Neag School alumna Megan Baker ’12 6th Year, a graduate of the UConn Administrator Preparation Program (UCAPP), has served since 2015 as principal of Tourtellotte Memorial High School. (Cat Boyce/Neag School)
The field of education has been going through constant evaluation and evolution since 1983, when “A Nation At Risk” was published.
“That report sounded the alarm that the United States was not at the top of the food chain anymore when it comes to education,” says Richard Gonzales, director of UConn’s Neag School of Education leadership preparation program.
Since then, responses to the report have encompassed curriculum changes and standards, teacher preparation, and in the early 2000s, a growing emphasis on leadership – in particular the role and training of school principals.
UConn is now one of seven universities that are part of The Wallace Foundation’s University Principal Preparation Initiative, a four-year, $48.5-million program aimed at improving training for aspiring administrators. The Foundation encourages administrator training that emphasizes the practical aspects of the job and includes instructors who have been school leaders themselves.
Overall, the universities in the initiative have developed stronger partnerships with districts where their graduates will lead schools. Some have made headway in curriculum design, a key component of the initiative. All have measured their programs against state and national leadership standards to identify areas to work on, according to Education Week.
“We are doing things today that will become the norm for the next 10 to 20 years – and that is huge,” says Gonzales, who oversees the UConn Administrator Preparation Program (UCAPP).
UCAPP has redesigned its program, introducing changes that will go into effect this July. Among those, UCAPP students will now have leadership coaches, who will guide them in planning and strategizing. The coaches, like the program’s mentors of the past, will continue to be selected from among current and retired principals and administrators.
“We are shifting from supervision to coaching in terms of how our UCAPP students are taught, and the coaching is going to be around authentic tasks,” says Gonzales. “We are taking the current administrator evaluations, and redesigning our coursework to align with that.”
The curriculum redesign factors in data about instructional leadership, talent management, and organizational leadership – the domains that have been prioritized by the State of Connecticut, says Gonzales.
“The school systems in Hartford, Meriden, and New Haven helped us redesign our curriculum so students know what it takes to be a principal in a city like that,” says Gonzales. “Our program became much more contextually based. Instead of teaching evaluation and supervision, we used the actual instruments and resources that principals use.”
UCAPP enrolls current teachers who have an average of eight to 12 years in the classroom and have shown evidence of leadership work. Cohorts of students in six different Connecticut towns – Hartford, New Haven, Stamford, Guilford, East Hartford, and West Hartford – take two years of classwork, and do a 12-credit internship to complete the program.
“First and foremost, a good principal understands the social aspect of the work, and they are grounded in the communities in which they work and serve,” says Gonzales. “We emphasize early on that the communities in which you serve are your constituencies. You serve that area, the people – all of them.”
Gonzales notes that UConn’s principal preparation program prioritizes leadership coaching from the beginning.
“The coaching provides us with a day-to-day look at what goes on at a school,” says Kathryn Lenehan ’10 (ED), ’11 MA, a second-grade teacher at Lake Garda School in Burlington, whose coach is Kelly Sanders ’12, a principal of the West District School in Farmington, and a UCAPP graduate.
“It’s nice to work with someone who has been trained,” says Lenehan. “We have conversations like ‘why did you do this?’ or ‘is this the first time it happened?’ – information you can use when you are principal of a school someday.”
“It’s an exciting, challenging time in education and to be a principal,” adds Megan Baker ’12, principal of Tourtellotte Memorial High School in Thompson, “and having ‘courageous conversations’ with teachers is a big part of it.”
Gonzales says one of the best compliments he receives about UCAPP is about the way it values teachers. “UCAPP understands that a principal’s role is about supporting the teacher, the student, and the curriculum,” he says. “Principals are there to create the conditions for everything to work.”
UConn Today(Neag School’s Administrator Preparation Program, which is going through a redesign as part of a national initiative with The Wallace Foundation, is featured)
Ken Thompson, assistant professor-in-residence of game design at UConn, takes 3D scans of Courtroom 600 in Nuremberg, Germany. (Photo courtesy of Ken Thompson)
UConn researchers are developing an immersive learning experience using virtual reality (VR) and game design to bring to life archival materials from the Nuremberg Trials.
With the help of a $25,000 Digital Projects for the Public award from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), researchers from UConn’s Digital Media and Design Department in the School of Fine Arts, UConn Library’s Archives & Special Collections (ASC), and Neag School of Education are working with colleagues across the globe to make this project a reality.
While the project seeks to help users have a personal encounter with an important event from Holocaust history, the technology behind the project couldn’t be more futuristic.
The team hopes that their Courtroom 600 project – named for the courtroom in the Justizpalast in Nuremberg, Germany, where the trials took place – will draw learners into ongoing thought and empathetic discussion about human rights both past and present.
