Adriana D Cimetta

Interests

Research

Evaluation, school readiness, assessment and measurement issues with at-risk populations, high-stakes testing, undergraduate research experiences, STEM education, child health and academic outcomes, family dynamics and social emotional functioning of children,

Teaching

Assessment, Measurement, Evaluation, Research Design, Adolescent Development

Courses

Scholarly Contributions

Journals/Publications

• Cimetta, A. D., Marx, R. W., Yaden, D. B., Alkhadim, G. S., & Cutshaw, C. A. (2017). Latent Variable Structure and Measurement Invariance of a Modified Early Literacy Assessment. International Journal of School and Educational Psychology. doi:DOI:10.1080/21683603.2017.1322016
• Yaden, D. B., Marx, R. W., Cimetta, A. D., Cutshaw, C. A., & Alkhadim, G. S. (2017). Assessing Early Literacy with Hispanic Preschoolers: The Factor Structure of the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening-Español. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 39(2), 193-210. doi:DOI: 10.1177/0739986316688877
• Cimetta, A. D., Wakelee, J. F., Serafin, V. J., Renger, R. F., Hites, L. S., Granillo, B. S., Garrison, E. R., Cimetta, A. D., & Burgess, J. L. (2012). Emergency preparedness training of tribal community health representatives.. Journal of immigrant and minority health, 14(2), 323-9. doi:10.1007/s10903-011-9438-9
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  This study describes the development and evaluation of online Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) training adapted to the learning styles and needs of tribal Community Health Representatives (CHRs). Working through a university-tribal community college partnership, the Arizona Center for Public Health Preparedness at the University of Arizona and Diné College of the Navajo Nation delivered a blended online and face-to-face public health preparedness certificate program based on core public health emergency preparedness competencies. This program was carefully adapted to meet the environmental and learning needs of the tribal CHRs. The certificate program was subsequently evaluated via a scenario-based decision-making methodology. Significant improvements in five of six competency areas were documented by comparison of pre- and post-certificate training testing. Based on statistical support for this pedagogical approach the cultural adaptations utilized in delivery of the certificate program appear to be effective for PHEP American Indian education.
• Levin, J. R., D'agostino, J. V., & Cimetta, A. D. (2010). Can High School Achievement Tests Serve to Select College Students. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, 29(2), 3-12. doi:10.1111/j.1745-3992.2010.00171.x
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  Postsecondary schools have traditionally relied on admissions tests such as the SATand ACT to select students. With high school achievement assessments in place in many states, it is important to ascertain whether scores from those exams can either supplement or supplant conventional admissions tests. In this study we examined whether the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS) high school tests could serve as a useful predictor of college performance. Stepwise regression analyses with a predetermined order of variable entry revealed that AIMS generally did not account for additional performance variation when added to high school grade-point average (HSGPA) and SAT. However, in a cohort of students that took the test for graduation purposes, AIMS did account for about the same proportion of variance as SAT when added to a model that included HSGPA. The predictive value of both SAT and AIMS was generally the same for Caucasian, Hispanic, and Asian American students. The ramifications of universities using high school achievement exams as predictors of college success, in addition to or in lieu of traditional measures, are discussed.
• Welsh, M. E., Vanwinkle, W. H., Smith, S., Powers, S. J., Falco, L. D., D'agostino, J. V., & Cimetta, A. D. (2008). The Rating and Matching Item-Objective Alignment Methods. Applied Measurement in Education, 21(1), 1-21. doi:10.1080/08957340701580728
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  Central to the standards-based assessment validation process is an examination of the alignment between state standards and test items. Several alignment analysis systems have emerged recently, but most rely on either traditional rating or matching techniques. Little, if any, analyses have been reported on the degree of consistency between the two methods and on the item and objective characteristics that influence judges' decisions. We randomly assigned judges to either rate item-objective links or match items to objectives while reviewing the 2004 Arizona high school mathematics standards and assessment. Across items we found moderate convergence between methods, and we detected apparent reasons for divergently scored items. We also found that judges relied on item and objective content and intellectual skill features to render decisions. Based on our evidence, we contend that a thorough alignment analysis would involve judges using both rating and matching, while focusing on both content and intellectu...
