Top bereavement expert to lead UF workshop Feb. 15 on 'Death, Loss and 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.

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.

robert_neimeyer.jpg

Robert Neimeyer

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

Save this date—2056—for opening of college's centennial time capsule

How will today’s UF College of Education, and daily life teaching and studying in historic Norman Hall, be viewed by future generations 50 years from now?

Will Ol’ Norman still be standing in 2056? Will the future EduGator Nation even recognize contemporary artifacts of education such as computer disks and chalk or white boards? How will today’s traditional classrooms, with chairs or desks lined up in rows facing the instructor up front, compare with the learning environments a half-century from now? And what of today’s hairstyles and how we dress—cause for snobbish snickering or inspiring retro fashion fads?

These and other questions should be answered sometime during 2056, when mid-century inhabitants of Norman Hall are instructed to unearth a time capsule planted on Dec. 7, 2006 beneath the vintage building’s oak-shaded, red-brick courtyard. The burial ceremony, attended by about 40 faculty, staff and students, was the culminating event of the college’s yearlong centennial celebration. The excavation instructions are engraved on a commemorative, gray marble headstone, lying flat a few paces from the Education Library’s exterior center stairwell.

img_6089.jpg

This marble marker, shown before placement, now marks the spot of the time capsule's burial site. (Photos by Juawon Scott)

Buried just beneath the marble marker is a shiny airtight cylinder, 12 inches in diameter and 3 feet long, filled to the brim with some 90 items gathered from each unit of the college. The items range from the silly (a condom “representative of UF students in 2006”) to the sublime (the Lastinger Center for Learning’s spreadsheet of partner school demographics, and a 2006 copy of the college’s first online federal grant proposal).

Education Dean Catherine Emihovich enclosed a “Message to Colleagues of the Future,” noting how little some aspects of education have changed since the college’s founding a century earlier, but envisioning much greater innovation and technology in the virtual learning environments of the future—certainly by 2056, which will mark the college’s 150th anniversary.

img_6242.jpg

Shoveling the first ceremonial dirt on the time capsule are (from left): COE Deans Jeri Benson, Paul Sindelar and Catherine Emihovich, and Graduate Studies Director Thomasenia Adams.

“One aspect I sincerely hope will not have changed (in the passing 50 years) is that there will still be a learner and a wise teacher who together walk through the door to greater knowledge and understanding of a world without limits, except for those imposed by a lack of imagination,” Emihovich wrote. “That fundamental human connection is the glue that has held this world together so far, and it would be a pity if the technological advances I envision in your future society left individuals bereft of social contact in learning environments except through artificial means.”

For the School of Teaching and Learning’s contribution, business cards were collected from each faculty member with a personalized message for the future written on the back. Other notable capsule items included a computer keyboard, a recruitment video for graduate students, “Our First 100 Years” history booklet and the college’s Education TIMES magazine, Gator Nation campaign posters, an undergraduate college catalog and an FCAT exam.

If the presumably tech-savvy 2056’ers can translate the primitive formats of today’s CDs and DVDs, they’ll be able to peruse digital versions of various college documents and presentations, including the UF Alliance’s presentation at the college’s centennial conference on closing the achievement gap, the Alumni Electronic Newsletter, and a fundraising video supporting the renovation and expansion of Norman Hall. (By 2056, time capsule “un-earthlings” will know if the college met its fundraising goal allowing for construction of the proposed education technology annex.)

An interred copy of the Dec. 7, 2006 edition of the Gainesville Sun will give future EduGators a taste of the day’s current events, including an article coincidentally looking ahead a half-century for another reason as revealed by its headline: “Study: Fla. population to double in 50 years.” (Well, did it?)

And, of course, the Gator Nation-wide buzz and excitement over the national title runs in 2006 of both the UF basketball and football teams is documented in news printouts from the Gatorzone.com Web site.

Click here for a complete listing of time capsule items.

In the dean’s optimistic vision of education 50 years into the future, Emihovich hinted how she hopes the college’s core philosophy of “public scholarship”— academic activities and research that contribute directly to the public good—ends up helping to transform education for future generations.

“By now (in 2056), the physical characteristics of students and teachers will truly be irrelevant as barriers to learning…” she predicted. “I hope your next century fulfills the promise of education to create a more just and equitable society, and we send you our best wishes from 2006.”

#     #     #

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

Major Middle School Overhaul in the Works?

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.”

portrait of Paul GeorgeGeorge, 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.”

Centennial conference cites partnerships as essential tool for closing achievement gap

No matter how hard we try to improve teaching and learning in our public schools, or how faithfully we execute the intent of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, the achievement gap between students of different income levels and social or ethnic backgrounds can be substantially narrowed “only when school improvement is combined with social and economic reform.”

Noted education policy expert and author Richard Rothstein

Noted education policy expert and author Richard Rothstein drove home that point in his keynote address at the UF College of Education’s recent national conference, “Closing the Achievement Gap Through Partnerships,” held in November in St. Petersburg.

Rothstein, a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute and former national education columnist for The New York Times, said good teaching alone is not sufficient to close the achievement gap. His comments echoed opinions cited in some of his publications on education policy in America, including his recent book, “Class and Schools: Using Social, Economic and Educational Reform to Close the Black-White Achievement Gap.”

“If we properly identify the actual social class characteristics that produce differences in average achievement, we should be able to design policies that narrow the achievement gap,” Rothstein says. “Certainly, improvement of instructional practices is among these, but a focus on school reform alone is bound to be frustrating and ultimately unsuccessful.”

Rothstein was one of several prominent speakers at the conference, held as the culminating event of the College of Education’s yearlong centennial celebration. Several speakers cited the connection between school improvement and social reform, and the advantages of forming community partnerships to help narrow the social and economic influences that produce differences in average achievement between children.

centennial_conf_11-06_006.jpg

Conference attendees view a slide from a presentation given by Marilyn Cochran-Smith of Boston College.

Other speakers included:

  • Marilyn Cochran-Smith of Boston College (topic: Teaching for social justice in an era of accountability)
  • Heather Weiss of the Harvard Family Research Project (Complementary Learning: Can we build effective family, school and community connections so that truly no child is left behind?)
  • Etta Hollins of the University of Southern California (Transforming the culture of practice in low performing schools)

School superintendents from three Florida districts—Ronald Blocker (Orange County), Mary Ellen Elia (Hillsborough County) and James McCalister Sr.(Bay County) – also participated in a panel discussion on teaching for social justice in an era of accountability.

Many of the college’s community partnerships and public scholarship activities were featured in breakout sessions and poster sessions led by UF education faculty and doctoral students. Featured college programs included the UF Alliance, the Lastinger Center for Learning, the schoolwide writing program at Newberry Elementary School, studies on male underachievement in education, the Libros De Familia home-literacy initiative with migrant farm working families, P.K. Yonge School’s student-led parent conferences, and college-sponsored teacher inquiry programs and teacher learning communities.

More than 200 educators, counselors and public policy leaders, from across the state and nation, attended the conference, which was coordinated by Eileen Oliver, an affiliate professor in the School of Teaching and Learning and associate dean in UF’s division of continuing education. A collegewide committee of faculty and staff assisted in planning and implementation.

Professor Buffy Bondy of the School of Teaching and Learning said the highlight for her was “seeing so many College of Education students and graduates presenting their work at the conference.”

“We had ProTeach students, practicing teachers who have graduated from our program, and doctoral students presenting along with faculty members,” Bondy said. “I (also) felt proud of our college for the work we do to address pressing problems in teaching and learning in high-poverty schools.”

UF Education Dean Catherine Emihovich closed the conference by issuing a “call to arms” for all educators to take direct action in bringing about substantive changes in children’s education and well-being across the state and throughout the nation.

#     #     #

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

,

Dean’s Message for Alumni News

This fall promises to be quite exciting as we close out our centennial celebration and then gear up for new projects and activities in the spring. I want to remind everyone to plan on attending the Centennial Conference Nov. 2-4, “Closing the Achievement Gap through Partnerships,” which will be held at the St. Petersburg Hilton We have an impressive array of national speakers (Marilyn Cochran-Smith, Richard Rothstein, Etta Hollins, and Heather Weiss), an excellent panel discussion with leading superintendents across the state, and numerous presentations by our college faculty and students along with a cross-section of presentations from around the country. This conference is an impressive demonstration of UF’s commitment to ensuring all children have equal access to quality instruction, and underscoring the need to build strong partnerships with families, schools, and community groups in a time of rising economic and social disparities. In addition, each department will feature its own centennial speaker either during the fall or spring semester. Watch this newsletter for more details about the speakers and their topics. Finally, we have three presentations this semester by candidates for the Fien Professorship, and I hope each one will generate a strong audience.

The most exciting research news impacting the entire college has been the new “Science for Life” program that is funded by a $1.5 million dollar grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and with extensive support ($2.5 million) from UF sources. This highly innovative — in fact, one could say truly revolutionary — program will help transform undergraduate education in the life sciences, and will build students’ research capacity from freshmen to postdoctoral associates. More than 10 colleges, 49 departments, and 200 UF faculty are involved in some aspect of this program. Our college is heavily involved in almost all components, including the creation of a new interdisciplinary curriculum for the state of the art Core Lab that will be constructed in the Health Sciences Center, the development of a new science education minor, oversight of a new postdoctoral mentoring program in partnership with Morehouse College, outreach activities with Alliance science teachers, and the internal evaluation of all program activities and outcomes. I serve as one of the co-PI’s and associate directors of the project. Other college faculty working on this project are Tom Dana, Troy Sadler, Linda Behar-Horenstein, Bernie Oliver, Luis Ponjuan, and Mark Shermis. As this program continues over time (we are funded for four years), I fully anticipate there will be additional opportunities for other college faculty to become involved if they are interested. But be forewarned; some of us are finding this program so all-consuming we are now dreaming about it!

Last year, the dominant thrust was a focus on strengthening and enhancing the research culture within the college. Under the leadership of Associate Dean Paul Sindelar, we made great progress, and activities planned this year will build upon those initiatives. This year, the issues that will now become more prominent are redefining public scholarship and creating trans-disciplinary programs. While our college has featured a variant of public scholarship (the scholarship of engagement), this model does not fully account for the variety and complexity of other forms of research that also fit within a broader definition of public scholarship that increasingly characterizes many public research universities. The question of trans-disciplinary programs is important because President Machen’s strategic work plan for the university strongly emphasizes greater collaboration among all academic units, and major funding from foundations and federal agencies parallels his thinking. The recent HHMI award (the first ever for this university) is an excellent example, and the fact that UF committed so much in internal funds is a clear signal of both the president’s and the provost’s priorities as they seek to enhance the national reputation of this university. As we move forward in the development of our own strategic work plan, we need to keep these points in mind.

In future columns, I plan to keep everyone informed of new directions the university and the college will take in response to the rapidly changing landscape in higher education. Now entering my fifth year as dean, I continue to be impressed and amazed at the wealth of talent, energy and ideas we have in our college, and I expect us to have another outstanding year. Living in Florida, it’s hard to avoid using meteorological allusions, so I’ll close by saying who needs hurricanes when the college of education has become the new driving force behind the winds of change sweeping across campus.

— Dean Catherine Emihovich.

Dean Emihovich reports good news for the College

EmihovichWithout question, the most dramatic news for this semester is President Machen’s decision to award the newly created David Lawrence, Jr. Professorship in Early Childhood Studies to the College of Education. His choice was based on the quality of the research; the number of family/school/community-based initiatives that many of our faculty have done; the quality of child care at Baby Gator, which also serves as a research site for faculty across the university; and his confidence that we will achieve our long-range goal of creating an Early Childhood Center of Excellence.

The faculty in the Unified Early Childhood Program will be able to leverage this professorship to increase the College’s visibility in creating new models for successful early childhood interventions, and addressing questions related to the link between high-quality early child care and long-term economic development.

If this weren’t enough news, as we wind down this academic semester, and get ready for 2006, a new “buzz” of excitement fills the college halls. We have a jam-packed series of events planned for the Centennial Celebrations that will take place all year long. Our first event is the Centennial Kick-Off, on Jan. 24, 2006, which will feature nationally syndicated columnist and TV commentator David Brooks.

