Neag Professor Co-Authors Book to Help Secondary Educators Reimagine the Science Department

Posted on May 26, 2015February 17, 2023 by

ReimaginingSciDepartment_coverconcept1 A Neag School of Education faculty member is one of the co-authors of Reimagining the Science Department (NSTA Press, 2015), a book published in March by the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) to help secondary educators create “a place where teachers are encouraged to question both their beliefs about science and the teaching and assessment strategies that develop in response to those beliefs.”

Like the NSTA itself — which promotes teaching through research, among other guiding principles — the book highlights the findings of studies conducted by several leaders in the field of science education, including co-authors Wayne Melville, associate professor of science education at Lakehead University in Ontario, Canada; Doug Jones, a science chair with Lakehead District Schools in Ontario; and Todd Campbell, associate professor of science education at UConn’s Neag School of Education. Within the book, the authors also ask high school administrators, district science coordinators, and teachers to consider the history of science education and science departments before beginning the process of departmental reform.

“Many of today’s practices are rooted in a tradition, yet few know why or how those practices began. What was the purpose of establishing those practices? What’s the purpose of establishing new practices now?” Campbell says. “Among other things, we provide the history of the evolution of teaching high school science, with the idea that it can be used as a foundation for determining where we need to go as we look to the future of science education.”

‘Collective Capital’

The Neag School of Education hosts the innagural UConn STEM Conference on May 12, 2015. Associate Professor of Science Education Todd Campbell, welcomes William Penuel (sitting) from the University of Colorado Boulder, who spoke on the Next Generation Science Standards. (Photo credit: Shawn Kornegay)

Reimagining the Science Department offers many other tools for science education reform, including concrete strategies supporting visions of teaching and learning envisioned by the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Woven throughout the book are anecdotes written by science department chairs working in urban and rural areas. The vignettes illustrate how colleagues have collaboratively confronted “universal issues” related to teaching science in the context of their own schools and communities.

Each chapter ends with a concise, bulleted summary and a series of questions, written for science teachers and specifically for science department chairs, that challenge traditional teaching assumptions, Campbell says.

The book also explores the role and responsibilities of science department chairs. Established roughly 150 years ago, high school science departments and leaders in their current forms have never been clearly defined, say the authors – yet they must be if they are to support professional learning within science departments.

“The role [of department chair] has been seen at times as strictly administrative: making sure school policies are enacted and adhered to,” the authors write. Today, however, the demands for national educational reform outlined in the NGSS require science department chairs to be experts in science content; have the ability to advocate for science education; know how to build a collegial learning environment; and be effective, dynamic, and creative problem solvers, among other capabilities.

High school science chairs need to know not just how to transact the business of teaching science, but also how to transform it, Campbell says.

“Ultimately, the goal of the book is to help make great teachers,” Campbell says. “However, today’s education system is structured in such a way that individual teachers can’t overcome many of the challenges they face on their own. The many ambitious changes needed in science instruction require systemic support, so one of the things we try to show is how departments can use their collective capital to overcome challenges together.”

Collaborating Across Universities
In many ways, Campbell says, the book is the result of a professional relationship that began roughly eight years ago, when Campbell and Melville met at the Association for Science Teachers Association national conference. As their friendship grew, so did opportunities for them to collaborate on various research studies, including those related to improving secondary science professional development and partnering science teachers with scientists as a way to develop more realistic, inquiry-centered, and technology-supported scientific activity.

Together, the two have published seven articles in journals including the Research in Science Education and the Journal of Science Education and Technology. Three additional articles they have co-written are currently under consideration, as is another book proposal they have submitted to NSTA.

“Our work tends to complements each other’s,” Campbell says. “Wayne’s research focuses on needed systemic change, while mine is focused more at the classroom level through developing and supporting model-based instruction. So when he pushes for reform at the departmental level, I think about how this might play out at the classroom level.”

Increasing opportunities for collaborations between Neag scholars and those from other leading universities is one of the Neag School’s strategic goals, as well as one that Campbell and Melville well illustrate. Writing Reimagining the Science Department for NSTA — the largest organization in the world dedicated to science, excellence, and innovation in science teaching and learning — also positions them, the Neag School, and Lakehead University among the global leaders in this field.

“One of our hopes is that our work will lead to a network of secondary science teachers and teacher leaders eager to take their thinking outside of traditional, static places,” Campbell says. “Growing science departments and really making an impact on professional learning could, like the title of our book suggests, take the field of science education to yet-unimagined places.”

Neag Alum Wrapping up First Year as an Administrator at Journalism and Media Academy in Hartford

Posted on May 22, 2015December 7, 2021 by

Dan Pichette, dean of students at the Journalism and Media Academy in Hartford. Photo credit: Shawn Kornegay, UConn — Dan Pichette, dean of students at the Journalism and Media Academy in Hartford. (Photo credit: Shawn Kornegay)

The Journalism and Media Academy (JMA) in Hartford is not your traditional high school, and Dan Pichette ’04 MA, ’11 6th Year is not your typical administrator. Nestled between the biology labs and math classrooms at the magnet school are green rooms, a radio station, a TV studio with camera equipment, and audio editing bays. Students are able to take the traditional math, science, English, and history classes while dabbling in electives such as blog writing, animation, and sports journalism, taught by industry professionals.

Pichette, who was appointed the dean of students at JMA this past August, is wrapping up his first year as an administrator. He graduated from the Neag School of Education’s Teacher Certification Program for College Graduates (TCPCG) program in 2004 and the University of Connecticut Administrator Preparation Program (UCAPP) in 2011.

“There is a sense of pride that comes with successfully completing the TCPCG and UCAPP programs,” Pichette says, who taught history at East Hartford High from 2004 up until he became JMA’s dean of students. “The depth of knowledge that Neag professors and staff bring to the programs is unparalleled, blending real life and research together.”

That said, he never expected to end up at a school like JMA. “Twelve years ago while I was in TCPCG, there weren’t many magnet schools; it was still a far-fetched idea,” says Pichette, who recalls members of his cohort at the Neag School having conversations about how these types of schools were on the horizon. “That type of discussion allowed me to see beyond what was the norm at the time, which was the traditional high school,” he says.

