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

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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

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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.
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?

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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

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

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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.
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

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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)
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.’
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

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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.

Accolades: Read About the News and Accomplishments from our Students, Alumni and Faculty/Staff

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104516017-hands-clapping1-300x2001Below are news and notes from our alumni, faculty, staff, and students. We are proud of all the amazing accomplishments by our Neag family. 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.

Sport Marketing undergraduate students competed in the national Washington Media Scholars Foundation Competition on Feb. 11, 2015.

Terra Briody, a track-and-field student-athlete and elementary education major, was recognized at UConn’s annual “3.0 Night” for her cumulative GPA.

Ty McNamee, second-year HESA student, has had programs accepted at two major conferences.

Jon Rizzo, Ph.D. candidate in adult learning, had an article published based on his dissertation, “Patients’ mental models and adherence to outpatient physical therapy home exercise programs” in Physiotherapy Theory and Practice, Early Online.

Current Neag master’s degree student Melissa Thom is the 2015 recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award – K-12 from the National Council for Geographic Education.

Current Neag master’s degree student Christopher Todd, a social studies teacher at Windsor (Conn.) High School, served on a panel with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan at the 2015 Teaching & Learning Conference in Washington, D.C. Todd also currently serves at the Connecticut State Department of Education as a teacher leader-in-residence with the Talent Office.

Alumni

Marc Balanda ’99 and ’00, assistant principal at New Milford High School, takes over as principal at Brookfield High in Brookfield, Conn., this summer.

Josh Brandfon ’07 is chairing a major conference for the National Association of Campus Activities and was recently selected for the doctoral program at the University of Miami.

Rhema Fuller ’08 MA, ’12 Ph.D. took a faculty position at University of Memphis in Memphis, Tenn. Most recently he had been teaching at Alfred State University.

Erin Hagan ’09 Ph.D. is deputy director of a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation national program office in Princeton, N.J., for cultivating a culture of health.

Anne Birge James ’05 Ph.D. is a newly tenured professor of occupational therapy at University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash.

Jordan Maleh ’07 BS, ’09 MA was appointed the director of digital and consumer marketing at Big 10 Network in Chicago, leaving University of Michigan.

Lauren Midgette ’12, ’13 and Paul Griswold ’10, ’11, English teachers at Bulkeley High School in Hartford, Conn., were selected to participate in the Stanford Hollyhock Fellowship program for high school teachers. They are among a select group of highly motivated, early-career teachers who will travel to Stanford University over two summers to gain professional development around urban teaching.

Dorothy Blozie Morrill ’77 was inducted into the South Windsor High School Athletic Hall of Fame. She was a teacher at Lyman Memorial High School from 1973 to 2009 and English department chair from 1999 to 2009. She was very active in student athletics, including being assistant girls’ and boys’ cross-country coach (1979-1987) and head boys’ and girls’ cross country coach (1987-1997). She also coached girl’s Class S State champion Teams for four consecutive years (1987-1990) and girls’ Champions of the Quinebaug Valley Conference for five consecutive years (1987-1991).

Two Executive Leadership Program graduates have moved into new superintendent positions: Jeff Newton ’13 was appointed superintendent in East Lyme, Conn. and Karen Baldwin ’05 was appointed superintendent in Ridgefield, Conn.

Matt Ouimette ’12 was appointed as an admissions counselor in the UConn Admissions Office.

Anita Guardo Satriano ’66 who taught kindergarten for nearly 30 years at the Annie E. Vinton Elementary School in Mansfield, Conn., received the Mary Rosa McDonough Award from the University of Saint Joseph for “outstanding service and distinction in education.” She is a longtime member of Delta Kappa Gamma Society International (DKG), a women’s organization dedicated to education. As chair of its Committee on A Curriculum of Hope for a Peaceful World, Satriano helped develop a curriculum for students in first grade through middle school.

Martin Semmel ’95, ’96, ’03, ’07 was appointed superintendent of Plymouth Public Schools in Plymouth, Conn. Most recently, he had served as principal at Southington High School.

Donna Shea ’11 (master’s degree in adult learning), director of the Connecticut Technology Transfer Center, was awarded the 2014 Women in Transportation, WTS Connecticut Woman of the Year Award for her “exceptional contributions to the transportation industry; [her] role in the implementation of several successful programs; and especially [her] leadership, both [her] efforts in leadership training for others and the example [she] sets every day as a capable professional.”