“The Courtroom 600 project team is grateful for the opportunity NEH funding will provide to advance this work,” says principal investigator Ken Thompson, assistant professor-in-residence of game design. “Evidence shows there is a significant decline in Holocaust awareness, with one study citing that 1 out of 5 millennials haven’t heard of or are not sure if they have heard of the Holocaust. As publically engaged scholars, we believe it is critical to create engaging and well-informed educational experiences to begin to address this disconnect, and the Courtroom 600 project aims to do just that.”
The goal of Courtroom 600 is to engage learners in historical thinking processes as they explore international justice and Holocaust histories through the lens of the major war criminals trials that took place in Nuremberg, before the International Military Tribunal (IMT) in 1945-1946.
Although the trials were held more than 70 years ago, their impact is still evident in modern international law. Legacies of the IMT include the development of international criminal courts, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and the “Nuremberg Code” of medical and scientific ethics.
The research and advisory team, which includes experts in educational psychology, digital public humanities, human rights, international law, and Holocaust history, considers teaching learners how to evaluate the nature of evidence as a critical first step in understanding the histories and legacies of the Holocaust and the IMT. Among other aims, the Courtroom 600 VR experience will also write women’s roles and Jewish resistance back into Holocaust history.
While the project seeks to help users have a personal encounter with an important event from Holocaust history, the technology behind the project couldn’t be more futuristic. The team has completed a technological proof-of-concept, with software code that connects the UConn Library’s digital repository to various systems used for educational VR experiences.
Embodying a fictitious member of the U.S. prosecutorial team, learners must investigate digitized copies of documents, photographs, and other primary source materials. Then, aided by materials that provide historical context, they piece together an understanding of past events and accumulate evidence against selected defendants.
When finished with the discovery phase of the investigation, the Courtroom 600 experience places learners in a three-dimensional, human-scale reproduction of Courtroom 600. Here they listen to testimony, interrogate witnesses and defendants, and consult with the prosecuting attorneys on their team about strategy – in other words, learners actively experience the trials instead of passively hearing about them.
The archival materials used for the virtual experience are pulled in real time from executive trial counsel Thomas J. Dodd’s papers housed at UConn Library’s Archives and Special Collections in Storrs. Through one of the first collaborative projects of its kind in the nation, UConn and partner organizations digitized 50,000 depositions, photographs, pieces of evidence, correspondence, drafts of legal briefs, and other documents from the Nuremberg Trials for use by scholars and now the public.
“The potential impacts of Courtroom 600 extend beyond its subject matter and beyond its proposed approaches to engaging self-directed learners in Holocaust history,” says Greg Colati, co-investigator on the project and assistant university librarian for University Archives, Special Collections, and Digital Curation. “It also demonstrates the value of interoperable data standards so we can increase the versatility and discoverability of digital collections and allow people to personally interact with media and history.”
Thanks to the recently awarded NEH funding, members of the Courtroom 600 project and a panel of national and international experts will meet in Storrs for a two-day charrette in June 2019. Project collaborators include specialists from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, and the Memorium Nürnberger Prozesse (Nuremberg Trials Memorial) in Germany. They will have the opportunity to don VR headsets, take up the controls, and spend time experiencing the prototype for themselves. In addition to gathering information on possible approaches to the narrative, learning objectives, and visual treatments in focus groups, the software will capture data about user interactions to refine the prototype.
The June meeting will also involve discussions of what it means to present Holocaust history through this new medium.
“The use of immersive, interactive VR technologies to educate learners about difficult histories by ‘placing’ them in convincing simulations of the past is still a relatively new area of work,” says co-PI Clarissa Ceglio, assistant professor of digital humanities. “And it comes with a number of important ethical questions that need to be addressed. Sharing how we work through these issues will be one of the key contributions that Courtroom 600 makes to the field.”
The NEH funding will bring the project closer to completing a prototype of the first educational module of the Courtroom 600 experience. The team will test the module at UConn and with collaborating museums dedicated to Holocaust and human rights histories.
This project is made possible thanks to generous support from a University of Connecticut School of Fine Arts Dean’s Grant, the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, and the UConn Office of Global Affairs. Cultural exchange and cooperation between the University of Connecticut, Germany, and Israel have also been critical to the project’s early success. The UConn project team includes: PI Ken Thompson, co-PIs Clarissa Ceglio, Stephen T. Slota, and Greg Colati, with advisors Heather Elliott-Famularo, Charles B. Lansing, Alan Marcus, Glenn Mitoma, Grae Sibelman, Graham Stinnett, and Daniel Weiner.
In our recurring 10 Questions series, the Neag School catches up with students, alumni, faculty, and others throughout the year to offer a glimpse into their Neag School experience and their current career, research, or community activities.