Taking the Leap
Pichette saw the opportunity to work at JMA – which had opened its doors in 2013 – and decided to “take the leap.” Despite his lack of experience working in a magnet school setting, Pichette thought back to his TCPCG supervisor, Dr. James Fallon, whose advice Pichette applies to his role at JMA.

“Dr. Fallon brought a lot of insight into how you work in a school system, no matter if it is small or large. He taught me how to handle myself professionally and how to really work through the ins and outs of a school. To this day, I take his words. They were invaluable,” Pichette says.

“I see full circle how dedicated the faculty, staff, and administration are to their students, programs, and alumni at Neag,” he adds. “The Neag School of Education has truly been such a huge part of my family and our history; I couldn’t imagine going any place else.”

Pichette also mentions the value of having learned firsthand about Positive Behavior and Intervention Supports (PBIS) from Neag School Professor George Sugai. “The resources that UConn brings are tremendous,” says Pichette, who serves as chair of the PBIS committee at JMA. “I got to learn about PBIS from the guy who created PBIS – how can it be better than that?”

Shaping a Progressive Curriculum
At JMA, students have access to a wide array of technology and media courses that can provide a competitive advantage during this time of media and technology dependence. Aside from the traditional courses like math, science, history, and English, JMA also has themed courses such as TV Production, Radio Production, and Digital Storytelling.

“We hope to draw people to JMA through the variety of thematic programs, which give students the opportunity to specialize in a field tailored to their interests and passions,” Pichette says. “We are constantly monitoring the needs of our students and adjusting to ensure that our students have access to the best educational opportunities in the state, and even in the nation.”

JMA also provides students with hands-on experience working in media production, both written and broadcast. The school partners with the Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network (CPBN), which offers students in their senior year the chance to work alongside industry experts at CPBN’s satellite campus to create a professional media portfolio. Going forward, Pichette says he would also like to “work with area colleges and universities to develop a progressive curriculum that suits the ever-changing needs of the students in a media-focused school.”

In addition to its media-related focus, JMA brings together a diverse student body, with students hailing from 43 different districts in the state. “These students represent a myriad of cultures, ethnicities, and socioeconomic statuses,” Pichette says. “We strongly believe that the city of Hartford and the suburbs of Hartford can grow with each other, and build on positive experiences to have a community that continues to flourish.”

‘Driver of Change’
Although he misses the kinds of connection he had with students as a classroom teacher, Pichette says his first year as an administrator offers an education all its own. “I’m still learning; I’m learning every day,” he says. “Every day I walk in here, I’m faced with a something new I hadn’t been faced with before.”

Serving in a role at JMA that he says is similar to that of an assistant principal, Pichette now focuses on teacher evaluations, student discipline, and policy. “It’s been really refreshing to sit and have conversations with teachers about their work and to share my experiences with them,” he says. “I’ve been working with first-year teachers – just sharing some of the strategies I’ve used that worked when I was a teacher.”

Ultimately, Pichette says, he would like to become a principal. “I would like to move into that role, to be able to be the driver of change,” he says, looking forward to the opportunity to spend the summer being a part of the planning process for the next academic year.

“We’ve made some really great strides this year, but we want to keep that ball moving and keep the quality of the education as our No. 1 priority,” he says.

Career Changers Among Those Seeking STEM Teaching Certificates at UConn’s Avery Point Campus

Posted on May 21, 2015December 8, 2016 by

Jeffrey Labasi had spent more than 20 years leading a lucrative career as a research scientist in pharmaceuticals – an industry where, Labasi admits, he was never really happy.

A father of three, Labasi instead found fulfillment outside of working hours, filling his free time with activities at his children’s schools – organizing invention conventions for students, serving as PTO president for a time, and coaching a number of different sports, season after season.

In his 40’s, Labasi began seriously considering a profession that would allow him to focus on working with kids. “I realized I had a kind of calling,” he says.

Thanks to an accelerated teacher education program for nontraditional students based at UConn’s Avery Point campus, Labasi, now 45 years old, is embarking this fall on a second career as a science teacher.

A Focus on STEM
The Teacher Certification Program for College Graduates (TCPCG) at Avery Point is a post-baccalaureate program designed for people like Labasi, who have previously earned degrees in the field of STEM – science, technology, math, and engineering – and preparing them to become math- or science-certified teachers in less than one year. Students enrolled in this STEM-specific program, offered through UConn’s Neag School of Education, earn a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction, as well as recommendation for teacher certification by the state of Connecticut.

The 11-month program involves intensive coursework, as well as direct teaching experience with children in nearby New London and Norwich schools; a three-month student teaching assignment; and an internship that immerses enrollees in research examining some aspect of school innovation or reform.

A new grant will provide $30,000 to sponsor 24 individual future science teachers at UConn’s Avery Point campus over the next four years.

For Labasi, who completed the program this May and will be certified to teach biology and chemistry in Grades 7 through 12, two aspects of the Avery Point program were particularly powerful. “Learning with other science- and math-minded people was important to my growth,” he says. In addition, his stint as a student teacher in Waterford solidified his decision to change careers for good. “When I left student teaching, it was actually really hard; I was sad,” he says. “That feeling of being upset at leaving reinforced that I really enjoy doing this.”

In Search of Future Science Teachers
Teachers specializing in science and math are in high demand across the state of Connecticut, which makes the TCPCG program’s STEM focus at the Avery Point campus crucial, according to John Settlage, professor of science teacher education in the Neag School and director of Avery Point’s STEM teacher preparation program.

In fact, all 11 graduates from the program’s first cohort, who graduated in May 2014, had received job offers by the following July 1, within weeks of completing the program. As Labasi now looks to land a permanent position, he says he hopes that potential employers will see his firsthand experience in the field as a unique strength. “I have a real science perspective that I think will help me in making connections within the classroom,” he says.