In memoriam:

Aaron D. Anderson ’87
Diane M. Barrante ’73
Nancy A. Booker ’55
John S. Borg ’73
Teresa D. Brastow ’73
Doris B. Demarest ’49
Joshua P. Eudy ’02
Doris Factor ’53
John P. Granniss ’78
Irving Harris ’50
Priscilla A. Howland ’57
Sara L. LaMont ’11
James Lorello ’58
George A. Mullin ’70
Louis E. Notorantonio ’63
Charles G. O’Brien ’63
Ruth C. Page ’81
Catherine A. Pritchard ’84
Evelyn L. Roper ’56
Ronald J. Schmitt ’61
Richard Silva ’71
Carol A. Taylor ’89
Maureen J. Timoney ’82
James Vendetti ’67
Irene J. Vlahakos ’74
Lloyd B. Wilhelm ’50

Faculty/Staff

Staff from Husky Sport – Danielle DeRosa and Patricia Bellamy – represented the Neag School on the two-way exchange program through UConn’s Global Training and Development Institute (GTDI). The focus of the partnership with the University of the Western Cape is sport-based youth development. DeRosa coordinated the trip through her role with GTDI, and Bellamy attended on behalf of Husky Sport and was paired with a sport-based youth development fellow who came to UConn this past fall.

Husky Sport is again participating in the “Ignite UConn student fundraising competition.” They look forward to defending their 1st place finish during last year’s competition. In addition, Husky Sport received funding from the USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Education Program for $342,526 for 2015.

The New London Renzulli Academy hosted a presentation in March by Gabriel bol Deng and the HOPE for Ariang Foundation for the Academy students, along with invited students from the Science and Tech High School. Deng is a “Lost Boy” of the Sudan. Nicole Waicunas, SEM outreach coordinator with the Neag Center for Creativity, Gifted Education, and Talent Development, who first met Gabriel while she was a faculty member at E.O. Smith High School, coordinated the visit.

Sport Management hosted Doug Ritchart and Matt Moorman, PLB Sports Founders (famous for creating Flutie Flakes), as guest presenters in their undergraduate Sport Marketing class. The students are working on a marketing plan proposal for the company with their new product titled “Husky Heroes” cereal, with Coach Auriemma and Coach Ollie as the endorsers on the box.

CommPACT hosted a Friday Cafe networking meeting in March for community members to talk about an online system to gather information on links among parents and between families and teachers.

Congratulations – Research Excellence Awards

The Office of the Vice President for Research is very pleased to announce the recipients of the 2015 Research Excellence Program (REP) awards. The 2015 REP Neag awardees are:

  • Jennifer Freeman, PI, Educational Psychology, Reducing High School Drop Out by Embedding College and Career Readiness into School-wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports $24,737.
  • Devin Kearns, PI, Educational Psychology, As Children Get Older, Do Long Words Get Easier? Longitudinal Examination of Polysyllabic Word Reading in Elementary-Age Children $23,580
  • Tamika La Salle, PI, Educational Psychology and George Sugai, Co-PI, Educational Psychology, Increasing School Climate and Student Outcomes through PBIS $43,498
  • Rachelle Perusse, PI, Educational Psychology, Melissa A. Bray, Co-PI, Educational Psychology, Erik M. Hines, Co-PI, Educational Psychology, Xaé Alicia Reyes, Co-PI, Curriculum & Instruction, Eliana Rojas, Co-PI, Curriculum & Instruction, Michael Young, Co-PI, Educational Psychology Making STEM Accessible to All Students: Teaching K-12 Students about STEM Careers $25,000.

EDLR faculty and alumni: Jennifer Bruening; Jon Welty Peachey; Justin Evanovich; Rhema Fuller; Cassandra Coble Murty; Vernon Percy; Lauren Silverstein; and Michael Chung published a special issue on managing sport for social change manuscript in Sport Management Review entitled “Managing sport for social change: The effects of intentional design and structure in a sport-based service learning initiative.”

Jennie Bruening is an investigator on the Provost’s Academic Plan grants Tier II submission Collaboratory for Coordinated School and Child Health (CCSCH).

Laura Burton, with co-author and UConn alumnus Jon Welty Peachy ’09, published “Examining the mediating effect of organizational culture in intercollegiate athletics” in the Journal of Intercollegiate Sport. Burton is also now editor of the Journal of Intercollegiate Sport.

