Doctor of Education , University of Dayton, 2024, Educational Administration

Many school districts in the United States struggle to retain assistant principals (APs), thus losing the opportunity to prepare and promote quality internal candidates for the principalship. The purpose of the critical participatory action research study was to add to the limited research on AP experiences and how to support their professional development in a way that successfully leads APs to the principalship. The research aimed to add qualitative data from APs employed in public school districts in Ohio to provide much-needed insight into how to better retain school administrators and create an internal candidate pool of highly qualified school principals. The research questions centered around providing insights into AP on-the-job socialization and experiences that impacted their career path decisions and gathered their recommendations for school districts when creating a principal pipeline program or other intentional supportive professional development opportunities for APs. Purposive, stratified/cell sampling was used to collect data from homogeneous participants who share a geographic location (state) and the same biographical background of making lateral career moves as APs of one school district to another, but are considered representative of various demographic groups. The APs shared their experiences through semi-structured interviews and made recommendations for how school districts could better support APs and prepare them for a future principalship. The questions encouraged interviewees to employ a systems thinking approach and DSRP metacognitive process to reflect. I used a critical constructivist grounded theory methodology to analyze the data collected through an iterative inductive process of initial and focused coding and memoing combined with input from participants to uncover, compare, and synthesize common themes. Four APs were interviewed, which provided insights into their on-the-job socialization and experiences. Two (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Education (EdD), Ohio University, 2017, Educational Administration (Education)

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the perceptions of Ohio public high school principals regarding their roles as leaders of professional development and to identify the strategies they have undertaken to lead professional growth among their teachers. This study provides insights regarding the manner that principals perceive professional development in terms of the ways that they prioritize and execute these roles. Seven research objectives drove this study. The focus of these research objectives was to describe Ohio public school principals based upon their demographic characteristics, to identify the manner in which the decision-making of the principals regarding professional development was influenced, to determine the types and levels of influence on the implementation of professional development that was experienced by the participating principals, to ascertain the frequency with which the characteristics of professional development have occurred at the schools of the principals, to determine the perceptions of the principals regarding the efficacy of the professional development activities at their schools, to identify the leadership strategies that the principals used to foster professional development, and to identify the existence of statistically significant differences among the selected demographics emerging from this study. The study informs current practitioners about effective strategies for leading professional development and offers recommendations for policy makers. In regards to future research, the researcher offers recommendations for studies that would contribute to the relatively small existing body of research results regarding principals' perceptions of their role as leaders of professional development.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2023, Educational Leadership

The Ohio Principal Evaluation System 2.0 (OPES 2.0) serves as the primary tool for assessing principal effectiveness in Ohio. This research explores Ohio principals' experiences with OPES 2.0 and how OPES 2.0 influences professional growth. It also identifies factors that either support or hinder successful evaluation outcomes. Using a sequential explanatory mixed methods approach, the study analyzed principals' perceptions of OPES 2.0, the competency of evaluators, impact on professional habits and development, and the challenges faced in OPES 2.0 implementation. The findings reveal that principals have ambivalent views about OPES 2.0. In its inaugural year of mandated use, strong negative sentiments were prevalent. Furthermore, inconsistent implementation across districts—often missing key evaluation components—led to varied experiences for principals, obstructing their ability to leverage evaluation results for growth. While principals believed they understood the system and trusted their evaluators' capabilities, they were unsure about the flexibility permitted in implementing OPES 2.0. Notably, principals with less than five years of experience found OPES 2.0 less beneficial for their growth compared to their more experienced counterparts. Principals were evenly divided on whether OPES 2.0 positively affected their professional practices and development. The study underscores the need for enhancements at all principal evaluation stages—planning, monitoring, assessment, and appraisal—and across all structural levels, from state to individual principal. These findings offer a foundation for state agencies and school districts to gauge the effectiveness and perceived value of the new state principal evaluation model. Crucially, the study highlights that certain aspects of OPES 2.0 implementation in 2022-2023 impeded its main objectives to foster professional growth in principals and improve school outcomes.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2018, Educational Leadership