TCPCG Grads — The second cohort of TCPCG students at the Avery Point campus gathered at the Branford Mansion in May to give poster presentations. Pictured from left to right are Kristen Kohlhepp; Kaitlyn Larew; Erin Burke; Margot Albin; Kristina Torres; Karolyn Card; Donna Bednar; Danielle Gunderman; Michelle Przybylek; Joseph Steady; Jacqueline Ei; and Jeffrey Labasi. (Photo Credit: Stefanie Dion Jones)

Given Connecticut’s need for STEM-focused teachers, individuals with an extensive level of experience in the field are the bread and butter of the Avery Point program.

“Here, we can take advantage of people who want to change careers,” Settlage says, adding that Avery Point is the only teacher preparation program in the region. Career changers from the STEM fields who pursue the program, he says, know what they want; they possess not only a love for science and mathematics, but also a certain level of maturity and knowledge. “I can’t fool them,” Settlage says. “I can’t give them a course and tell them it’s what they need. They don’t play that game. They’re consumers; they ask hard questions. And we need more of them.”

Scholarship Support for Minority Teachers
Settlage is now actively recruiting aspiring science teachers from nontraditional backgrounds through a grant funded by the National Science Foundation. The grant will provide $30,000 – the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship – to sponsor 24 individual future science teachers at UConn’s Avery Point campus over the next four years.

“I think one of the reasons we have big achievement gaps in Connecticut is because kids aren’t seeing teachers who look like them,” Settlage says. “So we are trying to recruit the kinds of teachers kids would recognize. I realize now that when I was growing up I had all kinds of role models, but if I had been a kid of color, I wouldn’t have seen that, so I may not have even thought about this [as a career option].”

Settlage anticipates that the Noyce Scholarship support will be especially appealing to career changers who would benefit from being able to defray the expense of attending a full-time program.

Beyond the financial support, the immersion in coursework, an internship, and student teaching, Noyce Scholars would also have the opportunity to work closely with research experts within Avery Point’s world-class marine sciences facilities. In exchange for the scholarship support, those designated as Noyce Scholars would be required, after completing the program, to spend two years teaching in a high-needs school.

With its unique STEM focus, hands-on training, and its condensed, 11-month format, Settlage anticipates that the Avery Point program will be instrumental in helping to fill the state’s gap of qualified STEM teachers. “We’ll work with you,” he says. “We prepare you for your first five years – not just to get a job.”

Find more information about the TCPCG Program here.

UConn’s Law School and Neag School of Education to Launch New Graduate Program Combining Educational Leadership and Law

Posted on May 20, 2015December 7, 2021 by

LawLibrary120925e043a — A view of the Thomas J. Meskill Law Library at the University of Connecticut School of Law in Hartford on Sept. 25, 2012. (Photo credit: UConn archives)

In today’s increasingly complex public educational system, many principals, assistant superintendents, and other educational leaders in school districts across the country are finding themselves having to attend to any number of legal matters throughout the year – from maintaining school safety to addressing cyberbullying to negotiating teacher contracts.

Brian Hendrickson ’10 6th Year, principal of City Hill Middle School in Naugatuck, Conn., is one of them. Hendrickson, who earned a law degree prior to embarking on his career in education, says that his work as a school administrator has relied heavily on his background not only in educational leadership, but also in law.

“I use my legal training every single day,” says Hendrickson, who also is an alumnus of UConn’s Administrator Preparation Program (UCAPP), an educational leadership program offered through the Neag School. Citing such issues as student discipline, special education mandates, and human resources – all of which school administrators face on a regular basis – he says, “There is a clear need for school administrators to have as much legal training as possible.”

“So many times, administrators get themselves in hot water because they do not understand the legal ramifications of some of their actions.”

—Brian Hendrickson ’10 6th Year, school principal

Next year, UConn’s Neag School of Education and School of Law will partner for the first time to address this need head-on, launching a new graduate program designed for working professionals interested in obtaining a law degree as well as certification as an educational administrator. The program is believed to be the first of its kind in the nation.

A New Option for Aspiring School Leaders
The new program, slated to launch in Fall 2016, will combine the Neag School’s UCAPP program in educational leadership with the UConn School of Law’s JD program. Graduates of the program will be able to seek admission to the bar and, upon completing five years of teaching, will also become eligible for endorsement as a Connecticut Intermediate Administrator, a statewide certification (CT-092) required of educators intending to serve as administrators in Connecticut’s schools.

For aspiring principals, curriculum coordinators, assistant superintendents, and other would-be educational leaders, such a program will offer a unique option for those interested in learning how to manage the wide variety of legal issues encountered by school administrators today.

“So many times, administrators get themselves in hot water because they do not understand the legal ramifications of some of their actions,” says Hendrickson. “Leaders can get bogged down in conflicts and issues that, if they had more training, they might have a clearer perspective and be able to be more efficient with teaching and learning.”

Ted Donahue ’07 6th Year, another school principal and UCAPP graduate, says he, too, can see how school administrators may benefit from having greater familiarity with legal issues. “I think the regulatory side of education at both the state and federal levels becomes increasingly complex, and an understanding of the law can help one navigate that,” says Donahue, principal of Irving A. Robbins Middle School in Farmington, Conn.

Like Hendrickson, Donahue had earned a JD prior to beginning his career in education. A law degree, he says, “teaches you to ask the right questions. It helps you work with people toward a common goal. It helps you examine issues through multiple lenses, and to look for common ground in order to find creative solutions to complex problems.”

Enriching Public Education
Meanwhile, “states are also beginning to recognize the importance of legal training in the operation of schools and school districts,” says UConn Professor Preston Green III, who initiated and designed the program. Green, who has a JD from Columbia University, serves as the John and Carla Klein Professor of Urban Education in the Neag School of Education and has an affiliate appointment with UConn’s School of Law. “Our expectation is that this JD/UCAPP Program will provide a pathway for young people who wish to pursue careers that combine education and law,” Green says.

