Archive for category: Press Releases

What do Elvis Costello videos, tear-jerking Apple Computer ads, and deep debates about “social software” have in common? They can all be found on Christopher Sessums’ weblog, a favorite online haunt for education technology experts from around the world. Sessums, the College of Education’s director of distance education, won “Best Individual Blog” in the 2006 EduBlog Awards.

“I thing the blog is a great place for research with a little ‘r,’ for the things I’m reading or thinking about on my own,” said Sessums, who is pursuing a Ph.D in curriculum and instruction while working at the college. “I’d like to see this medium become a valid reference for research of the more formal sort.”

A weblog, or blog, is a regularly updated website consisting of dated entries arranged in reverse chronological order so the most recent post appears first. Weblogs first appeared in the mid-1990s, becoming popular as simple and free publishing tools became available towards the turn of the century. Since anybody with a net connection can publish their own weblog, there is great variety in the quality, content, and ambition of weblogs, and a weblog may have anywhere from a handful to tens of thousands of daily readers. Most weblogs have a commenting feature which allows readers to ask questions, add comments, or respond to the author’s work.

For the past two years, Sessums has been writing about the intersection of education and technology on a personal blog hosted by Elgg.net, an online community for educators. His musings on topics such as the media “prosumer” (media users who both consume and produce content) have drawn a steadily growing crowd of admirers. His site currently gets 600 to 800 new visitors every week.

“I draw my inspiration from the readings and research I do in class, issues I encounter at work,” he said.

While his audience seems to consist mostly of professionals in education technology, Sessums likes the idea of opening these discussions to anyone with an Internet connection.

“We think of the university as a place where you have to pay to get close to this professor or that professor,” he said. “I think of the blog as a form of public scholarship that makes these discourses available to anyone.”

The EduBlog awards were created three years ago by a group of ed-tech bloggers. Like all things Internet, the awards confer no “official” status and come with no prize money – but winners have the satisfaction of knowing they’ve survived instense peer review.

“These awards are voted on by members of the blogging community, which is why I’m truly honored, and more than a bit surprised, to be selected,” Sessums said.

Sessums has some tips for beginning bloggers. First, find a specialized subject and stick with it. Before his current venture, Sessums tried to attract an audience with a blog that covered education in general. It flopped.

“There just wasn’t enough focus,” he said.

Next, find out which blogs in your subject area are the most popular. Whenever you respond to posts on those blogs, make sure you direct readers back to your site.

Finally, offer something people need, whether it’s a map or chart you’ve created, an application you designed, or reliable links to content they can use.

“For instance, in class one day I heard about a site called gliffy.com, which allows you to create Venn diagrams and other charts for the Web for free,” he said. “So I passed it on to my readers. If you can provide people with useful information, they’ll come back to you.”

JAN. 16, 2007

You’re reading coE-News, an electronic newsletter produced monthly during the academic year by the College of Education News & Publications Office to keep faculty and staff up-to-date on college news and activities. Click here to download a PDF version of this edition. You will need a PDF reader to view this document.

GOT NEWS? We want to hear it. Submit individual or unit news and calendar events of collegewide interest to news@coe.ufl.edu for publication consideration. All submissions must be in writing or via e-mail and must include contact information for follow-up questions.

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *   *

IN THIS ISSUE:

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *   *

DEAN’S MESSAGE

Feasting on Buckeyes. Time capsule buried. SOE Banquet set. Busy times ahead.
Dean Catherine Emihovich shares her thoughts on recent and upcoming events on campus. (more)

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *   *

TOP STORIES

Top bereavement expert to lead workshop Feb. 15 on ‘Death, Loss and the Quest for Meaning’
Robert Neimeyer, a nationally known researcher and author on death, grief, loss and suicide intervention, will lead an all-day workshop on “Death, Loss and the Quest for Meaning” on Feb. 15 at the College of Education. His appearance kicks off the first of several yearly lectures on death education planned by the college. (more)

UF program prepares career changers to teach in crisis schools
Quitting a private-sector job to teach in a high-poverty school may sound like a fulfilling  thing to do, but when people actually make the leap from the cubicle to the urban classroom, they often find themselves overwhelmed. UF’s new Lastinger Apprenticeship gives career-changers a chance to learn the skills they need to thrive in a Title I school. (more)

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *

NEWS AND NOTICES

Top Florida educators honored at UF commencement
Five of the state’s most effective teachers and education leaders received the University of Florida Distinguished Educator Award at UF’s fall commencement Dec. 16 in the Stephen C. O’Connell Center. (more)

School psychology program gets nod from APA, NASP
Congratulations to the folks in COE’s School Psychology program, which has just been reaccredited for the maximum seven-year period by the American Psychological Association and the National Association for School Psychology. (more)

COE plants centennial time capsule
Don’t wait until 2056. If you want to find out what went into the College of Education’s centennial time capsule, you can read all about the Dec. 7 time capsule ceremony. (more)

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *

RESEARCH/GRANTS

Laptops for all? COE researcher studies effects of ‘ubiquitous computing’
What would K-12 schools be like if every single student had his or her own laptop computer? If a PDA and Internet connection were considered the birthright of every child? Associate Professor Kara Dawson is part of a team studying the effects of “ubiquitous computing” in Florida school districts. (more)

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *

PUBLICATIONS

The following is a sample of recent faculty and graduate student publications and presentations.

1. Garrett, M. T.  (2007). Hear the eagle’s cry: Native American spiritual traditions.  In O. J. Morgan (Ed.), Counseling and spirituality: Views from the profession (pp. 139-164).  Boston:  Lahaska.
2. Garrett, M. T.  (2006). When eagle speaks: Counseling Native Americans.  In C. C. Lee (Ed.), Multicultural issues in counseling: New approaches to diversity (3rd ed., pp. 25-53).  Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association.
3. Garrett, M.T. ( with Molina, B & Monteiro-Leitner, J.)  (2006). Communities of courage: Caring for immigrant children and families through creative multicultural counseling interventions.  Protecting Children, 21, 62-83.
4. Garrett, M. T.  (with Portman, T. A. A.) (2006). Native American healing traditions.  International Journal for Disability, Development, and Education, 53, 453-469.

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *

FACULTY/STAFF HONORS/APPOINTMENTS

EduBlog Award for COE distance education expert
What do Elvis Costello videos, tear-jerking Apple Computer ads, and deep debates about “social software” have in common? They can all be found on Christopher Sessums’ weblog, a favorite online haunt for education technology experts from around the world. Sessums, COE’s director of distance education, won “Best Individual Blog” in the 2006 EduBlog Awards. (more)

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *

STUDENT AWARDS/HONORS

UF student secures $1 million history teaching grant for Clay County
Dianna Miller, a doctoral student in the School of Teaching and Learning, wrote a grant proposal that secured nearly $1 million for the Clay County school district, where Miller used to teach. The U.S. Department of Education awarded the grant to the Andrew Jackson Liberty Fellowship, a professional development program for 50 K-12 history teachers. (more)

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *   *

ALUMNI NEWS

COE alum is Teacher of Year in Williston school
Christiana Robbins has just begun her teaching career, but the COE alumna has already won the admiration of her colleagues. Robbins, a 2005 graduate of ProTeach, has been named Teacher of the Year at Williston’s Joyce Bullock Elementary School, where she teaches first grade. The award winner is selected by a vote of the faculty. “She is one of the best classroom managers you could ever observe – this is a very rare thing in early career teachers,” said Michael DeLucas, who served as assistant principal at Joyce Bullock last year.

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *

IN THE NEWS

A recent sampling of “media hits” from the College of Education:

Gainesville Guardian – Professor Elizabeth “Buffy” Bondy, STL (11/23/06)
Bondy was mentioned in a story on a banquet held to announce the creation of the Alachua County Children’s Alliance.

Associated Press – Dean Catherine Emihovich (12/14/06)
Dean Emihovich was quoted in a story on the education legacy of Gov. Jeb Bush. She challenged assertions that Florida can have better K-12 schools without spending more money. The story is available here.

Daytona Beach News-Journal – Professor and Chair Linda Serra Hagedorn, EAP (11/30/06)
Hagedorn was quoted in a story on the rising numbers of “adult learners” – non-traditional college students older than 24 – in the higher education system. Hagedorn said lawmakers should help the system adjust to these students by funding more job placement programs and remediation strategies for people who have been out of school for several years.

Palm Beach Post– Professor and Chair Linda Serra Hagedorn, EAP (1/1/07)
Hagedorn was quoted in a story on the $9 million in Bright Futures scholarship money that went to private, for-profit universities last year. The story is available here.

Bonita News – Professor Paul George (12/17/06)
George was quoted in a story on middle-school dropouts who were overlooked when the Florida Department of Education calculated Lee County’s dropout rate.

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *   *

CALENDAR

NOV 17

Grand Guard by the Alumni Association
Noon -1 p.m., Digital Worlds Institute
Contact: Jodi Mount, 392-0728, ext. 250 or jmount@coe.ufl.edu

JAN. 19

Lastinger Center Board Meeting
11 a.m.-2 p.m., Terrace Room
Contact: Laverne Smith, lds@coe.ufl.edu

JAN. 22

Faculty Policy Council Meeting
2 p.m., 158 Norman Hall
Contact: Buffy Bondy, bondy@coe.ufl.edu

JAN. 25

Brown Bag: Topic and Speaker TBA
Noon-1 p.m., 158 Norman Hall
Contact: Ana Puig, 352-392-2315, ext. 235 or anapuig@coe.ufl.edu

FEB. 3

Retirement Celebration
Honoring Distinguished Professor Paul George
Time and Location: TBD
Contact: Sharen W. Halsall, 352-392-919, ext. 200 or swhalsall@coe.ufl.edu

FEB. 3

SAGE Symposium
10 a.m. – 5 p.m., Norman Hall Terrace Room
Contact: Kay Curcio, kcurcio@coe.ufl.edu

FEB. 12

Faculty Policy Council Meeting
2 p.m., 158 Norman Hall
Contact: Buffy Bondy, bondy@coe.ufl.edu

FEB. 15

Seminar: Death, Loss and the Quest for Meaning
CEU’s offered, Seating limited, Lunch will be served.
8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m., Norman Hall Terrace Room
Reception to follow
RSVP required by February 9: anapuig@coe.ufl.edu

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *   *

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Tour South Africa and Botswana this summer with COE professor
Faculty and students are invited to take part in an 21-day tour and clinical outreach experience in South Africa and Botswana this June. The trip, led by COE Professor Cirecie West-Olatunji, will take UF scholars to historical sites, schools and agencies, and includes attendance at a conference held by the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development. (more)

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *

QUICK LINKS

UF: www.ufl.edu
College of Education: education.ufl.edu
coE-News: Publications
Education Times magazine: Publications

* * * * * * * *

coE-News is produced by:
College of Education, University of Florida
Dean’s Office/News & Publications
Dean: Catherine Emihovich
Director: Larry Lansford (llansford@coe.ufl.edu)
Editor: Tim Lockette (Lockette@coe.ufl.edu)

Correspondents:
Marta Pollitt, P.K. Yonge; mpollitt@pky.ufl.edu

What would K-12 schools be like if every single student had his or her own laptop computer? If a PDA and Internet connection were considered the birthright of every child?

