Neag Faculty Breaking New Ground with Support of IES Grants

Posted on September 22, 2014February 17, 2023 by

This year, the U.S. Department of Education’s prominent Institute of Education Sciences (IES) awarded just 48 research grants to United States scholars. Neag School of Education faculty members received three of them.

“The huge number of proposals submitted, combined with the shrinking amount of federal research dollars, made this year’s process highly competitive, so of course we’re thrilled,” said Neag Associate Dean for Research Sandra M. Chafouleas. “Each of these diverse projects also received a significant amount of money.”

Totaling $4.5 million, the three grants will fund:

Exploring the Status and Impact of School-Based Behavior Screening Practices in a National Sample: Implications for Systems, Policy, and Research. The project will examine the relationship between students’ mental, emotional and behavioral health and their education outcomes. Chafouleas, also a professor in Neag’s school psychology program, is principal investigator. Co-principal investigators are two fellow UConn faculty members and a former Neag doctoral student: Betsy McCoach, professor and coordinator of the Neag School’s Measurement, Evaluation and Assessment Program; Jennifer Dineen, director of the Graduate Program in Survey Research for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences’ Department of Public Policy; and Amy Briesch, an assistant professor of counseling and applied psychology at Northeastern University, who in 2009 earned a PhD in Educational Psychology from the Neag School. Over the course of the project, data will be collected from 2,000 U.S. public school districts.

“There’s never been a national study that’s compared the kinds of behavioral screening practices schools have in place, examined whether kids being screened are meeting benchmarks and, if they’re not, looked at what kinds of services these students are receiving,” Chafouleas said. “Our goal is to identify the screening practices that can help identify the kinds of social, emotional and behavioral supports students need for academic success, which we hope will lead to further research and the development of best practices of how to get these supports in place.”

Teaching the Vocabulary of Comprehension: A Technology-Enhanced System to Enhance At-Risk 3rd Graders’ Acquisition and Application of Essential Vocabulary. The study will allow Neag Professor of Educational Psychology and Special Education Michael Coyne to continue his work to improve students’ language and literacy achievement. This new study will develop and evaluate a computerized, interactive vocabulary intervention system that will be responsive to students’ individual needs. Coyne will collaborate with principal investigator Deborah Simmons, professor of Special Education at Texas A&M University, and fellow co-principal investigator Melissa Fogarty, assistant research scientist in Educational Psychology at Texas A&M. They’ll begin their work in Connecticut, partnering with third-grade teachers in the Windsor School District.

“Third grade is a critical time, when students are transitioning from learning to read, to reading to learn–in other words, using their reading skills and vocabulary knowledge to construct meaning from texts across all content areas,” Coyne explained. “Common Core standards also outline rigorous reading comprehension expectations, which means third-graders at risk for reading difficulties need intensive, individualized and responsive support. We believe this system can help these students develop the ‘vocabulary of comprehension’ needed to close the achievement gap and ensure reading success.”

Writing for English Language Learners: Exploring the Relationship Between Writing Instruction and Student Outcomes. With colleagues she met while earning her doctorate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Neag Associate Professor of Bilingual Education Elizabeth Howard will explore both the quality of writing instruction and the quality of writing outcomes among Latino, Spanish-speaking students. “The ability to write well is so important for all of our students, but our emergent bilingual students are particularly in need of high-quality instruction, as such a high percentage are currently performing below basic threshold levels on standardized assessments,” said Howard, who will serve as co-principal investigator along with Linda Caswell, a literacy and education expert at the nonprofit, Massachusetts-based Abt Associates; Mary Avalos, an assistant research professor at the University of Miami; and Maria Brisk, a professor of teacher education in the Lynch School of Education at Boston College. Principal investigator is Mileidis Gort, a former assistant professor at the Neag School, who’s now an associate professor of bilingualism and biliteracy in early childhood at Ohio State University.

They’ll perform their field work in fourth-grade classrooms in Florida’s Miami-Dade County, the fourth-largest school district in the U.S., where almost 20 percent of students are ELLs. “The location allows for a large-scale exploratory study that we hope will lead to the development of new writing instructional interventions designed specifically for emergent bilingual students,” Howard added.

All three projects address areas where information is needed to inform national policies and practices, Chafouleas said. They also serve as excellent examples of how the Neag School is using its strengths and expertise to put its strategic plan into action.

Being a state, national and global leader in how educational policies and teaching methods are developed and implemented is part of that plan. Faculty have also been charged to use their expertise to conceptualize groundbreaking research opportunities, collaborate with other leading scholars, and pursue external funding sources like IES.

