequities. Our study examines how educational leaders weave instructional and social justice leadership skills to cultivate others' social justice pedagogical knowledge and skill. Employing a collective case study framework, this study explores how a mid-sized urban district’s superintendent and school leaders cultivated and promoted the social justice pedagogical knowledge and skill of others. Data was collected through interviews, surveys, and document reviews. The primary research participants included one superintendent, two assistant superintendents, three central office leaders, five school leaders, and six teachers. Our findings highlight four themes: the importance of leaders’ critical self-reflection perceptions of district-level infrastructure and strategic planning, school-level instructional infrastructure and capacity building, and gaps in social justice pedagogical skill. This research has implications for practice, policy, and existing literature related to the cultivation and enactment of social justice pedagogical knowledge and skill across diverse contexts.Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education
APolicy Paradox: A Quantitative Analysis of Title IX Athletic Compliance and Sex-Conscious Admissions
No full textThesis advisor: Angela BoatmanIn this dissertation, I critically examine the intersection of Title IX compliance in athletics and college admissions. In my first paper, I use descriptive statistics to show a pattern of noncompliance with Title IX at institutions in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) from 2002 to 2022. By analyzing cross-sectional data from 2002, 2012, and 2022, I demonstrate that institutions with higher admission rates for men compared to women are more likely to achieve compliance with Title IX athletic regulations. This suggests that admission practices may serve as a strategic tool for meeting Title IX requirements, a perspective that has not been thoroughly examined in existing research on Title IX compliance. In my second paper, I extend these findings by analyzing panel data from NCAA institutions between 2003 and 2022. The results indicate that as the proportion of female applicants increase for an institution, the institution is more likely to be non-compliant with Title IX athletic regulations. This suggests that the composition of the applicant pool and the choices of prospective students influence institutional adherence with Title IX. I also find that an institution is more likely to achieve Title IX compliance when it increases its admission rate for men compared to women. This demonstrates that admission strategies can be leveraged to meet Title IX requirements, further strengthening the conclusions drawn in the first paper. In the third paper, I utilize the same panel data as in the second paper and apply a fixed effects model to identify predictors of the difference between male and female admission rates. My findings suggest that an institution is more inclined to provide an admission advantage to men as the proportion of female applicants increases, an association that is compounded as an institution becomes more selective in admissions. However, my analysis also suggests that as female enrollment increases, an institution is likely to reduce the advantage for men. This indicates a potential inflection point where an institution that becomes more selective can offer an admission advantage to men, possibly motivated to achieve Title IX compliance. Conversely, as an institution becomes less selective, it focuses on meeting enrollment goals and is less concerned with Title IX compliance, resulting in its enrollment mirroring the composition of its applicant pool, which for many schools is increasingly female dominated. By bringing together the results of these three papers, my dissertation offers valuable insights into the strategic decision-making processes within college admission offices. It appears that admission practices can be useful tools to achieving Title IX compliance by adjusting the admission rate of women compared to men, especially as the share of female applicants increase. These findings have important implications for both Title IX athletic compliance and sex-conscious admission practices.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education
Automated Scoring in International Large-Scale Assessments: Feasibility, Multilingual Comparability, and Scalability
No full textThesis advisor: Matthias von DavierAutomated scoring has received considerable attention in educational measurement, even before the era of artificial intelligence. However, its application to constructed response (CR) items in international large-scale assessments (ILSAs) remains largely underexplored due to the complexity of tackling multilingual responses spanning often over 100 different language versions. This doctoral dissertation aims to address this issue by progressively expanding the scope of automated scoring from several countries in TIMSS 2019 to all participating countries in TIMSS 2023. We delved into the feasibility of automated scoring across diverse linguistic landscapes, encompassing high-resource and low-resource languages. We examined two machine learning methodologies—supervised and unsupervised learning—integrating them with cutting-edge machine translation techniques. Our findings demonstrated that automated scoring can serve as a reliable and cost-effective measure for quality assurance in ILSAs, significantly reducing the reliance on secondary human raters. Ultimately, the adoption of automated scoring instead of human scoring in the foreseeable future will promote the broader use of innovative open-item formats in ILSAs.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Measurement, Evaluation, Statistics & Assessment
Modernity Against Itself: The Politics and Aesthetics of Modernist Form