COE Associate Professor Kara Dawson may soon find out. She is part of a team that is studying the effects of “ubiquitious computing” in 11 Florida school districts.

“The state of Florida seems to be looking to a future in which the majority course content in schools is digital,” Dawson said. “I think this project is a way to test the waters.”

Dawson is a consultant on a Florida Department of Education program that allows various school districts to experiment with ways to incorporate information technology into daily practice in the classroom.

Like every other state, Florida receives federal grant money to update computer technology in schools. Through a program called “Leveraging Laptops: Effective Models for Enhancing Student Achievement,” the state is disbursing $10 million of that money to districts with a plan to implement ubiquitous computing. In other words, each district has a plan to provide students with their own computers or otherwise make computers a pervasive part of the learning experience. Because of cost constraints, these projects are usually small in scale, but they offer a glimpse of what ubiquitous computing could look like if implemented throughout a district.

“The unique thing about the Florida program is the leeway that has been given to the involved districts,” Dawson said. “Some districts are giving students computers and letting them take the computers home. Some of them are providing computers but keeping them at school. Some are using other technologies, like iPods or PDAs (personal data assistants).”

Dawson, two other researchers, Dr. Cathy Cavanaugh from the University of North Florida and Dr. Shannon White from the University of South Florida, and several graduate students included UF Doctoral Fellow, Joseph DiPietro are evaluating each program to see what strategies are most effective. The study is a year from completion, but Dawson and her colleagues expect to present preliminary results to state officials in the next few weeks.

Conventional wisdom – backed significant studies conducted in the 1990s – suggests that a 1:1 ratio between students and computing devices will lead to an improvement in both computer literacy and overall learning.

Dawson said preliminary results show that to be true, though how the computers are used is very important.

“We’re finding that course content, project-based learning and authentic contexts play a very important role,” she said.

For instance, Dawson said, one district created a program centered on a “hurricane preparedness” theme. Teachers designed hurricane-related lessons in science, social studies and other subjects, and students used computers to do research on those topics, create authentic products and collaborate with community leaders.

“This is the kind of approach that works really well,” she said.

Researchers are also finding that schools have a learning curve when it comes to implementing new technology programs – particularly in rural and low-income areas, where the use of computers in classrooms has lagged behind the average.

“Our main message so far is that there is a benefit to ubiquitous computing, but you have to give the districts time,” she said.

DEAN’S MESSAGE – JANUARY 16, 2007

A popular book on the different ways men and women communicate was called, “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.” Anyone at UF who did not see our Florida Gators chew up the Ohio State Buckeyes Jan. 8 to win the NCAA national title must be from Pluto (where the Buckeyes would no doubt like to hide after their complete meltdown). Seriously, the game was terrific, and while we know this great university is primarily about outstanding academic accomplishments, we all enjoy the glow of victory a national championship brings, and being in the media spotlight.

The beginning of the new semester for the college has been rather quiet, a welcome change from the intense flurry of events that marked last year as we celebrated our 100-year centennial. The culminating activity was the burial of a time capsule in the Norman Hall courtyard Dec. 7, 2006, which will be opened in 2056. Every department and major administrative unit in the college contributed some artifacts (a technical term for what most people call “stuff” – a list of all of them can be found on the COE Web site that should be interesting to the college faculty, staff and students in the future. Unless a major medical breakthrough occurs to slow the onslaught of the aging process, it’s highly unlikely I will be here for the ceremony, but I certainly expect some of our younger alums, faculty and students will enjoy seeing just how education was viewed in the not so distant past. If the pace of change continues to accelerate in the way it did the last 50 years, I imagine the differences will be profound. In a future column, I will outline some ways I believe colleges of education will be very different from what most people perceive them to be now, a change that parallels general trends in higher education occurring around the country.

The next big event for the College this year will be our fifth annual “Scholarship of Engagement” banquet on April 25 in Emerson Alumni Hall. At this event, we honor all our student scholarship recipients and the generous donors whose gifts made these scholarships possible, along with the winners of our SOE awards. This year, because we now have so many faculty whose research and scholarly activity fits the model of the “scholarship of engagement” first envisioned by Ernest Boyer, we will be honoring five COE recipients – one from each department. The call for nominations for these awards will be sent out within the next few weeks, so please mark your calendars for this outstanding event. Each year, it has attracted more participants, and we anticipate another overflow crowd to celebrate the accomplishments of our students, UF, COE and PKY faculty, school district and community leaders, along with recognizing the generosity of our donors.

While the event calendar may not be as packed as it was last year, the College is still an incredibly busy place with all the research, teaching and service activities underway. Because of all the faculty searches now taking place, along with the ongoing admission process for each department, it’s an exciting time as we select the new people who will be joining the college in the fall. The pulse of the College is strong and vibrant, and I fully expect that the dynamism and energy of the past five years to be even stronger in the future. And after Jan. 8, what else can I say but this – it’s great to be a Florida Gator!

– Dean Catherine Emihovich

Greetings from the year 2006.

You may think you know us already. Some of you have studied us in school and some of you are old enough to remember life at the turn of the 21st Century. If you’re an undergrad at UF in 2056, you probably learned in school that George W. Bush was president in 2006, that the nation was at war on two fronts, and that terrorism, global warming and the price of gas were all major concerns for us. If you’re a faculty member, you may recall how we obsessed over reality TV shows and were always attached to our iPod portable device.

However, you may not know what life was like for us here at Norman Hall. Historians don’t always record what happens in the day-to-day life of a college, and former students’ memories can get a bit hazy over the decades.

Here’s one historical fact you can be sure of: On December 7, 2006, faculty and staff of the various departments and units at UF’s College of Education met, and filled a time capsule with items that meant something to them. We hope these objects will give you a clearer picture of what the world was like – what our world was like – in 2006.

UF ALLIANCE

• 1. Alliance Fact Sheet
• 2. DVD of the presentation given at the Centennial Conference
• 3. DVD on the Cascading Tutoring Project
• 4. DVD on the Florida CHESP – a youth leadership institute
• 5. Lollipop – Dr. Bernie Oliver is known for his wide variety of candy available in the office

BABY GATOR CHILD DEVELOPMENT & RESEARCH CENTER

• 6. Digital photo album of the Baby Gator groups
• 7. “If You Are Happy and You Know It” book – a popular children’s books at Baby Gator during 2006
• 8. Baby bottle with the Baby Gator logo

BUSINESS OFFICE

• 9. New hire forms for full-time and student hires
• 10. Current insurance benefits
• 11. Current job openings in the COE

CENTER FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

• 12. 2006 Teaching, Inquiry, and Innovation Showcase Program

DEPARTMENT OF COUNSELOR EDUCATION

• 13. Group picture of counselor education students that went to New Orleans to counsel school children who suffered from post-traumatic stress related to Hurricane Katrina.
• 14. T-shirt in honor of counselor education students David and Brian Marshall, who were killed in a car accident while driving back to Gainesville from their mother’s home in Massachusetts during the Fall 2006 semester. The Marshall brothers were involved in a wide variety of fundraisers and other community-spirited events at UF. These T-shirts were sold to raise money for a scholarship that was established in their honor.

DEAN’S OFFICE

• 15. Sample of Barnie’s Coffee – Barnie’s Coffee Company is the current supplier of the Dean’s Office java. In 2006, the coffee thermos in the Dean’s break room was an important early-morning gathering point for staff and faculty at the College of Education
• 16. Picture of the Dean and Assistant Deans Assistant’s and two student assistants.
• 17. Dean’s area directory

DEVELOPMENT & ALUMNI AFFAIRS

• 18. COE giveaway/promotional items. These items are given to top donor prospects and to guests of the college (lip balm, mints, keychain, license tag, mug, pens)
• 19. Scholarship of Engagement banquet program
• 20. List of the current COE scholarships
• 21. COE Event Planning Calendar. The College of Education Alumni Affairs Coordinator also was the coordinator for all the College’s meetings and events.
• 22. Alumni Electronic Newsletter, Nov. 2006 edition. This monthly newsletter is distributed to 15,000 alumni via email.
• 23. Postcard mailer for the Centennial Kick-off Event with David Brooks. Brooks was a nationally syndicated New York Times op-ed columnist, author and a regular analyst on National Public Radio and PBS television.
• 24. Postcard and an agenda (printed off the website) of the Centennial Conference “Closing the Achievement Gap Through Partnerships”
• 25. Norman Hall Renovation Video – current campaign initiative

OFFICE OF DISTANCE EDUCATION

• 26. Computer keyboard – This is the prime interface used by distance education students.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

• 27. Recent accreditation report letter
• 28. CD of departmental documents

EDUCATION ADMINISTRATION & POLICY

• 29. Faculty picture
• 30. International Education Week Flyer
• 31. IHE program info sheet
• 32. Flyer for 2007 Community College FUTURES Assembly
• 33. Samples of course schedules

EDUCATION COLLEGE COUNCIL (ECC)

Representation of UF Students in the year 2006

• 34. Condom
• 35. Campus Map
• 36. Football Ticket
• 37. Gator Nights reminder
• 38. Reitz Hotel Pamphlet
• 39. Campus Talk Magazine
• 40. Top 2006 Movies

Representation of the ECC

• 41. Edugator shirt
• 42. ECC plaque w/ picture
• 43. USECA book mark/pamphlet

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

• 44. Copy of the first Grants.gov proposal submitted through the Department of Educational Research. In 2006, the U. S. Government limited electronic submissions of proposals for research funding to a single portal, which they called Grants.gov. The Office of Educational Research contributes a copy of the first Grants.gov proposal submitted through our office. It was submitted on November 15, 2006 on behalf of Allison Dempsey, then a doctoral student in School Psychology, and her faculty advisory, Dr. Nancy Waldron. Because it replaced paper submissions, Grants.gov was thought to be an innovation. At this point in 2006, we are not convinced.