Brooks has written some unusually thoughtful and insightful columns in The New York Times lately on race, poverty, gender differences, and the importance of human capital, and I believe he is genuinely interested in engaging in a dialogue that crosses political boundaries to focus on seeking solutions to our most intractable educational problems. Please check the College Intranet (http://intranet.coe.ufl.edu/centennial/default.aspx) to read these articles.

His visit will be closely followed by the first of three speakers for the Fien Lecture series, Dr. Robert Jimenez from Vanderbilt University, who will be visiting us on Jan. 25-26. The other two Fien speakers will be Gloria Ladson-Billings from the University of Wisconsin, Madison on Feb. 16-17, and Dr. Luis Moll from the University of Arizona on March 5–7. These wonderful speakers will complement the speakers each department will bring in next year, along with speakers for the brown bag colloquia organized by the Office of Educational Research.

The culminating event for the centennial will be a conference at the end of November or early December that highlights key themes within the College. The planning committee is chaired by Dr. Eileen Oliver, associate dean for Distance, Continuing and Executive Education, who is also an affiliated faculty member in STL, and the members are Silvia Echevarria-Doan (Counselor Education), Phil Clark (Educational Administration and Policy), Rod Webb (Educational Psychology), Dorene Ross (School of Teaching and Learning), Mary Kay Dykes (Special Education), Megan Connaughton (ECC), Meredith DiPietro (SAGE), Amy Hollinger (PKY) and Pam Pallas (Baby Gator). The committee is just beginning its work, and they welcome suggestions and ideas from faculty and students as they establish the theme, speakers and activities.

With this rich array of research events and speakers, our college will certainly enhance its reputation well into the next century for cutting-edge research and educational innovations.

Watch for this newsletter, because the good news about our college just keeps coming. I wish everyone a safe and joyous holiday, and I will see you all in 2006.

Catherine Emihovich, Dean

,

Message from the Dean

2006 is off to a great start, with the countdown to our first Centennial Celebration event under way. Because so much is happening this year, a College calendar of events will be sent out on e-mail and posted on the Web. This calendar will be updated biweekly; if you want your event posted, send details to include contact information to News and Publications at news@coe.ufl.edu.

In this column, I want to update everyone on the activities associated with our Strategic Task Forces. Associate Dean Paul Sindelar is doing an excellent job of keeping everyone informed of the latest news from the Office of Research and other activities tied to the ideas and suggestions gained from two research retreats this past fall. Although the primary focus this year is on enhancing the research culture, the other task forces are busy with related activities that either link to this objective or to enhancing the overall College climate. Below, I report on two groups, outreach scholarship, and faculty/student recruitment, retention and professional development. Next month, I will discuss initiatives related to the task force on Curriculum and Program Development. A full report of all groups’ activities will be presented at the Spring Faculty meeting in April.

Don Pemberton and Nancy Dana co-chair the task force on outreach scholarship. Along with Bernie Oliver, they have begun meeting to discuss ways to link the work within their three centers (Alliance, Center for School Improvement, Lastinger Center for Learning) to a shared framework that embodies the principles of outreach scholarship. These discussions are in the preliminary stage, and anyone who is interested in providing input should contact them.

A second objective for this task force is to begin articulating criteria that will help inform discussions of tenure and promotion. This far more complex task has not yet begun since the FPC Faculty and Budgetary Affairs Committee needs to be involved as well, and their plate is already full this year. It is on the radar screen as a discussion that I hope will get under way early next year.

Barbara Pace and Michael Bowie co-chair the faculty/student task force, and I have asked them to organize a faculty diversity workshop based on a similar presentation by Joanne Moody to the entire campus last fall. My office will pay for all the materials for that workshop, and the topic is very timely since it focuses on supporting and mentoring junior faculty. The information is important not just for faculty, but for graduate students who are planning a career in higher education. Barbara and Michael will be contacting members of their group soon, and anyone else who has a particular interest in this topic should get in touch with them. The tentative date for this workshop is sometime in March, after spring break.

With such a large college, and with so many activities, initiatives and events under way, it is difficult to keep everyone informed and make people feel they can be part of the process. This newsletter is just one of the communication channels the Dean’s Office uses to let everyone know what’s going on, and how they can be involved if they so choose. Other channels include reading the FPC minutes and the Chairs’ meeting minutes, obtaining feedback from FPC and Faculty Senate representatives, and visiting the College Intranet and public Web site.

Stay tuned, and fasten your seat belts, because it’s going to be an exciting, fast-paced year!

– Catherine Emihovich, Dean

,

Message from the Dean

I hope everyone was able to attend our opening Centennial event with The New York Times columnist David Brooks earlier this month, because it was an absolutely wonderful way to begin our celebration. Our speaker was everything we hoped he would be – funny, charming and very engaged with the panelists and audience – and President Machen began the evening by reciting many of the College’s accomplishments in the first 100 years. The audience turnout was great, with more than 300 people in attendance. If you did miss this event, you can view photos on the COE Intranet at http://intranet.coe.ufl.edu/. We also hosted our first Fien lecturer, Dr. Robert Jimenez, from Vanderbilt University, and we will be hosting Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings from the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Friday, Feb. 17. Please check the calendar listing that is sent out biweekly by Events Coordinator Jodi Mount, or watch for details on the Web site or the coE-News.

In last month’s column, I provided an update on the activities of three of the Strategic Task Forces: research, outreach scholarship, and faculty/student, recruitment, retention, and professional development. In this column, I describe some of the initiatives that are either under way or in the planning stages for curriculum and program development. One important point to note is that many of these initiatives began through faculty efforts, as they should. The role of my office, and other supporting offices, is to facilitate these efforts by providing resources to bring the ideas to fruition, but the best ideas are still generated by faculty (and students in some cases) since they constitute the heart of the educational enterprise.

Those of you involved in teacher education already know that the State Board of Education has approved several sweeping rule changes that will make it considerably easier to develop new programs for teacher preparation. One idea that is already well under way is adding an international component to the education minor. Theresa Vernetson is heading up this initiative, and she has heard from about 20 faculty who would like to be involved. Anyone else who wants to learn more about this initiative should contact Dr. Vernetson.

A second initiative is focused on developing new models for leadership preparation. This is an interdisciplinary collaboration between Educational Administration and Policy and Special Education. Already, two school districts have expressed interest, and we expect more to be added as the word spreads. The new job-embedded master’s degree program that is a joint collaboration between the School of Teaching and Learning and the Lastinger Center for Learning was just launched this spring, and already it is taking off faster than we predicted. At present, it is focused on teachers’ professional development, but we expect to add a leadership component fairly soon, perhaps by this summer.

A third initiative that is still in the planning stages is a new program for preparing math/science teachers in collaboration with the College of Arts and Sciences. This program has the potential to increase UF’s production of math/science teachers by a substantial margin, and will help the university meet both state and national goals in enhancing students’ capacity in these critical areas. Our College is also a partner in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute grant proposal that was submitted last fall, and if funded, we will be deeply involved in undergraduate science education in the life sciences across campus in four different colleges: Agriculture, Engineering, CLAS, and Medicine.

One common characteristic that these initiatives share, along with those still emerging, is our close collaboration with departments, centers or other units on campus. This interdisciplinary collaboration is an essential component of both the university and the College strategic plans, and it is exciting to see so many people becoming involved with these efforts. Many faculty have also told me how stimulating they find these cross-disciplinary conversations, and I encourage everyone who either wants to join one of these initiatives, or to start one of their own, to talk to me about their ideas so I can connect you with the appropriate persons. We all need to begin thinking about the College’s legacy for the next 100 years, and these conversations provide an ideal forum for doing so.

Catherine Emihovich, Dean

,

Dean’s Message – March, 2006

Best ideas flourish in a ‘blue-sky’ culture

As we wind down this semester, it appears that the initiatives launched by the Office of Educational Research, and supported by the strategic task force on research and the FPC Research Advisory Committee, have been a resounding success. All the Fien speakers were extremely well received, with standing room audiences at the main presentations and the small seminars. Departments have begun bringing in speakers on special topics related to their interests, and the audience for the faculty presentations at the alumni luncheon series continues to grow. Multiple searches are now drawing to a close, and we have recruited a dynamic group of new faculty who will be joining us in the fall to complement our existing faculty. Several of them have expressed strong interest in the “scholarship of engagement model” and one exciting development is that we are now approaching the point where several departments will have a critical mass of faculty who are intensely focused on incorporating tenets of this model into their research, teaching, and service. The SOE nominations committee also reported that they received 20 nominations for the five awards (PKY chooses its own recipient), a further indication this model is shaping many faculty members’ work.

Building a culture of research can only succeed in an environment where a culture of ideas exists to support it. The term, ‘blue sky,’ has always been a favorite expression of mine, since it suggests an infinite realm of possibilities that are limited only by people’s imagination, giving them the space to create programs and projects that do not yet exist, or to play with ideas even when they seem hopelessly impractical, crazy, or just plain foolish. Innovative businesses and organizations often fund ‘blue sky incubators’ just to remove people from the realm of their mundane daily experiences to get their creative juices flowing. One of the rules for participating in such an environment is that one can never say, “But we’ve always done it this way,” a guaranteed way to deaden enthusiasm almost immediately. Rather surprisingly, universities that one would think of as places where cutting edge research and ideas can emerge instead too often are so enmeshed in traditions that they cannot ‘break set’ and see the world differently.

The factors that enable a culture of ideas to flourish are simple. First, people need to believe that if they present a new idea, it will not meet with immediate and/or difficult resistance. While it’s only natural to be anxious about rapid changes, especially if they seem beyond one’s control, being open and receptive to listening to new ideas is a necessary but not sufficient condition. Second, people need to know that support is available to bring ideas to fruition, either in the form of encouragement, or financial assistance. While I agree that funds for seed projects can be very beneficial, I have often found that some of the best ideas need minimal support in the initial stages, and if successful, often generate additional support at a later point in time. Third, people need to trust that if they present new ideas and even implement them, they will not be sanctioned if the ideas fail. Many people carry inside the child who was constantly told – ‘don’t do this, don’t do that’- until as adults they stopped trying to do anything new at all. The famed developmental psychologist, Jean Piaget, studied children’s mistakes because he found them to be better predictors of how children learned. As long as the consequences for making mistakes are not too severe, taking risks can have huge payoffs for moving an organization in new directions.  Judging by the flurry of ideas for new projects and programs I hear about constantly across the College, it seems faculty and students are truly living up to our centennial slogan – Celebrating the past and educating for the future.

Even though our focus this year was on encouraging faculty and students to generate new ideas for research projects, our staff should know their ideas are welcomed as well for improving life within the college. I note that the annual staff luncheon has now been recast as the staff luau, which makes it a much more playful event. I look forward to seeing how Hawaiian ideas get translated into a Floridian context, and the ‘relaxed’ attire no doubt everyone will be wearing. As long as no one expects me to wear a grass skirt and dance the hula, the event should be great fun.

–Catherine Emihovich

Dean

,

Dean’s Message

On rankings, ‘education debt’ and outreach scholarship

The 2007 U.S. News & World Report rankings of America’s best graduate schools has just been released, and when I saw it, the old adage, “Live by the sword; die by the sword,” quickly came to mind, although in our case, it is national rankings. While we were disappointed to see that we dropped from 25th to 35th place, it was not a surprise. Given the change we made in how we reported total research expenditures, including those from P.K. Yonge (which are now far more accurate and realistic), we knew it would happen, an even stronger reminder of how important securing external funds has become in higher education. At the same time, I was very pleased to note that two programs increased their rankings (Counselor Education moved up to No. 2; Special Education moved back into the top ten at No. 9) and two new programs were now ranked (Elementary Education at No. 12; Curriculum & Instruction at No. 22). We also remain the highest ranked college of education in the state, and one of the highest ranked colleges on campus. I am confident that with the new faculty we have hired to complement our already strong faculty, and with the leadership of the Office of Educational Research by Associate DeanPaul Sindelar , we will soon rise again, and perhaps even surpass our earlier rankings.