The program will incorporate the JD degree program requirements with UCAPP coursework covering such topics as education policy and school climate – as well as an internship that places students in public schools run by educational leaders with a successful track record of running highly functioning schools. “It’s a nice fit, and it’s exciting to see two very different branches of UConn coming together for a common goal,” Donahue says.

Ideally, Hendrickson says he anticipates that this type of combined program “will enrich public education.”

“If you have leaders who are able to sort of sift through the issues and be as efficient as possible and make decisions that are solid,” he says, “they can spend more time working on high-quality teaching and learning. This really gives an option for leaders who want to be in the know as much as possible.”

Neag School to Welcome First-Ever Dean’s Doctoral Scholars This Fall

Posted on May 20, 2015April 1, 2025 by

Deans Doctoral Scholars finalists meet with Neag faculty on February 8, 2015, at the Rome Commons Ballroom in Storrs. Sian Charles-Harris speaks with Associate Dean Sandra Chafouleas. (Photo Credit: Stefanie Dion Jones)

Come fall, eight promising new Ph.D. candidates will arrive on the UConn Storrs campus knowing that they will have four years of fully funded support, thanks to an innovative new program instituted this past year by Neag School of Education Dean Richard Schwab.

Launched in 2014, the inaugural Dean’s Doctoral Scholar program invited applications from aspiring doctoral candidates with an interest in pursuing research, under one or more Neag School faculty experts, in at least one of the School’s four strategic areas of focus: STEM education; creativity and innovation; educator quality and effectiveness; or equity and social justice.

By the end of the year, the program had attracted 128 high-quality applicants from across the country. Ultimately, 10 outstanding candidates were offered placement in the program, with eight accepting by the April 15, 2015, deadline.

“We are tremendously excited to offer support to our first-ever pool of Dean’s Doctoral Scholars in the Neag School,” says Dean Schwab. “These eight promising students stood out as outstanding candidates, and this is the sort of rare and invaluable opportunity they deserve. I know our faculty are looking forward to guiding them over the next four years to become leaders in their chosen field.”

Britney Jones, Dean's Doctoral Scholar finalist — Dean’s Doctoral Scholars finalist Britney Jones meets with Neag School faculty at the February reception. (Photo Credit: Stefanie Dion Jones)

The eight incoming scholars will receive full tuition and a stipend through their four years of doctoral study. In addition to earning a doctoral degree from UConn, they will have the opportunity to present at nationwide conferences, publish research in highly regarded journals, and work alongside faculty across the Neag School, in the departments of curriculum and instruction, educational psychology, and educational leadership.

The eight Dean’s Doctoral Scholars include candidates from as far away as Stone Mountain, Ga., and Puerto Rico. One of the DDS recipients is a University of Connecticut alum, Taylor Koriakin ’11 (CLAS).

The Dean’s Office is proud to announce the names of each of the incoming Dean’s Doctoral Scholars:

Nneka Arinze – Stone Mountain, Ga.
Latanya Brandon – Bridgeport, Conn.
Sian Charles-Harris – New York, N.Y.
William Estepar-Garcia – Puerto Rico
Britney Jones – Elmont, N.Y.
Taylor Koriakin – Balitmore, Md.
Jeremy Landa – New Haven, Conn.
Tiffany Polk – Milford, Conn.

To apply for the Dean’s Doctoral Scholar Program, visit s.uconn.edu/neagdds.

What Does 50 Years as a UConn Professor Look Like?

Posted on May 20, 2015December 13, 2021 by

Dr. Thomas Goodkind looks forward to his future, as a retired faculty member. — Dr. Thomas Goodkind looks forward to his future as a retired faculty member. (Photo credit: Shawn Kornegay)

Editor’s Note: Professor Thomas B. Goodkind retires on June 1, 2015, after spending 50 years as a faculty member in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. In this special piece for Spotlight, he shares a glimpse into his countless experiences inside – and outside – of the classroom over the past half-century.

While UConn has seen many changes over the past half-century in size, focus, priorities, quality, and stature, I, too, have worked through all kinds of educational and budget changes and crises, having served under seven deans. Today I work with some colleagues who were not even born when I began teaching here in 1965!

My own interests and accomplishments over the years have been varied – but I always strived to be ahead of the curve and worked to develop courses and programs that I felt were needed.

I have taught 10 courses on the graduate and undergraduate levels, including those in elementary and middle school social studies as well as outdoor and environmental education, while working to enhance the classroom curriculum with computers and electronic media, teaching in the affective domain, introducing solar energy education, and emphasizing the importance of media literacy in an information age.

Outdoor Adventures
For many years, I worked with undergraduates and provided what I believed were important educational experiences essential for successfully working with young public school students, including a special yearly three-day outdoor education and camping experience held in rustic settings in western Connecticut.

UConn students participating in these three-day excursions learned a variety of outdoor/environmental skills for two days, followed by a third day when they instructed children who came to the camp from suburban and urban schools. These children included gifted and special education students, as well as those of various ethnic and socialeconomic backgrounds – many of whom had never before explored the natural world in a wooded setting.

Together, UConn students and these young campers took part in such activities as orienteering, rope climbing/rappelling, wildlife studies/appreciation, campsite living (building fires, cooking, pitching tents), and cooperative trust activities. Many UConn undergraduates indicated this outdoor adventure was the highlight of their UConn years.

I also taught a course, Introduction to Outdoor Education, for a number of years on campus and at the 4-H camp in Pomfret. There, UConn students had similar opportunities to teach outdoor education topics to public school students.

Double Duty
I first came to UConn in 1965, as a new college professor in teacher education. But having previously taught elementary and middle school students in Texas and Illinois, I was concerned about losing touch with the “real” teaching world – the world of public schools.

Wanting to test out James Conant’s concept of the “clinical professor,” I worked simultaneously in the South Windsor schools, teaching fifth-grade social studies for a year, employing and demonstrating what I believed were innovative teaching methods related to the five social sciences – history, geography, economics, sociology, and anthropology. I was actually “officially” hired as a teacher in the South Windsor system for $1 for the year, and was quickly asked to join the PTO for $20 – far greater than my annual salary!

