New Scientist (Neag School’s James Kaufman comments on creativity as it relates to placebos)
Neag School Hosts Annual Educational Leadership Forum in Hartford
Neag School of Education alumni, faculty, and administrators, along with educators from across the state, gathered at the Hartford Public Library’s Center for Contemporary Culture earlier this month for an evening of networking and insights from two dynamic Neag School alumni.
Miguel Cardona ’00 MA, ’04 6th Year, ’11 Ed.D., ’12 ELP, assistant superintendent for teaching and learning for Meriden (Conn.) Public Schools, and Bridget Heston Carnemolla ’13 Ed.D, ’14 ELP, superintendent for Watertown (Conn.) Public Schools, each shared insights into their experiences in the Neag School’s educational leadership program and personal revelations on leadership as the featured speakers for the Neag School’s third annual Educational Leadership Alumni Forum.
Neag School Dean Gladis Kersaint kicked the event off with welcome remarks, while Richard Gonzales, faculty event co-host and director of the Neag School’s educational leadership preparation programs, spoke on the strength and national prominence of the University of Connecticut Administrator Preparation Program (UCAPP). Gonzales also touched on UCAPP’s involvement in a Wallace Foundation-funded national initiative known as the University Principal Preparatoin Initiative (UPPI), which is focused on improving principal preparation programs across the country.
At a recent national meeting on UPPI, Gonzales said, he listened as the event’s keynote speaker, Stanford University professor Linda Darling-Hammond, recognized UCAPP by name in her address as a principal preparation program dedicated to continuous improvement.
“We have a reputation from the past, and we are continuing that reputation,” said Gonzales. “One of the questions I often get is around the UPPI initiative: ‘Why redesign? Why fix what’s not broken?’ The simple answer is because we’ve learned along the way that we can do better — and why shouldn’t we get better?”
“Stay humble. Titles don’t make you a good leader. Action makes you a good leader.”
— Miguel Cardona, assistant superintendent for teaching and learning, Meriden (Conn.) Public Schools
Leadership Lessons
As the first featured alumni speaker of the evening, four-time Neag School alum Cardona spoke about how much he has learned from Neag School’s educational leadership programs and from his family. “I’m really pleased that I have both my UConn family here and my home family,” he said.
In his address, Cardona went on to share personal stories on leadership, including one anecdote starring members from the UConn men’s basketball team. Spending time one evening on the Storrs campus with his son — a big basketball fan — Cardona and his family happened upon a group of UConn men’s basketball players.
This was, Cardona said, “about the same time the UConn men’s basketball team was on their way to winning a championship, and my son and I watched basketball all the time.”
The players took pictures with his son, gave him a T-shirt, and shook his son’s hand. To Cardona, “That was a leadership lesson: Stay humble. Titles don’t make you a good leader. Action makes you a good leader. Be remembered by testimony, not titles,” he said. “That’s something I learned … from my experiences with UCAPP and the other UConn programs, and a life full of leadership experiences at Meriden.”
Cardona also spoke about his experience co-chairing a statewide commission focused on closing the achievement gap. The group had listened to testimony from stakeholder groups and experts, including faculty and administrators from the University of Connecticut and Neag School, Cardona said.
“If you are going to close any gap, leadership matters,” Cardona said, reflecting on the leadership role Neag School faculty played in the effort. “They were trendsetters for reshaping leadership programming.”
“You can’t simultaneously be all things to all people. It’s a necessary limitation, but requires us to be present at the moment — and to consider the role and the impact of that role at that moment.”
— Bridget Heston Carnemolla,
superintendent, Watertown (Conn.) Public Schools
Balancing Personal Life With Professional Life
Superintendent Carnemolla also served as a featured speaker at the event, sharing how her Neag School journey as part of the doctoral program in educational leadership and the Executive Leadership Program (ELP) helped develop her as a leader.
Carnemolla spoke in part about juggling her family life and her position as a school principal while attending the Neag School’s Ed.D. program. Recalling classes led by instructor Robert Villanova, she shared what she learned from him on leadership: “You can’t simultaneously be all things to all people,” Carnemolla said. “It’s a necessary limitation, but requires us to be present at the moment — and to consider the role and the impact of that role at that moment. You also have to know your role as a leader.”
In having shifted from a role as principal to one as superintendent, Carnemolla also says she saw how each of her Neag School educational leadership program experiences served her. “Both the doctoral and executive leadership programs [at the Neag School] prepared me to think of these roles differently and how I could impact positive change,” she said.
Carnemolla reflected on the impact of gender in leadership as well.
“Clearly I’m a female role model, and I have a very specific obligation,” she said. “It is often very different for girls and women who want to be leaders. We face different challenges from our male counterparts.
“We, as strong, competent women who take these positions of power, it’s our moral obligation to teach young people to value everyone and to value everyone’s perspectives,” she added.
Carnemolla credited educators with inspiring her and giving her a tangible goal for who she could be. She was taught, she told the audience, “to find her own voice and to use it for good and challenge things that are unjust.”
“If you are in a current leadership position, I congratulate you and I applaud you,” she says. “If you are just starting, I encourage you to continue. You can, and you will, make a difference.”
Interested in taking your education career to the next level? Find further information about Neag School’s Executive Leadership Program (ELP) or UConn Administrator Preparation Program (UCAPP) today.
View photos from this year’s Educational Leadership Forum, or check out video coverage of the event.