As I write this column, I am still in San Francisco attending the American Educational Research Association (AERA) annual meeting, and I am struck by how well this year’s theme, educational research and the public interest, maps to the work being done in our college. Gloria Ladson Billings gave a brilliant and inspirational presidential address, and her central point was that society does not have an achievement gap, but instead has an “education debt” that is owed to children who have been marginalized and have suffered from an appalling lack of resources for quality education since the time this country was founded. While she did a wonderful analysis that walked the audience through different historical periods, she did not take the next step of outlining the ways in which this “debt” can be repaid. I believe the engaged scholarship paradigm that we are building in our college illustrates how educational institutions can provide their share. As I have said before, the initiatives developed by the three outreach centers (the UF Alliance, Center for School Improvement, and the Lastinger Center for Learning), coupled with the work being done in the departments and PKY, dramatically demonstrate that a passionate commitment to equity and social justice combined with first-rate, research-based practices and dissemination strategies can begin to make a difference. My belief is that as more and more people across the country recognize the validity of these approaches, which are firmly grounded in the cultural contexts of family and community values, we will lead other higher education institutions in reshaping educational research to align with the public interest, and contribute to the public good.

On April 20 we will honor this year’s recipients of the Scholarship of Engagement awards, and recognize our donors who have contributed to student scholarships. I encourage everyone to attend if possible, since any remaining proceeds are used to provide funds for students who need additional financial assistance for special circumstances. Provost Janie Fouke will be our guest speaker, and a strong turnout will demonstrate to her the leadership role our college can play across campus in addressing critical issues for children and families as noted in President Machen’s draft work plan. Rankings may come and go, but the needs of high-poverty children being served by our programs will continue across time, and that is where many of us will concentrate our energy and resources to make one small payment on a “education debt” that is long overdue.

–Catherine Emihovich
Professor and Dean

,

Dean’s Message: May-June, 2006

This will be my last coE-News column until the fall semester when the e-newsletter resumes distribution. We have had an exciting past year, especially during the spring semester when our year-long Centennial activities began in January, 2006. This semester ended with another excellent commencement ceremony organized by Assistant Dean Theresa Vernetson, highlighted by the commencement address delivered by nationally syndicated columnist Cynthia Tucker (editorial page editor of the Atlanta Constitution). Her remarks were both deeply personal and thoughtful as she acknowledged the key role many educators played in her family life, and emphasized the need to have high quality teachers in our most challenged schools.

One of the hottest issues in education today is the press for students to have an international experience, and for universities to develop partnerships with other institutions around the world. We are adding an international component to some of our degree programs, most notably the International Leadership in Educational Technology (ILET) doctoral program housed in the School of Teaching and Learning. Two of our faculty—Tom  Oakland (School Psychology) and Rick Ferdig (School of Teaching and Learning)—were recently named UF International Educators of the Year and several Counselor Education faculty have shaped their research agendas with international partners in Australia and Singapore. Theresa Vernetson is working with several departments to create an international education minor where our students would have an opportunity to observe in schools abroad.

This past March, I participated in a People to People delegation to China. This program, which has been operating since 1957, was created under President Eisenhower to facilitate cultural contacts with other countries, primarily those with a Communist government. Given the political changes that have occurred since then, the range of countries has shrunk considerably, although the program also includes visits to places that have begun expanding their international outreach such as South Africa.  We visited three cities – Beijing, Guilin, and Shanghai – and the experience was memorable. During the visit, I was able to observe elementary, middle, and high school classes, and to meet with university peers at Beijing University, Guilin Teachers College, and Shanghai Normal University. During the fall semester, I will share my observations at a brown bag lunch since I found both some fascinating contrasts with our system, along with surprisingly similar professional development components at the K-12 level. China is clearly becoming a dominant force in global education, and we need to understand their educational system better if we are to work successfully with our counterparts.

While the summer is still a very busy time for many faculty and students, it does provide a brief opportunity for the college administration to catch our breath on scheduling events, and get ready for the fall. The main event in the fall will be our Centennial Conference, which will be held at the St. Petersburg Hilton, November 2-4, with four very dynamic national speakers: Marilyn Cochran-Smith, Richard Rothstein, Etta Hollins, and Heather Weiss. Each of the departments will also be featuring a lecture with an invited speaker on a specific topic. And of course we will have our college faculty reception to welcome new and returning faculty.  Enjoy the summer and relax if possible, because it will be another active fall season. We just have to hope that the weather does not take its cue from us; more action on the storm front is on no one’s wish list!

Dean's Column

Welcome back to a new academic year! It promises to be quite exciting as we close out our centennial celebration, and then gear up for new projects and activities in the spring. I want to remind everyone to plan on attending the Centennial Conference Nov. 2-4, “Closing the Achievement Gap through Partnerships,” which will be held at the St. Petersburg Hilton We have an impressive array of national speakers (Marilyn Cochran-Smith, Richard Rothstein, Etta Hollins, and Heather Weiss), an excellent panel discussion with leading superintendents across the state, and numerous presentations by our college faculty and students along with a cross-section of presentations from around the country. This conference is an impressive demonstration of UF’s commitment to ensuring all children have equal access to quality instruction, and underscoring the need to build strong partnerships with families, schools, and community groups in a time of rising economic and social disparities. In addition, each department will feature its own centennial speaker either during the fall or spring semester. Watch this newsletter for more details about the speakers and their topics. Finally, we have three presentations this semester by candidates for the Fien Professorship, and I hope each one will generate a strong audience.

The most exciting research news impacting the entire college has been the new “Science for Life” program that is funded by a $1.5 million dollar grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and with extensive support ($2.5 million) from UF sources. This highly innovative — in fact, one could say truly revolutionary — program will help transform undergraduate education in the life sciences, and will build students’ research capacity from freshmen to postdoctoral associates. More than 10 colleges, 49 departments, and 200 UF faculty are involved in some aspect of this program. Our college is heavily involved in almost all components, including the creation of a new interdisciplinary curriculum for the state of the art Core Lab that will be constructed in the Health Sciences Center, the development of a new science education minor, oversight of a new postdoctoral mentoring program in partnership with Morehouse College, outreach activities with Alliance science teachers, and the internal evaluation of all program activities and outcomes. I serve as one of the co-PI’s and associate directors of the project. Other college faculty working on this project are Tom Dana, Troy Sadler, Linda Behar-Horenstein, Bernie Oliver, Luis Ponjuan, and Mark Shermis. As this program continues over time (we are funded for four years), I fully anticipate there will be additional opportunities for other college faculty to become involved if they are interested. But be forewarned; some of us are finding this program so all-consuming we are now dreaming about it!

Last year, the dominant thrust was a focus on strengthening and enhancing the research culture within the college. Under the leadership of Associate Dean Paul Sindelar, we made great progress, and activities planned this year will build upon those initiatives. This year, the issues that will now become more prominent are redefining public scholarship and creating trans-disciplinary programs. While our college has featured a variant of public scholarship (the scholarship of engagement), this model does not fully account for the variety and complexity of other forms of research that also fit within a broader definition of public scholarship that increasingly characterizes many public research universities. On Sept. 18, I will be discussing this issue along with a related article in a brown bag lunch presentation in 158 Norman at noon. The question of trans-disciplinary programs is important because President Machen’s strategic work plan for the university strongly emphasizes greater collaboration among all academic units, and major funding from foundations and federal agencies parallels his thinking. The recent HHMI award (the first ever for this university) is an excellent example, and the fact that UF committed so much in internal funds is a clear signal of both the president’s and the provost’s priorities as they seek to enhance the national reputation of this university. As we move forward in the development of our own strategic work plan, we need to keep these points in mind.

In future columns, I plan to keep everyone informed of new directions the university and the college will take in response to the rapidly changing landscape in higher education. Now entering my fifth year as dean, I continue to be impressed and amazed at the wealth of talent, energy and ideas we have in our college, and I expect us to have another outstanding year. Living in Florida, it’s hard to avoid using meteorological allusions, so I’ll close by saying who needs hurricanes when the college of education has become the new driving force behind the winds of change sweeping across campus.

— Dean Catherine Emihovich.

Troubling national reports on education provide opportunity for UF to shine

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

Looking Ahead to the Next Century

The college’s Centennial Conference on “Closing the Achievement Gap Through Partnerships,” held Nov. 2-4 in St. Petersburg, was a terrific success. All the keynote speakers were lively and engaging, the presentations were well attended, and the arrangements were beautifully organized by UF’s Division of Continuing Ed conference planners. Kudos to Eileen Oliver, the conference planning chair, and her committee members (Dorene Ross, Rod Webb, Phil Clarke, Sylvia Echevarria–Doan, Mary Kay Dykes, Pam Pallas, Megan Connaughton, Jodi Mount and Meredith DiPietro) for their excellent work in planning such an exciting conference.

I heard nothing but praise from all attendees, and I know it raised our visibility on the state and national scene regarding the commitment of many COE faculty and students to help close the achievement gap in partnership with families, schools, and community groups. I was especially pleased to hear Dr. Heather Weiss, the closing speaker from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, note that colleges of education need to move in the direction of placing greater emphasis on learning and development to counter the trend toward increased testing and mindless accountability. She also urged education faculty to become more engaged in the dialogue that will take place when the sweeping federal education law, No Child Left Behind, comes up for reauthorization in Congress next year.

Our centennial celebrations will culminate next month with two events: the burying of a time capsule on Dec. 7, followed by a college-wide reception in the Terrace Room, and the COE Holiday Lunch for faculty and staff on Dec. 8. I encourage everyone to begin thinking of artifacts that could be placed in this capsule to represent the college in the second centennial. Had this activity been done in 1906 when the college opened its doors to its first class of six men, I can easily imagine that the objects from that time period may not have seemed strange today (e.g., chalkboard, eraser, books) but it’s not hard to imagine that what we store today may seem absurdly quaint 100 years from now (e.g., a printed book, an ipod). Please send your suggestions to Jodi Mount (jmount@coe.ufl.edu) in the Alumni office so she can begin compiling the list.

On a more serious note, the direction the college will take in the next 100 years is a topic on which I intend to focus during the next semester. As I mentioned in my column last month, the recent spate of reports on higher education underscores the importance of viewing teaching, scholarship and service within a broader social context. If the disturbing trend of declining confidence in public institutions is to be reversed, higher education institutions will need to transform themselves and lead the way in helping the public envision radically different learning and teaching environments than the ones most children, adolescents and adults find when they enter into formal schooling, regardless of the level.

I plan to bring in a national consultant to help guide us through a series of structured conversations with multiple stakeholders on how we can achieve this goal in our college. In doing so, we can help lead a dialogue across campus about creating and valuing a rich, learning-centered, collaborative culture among students, faculty, and citizens, where the purpose of education is to teach people how to live, not to become educated to earn a living.

– Dean Emihovich

EAP Professor to Receive SACS Leadership Award

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.

coE-News: November 15, 2006 VOL. 2 ISSUE 3

VOL. 2, ISSUE 3

NOV. 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

Looking Ahead to the Next Century
Dean Catherine Emihovich reflects on the final events in this year’s Centennial Celebration, and looks over the horizon to the challenges facing education in the coming decades. (more)

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *   *

TOP STORIES

Major Middle School Overhaul in the Works?
Is it time to rethink the way middle schools are organized and run? Distinguished Professor Paul George, a founding figure in the middle-school movement, recently completed a study of the current state of middle schools in Florida for the Helios Education Foundation. (more)

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *  

NEWS AND NOTICES

COE Professor Helps Revise State Math Standards
Associate Professor Thomasenia Adams was one of approximately 40 academics from around the country selected to revise the Florida Department of Education’s standards for mathematics. (more)

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *  

RESEARCH/GRANTS

UF Inclusion Grant Named Top Federal Funding Priority
Project RISE, a UF effort to prepare leaders in the areas of inclusive education for students with severe disabilities, was the No. 1 ranked leadership training proposal on the U.S. Department of Education’s grant list this year. RISE will receive $800,000 over the next four years for its plan to prepare leaders to conduct research in services for students with severe disabilities and facilitate change in educational services for these students. (more)

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *  

PUBLICATIONS

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

  1. Garrett, M. T. (with Nassar-McMillan, S., McFall-Roberts, E. and Flowers, C.) (2006).  Effects of skin color upon African American adolescent females’ ratings of peers and self. Journal of Humanistic Counseling, Education and Development, 45, 79-94. 
  2. Garrett, M. T. (with Curtis, R. and Looney, R.)  (2006). Revisiting obsessive-compulsive disorder from a transpersonal perspective: A road to enlightenment?  The Journal for the Professional Counselor, 21, 61-72.
  3. Hagedorn, L.S., & Prather, G. (2006) Transitions within the Community College: Pathways to Access and Inclusion. Journal of Applied Research in the Community College, 13, (2), 167-176.

