U.S. News & World Report released its annual national rankings of graduate schools of education on March 10, with the Neag School of Education ranking No. 31 in the nation, up two slots this year from No. 33.
Among public graduate schools of education, Neag ranks at No. 21, up from No. 24. University of California, Irvine, also a public institution, is tied with the Neag School.
The 2016 U.S. News rankings also ranks several of the Neag School’s specialty programs among the top in the nation:
Special Education, No. 14
Educational Psychology, No. 16
Educational Administration and Supervision, No. 18
The methodology used for the U.S. News rankings of specialty programs differs from overall rankings, in that the former are based solely on nominations by education deans and education school deans of graduate studies.
“While there are a number of different types of rankings systems in use today, we remain incredibly proud of the strength of our programs here at the Neag School and of the recognition we have received in the latest U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate Schools rankings,” says Dean Richard Schwab. “Our current standing within these rankings demonstrates the talent and level of productivity of our faculty as well as the high caliber of students we are attracting each year, and we will continue to dedicate ourselves to excellence across each of our programs.”
Graduate education programs at 357 schools granting doctoral degrees were surveyed in the fall of 2014; 253 responded, and 246 provided data needed to calculate rankings based on 10 specific measures, including student selectivity and research activity. Complete information regarding U.S. News rankings methodologies for 2016 can be accessed here.
For a complete list of the 2016 U.S. News & World Report rankings, visit usnews.com/colleges.
More than 2.5 million students attend an estimated 6,400 charter schools in 42 states, with the number of these “independent public schools” — as President Barack Obama called them in his National Charter Schools Week proclamation last year — increasing dramatically. For the 2013-14 school year, more than 600 new charter schools opened their doors nationwide, while 70 more are slated to open in North Carolina alone.
But as the charter school model of education grows, so does the likelihood for fraud and mismanagement. In just the past 18 months, operators of charter schools in at least 10 states were charged with embezzling funds, failing to report suspected child abuse, and committing fraud through such practices as having staff enter lunch codes for meals not eaten. At one New Jersey charter school, it was discovered that only 25 percent of employees had undergone the federal criminal background checks required to work with schoolchildren, while another failed to provide the special education services state and federal law require. Another charter school in Florida charged the state $101,000 for students who never attended. This past fall, the New Mexico State Auditor’s office discovered that two Albuquerque charter schools paid more than $1 million to a private company owned by the schools’ top administrator and another school official.
“This is not the first time an industry has outgrown its regulatory safety nets or realized it was operating without the regulations needed for true public accountability.”
—Preston Green, John and Carla Klein Professor
of Urban Education, Neag School of Education
Charter school proponents have argued that these and similar ethical and criminal violations are isolated issues of mismanagement performed by “rogue” operators who do not represent a systemic problem. However, recent research indicates incidents of charter school failure, deceit, and misconduct may be more common than people think. For naysayers, the “Charter School Vulnerabilities to Waste, Fraud and Abuse” report issued last spring by the Center for Popular Democracy and Integrity in Education well illustrates how waste, fraud, and dangerous conditions have led to charter schools losing or misusing more than $100 million in taxpayer money.
Charter school reform must become part of the overall education reform efforts taking place in our country right now. It is the only way to ensure that all students, in all schools, are being provided with the academics, atmosphere, and opportunities needed for their future success.
This is not to suggest that charter schools should not exist. There is a real need in education for the type of innovation and progress that well-conceptualized and well-managed charter schools can provide. Their design to serve as a place for educators to explore new teaching methods that could one day be used to improve public schools is also a good one.
It also makes sense that, as hybrids, charter schools should be allowed some flexibility and differentiation regarding oversight and regulations. But they should not be allowed to be public for funding, but private for reporting purposes. The establishment of regulations that require financial transparency and oversight by state government bodies independent from the education management organization running a charter school should be non-negotiable.
Independent charter school boards and charter school authorizers should also be required to receive the training needed to review charter contracts effectively. This will give them the ability to act as watchdogs against fraud and mismanagement, preventing the kind of scathing reports of poor academic performance and misuse use of funds.