• Welsh, M. E., Schwartz, K. L., D'agostino, J. V., & Cimetta, A. D. (2007). Using a Partitioned Treatment Design to Examine the Effect of Project WET.. The Journal of Environmental Education, 38(4), 43-50. doi:10.3200/joee.38.4.43-50
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  Although young people in 50 U.S. states and 21 countries learn about water resources through Project WET (Water Education for Teachers), few researchers have conducted summative evaluations of the program. The authors employed a partitioned, or differential, treatments design in which two groups of 6th-grade students received overlapping but unique lesson components. Using hierarchical linear modeling, the authors found that classrooms from both groups had similar pre- to posttest gains on a test of the common material, but each group outperformed the other group on tests of the unique material a group experienced.
• Cimetta, A. D., Ritter, L. S., Mcdonagh, P. F., Hokama, J. Y., Davis-gorman, G., Copeland, J. G., & Cimetta, A. D. (2000). Diabetes enhances leukocyte accumulation in the coronary microcirculation early in reperfusion following ischemia.. Journal of diabetes and its complications, 14(2), 96-107. doi:10.1016/s1056-8727(00)00068-4
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  Diabetic hearts are particularly vulnerable to ischemia-reperfusion injury. For leukocytes to participate in ischemia-reperfusion injury, they must first sequester in the microcirculation. The aim of this study was to determine, by direct observation, if early leukocyte deposition was increased in the diabetic coronary microcirculation early in reperfusion following myocardial ischemia..Non-diabetic and streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rat hearts, subjected to 30 min of 37 degrees C, no-flow ischemia, were initially reperfused with blood containing labeled leukocytes. The deposition of fluorescent leukocytes in coronary capillaries and venules was directly visualized and recorded using intravital fluorescence microscopy. In addition, flow cytometry was used to measure CD11b adhesion molecule expression on polymorphonuclear (PMN) leukocytes from non-diabetic and STZ-diabetic rats..In the non-diabetic, control hearts, early in reperfusion, leukocytes trapped in coronary capillaries and adhered to the walls of post-capillary venules. In the diabetic hearts, leukocyte trapping in capillaries and adhesion to venules were both significantly increased (P
• Mcdonagh, P. F., Leprince, P., L'italian, A., Jg, C., Hokama, J. Y., Diven, C., Davis-gorman, G., Copeland, J., & Cimetta, A. D. (1999). Cold cardioplegic preservation aggravates alloantibody mediated cardiac dysfunction due to an increase in vascular resistance.. Transplantation proceedings, 31(1-2), 116-7. doi:10.1016/s0041-1345(98)01466-3
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  IN HEART TRANSPLANTATION, hyperacute rejection due to preformed antibodies is characterized by a rapid, irreversible, and complete graft dysfunction. However, when antibodies appear later in the posttransplantation course, the dysfunction they mediate can be reversible (acute humoral rejection). Hori et al recently reported that ischemia-reperfusion injury played a major role in the etiology of hyperacute rejection of cardiac xenografts. However, whether ischemia-reperfusion injury enhances the severity of hyperacute allograft rejection has not yet been investigated. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of cold ischemiareperfusion injury in alloantibody-mediated cardiac dysfunction in an isolated heart model.

Poster Presentations

• Alkhadim, G. S., Cimetta, A. D., Cutshaw, C. A., Marx, R. W., & Yaden, D. B. (2018, Oct.). Generalizability of the Research- Based Early Math Assessment from Urban NY Children to Rural AZ Children Using IRT.. American Evaluation Association Annual Conference. Cleveland, OH..
• Cimetta, A. D., Marx, R. W., Yaden, D. B., Alkhadim, G. S., & Cutshaw, C. A. (2017, August). Latent Variable Structure and Measurement Invariance of a Modified Early Literacy Assessment. American Psychological Association Annual Conference 2017. Washington, DC.
• Clough, L. T., Cimetta, A. D., Cutshaw, C. A., Yaden, D. B., & Marx, R. W. (2017, August). Examining the Influences of Home Environment on the Executive Function of Young Children. American Psychological Association Annual Conference 2017. Washington, DC.
• Yaden, D. B., Marx, R. W., Cimetta, A. D., Alkhadim, G. S., & Cutshaw, C. A. (2017, April). Assessing Early Literacy with Hispanic Preschoolers: The Factor Structure of the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening-Español. American Educational Research Association Annual Conference 2017. San Antonio, TX.