GRADUATE STUDIES

• 45. Department Informational Brochure
• 46. Recruitment Video
• 47. Personal note from the Director, Thomasenia Adams

INSTRUCTIONAL & INFORMATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

• 48. Apple iPod mock-up – iPods are a portable device, mainly used to play music, video clips, podcasts, etc. IPods are the latest fad.
• 49. Microsoft wireless computer mouse
• 50. Article from NY Times about email SPAM –the ubiquitous junk e-mail that is a growing problem for businesses and other organizations in 2006
• 51. PDA – a popular, ultra portable computing device that gives remote access to the internet

LASTINGER CENTER FOR LEARNING

• 52. Lastinger Center for Learning fact sheet
• 53. Spreadsheet of partner school demographics. This chart depicts the demographics of our 14 partner schools at the time the capsule was sealed.
• 54. UF Lastinger Center brochure and framework: Outlines our center’s mission, initiatives, and research-based framework
• 55. Recent Advisory Board packet with center materials
• 56. Learning community facilitator manual from a recent coaches training

EDUCATION LIBRARY

• 57. “New Answers at your Library” pen and pencil set. These essential utensils signify the old and new of the modern academic research library. The pen and pencil are still very much used for recording information and on them is printed the UF Libraries website which signifies the electronic availability of a wealth of information accessible through authoritative databases.
• 58. A colorful book mark with a picture of our Education Library staff and new phone number. This is one terrific, competent group of six people who serve our COE faculty and students, as well as hundreds of other users from around the country and from abroad, on a daily basis, at nig

  ht and on the weekends, in person, by phone, mail and email.

• 59. A book jacket from a new title, Imagination and Play in the Electronic Age by Dorothy Singer. A new book just added to our collection by the noted Yale psychologist who spoke at UF’s Violence and Children conference represents the COE’s emphasis on research and improving the lives of children and families.

NEWS & PUBLICATIONS

• 60. “Our First One Hundred Years” History Booklet
• 61. “Education TIMES” College of Education Magazine – currently goes to all COE donors, and COE Alumni Association Members. Circulation: 10,000.
• 62. First official Viewbook. This publication is used as a recruitment tool.
• 63. Faculty and Staff Directory – the phone book for UF faculty and staff
• 64. The Gainesville Sun newspaper
• 65. Independent Florida Alligator newspaper
• 66. Time magazine
• 67. UF Today Magazine – Alumni Magazine put out by the Alumni Association to all members.
• 68.COE commencement program
• 69. Gator Nation posters and print of the explanation. The Foundation of the Gator Nation” was the tag line added to the UF logo and signage in 2006. It was the UF campaign that recognizes the strength in being a UF graduate. “Gator Nation” commercials ran on nationwide television during halftime breaks in UF football games.
• 70. The new UF logo rules printed out

P.K. YONGE DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH SCHOOL

• 71. PKY 2006 Alumni and Faculty directory
• 72. Performing Arts Center Booklet
• 73. 2006 The Yongester Voices, Vol. 71 Yearbook

SCHOOL OF TEACHING & LEARNING

• 74. A group photo of the faculty and staff
• 75. 2006 ‘STL Chronicle’ – mailed to STL alumni annually
• 76. A packet of business cards from STL faculty with messages to the future written on the back.

DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL EDUCATION

• 77. Group picture: Faculty and Doctoral students at the 2004 Division of Research Council for Exceptional Children Conference
• 78. Group picture of the staff
• 79. Special education Faculty biographies
• 80. "Dare to Dream – a guide to planning your future" booklet. The Department of Special Education’s Transitions Center mails this to teachers, parents and schools who are caring for children with disabilities.
• 81. Picture of the department mascot

OFFICE OF STUDENT SERVICES

• 82. 2004-05 Undergraduate Catalog
• 83. Student packet of paperwork with a letter to the future. This includes the admission packet, FTCE bulletin, application for certification and a campus map.
• 84. Apple Pin – given to all COE graduates at commencement
• 85. Pictures of Education College Council (ECC) students
• 86. “Preview” – a freshman orientation workbook
• 87. Office Supplies Pack: pen, pencil, white-out, hi-lighter and a penny for luck!

MISCELLANEOUS

• 88. A sample version of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, the primary assessment tool used by the Florida school system in 2006. The state’s reliance on the FCAT was a major point of debate in education and politics.
• 89. Information on UF’s men’s basketball team – the NCAA National Champions for 2006 (print out off website: Gatorzone.com).
• 90. Information on UF’s football team in 2006. As of Dec. 7, 2006, the Gators are preparing to face Ohio State in the national championship game. Go Gators!

Robert Neimeyer, a nationally known researcher and author on death, grief, loss and suicide intervention, will lead an all-day workshop on “Death, Loss and the Quest for Meaning” on Feb. 15 at the College of Education. His appearance kicks off the first of several yearly lectures on death education planned by the college.

The free workshop, open to any UF faculty members, students and staff, will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Terrace Room at Norman Hall. CEUs will be offered to licensed practitioners. Seating is limited and advance reservations are required.

The workshop is the first installment of the revived Arthur G. Peterson Death Education Lecture Series to be held each spring over the next few years at the College of Education. The series was originally funded in 1977 through a gift from the late Arthur G. Peterson, then a retired Harvard University professor. The initial lectures were coordinated by Hannelore Wass, then a faculty member in education psychology at the College of Education and a pioneer in the field of death studies. Peterson’s gift to UF was prompted by his friendship with Wass.

In Robert Neimeyer, the College of Education has lined up one of the top experts in the field of bereavement and death education for this year’s presentation. Neimeyer is professor and director of psychotherapy in the psychology department at the University of Memphis. He has authored nearly 300 articles and book chapters and published 20 books, including Meaning Reconstruction and the Experience of Loss, and is editor of the international journal Death Studies. Neimeyer has served as president of the Association for Death Education and Counseling and as chair of the International Work Group for Death, Dying and Bereavement. Neimeyer is currently working to advance a more adequate theory of grieving as a meaning-making process.

“A central process in grieving entails reconstruction of the bereaved person’s world of meaning,” he said. “Workshop participants will explore this perspective through systematic presentation and hands-on practice with meaning-making strategies.”

Lunch will be provided at the workshop, and an hour-long reception will follow at 5 p.m. On the following day, Feb. 16, Neimeyer will hold one-hour conversations with College of Education graduate students (10 a.m.) and faculty (11 a.m.), in Room 158 Norman.

To RSVP for reservations (no later than Feb. 2) or for more information, contact Ana Puig in the College of Education at anapuig@coe.ufl.edu or 392-2315, ext. 235.

#         #         #

Writer
Larry Lansford, llansford@coe.ufl.edu, 352-392-0726, ext. 266

Thirty years ago, Paul George was among a group of visionary UF education professors who campaigned for creation of separate schools to meet the needs of children in early adolescence.

Now George says many Florida middle schools may no longer be serving their original function. He recently headed a panel of Florida educators that produced an assessment of critical issues for middle school reform in our state, at the request of the Helios Education Foundation.

“When we think of the student as the client – rather than the high school or the FCAT – we are obligated to address all the developmental needs of children in early adolescence,” George said. “We need to think about the students’ social development, their health, their self-esteem and a number of other issues that reach a crucial point in early adolescence, rather than treating a student as a test score.”

George, who has been identified by Middle School Journal as the nation’s “number one ranking scholar” in middle grades education, led a group of middle-school experts in a review of the latest scholarship addressing the successes and failings of Florida’s middle schools.

The review was requested by Helios, a foundation created when a large not-for-profit student loan corporation — which provided loans in Arizona and Florida — was reorganized in 2004. One of the goals of Helios is to promote better middle-grades education in both states.

George’s group found a system in which many schools were doing their jobs admirably well – but many other schools were too large and too testing-focused to meet the special developmental needs of adolescents.

“Florida has the largest secondary schools in the nation,” George said. “While there are good economic reasons for this – per-student costs are lower in a large school – it isn’t always the best environment for learning.”

The Sunshine State’s massive middle schools are often staffed by administrators and teachers with little training specific to middle school issues, George said. Those educators are often biding their time in middle school while looking for positions in high schools. The result, he said, is an alienating environment where classroom instruction resembles the grade level teachers wish they were teaching, rather than instruction that is appropriate for students in their early teens.

“The curriculum is often organized like the curriculum at a college,” he said. “There’s even a push now to have students declare a major in middle school. This is completely inappropriate. Students at this age should be exploring their potential, not focusing on a career.”

George and his co-authors presented preliminary findings to Helios in June and submitted their final report in October.

Helios was formed after the Southwest Student Services Corporation, a not-for-profit corporation with subsidiaries that made student loans in Florida and Arizona, reorganized its corporate structure in 2004. The newly-reorganized entity sold its loan operations to a for-profit company, generating more than $500 million for the creation of Helios, which is dedicated to improving educational opportunities for students in the states served by its former student loan operation.

Helios has already given more than $10 million to various educational institutions in Arizona. The foundation expects to give between $20 million and $30 million in grants per year in the future.

According to George, Helios has identified middle-grades education as one of the critical areas requiring improvement in both states. George said reforms in Florida and Arizona could lead other states to reexamine their approach to middle-school education.