The year culminated with the fifth-grade students camping out for two days while “roughing it,” recreating life on a wagon train heading West, complete with old clothes as costumes, utensils, and reworked farm wagons – all carefully previously researched to be as authentic as possible. It was quite an adventure!

On the “Tonight Show”
When the energy crisis emerged in the 1970s, I developed and taught a solar energy education course on campus and in West Hartford, as well as a noncredit extension solar energy course for the Continuing Education Program at UConn.

I received a grant at that time from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Appropriate Technology Program to develop a model solar-energy home (described as a combination solar home and/or possible solar doghouse!). I was to demonstrate the use of two alternative solar ways to heat a typical home: one an attic solar-heat collector/distributor, and the other an under-cellar rock base heated by blown-in, solar-heated air.

Two working-scale model houses the size of a large dollhouse were built by an accomplished model-builder and friend, the former principal of the Woodstock Elementary School, Ed Seney. The working solar model houses were subsequently taken to at least a dozen public schools and conferences to demonstrate to young people, teachers, and the public the potential of an innovative, almost do-it-yourself solar-energy plan for adapting and heating a typical home.

An amusing result of the solar energy grant occurred on the original “Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.” His writers picked up an AP newspaper story about supposed wasted government funds as criticized by a U.S. congressman from Pennsylvania at the time, and Carson made fun of my so-called “Solar Doghouse” to millions watching the TV show.

I was invited to testify before the House Science and Technology Committee in Washington, D.C. My wife and I loaded one of the model solar homes into our car and drove to Washington. The congressman arranged to have a German shepherd on site at the hearing, along with a variety of media present – presumably to demonstrate waste of government funding. However, as soon as he saw the size of the solar house and its purpose, he backtracked, realizing he had erred. The dog disappeared, and the event was very much shortened.

Resourceful Learning – Here and Abroad
Around the time of the U.S. bicentennial, in 1976, I reconditioned an old 18-foot van, turning it into the Bicentennial Studies Resource Wagon. After filling it with a wealth of mostly donated materials related to the bicentennial, the Wagon visited about a dozen public school systems as a timely resource for teachers and students to learn about the bicentennial. I was proud of the fact that the Wagon was entirely self-supporting, with gas and maintenance fees paid by the school systems, and no outside grant money needed to operate it. Former Gov. Ella Grasso viewed the Wagon at the state capitol.

Another demonstration project involved the construction of a child-sized, early New England village in an empty classroom at the old Storrs Grammar School. All of the materials used in its construction were donated or scavenged, and more than 100 K-4 students over several years used it to study life in early New England through a wide variety of hands-on activities. Several other schools visited and “lived” in the Colonial Village occasionally, and it was featured on Channel 3. The program received an award from the Freedoms Foundation.

At one point, I was also invited by the Ministry of Education in Uganda, East Africa, to develop a series of short films to help teachers to teach English as a second language in Uganda. One problem was a lack of electricity in Ugandan rural schools. Using super-8 film cameras, we filmed model teachers teaching English lessons to young children in quickly set-up outdoor schoolroom settings, as there was not enough light indoors for filming. The idea was to project these films onto the walls of rural schools in the evening – using Land Rover vehicles with inverters to power the projectors – to train teachers.

Unfortunately, shortly after I completed the project and left Uganda, Idi “Big Daddy” Amin took over the government as a ruthless dictator and seemingly purged every leader, especially Western-educated education leaders. All of those I had worked with disappeared, and I have no information whether any of them survived, nor information whether the films were ever used to train Ugandan teachers to teach English as a second language.

Meeting My Future Wife
The best thing that happened to me at UConn was meeting my future wife, Elizabeth Rowell, a UConn doctoral student in reading back in the ’70s. We collaborated on many workshop presentations at local, regional, national, and international conferences; journal articles and editorships; and an elementary social studies textbook series.

Together, we wrote and published a text Teaching the Pleasures of Reading (Prentice-Hall, 1982), which pulled together our efforts and ideas in five areas we knew children enjoyed and that would be attractive in helping them to learn the basics of reading. We believed this was an important and supplementary alternative to the usual reading instruction in school: using ideas from television, the outdoors, art, music, and humor. The book was adopted by several educational book clubs. Liz is currently in her 40th year of teaching at Rhode Island College.

Introducing Innovative Courses and Conferences
While at UConn, I developed a number of interesting courses over the years. One of them was “Life in the Old West,” an interdisciplinary summer course that ran for three years, focused on the study of the historical, anthropological, and geological life of early Native Americans, the Anasazi, and early ranching and mining interests in the four corners areas of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah. We held lectures on campus first and then worked with Northern Arizona University faculty members in these specialty areas out West.

Another summer course involved travel to Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and studying the disappearance of the old Mayan civilization from a multidisciplinary perspective, with a focus on the possibility of environmental issues as a major determining factor in the Mayan civilization collapse. This course was developed in conjunction with Queens College in New York with a former doctoral student, John Loret.

During the mid-’80s and ’90s, I got interested in computers and the rapidly growing use of modern technology in education. I was the first to videotape student-teachers for their self-evaluation. When one of my graduate students showed me a very short piece of computer programming that she had developed for another class – which took her all semester to complete – I realized that teachers did not have the time or the skill to develop their own computer programs for their students. So I searched for alternatives to make it easier and more practical. Using a simple authoring system from Radio Shack and its original TRS-80 computer, I eventually develop a new course on microcomputer authoring systems that was taught for a number of years.

My most recent grand adventure focused on media literacy. Besides developing and teaching the graduate course “Media Literacy in an Information Age” every semester since 2000, I focused this course on the need for developing understanding in young people, especially of the great impact of the mass media upon their lives – and their thinking, decisions, focus, and values.

In addition, from 2003 to 2013, I developed and coordinated the Northeast Media Literacy Conference, held at UConn each year, which attracted a wide range of educators, health care professionals, counselors and prevention specialists, and parents interested in exploring the impact of mass media on today’s youth. The conference also attracted top media leaders from around the world as keynote speakers and workshop leaders – including the participation during each of the last three years of 25 international media and educational leaders representing 25 different nations. These leaders were a part of the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program, which had been focusing on the growing international interest in media literacy in promoting civil society through new media technology. This diverse group represented university professors, journalists, bloggers, community activists, NGO leaders, and youth media professionals.