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *  

FACULTY/STAFF HONORS/APPOINTMENTS

EAP Professor to Receive SACS Leadership Award
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.

Alliance Faculty Speak at Princeton, National Conference
Veterans Day weekend was a busy one for faculty and scholars of the UF Alliance. Director Bernard Oliver, Lecturer Wanda Lastrapes and graduate assistants Sophie Maxis and Diana Melendez presented a paper, “University-School Partnerships that Make a Difference for African American Children,” at the National Alliance of Black School Educators Conference in Orlando on Nov. 9.

Oliver also traveled to Princeton University to speak at a nationwide forum on college accessibility for low-income students. Held Nov. 8-10, the forum was titled “Opening Doors and Paving the Way,” and was sponsored by the Goldman Sachs Foundation and the Princeton University Preparedness Program.

EAP Director Speaks at Major Conferences
Professor Linda Serra Hagedorn, director of the department of Educational Administration and Policy, was invited to speak at two conferences in Washington, DC this month. Hagedorn spoke in a workshop titled “Pathways to the Doctorate for Development Officers” at the annual conference of the Council for Resource Development Nov. 1-3. She spoke on the topic “Additional Research Needed: Success in Postsecondary Education” at the National Postsecondary Education Cooperative’s annual conference, also held Nov. 1-3 in the nation’s capital.

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *  

P.K. YONGE NEWS

PKY Establishes Board of Trustees
P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School has established a Board of Trustees, including a number of prominent graduates, to provide wisdom and expertise to help the school fulfill its vision. Board members include Dean Catherine Emihovich, PKY Director Fran Vandiver, PKY Distinguished Faculty Member Babs Dalsheimer and the following PKY alumni:

  • Johnny Arnette (Class of ’52)
  • Thomas E. Bronson, Chair (’54)
  • Paula DeLaney (’71)
  • Dan Dennison (’65)
  • Doug Dickey (’50)
  • Joe Dunlap (’51)
  • Jimmy Horner (’75)
  • Henry “Tip” Graham (’67)
  • Jack May (’54)
  • Bob Wallace (’74)

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *   *

IN THE NEWS

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

Gainesville Sun – Associate Professor Sondra Smith-Adcock, Professor Harry Daniels, Counselor Education (10/17/06)
A recent study by Daniels and Smith-Adcock, suggesting that Florida suffers a shortage of bilingual school counselors, was featured in The Sun’s weekly “Chalkboard” column. The column is available here.

Florida Today – Professor Harry Daniels, Counselor Education (11/09/06)
Daniels was quoted in a story on the shortage of bilingual counselors in Brevard County schools. The story is available here.

Gainesville Sun – P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School Principal Fran Vandiver (10/21/06)
Vandiver was quoted in an article on PKY’s recent two-day training session on how to deal with potential school shootings.

Independent Florida Alligator – Retired Professor Art Sandeen (10/20/06)
Sandeen, who was UF’s vice president for student affairs at the time of the 1990 Gainesville student murders, was quoted in a story about local memory of the murders.

Independent Florida Alligator – Events Coordinator Jodi Mount (10/26/06)
Mount was quoted in a story on the COE haunted house held in Norman Hall the weekend before Halloween.

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

NOV 23-24

THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY

NOV 24

P.K. Yonge Alumni – All School Reunion
6-9 p.m., Paramount Plaza Hotel
Contact: Shirley Ann Scarabino, 392-1554, ext. 221 or shirleys@pky.ufl.edu

DEC 1

OER-sponsored Brown Bag: Transition Center Overview and Research Collaboration Opportunities
Hosted by Jeanne Repetto, Special Education Associate Professor and The Transition Center’s Director.
Noon – 1 p.m., 158 Norman Hall
RSVP by Wednesday, Nov. 22 to anapuig@coe.ufl.edu

DEC 1

Unified Student Early Childhood Association Winter Celebration Social
9 p.m.-midnight, Reitz Union Grand Ballroom
Contact: usecauf@yahoo.com.

DEC 6

LAST DAY OF FALL CLASSES

DEC 8

COE Faculty and Staff Holiday Luncheon
11:30 a.m.–1 p.m., Savannah Grande
Contact: Jodi Mount, 392-0728, ext. 250 or jmount@coe.ufl.edu

DEC 11

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

DEC 15

Fall Advanced Degree Commencement
Advanced Degrees Only
2 p.m., O’Connell Center
Contact: UF Registrar’s Office, 392-1361

DEC 15

Florida Distinguished Educators Event
Contact: Jodi Mount, 392-0728, ext. 250 or jmount@coe.ufl.edu

DEC 16

Fall Commencement Ceremony
10 a.m., O’Connell Center

Back to top

*   *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *   *

ANNOUNCEMENTS

USECA to hold Winter Celebration Social Dec. 1
All UF affiliates are invited to the Unified Student Early Childhood Association’s Winter Celebration Social, to be held 9 p.m.-midnight Dec. 1 at the Reitz Union’s Grand Ballroom. Attire for the event is semi-formal. For more information, contact usecauf@yahoo.com.

Share a Slice of 2006 with COE Time Capsule
If you were going to send an item to your great-grandkids to show them what life is like in 2006, what would that item be? An iPod? An Iraq veteran’s combat boots? A copy of the FCAT?

Now is your chance to weigh in. The College of Education will bury a time capsule at Norman Hall on Dec. 7. Organizers of the event are seeking suggestions for items to be included in the capsule. If you have a good idea, or an item you’d like to contribute, send your suggestions to ec1107@ufl.edu.

Jonathan Kozol to Headline International Education Conference in Tampa
Celebrated author Jonathan Kozol and 2006 National Teacher of the Year Kimberly Oliver will be among the headliners at the annual international conference of the Association for Childhood Education International in Tampa, to be held May 2-5, 2007. For more information on registration or submitting papers, go to the ACEI website here.

Publicize your event campuswide in InsideUF
Is your unit or UF organization planning an event or presentation that other UF faculty or staff are invited to attend? If so, there’s a new outlet for getting the word out across campus. A new campuswide newsletter called InsideUF is published every Tuesday by UF University Relations as an insert in the Independent Florida Alligator newspaper. It contains news and feature stories of faculty and staff activities and honors, as well as calendar items, guest columns and photos. An online version is also available, with a link on the UF home page.

COE News & Publications is already feeding appropriate college news and columns to InsideUF, and you are encouraged to work with the N&P editorial staff to coordinate your submission of news or calendar items. We, of course, want to promote your news and events to our own college family and friends, too. Check out InsideUF’s writing and editing guidelines at: http://news.ufl.edu/insideuf/submissions/. The deadline for submissions is at least 10 days before publication, and contact information must be included.

InsideUF is specifically targeted to university faculty and staff. If UF students are your intended audience, then you’re better off submitting your news to the Independent Florida Alligator itself.

Contact COE News & Publications (news@coe.ufl.edu) for more information or to obtain assistance in publicizing your news and upcoming events.

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

UF Inclusion Grant Named Top Federal Funding Priority

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.

ryndak-diane.jpg

Associate Professor Diane Ryndak

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.

COE Professor Helps Revise State Math Standards

Associate Professor Thomasenia Adams, mathematics educator in the School of Teaching and Learning, was appointed to a state Department of Education panel charged with updating Florida’s Sunshine State Standards for mathematics at the K-12 level.

thomasenia_adams_8-06-006.jpg

Associate Professor Thomasenia Adams

Adams, who also is the college’s director of graduate studies, was among 40-plus educators who met in Tallahassee in September to review the Florida Department of Education’s math standards, last revised in 1996.

According to Adams, the existing standards included more material than teachers could effectively cover in their limited class time and were vague on implementation.

“We incorporated more focus on the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics’ focal point priorities of what kids need to know in mathematics,” Adams said.

The panel included state university professors, mathematics educators, community college mathematics instructors, classroom teachers and representatives from the U.S. Department of Education, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Texas at Austin and the Florida Department of Education.

The state is now using the panel’s recommendations to rewrite the curriculum. This process is expected to be completed by spring 2007, and implementation will follow.

“The new standards will be more teacher-friendly, because it’s the only way we will have an impact,” Adams said.

coE-News: October 16, 2006 VOL. 2 ISSUE 2

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.
video platform video management video solutions video player

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

UF names Holmes Scholars

Six UF 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.

The national Holmes Scholars Program was founded 15 years ago to address the underrepresentation of men and women of color in leadership positions in higher education. The program awards several dozen assistantships each year to enrich the scholarly experience of minority graduate students in education.

“The students can attend the national conference, which is an opportunity for them to network with other minority graduate students who are preparing to become the next generation of professors,” said Nancy Dana, director of the Center for School Improvement at UF’s College of Education. “In addition, three of our Holmes Scholars receive assistantships to engage in school-university partnership work through the UF Alliance, the Lastinger Center for Learning and the Center for School Improvement.”

This year, Dean Catherine Emihovich is serving as the Holmes Scholars Program’s vice-president for research, and is engaging one of UF’s Holmes scholars in a national study of school-university partnership work. In addition, three scholars, who already have assistantships in their departments, will receive travel support to attend the national conference.

All of the Holmes scholars will serve the college this year by designing and delivering a brown bag lunch series for graduate students focused on writing for publication and interviewing for a first job.

This year’s Holmes scholars include:

  • Evelyn S. Chiang, who received her undergraduate degree in general studies from New College in Sarasota and her M.A.E. in Educational Psychology at UF. She is currently working on a study of readers’ representations of spatial information in narrative text and studying children’s ability to make logical inferences in narrative text. Chiang plans to receive her Ph.D. in spring 2007.
  • Katherin E. Garland, a third-year doctoral student in English Education with a focus on media literacy. She received a bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education with a minor in English from Western Michigan University. She holds an M.A.T. in English from Jacksonville University. She plans to work in a teacher education program at a research university and to research media literacy.
  • Nicole Fenty, a doctoral student in special education. Fenty received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of South Florida and masters in special education from UF. Her research interests include struggling readers, technology as a method of instructional delivery and professional development and the connection between reading difficulties and problems remaining engaged during instruction.
  • Sophie Maxis, a doctoral student in counselor education. Maxis received her Ed.S. and M.Ed. from UF’s Counselor Education department studying school psychology with an emphasis in mental health. She obtained a bachelor’s degree in mathematics education from Oakwood College in Alabama.
  • Jyrece McClendon – information not available
  • Tyran Wright, a doctoral student in special education. Wright obtained her undergraduate degree from UF and holds a master’s degree in Educational Leadership. Before returning to graduate school, she worked as a classroom teacher, reading coach and a curriculum specialist in Lake City. Her research focus is the prevention and remediation of reading difficulties. She is a research assistant on Project Access to Books for Children, a federally funded research project that examines the impact of increased access to books on the literacy of young children. In addition, she works with the Lastinger Center for Learning in various capacities.

UF study: Florida faces shortage of Spanish-speaking school counselors

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.

smith_release_021.jpg

Sondra Smith-Adcock (right), an associate professor of counselor education in the University of Florida’s College of Education, co-authored a study that suggests Florida schools have far too few bilingual counselors to serve the growing population of Hispanic students.

“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

IHE gets $1.6 million grant to help community colleges improve data use

UF’s Institute of Higher Education has been awarded a $1.6 million grant from 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.

“The University of Florida has a reputation for excellence and innovation with respect to community colleges,” said Professor Linda Serra Hagedorn, chair of the Department of Educational Administration and Policy and director of IHE. “Lumina is expressing its trust that we will continue the excellence while at the same time expanding our current services to community colleges.”

IHE is developing an online education program that will show community college institutional research officers – the people responsible for collecting data on enrollment, retention and student demographics – how to use their data to create policies to help students become more academically successful.