“Many of our findings have been borne out by other studies at the national level,” George said. “This could be the beginning of a nationwide reform of middle-grades education.”

We are now well into the fall, and time seems to be flying by. Homecoming was early this year (October 6) and as usual, COE was well represented in the parade by our Education College Council float in partnership with the College of Engineering. The student ice cream social was a huge success with the line getting bigger every year. Perhaps the lure of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream was the main attraction as the deans dished it out. The next fun event for the college will be the Haunted House Night on October 29, when the legends of Norman Hall come alive in a spooky atmosphere quite different from the environment students experience during the day. Visit our coE-News article for a preview of what to expect.

All these fun events for students are counterbalanced by a series of troubling national reports that have been issued in the past few weeks. The first one was by Arthur Levine, the former president of Teachers College-Columbia, and purported to be a research study of teacher education programs at institutions across the country. While Dr. Levine did provide some useful and challenging recommendations to faculty within teacher education, overall many people found it disappointing that a former president of an institution well known for its academic rigor and quality in teacher education basically reiterated many of the same criticisms of the field that have long been addressed by major colleges of education. In our case, we are already following (and have done so for many years) his recommendations to develop long-term partnerships with school districts in terms of professional development schools, offer a five-year program (known as ProTeach at UF), establish mechanisms for quality control, and encourage faculty to build a substantive link between research and practice. All people have to do is read the Education Times (the latest issue is now out) to find numerous examples of faculty scholarship that does exactly what he prescribed. The one area we do need to improve on is establishing a link between the quality of preparation our teacher candidates receive, and student learning in the classroom. We fully acknowledge the importance of this work, and several faculty are already in touch with Florida Department of Education people to gain access to databases that will enable us to determine the impact of teacher preparation on student achievement.

The second report was issued by the Commission on the Future of Higher Education that was formed by U.S. DOE Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings. While this report did not critique colleges of education in particular, the Commission’s findings will have a major impact on all institutions of higher education. Rather surprisingly, I believe this report will create a unique opportunity for colleges of education to shine on their campuses, since many of the concerns listed in the report are those that we have been grappling with for years, including a stronger focus on instruction and the assessment of student learning, and the need to provide greater access for low-income students to higher education.

A third report, produced by the Education Sector, challenges the basis of national rankings as being overly concerned with input measures such as SAT/GRE scores, acceptance rates, and peer rankings that privilege already well-known schools, and which do not consider outcomes more meaningful to society in terms of students’ long-term career paths and institutional commitment to civic engagement and greater diversity. The theme of our Centennial Conference, “Closing the Achievement Gap through Partnerships,” is an excellent example of our college’s commitment to making a difference in high-poverty, highly diverse families, schools, and communities.

While our college does well on the traditional indicators, I believe we would do even better than some of our peers on these new criteria, and I would welcome a national debate on this issue. Maybe our next conference….?

– Dean Emihovich

Professor James Doud is this year’s recipient of the John M. Davis Distinguished Educational Leadership Award, presented by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools’ Council on Accreditation and School Improvement. The award is one of the highest honors offered by the organization, and is given to educators and researchers who have made a significant impact on the educational profession and have a reputation for innovation in educational change and development. Doud will accept the award at the annual SACS CASI conference in Atlanta, Dec. 9-11.

Decades of research have shown that children with severe disabilities benefit by interacting with their non-disabled peers, yet most severely disabled students remain isolated in classrooms that serve only students with severe disabilities, according to University of Florida special education researchers.

UF’s Project RISE (Research in Inclusion and Systems Change in Special Education) hopes to change that. Conceived by faculty at the College of Education, RISE is an effort to prepare new leaders in the field who can conduct research on instructional methods, provide support to practicing teachers who want to provide more effective services, and ultimately facilitate systemic change in schools to get better results for all students, including students with severe disabilities. With schools nationwide facing a shortage of qualified special education instructors, and many leadership roles remaining unfilled, the project ranked No. 1 on the U.S. Department of Education’s list of funded projects for leadership training this year.

UF doctoral students Ann-Marie Orlando, Jennifer Montgomery and Jill Storch, along with post-doctoral student David Hoppey, are working with Associate Professor Diane Ryndak on the project. They are involved in three aspects of leadership training. The first aspect of Project RISE involves conducting research on the most effective services for students
with severe disabilities, within settings where they have access to classmates who do not have disabilities.

“If only six students with disabilities are in a classroom, who do they get to share things with? By putting them in a classroom with classmates who do not have disabilities, the students interact and communicate more,” Ryndak said. “They have more opportunities to demonstrate that they understand what is going on in the class and chances to demonstrate their knowledge with classmates.”

The second aspect of leadership addressed in Project RISE is helping current and future teachers develop the expertise required to implement effective services in inclusive settings. The third aspect of leadership is engaging in systemic reform efforts with districts and schools that want to implement inclusive services more effectively.

VOL. 2 ISSUE 2

OCT. 16, 2006

You’re reading coE-News, an electronic newsletter produced monthly during the academic year by the College of Education News & Publications Office to keep faculty and staff up-to-date on college news and activities. Click here to download a PDF version of this edition. You will need a PDF reader to view this document.

GOT NEWS? We want to hear it. Submit individual or unit news and calendar events of collegewide interest to news@coe.ufl.edu for publication consideration. All submissions must be in writing or via e-mail and must include contact information for follow-up questions.

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *   *

IN THIS ISSUE:

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *   *

DEAN’S MESSAGE

Troubling national reports on education provide opportunity for UF to shine
Dean Catherine Emihovich offers her take on Arthur Levine’s “Educating School Teachers” report, the recent findings of the Commission on the Future of Higher Education and challenges to the validity of college rankings. (more)

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *   *

TOP STORIES

IHE gets $1.6 million grant to help community colleges improve data use
UF’s Institute of Higher Education, headed by Educational Administration and Policy Chair Linda Serra Hagedorn, has been awarded a $1.6 million grant from the Lumina Foundation for Education for an innovative program that will teach community college administrators to make better use of the data they collect on student achievement. (more)

UF survey: Florida needs more bilingual school counselors
Administrators in 8 of every 10 school districts say Florida needs more bilingual school counselors to meet the needs of the state’s growing Hispanic population, according to a recently published survey by Professor Harry Daniels and Associate Professor Sondra Smith-Adcock in Counselor Education. (more)

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *

NEWS AND NOTICES

Why get sick? Flu shots available soon.
Flu season peaks in January and February, so unless you want to be out of action during one of the busiest parts of the school year, you’d better get your flu shot. Shots will be available in the Terrace Room Nov. 3 from 9-11 a.m. The charge is $5 for students, $20 for faculty and staff. You must present a Gator One card to get a shot. Only cash or checks will be accepted – no debit cards. Supplies are limited, so RSVP to Rosie Warner at rwarner@coe.ufl.edu.

COPIS to meet, chart future course in Gainesville
Researchers and education leaders from around the country will converge on Gainesville Oct. 27-29 to map out the next decade of research in the field of instructional supervision. The Council of Professors of Instructional Supervision will hold its annual fall conference here, with the goal of setting a research agenda for the next 10 years. (more)

Go global with International Education Week
Do you want to learn more about international education?  Perhaps you have had an international experience that has changed your perspective enlightened your life?  You’re invited to share your interests, experiences and research through posters and/or manuscripts during COE’s International and Comparative Education Event, to be held Nov. 14 from 2-7 p.m. in recognition of International Education Week. Participants and visitors can also enjoy a panel of speakers, free food and music. For more information, contact Dr. Linda Serra Hagedorn at 392-2391 or Susan Herrera at 392-2391 ext. 268. Guidelines for submission of posters and manuscripts are available here.

WARNING – Haunted Norman Hall – WARNING
If you are planning to attend the Haunted Norman Hall event, please be advised that the College of Education cannot be held responsible for any cross-dimensional kidnappings, zombifications, vampire bites or other supernatural mishaps that occur during the event. If you have a heart condition, please stay away from Norman Hall between 6:30-11 p.m. Oct. 29. If the sight of blood makes you cringe, do NOT go to the Student Services office and pay $3 for one of only 400 advance tickets to the creepiest haunted house in Gainesville.

Parents: “Chomp and chat” with COE experts
Associate Professor Tina Smith-Bonahue will discuss “Dealing with Problematic Behaviors in Your Child” in this month’s installment of the Baby Gator “Chomp and Chat” lecture series, to be held from 11:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 18, in the faculty dining room at the Levin College of Law, across the street from Baby Gator. Established this year, “Chomp and Chat” allows local residents to discuss early childhood parenting issues with faculty and researchers from UF. Anyone involved with parenting or child care may attend. Drinks and dessert will be provided, but attendees should bring their own lunch. This month’s lecture includes a drawing for a free one-month gym membership and giveaways of children’s puzzles.

Heartbreakers and art-makers
Maybe you didn’t get a chance to see hometown favorite Tom Petty perform at the O’Connell Center last month – but you just might have caught a glimpse of the “Welcome Home Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers” mural that appeared on the 34th Street wall before the Heartbreakers arrived. Mike Carter, a senior fiscal assistant in COE’s business office, is the person to thank for that. On the Sunday before the concert, Mike and his sons Kris (now majoring in English at UF) and Andru (a Gainesville High sophomore) spent 6 hours painting the panel. A photo of the mural was included in the plaque presented to Petty during his pre-concert press conference by UF first lady Chris Machen.

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *

FACULTY/STAFF HONORS/APPOINTMENTS

FASD honors Vernetson
Assistant Dean for Student Affairs Theresa Vernetson received the Distinguished Service Award from the Florida Association for Staff Development at its annual conference Sept. 26 in St. Petersburg. Vernetson is on the board of directors of FASD, an organization that promotes and encourages the work of staff development contacts at the state’s various school districts. She was honored for her many years of work in organizing the group’s annual Staff Development Leadership Conference and for compiling a history of that conference.