An Interesting Journey
During my 50 years at UConn, my wife and I have raised two great children, Walter and Alexander, now 28 and 27, both adopted as boys from Paraguay. We enjoy spending time in our lake house in Maine and on the Maine and Rhode Island shores, and traveling. I have been a cellist and string bass player practically all my life, have played in 11 orchestras and a jazz group over the years, and still currently play chamber music, primarily string quartets, every other week with musician friends in Mansfield.

Fifty years – it’s been a long and interesting journey!

Thomas Goodkind is a professor of curriculum and instruction in the Neag School of Education.

Neag School of Education Hosts 2015 Commencement

Posted on May 10, 2015December 31, 2020 by Shawn Kornegay

The Neag School of Education Commencement procession on May 10, 2015. (Photo credit: Peter Morenus/UConn)

The Neag School of Education recognized graduates from the Class of 2015 during two ceremonies held the weekend of May 9 and 10, 2015. The Neag School undergraduate commencement took place at the Jorgensen Auditorium on UConn’s Storrs campus on Sunday, May 10. Commencement for Neag School graduate students, including sixth-year students, took place on Saturday, May 9, at Gampel Pavilion.

Kerry Kennedy, president of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights, served as the keynote speaker at the Graduate School commencement ceremony. Two honorary degrees were awarded at the ceremony – one to Kennedy, and the other to Peter J. Werth Jr., president of ChemWerth, Inc., headquartered in Woodbridge, Conn.

The Neag School undergraduate ceremony featured commencement speaker Harriet Sanford, who has served as president and CEO of the NEA Foundation since 2005. Based in Washington, D.C, the NEA Foundation is committed to supporting the collaborative efforts of public school educators, their unions, school districts, and communities to focus on learning conditions that improve student performance.

An alumna of UConn, having earned a master’s degree in public administration from the College of Liberal Arts and Science in 1979, Sanford stands out as a trailblazer in public education reform, devoted to the betterment of society through access to quality education, cultural competency, and the arts.

IMGS5201 _honorary degree_cropped For her role as a distinctive leader, education advocate, and global citizen, the Neag School’s dean, Dr. Richard Schwab, awarded Sanford an honorary degree, the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.

Sanford on ‘Belief’
In her commencement address, Sanford spoke in part about something that has driven her for most of her working life – teaching. She also talked about how new research on brain science uses such words as “mindset,” “grit,” “plasticity,” and “resilience” to drive home the idea that attitude matters, and that “even the most lowest-performing students can turn a page, given the right encouragement.”

She also offered another word: “belief.”

IMGS5241_keynote copy_cropped “As a teacher, you must believe in yourself, in the power of education to change lives, and in what your students can do,” she said.

Growing up with a family that faced numerous challenges, she said the common thread that propelled her forward through school was belief. “Everywhere I went, I knew I had to do two things – give my best effort and believe in myself, and for the most part, the rest would take care of itself.”

When Sanford began teaching, she quickly realized not every child was as lucky as she was. She acknowledged the growing economic disparity in the world today, but “the difference isn’t all about funding and opportunity inequities,” she said. “The deficit some children face is often purely about belief.”

She encouraged the graduates to “not shy away from being bold and outspoken, not just around matters of equity, but around teaching and creating the kind of schools where every child can succeed.

In addition, she encouraged them to not be afraid of opening themselves to others who may need support, suggestions, or a role model. “There was always someone there during complicated periods of transition in my own life,” she said. “Without their sage advice, guidance, and support, it would have been hard for me to write my next chapter.”

In her closing comments, she encouraged the graduates to believe in themselves. “You’ve had a great education and preparation for a great career. Be fierce in everything that you do. You are our best hope for the next generation.”

Changing the Game

Prior to Sanford’s speech, but before the nearly 130 graduates received their diplomas, the platform party was introduced, and the Neag Alumni Society president offered a welcome.

DSC_0224 student speaker_cropped Carley Mooney, a graduating sport management major from Killingworth, Conn., served as the student speaker. This fall, she wlll return to the Neag School to take on a master’s degree in adult learning – while serving as a graduate assistant for the UConn women’s basketball team. As an undergraduate, she had served for four years as the student manager for the team.

Mooney began by welcoming honored guests and recognizing all the mothers on Mother’s Day, including quoting NBA All-Star Kevin Durant: “You are the real MVPs.”

She also congratulated the graduates and those who helped them along the way, noting: “Today would not be possible without the help of so many. And so to our families, our professors, our mentors, and our friends: In case we have forgotten to adequately say it over the past four years, thank you!”

Mooney noted the caliber of the Neag School, known “as one of the nation’s top education schools.”

She talked about her own experience getting into UConn, where she knew she belonged. She was accepted, but only after a few agonizingly slow months of being wait-listed. The experience, she said, was a reminder to never let anyone tell her no. “You must fearless commit to your goals and pursue them with a relentlessness that others cannot, or are not, willing to match,” she said.

Mooney concluded her remarks with the encouragement to “change the classroom, change the game, and change the world.”

Faculty Honors
In addition, Neag School associate professor Lisa Sanetti was recognized with the University Teaching Fellow Award. Each year, the University of Connecticut honors a select number of faculty members across the institution with its most prestigious award recognizing excellence in teaching at UConn.

Del Siegle, professor and head of the Department of Educational Psychology, presented the award to Sanetti.

“Dr. Sanetti has proven herself as an exceptional teacher and mentor,” Siegle said. “She is described by her colleagues with such words as ‘caring,’ ‘visionary,’ and ‘superstar.’”