Noel Card was selected as the next editor of the Journal of Research of Adolescence, the scientific face of the Society for Research on Adolescence. The journal is second-highest impact factor among adolescent development journals (behind an adolescent health journal), and it is reasonably solid among all developmental psychology journals.

The UConn Office of the Vice President has awarded Milagros Castillo-Montoya a Scholarship Facilitation Fund grant for research for her study entitled, “Higher Education and Student Affairs Administrators’ Learning of Assessment, Evaluation and Research.” Blanca Rincon serves as a Co-PI on this project.

Led by Joseph Cooper, the Collective Uplift (CU) student-athlete holistic development group completed its first semester in existence this past fall and is entering its second semester this spring. Cooper also presented at the inaugural Black Student Athlete Conference at the University of Texas at Austin in January. The title of his presentation was “Excellence Beyond Athletics: Best Practices for Enhancing Black Male Student Athletes’ Educational Experiences and Outcomes.” Cooper’s presentation at this event was cited in Diverse Issues in Higher Education.

Morgaen Donaldson is serving on the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Division A Dissertation Award committee. She was also selected as a recipient of Division A’s 2015 Emerging Scholar Award from AERA.

Morgaen Donaldson and Casey Cobb received the Outstanding Policy Report Award for their report entitled, “An Evaluation of the Pilot Implementation of Connecticut’s System for Educator Evaluation and Development” from the AERA Division L Outstanding Policy Report Award Committee.

Morgaen Donaldson and Dorothea Anagnostopoulos co-presented with another colleague, “How do teachers respond to teacher evaluation? The role of emotions” at the Association for Education Finance and Policy Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. in February.

Shaun Dougherty presented “The Effect of Career and Technical Education on Human Capital Accumulation: Causal Evidence from Massachusetts” at the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness Spring Conference, in Washington, D.C., in March. Dougherty co-presented “Middle School Math Acceleration, College Readiness and Gender: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from Wake County, North Carolina” for the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness Spring Conference, Washington, D.C., March 2015. Dougherty also presented “The Effect of Career and Technical Education on Human Capital Accumulation: Causal Evidence from Massachusetts” at the Association for Education Finance and Policy Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., February 2015.

Shaun Dougherty and Jennie Weiner co-presented “Islands of Improvement?: The Impact of Being Just Labeled as Low-Performing Under No Child Left Behind Waivers” for the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness Spring Conference in Washington, D.C., March 2015. They also co-presented “The Rhode to Turnaround?: The Impact of Being Just Labeled as Low-Performing Under No Child Left Behind Waivers” at the Association for Education Finance and Policy Annual Conference, in Washington, D.C., February 2015.

Preston Green published “The Legal Status of Charter Schools in State Statutory Law,” which was accepted by the University of Massachusetts Law Review. He also spoke on a roundtable at the Children’s Rights Litigation Committee of the ABA, along with moderating a panel during UConn Law School’s Diversity Week. In addition, he co-authored “Cyber charter schools and students with dis/abilities: Rebooting the IDEA to address equity, access, and compliance” in Equity & Excellence in Education. 

Robin Grenier was re-elected to a second term on the Board of the Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD). Grenier presented two papers at the 2015 AHRD Conference in St. Louis: “Autoethnography as a legitimate approach to HRD research: A methodological conversation at 30,000 feet” at the Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD), in St. Louis, MO. She also co-presented “Exploring recent measures of employee expertise for HRD applications” at the Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD), St. Louis, MO.

Joshua Hyman gave a presentation “Data vs Methods: Quasi-Experimental Evaluation of Alternative Sample Selection Corrections for Missing College Entrance Exam Score Data” at the Association for Education Finance and Policy Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. in February.

James Kaufman was a panelist of the 92nd St. Young Men’s and Women’s Hebrew Association on “Genius and Madness.” He also co-authored a new study from the Journal of Family Issues titled “Do You Pursue Your Heart or Your Art? Creativity, Personality, and Love.”

Devin Kearns published “How Elementary-Age Children Read Polysyllabic Polymorphemic Words in the Journal of Educational Psychology. He also co-authored “Orthographic, Phonological, and Morphological Skills and Children’s Word Reading in Arabic in Reading Research Quarterly, along with “Modeling Polymorphemic Word Recognition: Exploring Differences Among Children With Early-Emerging and Later-Emerging Reading Difficulty” in the Journal of Learning Disabilities.

Mark Kohan won AERA’s Division K Outstanding Dissertation Award.