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Neag School of Education Accolades — September-October 2017
Congratulations to our Neag School alumni, faculty, staff, and students on their continued accomplishments inside and outside the classroom. If you have an accolade to share, we want to hear from you! Please send any news items and story ideas to neag-communications@uconn.edu.
In addition to the Dean’s Office accolades, explore this edition’s list of achievements for the following: the Department of Curriculum and Instruction; the Department of Educational Leadership; the Department of Educational Psychology; Faculty/Staff; Students; and Alumni, as well as In Memoriam.
Dean’s Office and Departments
Dean Gladis Kersaint visited Washington, D.C., as part of the annual Day on the Hill with school of education deans from the American Association of University Professors and other flagship universities.
Dean Gladis Kersaint also recently traveled to the U.K. to visit Neag School IB/M students in history and math education participating with Neag School’s study abroad program in Nottingham, England, as well as IB/M students in London. Fifth-year IB/M students are participating in a semester-long program that offers them the opportunity to teach, research, and study abroad. She visited students at the schools where they intern and joined them to explore museums and historic sites. See more photos from the visit.
The Neag School co-hosted the first “Science Salon Junior” in the Next Generation Connecticut Hall as part of UConn’s Family Weekend in October. The traditional UConn Science Salon program was modified to create a kid-friendly experience.
Young aspiring scientists were invited to join UConn faculty and students for an afternoon of STEM fun in October, during which they participated in science experiments that included changing the color of a penny, building a roller coaster, and making ice cream. Primary partners in the event included UConn’s Neag School of Education; College of Agriculture, Health, and Natural Resources; College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; and the UConn Foundation. See photos from the event.
The Neag School of Education was a co-sponsor for “Beyond Monolingualism: A Conference for Educators and Parent Leaders” presented by the CT Mirror in October at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, Conn. The Neag School’s Elizabeth Howard was a featured speaker.
The Dean’s Office welcomed George Michna as the Neag School’s director of assessment, accreditation, and accountability in September. Read the full announcement.
Department of Curriculum and Instruction (EDCI) and Teacher Education
The Neag School, in conjunction with the Teacher Education program, hosted the “Strong Beginnings Workshop” at Goodwin Elementary in August in Storrs, Conn. During this half-day program, attendees had a chance to work with experienced teachers and administrators to help them navigate life as a new teacher. View photos from the event.
The Teacher Education program hosted its annual Celebration of Diversity in Education Dinner in September at the UConn Student Union. The event featured remarks by Dean Gladis Kersaint; Neag School alumnus Orlando Valentin ’15 (ED), ’16 MA; and Ryan Parker, an educator from Manchester, Conn. The event brings together students of color and encourages them to consider a career in education. Check out photos from the event.
Mark Kohan hosted “Rethinking Columbus: A Case for Indigenous People’s Day” in October, during which students, faculty, and staff from across campus gathered for an address by keynote speaker and Native American author Ernie Lapointe. The event — focused on addressing the legacy of settler colonialism — was made possible in part by funding from the UConn Humanities Institute’s Initiative on Campus Dialogue and was co-sponsored by the Dodd Center and Neag School. Check out photos from the event.
A class of third-grade students, led by Neag School alumna Julie Barbash ’15 (ED), ’16 MA from Martin Elementary School in Manchester, Conn., visited the Neag School in October as part of a field trip to UConn organized by Doug Kaufman, Mia Hines, and Dominique Battle-Lawson.
Department of Educational Leadership (EDLR)
The Department of Educational Leadership hosted its third annual Educational Leadership Alumni Forum in October. Alumni Miguel Cardona ’00 MA, ’04 6th Year, ’11 Ed.D., ’12 ELP and Bridget Heston Carnemolla ’13 Ed.D., ’14 ELP served as keynote speakers. Read the wrap-up story or look through the event photo album.
Jennie McGarry and Laura Burton served as mentors for an emerging leader in sport, Agnes Baluka Masajja of Uganda. Baluka Masajja, a sports scientist and sports tutor at Busitema University, is one of 17 individuals tapped by the Global Sports Mentoring Program (GSMP)’s Empower Women, an international initiative co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and espnW. Check out photos from Baluka Masajja’s visit to UConn, read more about the Neag School’s role in the initiative, and watch a video featuring Baluka Masajja.
The sport management program, in conjunction with Neag School Dean’s Office, hosted its annual Career Night in Sport on the Storrs campus in October. The annual tradition brought together experienced alumni professionals and current students for an evening of conversation, connections, and opportunities. View photos from the event.
The Center for Education Policy Analysis (CEPA) hosted the first two installments of its 2017-18 Speaker Series in September and October. The first, themed “The Many Faces of Teacher Policy,” featured Ethan Hutt of the University of Maryland; Michael A. Gottfried of the University of California — Santa Barbara; Brooks Bowden of North Carolina State University; and Shaun M. Dougherty. The second event, co-sponsored by UConn’s Department of Economics, featured University of Virginia’s Sarah Turner, who presented “Measuring Opportunity in U.S. Higher Education.” Check out photos from each event.
Department of Educational Psychology (EPSY)
Led by educational psychology professors Catherine Little and E. Jean Gubbins, two research projects have recently been awarded a total of nearly $5 million in federal funding through the Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Act. Read the full announcement.
The Department of Educational Psychology welcomed Stephen Slota as an assistant professor-in-residence of educational technology. Read the announcement, and check out the Neag School’s recent Q&A with Slota and Michael Young on gaming, education, and more.