“Meanwhile, her teacher evaluation scores are outstanding in every course, and in fact numerous students have been known to say that she is one of the best teachers they have had at UConn,” he added. “Her students call her ‘organized,’ ‘supportive,’ ‘thorough,’ and ‘one of the most dedicated teachers and mentors I have met.’ ”

Each set of graduates, along with their family and friends, was treated to a reception at the Gentry Building, offering a time for celebration and reflection.

Watch a slideshow from the May 9 event here. Access a slideshow from the May 10 event here.

View the Neag School of Education Undergraduate Commencement video here.

Neag Students Reflect on the Impact of Alumni Scholarship

Posted on May 6, 2015November 26, 2024 by Shawn Kornegay

Neag School of Education Alumni Society President Lou Ando (pictured on the right) gathers with Hiba Sarfraz and Brooke Mazzarella during the Honors Celebration where they were recognized for the scholarship.

Through UConn’s Neag School of Education, individuals who hold a bachelor’s degree and who are interested in teaching can earn in one year a master’s degree and teaching certification through our accelerated, full-time Teacher Certification Program for College Graduates (TCPCG). Thanks to Neag Alumni Scholarship support, two new students join the program this summer.

Brooke Mazzarella is starting in TCPCG at UConn’s Greater Hartford location, focusing on secondary English. She is a former paraprofessional in the Clinton Public Schools and a member of the whale enrichment team at Mystic Aquarium. Hiba Sarfraz also begins this summer, focusing on biology at the Greater Hartford location. Sarfraz previously served as a reading/math tutor and special education paraprofessional at East Windsor Middle School.

Q: What does receiving the Neag Alumni Scholarship mean to you?

BM: It is such an honor to be awarded the Neag Alumni Scholarship. I’m jumping back into school after being out of the game for 11 years. Being awarded the scholarship gave me confidence in knowing I can do this. It’s exactly where I want to be and will allow me to achieve my goals.

HB: This scholarship is a great honor for me. It is a symbol of my hard work and dedication, showing that the efforts paid off. It is also a huge help toward my fee bill since I will be depending on loans to complete my master’s program. It will allow me to pursue my career and help with my family’s financial responsibilities.

Q: What are your plans for the scholarship?

BM: I will use the scholarship to help offset the cost of school. Attending school full time means I will not have a steady income, so any help is greatly appreciated.

HB: My plans for this scholarship are to apply it towards my fee bill and help pay for my master’s program. It lowers the amount that I have to take in loans and reduces my burden while attending school.

Q: How will the scholarship help you achieve your goals?

BM: The scholarship has alleviated some of my financial stress of returning to school. The scholarship will allow me to stay focused on school. It is also a great reminder of why I am here. This education will give me the tools to obtain my dream job as a teacher, which will in turn give me the life I want for me and my kids.

HB: This scholarship will help me achieve my goals by providing me financial assistance so I can focus solely on my program instead of thinking about my student loans. It is removing a huge barrier off my shoulders, thus making it easier to obtain my education.

Q: What are your plans after graduation and why do you want to pursue that field?

BM: My plan after graduating next May is to secure a job as a high school or middle school English teacher. I’ve always had a passion for reading and writing. I want to spark the imagination of my students by allowing them to get lost in a novel or express themselves through prose.

HB: After graduation, my plan is to apply for positions related to my content area of teaching. I want to pursue this field because teaching is my passion and science is my background. I have many years of experience working in a school setting with students, which has made this an affirmative decision.

Thank you to all of those who have supported students like Brooke and Hiba. We greatly appreciate your support with helping our future educators! Do you want to make a difference? Please join us and make a gift today! Visit the link for the Neag Alumni Society Endowed Scholarship Fund. For more information, please contact Heather McDonald at hmcdonald@foundation.uconn.edu or 860-486-4530. To learn more about the Neag School’s TCPCG program, visit s.uconn.edu/TCPCG.

‘Excellence Gap’ Robs Talented Students of Their Potential

Posted on April 20, 2015February 16, 2023 by

Even after being identified as high ability, low-income students often fail to achieve at high levels, or backslide as they progress through school, according to a new study co-authored by UConn education professor Jonathan Plucker. (iStock Photo)

While conventional wisdom may hold that academically gifted students can take care of themselves in school, a new report co-authored by UConn professor of education Jonathan Plucker reveals a starkly different story.

High-achieving students from low-income households are lagging far behind their wealthier peers in schools across the United States; and this situation has created an expanding “Excellence Gap,” according to the report, that is robbing the country of an abundance of talent and knowledge, undermining low-income students’ chances for social mobility, and impacting the nation’s future economic prosperity.

“The vast majority of our most talented students come from upper-income, economically secure circumstances,” the report states. “Economically vulnerable students, recently estimated to be roughly half of our public school population, rarely achieve academic excellence. Worse, after they are identified as high ability, they often fail to achieve at high levels, or even backslide as they progress through school.”

The report, titled “Equal Talents, Unequal Opportunities: A Report Card on State Support for Academically Talented Low-Income Students,” was funded by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, a national non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the education of exceptionally promising students who have financial need. Jennifer Giancola, the Cooke Foundation’s director of research, served as a co-author. UConn seniors Grace Healey and Daniel Arndt, both currently studying teaching, and Chen Wang, a graduate student in UConn’s Cognition, Instruction, and Learning Technology program, also worked on the project.

Plucker, a Raymond Neag Endowed Professor of Education at UConn, is a nationally recognized expert on education policy and talent development, and has done extensive research on programs for the talented and gifted.

“We started out looking to see how much attention state policymakers are paying to low-income, high-ability students,” says Plucker, who is affiliated with UConn’s Neag School of Education. “What we found was that there is very little attention being paid. It just doesn’t seem to be on state policymakers’ radar screens.”

“We must reverse the downward trajectory of these students’ educational achievement not only to improve their lives, but also to strengthen our nation.”

—Harold Levy, Jack Kent Cooke Foundation

The researchers gathered data from every state and the District of Columbia, in an attempt to learn what states are doing to address the needs of advanced students; what practices are in place; and which interventions appear to have the greatest impact. The team then scored the results for 18 indicators, representing nine state-level polices and nine specific student outcomes.