Emily Tarconish, a Neag School scholarship recipient and Ph.D. candidate, shared her story during the 2018 Scholarship Celebration last March. (Photo credit: Roger Halloran, UConn)
Emily Tarconish is a Ph.D. candidate in Neag School’s educational psychology program with a concentration in special education. She is a survivor of a traumatic brain injury (TBI) she endured at the age of 15. With years of hard work and rehabilitation, Tarconish has relearned how to walk, speak, and regain basic life functions. Once she completes her Ph.D., she plans to pursue research focused in part on improving access to higher education for college students with TBIs.
Why did you decide to pursue a Ph.D. in special education? My desire to pursue a Ph.D. in special education was sparked by my own experience as a person with a disability, as well as my work counseling other college students with disabilities as a director of student accessibility services and licensed rehabilitation counselor. When I was 15, I endured a severe traumatic brain injury that would change my life forever. I spent weeks in intensive care and inpatient rehabilitation, relearning to walk, speak, and regain basic life functions. I had no memory of the first 15 years of my life, and now possessed cognitive deficits, including those that would impede my abilities to form new memories, pay attention, or organize information.
“It is my mission to help other people with disabilities access the accommodations they need and empower themselves to achieve their goals.”
— Emily Tarconish, Ph.D. Candidate
Perhaps the greatest challenge I faced in my rehabilitation was realizing that no matter how much progress I made, I would still require some form of support throughout my life. Instead of allowing this to limit me, I decided to proactively coordinate the assistance I required and make myself as independent as possible. Now as a doctoral student, it is my mission to help other people with disabilities access the accommodations they need and empower themselves to achieve their goals.
As someone who has survived a TBI, can you share a bit of insight into the sorts of day-to-day challenges you have faced, specifically from the perspective of a college student? Because our brains control everything we do and are, when someone endures a brain injury, every aspect of their person can be affected. This was the case for me. Immediately after my injury, and for months, even years, I worked to regain my physical stamina and cognitive abilities, as well as cope with and adapt to possessing new deficits and a changed brain. Sixteen years later, you would think the brain, the fastest healing organ in the body, would have repaired itself! Unfortunately, many people with TBI, myself included, continue to experience residual impairments for the rest of their lives.
Desi Nesmith’01 (ED), ’02 MA, ’09 UCAPP presents the Neag Alumni Board Scholarship to graduate student Emily Tarconish, one of two recipients during the Neag School Alumni Awards Celebration in March 2017. (Photo Credit: Defining Studios Wedding and Event Photography and Videography)
For instance, I continue to experience cognitive deficits, including those affecting short-term memory, attention, processing speed, et cetera. I also experience enduring physical issues, such as chronic fatigue and headaches/migraines, and residual weakness on the left side of my body, the latter of which has caused additional injuries. While I have remained committed to higher education, after my injury, I had to accept that learning would be harder and take a lot more time. For example, because of memory deficits, I typically have to read course material two to three times to be able to retain it. Attention also complicates academic tasks, such as memory, but can additionally interfere with concentrating in class, when studying or notetaking. I use assistive technology and work with the Center for Students with Disabilitiesto alleviate these issues.
As far as the physical/chronic issues are concerned, their remediation really takes a lot of planning. I need to make sure I don’t schedule too many classes/meetings in a day so I can drive safely/not become fatigued. I need to have a flexible schedule also in case I experience a migraine, so I try to make sure my week’s plans always have options built into them. Overall, most tasks take a lot longer when you have TBI, so I need to make sure that I am starting work early, planning ahead, and thinking about options and backup plans in case I hit any roadblocks and need to adapt.
As a doctoral student, you have received funding through various Neag School scholarships. In what ways has the funding impacted you and your experience here at the Neag School? I am so incredibly appreciative of the Neag School scholarships, which have allowed me to not worry about paying my tuition expenses. As I realize the brain can always improve and heal, I continue to engage in cognitive rehabilitation, as well as work with specialists to build my abilities and maintain my progress. Unfortunately, these practices and visits can add up financially. I truly strive to make my education a No. 1 priority, but needing to constantly fund health-related issues can be burdensome when trying to save money for school. Receiving the Neag School scholarships helped alleviate this financial burden by supporting my tuition, which lessened the pressure on me to finance it independently.
My areas of research study the experiences of students with disabilities, who often have additional financial needs relating to medical expenses, rehabilitation, and other services. As such, it is important to realize that students with disabilities may possess increased financial responsibilities. While civil rights laws have guaranteed equal access and reasonable accommodations to college students with disabilities, these individuals may still be at a financial disadvantage, which in turn may create barriers to their higher education. Hopefully, institutions of higher education will continue to afford equally to students facing these issues through policy, but also through financial support.