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *   *

STUDENT HONORS

Doctoral student named FEA Teacher of the Year
Trent Daniel, a doctoral student in Educational Administration and Policy, has been named the Teacher of the Year by the Florida Education Association. Daniel, who teaches chemistry and chairs the science department at Hagerty High School in Seminole County, is one of five Florida finalists for the National Education Association’s Teacher of the Year award. (more)

Doctoral student, recent graduates publish in Elementary School Journal
Congratulations to doctoral student Jacqueline Love Zeig, recent Ph. D. graduate Courtney Zmach and M.E. graduate Katie Solic, whose paper, “The confluence of two mandates: Core reading programs and third grade retention in Florida,” was published in a recent issue of Elementary School Journal.

UF names Holmes Scholars
Six UF education doctoral students have been named as Holmes Scholars for 2006. Evelyn S. Chiang and Katherin E. Garland are receiving the award for the first time, while Nicole Fenty, Sophie Maxis, Jyrece McClendon and Tyran Wright were awarded the scholarship for the second year in a row. (more)

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *   *

IN MEMORIAM

Arthur Lewis, a former professor in Curriculum and Instruction who helped found the college’s ProTeach program and traveled the world as an educational consultant, died Sept. 10 at age 89. (more)

Vincent McGuire, a former professor best known for his crusading work on school accountability in Florida in the 1960s, died Sept. 4 at age 87. (more)

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *

P.K. YONGE NEWS

Third Golden School Award for PKY
For the third year in a row, P.K. Yonge Developmental School has won the Florida Department of Education’s Golden School Award, which recognizes schools with exemplary volunteer programs. This year the school had more than 360 volunteers logging a total of 7,500 hours of volunteer work. That’s roughly 20 hours per volunteer – and one volunteer for each day of the year.

PKY logs excellent graduation rate – in all demographic groups
According to PKY’s soon-to-be-released annual report, the school logged a 98 percent graduation rate in 2005-06, up 2 percent from the previous year. The rate has the school far above the statewide average (69 percent for 2004-05).

Teachers open classrooms for Exchange Day
Middle and high school teachers at PKY opened their classrooms to their colleagues in this year’s first Teacher Exchange Day last month. Teachers shared the strategies they are incorporating into their instruction. (more)

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *   *

IN THE NEWS

A recent sampling of “media hits” from the College of Education:

Daytona Beach News Journal –  Dean Catherine Emihovich (9/17/06)
Dean Emihovich was quoted in a story about a mentoring program that pairs black professionals in Flagler County with black students who are struggling academically. Emihovich said black students are “highly vulnerable to being labeled” in the educational system.

Orlando Sentinel – Associate Professor Holly Lane (10/8/06)
Lane was quoted in a story about a Rotary Club drive that provided dictionaries to third- and fourth-graders in Volusia County. Lane said children are more likely to use a book if they own it. The story is available here.

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *   *

coE-CALENDAR

OCT 18

Baby Gator Chomp and Chat
11:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m., faculty dining room, Levin College of Law

OCT 18

Brown Bag Lunch
Speaker: B.O. Smith Research Professor Maureen Conroy
Topic: “A Functional Approach to Social Skills Assessment and Intervention for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders”
Noon -1 p.m., 158 Norman
Contact: Ana Puig, 352-392-2315, ext. 235 or anapuig@coe.ufl.edu

OCT 27-29

COPIS Conference
Paramount Plaza Hotel
For more information: http://www.doce-conferences.ufl.edu/copis/default.aspx?page=81

OCT 27

Development and Alumni Affairs event
Jacksonville Princess Dinner Cruise
Contact: Jodi Mount, 392-0728, ext. 250 or jmount@coe.ufl.edu

OCT 29

Norman Hall Haunted House (Open to the public, adults only)
6:30 p.m. – 11 p.m., Norman Hall
Tickets: $3 (advance)
Contact: Jodi Mount, 392-0728, ext. 250 or jmount@coe.ufl.edu

NOV 2-4

UF College of Education Centennial Conference
Closing the Achievement Gap through Partnerships
St. Petersburg, FL
Register Now! http://www.doce-conference.ufl.edu/gap

NOV. 2

Gator Gathering in conjunction with the Centennial Conference
7-9 p.m., St. Petersburg Hilton
R.S.V.P. to Jodi Mount, 392-0728, ext. 250 or jmount@coe.ufl.edu

NOV. 8-11

Teacher Education Division of Council for Exceptional Children Conference
San Diego, CA
contact: Shaira Rivas-Otero, 392-0701, ext: 242 or srivas@coe.ufl.edu

NOV. 10

VETERAN’S DAY OBSERVED

NOV. 13

Faculty Policy Council Meeting
2 p.m., Norman Hall, Rm 158
Contact: Buffy Bondy, bondy@coe.ufl.edu

NOV. 14

International and Comparative Education Event
2-7 p.m., Norman Terrace Room
Contact: Linda Serra Hagedorn, 392-2391 or Susan Herrera, 392-2391 ext. 268

NOV. 14

Retired Faculty Reception
6:30 – 8:30 p.m., Keene Faculty Center
RSVP to: Jodi Mount, 392-0728, ext. 250 or jmount@coe.ufl.edu

NOV. 15

Brown Bag: Topic and Speaker TBA
12:00pm-1:00pm, 158 Norman
Contact: Ana Puig, 352-392-2315, ext. 235 or anapuig@coe.ufl.edu

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *   *

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Go get your 15 minutes of fame. Go Gators!
If you’ve been keeping up with Gator football, you’ve probably seen those eye-catching “Go Gators” commercials that air at halftime. Now you have the chance to get in on the act – and possibly win something. Visitors to www.goGatorNation.com are encouraged to upload both photos and videos inspired by the commercial (see the website for examples). Four lucky video participants will win tickets to the Jan. 31 basketball game – and will see their video played on the Jumbotron screen during the game. Entrants may be employees, students, alumni or anyone who wants to affiliate with the Gator Nation.

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *

QUICK LINKS

UF: www.ufl.edu
College of Education: education.ufl.edu
coE-News: Publications

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *   *

coE-News is produced by:
College of Education, University of Florida
Dean’s Office/News & Publications
Dean: Catherine Emihovich
Director/Managing Editor: Larry Lansford (llansford@coe.ufl.edu)
Editor: Tim Lockette (Lockette@coe.ufl.edu)

Correspondents:
Marta Pollitt, P.K. Yonge
Tara Goodin, Student Writer

Source
Harry Daniels, Professor and Chair
Counselor Education
UF College of Education
352-392-0731, ext. 226

or

Sondra Smith-Adcock, Associate Professor
Counselor Education
UF College of Education
352-392-0731, ext. 239

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Hispanics make up the largest minority in Florida schools – but administrators in eight out of 10 school districts say they don’t have enough Spanish-speaking counselors to serve the growing Hispanic population, according to a University of Florida study.

“Parents need to be able to talk to a counselor about their child’s progress,” said Professor Harry Daniels, chairman of the counselor education department at UF’s College of Education and a co-author of the study. “They need a place in the school system where they feel safe, where they feel their child’s needs are understood.

“These things may seem small, but they have a huge effect on academic success.”

Daniels and co-author Sondra Smith-Adcock, an associate professor of counselor education at UF, led a team that surveyed school services administrators in school districts across Florida on the counseling provided to Hispanic students. The researchers published their results in this month’s issue of the journal Professional School Counseling.

Fifty-nine percent of the administrators said their Hispanic students were at risk of not receiving needed counseling. Eighty-four percent said their district needed more Spanish-speaking bilingual counselors to address the personal needs of students, and 80 percent agreed that their district needed more Spanish-speaking counselors to guide students in making career decisions.

The results, researchers say, were worrisome but not surprising. Studies in the mid-1990s showed that while Hispanics made up one-eighth of Florida’s student population at the time, only 2 percent of school counselors were Hispanic. In the past decade, Smith-Adcock said, every single county has seen its Hispanic population increase by at least 30 percent – but there is no evidence of a similar increase in the number of Hispanic counselors.

“When school administrators think of the needs of Hispanic students, they tend to think in terms of language acquisition for new immigrants,” Smith-Adcock said. “There’s a whole stratum of services that is being missed.”

Hispanic students who face mental health issues may find it difficult to trust or open up to non-Hispanic counselors, and often need someone who speaks their first language, Smith-Adcock said.

However, mental health counseling is just one responsibility for counselors, Smith-Adcock said. They also help students define their career goals and navigate the increasingly complex academic world in a way that will help them achieve their goals. These services are particularly difficult to provide students who are new arrivals to the country, or whose parents are first-generation immigrants with limited English skills.

“Simply choosing electives is a new experience for many people in the Latino community,” said Jennifer Gonzales Young, a district-level bilingual counselor for Hillsborough County Public Schools. “In many Spanish-speaking countries, students take a prescribed schedule of courses, and don’t get to choose their classes. Some parents are overwhelmed by the system, and if it isn’t explained to them properly, their children can miss some important opportunities.”

Similar problems can arise when students apply to college, apply for financial aid or try to interpret the results of standardized tests, Young said.

Hillsborough County has one of the fastest-growing Hispanic populations in the state. Young said there are an estimated 51,000 Hispanic children in Hillsborough County’s school system, and more than 36,000 speak Spanish as their first language. Until recently, Young was one of only a few Hispanic counselors serving that population.

“There seems to be a shortage of bilingual counselors everywhere in the state, and Hillsborough is just one example,” UF’s Daniels said. “At the elementary level, for instance, the ideal ratio is one counselor per 300 students. I don’t know of a single place in Florida that comes close to that ratio for Spanish-speaking students.”

UF is attempting to relieve the shortage. The College of Education recently completed a three-year, grant-funded program that brought 17 bilingual Hillsborough County teachers to UF to study for the educational specialist degree in counselor education. All of those teachers were Spanish-speaking and most were either of Hispanic origin or had prior experience living in a Spanish-speaking country.

Daniels said the project, titled “Consejeros: Levantando El Pueblo” (or “Counselors Lifting the Community”) was more than simply a degree program. Students followed a culturally relevant course of study designed to give equal focus to the three major influences in the life of Hispanic families: the school, the family and the community.

Based on the success of that project, Daniels and Smith-Adcock are considering the creation of a permanent distance education program that would allow bilingual teachers to study for a counselor education degree in the county where they work.