This is not the first time an industry has outgrown its regulatory safety nets or realized it was operating without the regulations needed for true public accountability. The banking industry is still struggling with accountability issues. So perhaps it is not surprising that the reaction to the charter school fraud and mismanagement uncovered thus far has also been slow, unsystematic, and reactive.
Families and communities should not have to wait until more students have been harmed, or millions more in taxpayer dollars stolen or lost, before these regulatory problems are addressed. Increased transparency, monitoring of services, standards for school operators, and public reporting requirements are all overdue.
The public deserves common-sense laws that protect their children and tax dollars from incompetent or unscrupulous charter operators. Debate taking place in legislative halls should not be whether or not to regulate the industry, but how, and how soon.
Preston Green, JD, Ed.D., whose research has focused on legal issues related to charter schools, is the John and Carla Klein Professor of Urban Education at UConn’s Neag School of Education, as well as a professor of educational leadership and law.
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Faculty, alumni, and guests will gather to formally recognize the achievements of some of our outstanding graduates. Our award recipients include educators and professionals who have made significant contributions across all professions:
The Outstanding Early Career Professional isAshley M. Combs, ’14 MS in sport management, executive assistant to senior vice president, basketball & client services manager, at Excel Sports Management in Beverly Hills, Calif.
The Outstanding School Administrator isPeter M. Dart,’09 6th Year in educational leadership, principal of Environmental Sciences Magnet School at Mary Hooker in Hartford, Conn.
The Outstanding School Superintendent isWilliam J. Hull, ’79 BA in history/ secondary education, ’86 MA in education, and ’06 executive leadership certificate, superintendent of Putnam Public Schools in Putnam, Conn.
The Outstanding Higher Education Professional isJack F. McManus, ’69 Ph.D. in educational psychology and evaluation, professor of education at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif.
The Outstanding Professional isSusan M. Baum,’85 Ph.D. in special education, director of the 2e Center for Research and Professional Development at Bridges Academy in Studio City, Calif.; co-director of the International Center for Talent Development; and professor emeritus at the College of New Rochelle in New Rochelle, N.Y.
The Distinguished Alumnus is John J. Connolly, Ed.D., ’63 MA in education, president and chief executive officer of Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. in New York, N.Y.
Come and bring others with you to honor your colleagues and friends who are so influential in the field of education. The evening begins with a reception at 5:30 p.m. followed by dinner at 6:30 p.m. Attire is business formal. No-host bar. The cost of the dinner is $60 per person. Reservations can be made by visiting www.regonline.com/neagalumniawards2015 or by calling University Events & Conference Services at (860) 486-1038 by Monday, March 16, 2015. For additional questions pertaining to the evening, please contact Robyn Wilgis at (860) 486-6044 or robyn.wilgis@uconn.edu.
Representative Fleischmann shares education policy updates with the State. (Photo credit: Shawn Kornegay, Neag School)
The Neag School of Education’s Center for Education Policy Analysis (CEPA) hosted “A Conversation with Representative Andy Fleischmann” this past November at the Storrs campus. As the chairman of the Education Committee of the Connecticut State Assembly, State Rep. Fleischmann (D-West Hartford) spoke about the future of education in Connecticut schools and how education policy research could better inform policy making in Hartford and beyond.
Hosted by CEPA, this was the first time Fleischmann was invited to the Neag School of Education since he assumed office in 1995. As a major advocate for children and education, Fleischmann has worked on the state and national levels to help ensure that children are receiving the highest quality of education through research and policy implementation.
“One of the things that I would love to come out of this dialogue would be ideas, research, facts, and concepts about what Connecticut can do to make sure it has the most effective teachers, most effective principals, and the most effective superintendents,” Fleischmann said at the event.
“Neag is really trying to jump-start into being the center of policy analysis, and we want to move it into a new realm of influence,” says Morgaen Donaldson, Neag associate professor of educational leadership and the director of CEPA, which works with educational leaders and policymakers on issues related to the development, implementation, and consequences of education policies. “Fleischmann is one of the most influential policymakers in the state. To us, inviting him was a clear choice,” she says.