This study's purpose was to investigate the connections between principal evaluations and student achievement. First, the study examined the relationship between principal effectiveness and student achievement. Principal effectiveness was measured by the Ohio Principal Evaluation System ratings and student achievement was measured by Performance Index (PI) scores. A statistically significant moderate positive correlation existed between principal effectiveness and student achievement. This relationship indicated that as principal effectiveness increased, student achievement increased as well. The study's second purpose was to determine if there were differences in principal effectiveness and student achievement among Ohio typologies. The results of the MANOVA determined that there was a significant difference between the combination of principal effectiveness, as measured by the OPES rating, and student achievement, as measured by the PI score. Post hoc comparisons determined that there was a significant difference among the mean OPES ratings for rural and suburban schools, rural and urban schools, small town and rural schools, small town and urban schools, and suburban and urban schools. In addition, the post hoc comparisons determined that there was a statistically significant difference in the mean Performance Index scores among the rural and suburban schools, rural and urban schools, small town and suburban schools, small town and urban schools, and suburban and urban schools. The third purpose of this study was to classify Ohio typologies using existing principal effectiveness and student achievement data. The discriminate function from the analysis successfully classified more than half of the schools in this study. The existing data, OPES ratings and PI scores, classified suburban and urban schools accurately at a higher percentage when compared to small town and rural schools.

Doctor of Education (EdD), Ohio University, 2014, Educational Administration (Education)

This study of Ohio public, private, charter, and vocational school principals during the 2012-2013 school year explored existence or no existence of parental aggression towards school principals. The study researched predictors of aggression towards school principals and identified the frequency of their occurrence. The operationalized definition of parental aggression for this study was parental conduct that the school administrator perceives as threatening to their physical, psychological, or professional well-being. Through regression analysis and descriptive statistics, connections between acts of parental aggression and the demographics of the community, principal, and school were found. This study may serve as a platform to more deeply explore issues relating to aggressive parents, as well as, fill gaps in existing literature and provide insight into possible predictors of parental aggression.

EdD, University of Cincinnati, 2008, Education : Urban Educational Leadership

This qualitative study investigated the connection between the behaviors of principals and teacher job satisfaction and motivation, and how this connection results in increased teacher retention. Particularly, the researcher looked at what strategies principals use to motivate and encourage teachers to remain at a school. The researcher also examined teachers' primary reasons for staying at a particular school. Two urban high schools were the sites for this study. The researcher conducted both focus groups and interviews. Individual interviews were held with two principals; one principal had two years of experience and the other had seven years of experience. In addition, the researcher conducted individual interviews with three teachers from each school. One focus group at each school, each composed of three to four participants, also yielded data. The research showed that college education programs do not adequately prepare teachers to work with students and face the various challenges that often accompany them. Teachers need support in order to succeed as educators. The data revealed that the principal sets the tone and is the driving force of a school, thereby having a huge impact on the school environment. Though teachers were more likely to stay at schools where they felt a connection to their students, this study found that the principal is instrumental in teacher retention. The researcher found that though teachers believe they directly have control of many aspects of the school reality, the principal continues to orchestrate and facilitate school operations in an indirect, inclusive manner. The effective, invisible principal creates an environment where teachers are empowered and moved to the forefront, while the principal navigates from the background. The ability of the teacher to focus on teaching and learning is directly correlated with the principal's ability to maintain a safe and orderly environment, complete with the supports and recognition teacher (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.), University of Findlay, 2024, Education

This qualitative study examines the perspectives of K-12 school principals in urban settings on the strengths and weaknesses of various professional development program modalities. The research involved interviews with 10 urban K-12 school administrators to explore their views on in-person, online synchronous, and online asynchronous professional development formats. Thematic analysis of the interviews revealed the principals' preferences and challenges, with a notable preference for in-person sessions despite the rise of online formats. The findings indicate a need for professional development programs that are both flexible and specifically tailored to the needs of school leaders, supporting the integration of in-person and online methods. This study highlights the critical need of ongoing professional development in helping educational leaders address the changing demands of their positions. Recommendations for practice include maintaining or enhancing face-to-face components while adopting hybrid models. Policy recommendations focus on fostering the creation of professional development programs that are relevant and responsive. Future research should investigate the efficacy of hybrid models and their long-term effects on leadership effectiveness and student outcomes. Ultimately, this research contributes to improving professional development strategies for educational leaders in urban K-12 environments, addressing essential gaps in educational leadership development and practice.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2024, Statistics

