JoAnna Cogan-Ferchalk
DEd in Educational and School Psychology
Advisor: Joseph Kovaleski
"The Utility of the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers in a Preschool-Age Special Educational Sample"
Dr. Cogan-Ferchalk's dissertation was a rigorously conducted examination of the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers. It examined variables related to the test's utility, scoring methods, item analysis, and identification specifications and investigated its applicability to preschool children. The results indicated that the test was not sufficiently accurate for preschool children beyond toddlerhood, in spite of its wide usage in the field with this age group. Dr. Cogan-Ferchalk's study is important to the disciplines of pediatric psychology and early childhood special education.
Matthew Ferchalk
DEd in Educational and School Psychology
Advisor: Timothy Runge
"Test Nationally, Benchmark Locally: Using Local DIBELS Benchmarks to Predict Performance on the PSSA"
Dr. Ferchalk's work will have a significant and positive influence on K-12 educational programming. He and his colleagues presented the results of their work on psychometrically sound methods of calculating reading growth trends, and the use of this data within a Response to Intervention framework of educational service delivery and identification of specific learning disabilities. This innovative work was truly remarkable because it was the only line of research of its kind that provided excellent, practical recommendations for school psychologists and educators.
Stephen Bell
PhD in English/Literature and Criticism
Advisor: Lingyan Yang
"The past is a country from which we have all emigrated: Salman Rushdie's Post-Colonial and Postmodern Embrace of Memory"
Dr. Bell's dissertation is a single-author dissertation on the novels of this contemporary, world-prominent, highly crafted, and challenging postcolonial and post modern novelist. He examined the power of memory for individuals, communities, and newly independent South Asian nation-states in Rushdie's superbly written novels in a rich wealth of themes, such as the layered palimpsestic nature of writing the history and memory of the past.