Kim LeChasseur had two grants awarded under CEPA: $20,000 from the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund for “Re-examining data driven collective impact philanthropy from a community location”; and $37,000 from the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving for “Adult Literacy Indicators Project.” She also has written and presented a white paper to the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund titled “Collective impact and the discovery initiative: Extending and problematizing the collective impact model.”

Allison Lombardi co-authored “The Impact of Professional Development on the Quality of the Transition Components of IEPs” for the journal Career Development and Transition for Exceptional Individuals. 

Joseph Madaus was named full-time interim director of the UConn Avery Point campus, beginning on July 1.

Alan Marcus shared the WWII Exhibit designed by the Class of 2014 social studies students (“Snow, Sand, & Strategy: The Impact of Weather and Geography on World War II”) at the Dodd Center during the beginning of the semester.

In recognition of the team’s clinical expertise, UConn was recently awarded a five-year contract to serve as one of 13 evidence-based practice centers supported by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Neag’s Chris Rhoads will serve as the chief statistician.

Lisa Sanetti co-authored with colleagues from other universities, along with Neag doctoral student Austin Johnson, “Is Performance Feedback for Educators an Evidence-Based Practice? A Systematic Review and Evaluation Based on Single Case Research” in the journal of Exceptional Children.

John Settlage co-authored “College Student Persistence in Scientific Disciplines: Cultural and Social Capital as Contributing Factors” in the International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education.

John Settlage and Suzanne Wilson have been chosen as Outstanding Reviewers for 2014 for the Educational Researcher.

Jennie Weiner, Morgaen Donaldson, and Shaun Dougherty co-presented “Studying Up: Regression Discontinuity Evidence of the Effects of Receiving Commended Status Under a Waiver from No Child Left Behind Waivers” at the Association for Education Finance and Policy Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., February 2015.

Sarah Woulfin, book review of Barnett, Shoho, and Bowers’ book School and District Leadership in an Era of Accountability was published in Teachers College Record. She also served on the District Research and Reform SIG’s Dissertation Award Committee.

Justis Lopez – An Exceptional Educator in the Making

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Justis Lopez stops by the Gentry Building before heading to class.
Justis Lopez stops by the Gentry Building before heading to class.

It is his love for – and from – his family that drove fifth-year master’s student Justis Lopez to pursue college and to better himself. Among his biggest influences has been his mother, who worked three jobs to help support him, his younger brother and sister, along with his father, who had been injured on the job.

“She was always there, and my father, too, pushing us to be better people,” says Lopez, a first-generation college student. He recalls his mother advising him: “Go to college and get an education so that you don’t have to work so many jobs as I have to, to work as hard as I’ve had to, to provide for your future and your family.”

Meanwhile, it was his high school teacher Heather (Wohlgemuth) Banas ’03 (ED), ’04 (MA) – a UConn alum – who, he says, inspired him to go into teaching.

“She was my favorite teacher,” Lopez says. “She made learning so much fun and really engaging. I fell in love with teaching, and she’s the reason why.”

Making Connections Along the Way

At UConn, Lopez has taken a leadership role in innumerable activities, from planning and emceeing a recent benefit concert for Windham High School to serving as the student speaker for the Neag School’s 2014 Commencement ceremony.

“I’ve been part of so many amazing things and been inspired by other students doing great things,” he says.

Among the many roles Justis Lopez has had on the UConn campus, he has given spoken word performances during the Neag Alumni Society Awards Dinner two years in a row.
Among the many roles Justis Lopez has had on the UConn campus, he has given spoken word performances during the Neag Alumni Society Awards Dinner two years in a row.

Last year, he got involved with UConn’s Hip Hop Collective, a student-run organization that seeks to empower, educate, and inspire the UConn community through exposure to hip-hop culture. The organization hosts several days of events in the spring, featuring artists, spoken word performers, a documentary screening, and more. Lopez is serving this year as the event’s education chair, where his role centers on connecting the hip-hop community and education – in part by bringing together a daylong education conference in partnership with the Neag School.

“If we could recreate that [excitement] here at … Neag, our home base for education, we can inspire the future educators of the world,” Lopez says of the education conference, which is one way in which he hopes to connect Neag with its partner schools in the community.

‘Someone Special’

Justis Lopez gathers with his social studies cohort during the Neag Social Studies Study Abroad program.
Justis Lopez gathers with his social studies cohort during the Neag Study Abroad program.