“Community colleges across the country are collecting data to report to their funders – the various state legislatures – but they often aren’t using their data to its fullest extent,” said Christopher Coogan, associate director of IHE. “In addition to using their data to report progress to outside agencies, they could be using the same numbers to spot problems and address them before they grow.”

Coogan offered the example of an institution that collects demographic data on entering students, and then tracks those same students over the next two years to evaluate their progress and measure retention and success rates. At the end of the two years, the school might identify a high dropout rate among a certain demographic group – say, Hispanic males whose fathers didn’t finish high school. By collecting and using data more creatively, Coogan said, the community college could have spotted the at–risk group and developed a program to help them.

The IHE grant is part of Achieving the Dream, a multiyear national initiative to help more community college students succeed. The initiative is particularly concerned about student groups that have faced the most significant barriers to success, including low-income students and students of color. Achieving the Dream acts on multiple fronts, including efforts at community colleges and in research, public engagement and public policy. The initiative currently includes 58 colleges in nine states (55 community colleges and three open-admission, four-year institutions). Lumina Foundation, a private, Indianapolis-based non-profit dedicated to expanding access to postsecondary education across the country, is a major funder of Achieving the Dream.

The IHE distance education program will help institutional researchers perform their jobs more effectively by allowing them to elect specific educational modules that fill “learning gaps.” Coogan said the program will stand out from others because it is “asynchronous” – not tied to a regular school year.

“If a community college hires you as an Institutional Researcher on Oct. 5, you can start the program Oct. 6 if you want,” he said.

While other universities have established programs to teach IR officers in higher education, UF’s will be the first aimed specifically at community college staff. The IHE project will also be the first IR program to be offered completely online.

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 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 Arthur Lewis dies at 89

Professor Emeritus Arthur Lewis, a co-founder of the college’s ProTeach program and educational advisor to developing countries, died Sept. 10 in Jacksonville. He was 89.

Born in Colorado, Lewis began his teaching career in Denver schools. He soon shifted to an administrative track, and served as assistant superintendent for the Minneapolis, Minn. School system. He served as a professor of educational administration at Columbia University before coming to UF.

In addition to his work at UF, Lewis worked as an educational advisor to a number of developing countries. As Chief of Party for the Uganda-based Teachers for East Africa Program, he designed university-level teacher education programs for several African nations. With funding from the Ford Foundation, he served as an advisor to the Iranian Ministry of Education before the 1979 revolution in that country.

Friends and colleagues describe Lewis as a person with a low-key personality and a mind brimming with ideas.

Professor Phillip Clark, director of the Center for Community Education, recalls a speech Lewis made before the Gainesville Chapter of Phi Delta Kappa International. Lewis quietly proposed that Phi Delta Kappa take on a comprehensive study of the effectiveness of all ongoing programs in the Florida Department of Education – a major undertaking for the organization. His argument was so compelling, PDK took up the challenge, spending the next six years on just such a study.

“He was a true gentleman and a fine educator,” Clark said.

In his spare time, Lewis was an avid golfer. He even bought a home within walking distance of West End Golf Course to feed his hunger for the links.

To read the Gainesville Sun’s obituary for Lewis, or post a message on the Sun’s online guestbook, click here.

Professor Emeritus Vincent McGuire, proponent of school accountability, dies at 87

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.

Teachers open classrooms for Exchange Day

PK Yonge middle and high school teachers had their first Teacher Exchange Day in September. Teachers opened their classrooms to their colleagues and shared the use of the “Essential Six” strategies PK Yonge teachers are incorporating into their instruction this year.

Below are the Essential Six strategies and the teachers who illustrated them:

  • Nancy Dean, Concept Maps
  • Jake Seymour, Column Notes
  • Renee Andrews, Reciprocal Teaching
  • John Bourn, PAS (a pre-reading strategy)
  • Greg Cunningham, Reciprocal Teaching
  • Gloria Weber, Summary Frames
  • Amy Murphy, Question-Answer Relationship

Twelve teachers visited classrooms and observed strategy implementation during their planning periods. Their written responses to the experience were extremely positive, sharing the pleasure of watching colleagues teach. The experience also deepened teachers’ understanding of the strategies. In the words of one teacher, “I thought summary frames were going to be difficult to do in a math class, but Gloria Weber proved me wrong.”

PKY plans to continue the Teacher Exchange program throughout this school year.

Doctoral student in running for NEA Teacher of the Year

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.

Career Night to showcase variety of career paths in education

Source:
Jodi Mount
Alumni and Events Coordinator
College of Education
jmount@coe.ufl.edu
392-0728, ext. 250

Writer / Media Relations
Tara Goodin, Student Writer
UF College of Education, News & Publications
(352) 392-0726, ext. 323

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — You knew an education degree from the University of Florida could help you become a top-notch teacher – but did you know it could also open the door to a career in public policy, mental health care or college administration?

Several of the most accomplished graduates of UF’s College of Education – including a National Teacher of the Year and advisor to the U.S. Department of Education, a major university dean of education and the superintendent of one of the nation’s largest school districts — will come to campus to talk about careers in and outside the traditional classroom in the Alumni Association/College of Education Career Night. Everyone is invited to the one-hour event, starting at 7 p.m. Oct. 5, in Reitz Union Room 282.

“Career Night is an opportunity for the students to learn about a variety of career opportunities available to them with a degree from the College of Education,” said Catherine Emihovich, dean of the UF College of Education.

A panel of speakers representing a variety of education-related careers will speak on potential career paths including school and education administration, school counseling, mental health, education improvement and leadership, and teaching at all levels.

Speakers include:

  • Ronald Blocker, superintendent of Orange County Public Schools. Blocker holds a master’s degree in counseling and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from UF. In 2000, he was named superintendent of Orange County Public Schools, the nation’s 11th largest school district. His work to pass a half-cent sales tax for school construction led to  $4.5 billion in funding for school construction and renovations of older schools. Under his direction, the school system initiated the League of Education Excellence, a program to improve the performance of high school students.

  • Sandra Bowman Damico, dean of the University of Iowa’s College of Education. Damico received her Ph.D. in Social Foundations of Education from UF. Her research has focused primarily on school organization and policies and their impact on the achievement and behavior of adolescents. She currently is studying leadership in higher education.  She has served as director of the Division of Educational Studies at Emory University before assuming her current position in 1999.  She also spent 10 years as a professor at UF’s College of Education.

  • Robert Bleck, veteran educator, researcher and therapist. Bleck received his Ph.D. from UF in 1977. He founded the Source Completion Therapy Center in Plainview, NY, and works as the center’s director. Bleck authored the book “Give Back the Pain,” in which he provides historical examples to help people see and understand their own behaviors. Bleck is a former professor of counseling and psychology at the Long Island University’s C.W. Post Campus, Queens College and Hofstra University.

  • Terry Dozier, director of the Center for Teacher Leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Education. Dozier received a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in Social Studies Education at UF. In 1985, Dozier was named U.S. National Teacher of the Year. She later served as the senior advisor on teaching to the U.S. Secretary of Education. In her current position at the Center for Teacher Leadership, Dozier works with teachers throughout Virginia to promote and develop teachers as leaders.

coE-News: September 15, 2006 VOL. 2 ISSUE 1

VOL. 2 ISSUE 1

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

UF national conference to address

Source:
Eileen Oliver, Conference Coordinator
UF College of Education
352-392-2137, ext. 234

Ann Ooton, Coordinator
University of Florida Conference Department
352-392-1701, ext. 243

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — 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 this November to discuss ways to close the academic gap between the “haves” and “have nots” in a national conference to be held in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Titled “Closing the Achievement Gap Through Partnerships,” the conference, sponsored by the University of Florida’s College of Education, 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.

The conference — aimed at public policy and community leaders, healthcare and counseling programs, school and school district administrators, university education professors and students, school counselors, and teachers at all levels — is set for Nov. 2-4 at the Hilton Bayfront Hotel in downtown St. Petersburg. Early registration deadline is Sept. 30.

“Schools have been called on to close this gap, but schools cannot do it alone,” said Catherine Emihovich, dean of UF’s College of Education. “We should also focus on community-based issues affecting the development and education of children, such as access to good healthcare, safe and affordable housing, family support networks and early childhood readiness programs.”

The conference is held in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of UF’s College of Education, which has led the way in a number of movements – from school desegregation to Florida’s first Head Start programs and the establishment of the community college system – that have challenged America’s educational inequities.

Speakers at the event will include:

  • Marilyn Cochran-Smith, who holds the John E. Cawthorne Millenium Chair in Teacher Education for Urban Schools at Boston College’s Lynch School of Education. The author of a number of books on education, public policy and social justice, Cochran-Smith is past president of the American Educational Research Association, and was co-chair of AERA’s National Panel on Research in Teacher Education.
  • Richard Rothstein, a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute, a non-profit think tank based in Washington, D.C. From 1999-2002, he served as national education columnist for The New York Times. He has written a number of books on education policy in America, most recently Class and Schools: Using Social, Economic and Educational Reform to Close the Black-White Achievement Gap.
  • Etta Hollins, a professor at the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California. Hollins is one of the nation’s leading authorities on preparing teachers to work with diverse student populations. She is the author of a number of books on the topic, and has served as vice president of the Social Contexts Division of the American Educational Research Association.
  • Heather Weiss, founding director of the Harvard Family Research Project. Founded in 1983 at Harvard University’ Graduate School of Education, HFRP strives to promote more effective educational practices, programs, and policies for disadvantaged children and youth by generating, publishing, and disseminating research. Weiss is also the co-principal investigator on the MacArthur Foundation-funded School Transition Study, a longitudinal, mixed-method study of low-income students’ successful pathways through middle childhood.
  • Ronald Blocker, superintendent of Orange County Public Schools. Blocker led Orange County schools through their transition to charter school status, and has also led efforts to meet the academic goals of a charter school system. Under his leadership, Orange County has seen an increase in Advanced Placement enrollment and performance, led the state in reading gains among struggling students, and achieved “A” or “B” ratings at three-fourths of its schools. Blocker also played a role in the passage of a half-cent sales tax that is expected to generate $3.3 billion for school construction.
  • Mary Ellen Elia, superintendent of Hillsborough County Public Schools. In Elia’s first year as superintendent, the Hillsborough County system produced more “A” ratings than at any point in its history. Elia has been with the Hillsborough County system for 20 years, and has served as Director of Non-Traditional Programs, General Director of Secondary Education, and Chief Facilities Officer.
  • James McCalister, Sr., superintendent of Bay District Schools in Northwest Florida. He plays an active role in the public life of Bay County, and is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Military Affairs Committee and the NAACP, among other organizations. He is on the Board of Directors of the Florida Association of School Superintendents.

The conference will also feature more than 30 breakout sessions on topics including:

  • Focused partnerships between urban schools and universities
  • Family-school relationships
  • The effects of No Child Left Behind legislation on education

Registration for the conference is $175 before the Sept. 30 registration deadline. Late registration costs $225. Registration will cover a reception, breakfast and lunch for two days of the conference. Registration is available online on the conference website: http://www.doce-conferences.ufl.edu/gap/default.asp. For more information, contact Ann Ooton at the University of Florida at (352) 392-1701 ext. 243 or aooton@doce.ufl.edu.

(NOTE TO EDITORS/REPORTERS: Members of the media are welcome to attend. For media credentials, contact the College of Education’s News and Publications Office at (352) 392-0726 ext. 266. For more information on the conference, go to http://www.doce-conferences.ufl.edu/gap/default.asp.)

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

Brian and David Marshall, students in Counselor Education, killed

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.

marshall_service_003.jpg

Professor Harry Daniels, chair of the Counselor Education department addresses a crowd of more than 100 at the Sept. 1 memorial for Brian and David Marshall.

“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.

marshall_service_011.jpg

Mike Marshall talks about his brothers at a memorial service Sept. 1 in the Norman Hall courtyard.

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.”