The Northeast Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (NEPBIS) Network hosted a summit and celebration for endorsed trainers in October on the Storrs campus. To become endorsed, each trainer completed and met competencies of the rigorous Northeast PBIS Training of Trainers (NEPBIS TOT). As part of this work, each trainer demonstrated the ability to train and support schools effectively in implementing PBIS with fidelity. The seven trainers include Christine Cappabianca, Tracey Lamothe, Eben McKnight, Christine Peck, Amanda Pickett, Missy Wrigley, and Cynthia Zingler.
The UConn Collaboratory on School and Child Health (CSCH) recognized the top semi-finalists for its seed grant competition; winners will be announced in November. Neag School semi-finalists included Rebecca Campbell’s co-presented project “Migrant Advocates Broker Healthcare Access: Breastfeeding and Domestic Violence Implications?”; Jaci VanHeest’s co-presented project “Gearing up! Using Exergaming to Impact Health in Overweight Children”; and Lisa Sanetti’s project “Piloting the Healthy Workplace Participatory Program to Address Educator Stress.” This past week, the Collaboratory featured these four faculty researchers during a live presentation event held in partnership with the Public House Learning Community at the Student Union Theatre. Read more about the live event. Next month, UConn’s Science Salon will also feature Chafouleas, along with CSCH Steering Committee member Lindsay DiStefano, as panelists.
Faculty/Staff
Ronald Beghetto penned a piece titled “Inviting Uncertainty into the Classroom” in the October issue of Educational Leadership, the flagship publication for the Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD). Earlier this month, he also served on a panel for the 50th anniversary conference of the Creativity Expert Exchange.
Patricia Bellamy has been awarded a 2017 Provost’s Award for Excellence in Public Engagement, which honors faculty, staff, students, alumni, and programs that engage the public to address critical societal issues. Nominations are solicited from the University community and evaluated by a selection committee of faculty and staff members of the Public Engagement Forum.
Reginald A. Blockett published “’I think it’s Very Much Placed on Us’: Black Queer Men Laboring to Forge Community at a Predominantly White and (Hetero)cisnormative Research Institution” for the September issue of International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. He also presented “Schooling Chiron: Intersectionality, Racialized Homophobia, and Black Queer Worldmaking Across Educational Contexts” at the National Symposium on LGBTQ Research in Higher Education at Northern Illinois University in October.
Melissa Bray co-published “Exploring Public Self-Consciousness as an Unconsidered Behavioral Change Pathway to Video Self-Modeling: Implications for School Practice” in the summer issue of School Psychology Forum and, earlier this year, “Mindfulness for Individuals With Asthma and Anxiety: Promising Results From a Multiple Baseline Design Study” with doctoral student Marisa Del Campo and several other colleagues in Journal of Yoga and Physical Therapy. In addition, Bray, along with doctoral student Maria Avitia, Professor James Kaufman, and another colleague, co-published “Relationship Between Reading and Long-Term Storage and Retrieval (Glr) in College Students” in Applied Neuropsychology.
Earlier this year, Laura Burton co-published “The Role of Servant Leadership in Developing an Ethical Climate in Sport Organizations” in Journal of Sport Management and “Gender Role Expectations and the Prevalence of Women as Assistant Coaches” in Journal for the Study of Sports and Athletes in Education. She also co-presented “Comparing Servant and Transformational Leadership and Their Relationship to Organizational Effectiveness in the Sport for Development and Peace Context” and “The Paradoxical Decline of Women in Coaching” in June at the 2017 North American Society for Sport Management Conference.
Todd Campbell is co-author of a new book, titled Building the Science Department: Stories of Success, (National Science Teachers Association, 2017). He also has been named to the new editorial team for the Association for Science Teacher Education’s Journal of Science of Teacher Education. Read more.
Tutita Casa, along with doctoral student and Neag alumna, Madelynn Williams Colonnese ’07 (ED), ’09 MA and another colleague, co-published an article titled “Write On” in the October issue of Teaching Children Mathematics.
Sandra Chafouleas was a panelist, along with representatives from Connecticut Association of Schools (CAS) and Clifford Beers Clinic, for a screening of “Resilience,” a documentary on the long-term impact of adverse childhood experience. The screening took place at CAS in October in Cheshire, Conn.
Casey Cobb was a keynote panelist at the Northeastern Educational Research Association’s Annual Conference in Trumbull, Conn., in October. He will also be recognized with the University Council for Education Administration (UCEA)’s 2017 Hanne Mawhinney Distinguished Service Award for his service as editor of Educational Administration Quarterly, which will be presented at the UCEA Annual Convention in Denver in November.
Joseph Cooper, in conjunction with the African American Professionals Association and Collective Uplift, held a student-athlete panel titled “Sport Politics” in October at the Storrs campus. Cooper moderated a second panel, also with student-athletes, titled “Race, Sport, and Activism” later that month. The latter included panelists Deshon Foxx and Tyrae Sims, current sport management graduate students, as well as several other current UConn students and alumni. Check out a video from the second panel and read more in this story. Cooper also recently wrote an opinion piece on the #TakeAKnee protests.
Michael Coyne presented at the Dyslexia Foundation’s Dyslexia and Literacy: Differences Within Differences Conference in October at the Harvard Medical School in Boston. He also presented in October at the Connecticut Council for Educational Reform’s Leading for Literacy in Rocky Hill, Conn.
Morgaen Donaldson and Jennie Weiner co-published “The Science of Improvement: Responding to Internal and External Challenges in a Complex School Environment” in the July issue of Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership.