His fifth year at the Neag School has also been filled with travel opportunities. At the annual National Association of Multicultural Educators conference this past fall in Tuscon, Ariz., Lopez volunteered for and networked with faculty members, inspiring him to consider pursuing his doctorate and a possible career as a professor. The opportunity came through Justis’ connection with assistant clinical professor Mark Kohan, who calls Lopez “a catalyst for rethinking what is possible in classroom and schools. “He is a bridge-builder, not only between schools and communities, but also among students and educators from all walks of life,” Kohan says.

Meanwhile, his participation in Neag’s Social Studies Study Abroad Program – led by associate professor Alan Marcus – gave Lopez the chance to see Europe, where he visited museums and walked the beaches of Normandy.

“It was incredibly transformative; being able to step outside my comfort zone, learn about life and history through another lens,” says Lopez. A passion for becoming a global citizen, he says, is now something he envisions instilling in his future students.

Lopez’s mentors can clearly see his potential in the field of education. “Justis is one of the most energetic and humble people I know. As a classroom teacher, as a colleague, as a peer mentor, or even as the husky mascot, few people have as much energy and enthusiasm,” says Marcus, who has known Lopez since his freshman year at UConn, when, he says, “Justis walked into my office with his big grin and told me he wanted to be a history teacher. It was clear from that first meeting he would be someone special.”

“I want to … create a community where students feel like they can become whomever they desire.” —Justis Lopez ’14 (ED), ’15 MA

Lopez has also studied closely with Marcus, including following Marcus’ work on the new social studies framework, for which Marcus served as a lead writer. The framework provides the biggest change in social studies instruction in Connecticut in more than 15 years.

Through classes with Marcus, Lopez has become familiar with the new methods firsthand. “Dr. Marcus has been very proactive in preparing us to utilize these new frameworks,” Lopez says. “It has a lot of cool components, like inquiry projects where the students are developing their own projects, and they develop questions. The ending component is really unique in that it has a community-based component where students get involved with the community … It brings a holistic approach to the student.”

Future Plans

For his master’s year, Lopez is also taking part in a split internship between Manchester High School – his alma mater – and Manchester Middle School. At the middle school, he’s working on a “Cool to be Kind” initiative, an anti-bullying project. At the high school, his project focuses on “digital citizenship” in which Lopez is teaching students about “leaving a digital footprint, digital law, how to be digitally savvy, and how to be aware of what you’re posting online.”

Banas, that same teacher who inspired Lopez back in his high school days, is his supervisor on the project.

“Justis truly loves people and sees them for their best qualities, not for their shortcomings,” she says. “This will make him a truly exceptional educator because our kids need teachers who see them for their strengths. I think that Justis will inspire so many of students.”

With graduate commencement around the corner, Lopez has laid a solid groundwork for his future. He will, no doubt, have lots of opportunities from which to choose.

Justis Lopez meets up with the Connecticut senators, Senator Chris Murphy and Senator Richard Blumenthal, during his time in DC.
Justis Lopez meets up with the Connecticut senators, Senator Chris Murphy and Senator Richard Blumenthal, during his internship in DC.

Even as he is interviewing for teacher positions with different school systems across Connecticut, New York City, and Washington, D.C., Lopez has aspirations beyond that as well – with possible sights set on eventually pursuing a position in education administration, whether it is as a school principal, superintendent, or leader in educational policy.

That said, his experiences in school were not always positive, Lopez admits. “I did not have a positive experience with my high school principal,” he says. “I received a lot of push back from our leadership, and I felt the student voices weren’t included enough.”

But, he adds, “the negative experience inspired me to want to change that … I want to become a principal so I can create a community where students feel like they can become whomever they desire. I want to create a community where teachers can lead the classrooms and create this community of people.”

Desi Nesmith ’01 (ED), ’02 MA, ’09 Sixth-Year, principal of Metacomet Elementary School in Bloomfield, has no doubt about what Lopez would bring to such a position. “Justis has the type of personality that kids will be drawn to,” says Nesmith, a 2014 Milken Award honoree. “He has an infectious personality that will immediate connect with both kids and parents. He cares deeply about the profession and those involved in it. When you talk to Justis, his passion for education and kids come through in such a rich and genuine way.”

Marcus also looks forward to following Lopez’s career. “Justis will be a great educator because he is passionate, driven, and because he cares,” he says. “He really wants to make a difference in society. This passion keeps him focused on his goals. He is always asking questions to learn more. He will learn from his students as much as they learn from him – and that is the mark of a good educator.”