Longitudinal biomarkers offer insights into disease progression. Accordingly, during their follow-up appointments, patients' biomarker data are recorded to track these changes over time. To accurately anticipate disease progression, it's imperative to employ statistical models tailored to these longitudinal biomarker datasets, accounting for patient heterogeneity. Traditional models like the Cox proportional hazards model (Cox PH) may not fully capture the intricacies of heterogeneous, time-dependent data due to their inherent assumption of homogeneity. In response, we integrate Functional Principal Component Analysis (FPCA) and Supervised FPCA with the Cox PH mixture model to better handle these challenges. This integration aims to utilize FPCA for extracting meaningful features from longitudinal biomarker data, while Supervised FPCA is employed to improve the relevance of these features to patient outcomes and use these features as covariates in Cox PH mixture model to conduct dynamic predictions. To enhance model adaptability to heterogeneous patient subgroups, we extend the Cox PH framework by incorporating dynamic penalty functions, specifically the Smoothly Clipped Absolute Deviation (SCAD) and the Minimax Concave Penalty (MCP), into a mixture model setting. This approach helps to mitigate the assumption of homogeneity among patient groups. Additionally, we study a modified Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm, tailored for our Cox PH mixture model, which facilitates the concurrent estimation of model parameters and determination of the appropriate number of mixture components. Our approach provides a structured method for analyzing longitudinal biomarker and survival data, enabling more nuanced predictions that can adapt as new biomarker information becomes available. Through simulation studies and real-world data application, we demonstrate the utility of our method, though noting its predictive performance compared to traditional methods warrants careful (open full item for complete abstract)

PHD, Kent State University, 2023, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Teaching, Learning and Curriculum Studies

An educational leadership position can be conceived as a position occupied within the hierarchy of an educational organization. This study aims at examining current and prospective Senegalese female high school principals' perceptions of the position of high school principal. It highlights the barriers they associate with the position of high school principal, the solutions they propose, and their perceived influence on their current and future school community. Using a multiple case study of one female high school principal and three prospective female high school principals, this research is grounded in feminist theory. Analysis of findings yield that the position of high school principal is attached to the following main barriers: lack of training, family responsibilities, lack of autonomy, and security issues. Mentoring, pre-service training, family assistance and self-organization, freedom to make decisions, and security infrastructure are proposed as solutions to these barriers. A management style based on participation, communication, and caring emerged as the study participants' main perceived influence on their current and future school community. This finding reinforces feminist theory's view that women have something to contribute to the world, notably in the field of education.

Master of Science (MS), Bowling Green State University, 2023, Geology

This study evaluates the potential for mineral prospectivity mapping (MPM) within the Kerkesha area, southwestern Eritrea using remote sensing and geochemical data analysis. The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) remote sensing data was used for mapping zones of hydrothermal alteration, while assessment of geologic structures is based on automated extraction of lineaments from a digital elevation model. Integration of these alteration and structural dataset with surface geochemical data were used in identifying pathfinder elements associated with Au-Cu-Zn mineralization as well as evaluating and delineating anomalous mineralization regions in this relatively underexplored region of Arabia Nubia Shield (ANS). Specifically, the modeling approach for the extraction and the interpretation of mineralization-related spectral footprints uses selective principal component analysis (SPCA), while the lineament features, which were extracted from different digital terrain models, were integrated with the soil geochemical data and modeled by principal component analysis (PCA). The results reveal a northeast-southwest trend of lineaments, delineate zones of hydrothermal alteration which indicate presence of multi-deposit type mineralization, and identify pathfinder elements. In addition, Au-Cu-Zn anomalous zones are extracted by one class support vector machine (OCSVM) and performances of such classification is validated by Kruskal-Wallis and Pearson's Chi-square tests. The results show significance in differences between the anomalous and non-anomalous zones and existence of a relationship between known mineral deposits and predicted anomalies. The proposed MPM shows promising results for robust automated delineation and understanding of mineralization processes.