Hannah Dostal hosted “Supporting the Language and Literacy Learning of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students,” featuring Neag School alumna Susan Easterbrooks ’72 (ED) from the Center on Literacy and Deafness at Georgia State University. The event, held in October on the Storrs campus, also included faculty members visiting from the Jamaican Association for the Deaf. See photos from the event. In addition, Dostal co-published an article titled “Doing Mathematics With Purpose: Mathematical Text Types” in the September issues of The Clearing House.
Shaun M. Dougherty presented at the Centre for Vocational Education Research’s Conference in September in London. He also presented at the University College Dublin in Ireland as part of an economics seminar in September. He also was recently featured in a Q&A written by student Meghan Farrell.
Justin Evanovich presented “Husky Sport’s Campus-Community Partnership: Interactive Sharing and Examination of Best-Practices Around Community Engagement and University Student Development” at Campus Compact for Southern New England & Quinnipiac University in October.
Erica Fernández, Kimberly LeChasseur, and Morgaen Donaldson co-wrote “Reponses to Including Parents in Teacher Evaluation Policy: A Critical Policy Analysis” for the September issue of Journal of Education Policy.
Rachael Gabriel presented a session on literacy instruction at a virtual education conference held by the Educator Collaborative in September.
Preston Green was a keynote panelist at the Northeastern Educational Research Association’s Annual Conference in Trumbull, Conn. in October. Green also was honored in October at the “100 Men of Color Black-Tie Gala & Awards” event at the Bushnell Theater in Hartford, Conn., which is hosted by the Eleven28 Entertainment Group in recognition of the contributions of men of color in such areas as business, education, entrepreneurship, entertainment, and public service. Check out the event’s photo gallery.
Erik Hines took part in a panel discussion about education abroad at The Ohio State University this month. In addition, he was featured in the Fall 2017 edition of UConn Magazine in a Q&A about his work to help black male students succeed at UConn.
Josh Hyman presented his co-authored research paper “School Finance Reforms, Teachers’ Unions, and the Allocation of School Resources” at Teachers College, Columbia University (N.Y.) in September.
James Kaufman and graduate student Sarah Luria, along with another colleague, co-wrote “Enhancing Equity in the Classroom by Teaching for Mathematical Creativity” for the September issue of the ZDM: International Journal on Mathematics Education.
Devin Kearns co-led a session at the 2017 Council for Learning Disabilities Annual Conference in Baltimore in October.
Allison Lombardi, Jennifer Freeman, and Graham Rifenbark, a CBER research scientist and graduate student, co-published “Modeling College and Career Readiness for Adolescents With and Without Disabilities: A Bifactor Approach” in the October issue of Exceptional Children.
Alan Marcus presented “Teaching With Film and Media Literacy” as part of the UConn Communication Department’s Speaker Series on the Storrs campus in October.
Jennifer McGarry co-presented “Faculty Entrepreneurship and Sport Management” and “Charting the Course: Enhancing Qualitative Research With Life Maps” in June at the 2017 North American Society for Sport Management Conference.
Bianca Montrosse-Moorhead and Aarti Bellara, along with doctoral student Anthony Gambino, co-published “Communicating About Evaluation: A Conceptual Model and Case Example” in the September issue of Journal of MultiDisciplinary Evaluation.
Bianca Montrosse-Moorhead co-presented a webinar for the EvalPartners in September. She also will be presenting a workshop this December in Mexico on international evaluation models.
Rachelle Pérusse wrote a piece for caregivers and their aspiring postsecondary students titled “10 Tips on Preparing for Your Child’s College Search.”
Lisa Rasicot was recognized this fall for 20 years of service to the Neag School’s teacher education program. She is now serving as a program assistant for the Department of Educational Psychology.
Professor Emeritus Vincent Rogers has announced a planned bequest to the Neag School, designating a legacy gift of $125,000 to expand the Rogers Educational Innovation Fund in support of innovative projects carried out by teachers in Connecticut. Read more.
Lisa Sanetti co-wrote, with Neag School alumna Kathleen M. Williamson ’13 MA, ’17 6th Year, Ph.D. and other authors, “Increasing In-Service Teacher Implementation of Classroom Management Practices Through Consultation, Implementation Planning, and Participant Modeling,” published in the September issue of Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions.
Del Siegle, Hariharan “Swami” Swaminathan, and H. Jane Rogers, along with Neag School alumnus Gilbert Andrada ’12 Ph.D., were co-presenters at the Performance Matters Forum, presented by the Connecticut State Department of Education Performance Office in conjunction with the Neag School. The forum was held in Cromwell, Conn., in September.
Stephen Slota joined the Neag School last month as an assistant professor-in-residence of educational technology with a joint appointment in the School of Fine Arts Department of Digital Media and Design. This month, he gave a talk at the Rochester Institute of Technology on the learning science principles behind game-based learning and what makes compelling educational games. He and Michael Young were also featured in the most recent installment of “10 Questions.”
George Sugai, Jennifer Freeman, Brandi Simonsen, Tamika La Salle, and another colleague co-published “National Climate Change: Doubling Down on Our Precision and Emphasis on Prevention and Behavioral Sciences” in the summer issue of Emotional & Behavioral Disorders in Youth. Sugai also recently co-wrote an opinion piece in The Register-Guard on teaching civility and inclusiveness.
Kari B. Taylor co-authored “Examining Developmental Readiness in an International Service-Learning Context” in the July issue of Journal of College Student Development.
Sarah Woulfin presented in October at the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Education’s Principal Leadership Institute in Berkeley, Calif., on instructional leadership, professional learning systems, and coaching.