New Faculty, 2006-07

Dean’s Office

 colon_elayne.jpg Elayne Colón
Assistant Scholar
Director of Assessment and Accreditation
Ph.D., University of Florida

Elayne Colón recently received her Ph.D. from UF’s School Psychology program, where her dissertation focused on the evaluation of an intensive reading intervention program for kindergarten students. In her new position, Colón will focus on assessment and accreditation issues within the college and oversee the day-to-day operations of the Unit Assessment System. Colón previously served as a psychoeducational consultant at the Multidisciplinary Diagnostic and Training Program (MDTP). Colón also has published several articles in top research journals, including The Journal of Special Education and Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment. This fall, she will teach a course for first-year School Psychology graduate students on academic assessments and interventions for students with diverse learning needs.

 

puig.jpg Ana Puig
Assistant Scholar
Research Director, Office of Educational Research
Ph. D., University of Florida

Ana Puig, well known to COE faculty and staff as the research director of the Office of Educational Research, has also been appointed to an assistant scholar position. A graduate of UF’s Counselor Education program, Puig is a licensed mental health counselor in the state of Florida and a national certified counselor, and holds a certificate from UF’s Center for Spirituality and Health. Her research has focused on complementary therapies in breast cancer care, spirituality and health issues in counseling and multicultural spirituality.

Counselor Education

Michael Garrett
Associate Professor
Ph. D., University of North Carolina at Greensboro

“I want every counselor sitting across from a Native American client to understand tribal life as if he or she were an insider,” says Michael Garrett. Garrett has authored or co-authored more than 50 articles or chapters on multiculturalism, group work, spirituality, school counseling and Native Americans. He has written or co-written four books on Native American culture and counseling, including The Cherokee Full Circle: A Practical Guide to Ceremonies and Traditions. Garrett has worked as a school counselor at the middle and high school levels, as a student personnel worker with Native American and other minority students, and as a project director in an urban Indian center. He comes to UF from Old Dominion University, where he was chair of the Department of Educational Leadership and Counseling.

 andrea_dixon_rayle.jpg Andrea Dixon Rayle
Assistant Professor
Ph. D., University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Andrea Dixon Rayle’s research interests include identity development in adolescent females and minority adolescents, particularly Native Americans; the work culture of school counselors; cross-cultural competence and multicultural counseling; academic persistence and achievement; and mattering, spirituality and wellness across the lifespan. She is an editorial board member for the Journal of Counseling and Development, Professional School Counseling, and the Journal for Specialists in Group Work. She is a certified guidance counselor in Florida and Arizona. She comes to UF from Arizona State University, where she served as assistant professor in the Division of Psychology in Education and was co-investigator on the American Indian Youth Pilot Project, a fiveyear study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Education Psychology

shermis.jpg Mark Shermis
Professor and Chair
Ph. D., University of Michigan

Mark Shermis has played a key role in a number of innovations that have made computerized testing a useful research tool for the social sciences. His first book, Using Microcomputers in Social Science Research, was one of the earliest successful texts on the topic. Shermis played a leading role in bringing computerized adaptive testing to the Internet. For the past eight years, he has studied automated essay scoring, and co-edited Automated Essay Scoring: A Cross-Disciplinary Approach, a seminal book in the field. He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and past chair of the APA’s Continuing Education Committee. Before coming to UF, Shermis was a professor in the Department of Educational and Psychological Studies and associate dean for research and grants in the College of Education at Florida International University.

School of Teaching and Learning

alyson_adams.jpg Alyson Adams
Assistant Scholar
Ph. D., University of Florida

Alyson Adams is already known to many from her staff position at the Lastinger Center for Learning, where she designed and implemented job-embedded professional development for teachers in high-poverty elementary schools around the state. In her new appointment as assistant scholar, Adams will continue working with the Lastinger Center, while teaching and conducting research in the School of Teaching and Learning. Her research interests include: measurement and evaluation of professional development and the impact on teacher practice and student achievement; inclusive practices; measuring the impact of jobembedded graduate programs; teacher education; inclusive education; collaboration; professional development; professional learning communities; and critical friends groups.

pape_stephen.jpg Stephen Pape
Associate Professor
Ph. D., City University of New York

Stephen Pape, an associate professor of mathematics education, comes to UF from Ohio State University. His research has focused on the problem-solving and self-regulated learning behaviors of middle school children and classroom contexts that foster mathematical understanding and the development of strategic behaviors. Pape t

aught secondary mathematics at a K-12 private school and middleschool mathematics and science in
New York City Public Schools. He has been principal investigator and co-principal investigator on several research grants that supported middle school teachers’ efforts to examine and change their teaching practices. He is currently working on a research project funded by the Institutes of Educational Sciences to examine the impact of classroom connectivity systems that could increase self-regulating learning and achievement.

James Wattenbarger, father of Florida’s community college system

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).”

Mike Solich, social studies ProTeach student, dies at 22

Mike Solich, a star student in UF’s ProTeach program, died July 6, 2006 in a drowning accident in the Estero River. He was 22.

A native of St. James City, Solich was expected to graduate in August, and had already accepted a position as a social studies teacher at Ida S. Baker High School in Cape Coral.

His professors describe Solich as a passionate idealist who saw the classroom as an anchoring point from which he could change the world for the better.

“You don’t meet a lot of young people who look you in the eye and say, with conviction, ‘I want to be a social studies teacher,’” said Professor Elizabeth Yeager, Solich’s academic advisor. “Mike really got it – he loved history, and he knew that young people need to understand the workings of society if they’re going to function as citizens.”

Solich had just completed an internship teaching 8th-graders at P.K Yonge Developmental School.

“Eighth grade history is not always the most interesting subject – just think back to your own experience in middle school and you probably understand what I mean,” said Michele Phillips, Solich’s internship adviser. “In Mike’s class, history wasn’t just about memorizing a bunch of dates. He was excited about the subject, and his excitement caught on with the students.”

Phillips recalls a lesson in which Solich asked students to write their own classroom constitution, detailing rights and responsibilities of students. Among other things, students granted themselves the liberty to chew gum in class, but banned iPods as disruptive. An unexpected result, perhaps, but not to Solich.

“He knew his students were capable of making mature decisions,” Phillips said. “He believed in them, and he believed he could make the world a better place by teaching students about their history.”

In Norman Hall, Mike was well known even to those outside his circle of fellow students and teachers – largely because of his friendly, outgoing demeanor.

“Mike never met a person that he wouldn’t engage in a conversation,” said Associate Professor Colleen Swain, associate director of the School of Teaching and Learning. “Many students don’t learn the names of the secretaries and assistants in various offices. Mike did. He valued everyone.”

Robert Primack, Social Foundations professor, dies at 84

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.

Faculty promoted to new positions

The College of Education congratulates members of the faculty who were promoted or granted tenure in spring. Recently promoted faculty include:

Promoted to the rank of Professor
Elizabeth Yeager, School of Teaching and Learning

Promoted to the rank of Associate Professor with tenure:

  • In the School of Teaching and Learning
    • Richard Ferdig
    • Rose Pringle
    • Sevan Terzian
    • Diane Yendol-Hoppey
  • In Educational Psychology
    • Mirka Koro-Ljungberg
    • Tracy Linderholm
  • In Special Education
    • Holly Lane

Promoted to the rank of University School Associate Professor:
Nancy Dean

Promoted to the rank of University School Assistant Professor:
Marguerite Donnelly
Dianne Skye

Mobile books for migrant farm families

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

Managing anger in the classroom

Why can’t Johnny learn to read?

Maybe Johnny is too worried about the class bully mugging him at recess for his lunch money.

The news reports of angry and aggressive behavior in our schools are becoming so common that they are now the norm. Schools are struggling to find ways to reduce aggressive conduct and promote more socially acceptable behavior. And student learning is suffering as a consequence.

But two faculty researchers at the UF College of Education are working to reverse that trend. Special Education Professor Stephen W. Smith and his research partner, Ann Daunic, an assistant scholar in special education, have been working in Florida classrooms for several years to develop a curriculum that helps students in elementary and secondary schools deal with anger management issues.

Smith, who teaches courses on classroom and behavioral management, has directed a number of research grants on the effectiveness of classroom-based activities that will change behavior and reduce disruptions. At UF, he has received three teaching awards, a university research award and has been named a UF Research Foundation Professor.

Daunic’s research emphasis focuses on tailoring school-based conflict resolution strategies and instruction to the at–risk child’s background and environment to encourage their acceptance and participation in the anger-management exercises.

Building on their groundbreaking early studies, Smith and Daunic are expanding the breadth and scope of their research, thanks to a new $1.63 million grant from the National Center for Special Education Research, part of the U.S. Department of Education.

“We were getting some positive findings from earlier studies,” Daunic says. “Students were learning the curriculum and we were seeing some constructive changes in teacher ratings of aggressive behavior.”

But how much did behavior improve, and how was student learning affected? The new grant will help Smith and Daunic answer these and related questions by letting them hire research assistants so they have the critically needed presence in the classroom. They basically need more students, more data and more research.

The curriculum, dubbed Tools for Getting Along, is a 26-lesson, teacher-friendly series of activities that demonstrates the kinds of situations school-aged children can get into. It offers opportunities, through role playing, for the students to process how they would solve social problems.

Under the four-year grant, Smith and Daunic will spend three years testing and observing their intervention strategies on hundreds of fourth- and fifth-graders in 10 area elementary schools – five using the curriculum and the other five serving as a control group. Year 4 will involve analyzing and writing up their results.

All students in the classes will participate, whether or not they are considered to be at–risk.

“Our goal is to prevent problems,” Smith says. “There are students in regular classrooms with behavioral problems, but not critical enough to be in special education programs. Left unchecked, these problems will become worse over time, especially when students get to the less structured middle and high schools.”

With standardized test results serving as the ultimate measure of success or failure for both students and schools, Smith and Daunic say simple solutions must be found to deal with behavioral issues.

“Since teachers are forced to spend more time focused on a high-stakes testing atmosphere, they have less time to deal with social and behavioral issues,” Smith says. “The solution has to be something that works, and works quickly. We hope the curriculum we are developing is a step in the right direction.”

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

Good readers formed before first day of kindergarten


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.

Ready for school? Good readers formed before first day of kindergarten, UF study

Source:
Anne Bishop, Assistant Scholar
University of Florida College of Education
352-392-070 , ext. 280

Video of press release

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — So you’ve bought your child a lunchbox, a backpack, new shoes and hand soap for the teacher’s closet – but did you remember to give your kindergartener the literacy skills he or she needs to begin school?

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. A longitudinal study by University of Florida researchers has found evidence to support that claim.

anne_bishop_young_reader_2.jpg

University of Florida researcher Anne Bishop tests the “pre-literacy” skills of 5-year-old Camille Eyman, a few days before Camille’s first day of kindergarten.

“There are certain simple skills, such as letter recognition and the awareness of the sound structure of our language, that serve as very good predictors of a child’s reading success five years from now,” said Anne Bishop, an assistant scholar in special education at UF’s College of Education. “Without early intervention, a child who lacks these skills in kindergarten may have a hard time catching up.”

Bishop and her colleague, UF Assistant Scholar Martha League, have conducted a long-term study in which they tested children for various reading-related abilities in kindergarten, then followed up on their performance in reading through the fourth grade.

They tested the validity of a number of measures used to screen children for reading deficiencies. They determined that screening measures related to letter identification, phonological awareness and rapid naming of familiar objects predicted students’ ability to read fluently as they progressed in elementary school. They also determined it was just as advantageous to test children early in their kindergarten year instead of the middle of the year. The earlier students can be tested for learning deficiencies, Bishop said, the sooner they can receive the help they need. “We didn’t look beyond the fourth grade, but it is clear that a lack of good reading skills can have a cumulative effect,” Bishop said. “Past research studies have revealed that it is far more difficult to help children catch up beyond the elementary years. In fact, the success rate for helping children in the early grades is as high as 82 percent. After fifth grade it drops to 10 to 15 percent.” According to Bishop and League, critical skills for kindergarten-age children include:

  • Recognizing letters: Learning the ABCs is the task most people associate with a young child’s education – and with good reason. Bishop and League found a strong correlation between the ability to name the letters of the alphabet in kindergarten and later performance in elementary school.
  • Word play with sounds: A child should have an appreciation of the sound structure of our language, which is called phonological awareness. This involves playing games such as rhyming, clapping out the syllables in their names, taking apart simple compound words (understanding, for instance, that “starfish” is made of two words, “star” and “fish”) and being able to assemble new compound words. At a more complex level, kindergarten students should be able to recognize that words are composed of separate, distinct sounds – and should be able to count the different sounds in a simple word like “cat.” The child does not have to be able to read to develop these phonological skills as this word play is done without seeing the words, just working on the word parts or individual sounds.