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2021, Leadership Studies

School leadership matters. Specifically, principals play a major role in the success of their schools (Bartoletti and Connelly, 2013). Research indicated that after quality of instruction the most important variable for student achievement was the effectiveness of the school principal (Wallace Foundation, 2011; Branch, Hanushek and Rivikin, 2013). Tschannen-Moran and Gareis (2004) argued that a strong sense of self-efficacy was a critical characteristic of an effective school leader. Tim Kight R Factor training offered an actionable system that could be employed by principals to improve themselves and thereby their schools. This framework uniquely combined elements of organizational culture improvement as well as improving the individual leaders behavior and decision making skills. Currently, a gap in knowledge exists regarding whether the system actually improves school leaders performance. Simply put, the system had not been empirically tested. In addition, self-efficacy researchers revealed a gap in the research and a recommendation for future study; how to educate, train and develop principals to improve their sense of self-efficacy? (Federici, 2013; Federici and Skaalvik, 2011; Federici and Skaalvik, 2012; Tschannen-Moran and Gareis, 2005; Osterman and Sullivan, 1996; Licklider and Niska, 1993; Versland and Erickson, 2017; Hallinger, Hosseingholizadeh, Hashemi and Kouhsari, 2018) Therefore, this study adds to the developing literature. The purpose of this quasi-experimental retrospective study was to examine principals perceptions in regards to the impact R Factor training had on their sense of efficacy in their professional responsibilities as measured by the PSE Scale (Tschannen-Moran and Gareis, 2004). The target population included all principals in the state of Ohio trained in R Factor spread across over 60 school districts. Principals (n = 104) completed the Principal response to R Factor Training Survey (PRRFTS). The PRRFTS contains 28 close-form items, (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Education (EdD), Ohio University, 2017, Educational Administration (Education)

A principal has many responsibilities; high on this list includes the need to be educated in current special education requirements to serve students with disabilities. The purpose of this study was to explore the amount of special education legal knowledge that secondary principals in Ohio possess. Demographic information, perceived special education legal knowledge, and potential professional learning needs data were collected through an online, researcher-developed survey. Via an initial email followed by reminder emails and phone calls to respondents, 1,587 secondary principals in rural, suburban, and urban school settings in Ohio were invited to respond to the survey. Two hundred forty-five principals participated in the study. Respondent data provided evidence that the area of special education legal knowledge of highest confidence for principals is in Individualized Education Program (IEP) document compliance. Specifically, respondents had the highest levels of legal knowledge in the following sections of the IEP document: nonacademic and extracurricular activities, meeting participants, specially designed instruction (specific to the differences between and accommodation and a modification), least restrictive environment, and the student profile. The area of lowest special education legal knowledge included principal knowledge of how to work within the dispute resolution process. Specific areas in this process include: impartial due process hearing, working with an IEP facilitator, the mediation process, preparing for an administrative review, and understanding how to use the Ohio Operating Standards for Children with Disabilities. There were statistically significant differences in the way male and female respondents viewed their own special education legal knowledge (p = .004). Females viewed themselves as more knowledgeable. There were statistically significant differences in the way urban respondents viewed their own special education legal knowledge (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2017, Leadership Studies