Students
Doctoral student Chelsea Connery ’13 (ED), ’14 MA has co-authored a chapter in the newly published Teaching Intercultural Competence Across the Age Range: From Theory to Practice (Multilingual Matters, 2017).
Robert Cotto, a current doctoral student, has been featured in two stories in recent weeks, including an interview with WNPR regarding the CCJEF v. Rell court case, and an interview with The American Prospect on desegregated schools in Hartford, Conn.
Sydney Gibbs and Bridget Murphy, sport management students on the UConn rowing team, finished 10th in their four-person boat at the annual Head of the Charles Regatta this month, earning a weekend-best in the Women’s Club Fours and securing a guaranteed spot in that race again next year.
Doctoral student Stacy Hayden has received a 2017 Regional Teacher of the Year award from the Virginia Association for the Gifted, based on her past work in gifted education prior to arriving at the Neag School this fall.
Doctoral student Shannon Holder was named a graduate student representative for the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA) for 2017-19.
Kelsey Iwanicki ’17 (CLAS), ’18 MA and her mother, Kathy, who has been teaching for 29 years, co-author a blog, Iwanicki Mom & Daughter Advertures in Teaching.
Charles Macaulay and Sofia Read, graduate students in the sport management program, organized and hosted the “Beyond the Field” Lecture Series, with a featured speaker from Soccer Without Borders in October on the Storrs campus.
Jessica Monahan, Keith McLaren, and Emily Tarconish, doctoral students in the special education program, presented at the Council for Exceptional Children’s Division on Career Development and Transition national conference in Milwaukee, Minn., in October.
Jenna Stone ’18 (ED), ’19 MA has been awarded a 2017 Provost’s Award for Excellence in Public Engagement, which honors faculty, staff, students, alumni, and programs that engage the public to address critical societal issues. Nominations are solicited from the University community and evaluated by a selection committee of faculty and staff members of the Public Engagement Forum.
Sarah Wilkinson, a doctoral student in the Neag School’s special education program, was featured in a recent newsletter issued by the National Center for Leadership in Intensive Intervention (NCLII), regarding her collaboration with a professor at Southern Methodist University.
Alumni
Emily Armstrong ’16 (ED), ’17 MA, a former UConn women’s soccer goalkeeper and current professional soccer player with the Medkila IL club in Norway, recently Skyped into the fifth-grade classroom of fellow Neag School alumna Symone James ’16 (ED), ’17 MA. Read more on Armstrong’s blog.
Alan B. Bookman ’81 Ph.D. has been awarded a new three-year contract as superintendent of Glastonbury (Conn.) Public Schools.
Anna (Karmazinas) Capobianco ’06 (ED), ’07 MA was named the 2017-18 Milken Education Award winner for the state of Connecticut. An English teacher at Hall High School in West Hartford, Conn., Capobianco this month received a $25,000 prize and the award, which recognizes early- to mid-career educators for what they have achieved and for the promise of what they will accomplish. Capobianco is the only Milken Educator Award winner from Connecticut this year. Read more about the surprise announcement.
Michael T. Conner ’14 ELP has been hired as the superintendent of schools for Middletown (Conn.) Public Schools. Conner has extensive administrative and classroom experience in Connecticut schools, including most recently as chief academic officer of Norwalk Public Schools since 2015.
Abigail Flesch Connors ’83 MA published Exploring the Science of Sound: 100 Musical Activities for Young Children (Gryphon House, 2017), a resource for activities that engage science, technology, engineering, arts, and math through the science of sound.
Mary Conway ’95 6th Year, ’05 Ph.D. was appointed interim superintendent for Colchester (Conn.) Public Schools. Conway, who has almost 30 years of experience in education, served as the superintendent of Plainfield Public Schools from 2000 to 2010 before being hired as the superintendent of Vernon Public Schools. She also is an instructor at UConn.
Rachel Hill ’17 (ED) has joined the Australian Perth Glory Football Club’s Westfield W-League squad for the 2017-18 season.
Wally Lamb ’72 (CLAS), ’77 MA, best-selling author, announced that his 1998 novel I Know This Much Is True will be turned into an HBO miniseries starring Mark Ruffalo.
Lisa Hunter ’16 6th Year has been hired as principal for Hazardville Memorial School in Enfield, Conn. Hunter served as the Pre-K STEAM Academy Coordinator during the 2016-17 school year. She has been an educator for more than 15 years, serving in Ellington, Somers, and Enfield as a primary teacher.
Brian Keating ’93 (CLAS), ’94 MA was appointed interim Windrose program administrator for Greenwich (Conn.) Public Schools. Keating is currently Greenwich High School’s (GHS) Clark House assistant dean and English teacher. An educator for 23 years, he has been with GHS since 2001 and was a member of the Greenwich Alternative High School design team for the 2016-17 school year.
Justis Lopez ’14 (ED), ’15 MA was recognized in October at the One Hundred Men of Color Awards Gala, an event honoring 100 men from the Greater Hartford area who have become postive role models and displayed long-term commitment to the betterment of their community. Lopez, most recently a social studies teacher for the Manchester (Conn.) Public Schools, is working as a social studies teacher at a small community school in the South Bronx, NY. He was featured last year in the Neag School’s “Why I Teach” video series.
Killian Matsunami ’16 MA is an athletic operations assistant with the Omaha Mavericks. Prior to that, she was an operations intern at UConn Athletics.
Steven R. Rioux ’14 ELP began his role as superintendent of schools for Killingly, Conn., on July 1.