Audience members share thoughts and questions for Rep. Fleischmann. (Photo credit: Shawn Kornegay, Neag School)
Faculty from Neag and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, as well as local citizens, current undergraduate and graduate UConn students, and even area high school students visiting the University filled the seats.
Ensuring Academic Excellence
Fleischmann spoke at length about developments following the midterm elections and how they will impact schools. He said that it is important for educational researchers to conduct relevant research to support policy changes and new initiatives. Given the recent federal level and statewide elections, he also questioned how policymakers will implement the new actions based on the educational research available.
Fleischmann said that, since 1995, Connecticut has put excessive amounts of money into school readiness programs across the state without conducting any longitudinal studies to gauge the effectiveness of these programs. He said that there should be more communication and more partnering to achieve that success.
“Ideally, we should get new people in the room and have the right type of data collected for longitudinal study designs. This way, we won’t continue to wonder, ‘Gee, how did it go?’ but rather, we will be proactive about these studies,” Fleischmann said.
Given the strong connection between education and politics, Fleischmann emphasized that research from schools such as UConn is essential to policymaking in Hartford. If teachers wanted to see something changed in the classroom, it would first have to begin with some kind of research to show why changes need to be made, he said.
“The No. 1 factor for a student excelling is the quality of the teacher; the second is the school leader. Wouldn’t it be neat for us to figure how to implement the best policies to ensure academic excellence?” Fleischmann said.
CEPA plans on having other key figures come to the Neag School for further discussion on education research and policymaking. In the upcoming semester, Donaldson says she hopes to invite other state representatives as well as members of the Connecticut Education Association, Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents, and similar groups.
“I hope that by bringing in researchers to talk to us about their research on policy creation and implementation, it will foster a community of like-minded individuals who can make a change,” Donaldson says.
Students in the ELP program listen to a discussion on superintendent leadership trends. (Photo credit: Shawn Kornegay, Neag School)
The Neag School of Education’s Executive Leadership Program (ELP) is hosting an information session on Tuesday, March 10, from 3:30-4:30 p.m. at the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents (CAPSS), located at 26 Caya Ave. in West Hartford.
The 13-month ELP prepares prospective superintendents and other district leaders to meet the challenges of 21st-century district leadership. More than 50 current Connecticut superintendents have participated in the program.
“We encourage principals and district leaders with an established record of effective school or program leadership to consider this program. We continue to make a special effort to increase the diversity in each year’s ELP cohort,” says Robert Villanova, associate research professor and ELP director.
The program’s goals include providing prospective superintendents with the background and knowledge necessary to meet the challenges of 21st-century superintendency; providing course work and structured clinical experiences that prepare participants to demonstrate mastery of the Connecticut School Leaders Standards; and preparing participants for a UConn Institutional endorsement for the Connecticut 093 superintendent certification.
“The Neag School of Education’s Executive Leadership Program is highly regarded by school system leaders in Connecticut,” says Joseph Cirasuolo, executive director of CAPSS. “A very high percentage of graduates of the program go on in their own right to be highly effective school system leaders. … Anyone who aspires to school system leadership should give serious consideration to enrolling in the program.”
“The Executive Leadership Program – through both the academic work and the internship experience – provided me with a broader lens and enhanced skill set to cultivate teaching and leadership throughout the school system,” says Karen Baldwin, a superintendent in Ridgefield, Conn. “It provided me with a synthesized and coherent view of the role of the superintendent, which informs my leadership practice today.”
Wolcott Superintendent of Schools Joseph Macary calls ELP “the best professional learning experience” in his educational career.
“Not only does it prepare you to be a superintendent, the program and the full-year internship in particular provides you with the district leadership insights from multiple perspectives to be a successful district leader,” Macary says. “I continue to refer to course resources and build on the collegial relationships from the Executive Leadership Program in my work today.”