“Many bilingual teachers are already serving as a contact point between the school system and the families of their Hispanic students,” he said. “By becoming full-time counselors, they can fill that role more effectively, for more people.”

By: Tim Lockette, (352) 392-0726 ext. 274; lockette@coe.ufl.edu

Researchers and education leaders from around the country will converge on Gainesville Oct. 27-29 to map out the next decade of research in the field of instructional supervision. The Council of Professors of Instructional Supervision will hold its annual fall conference at the Paramount Plaza Hotel, with the goal of setting a research agenda for the next 10 years.

“The field of supervision, as currently defined, remains under-researched and in need of a collective body of empirical knowledge that can inform public school leaders and university scholars today,” said COE Assistant Professor Diane Yendol-Hoppey, planner for the conference.

Yendol-Hoppey defines instructional supervision as “a field of study that highlights the essential role that school principals, teacher leaders and university faculty play in teacher learning and school improvement.”

For more information on the conference and how to register, visit the UF Conference Department’s website or contact Yendol-Hoppey (352) 392-9191 ext. 244.

Professor Emeritus Vincent McGuire, a long-time member of the COE faculty and outspoken proponent of school accountability, died Sept. 4 in Gainesville. He was 87.

In Norman Hall, McGuire was known as a well-loved professor of English education — a position he held for 38 years — and founder of a novel internship program that used student teaching interns as full-time substitutes in Key West schools.

Outside the UF campus, McGuire was known as a scourge of shoddy schools and an unvarnished critic of politicians who defended them.

In the mid-1960s, after McGuire had been teaching at UF for almost two decades, he was appointed to the Evaluation Team of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. He didn’t like what he saw.

“Up until that time it was a rubber stamp,” McGuire said in a 1995 interview with UF’s Oral History Project. “Anybody got accredited by the Southern Association.”

When McGuire became chair of the group in 1965, SACS began yanking the accreditation of schools McGuire found to be substandard – including every single school in Jacksonville, where McGuire observed overcrowded classrooms, outdated texts, exposed electrical wiring in school buildings and other violations.

McGuire’s hard line on accreditation led to hearings by the Florida Legislature, during which some lawmakers threatened to ban SACS from operating in the Sunshine State. One legislator ribbed the professor by saying that, by McGuire’s standards, then-Secretary of Defense Robert MacNamara would not have been qualified to be principal of a secondary school.

“No,” McGuire quipped. “And he could not be a Florida legislator either.”

McGuire remained outspoken on accountability issues throughout his career, and he applied his expertise to school systems in other countries, serving as a Fulbright scholar in Mexico and an educational advisor to Bermuda and Argentina.

He was born in Harrison, New York and began his teaching career in New York schools. After earning his master’s degree from Columbia in 1942, McGuire spent four years in Navy intelligence, where, among other jobs, he was in charge of distributing multi-engine planes for combat squadrons throughout the Pacific theater. He worked on Wall Street briefly before coming to Florida to teach, coach and pursue a doctorate at UF.

Trent Daniel, a doctoral student in the Department of Educational Administration and Policy, has been named the Florida Education Association’s Teacher of the Year for 2006. She awaits the results of the National Education Association’s Teacher of the Year award for which she made it into the top-five finalists of nominees from each state.

“The nominees are judged based on ability to teach diversity and the community,” Daniel said.

In June, Daniel visited Washington, D.C., where she was asked to teach a 20-minute lesson for five judges. Like any good teacher under pressure, Daniel got creative, asking the judges to role-play as ions in a lesson about atoms and electrical charges.

“Using a water gun, I taught them how atoms become ions, and I had the five people on the panel act out being an ion,” Daniel said.

Daniel worked to create the science department at Seminole County’s Hagerty High School, and she now serves as the department’s chairperson as well as a chemistry teacher. Daniel is also is involved in grant writing and has worked on professional training development.

She will return to D.C. in February when the results for the NEA award are announced. The winner receives $35,000 and serves as the NEA’s spokesperson for one year.

SEPT. 15, 2006

You’re reading coE-News, an electronic newsletter produced monthly during the academic year by the College of Education News & Publications Office to keep faculty and staff up-to-date on college news and activities. Click here to download a PDF version of this edition. You will need a PDF reader to view this document.

GOT NEWS? We want to hear it. Submit individual or unit news and calendar events of collegewide interest to news@coe.ufl.edu for publication consideration. All submissions must be in writing or via e-mail and must include contact information for follow-up questions.

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *   *

IN THIS ISSUE:

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *   *

DEAN’S MESSAGE

The winds of change
Dean Catherine Emihovich welcomes you back to campus – and explains why this year may be one of the most exciting in the college’s history. (more)

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *   *

TOP STORIES

Centennial conference to take on “Achievement Gap”
Former New York Times education columnist Richard Rothstein and renowned researchers from Harvard, Boston College and the University of Southern California will join school superintendents from across Florida to discuss ways to close the academic gap between the “haves” and “have nots” in COE’s centennial conference, to be held Nov. 2-4 in St. Petersburg.

Titled “Closing the Achievement Gap Through Partnerships,” the conference will take on a topic that many people find uncomfortable: the social and economic inequities – inside and outside the classroom – that give children from affluent families a leg up on their less-privileged counterparts. Early registration for the conference ends Sept. 30. (more)

Howard Hughes grant to bolster science education
Bolstered by a grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), the College of Education will team with nearly 50 UF academic departments in 10 colleges in an ambitious effort to close the critical gap in science education, starting with UF’s own student body. The Science for Life initiative – a $4 million project funded by HHMI, UF and other sources – was created to foster science education and recruit future scientists from among students in middle schools, high schools and colleges. (more)

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *

NEWS AND NOTICES

Professor, grad students help New Orleans residents get back to school
As the nation prepared to mark the first anniversary of one of the worst natural disasters in its history, a professor and several students from COE’s Department of Counselor Education were on the ground in New Orleans, helping locals with their first school year after Hurricane Katrina. (more)

ProTeach students work in South Africa
For many college students, summer is a time to eat mom’s cooking, catch up with old friends and work a paying job. For a dozen students in COE’s ProTeach program, the summer of 2006 was all about rolling up your sleeves and working to make the world a better place. ProTeach students traveled to some of the poorest areas of South Africa to teach elementary-age children and perform much-needed school maintenance. (more)

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *

RESEARCH/GRANTS

A sampling of new faculty research and grant activities:

Leadership gap looms for community colleges as baby boomers retire
Community colleges could face a critical leadership gap as administrators born during the early baby boom era retire over the next five years, according to research by
Professor Dale Campbell, director of the COE’s community college leadership consortium. (more)

Students with mental retardation make gains in the general classroom
A recent COE study found that the nation as a whole made significant strides toward including students with mental retardation in the general classroom during the 1990s. However, the study’s authors say, progress seems to have stalled in this decade, and students with MR are still confronted by a patchwork of varying state laws. (more)

COE study finds different learning styles in U.S., China
American students tend to be more imaginative and less organized than their counterparts in the People’s Republic of China, a study by COE Professor Thomas Oakland suggests. Oakland and colleague Li Lu of Shanxi Medical University surveyed students in both countries to find out more about their preferred learning styles, and found that the two cultures influence students in a variety of ways. (more)

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *

FACULTY/STAFF HONORS/APPOINTMENTS

UF taps education professor for brain trust
Linda Behar-Horenstein, a professor of educational administration and policy at UF’s College of Education, has been appointed to the university’s Academy of Distinguished Teaching Scholars –– a brain trust of educators dedicated to improving teaching at UF. (more)

College honors new and recently promoted faculty
COE welcomed its new faculty and honored recently-promoted faculty members at its fall faculty reception Sept. 14. If you missed the reception, take a look here to see who is wearing new rank, or take this shortcut for an introduction to our new faculty.

COE welcomes new associate director of development
UF alumna Laforis Knowles is the newest addition to COE’s development staff. As associate director of development, Knowles will help raise funds from local and regional donors to the college, with a focus on increasing the number of student scholarships. Knowles is in a newly created position and will work with the college’s new development director, for which a search is underway.

Knowles returns to UF after four years at the March of Dimes, where she directed in-school fundraising for an 11-county area and helped organize WalkAmerica, the fundraiser that draws thousands to Gainesville each year. Knowles is a graduate of UF’s College of Journalism and Communications and lives in Anthony.

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *   *

STUDENT HONORS

Three UF students awarded KDP scholarships
Every year, students from more than 560 college chapters of Kappa Delta Pi, International Honor Society in Education, compete for the organization’s 50 coveted scholarships. This summer, three of those scholarships were awarded to UF students. ProTeach student Sarah Elizabeth Huggins was the recipient of the $500 President’s Scholarship; Diana Elysee, also a ProTeach student, was awarded the $750 Harold D. Drummond Scholarship; and doctoral student Jennifer Graff was awarded the $1,500 C. Glenn Hass Scholarship for her research on gender and literacy.  KDP officials say it is unusual to have three scholarship recipients from a single university in the same year.

Dissertation wins national award
Wesley Wilson-Strauss, a recent doctoral graduate in Education Administration and Policy, has won high honors for his dissertation. Earlier this year, Wilson-Strauss defended “Graduate Preparation of Community College Student Affairs Officers,” which was named 2006 Dissertation of the Year by the National Council on Student Development.

“With an increasingly diverse student population, student affairs officers at community colleges are questioning what their proper role should be – and this dissertation squarely addresses the topics of who we are and what we do,” said NCSD Director Debra Bragg, a professor of education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Student’s scholarship is “iron-clad”
Jacqueline Lopez, a senior in ProTeach Elementary Education, will soon be developing lesson plans on one of America’s most famous shipwrecks – one of her duties as a recipient of a coveted National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Ernest F. Hollings Scholarship. Lopez will help write a teacher’s resource guide on the USS Monitor, the nation’s first iron-clad warship, as part of a 10-week internship at NOAA. The internship is one facet of the $8,000-per-year scholarship, awarded each year to a few dozen students nationwide who show promise as future leaders in increasing public awareness of oceanic and atmospheric sciences.

