UConn Today (Neag School alumna, Melissa Gonzalez, will compete in the Olympics for a second time, this time as a Team USA captain)
Supporting Early Career Researchers
Inside IES Research (Neag School faculty member Shaun Dougherty’s research grant on career-technical high schools is mentioned)
From Student Teacher to CEO: Meet Alum Amanda Slavin ’08 (ED), ’09 MA
For Neag School alum Amanda Slavin ’08 (ED), ’09 MA, student teaching laid the foundation for her unconventional career path. Taking the skills she acquired in curriculum development, engagement, and lesson planning as a student in the Neag School’s five-year Integrated Bachelor’s/Master’s program, she has successfully applied them in a marketing setting — today serving as CEO and founder of Las Vegas-based startup CatalystCreativ.
“I think that being a teacher is one of the most profound jobs available to anyone. I think everyone should try to be a teacher. ”
This month, Teach.com — an educational web resource for information on becoming a great teacher in any state across the country — features Slavin in its “8 Questions” series, which showcases teachers who have transitioned their classroom skills into new and exciting careers in, and beyond, the field of education.
“I think that being a teacher is one of the most profound jobs available to anyone. I think everyone should try to be a teacher,” Slavin says. “I think that teaching should be one of the highest-paid professions, and should be an opportunity for the world’s brightest to share their knowledge with future generations.”
Related story: Check out a recent UConn Magazine story featuring Slavin here.
Brookside Program Aims to Close the ‘Excellence Gap’
The Hour (Story features Project SPARK)
Teacher Prep Program Recruiting Students of Color With Help of AACTE Network
Editor’s Note: The following piece originally appeared on the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE)’s Ed Prep Matters blog, co-authored by the Neag School’s academic advisors Mia Hines and Dominique Battle-Lawson; Ann Traynor, director of advising; Mark Kohan, assistant clinical professor; Rene Roselle, associate director of teacher education; and Dorothea Anagnostopoulos, executive director of teacher education. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.
Like other programs, our teacher preparation program at the University of Connecticut Neag School of Education has long struggled to recruit as many students of color as we’d like. That’s why we joined AACTE’s networked improvement community (NIC) in 2014 to collaborate with other institutions on strategies to bring more Black and Latino men into our programs. Already, we have nearly doubled the percentage of students of color in our program, going from roughly 12 percent of students to 20 percent of our entering cohort this fall.
We attribute these gains to several factors spurred by our participation in AACTE’s network, which is now called the Black and Hispanic/Latino Male Teachers Initiative NIC.
“… We joined AACTE’s networked improvement community (NIC) in 2014 to collaborate with other institutions on strategies to bring more Black and Latino men into our programs. Already, we have nearly doubled the percentage of students of color in our program, going from roughly 12 percent of students to 20 percent of our entering cohort this fall.”
First, our leadership is firmly committed to the goal of diversifying our student population. Our deans funded graduate assistantships to support our NIC participation. Our executive director led a program redesign that foregrounds multicultural education and also worked with our director of advising to hire two academic advisers dedicated to recruiting and retaining students of color. The new advisors are African American women with professional backgrounds in K-12 schools. Faculty have also led an effort to support new student groups and led conversations with other faculty about diversity and equity in our program.
Second, we developed a coherent plan to guide our efforts, which previously had been largely piecemeal. The NIC work pushed us to identify, implement, and assess research-based strategies to recruit and retain students of color. These include forging both on-campus relationships with cultural center directors and advisors and off-campus relationships with community colleges and K-12 schools. Advisors and faculty created courses focused on issues of social justice, diversity, and education to reach prospective teacher candidates. Our academic advisors facilitated study groups and tutoring to support students in passing state licensure exams. And our academic advisors now employ an “intrusive advising” method to address students’ specific needs.
Third, we fostered leadership and professional networking opportunities for students of color. The program’s leaders, advisors, and faculty supported students in creating Leadership in Diversity (LID), a student-led organization primarily for students of color who meet to share common goals, support one another academically and socially, and lead and participate in various events. This last function includes helping to organize our annual Celebrating Diversity Dinner and presenting at the National Association for Multicultural Education conference. This spring, LID students organized the Teaching for Tomorrow Today conference that drew students and educators from across Connecticut to examine issues related to culturally responsive teaching.
We’ve also worked with LID students to create the Diverse Educators Making Outstanding Change (DEMO) group. DEMO provides mentoring for prospective and currently enrolled students of color. Each student is paired with a K-12 teacher or administrator, university faculty, or staff member of color. We hope that the connection, support, and networking will provide our students additional inspiration as they pursue their goals.