Elaine and Eleanor Demarjian visited UConn for the first time in 50 years this past fall. (Photo credit: Shawn Kornegay, Neag School)
Twins Elaine and Eleanor Demarjian (’64 MA) have traveled the world together. Having visited more countries than they can count, they prefer to list the places they have not seen. One of their favorite trips was not to some faraway land, but to UConn, to which they recently returned for the first time in 50 years.
“The whole layout of the campus, all the changes that were made, really surprised us. The expansion of the University is remarkable. It truly overwhelmed us,” Eleanor says.
Although this trip was their first time visiting the University in half a decade, that has not stopped the Demarjian twins from donating generously to the University for many years. Their trip to UConn in August was the first time they were able to see firsthand how their donations have made an impact.
“We’re glad that our support will provide some life-changing results for the future students coming in. That idea spurred us on to support the school even more so. We try to give as much as we can,” Elaine says. “We have always considered ourselves to be very lucky to have been a part of this University.”
“When Neag came into existence, we supported it and just embraced its goals and ideas completely. We knew that this School could do great things for students, and we were happy to see that we were right,” Elaine says.
Full Circle
Elaine and Eleanor, both Rhode Island natives, were working as teachers at different schools when they first heard about the University of Connecticut graduate education program in the Neag School. The principal of the elementary school where Eleanor taught approached her one day and insisted that she apply for the master’s degree program at UConn.
“He had two application forms – one for me and one for Elaine – and urged us to fill them out. I wasn’t really sure I wanted to do this, and he could tell I had my doubts. I guess the principal got into cahoots with another teacher and locked the doors of the school. They wouldn’t open them until I filled out the application,” Eleanor says, laughing.
“I am very happy we filled out that questionnaire. We never regretted it for a second,” Elaine says.
While the trip from Rhode Island to Connecticut was lengthy, their car rides to and from class provided the sisters ample time to review for exams, debate topics, and think of new questions to ask their professors.
“It took us 3½ years to get our degrees. We’re the type of people who don’t give up. Once we start a certain thing, we go all the way,” Eleanor says.
Upon graduation from UConn, Elaine’s and Eleanor’s teaching careers came full circle as they both taught English at Woonsocket Middle School, the school they had attended themselves as children. While their students had no trouble telling them apart, the adults had a much harder time.
“The principal of the school could not tell us apart at all. Even to this day he still has trouble!” Elaine says.
“Working at the same school was an enjoyable experience because we were able to practice some of the ideas we picked up from UConn. We took what we learned and had some fun with it. One summer, Elaine and I decided to do team-teaching. We developed an advanced curriculum for the better-than average students in grades 5 and 6, and it worked out extremely well,” Eleanor says. “The students were able to go above and beyond and really challenge themselves. It was a really rewarding experience.”
Adventurous Spirit
Since retiring from teaching, Elaine and Eleanor have lived together and kept each other busy by reading, doing crossword puzzles, and volunteering at the local hospital.
“We love to give back to the community. We manage to get out every so often. We don’t sit in front of the TV at all. We are no couch potatoes!” Elaine says.
The twins are currently planning their next trip to Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast, preferring to travel to smaller cities where they can see the culture firsthand.
“We never like to be pinned down, we are constantly on the move,” Elaine says.
And just as the twins applied on a whim to the University of Connecticut many years ago, Elaine and Eleanor continue to live by that same adventurous spirit.
“Whenever an opportunity comes along, we’ll always grab it,” Elaine says.
Ryan Shea ’17 (SFA) steps up to the microphone, while Whitney Andrews ’15 (SFA) looks on, in the Connecticut Repertory Theatre’s production of ‘The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.’ (Gerry Goodstein for UConn)
The history of spelling competition goes back to Elizabethan times, when an English schoolmaster wrote a book that included an exercise in which two students squared off against each other to spell words correctly. In the United States, references to a spelling bee can be found as early as 1850, and over time, such competitions led in 1925 to the establishment of the National Spelling Bee.
Today the National Spelling Bee, which in 2014 had 281 spellers competing in the preliminary and final rounds, is televised by the international sports network ESPN.