While some students struggle with reading because of cognitive-based learning disabilities, Bishop said, a lag in these critical skills is more commonly due to a lack of early exposure to print and language development. Parents should never underestimate the power of reading to their children.

If your child’s screening determines that he or she is behind in any of these skills, the researchers say, that doesn’t mean he or she is doomed to academic failure. Intensive, early intervention can address problems before a student hits first grade, Bishop said, but that intervention must start as soon as possible. Among children who are failing to read by the end of the first grade, Bishop said, fewer than one in eight will ever catch up to grade level.

Bishop said parents can try a few simple techniques at home to give preschoolers and kindergarteners the skills they need to succeed in reading. Among her suggestions:

  • Read to your kids: Children learn more than letters and sounds when you read to them. They learn that letters form words, that words are read from left to right, and that pages are read in a certain order. These “concepts of print,” as educators call them, are vital to future reading success.
  • Play word games with your children: Ask your child, for instance, how to say “cupcake” without saying “cup” or without the “c” sound. This encourages them to think about the relationship of sounds in language.
  • Build vocabulary – adventurously: Expose your child to as many different sights, experiences and concepts as you can, and teach the names for all of them. Reading aloud to your children greatly enhances their vocabulary.
  • Talk to, not at, your child: When exploring a new place or concept, don’t simply tell your child what you know. Engage the child in conversation. Ask questions. Give your child the chance to use language.

For more tips on how to teach reading skills to your preschooler, Bishop suggests the book “Starting Out Right,” published by the National Research Council. For more in-depth information on teaching your child to read, go to the Florida Center for Reading Research website at: http://www.fcrr.org/curriculu m/curriculumForParents.htm.

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

UF study: Contrasting teaching styles in U.S.-China classrooms may influence students' learning preferences

Source:
Thomas Oakland
University of Florida College of Education
352-392-0723, ext. 231

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Chinese children want to learn practical knowledge in an organized environment, while their American counterparts prefer a more imaginative school environment, a University of Florida study suggests.

The study offers a small glimpse of education in China – a country of strong regional differences, where urban life is markedly different from rural life – but the results could shed light on China’s increasing competitiveness in technological fields and the hard sciences, the study’s lead author said.

tom_oakland.jpg

Thomas Oakland

“If our findings in China are borne out by further study, they could have some interesting implications for higher education, particularly in the sciences,” said Thomas Oakland, a professor of educational psychology at UF’s College of Education. “Children who prefer a practical and organized learning style tend to do well in the sciences, and children generally choose career paths that complement their temperament.”

Oakland is the creator of the Student Style Questionnaire, a psychological test that measures students’ learning styles and preferred learning environments. His test – loosely based on the Myers-Briggs personality test familiar to many Americans – has been given to thousands of students in the United States, as well as groups in 24 other countries. While the primary purpose of the test is to help teachers choose teaching methods, Oakland has used his cross-national data to analyze the differences between students from different cultures.

Oakland’s co-author, Professor Li Lu of Shanxi Medical University, recently tested 400 students of various ages and income levels in Taiyuan, a large industrial city in northern China. The researchers compared their results to tests given to nearly 8,000 American students.

Here’s what they found:

  • 86 percent of Chinese students preferred an “organized” learning style, which means they preferred orderly classrooms, a set routine and firm standards of behavior – as opposed to a “flexible” style based on variety and study that feels like play. In most countries, a majority of children prefer the organized style, but the researchers describe the Chinese preference as “remarkably high.”
  • Six out of 10 Chinese children preferred a “practical” learning style, showing more interest in material that has real-world applications, preferring to learn by experience and seeking hard facts. Of their American counterparts, six out of 10 preferred an “imaginative” style, which stresses discussion of ideas and possibilities
  • Chinese girls were evenly split between a “thinking” style — with an emphasis on debate, competition, and logics – and a “feeling” style, which emphasizes harmony and cooperation in the classroom. In most countries, girls overwhelmingly prefer the “feeling” style.

The results could have interesting implications in the sciences in both countries, Oakland said.

“The combination of ‘organized’ and ‘thinking’ styles is particularly good for people who hope to become researchers,” said Oakland. “Compared to Chinese students, American students seem to be much more interested in the use of imagination and in flexible work routines, traits that are typically conducive to creative work.”

It is too early to say why these groups show such marked personality differences, Oakland said. The individualist culture of the United States and the comparatively collectivist culture of China probably influence learning styles, he said. Chinese classrooms tend to be more structured and authoritarian than classrooms in the West, while American schools try to encourage critical thinking skills and student interaction with teachers. Still, Oakland doubts various students’ learning styles are picked up entirely in school.

“Earlier studies seem to indicate that temperament is formed even before a child hits school age, through early influences and biology,” he said.

In his two decades of international research on student temperament, Oakland has usually found only shades of difference between students in different cultures. “Organized” learners are in the majority almost everywhere, for instance, and extroverted children outnumber introverts in almost every country. Perhaps not surprisingly, students from countries with close cultural ties tend to show similar results on tests. The closest match to the American student population, for instance, came from tests in the Australian school system.

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

Students with mental retardation making gains in the general classroom, UF study finds

Aug. 8, 2006
Sources: James McLeskey, 352-392-0701, ext. 278; mcleskey@coe.ufl.edu
Pam Williamson, 352-213-3945; pam.williamson@ttlvdo.com

2006 Graduates

A study by COE researchers – including (from left) doctoral candidate Pam Williamson, Professor James McCleskey, and doctoral candidates David Hoppey and Tarcha Rentz – found that schools are making real, but uneven, progress in bringing students with mental retardation into the general classroom.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Students with mental retardation are far more likely to be educated alongside typical students than they were 20 years ago, a University of Florida study has found.

However, the trend once known as “mainstreaming”— widely considered the best option for such students – appears to have stalled in some parts of the country, the study’s authors report. And a student’s geographic location, rather than the severity of his disability, often determines how he will spend his school days, the researchers say.

“We’ve known for a long time that students with MR (mental retardation) are better off educationally if they can spend at least part of the day in a typical classroom,” said James McLeskey, chair of special education in UF’s College of Education and an author of the study. “We’ve found that there are still lot of students who could be included in the general classroom, but aren’t included.”

Before the mid-1970s, most children with mental retardation were completely segregated from other children in the school system, if they were formally educated at all. Society widely viewed these children as uneducable, and those who did attend school were sent to institutions solely for children with mental retardation.

Both children and their parents often viewed these institutions as dehumanizing and ineffective – and by the late 1960s, educators had assembled a large body of research to show that children with mental retardation did indeed perform much better when schooled, at least part-time, among the general student population. That research led Congress to pass a 1975 law requiring a more inclusive environment for students with mental retardation.

Surveys in the 1980s and early 1990s showed that schools had made little progress toward implementing that mandate. In an article published in the spring 2006 issue of the journal Exceptional Children, UF researchers – including doctoral candidates Pam Williamson, David Hoppey and Tarcha Rentz – revisited the question, taking a comprehensive look at placement rates for students with mental retardation in all 50 states and the District of Columbia during the 1990s. They found some very good news.

“Inclusion seems to have genuinely caught on in the 1990s,” said Williamson, the lead author of the study. “By the end of the decade, a student with MR was almost twice as likely to be educated in the general classroom as a similar student the beginning of the decade.

In 1990, almost three-fourths of students with MR were educated separately from their typical peers, learning in separate classrooms or entire schools dedicated to children with mental retardation. By 2000, only slightly more than half of students with MR were educated separately.

Still, a handful of states – Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota and Vermont – accounted for much of the gain seen nationwide, with many other states marking little or no progress.

A simple move across state lines, the researchers say, can have a major impact on a child’s educational career. Various states have widely different policies on who can be identified with mental retardation, and how they are educated. Some states identify mental retardation in as few as three out of every 1,000 students; others identify as many as 30 students per 1,000. Demographically similar states such as Alabama and Mississippi differ widely in their reported rates of mental retardation – suggesting the differences are due to policy, not environmental factors. 

“For a student with mental retardation, geographic location is possibly the strongest predictor of the student’s future educational setting,” Williamson said.

Many of these students can have functional work lives in adulthood, Williamson said. However, if they aren’t exposed to their peers in the general classroom, students with MR may not pick up the social and academic skills they need to do so.

Inclusion can also have a beneficial effect for students already in the general classroom. When typical students attend school with classmates who have MR, the researchers say, they learn leadership skills and become more tolerant. They even score higher, as a group, on standardized tests.

“The inclusive classroom environment seems to work better for students who are struggling, academically, but not identified as having MR,” McLeskey said. “That tends to bring up averages on test scores for typical students in the entire class.”

In the current era of high-stakes testing, that effect could work to the benefit of students with MR. Under past school accountability rules, many states did not count the scores of students in MR-only classes when conducting statewide achievement tests – an incentive to administrators to keep students with mental retardation out of the general classroom.

Under the No Child Left Behind Act, however, schools must report test scores of all students, including those in separate special education classes.

“All these students count now, and schools have an incentive to improve their scores,” McLeskey said. “Inclusion seems to be the best way to do that.”

By: Tim Lockette; (352) 392-0728; lockette@coe.ufl.edu

UF Teaching Students See Different Side of New South Africa

July 17, 2006

Sources:
Catherine Tucker, (352) 359-1258; mctucker917@hotmail.com
Tom Dana; (352) 392-9191, ext. 226; tdana@coe.ufl.edu
Jacqueline Gonzalez, UF ProTeach student, (305) 401-7906
Jeff Kearney, UF ProTeach student, (352) 871-0468

University of Florida student Jacqueline Gonzalez just traveled 8,000 miles to spend part of her summer in schools with sporadic electricity and only a handful of books.

It’s not what normally comes to mind when you hear the words “study abroad,” but Gonzalez couldn’t be happier.

“I didn’t just want to experience another culture, I wanted to make a difference.” said Gonzalez, a student in the UF’s College of Education. “I think I learned even more than I was able to teach.”

last_africa_06_016.jpg

ProTeach student Kara Gosnay works with children at the Coldstream Creche in rural South Africa in this June, 2006 photograph.

Gonzalez is one of a dozen UF education students who spent six weeks in poor and rural areas of South Africa, teaching and doing repairs in schools that are makeshift and underfunded – and incredibly valuable to the communities they serve. All 12 students are enrolled in the College of Education’s Elementary ProTeach program, an intensive, five-year course of study for future elementary school teachers.

The UF program took students beyond the bustling, modern landscape of Cape Town and into townships and rural areas where South Africa’s famous prosperity is little more than a rumor.

“It’s true that South Africa is probably the richest country in Africa,” said Catherine Tucker, a doctoral student in counselor education, who organized and led the trip. “You do see a lot of prosperity in the cities – but you don’t have to go far to see that this is still a Third World country.”

coldstream_kids.jpg

ProTeach students pose with children from the Coldstream Creche. The UF students delivered supplies donated to the  underfunded school, including books, toothbrushes – and, for fun, sunglasses.

ProTeach students taught beginning English to children at four schools in Kurland and Coldstream, two small towns in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province. Many of the province’s poorest residents are multilingual, speaking Afrikaans and tribal languages, but not English. They are effectively shut out of jobs in the country’s fast-growing, and largely English-speaking, tourist industry.

“Six weeks is not a long time to study English, but young children have an amazing ability to pick up new languages,” Tucker said. “If they remember even a few phrases as adults, this could help them find jobs in tourism.”

Students also made physical improvements to the schools, planting gardens, painting walls and distributing school supplies they brought with them.

“It’s kind of hard to imagine a preschool without crayons or books, but we did see that,” said ProTeach student Jeff Kearney. “On a trip like this, you realize just how much we take for granted in the U.S.”

outhouses.jpg

Outhouses are a common feature of homes in Kurland, one of two South African villages where COE students recently spent six weeks working in local schools.

While UF students didn’t learn Afrikaans as quickly as their young charges picked up English, they learned something that may have been even more valuable – the ability to reach across a cultural divide.