Emily Tarconish listens in while Assistant Professor Joseph Cooper speaks with a small group. (Stefanie Dion Jones/Neag School)
What is the focus of your dissertation research? The special education doctoral program I’m in focuses on students with disabilities transitioning from high school to college or employment. I’m currently working with Allison Lombardi on a project that examines a curriculum, EnvisionIT, for students in high school special education programs that helps them to enhance their transition abilities and prepare for life after high school. As I progress through the program, I plan to undertake research that assesses the experiences of college students with TBIs, just like me, as this population is growing at a rapid rate. Young adults experience one of the highest incidences of TBI and as every brain injury is different, every college student will require unique support to meet his or her needs. As I have experienced the challenges that accompany being a college student with a brain injury, I am determined to help create a more accessible path of higher education for other survivors of TBI.
While participating with the doctoral program here at UConn, what have you been most proud of? UConn has given me so many opportunities to learn about the experiences of college students with disabilities and participate in projects to benefit them. One current project involves interviewing college students with disabilities and using these interviews to create professional development videos for faculty, as well as disability awareness videos for other college students. This project allowed me to combine my interests in qualitative inquiry with my desire to create opportunities for actual students to inform the narrative about their experiences with disability. I am proud of this project as I was able to apply my research as well as creative skills to produce tools that others can use to learn more about disability from a first-person perspective.
How has the role of serving as director of student accessibility services at Clark University helped you in your studies at UConn? My experience at Clark really shaped my academic and research interests. During my time working with college students with disabilities, I made so many connections to students experiencing various diverse abilities and truly learned about the diverse pathways to achieving academic goals.
As fulfilling as this aspect of my time at Clark was, I also witnessed many issues that college students with disabilities continue to face in postsecondary education, as well as in their transition to further education or employment. These experiences developed my passion to contribute to postsecondary education and disability research and to continue to help push the field forward. Having firsthand experience with the population I study will continue to inform my work, as I am constantly reminded of the personal aspect of the work and research we do. This perspective really influences me to ensure that research is accessible to the people it is intended to help, as well as always closely informed by their lived experiences.
“As I have experienced the challenges that accompany being a college student with a brain injury, I am determined to help create a more accessible path of higher education for other survivors of TBI.”
In your undergraduate and graduate work at Penn State, you transitioned from a double major in English and women’s studies to a master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling; how will your undergrad experiences benefit you moving forward? When I arrived at Penn State, I knew I enjoyed reading and writing, especially when it involved learning about the experiences and narratives of others. My time studying English literature and women’s studies allowed me to consider the power of language to convey the diverse experiences of individuals. I learned about the journeys, obstacles, oppression, and marginalization that many people face, and as I approached the end of my undergraduate career, the stories to which I most connected were those of individuals with disabilities. I realized that I wanted to use the abilities I developed in college to work directly with this group and help people with disabilities to find ways to continue to tell their stories. My undergraduate experience studying English and women’s studies directly influenced my interest in qualitative research. Further, it gave me the critical thinking skills to always consider the complex lived experiences of those with whom I work, which relates to concepts of accessibility and inclusion.
Through your doctoral studies, you have gotten involved with Neag School’s Postsecondary Disability Training Institute (PTI). How has this professional conference impacted you? PTI has been instrumental in my doctoral studies. I first attended PTI when I was a disability services provider at Clark, which is how I learned about the educational psychology Ph.D. program at UConn! Now as a Center on Postsecondary Education and Disabilitygraduate assistant, I work with Drs. Joe Madausand Allison Lombardi to help facilitate the conference, which is an incredibly beneficial experience for me. PTIallows me to stay connected with practitioners who serve students firsthand and enables me to interact with the providers who actually use the research we develop; further, disability services providers are the individuals who help to inform how “best practice” continues to evolve.
My commitment to allowing students with disabilities to shape the narrative of their experiences is important, but that is only one side of the coin; in order to learn about how disability services are actually functioning, it is important to engage with current providers and incorporate their feedback and perspectives into the work and research we do. Also, they are the voices that inform what future research needs to be done.
What is something others may not realize when they meet you? One of the tricky pieces about having a brain injury is that it’s an invisible disability. Looking at me, most people don’t realize the impairments that I deal with every day, and more importantly, don’t know about the services, appointments, and all of the people behind the scenes who are helping me succeed.
What are your ultimate career goals? After completing my Ph.D., I hope to work as a professor at a university that allows me to both teach and complete research involving college students with disabilities and how to improve access for them. I could see myself working in a range of academic departments, including special education, rehabilitation counseling, higher education, or disability studies, but am committed to continue researching the experiences of college students with brain injuries and finding ways to improve access for them, as well as helping them to achieve positive academic outcomes. I am so fortunate to have experienced a strong recovery, thanks to rehabilitation, my dedicated family, and educators around me — I want to dedicate my life to creating tools and programs that will help other young people with TBI to progress in their recoveries and to achieve their goals.