As the characters moved through the backstory of their lives in flashbacks during the spelling bee, the theme of competition was ever-present in the setting – a school gymnasium, with its floor lined as a basketball court.
Pros and Cons: Competition in the Classroom
University faculty say that competition in the classroom and on the playing field can provide many lessons to students, although it may have a downside for some.
“The positive side is that competition can enhance success, help us to perform better in some cases, where you may not realize you have the resources inside you,” says Adrienne Macki-Bracconi, assistant professor of dramatic arts in the School of Fine Arts. “The competitive spirit drives you to overcome those obstacles. On the other hand, it can provide anxiety, and cause you to underperform.”
Scott Brown, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Educational Psychology and UConn’s NCAA faculty athletics representative, says competition surfaces in many parts of life – for grades, for jobs, for grant proposals, or for a starting position on an athletic team.
“Competition teaches us about motivation,” Brown says. “It drives us, develops a work ethic, because if you’re competing for something, you’re looking around seeing there are other people working toward that.”
He says learning how to cope with failure is as important a part of the competitive process as success. “As teachers we frequently get in front of students and show them the model problem-solver. It’s also important for us to show students – whether undergraduates, K-12, or graduate students – what you do when you fail.”
“It’s important for us to show students … what you do when you fail.”
—Scott Brown,Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor
of Educational Psychology, Neag School of Education
Joseph Renzulli, director of The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented and Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor in the Neag School of Education, points to the role of individual choice in deciding to take part in a competition such as a spelling bee.
“Almost all people involved in competitions choose that area; that’s an important part of it,” says Renzulli. “There’s a difference between football and chorus. That’s an element that doesn’t exist in about 98 percent of school learning. You’ve got to go to math class, and you’ve got to compete in math to get a good grade.”
He adds that another part of deciding to participate in specific competition is that an individual feels he or she has not just an interest in a particular subject, but also a strength in that area.
Learning new skills for a competitive activity that can transfer to other areas of life is also important, notes Justin Evanovich ’04 (CLAS), ’06 MA, ’11 Ph.D., assistant clinical professor of educational leadership in the Neag School who was a member of UConn’s 2004 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship team.
“You’re finding your way through competition, trying to navigate that process and understand yourself,” says Evanovich, who is also managing director of Husky Sport, UConn’s sport-based youth development program in Hartford. In competition, he adds, participants learn to be more self-aware and develop life skills that transfer to everything else they do.
Are Spelling Bees Beneficial?
But when it comes to teaching a child how to spell, is a spelling bee beneficial?
“I look at a spelling bee as something that is apart from the acts of learning how to write and to spell,” says Douglas Kaufman, associate professor of curriculum and instruction in the Neag School and a specialist in reading and writing instruction. “You train and train to do something nobody else in the world can do. But in terms of the actual education of children it’s peripheral, in my mind.”
Kaufman says competitive spellers can be viewed like athletes training for a sport. They learn rules, the nuances of language, and the etymology of specific languages.
“But it’s not something we would bring into the classes in order to make kids better learners,” he says. “We’re looking at spelling as a convention, which is the concept that we all have an agreed upon way of expressing something. Teaching spelling in its own right, decontextualized from the act of making meaning, is not only ineffective, it’s sometimes counterproductive because kids begin to equate spelling with writing. Spelling is at the service of writing, it’s not the be-all and end-all.”
That is why it is helpful for a competitive speller to ask for how a word is used in a sentence: It can be helpful in trying to spell an unfamiliar word. At that moment, Kaufman says, the visual component of writing and spelling comes into play.
“If you are totally afraid of failing, you’re not ever going to attempt it.”
—Associate Professor Douglas Kaufman, curriculum
and instruction, Neag School of Education
“From what kids tell me, they’re looking at the sentence on a little screen in their head so they can see it,” he says. “That context is really important if you’ve been going over words and sentences and you understand the provenance of these words.”
Kaufman agrees that, like athletes, competitive spellers can benefit greatly from their preparation for a spelling bee.