Taken together, these efforts form what we and our NIC partners call culturally responsive support systems. As the increase in our students of color indicates, these systems have already made a difference for our students and our program.
Access the original blog post — AACTE Networked Improvement Community Yields Exciting Results at UConn — on the AACTE’s Ed Prep Matters website.
Meet the Second Cohort of Neag School Dean’s Doctoral Scholars
10 Questions With Josué Lopez, Dean’s Doctoral Scholar
In this new series, the Neag School will be catching up with students, alumni, faculty, and others throughout the year to give you a glimpse into their Neag School experience and their current career, research, or community activities.
Recent Neag School alum Josué Lopez ’15 MA will be returning this fall as a Ph.D. student and as part of the second cohort of Dean’s Doctoral Scholars at the Neag School. The program provides full tuition for four years plus a stipend to promising Ph.D. candidates. Dean’s Doctoral Scholars have the opportunity to conduct interdisciplinary research with leading experts in the field of education while earning a doctoral degree from UConn in curriculum and instruction, educational leadership, or educational psychology. For more information about the Dean’s Doctoral Scholars program, visit s.uconn.edu/neagdds.
Hometown: I was born in Dorchester, Mass., and my parents are both from Honduras. I then moved to western Massachusetts and lived in South Hadley and Holyoke.
Where were you working previous to Neag School? I worked for Windham (Conn.) Public Schools as a second-grade teacher, a sixth- to eighth-grade New Arrivals Teacher, and a ninth- to 12th-grade bilingual/ESOL teacher.
What appealed to you about the Neag School and/or the Dean’s Doctoral Scholar Program? I completed my master’s degree with Dr. Rojas and Dr. Reyes in their MATHLEAD program here at UConn. I want my doctoral studies to be something meaningful to the community that I serve. UConn’s Neag School of Education makes a commitment to working in the surrounding areas and, with Willimantic 20 minutes away, this seemed like a great opportunity.
What are your research interests? My research interests lie in the development of consciousness and its connection to both formal and informal education. I want to consider particularly how linguistic and cultural development impact the perception of the world, which ultimately impact the way we interpret academic tasks — i.e., critically analyzing literature and problem-posing/solving education (Freire).
What do you hope to ultimately achieve in pursuing your doctoral research into these particular areas of focus at the Neag School? My hope is to identify components of alternative systems of both formal and informal education so that historically marginalized and underserved communities have access to the same opportunities as more advantaged groups. By looking specifically at markers of oppression (race, socioeconomic status, gender, sexual orientation, language) and thinking about these as the foundation of educational movements and assets to develop in educational settings, we can create alternative/dual systems which serve the needs of all students.
“I was the first U.S. citizen in my family, the first high school graduate, the only college graduate, the only to receive my master’s, and now the only to become a doctoral student. … Being a Dean’s Doctoral Scholar means responsibility.”
What does it mean to you to be named a Dean’s Doctoral Scholar? I was the first U.S. citizen in my family, the first high school graduate, the only college graduate, the only to receive my master’s, and now the only to become a doctoral student. I have been incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunities which led me to this point. Being a Dean’s Doctoral Scholar means responsibility. I have a responsibility to act in service of those who did not receive the same opportunities that I did.
Describe your proudest career moment. My proudest career moment happens every time that I think about how much growth my students made not only academically, but also socioemotionally in our time together. Whether it is my student learning to read in Spanish for the first time as a 15-year-old or supporting an incredibly bright student in the United States who is separated from her family in Mexico for a better life, I can confidently say that my students are the best humans to ever grace my life with their presence.
On that same note, though, the toughest moments in my career are when I think of the incredible obstacles that lie ahead for my students and the limited resources available to them in this journey. It fills me with a sense of urgency that, though we can be proud of the work we do, we must understand that there is always more to be done.
What are your hobbies? I am a boxer and a mixed martial artist. I continue to coach back in the gym where I began training in Massachusetts three days a week. I enjoy many outdoor activities, but have to cover myself in bug spray because mosquitoes and I have a difficult relationship!
When do you find yourself at your happiest? I am at my happiest when, after a long day, I can reflect on what I did that day and know that I did it well. It is important to me that I always am my best self for others and for myself.
Tell me something that most people don’t know about you. Most people do not know that I am a three-time All-American, two-Time National Champion, and New England Golden Gloves Champion in boxing. The people who know me professionally have a difficult time picturing me in a fight!
Josué recently returned from Honduras, where this summer he trained bilingual educators at a new community school. Check out this video, featuring the work Josué and his colleagues achieved there.