No full textThesis advisor: Robert Lehman“Modernity Against Itself” pinpoints a fundamental division within modernity: an antagonism between artistic modernism and political-economic modernization. I argue that this division is best thought of as a conflictual relationship between aesthetic and social forms. Twentieth-century authors, I contend, saw their art as both linked and opposed to the social forms of their time. “Modernity Against Itself” articulates the complexities of modernity’s interconnected yet conflicting forms in two parts. The first two chapters address the ontology of art by examining the entanglement of the artwork’s form with that of the commodity. These chapters offer readings of key texts in modernist aesthetics, political economy, and psychoanalysis to make a case for artistic autonomy by theorizing the work of art—as envisioned by Wilhelm Worringer and Wyndham Lewis in particular—as a form of fetishism that contests, rather than capitulates to, the logic of commodification. The third and fourth chapters link poetic forms to politics by scrutinizing provocative references to general strikes by Hope Mirrlees and Virginia Woolf to argue that the former’s poem Paris and the latter’s novel To the Lighthouse suspend conventional linguistic and literary meaning in order to represent the strikes’ disruption of the status quo. “Modernity Against Itself” contributes to contemporary scholarly debates by focusing on how modernism—often regarded as famously, even infamously, formal—investigated questions that literary criticism is currently struggling to answer. It endeavors to make a significant methodological intervention by uniting, but not conflating, the aesthetic insights of formalism and the social insights of historicism by positing the relation between literary and social forms as an oppositional relation of non-relation. For it is only by working through the antinomies of form, and not by presuming to resolve them, that the connection between aesthetics and politics can be adequately theorized.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: English
Social Justice: Toward a Theology of Recognition for People with Disabilities (PWD) in Nigeria, a Reevaluation of African Palaver as an Ethics of Recognition
No full textThesis advisor: Mary Jo IozzioThe Recognition of people with Disabilities (PWD) in Nigeria, Africa, and the world at large is imperative. As the world’s largest minority, and a marginalized group, social justice advocacy and recognition of their inherent dignity is necessary. African palaver’s claim of recognition and inclusion of all in the community and the need for a re-evaluation of African palaver as an ethics of Recognition is examined for its purported claims. I consider recognition as a social justice movement that advocates for the restoration of the dignity of PWD, a people whom the general population in Africa, and particularly in Nigeria, discriminate against and deny their inalienable rights. Moreso, the patriarchal past and present of African culture illustrates that women suffer the most from marginalization, especially women with disability. With its biblical roots, Catholic social teaching empowers the Church in Africa and beyond toward recognition of the inherent dignity of PWD as the Imago Dei. This dignity coheres with Jesus's recognition and inclusion of PWD in the New Testament; the Old Testament generally considered disability as a punishment for some wrongdoing by an individual, a group, or the community. Since the virtues are essential in advocacy for the recognition of PWD, the theological and the cardinal virtues, especially justice, promote fairness, inclusion, and involvement in all facets of the community. The virtues empower the agent into acts of love and justice, and the parable of the Good Samaritan typifies vulnerable love and justice in an instructive way for us. Therefore, while African Palaver is instrumental in African communalism as it uses the spoken word to proffer values in the community, the Palaver leads to recognition, inclusion, integration, and participation of people in the community for the common good. It is imperative to include PWD and especially the missing voices of women on the margins. Recognition of PWD is a justice issue in urgent need of address. Finally, the offer of friendship to PWD and other vulnerable populations would help eradicate the marginalization that PWD experience in our society and this study concludes with a suggestion that the Church in Africa should adopt Palaver Ethics as an ethics of recognition in order to guarantee authentic social justice for PWD.Thesis (STD) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry.Discipline: Sacred Theology
Playing Down a Man: Examining Why Soccer Failed in Boston, 1870-1980
Full text linkThesis advisor: Maria de los Ángeles PiconeSoccer in the United States has developed unevenly, with certain areas, like Fall River, Massachusetts proving to be soccer hotbeds. Boston has repeatedly lacked interest and soccer specific infrastructure. Covering the development of professional soccer from 1870 to 1980 this thesis traces the rise and fall of the American Soccer League (ASL) and North American Soccer League (NASL) with a specific focus on reasons Boston failed to support a long-term professional team. While baseball and college football organized from 1870-1900, soccer was in its nascence, confined to specific immigrant groups like the Scottish, who immigrated to mill towns around Boston, not Boston proper. The lack of early interest in soccer meant that when a professional league formed in the 1920s, there was no amateur to professional player development pathway, no soccer specific stadium, and no cultural connections to the sport. The failure of the ASL to develop long-term community connections in Boston meant that the NASL inherited the same problems: no permanent stadium, small attendance numbers, and lack of community support. This thesis catalogues each eras of development in order to narrate the history of professional soccer within Boston.Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: History