“You have to go in recognizing that complete failure is a viable outcome. If you accept that, you can just plunge in. If you are totally afraid of failing, you’re not ever going to attempt it,” says Kaufman, who competed as a college soccer player. “It’s a cliché, but I think that a lot of joy is in the journey, pushing yourself to the total limit and seeing how far you can go. I don’t expect any of these great spellers to become famous novelists, but they have developed a skill set, an attitude, motivation to overcome real struggle, which will serve them across several venues in their lives.”
A lot has been written about the destructive outcomes of sexism on women but not much on how it affects men. In his new book, James M. O’Neil, UConn professor of educational psychology and family studies in the Neag School of Education, seeks to raise awareness about the perils of sexism for men and boys. Titled Men’s Gender Role Conflict: Psychological Costs, Consequences, and an Agenda for Change (American Psychological Association, 2014), the book covers 35 years of research into how men’s gender role conflict relates to mental health problems including depression, anxiety, sexism, homophobia, substance abuse, and relationship problems.
UConn Today asked O’Neil about his latest work.
Q: What is gender role conflict?
A: Gender role conflict (GRC) is defined as a psychological state in which socialized gender roles have negative consequences on a person. Human qualities are, without question, more healthy and functional than those assigned to men and women by stereotypes that emanate from patriarchal values. Restricted gender roles dehumanize both men and women. Among the multiple effects on men that I explore are success, power, and competition issues; restricted emotionality; restricted affectionate behavior between men; and conflicts between men’s work and family relations. Our capacity to accept new definitions of masculinity and femininity is evolving but painfully slow.
Q: Why is change so slow?
A: Unfortunately, political, economic, and religious factions that want to control human behavior and set society’s priorities according to repressive ideologies endorse restricted gender roles. Before feminism, no collective consciousness existed about the perils of sexist stereotypes that cause GRC. There has been some progress over the years, but even now public awareness appears to ebb and flow based economic realities in our society. My book is a call to action for psychologists and other educators to discuss sexism and educate everyone to the perils of restricted gender roles.
Q: As a society, what can we do to change this, particularly for men?
A: Several things.
Deconstruct masculine and feminine gender roles and redefine what masculinity and femininity mean without using sexist stereotypes. For men’s lives to improve, the misinformation and dubious assumptions that reinforce denial about boys’ and men’s problems need to be exposed.
Humanize men. The greatest obstacle to the change is a failure to see men as full human beings. Previous psychology studies have established that men have been studied not as gendered human beings but as generic persons based on stereotypes.
Expose the denial about men’s problems. More than 300 studies reported in the book provide convincing evidence that boys and men have psychological problems, and that there is a relationship between these problems and masculinity ideology. Most everyone knows males have problems, but society as a whole has been slow to acknowledge it and do something about it. More than 100 years ago, the psychology of men threatened the status quo. Until the 1980s, convincing mainstream psychology to study men had been difficult because patriarchal values dominated psychological theory and research.
Help people journey with their gender roles through psycho-educational and preventive programming and in therapy. Men’s problems can be prevented through therapy and programming in public schools and in higher education. On a personal level, re-evaluating gender roles means looking inward and assessing how masculinity and femininity have both enhanced and restricted interpersonal growth.
Disseminate research on boy’s and men’s gender role conflict to educators and the public. Only a persistent and critical deconstruction of these damaging stereotypes in patriarchal societies can reverse the negative effects of sexism, GRC, and restrictive gender roles in people’s lives.
Create healthy and positive aspects of masculinity. A new direction would be to create positive paradigms of healthy masculinity.
Q: Is this an American problem?
A: International studies have shown that GRC is not just an American phenomenon. New culturally specific measures of GRC are needed to fully capture the nuances of GRC in different countries and with different ethnic and racial groups.
Professor Del Siegle discusses research with two doctoral students, Janice Kooken and Kelly Stewart.
As excited as gifted and talented education Professor Del Siegle is about having the newly formed National Center for Research on Gifted Education (NCRGE) at UConn, he’s even more excited about what its researchers can achieve.