This dissertation explored the relationship between principal leadership, emotional intelligence, and student achievement. Analyses were conducted to determine if: principal transformational leadership was correlated with student achievement; principal emotional intelligence was correlated with student achievement; the correlation between the concepts of transformational leadership and emotional intelligence; which behaviors of transformational leadership are most predictive of student achievement; and which scales of emotional intelligence are most predictive of student achievement. The study of transformational leadership and emotional intelligence and its relationship to success is evident in the literature. However, very little research has been conducted on the impact of principal emotional intelligence on student achievement outcomes. Thirty-four principals of typology 1 or 4 schools in Ohio completed the NHS Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (2016) and the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (Bass & Avolio, 2004). This study was not able to statistically predict student achievement outcomes based on principal transformational leadership behaviors or emotional intelligence subscales. However, effect size testing found a high relationship between principal emotional intelligence and performance index scores (student achievement) as well as a medium relationship between principal transformational leadership and performance index scores (student achievement). Additionally, Pearson r correlations found that many of the transformational leadership behaviors and emotional intelligence subscales were positively correlated. Recommendations for future research are discussed.

Master of Science (MS), Wright State University, 2015, Computer Science

The purpose of this paper is to determine if any of the four commonly used dimensionality reduction techniques are reliable at extracting the same features that humans perceive as distinguishable features. The four dimensionality reduction techniques that were used in this experiment were Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Multi-Dimensional Scaling (MDS), Isomap and Kernel Principal Component Analysis (KPCA). These four techniques were applied to a dataset of images that consist of five infrared military vehicles. Out of the four techniques three out of the five resulting dimensions of PCA matched a human feature. One out of five dimensions of MDS matched a human feature. Two out of five dimensions of Isomap matched a human feature. Lastly, none of the resulting dimensions of KPCA matched any of the features that humans listed. Therefore PCA was the most reliable technique for extracting the same features as humans when given a set number of images.

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2013, Leadership Studies

Twenty first century educational trends in the United States include increased accountability as well as standards that have served to challenge our expectations, practices and perceptions of teaching and learning. Educators, at all levels, are expected to do more with less and therefore must examine, modify, and improve current practices to create more effective systems. Research strongly supports the development of the principal-teacher relationship as a vital element in creating a positive learning environment laying the foundation for increased student achievement. The purpose of this correlational study was to examine how K-12 teachers perceived administrative support and how these perceptions were predictive of teacher self-reported follower readiness (Willingness and Ability) to engage in practices that enhance the learning community. Middle school teachers from three districts completed the Methner Administrative Support Survey (MASS) to ascertain their perceptions of principal support and the correlation between perceived support and their willingness and ability. Significant findings were revealed in four areas of the study. Forward multiple regression analysis found that Reflection and Growth was a significant variable in teacher Willingness and Overall Follower Readiness. Significant differences were also found relative to teacher years of experience in the areas of Instructional Improvement and Feedback. Additionally, Reflection and Growth, Overall Follower Readiness, and Ability were shown to be significant variables where teachers believed that Efforts to Build Teacher-Principal Relationships were present. And lastly significant mean differences were found between the three school districts in their perceptions of administrative support. Conclusions drawn from this study suggest that principals might improve teacher willingness by focusing on strategies that promote teacher growth and reflective inquiry. These strategies include but ar (open full item for complete abstract)

EdD, University of Cincinnati, 2003, Education : Educational Leadership

Recent studies suggest that the most important issue in the effective integration of educational technology in schools “is the presence of informed and effective leadership” (Gibson, 2001, p. 43). However, many experienced administrators are not comfortable with technology use and have little or no training in this area (Gibson, 2001). The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the professional development needs of Ohio principals in the area of educational technology. A survey was developed to collect data on the unique professional development needs of principals according to school context (urban or non-urban) as well as their length of service (novice or experienced). A stratified random sample of 374 principals in Ohio responded to the survey. This study was the first of its kind to assess practicing administrators' needs in the area of educational technology based on the National Education Technology Standards for Administrators (NETS-A).The following conclusions of the study were made: 1. Principals value highly all of the expected areas of performance as indicated by their ratings on the “Importance” subscale of the Educational Technology for Principals Survey (ETPS). These items were taken directly from the National Educational Technology Standards for Administrators. It was concluded that principals value highly each of the standards. 2. Principals' responses to “Actual Proficiency” on all of the survey items were always rated lower than their responses to the corresponding “Importance” on the items. This difference suggests that principals have a need for professional development on each standard. 3. All principals, regardless of their length of service (novice / experienced) or school context (urban / non-urban), have significant professional development needs related to educational technology in all areas. 4. There were no significant differences in the professional development needs related to educational technology between novice and experie (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Education, Ashland University, 2010, College of Education

