Congratulations to Jennifer Newman who on Thursday, August 20, 2026, successfully defended her dissertation proposal.
The title of Jennifer's dissertation is, "ORGANIZATIONAL PREDICTORS OF EDUCATOR DASA REPORTING CONFIDENCE AND ENGAGEMENT."
The abstract of this study follows:
Overview of Problem: Bullying, harassment, and discrimination present enduring safety challenges in K–12 educational systems. New York State’s Dignity for All Students Act (DASA) mandates strict incident tracking, yet public audits reveal widespread data volatility, unrecorded incidents, and extreme reporting discrepancies across secondary school districts.
Research Purpose1: Grounded in Karl Weick’s Loose Coupling Theory, this study examines how institutional factors, specifically training recency, perceived training clarity, technical procedural understanding, and localized leadership supports, predicit secondary educators’ reporting confidence and active engagement with DASA software protocols.
Research Design: Quantitative design incorporating embedded situational, ambiguous-area scenario vignettes.
Sample: A purposeful sample of approximately 150 to 200 certified secondary school educators, building administrators, DASA coordinators, and student support personnel across New York State public secondary schools.
Data Collection and Analysis: Data are collected via a web-based Qualtrics survey measuring Likert-scale constructs and open-ended vignette scenarios. Quantitative data will be analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlations, and mulitiple linear regression to determine predictive beta weights and explained variance (R^2). Brief open-ended vignette responses will undergo thematic content analysis using a priori and emergent coding to contextualize implementation barriers.
Dissertation Committee Chair:
Dr. Nora C.R. Broege
Dissertation Committee Members:
Dr. Martin Fitzgerald
Dr. Hope Kornell
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