Chosen through a competitive selection process and authorized by the U.S. Congress-revitalized Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Act, the Center was established at UConn in the fall of 2014 with a $2 million grant from the federal Department of Education’s Institute of Educational Sciences to be used over the next two years. If its researchers meet all their benchmarks, the NCRGE will receive $3 million more over three years.
“The only way our country is going to reach its full potential is if we help our children reach theirs,” says Siegle, NCRGE director and head of the Department of Educational Psychology at UConn’s Neag School of Education. “Anything less will lead to mediocre students and a mediocre country. Every student has the right to learn something new every day. Gifted students who aren’t challenged can actually regress and become underachievers, and bright students shouldn’t have to sit and vegetate while they wait for classmates to catch up.”
Providing schools with methods to help prevent these kinds of scenarios is one of the NCRGE’s goals.
A Nationwide Collaboration
Working collaboratively, NCRGE researchers from UConn, the University of Virginia, the University of California – Berkeley and Florida State University will spend the next five years examining how gifted and talented third- through fifth-graders in Colorado, Florida, and North Carolina are taught, paying particular attention to Latino and African students, as well as those living in poverty and other underserved populations.
The four universities proposed to establish the NCRGE and conduct the work together, with Siegle serving as principal investigator. Co-principal investigators from UConn’s Neag School include professors Betsy McCoach, E. Jean Gubbins, and Jonathan Plucker, as well as assistant professors Bianca Montrosse-Moorhead and Christopher Rhoads.
“The only way our country is going to reach its full potential is if we help our children reach theirs.”
—Professor Del Siegle, gifted and talented education,
Neag School of Education, and director of NCRGE
UConn co-investigators are Catherine Little, Neag associate professor in educational psychology, and Joseph Renzulli, who in 1990 established the first national gifted and talented education center and is recognized internationally as a pioneer in the field.
“Because of the dedication and work of the Neag School’s extremely talented faculty, a national center for gifted education has never been located anywhere but UConn,” Siegle added.
Co-principal investigators from partner universities include Carolyn Callahan from Virginia, Frank Worrell from Berkeley, and Yaacov Petscher from Florida State.
Getting Results
“Studies focused on mathematically precocious youth have provided us with important information about gifted students in this discipline, but we know relatively little about the full spectrum of children and adolescents classified as gifted,” says Worrell, faculty director of Berkeley’s Academic Talent Development Program. “We also need real data; concrete research on best practices that we can use to encourage policymakers to provide appropriate resources for these outstanding children and adolescents. Right now, this area is rife with speculation, but short on data and evidence.”
Evidence gathered from the NCRGE project’s testing sets, classroom visits, and other means will be used to determine not just how to best teach and support gifted and high-potential students, but to keep them performing at high levels from year to year. The results will be documented as best practices models for all schools in the U.S. to use, which Siegle sees as especially important.
“Most states, like Connecticut, require that schools identify gifted students. But not every state requires that these students receive additional services,” he says. “Our hope, as leaders in the field, is to show states and schools why gifted services are so important, how to identify students who need them, and then how to implement and sustain them. It’s a daunting role, as well as a great honor.”
Petscher, associate director of the Florida Center for Reading Research, says he is particularly excited –and confident – about the “confluence of skill sets” and wide-ranging expertise of those involved.
“The opportunity to collaborate with so many smart people is always a joy to me in my work,” Petscher says. “There are so many exciting elements to this project.”
Erik Hines, assistant professor of educational psychology in the Neag School of Education, is a specialist in school counseling and college and career readiness.
President Barack Obama recently proposed offering free community college tuition for two years to qualified high school students who could then apply the credits toward a bachelor’s degree at a four-year college or university and use the time to enhance their skills to support the need for a highly trained workforce.
Under the plan, 75 percent of the tuition costs would be absorbed by the federal government and individual states would be responsible for the remaining funds. In order to be eligible for the program, called America’s College Promise, students would need to maintain a minimum 2.5 GPA and attend at least half their classes. The proposed program still needs Congressional approval and funding. But if approved, as many as 9 million students could benefit, each saving an average $3,800 a year in tuition, according to White House estimates.