This study compares the succession of urban principals working under negotiated collective bargaining agreements and conferred “memorandums of understanding” with particular school boards in three of Ohio's major cities: Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Toledo. Relying on the following information: tenure, licensure status, professional experience, and gender, as predictive indicators of individual principal movement, isolating common factors of those moved over a five year period, utilizing the Ohio Department of Education public access data base as the primary source of information to verify stability as one advantage of collective bargaining.

Master of Science in Engineering, University of Akron, 2008, Biomedical Engineering

Nocturnal hypoglycemia has been a factor in the sudden deaths of diabetic patients. Episodes of hypoglycemia in adults and children with Type 1 diabetes induce abnormalities in cardiac repolarization, including lengthening of the QT interval, QT dispersion and changes in T wave morphology. In certain circumstances, abnormally low blood glucose could be responsible for the development of a fatal cardiac arrhythmia. In this study a monitoring and alarm system was designed for detection of the onset of spontaneous nocturnal hypoglycemia through monitoring of the electrocardiogram of 24 Type I diabetic patients. It utilized the principal component regression analysis to interpret the variability of the RT interval of the ECG. It also monitored changes in the T-wave amplitude and raised alarms if abnormalities corresponding to hypoglycemia are detected. The top performance of the system was 91.60%, 100% and 85.71% for accuracy, sensitivity and specificity respectively, which were statistically comparable to those obtained for the system using the tangent method. This study supports the proposition that a relationship exists between cardiac function and abnormally low blood glucose.

Master of Science (MS), Wright State University, 2024, Computer Science

In today's technological landscape, hardware devices are integral to critical applications such as industrial automation, autonomous vehicles, and medical equipment, relying on advanced platforms like FPGAs for core functionalities. However, the multi-stage manufacturing process, often distributed across various foundries, introduces substantial security risks, notably the potential for hardware Trojan insertion. These malicious modifications compromise the reliability and safety of hardware systems. This research addresses the detection of hardware Trojans through side-channel analysis, utilizing power and electromagnetic signal data, combined with meta-learning techniques, specifically model stacking. By employing diverse base models and a meta-model to consolidate predictions, this non-invasive approach effectively identifies Trojans without requiring direct access to internal circuitry. The methodology demonstrates robust classification capabilities, achieving an accuracy of 88.0\%, precision of 81.0\%, and recall of 95.0\%, even on previously unseen data. The results highlight the superior performance of meta-learning over traditional detection methods, offering an efficient and reliable solution to enhance hardware security.

Doctor of Education (Educational Leadership), Youngstown State University, 2024, Department of Teacher Education and Leadership Studies

The purpose of the study was to identify how effective communication on behalf of the building principal enhances school culture, management, instructional practices, and collaboration. Ten teachers from ten different school districts within Trumbull County, Ohio participated in semi-structured interviews and provided at least one school-based document that they believed captured the essence of the communication practices of their building principal. An analysis of the data collected from these interviews and document reviews produced seven themes and findings. Effective communication was defined by participants as the ability to listen and share information. Principals who effectively communicate build connections, trust, and morale within the teaching staff while setting clear expectations and maintaining productive relationships with frequent and predictable systems of information sharing. Most often, principals focus their communication efforts on aspects surrounding school culture and management despite the challenges or barriers to effective communication that include the variety of roles and responsibilities that principals now find themselves responsible for. Effective communication by the building principal was determined to be imperative to positive school outcomes. The theoretical and practical implications for current and future building principals as a result of this study are potentially significant. Several common practices were identified by participants in this study as examples of effective communication. These practices included the use of weekly newsletters or updates, setting clear expectations, building connections and relationships, and establishing trust to foster staff morale. Additional research is required to better understand how building principals overcome the barriers or challenges to effective communication to drive desired school outcomes.