Video of Justis giving a spoken word performance during the Neag Alumni Awards Dinner.

Neag Alum Named Connecticut School Counselor of the Year

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Vanessa Montorsi attends National School Counselor of the Year ceremony at The White House.
Vanessa Montorsi attends the National School Counselor of the Year ceremony at The White House.

When Vanessa Montorsi ’04 MA graduated from the Neag School of Education with a master’s degrees in school counseling 11 years ago, she never imagined that she would be one of 40 school counselors honored as semi-finalists for 2015 National School Counselor of the Year at a White House ceremony officiated this past January by Michelle Obama. This recognition comes for Montorsi on the heels of also being awarded the 2014 Connecticut School Counselor of the Year.

Montorsi, the director of counseling at Cheshire High School in Cheshire, Conn., always knew that she wanted to find a way to make an impact on students’ lives. After teaching physical education and health during her first four years working in education, she says she wanted to experience the same connections she saw school counselors making with their students.

“I took my interest of connecting with students on an individual basis, my interest in emotional safety, and my passion about the college and career process. When everything added up, it equaled school counseling,” Montorsi says.

Montorsis says her favorite aspect of being a school counselor is the variety of people she is able to work with – from students to parents and teachers. No two days are the same, and her role changes on a daily basis.

“One morning, I will be discussing students who are struggling academically or emotionally; the next day, I will be conducting a junior meeting to help a student plan for life outside of high school. Or, I may be addressing 400 students regarding the course selection process and reviewing the program of studies,” she says.

‘More Important Than Any Test Score’
Montorsi attributes her successful career to the well-rounded education she received as a student in the Neag School of Education. She says she was drawn to the Neag School by the variety of classes offered for graduate students and the positive direction in which the program was headed.

While at Neag, Montorsi was not only able to take classes in school counseling, but also a variety of school psychology courses, gaining skills in testing and data collection that she says have proven to be very relevant in her current profession.

In addition, Neag’s professors, courses, and curriculum created an atmosphere that Montorsi says challenged her and took her outside of her comfort zone. In-class exercises such as role-simulations involved the entire class in watching two students through a one-way mirror “act” out a scenario between a counselor and a student in a K-12 school.

“It was nerve-wracking knowing people were watching your every move, from your body language to verbal communication. However, the experience was priceless and certainly developed me into a better counselor because I learned to use more open-ended questions,” Montorsi says.

Working as a school counselor enables Montorsi to connect with students on many levels, allowing her act as a crutch during times of academic difficulty and a confidant during times of emotional stress.

“I feel our work is significantly more important than any test score,” Montorsi says. “[School counselors] touch the lives of each individual student and provide them with the tools, knowledge, and encouragement to be successful in this ever-changing world.”

Fighting the Good Fight
Montorsi is pleased that after many years of struggling to find recognition in the education world, people are starting to notice the impact school counselors have on the entire education system. Their presence in school plays a vital role in the lives of the students.

Semi-finalists from the National School Counselor of the Year gather at The White House.
Semi-finalists from the National School Counselor of the Year gather at The White House.

Montorsi’s January visit to Washington, D.C. to accept the National School Counselor of the Year semi-finalist award was not only a tremendous honor for her, but also for the entire school counseling profession. In the eight years school counselors have been recognized at the national level, this was the first year counselors were being honored at the White House.

“School counselors were finally on par with principals and teachers, who have been honored at our nation’s capital for years. Except this time, the press conference being held was solely about school counselors and the significant role we play in students’ lives,” Montorsi says.

According to the American School Counselor Association, “the School Counselor of the Year and finalists are judged by a select panel on several criteria: creative school counseling innovations, effective counseling programs, leadership skills, and contributions to student enhancement.”

Montorsi believes that school counselors “need to continue to fight the good fight” and continue to strive for recognition as a major necessity in any school setting.

“Nominating a school counselor for Connecticut School Counselor of the Year goes beyond the much-deserved individual recognition; it signifies the importance of our profession and the need for more school counselors,” she says.

To Montorsi, being recognized as the top school counselor in Connecticut was not about her, but all of the people who work with her at Cheshire High School Counseling Department.

“I know there are many other worthy school counselors who work tirelessly, many with limited resources, to provide outstanding services to students and families,” Montorsi says. “What we are doing works, and people are appreciative of our efforts. However, I am always trying to figure out what I can do better.”