UConn Today reached out to Erik Hines, assistant professor of educational psychology in the Neag School of Education, a specialist in school counseling and college and career readiness, to see what he had to say about the proposal.
Q: Which high school students may be best served by this program and how will it assist them in improving their education and preparing for a career?
A: Ultimately, America’s College Promise could benefit all students who want an opportunity to improve their career and life opportunities through education beyond a high school diploma. In particular, America’s College Promise will benefit students who may not have the financial resources to attend a four-year school right after high school. This proposal would also be beneficial to first-generation college students and historically underserved students who may feel that “going away” to a four-year college is not the best immediate option after high school, as they may play a significant role in helping their family – from taking care of siblings or parents to contributing to household finances. In addition, some students do not want to place a financial burden on themselves or their families to acquire a post- secondary education; therefore, America’s College Promise will be helpful to students who come from low-income and working-class families who desire an education but need it to be affordable.
Q: President Obama’s initiative is believed to be patterned after a popular program in Tennessee called the Tennessee Promise, where almost 90 percent of the state’s recent high school graduates have applied for a community college scholarship that is paid for using state lottery revenues. Do you think a proposal like this will work at the national level?
A: The America’s College Promise proposal could work at the national level. It is a step in the right direction for greater initiatives to come, as a result of making a post-secondary education accessible to students who may find it unattainable because of financial hardship or lack of resources. The national conversation is moving toward helping all students become college- and career-ready, as well as developing a workforce that is highly educated and highly talented to spur innovative and creative ideas as investments for the prosperity of the United States.
Q: Opponents of the plan say it would be more useful nationally if the federal government reduced some of the complex paperwork required for Pell Grants and if Congress increased college aid funding. What do you think of those other options?
A: The options of increasing funding for college aid and reducing paperwork for Pell Grants are good alternatives should the America’s College proposal not get Congressional approval. However, the America’s College Promise initiative is optimal, because students would not need to be concerned about the rising costs of tuition. The possibility of tuition increases can deter college enrollment and persistence.
Q: Colleges and universities across the country are expanding STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) programs in order to prepare a highly trained workforce for today’s high-tech industries and businesses. Will this program help that effort?
A: The initiative will help prepare students for STEM jobs that require a training certificate or an associate’s degree. Classes at community colleges tend to be smaller and, for some students, more conducive to getting the preparation in STEM courses to help them achieve once they get to a four-year university. The smaller setting may give students a chance to talk and work with instructors more than in a foundational STEM course at a four-year school, where a class size may be too big to get one-on-one assistance from instructors. In addition, industry is also taking an interest in hiring community college graduates for STEM fields. Companies such as Connecticut Light & Power have started partnering with local community colleges toward that end.
Q: Some students entering two-year colleges have struggled with the transition from high school and have needed remedial education to advance their basic skills. The Tennessee program assigns “mentors” to help these students achieve. Others have suggested that these colleges change their teaching approach by offering more online instruction and using class time for personalized support. How important are these extra support services in achieving success?
A: Support services are critical to the success of students. Research has shown that. Access to tutoring, social support, and an environment that is achievement-oriented can positively impact a student’s ability to succeed. Further, a pipeline between high school and community college educators is important to ensure students will successfully make the transition. Community colleges can offer tours to local high school students to get them acclimated and comfortable with navigating the institution, to give them a head start on becoming successful as a college student. College tours can help students identify where student services are located, what programs are offered, and how to access financial and social resources, as well as assist them in identifying a major or program suitable to their interests and talents.
Q: Some advocates have expressed concern that the President’s proposal will subsidize middle- and upper-income students and
A: I understand advocates wanting to ensure that students who do not have the financial resources to attend college remain the priority for this initiative. School counselors, teachers, and administrators and community college personnel can collaborate with each other to properly identify students for this initiative.
U.S. News & World Report released its annual national rankings of graduate schools of education on March 10, with the Neag School of Education ranking No. 31 in the nation, up two slots this year from No. 33.
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