10 Questions With Robert Cotto, Dean’s Doctoral Scholar
In this new series, the Neag School will be catching up with students, alumni, faculty, and others throughout the year to give you a glimpse into their Neag School experience and their current career, research, or community activities.
Incoming Ph.D. student Robert Cotto Jr. will join the Neag School this fall as part of the second cohort of Dean’s Doctoral Scholars. The program provides full tuition for four years plus a stipend to promising Ph.D. candidates. Dean’s Doctoral Scholars have the opportunity to conduct interdisciplinary research with leading experts in the field of education while earning a doctoral degree from UConn in curriculum and instruction, educational leadership, or educational psychology. For more information about the Dean’s Doctoral Scholars program, visit s.uconn.edu/neagdds.
Hometown: I grew up in few different towns including Hartford, Manchester, and Wethersfield. Since coming back home to Connecticut from college, I have lived in Hartford.
Where were you working previous to Neag School? For the past two years, I have served as the director of Urban Educational Initiatives and a lecturer at Trinity College. In that position, I managed an early-college program, developed partnerships between faculty and outside groups, and taught in the Educational Studies program. Before coming to Trinity, I was a senior policy fellow at Connecticut Voices for Children and a high school teacher in an interdistrict magnet school in Bloomfield, Conn.
What appealed to you about the Neag School and/or the Dean’s Doctoral Scholar Program? I appreciated the racial and ethnic diversity of the faculty, their interest in social justice, and the fact that the Neag School is part of a research university that values the preparation of teachers and administrators in public education.
What are your research interests and what will be your specific Ph.D. area of study at the Neag School? I will be in the Learning, Leadership, and Education Policy Ph.D. program. In the past, I have written on education policy, particularly school choice and accountability, as well as the history of educational reforms. I am also very interested in the concept of public scholarship, or in other words, the work of engaging with the public on research findings and questions in education.
What do you hope to ultimately achieve in pursuing your doctoral research into these particular areas of focus at the Neag School? I hope to develop my research skills and develop my writing in addition to earning a Ph.D. My advisor will be Preston Green III, who is in the area of equity and social justice. We both have similar questions about educational equity, particularly on school choice policies. So I hope to become a sharper researcher under his guidance and the faculty at the Neag School.
“My proudest moments are seeing the kids I taught, now adults, all grown up! I’ve seen them graduate, get their first jobs, have their own families. I’m proud to have been a very small part in that growth.”
What does it mean to you to be named a Dean’s Doctoral Scholar? It was truly an honor to be named Dean’s Doctoral Scholar. It means my advisor and I can really focus on meaningful research in education and pressing questions. It means that I get to complete my education while being in my home state of Connecticut.
Describe your proudest career moment. When I first started teaching ninth grade, I thought to myself, “I’ll teach at least four years to see my students graduate.” Four years came, then five, six, and seven years. It all went very quickly. I only taught for seven years, but I taught hundreds of kids in a short period of time because I taught on a semester schedule and summer programs, too. A majority of the students I taught still live in the Hartford area. I see former students everywhere — at the mall, at work, at UConn, even once on a beach in Puerto Rico! My proudest moments are seeing the kids I taught, now adults, all grown up! I’ve seen them graduate, get their first jobs, have their own families. I’m proud to have been a very small part in that growth.
What are your hobbies? I enjoy playing soccer, amateur photography mostly for family events, and watching all sports — basketball, football, soccer — pretty much anything!
When do you find yourself at your happiest? When I’m on a beach, preferably in Puerto Rico or somewhere in the Caribbean.
What is something that most people don’t know about you? I play the mobile game Clash of Clans. All the time. It’s a terrible waste of time, but it’s fun to be on the same team as a few people I know.
Find Robert Cotto on Twitter at @robertcottojr or read his blog at http://commons.trincoll.edu/cssp/category/blog/
10 Questions With Xin Xu, Dean’s Doctoral Scholar
In this new series, the Neag School will be catching up with students, alumni, faculty, and others throughout the year to give you a glimpse into their Neag School experience and their current career, research, or community activities.
Incoming Ph.D. student Xin Xu will join the Neag School this fall as part of the second cohort of Dean’s Doctoral Scholars. The program provides full tuition for four years plus a stipend to promising Ph.D. candidates. Dean’s Doctoral Scholars have the opportunity to conduct interdisciplinary research with leading experts in the field of education while earning a doctoral degree from UConn in curriculum and instruction, educational leadership, or educational psychology. For more information about the Dean’s Doctoral Scholars program, visit s.uconn.edu/neagdds.