Braulio Santigo ’90 6th Year was appointed the adult and continuing education coordinator for Greenwich (Conn.) Public Schools. Santiago has more than 40 years of education and administration experience at the primary and secondary levels.
Tiffany Smith ’08 (ED), ’09 MA, ’17 6th Year is an education consultant at EASTCONN. She most recently served as an English teacher at E.O. Smith High School in Storrs, Conn.
Jocelyn Tamborello-Noble ’03 (ED), ’04 MA, 6th Year ’09 has co-authored a chapter in the newly published Teaching Intercultural Competence Across the Age Range: From Theory to Practice (Multilingual Matters, 2017).
Corey J. Thomas ’17 (CAHNR), ’18 MA has been named director of Wakeman Town Farm in Westport, Conn. Most recently, he was the education director at Massaro Community Farm in Woodbridge, Conn.
In Memoriam
Bruce C. Barton ’72
Mollie Bornstein ’71
Rae Linda Brown ’76
Alfred J. Cross ’62
Robert G. Desnoyers ’67
Barbara D. Downie ’53
Norman A. Enhorning ’58
Calvin D. Fish ’60
Rebecca J. Janenda ’64
Howard W. Lamphere ’52
Phyllis L. Lathrop ’59
Jack McGarvey ’70
Cindy S. Pentsak ’73
James J. Rehelser, Sr. ’64
Joanne Roberge (staff)
Muriel L. Scott ’60
Elizabeth C. Shibles ’75
John P. Walsh ’62
Transforming Principal Preparation: Reflecting on UPPI’s Progress
As 2017 nears its close, work on the University Principal Preparation Initiative (UPPI) — an initiative led at UConn by the Neag School’s University of Connecticut Administrator Preparation Program (UCAPP) — is getting ready to celebrate its first birthday. This past year, UConn was one of seven universities selected to take part in the Wallace Foundation-funded initiative, which launched officially in January and is focused on improving training programs for aspiring school principals nationwide. At UConn, UCAPP is a school leadership program based at the Neag School that prepares highly qualified school administrators in Connecticut.
Faculty from the Neag School, administrators from the Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE), leaders from several public school districts in Connecticut, and other stakeholders from across the nation who have joined UConn’s UPPI workgroups are collaborating to address how university principal preparation programs — working in partnership with high-needs school districts, exemplary preparation programs, and the state — can improve their training so it reflects the evidence on how best to prepare effective principals. Over the past 10 months, these workgroups have been developing a “theory of action” for redesigning UCAPP that is focused on three main facets: revising the UCAPP curriculum, developing a leader tracking system, and redesigning the program’s internship component.
“UCAPP is universally recognized as a top program that creates opportunities and helps other programs. We’re looking to continuously improve the program so this momentum can keep up steam for years to come.”
— Richard Gonzales,
UPPI project director and principal investigator
“The main question we’re asking here is: How can a traditional university program work with partners to redesign themselves and align with the best in the field?” says Richard Gonzales, project director and principal investigator for UPPI. Gonzales has coordinated the effort to redesign and improve the program so that the curriculum and the internship experience parallel each other more effectively.
For the Connecticut State Department of Education, this partnership will, according to Sarah Barzee, CSDE chief talent officer, allow for a “transformation through a targeted focus on principal preparation with the goal of ensuring that each and every principal enters this phase of their career with the knowledge, skills, and understanding to be a ‘school-ready’ principal.”
Curriculum Revision
The workgroup taking on revisions to the UCAPP curriculum has come together to review existing UCAPP curriculum materials, syllabi, and more in order to identify the programs’ strengths as well as areas of opportunity — with the ultimate goal in mind of proposing solutions and improvements where appropriate. The workgroup was co-chaired by Sarah Woulfin, assistant professor in the Neag School, and Erin Murray, assistant superintendent for Simsbury (Conn.) Public Schools.
“Principals are no longer merely managers inside the office; rather, they are responsible for transforming teaching and learning to yield equitable outcomes for children, families, and communities,” say workgroup members in a self-assessment report they issued this past summer. “Wallace UPPI is grounded in the theory of action that if university-based principal preparation programs improve, then principals will be more effective leaders to promote positive educational outcomes.”
The report proposes a variety of short-term and long-term next steps and recommendations for improving the UCAPP curriculum, some of which could potentially involve piloting, testing, and refining new approaches. It also points out existing gaps in data collection and analysis, “acknowledg[ing] that the leader tracking system will enable the program to obtain additional data.”
Developing a Leader Tracking System
Meanwhile, the Leader Tracking System (LTS) is being developed to evaluate leadership development from the district, university, and state perspectives. The workgroup behind these efforts envisions using such a system to provide data to the Connecticut State Department of Education, partner districts, and the Neag School that would ultimately be used to make decisions about the preparation, hiring, development, and placement of school leaders.
According to Louis Bronk, director of talent at Meriden (Conn.) Public Schools and a co-chair for the UPPI workgroup focused on the LTS, the team is focused on figuring out what they are specifically looking for in school leadership, and what information and data they need to answer this question. A fully realized LTS would ultimately outline what qualities candidates must exhibit and what knowledge they must possess.
“From a university standpoint, the LTS would provide information on a candidate’s success post-graduation for the prep program,” says Bronk. “From a [school] district perspective, it will allow us to evaluate our internal leadership development systems and also allow us to better engage in data-driven decision making in regard to administrator placement and development.”