School Psychology student awarded Hyman Scholarship
Krista Schwenk, a doctoral student in School Psychology, has been awarded the 2006 Irwin Hyman Memorial Scholarship from the American Academy of School Psychology. Doctoral candidates in school psychology from around the country compete for the scholarship, which includes a $1,000 stipend. Schwenk is a member of the student editorial board for School Psychology Quarterly and has been involved in a number of research projects, including ongoing NIH-funded studies on Prader-Willi Syndrome and obesity.

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *   *

IN MEMORIAM

The EduGator family suffered several notable losses in recent months, from promising young students and recent graduates to beloved professors and some of the most influential faculty members of the mid-1900s. They are all greatly missed…

Mike Solich, who was due to graduate in August, drowned in the Estero River on Florida’s Gulf Coast during an Independence Day weekend boating and swimming outing. Students at P.K. Yonge, where Solich interned in an 8th-grade history class, recall how he asked them to write their own constitution, and explained the winter at Valley Forge to students who have never seen snow. (more)

The college suffered a double tragedy in early August, when Brian and David Marshall – brothers who were both students in the Counselor Education department – were killed in an automobile crash on I-95 in Virginia. The two were on their way home from their mother’s home in Gloucester, Mass. (more)

James Wattenbarger, the former COE professor known as the “father of Florida’s community college system,” died Aug. 14 at the age of 84. While still a doctoral student at UF, Wattenbarger wrote a dissertation that would become the framework for the state’s 28-school network of two-year colleges. He went on to become leader of that system and a nationally-recognized expert on community colleges. (more)

Robert Primack, who taught in the Social Foundations of Education program for 30 years, died Aug. 12. In the classroom and in local politics, Primack was known for a barbed wit that could sting, but would always instruct or inform. (more)

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *

P.K. YONGE NEWS

PKY = “A” x 5
Now there’s an equation that would make any teacher happy. For the fifth year in a row, P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School has achieved an “A” rating on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. Those familiar with the test know that a school can continue to receive an “A” rating only if scores show improvement each year.

Blue Wave named state’s best Class 2A sports program
PKY also was honored this year with the Dodge Sunshine Cup/ FHSAA Floyd Lay All Sports Award. The award is given every year by the Florida High School Athletic Association to the school with the best overall sports program in the state. FHSAA determines the winner by awarding points to each school for championships and runner-up finishes in state, regional and district competitions. This is the third year PKY has beaten all other 2A schools in Florida to win the award.

Film identifies PKY as “model” of inclusion
PKY is the school featured in “Seven Effective Strategies for Secondary Inclusion,” a recently released instructional video offering teachers tips on how to include students with disabilities in the general classroom. The video, produced by National Professional Resources Inc., uses PKY as a model for successful inclusion. You can find a brief description of the video here.

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *   *

IN THE NEWS

A recent sampling of “media hits” from the College of Education, many of them resulting from press releases or media requests:

Orlando Sentinel – Sherry McIlwain (5/20/06)
The Sentinel covered COE’s presentation of UF’s statewide Distinguished Educator Award to McIlwain, principal at Seminole Springs Elementary School.

Lakeland Ledger – Maria Coady, STL (5/28/06)
Coady commented on a proposed law that would make English the official language of the United States.

Sarasota Herald-Tribune – Tom Dana, STL (6/19/06)
Dana was quoted in a story about how the No Child Left Behind Act affects the way colleges of education prepare future teachers.

Gainesville Sun – Catherine Emihovich, Dean (6/2/06)
A story on UF’s $1.5 million grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute mentioned the role Dean Emihovich will play as mentor to postdoctoral fellows in the new Science for Life program. Click here to view the article online.

Kansas City Star – Lawrence Tyree, EAP (6/13/06)
The Star covered the appointment of former COE professor Larry Tyree as the new interim president of Johnson County Community College in Kansas.

Gainesville Sun – Dale Campbell, EAP (6/23/06)
Campbell was featured in a story on his recent report called “The New Leadership Gap,” which warns of a coming shortage of community college administrators as the baby boom generation retires. Click here to view the article online.

WRUF/AM850 – Kara Dawson, STL (7/20/06)
Dawson was quoted in a story on a new State of Florida website that gives parents tips on how to protect their children from criminals on the Internet.

Lakeland Ledger – Dorene Ross, STL (7/29/06)
Ross was quoted in a story on teachers who hold second jobs during the summer to make ends meet. Ross said most students pursue a career in education knowing that they will give up a large paycheck in exchange for the sense of doing something important.

Gainesville Sun – Cirecie West-Olatunji, CE (8/10/06)
West-Olatunji recently led a group of graduate counselor education students to New Orleans, where they helped local residents adjust to their first regular school year after Hurricane Katrina. Click here to read the story online.

New York Times, James Wattenbarger (8/17/06)
The Times carried an obituary for former UF professor James Wattenbarger. The Gainesville Sun also carried a feature-length obituary of Wattenbarger (8/16/06). The article can be found here.

Gainesville Sun, James Wattenbarger, Robert Primack (8/18/06)
UF political science professor Richard Scher remembered Wattenbarger, Primack and former UF history professor Kermit Hall in an opinion piece titled, “The Passing of Three Giants.”

Boston Globe – Brian and David Marshall (8/15/06)
The Globe covered the death of brothers Brian and David Marshall, both graduate students in Counselor Education. Similar stories appeared in The Gainesville Sun (8/14/06) and The Independent Florida Alligator. The memorial service for the Marshall brothers in the Norman Hall courtyard was also covered by The Sun (9/05/06) and The Alligator (9/05/06).

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *   *

coE-CALENDAR

SEPT 16

Baby Gator’s Fabulous Family Yard Sale
8 a.m. to 1 p.m., Baby Gator Child Development and Research Center
Bldg. 293, Village Drive
Donations can be made through close-of-business Sept. 15 at the Baby Gator office.
For more information, call 352-392-2330

SEPT 18

Brown Bag: “Public Scholarship”, featuring Dean Catherine Emihovich
Noon -1 p.m. Norman Terrace Room
Contact: Ana Puig, 352-392-2315, ext. 235 or anapuig@coe.ufl.edu

SEPT 18

Fall Faculty Meeting
2 p.m., Norman Terrace Room
Contact: Buffy Bondy, bondy@coe.ufl.edu

SEPT 20

Faculty Training: Grants.gov Submissions, featuring Carole Oglesby of Research and Graduate Programs
Noon-1 p.m., Norman Terrace Room
Contact: Ana Puig, 392-2315, ext. 235 or anapuig@coe.ufl.edu
(All COE Faculty welcome; RSVP to Ana by Friday, Sept. 8)

SEPT 26

Student Welcome Ice Cream Social (Meet Your Deans)
3 -5 p.m., Norman Lawn
Contact: Jodi Mount at jmount@coe.ufl.edu

OCT. 6

Fall Career Night (open to all students).
Panelists include distinguished graduates of the UF College of Education
7 – 8p.m., Reitz Union Ballroom
Contact: Jodi Mount, 2-0728, ext. 250 or jmount@coe.ufl.edu

OCT. 9

Faculty Policy Council Meeting
2 p.m., Norman Hall, Room 158
Contact: Buffy Bondy, bondy@coe.ufl.edu

OCT. 12

Centennial Colloquium
Edward Kame’enui, IES Commissioner for Special Education and Research
Time: TBA, Terrace Room
Contact: Jodi Mount, 2-0728, ext. 250 or jmount@coe.ufl.edu

OCT. 13

Gainesville Alumni Reception
UF President’s Home
Contact: Jodi Mount at jmount@coe.ufl.edu

OCT. 29

Norman Hall Haunted House (Open to the public, adults only)
7 – 11 p.m., Norman Hall
Tickets: $3 (advance), $5 (door)
Contact: Jodi Mount, 392-0728, ext. 250 or jmount@coe.ufl.edu

NOV. 2-4

UF College of Education Centennial Conference:
“Closing the Achievement Gap Through Partnerships”
St. Petersburg, Fla.
Early Registration ends Sept. 30
To register: http://www.doce-conference.ufl.edu/gap

NOV. 2

Gator Gathering in conjunction with the Centennial Conference
7-9 p.m., St. Petersburg Hilton
R.S.V.P. to Jodi Mount, 392-0728, ext. 250 or jmount@coe.ufl.edu

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *   *

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Are your memories becoming obsolete?
Are all the home movies of your UF days on Super-8 and Beta Max? Do your non-Gator friends and family fail to share your enthusiasm for old photos of your UF days?

Don’t stash your memories away – send them to us. The College of Education is building its archive of historic campus images and facts. We want to see photos and films of your COE days, and we want to hear your stories from Norman Hall.

Send your photos, films and stories to P.O Box 117044, Gainesville, FL 32611-7044, or e-mail them to news@coe.ufl.edu if you have digital versions. Don’t worry if your home movies were recorded in an outdated medium – we’ll find a way to view them. All submissions will be handled with care and returned promptly.

Make a difference with UF Community Campaign
You went into education to make a difference in the world. UF is about to make the job a little easier, through the 2006 Community Campaign. Each year, the university raises money for 79 local charities through voluntary payroll deductions set aside by UF employees. Last year, UF faculty and staff gave more than $1 million to local agencies such as St. Francis House, Habitat for Humanity and Haven Hospice. This year the goal is to raise $1.2 million. COE raised almost $31,000 last year, and our goal this year is to increase that amount by 10 percent. But numbers aren’t really important. What’s important is that your contribution can have a real impact right here in Alachua County – and giving is simple. In the next few weeks, the Community Campaign representative for your office will be coming around with an easy-to-complete form that allows you to give as much as you want to the charity of your choice. Please open your heart and your pocketbook, and give as generously as you can.

New editor for coE-News
CoE-News begins the school year under new editorship. Joy Rodgers, former editor of the newsletter, has moved on to a new job at Tigert Hall.

Tim Lockette, the new information specialist in the News and Publications Office, is now responsible for the electronic newsletter. A former reporter for The Gainesville Sun, Tim has been working for UF since 2003, most recently as editor of the weekly newsletter of the Levin College of Law. He is also seeking a degree through the ProTeach program, with plans to become a high school English teacher.