The team found that overall, the data reflects a public education system that does not appear focused on high-performing students and is unaware of the inherent discrepancies that exist between high-achieving students from families at different income-levels. Lacking access to enriched academic opportunities, individualized lesson plans, and the kind of counseling provided to wealthier students, high-achieving, economically vulnerable children are becoming what one researcher has called “a persistent talent underclass.”

“It is a story of demography predetermining destiny,” the report says.

Findings

The report found:

In most states, attention to advanced learning is incomplete and seemingly haphazard. Patchwork services appear to primarily benefit students in wealthier districts.
Individual states’ performance appears to be influenced more by the wealth and ethnicity of their students than any singular policy initiative to help high-performing, economically vulnerable students.
While some states had impressive outcomes, no state had impressive outcomes for economically disadvantaged students. Massachusetts, for example, leads the nation with 18 percent of its students scoring advanced on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test for Grade 8 math assessment. But only 6 percent of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch scored advanced, while 26 percent of non-qualifying students did. The report called the 20 percent gap “staggering.” Similar disparities were found in numerous other states.

The goal of the project was to bring the discrepancies in support for high-ability students to the forefront and to encourage state policymakers to begin taking steps to rectify the situation.

The number of high-achieving children impacted by the lapse in support is alarming, advocates say. Current statistics show that low-income students account for 51 percent of all students in the United States. About 3.4 million K-12 children residing in households with incomes below the national median rank in the top 25 percent academically. More than one million K-12 children who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch rank in the top quartile academically; in other words, there are about 80,000 very smart, very poor students per grade.

Figure 1 from the report ‘Equal Talents, Unequal Opportunities: A Report Card on State Support for Academically Talented Low-Income Students.’

“Our education policies ignore some of our brightest students who happen to come from low-income backgrounds,” says Harold Levy, the Cooke Foundation’s executive director. “They need our help. They deserve our help. The potential that is lost year after year due to benign neglect of our brightest students damages our nation’s global competitiveness. America must do better.”

Some states have already started moving in the right direction by appointing high-level state officials dedicated to improving programs for the talented and gifted, Plucker says. But much more needs to be done.

Plucker acknowledges that local school officials have limited resources and the driving concern of late has been reducing the academic achievement gap – which refers to the disparity in academic performance between groups of students, particularly the gap in performance between African-American and Hispanic students and their non-Hispanic white peers, as well as performance gaps among students from low-income families and their wealthier peers. But Plucker doesn’t see addressing the achievement gap and the excellence gap as an ‘either/or’ issue.

“We’ve looked at a lot of other countries who don’t see it as an either/or issue,” Plucker says. “The excellence gap is about equity AND excellence. So why not do what other countries have done and try to do both? I think there are things we can do now, especially with all the new technology available, to individualize the progress of every student through school. Twenty years from now, we’re going to look back and say, ‘Why weren’t we doing this sooner?’”

Recommendations

The report makes four specific recommendations, which Plucker says are easy to implement and cost effective.

Make high-performing students more visible by requiring local school districts to collect data on gifted and talented students, their income levels, and performance over time.
Remove barriers that prevent high-performing students from moving through coursework at their own pace. Require school districts to allow early entrance to kindergarten, acceleration between grades, dual enrollment in middle and high school (with appropriate credits given), and early graduation from high school.
Ensure that all high-performing students have access to advanced educational services by mandating services for talented and gifted pupils, expanding teacher training, and increasing classroom opportunities.
Hold local school districts accountable for the performance of all high-ability students by inserting accountability measures for gifted student performance in state public education systems.

“We must reverse the downward trajectory of these students’ educational achievement not only to improve their lives but also to strengthen our nation by unleashing the potential of literally millions of young people who could be making great contributions to our communities and country,” the Cooke Foundation’s Levy says. “Sadly, even though our society has a stake in ensuring that high-achieving, low-income students complete their education and compete for higher-paying jobs, our nation largely ignores these students, as they are absent from policy discussions. This must change.”

The full report Equal Talents, Unequal Opportunities: A Report Card on State Support for Academically Talented Low-Income Students can be found at excellencegap.org

Spring Symposium Brings Together Ed.D. Cohorts to Share Research

Posted on April 20, 2015December 9, 2016 by

Second Presenter at Ed Symposium 2015 — Mike Vose ’15, Ed.D., presents at the April Ed.D. Research Symposium. (Photo Credit: Brianna Ricciardone)

Through its Ed.D. program in educational leadership, the Neag School seeks to develop professional educational leaders with the skills they need to take an active role in leading school improvement and advance educational outcomes for children and youth – particularly in underserved areas across Connecticut.

In celebration of the Neag School’s most recent Ed.D. cohorts, the Department of Educational Leadership this past April hosted an Ed.D. Research Symposium at the Gentry Building that drew Neag School students, faculty, and staff, as well as guests from across the state. The event provided members of the 2013 cohort with the opportunity to share findings from their qualitative pilot projects, while members of the 2011 cohort were also invited to discuss their capstone research.

The Ed.D. program, which draws on four interrelated areas – policy; social justice and equity; leadership; and organizational and adult learning – requires students to complete a capstone project that involves framing their problem of practice, engaging in empirical inquiry on the topic, and developing a set of recommendations that will contribute to the field on the issue.

Those members of the 2011 cohort presenting their capstone research at the April event were Cate Carbone ’15 Ed.D., a central office administrator in Hartford Public Schools, and Mike Vose ’15 Ed.D., an assistant principal at Killingly High School. Both graduated this May.

In addition, members of the 2013 cohort shared preliminary findings from pilot project studies they had conducted this past spring semester as part of the Qualitative Methods course taught by Sarah Woulfin, assistant professor and Ed.D. program director. Each pilot project involved collecting independent data – through interviews with teachers and principals, for instance – as well as observing professional development sessions, principal work practices, and teachers’ professional learning community meetings. Students’ pilot projects addressed a wide range of topics in the field of educational leadership – from teachers’ perceptions of effective elements of professional development to university administrators’ framing of test score use in teacher preparation programs.