“We found out that there are quite a few ways to communicate without knowing the language,” Kearney said. “You can say a lot with gestures and body language. You can even teach some basic English.”

The College of Education is preparing to significantly expand study abroad opportunities for its students. The college currently offers an optional study experience in Costa Rica associated with a course in Global Studies, and is working to establish for-credit study abroad projects in several countries, including Costa Rica and England. The college is mulling the creation of an international education minor for undergraduates, which would likely consist of 15 hours of courses in international education, including up to six hours of courses taken overseas.

“Studying abroad dramatically increases a teacher’s inter-cultural competency, which can help them if they’re teaching children from another part of the country, or from the other side of the tracks,” said Tom Dana, director of the School of Teaching and Learning, which hosts ProTeach. “Culture affects even the simplest things you do – like how you walk down a sidewalk or drive a car.”

crags_creche_1.jpg

COE students play with children at Crags Primary School in Kurland.

Like Englishmen driving in America, children from other cultures often unintentionally break cultural rules in U.S. classrooms, Dana said. When teachers study abroad, he said, they learn how it feels to be the one perpetually on the wrong side of the road.

A trip overseas can also deepen a teacher’s understanding of the subject he or she will teach, said Theresa Vernetson, assistant dean for student affairs at the college.

“Study abroad is particularly useful if you’re teaching history or social science,” she said. “Seeing these places and customs first-hand can give you more confidence with the subject matter.”

Even the impoverished schools of rural South Africa hold lessons for teachers in the U.S. Faced with daunting social problems and a lack of resources, Tucker said, students quickly learn to be resourceful.

“Teachers in South Africa deal with fetal alcohol syndrome, AIDS, tuberculosis, huge class sizes and other Third World problems,” Tucker said. “Imagine how easy your first teaching job in the U.S. is going to look after that.”

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

UF academy taps education professor

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.

linda_behar-horentstein.jpg

Linda Behar-Horenstein

A UF faculty member since 1992, Behar-Horenstein has published widely on the development and application of school curriculum. As an affiliate professor for the College of Dentistry, she has put her knowledge to work in helping that college improve its teaching methods.

"Most people in academe start their teaching careers without the any training in how to teach," she said. "To ensure the highest level of instruction we must study the quality of teaching in schools including, higher education. Few institutions take that initiative, yet we all  know how much studies of evidence-based practice can contribute to the betterment of instructional practice."

Behar-Horenstein’s own teaching skills have also won her praise in the College of Education — and a reputation as a mentor willing to go the extra mile.

"While being a nurturing and supportive dissertation chair, Dr. Behar-Horenstein also holds each student to the highest academic and performance standards," said Linda Serra Hagedorn, chair of educational administration and policy at the College of Education.  "She expects quality and generally receives it."

Like other academy members, Behar-Horenstein will serve a three-year term on the advisory board for the University Center for Teaching and Excellence, or UCET. Founded in 1994, UCET helps graduate students acquire the skills they need to become good teachers, while offering faculty members advice on how to teach better.

After her term on the advisory board, Behar-Horenstein will retain the title of Distinguished Teaching Scholar, and will assist UCET by participating in the academy’s ongoing discourses on major issues in instruction at UF.

This is not the first time Behar-Horenstein has been honored for her teaching skills. Her hands-on approach to dissertation advising earned her the UCET Dissertation Advising/ Mentoring Award for 2005-06.

"I love working with students and I love working with faculty, and I think teaching is one of those rare fields in which one can truly make a difference," she said. "If you know what you’re doing and you care enough to do it well, you can have a tremendous effect."

News & Publications Staff

 

Director: Larry Lansford, APR
392-0726, ext. 266
llansford@coe.ufl.edu


Congratulations to Centennial Class of 2006!

2006 Graduates

Four recipients of Outstanding Student Awards pose for a parent (L-R): Megan Connaughton, Lacy Lynn Basford, Diana Elysee and Jessica Klahr.

Every graduating class forges its own legacy, but the College of Education Class of 2006 holds a special place in the history of both the university and the college.

With the spring 2006 graduation ceremonies, UF marked 100 years of commencements. This year, the College of Education also celebrates 100 years of preparing teachers, counselors, administrators, college professors and school psychologists for roles in education.

It was May 30, 1906, when members of UF’s first graduating class received their diplomas. Three students from the UF Normal School—the predecessor of the College of Education—were among the 14 graduates at that inaugural graduation ceremony.

Nearly a century later, on May 7, 2006, some 328 education students joined those first 14 as UF alumni. About 200 donned cap and gown and “took the walk” across stage at UF’s Stephen C. O’Connell Center to receive their diplomas. The college’s Centennial Class of 2006 included 139 bachelor’s degree recipients and 189 advanced-degree graduates, from all five College of Education academic units.

The graduates—plus some 1,000 family members, friends, faculty members and dignitaries—were treated to remarks by Cynthia Tucker, nationally syndicated op-ed columnist and the editorial page editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Tucker’s remarks were deeply personal as she acknowledged the key role many educators played in her family life, and emphasized the need to have high quality teachers in our most challenged schools.

2006 Graduates

Dean Emihovich (in blue regalia) shown with Distinguished Educator Award recipients (L-R) Lynn Carrier, Sherry McIlwain, Julia Burnett, Marilyn Lentine and LuAnne Williams.

Education Dean Catherine Emihovich presented the education student and faculty awards, along with Distinguished Educator Awards to five public-school teachers and administrators from around the state,

Local community leader Portia Taylor, vice president for student affairs at Santa Fe Community College, received the College of Education alumni achievement award for her leadership, service and accomplishments both professionally and in her community.

Among the outstanding student award winners was Jessica Klahr, a senior in elementary education, who was inducted into the University of Florida Hall of Fame for her many contributions and services to the university and community.

As Dean Emihovich reminded the new graduates in closing the ceremony, “There will always be just one centennial class. Congratulations to members of the College of Education Centennial Class of 2006.”

New Education Psychology chair appointed

Mark Shermis

Mark Shermis

Mark Shermis, professor in educational and psychological studies and associate dean for education research and grants at Florida International University, is the new chair of UF’s Department of Educational Psychology at the College of Education.

His research interests are in the intersection of measurement and technology. Shermis has been involved in research on automated essay scoring for the past eight years and published a book on that topic (with Jill Burstein, co-editor) in 2003. He is currently working on a textbook entitled Classroom and School Assessment: Instruction, Curriculum, and Policy, scheduled for publication in 2008.

Shermis, who has a Ph.D. in educational psychology from the University of Michigan, recently chaired the American Psychological Association’s continuing professional education committee and takes an active role in professional governance.  He is a licensed psychologist in Florida, California and Indiana, and is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association.

Community colleges face leadership gap over next 5 years – UF study

GAINESVILLE, Fla.—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 University of Florida education researchers.

Dale F. Campbell, director of the community college leadership consortium at the UF College of Education, said a recent survey of community college presidents predicts that, between now and 2010, there will be a shortage of staff members available for work in departments of academic, student and business affairs.

“Community colleges could be highly vulnerable and experience major fiscal impact if we do not act now to develop programs to meet this need,” said Campbell, a UF professor in educational administration and policy.

More than a third of the nation’s 965 public community college presidents listed in the 2005 Higher Education Directory participated in Campbell’s survey. Eleven community college leaders from seven states then met with Campbell at a forum in Jacksonville, Fla., to explore new strategies to resolve the looming leadership gap. The college registrar, identified in the survey as one of the positions most critical to the future of their institutions, was singled out for special study.

Campbell’s survey findings and conclusions reached at the leaders’ forum are the basis of his recent research report published in the Community College Journal. The Chronicle of Higher Education also has covered his findings.

Campbell said opportunities and programs for career exploration and training for those interested in pursuing administrative and professional positions at the community college level are lacking.   

“Applicant pools for community college registrar positions, for example, tend to be limited to experienced classified support staff without academic credentials or younger professionals without the specialized experience required in the field,” he said.

In his report, titled “The New Leadership Gap,” Campbell advises college presidents to identify and train current staff members who have the potential to move into these positions. He also recommended that university leadership programs develop partnerships with colleges and professional organizations to provide accessible graduate master’s and certificate programs in critical shortage areas.

“Top college administrators must be made aware of the new leadership gap of administrative and professional positions, and colleges should begin exploring new strategies for effectively managing job recruitment and the hiring process,” Campbell said.

Science for Life: College will play leading role in UF's $1.5 million science education initiative

Bolstered by a $1.5 million 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.

With the university and other sources contributing more than $2 million in matching funds, the total investment in the Science For Life initiative will approach nearly $4 million. Plans call for creating a new interdisciplinary science teaching laboratory, undergraduate opportunities for authentic research experiences and a series of innovative new courses.

“The HHMI award will bring together early undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty members campuswide to teach and learn from each other in a way no other facility in the state does now,” said Randy Duran, the grant’s lead researcher and an associate professor of chemistry in UF’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. "UF has a very talented freshman class, and we want to make stimulating opportunities available to these students."

Education Dean Catherine Emihovich, who will lead a teaching mentorship program for postdoctoral research fellows funded by the Hughes award, said the overarching theme of Science For Life is to recruit and support future scientists, but it’s not the only objective.

“Science For Life will strengthen the science base for society and the next generation of voters who will be determining pressing societal issues requiring a sound background in science and math, such as cloning and stem cell research,” Emihovich said. “More and more, biological discoveries are emerging from interactions with other disciplines such as chemistry, mathematics and computer science, but undergraduate biology education is having a hard time keeping up.”

The university will use the grant money to create the HHMI Undergraduate Core Laboratory at UF’s Health Science Center. The 2,000-square-foot facility will be devoted to cross-disciplinary teaching and laboratory work. Future plans call for building another core lab in the College of Education’s Norman Hall for the teaching component.

UF hopes to fund 70 to 100 freshman research awards annually. An extramural research program will send more experienced undergraduates to Scripps Florida and some of the outstanding life science research labs in Europe to further their education.

Education faculty will be among some 150 faculty from 49 UF academic departments involved in Science For Life. COE faculty also will be able to compete for at least 25 HHMI term professorships (committed to mentoring undergraduate students in research and science), each worth $10,000 over a two-year period.

Along with Emihovich’s leadership of the mentoring component, Tom Dana, chair of the college’s School of Teaching and Learning, sits on the program’s campuswide faculty advisory board.

Troy Sadler, assistant professor in Teaching and Learning, will lead some of the science education initiatives and will help develop the curriculum aimed at effecting a fundamental change in the teaching of the life sciences to undergraduates at UF. He also will develop a new graduate level course in College Science Teaching and Mentoring, specifically designed for students pursuing graduate degrees in the sciences. The course will be taught by COE faculty from the science education program and cross-listed in life sciences programs.

A new science education minor program also will be developed to help resolve the critical shortage of qualified science teachers.

“The science-ed minor program represents a new model for science teacher preparation at UF. We hope to promote science teaching as a viable and exciting profession to some of UF’s most talented students,” Sadler said. “Even students who choose not to cecome classroom teachers will become better prepared to assume their de facto roles as science educators.”

Linda Behar-Horenstein and Luis Ponjuan, two COE faculty members in Educational Administration and Policy, will evaluate the effectiveness of each HHMI program component and disseminate their findings at national and international conferences and in professional journals and digital libraries such as BiosciEdNet.

An outreach component, called Science For Life Alliance, reaches out into the high schools and middle schools to engage and prepare future science majors and to strengthen science teaching through professional development activities with their teachers. The program builds on the College of Education’s existing partnerships—through its UF Alliance program—with underserved inner-city high schools in Jacksonville, Orlando and Miami and will include annual, weeklong summer institutes for participating students.

UF Science For Life faculty are working with the biotech industry to update UF Alliance school science laboratories, and curricular materials developed by the partnering UF Alliance teachers will be disseminated through the Florida Association of Science Teachers and other meetings.

“The College of Education is playing a leading role in a high-profile research and education initiative that promises to make a big splash in science education and the life sciences, across campus and across the nation,” Dean Emihovich said.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute — the nation’s largest private supporter of science education — awarded grants to 50 universities totaling $86.4 million. UF is one of six universities to receive the grant for the first time out of 160 applications.