If you have news of interest to readers of coE-News, please send it to Tim at lockette@coe.ufl.edu or 392-0726 ext. 274.

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *

QUICK LINKS

UF: www.ufl.edu
College of Education: education.ufl.edu
coE-News: Publications
Education Times magazine: Publications

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *   *

coE-News is produced by:
College of Education, University of Florida
Dean’s Office/News & Publications
Dean: Catherine Emihovich
Director: Larry Lansford (llansford@coe.ufl.edu)
Editor: Tim Lockette (Lockette@coe.ufl.edu)

Correspondents:
Marta Pollitt, P.K. Yonge

David and Brian Marshall, two brothers who were studying in the Counselor Education department and preparing to launch a sports psychology consulting business, died Aug. 12 in a traffic accident in Virginia.

“To lose them both has been a shock,” said Harry Daniels, chair of the Counselor Education department. “They were a vital part of both the social and the academic life of this department.”

David, 39, and Brian, 31, grew up in Gloucester, Mass. Both brothers were avid sports fans, and were involved in competitive shooting. Both brothers pursued their undergraduate degrees at Eastern New Mexico University – a college that attracted them in large part because of its shooting teams.

For David, the elder brother, the love of shooting grew into a fascination with sports psychology. He pursued a Master’s degree in experimental psychology before coming to UF as a doctoral student. Here, he used his counselor education expertise to create an undergraduate course in “principles of personal excellence.”

Brian came to UF to study exercise science, but switched to counselor education when the brothers began planning the creation of the Florida Center for Performance Excellence, a sports psychology consulting business.

The brothers planned to base their business in Gainesville, and had bought a home here. They were preparing their mother’s Gloucester home for sale, so she, too, could live in Gainesville. The Marshalls were on their way to Gainesville from Gloucester when the accident occurred.

Daniels said the brothers played a vital role in the social network of the Counselor Education department, and were always willing to cook, paint or do other work to support any of the many public-spirited projects informally organized by their fellow students. For instance, when students were trying to raise pledges for a recent Walk for Cancer event, David Marshall – who had been wearing his hair long for years – agreed to trim it short if faculty and students would raise $1,500 for the cause. They raised a total of $2,500.

“Both of them were the kind of people who believed they could accomplish anything, and they did accomplish much,” Daniels said. “They will be sorely missed.”

When James Wattenbarger started school at Palm Beach Junior College in the 1930s, community and junior colleges were rare institutions, groping for a role in the academic world.

By the time Wattenbarger retired, two-year colleges were within driving distance of everyone in Florida, training thousands of Floridians for jobs and launching countless college careers – and Wattenbarger himself was the architect of that change.

Wattenbarger, UF alumnus and former COE professor, died Aug. 10 in Atlanta. He was 84.

“He created a community college system that has become a model for the rest of the country,” said Linda Serra-Hagedorn, chair of COE’s department of educational administration and policy. “Florida has one of the most successful systems in the U.S., and this is largely due to his influence.”

A Tennessee native, Wattenbarger grew up in West Palm Beach, and graduated from Palm Beach Junior College in 1941, completing his bachelor’s degree in education at UF in 1943. He served as a navigator in the Air Force — earning an Air Medal and Distinguished Flying Cross – before returning to graduate school at UF.

While in graduate school, Wattenbarger was tapped to provide research for a report for the legislature on the state of Florida’s junior colleges – a handful of schools that were either privately-owned or affiliated closely with a public high school. Motivated by his own positive experiences in Palm Beach, Wattenbarger took to the task eagerly.

His work on junior colleges grew into a dissertation, in which he outlined his vision for a modernized community college system, in which higher education was open to everyone, regardless of age, social class, or location. Wattenbarger proposed the establishment of community colleges within commuting distance of every Floridian, with open enrollment and flexible schedules.

The idea appealed to leaders in state education, so much so that in the early 1950s Florida began to rebuild its community college system around Wattenbarger’s vision. In 1955, Wattenbarger – then serving as a professor at the COE – was called on to head a new council dedicated to restructuring community colleges. Two years later, he became head of the new Division of Community Colleges, a title he held until 1966.

By the time Wattenbarger returned to UF, the community college system had built 16 news schools, and was in the process of merging the historically black and historically white schools that had been built during the segregation era. It was well on its way to becoming the school system we know today – which educates nearly 1 million students in degree and non-degree programs.

He remained a major presence in the community college movement after his return to UF. He chaired UF’s Department of Educational Administration and Policy and directed the Institute of Higher Education, teaching the next generation of community college leaders.

As other states began to look to Florida as a model, Wattenbarger helped them set up their own community college systems. In all, he served as a consultant or otherwise played a role in the development of community college systems in 34 states.

Wattenbarger remained in Gainesville after his retirement from UF in 1992. In 1996, Santa Fe Community College paid tribute to him by naming its student services building in his honor.

“One can only speculate about how many hundreds of thousands of students there are at UF, in other Florida institutions, and around the nation who owe their start in higher education to Wattenbager’s dream of making college truly a populist, democratic possibility,” wrote Richard Scher, a UF professor of political science, in a remembrance of Wattenbarger in the Aug. 18 Gainesville Sun.

In lieu of flowers, his family is asking people to send donations to the James L. Wattenbarger Fellowship Fund, which is for graduate students in higher education administration. Contributions can be made online or by check to: University of Florida Foundation, PO Box 14425, Gainesville, FL 32604. On the memo line, write “Wattenbarger Endowed Fellowship (Fund #11967).”

Robert Primack, the mid-life career-changer who went on to become a respected member of COE’s faculty, died Aug. 12 in Gainesville. He was 84.

Students knew Primack as a no-nonsense critic of the educational system who urged future teachers to approach their work as “architects” rather than “carpenters.” Gainesville residents knew him as outspoken critic of current trends in politics and the media.

Only a few knew him as a former chicken farmer. Born in Philadelphia and raised in Chicago and New York, Primack moved to rural New Jersey at age 19 to raise poultry. Primack prospered as a farmer, acquiring a number of other farms, but grew restless in the business.

“Instead of paying attention to the business, I would go to New York as a drama critic for a local newspaper, or things like that, which had nothing to do with farming,” he said in a 1983 interview with UF’s Oral History Project. “So I decided to get out of it and go to school.”

(The full text of the interview is available here).

Primack sold his farms and headed to Monmouth College, where he triple-majored in English, education and history, then went on to Rutgers for a doctorate in history and philosophy of education.

Professor Rodman Webb recalls Primack as a firm believer in value of the examined life, who taught his students to attack their own assumptions.

“He was absolutely committed to knowledge, rationality, and intellectual rigor,” Webb said. “He believed these principles should guide every citizen in a democratic society.

Primack edited the book Issues in Social Foundations of Education and for many years published a monthly newsletter on issues in the field. After retirement, he became a frequent contributor of editorial letters to The Gainesville Sun and other newspapers, including The New York Times.

In fact, his last letter to the Sun ran in the Aug. 18 edition of the paper – six days after his death – alongside an editorial page memorial by Richard Scher, a professor of political science at UF.

“He was every bit the populist…willing to rail publicly against anyone or anything which smacked of discrimination, elitism, unfairness or stupidity,” Scher wrote.

A scholarship fund is being set up in Primack’s name. Contributions to the fund can be sent to the UF Foundation at P.O. Box 14425, Gainesville, FL 32604-2425, with “Primack Scholarship” in the memo line.

NOTE: Click here for Dr. Primack’s obituary and Guest Book page in the online version of The Gainesville Sun.

Maria Coady, a bilingual education specialist, has learned that you can’t always go by the book to get things done.

Ironic, since books are a vital tool of her trade.

Coady, an assistant professor at UF’s College of Education, teaches and conducts research in the field of ESOL (English speakers of other languages). She often takes her students on field trips to Florida’s migrant farm communities, studying their lifestyles and seeking better ways to teach predominantly Spanish-speaking migrant workers and their children how to understand and speak English.

She views her work as a way to help the immigrant families improve their quality of life and standing in their community, while exposing her education students to some diverse teaching and learning situations.

Coady is currently working on a literacy project called Libros de Familia (Family books). Armed with a small grant from the Florida Governor’s Family Literacy Initiative, and working with the Harvest of Hope Foundation, she delivers high-quality bilingual, multicultural literature for children in the migrant worker family homes.

The literacy project evolved from a study she conducted two years ago with five migrant worker families. Interested in literacy practices in homes, she confirmed what she’d suspected – that books and other reading materials were in short supply in their homes to support children’s literacy development.

“It was not necessarily part of their cultural practice to read books each night, like it is in so many other families,” Coady says.

With many immigrant families fearing possible deportation under the current political environment, Coady often finds herself having to build confianza (trust) before they’ll welcome her into their homes. But she has gained their trust with the help of some UF students.

While she was unpacking her boxes upon arriving at UF three years ago, a group of Latino students in several non-education fields approached her. The students had started their own language and advocacy program for Spanish-speaking migrant adults in the community, but lacked a background in teaching English.

“That was my introduction to the Spanish-speaking, migrant community in North Central Florida,” she says. “The students took on the role of buffer and together we built trust among the migrant community.”

Coady and the students passed out information at area plant nurseries and farms. Many migrant workers would scatter when they saw her coming, but over time, they warmed up to her. Now they call her when they need medical help, food, clothing or other life necessities. And Coady provides a lot of the basic networking they need to survive.

She considers it all part of her literacy project. She points families to social services, takes kids to the dentist. She says it is about having an ongoing relationship with people. Coady—who speaks fluent Spanish, English, French and a little Irish Gaelic—calls herself a scholar and a researcher, but she’s also an advocate.

“There’s no real job description, no formal time limits, and some of it might not be what UF expects of me,” she said. “But I couldn’t envision doing it any other way.”

By Larry Lansford, llansford@coe.ufl.edu, 352-392-0726, ext. 266

Teachers often say they can tell, as early as kindergarten, which students are likely bound for college and which are headed for a 12-year struggle to finish school. UF researcher Anne Bishop explains how parents can help children acquire the pre-literacy skills they need before they reach school age.