Internship Redesign
For UPPI’s internship workgroup, the goal has been “to bring coherence to all aspects of the internship across the three models of training within UCAPP,” says Jennifer Michno, co-chair of UPPI’s internship workgroup. The three models of training within UCAPP include a traditional track, designed for Connecticut-certified educators with at least three years of experience in teaching; a track known as Preparing Leaders for Urban Schools (PLUS), for educators working in Hartford or New Haven (Conn.) public schools; and a residency track, which is designed to prepare principal candidates to serve specifically in turnaround schools.
In its efforts to unite the internship component across UCAPP’s models, the workgroup will be looking, Michno says, not only to shift the internships from a focus on supervision to one on coaching, but also to bring measurability to all facets of the UCAPP internship at large and to decide on consistent practices and protocols that will be used across all UCAPP internships.
In addition, the workgroup is partnering on internship redesign efforts with a number of other collaborators from across the nation, including the New York City Leadership Academy, a nonprofit that prepares and supports educators to lead schools, and mentors assigned through the University of Illinois-Chicago.
As the UPPI project progresses, such collaborative efforts across each of the workgroups will continue to evolve. “UCAPP is universally recognized as a top program that creates opportunities and helps other programs,” Gonzales says. “We’re looking to continuously improve the program so this momentum can keep up steam for years to come.”
Learn more about the Neag School’s involvement in the University Principal Preparation Initiative (UPPI) and how it is working to transform principalship at s.uconn.edu/UPPI.
Related Stories:
Hall High School Teacher Anna Capobianco Receives Milken Educator Award
Hartford Courant (Milken honoree and Neag School alumna Anna Capobianco is profiled about winning the educator award)
Editorial: Educational Psychology Grants Provide a Bright Future For All Students
The Daily Campus (Two recent grants to perform gifted education research by the Neag School are covered)
Neag School Panel Discussion: Sports as a Vehicle for Activism
CT-N (Neag School’s Joseph Cooper organized and moderated a panel of student athletes on the topic of activism)
Desegregated, Differently
The American Prospect (Doctoral student Robert Cotto is interviewed — and his research cited — regarding desegregated schools in Hartford, Conn.)
Race, Sport and Activism Panel Discusses Intersection Between Sports and Activism
The Daily Campus (Neag School’s Sport Management Program, along with Collective Uplift and UConn Athletics, co-sponsored a panel on race and sport)
10 Questions With Neag School Experts in Gaming and Education
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.
In their recently published edited volume, Exploding the Castle: Rethinking How Video Games and Game Mechanics Can Shape the Future of Education (Information Age, 2017), Neag School faculty Michael Young and Stephen Slota — both longtime video game devotees — explore the value of games, the role of games in the future of K-12 and higher education, and more.
Here, Young, associate professor of cognition, instruction, and learning technology, and Slota, assistant professor-in-residence of educational technology discuss the book and share their insights on the intersection between games, technology, and learning.
What about gaming initially captured your interest?
Stephen Slota: I’ve been a gamer since I was very young. Much of my experience revolves around video and board games (the Super Nintendo Entertainment System being my first console). The combination of creativity and strategy is likely what spurred my interest — I loved drawing, and I loved puzzles, so games were a natural fit. I even mailed Nintendo headquarters a few game ideas!
Michael Young: Me, too. Like Steve, I have always been fascinated by jigsaw puzzles, board games, and actual sports, like tennis. But when the games are on the computer and can be played with thousands of others around the world simultaneously … now that gets fun. “World of Warcraft” was such a game for me.
“A quality game experience is one that enables you to accomplish some goal that is meaningful to you.”
—Michael Young, associate professor
What do you believe makes a quality video game or gaming experience?
SS: Different games can be appealing to different players for very different reasons, or even to the same player placed under different conditions —whether emotional, psychological, or physical. This makes it difficult to say concretely what makes for a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ game or gaming experience.
Personally, I find myself most engaged with games that have a cohesive narrative, challenging puzzles, interesting character interactions and development, player agency, and internal consistency (i.e., objects, characters, and interactions work as we would expect them to in the given game world). “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” is my go-to example for A+ design.
MY: Steve is right … gameplay is “situated,” meaning that it unfolds on the fly, in a different context every time. So it is not possible to make broad generalizations about how gameplay might affect any particular student or groups of learners. For me, games like “Two Dots” meet a need for a distraction to cleanse my concentration during the day, while “Pokemon Go” gets me out walking around, something I also need to do more. A quality game experience is one that enables you to accomplish some goal that is meaningful to you.
What are the greatest myths or misconceptions about video games that you would like to see dispelled?
SS: There are two myths that really need to be dispelled.
First, that violent video games cause violent behavior. There are correlations between aggression and violent video gameplay, but there are similar correlations between aggression and reading violent passages in books, including works like the Iliad and the Bible. Like those, video game aggression appears to dissipate minutes after play, often below aggression levels measured pre-play — meaning “Mortal Kombat” and “Grand Theft Auto” are more likely to help a player burn off steam than induce horrific, real-world outcomes.
Second, that games are a silver bullet for fixing all that’s broken in education. Try as we might, no individual game will ever be able to meet the individual needs of every individual student. Our goal should simply be to ensure or afford players as many opportunities to tackle target learning objectives as possible.
MY: My favorite game myth is that if something is playful, it can’t be serious. Children play cops and robbers and war games like capture the flag. Certainly we can all agree war is deadly serious. Children also play house, and certainly that part of life is quite important to us as well. … Any teacher or parent who dismisses games and playful learning as not serious about the school curriculum has to reconsider that thought.
“Games are interactive fiction — and narrative will never be unimportant to teaching, learning, and human cognition.”
