Fall 2025 - Summer 2026

Ph.D. Thesis Defense: Jacinta Olson
Friday, November 7, 2025; 1:00 PM; Zoom
Title: INNOVATIVE APPROACHES TO ANALYZING MULTIPLE CHOICE DISTRACTORS: EXPLORING PATTERNS AND RELATIONSHIPS IN EDUCATIONAL ASSESSMENT
Committee Chair: Jonathan Templin

Ph.D. Thesis Defense: Abigail Van Patten-Freeman
Tuesday, November 18, 2025; 1:00 PM; S350 LC
Title: The Effects of Executive Function and Organizational Support on Perceived and Aspirational Wellness in Counseling Professionals with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Committee Co-Chairs: Susannah Wood; Randall Boen

Ph.D. Thesis Defense: Mark Valencia
Friday, November 21, 2025; 2:15 PM; Zoom
Title: Hispanic Student Engagement at Hispanic Serving Institutions and Predominantly White Institutions
Committee Chair: Cassie Barnhardt

MA Thesis Defense: Erica Dorman
Monday, December 1, 2025; 10:00 AM; Zoom
Title: Interactions Between Level 1 Predictors in Multilevel Models
Committee Chair: Lesa Hoffman

Ph.D. Thesis Defense: Guangyun Liu
Thursday, December 17, 2025; 2:00 PM, Zoom
Title: Exploring Simultaneous Linking in Vertical Scaling
Committee Chair: Ariel Aloe

Ph.D. Thesis Defense: Christopher Like
Thursday, December 18, 2025; 9:00 AM; 459 LC 
Title: OPENSCIED IN PRACTICE: MEASURING EFFECTIVENESS ACROSS IOWA’S EDUCATIONAL LANDSCAPE
Committee Chair: Jeffrey Nordine; Co-Chair: Lesa Hoffman

Ph.D. Thesis Defense: Tingting Chen
Monday, January 26, 2026; 2:00 PM; Zoom
Title: The Development and Use of Adapted Criterion-Referenced Reliability Indices for Composite Measures with Subscale-Level Cut Scores
Committee Chair: Walter Vispoel; Co-chair: Won-Chan Lee