Hometown: Dandong, China
Where were you working previous to Neag School? I completed my undergraduate program of speech and language pathology in Shanghai, China. Then I obtained a master’s degree of special education at Boston University. After that, I worked in a public school at Brookline, Mass. I worked in a resource classroom and provided support for students with autism, ADHD, and specific learning disabilities.
What appealed to you about the Neag School and/or the Dean’s Doctoral Scholar Program? Firstly, the prestigious faculty’s research about behavior intervention match my interests. Secondly, the learning environment is so fantastic that I could not say no to UConn.
What are your research interests? My research interest is Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), and I will also learn more about providing behavioral intervention and support for students with special education needs, and examining the effectiveness of evidence-based strategies or intervention derived from ABA.
What do you hope to ultimately achieve in pursuing your doctoral research into these particular areas of focus at the Neag School? Achieving research methods and experience in the area of behavior support, and then applying them after I go back to my country. I wish to improve the social justice there and promote the quality of life of the population of people with special needs.
What does it mean to you to be named a Dean’s Doctoral Scholar? It’s a great honor for me. It means my previous work and potential have been recognized and accepted by these high-standard experts. It means I can have more opportunity to engage in research about special education.
Describe your proudest career moment. The moment I was accepted by a prestigious university in Shanghai (I was ranked in the first 5 percent in my town) and when I was granted with a national scholarship based on my hard work (ranked first in my department).
What are your hobbies? Swimming and building warship models
When do you find yourself at your happiest? I am at my happiest when I have a KALAOK [Karaoke] party with friends.
What is something that most people don’t know about you? When you see me wearing headphones, mostly I am not listening to music. I am listening to audiobooks!
10 Questions With Dakota Cintron, Dean’s Doctoral Scholar
In this new series, the Neag School will be catching up with students, alumni, faculty, and others throughout the year to give you a glimpse into their Neag School experience and their current career, research, or community activities.
Incoming Ph.D. student Dakota Cintron will join the Neag School this fall as part of the second cohort of Dean’s Doctoral Scholars. The program provides full tuition for four years plus a stipend to promising Ph.D. candidates. Dean’s Doctoral Scholars have the opportunity to conduct interdisciplinary research with leading experts in the field of education while earning a doctoral degree from UConn in curriculum and instruction, educational leadership, or educational psychology. For more information about the Dean’s Doctoral Scholars program, visit s.uconn.edu/neagdds.
Hometown: I was raised in Wheeling, W.V. I am currently living in West New York, N.J.
Where were you working/studying previous to Neag School? I was a graduate student at Teachers College at Columbia. I obtained an MS in applied statistics and a Ed.M. in measurement and evaluation. At Teachers College, I worked with Dr. Young-Sun Lee as a research assistant working on projects related to item response theory and cognitive diagnosis models. I also worked with Dr. Robert Carter on projects related to structural equation modeling and multivariate analysis. Prior to my work with Dr. Young-Sun Lee and Dr. Robert Carter, I worked at New Visions for Public Schools, where I synthesized and disseminated research for developing programs and initiatives at New Visions.
What appealed to you about the Neag School and/or the Dean’s Doctoral Scholar Program? Research conducted by Dr. Betsy McCoach is what motivated me to apply to UConn. The Dean’s Doctoral Scholars Program appealed to me because it would help support my education both financially and intellectually.
What are your research interests and what will be your specific Ph.D. area of study at the Neag School? I am interested in generalized and nonlinear latent variable models, cognitive diagnosis models, and item response theory. I will be in the Measurement, Evaluation, and Assessment program at the Neag School’s [Department of Educational Psychology].
What do you hope to ultimately achieve in pursuing your doctoral research into these particular areas of focus at the Neag School? I hope to use the skills I learn to measure and support an individual’s development across their lifetime.
What does it mean to you to be named a Dean’s Doctoral Scholar? It means a great deal. Given the competitive nature of the program, it is an honor to be selected as a DDS. Also, it means that I will have an opportunity to learn about the culture and research being conducted at the Neag School in a manner that I would not have been able to otherwise.
Describe your proudest career moment. My proudest career moment was when I was accepted into the Ph.D. measurement, evaluation, and assessment program at UConn.
What are your hobbies? Besides learning about statistics, computer science, and basically everything in between, my hobbies include hiking, whitewater rafting, and listening to music.
When do you find yourself at your happiest? I am at my happiest when I am learning something new.
What is something that most people don’t know about you? I lived in Germany for a year as a young child.