—Stephen Slota, assistant professor-in-residence
How do you see gaming as being relevant, beneficial, or important to learning, teaching, and/or the field of education?
SS and MY: Though the specific technologies used to create and implement educational games will continue to evolve, cycle into and out of popularity or out of use altogether, the broader concept will almost certainly persist as instructional strategies (hopefully informed by contemporaneously evolving learning theory). In the short term, [games] will likely become popular as part of massive online open courses (MOOCs), mobile/personalized “just in time” learning modules or applications, and competency-based evaluation methods, all of which we touch on in Exploding the Castle. Games are interactive fiction — and narrative will never be unimportant to teaching, learning, and human cognition.
Do different video games offer different benefits or help strengthen certain skills?
SS and MY: Each game — video or otherwise — offers a range of something we call affordances. In brief, affordances are the opportunities for action we perceive (see, touch, feel, etc.) around us and, under the right circumstances, choose to act upon.
One possible affordance of a game like “Assassin’s Creed” might be to use it as the basis for a history project (by way of comparing the game’s content to actual historical records). A puzzle game like “Tetris” affords players an opportunity to demonstrate and develop spatial recognition and manipulation skills. Games like “World of Warcraft” afford a range of social interaction and problem-solving opportunities (both individual and group), allowing players to develop very different skills than they might have developed through a game like “Super Mario Bros.”
Dr. Slota, you previously served as a high school teacher. Did you incorporate gaming into your classroom in any way?
SS: While I was teaching high school, I incorporated gaming — or game-like activities, at least — as often as I could. This was partly because it made lesson planning more engaging for me, but, more importantly, because some of my early gamified instructional experiments did wonders for engaging my students.
The effects were pronounced enough that I actually made the decision to return to graduate school after a particularly successful game-based unit that involved my lowest-tracked 10th- and 11th-grade biology students roleplaying as epidemiologists to investigate a fictional disease outbreak. Overall interest and achievement improved so dramatically in such a short period of time that I knew I’d tapped into something special, even if I didn’t yet understand it. Incidentally, a (2008) UConn Advance profile on Mike (Young) and Roger Travis was what started me down the educational psychology, technology, and game design path.
MY: I serve on the Ellington (Conn.) Board of Education. There, I get to see how games and playful learning are an increasing part of K-12 schools, starting from every kindergarten student’s day, and with the increasing use of technology for learning, building up in all classrooms with virtual environments to learn and role playing games that organize entire high school courses. Add to this the use of playful learning in times between classes (as in Makerspaces) and after school (as in robotics clubs and esports) and you have a pretty substantial role for games in schools.
Should more schoolteachers be finding ways to incorporate gaming it into their curricula?
SS and MY: While students at all levels can and do benefit from games and playful learning in their classes, not all teachers should necessarily have to incorporate games into their curricula. Teaching is partly a skill that must make contact with one’s personal goals and interests. To be genuine in the classroom, a teacher cannot be just doing what they are told. Teaching has to come from them. So to the extent that more teachers could be helped to find ways to incorporate games whose play can align with their desired student learning outcomes, then, yes. The more we do research and understand how games and playful learning can work, then we can design professional learning experiences to invite more teachers to try it. But I don’t think we’d ever say that games are the magic bullet that all teachers should be using.
What audiences are you intending to reach with your book, Exploding the Castle, and what do you ideally hope those audiences take away from it?
SS and MY: We focused principally on students, teachers, parents, administrators, researchers, game designers, and self-described gamers.
It’s our hope that the volume will inspire more advanced and theoretically sound designs going forward, particularly among aspiring and practicing educators.
What would you tell people considering a career related in some way to gaming?
SS: My journey to the realm of educational game design and research is pretty nontraditional. I started out as pre-med with a focus on genetic engineering, made my way into K-12 education, and later found a serendipitous opportunity to blend my skills in art, science, education, and game design through the Neag School’s Cognition, Instruction, and Learning Technology program. That makes giving advice a bit challenging, but the following capture my ‘big ticket’ thoughts:
- Connect with researchers and game designers to explore the creation of your own games or game-infused activities. One useful resource includes the Higher Education Video Game Alliance.
- Explore different examples of gamification and game-based learning. Consider which learning theories (if any) were used to develop those games and whether or not the game maintains a consistent 1:1 ratio of game and learning objectives. (For a brief introduction, see Slota, 2017.)
- Review James Paul Gee’s What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2007), considered a seminal work within the field of game-based learning.
- Play games. Play many different types of games. Get a sense of which mechanics best meet your instructional and other needs.
What are you most excited about when it comes to the future of gamification?
SS: Game-based instruction is going to shape and be used to teach in the ever-expanding world of online and mobile education. Many popular technologies (e.g., FitBit, Apple Watch, digital insulin monitors/injectors) already utilize various games or game-like apps to promote user engagement and inform individual well-being, and some artistic, government, and medical institutions have done the same with the express purpose of strengthening public education (e.g., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Planned Parenthood). I’m excited to see this approach become more widespread as app development software becomes more accessible, K-12 students are trained in computer programming, and gaming continues to become more mainstream.
MY: Games are not new. They were part of learning before there was formal school and institutions of public education. Augmented reality can bring the world into the classroom, from the very small to the epic scale of the universe. Making anything, including school, more playful and enjoyable should be an aim of progress in all areas. I believe the world’s next Shakespeare will be an interactive storyteller — someone who can tell a good story across multiple media in a strategic way. To that extent: a game builder.
Read other installments of the Neag School’s 10 Questions series here.