The creation of the new position of Associate Dean for Research, which Chafouleas assumed in July, is also key to the advancement of the Neag School. “We have a driven, enthusiastic team at the Neag School, and our investigators represent so many wonderful areas of expertise,” Chafouleas said. “These awards represent examples as to how Neag scholars put our collective expertise together and make important differences in the lives of child.”

Neag School Launches Dean’s Doctoral Scholar Program, Four Years of Full Funding Available

Posted on September 22, 2014November 26, 2024 by

In response to UConn’s university-wide academic plan, the Neag School of Education has established a competitive Dean’s Doctoral Scholar program that will provide fully-funded scholarships to outstanding doctoral students joining Neag in the Fall 2015 semester. In addition to full tuition remission, the students will receive a generous stipend and the opportunity to work shoulder-to-shoulder with proven visionaries and leaders in their field.

The idea for the program was sparked by the Neag School’s academic plan. Named Our Time: UConn’s Neag School of Education Path to Excellence, the plan outlines how UConn is uniquely positioned to use its expertise and knowledge base to address state and federal efforts to reinvent public education for the 21st century and address the educational inequalities President Barack Obama calls “the civil rights issue of our time.” It outlines the school’s momentous push to expand its teaching, research, and outreach missions, all of which are aligned with UConn’s university-wide strategic plan.

The Neag School’s academic vision also stresses areas of expertise ideal for continued growth, including equity and social justice, STEM education, creativity and innovation, and educator quality and effectiveness in K-12 public education. The Dean’s Doctoral Scholar program was founded by Neag School Dean Richard Schwab as a way to provide scholarships to the most talented and competitive doctoral students in these areas.The program is being supported by the Dean’s fund, the Neag School endowment, and by reallocating internal resources.

“One of my top priorities as dean is to raise money for endowment funds that support graduate education,” Dean Schwab said, “and this effort was driven by a need to become more proactive in recruiting and supporting graduate education at UConn and in the Neag School–one of our top priorities.”

“The Dean’s Doctoral Scholar awards will connect graduate students with faculty working on critical research projects in our key growth areas,” said Schwab.

“We are very fortunate to have a visionary Dean who has challenged our Dean’s Scholar Steering Committee to recruit the next generation of educational leaders to come to the Neag School to join a team of researchers addressing the educational needs of the nation and the globe,” said Dr. Scott Brown, chair of the Steering Committee.

“We have dedicated ourselves to recruiting outstanding doctoral candidates to our pool of applicants and to select the very best to be our inaugural cohort of Doctoral Scholars and, most important of all, to prepare them for leadership roles in education,” continued Brown.

Adding to the excitement of the Doctoral Scholar program is that it comes at a time when faculty and students are more invested than ever in pursing expanded research initiatives, program development, and classroom experiences.

“When I was a student here in the late 1970s and early ’80s, I was fortunate to have a graduate assistantship in Educational Leadership that engaged me in research on teacher evaluation and teacher support with my major advisor Edward Iwanicki,” Dean Schwab said. “That experience changed my life and set me on the course of becoming a professor and eventually dean of my alma mater. The blend of mentorship, experience and knowledge-generation that occurs during this aspect of graduate study is, in my mind, the most important aspect of the experience.”

Increased graduate applications and a greater number of matriculated graduate students at the Neag School are among the envisioned results of these efforts. Through external funding, which supports full-time research assistantships in all areas of education, Neag School graduate students are able to receive the highest quality of instruction from world-class professors.

Achieving expanded excellence in research, education, service, and engagement will put UConn on the map as a top flagship university in the nation, Dean Schwab said. It will also provide more opportunities for graduate students in all areas of study, making it a school of choice for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars.

As chairperson of UConn’s overall Academic Vision Committee, Dean Schwab worked closely with respected UConn faculty members from throughout the university to ensure all measures in the plan could be achieved.

“This initiative will elevate our outstanding doctoral preparation programs to even greater heights because of the interdisciplinary nature of the Dean’s Doctoral Scholars program and the many opportunities both within the Neag School and across our campuses,” said Brown.

The Neag School of Education hopes to attract to the Dean’s Doctoral Scholar program dynamic, intuitive, and passionate individuals who wish to continue their education at one of the nation’s leading institutions. Prospective students interested in applying should submit their applications by December 1, 2014. A select group of students will be invited to take part in a hosted visit to UConn shortly thereafter. Acceptances will be awarded in January, with scholars beginning their Neag School journey during the Fall 2015 semester.

For more information, visit the Dean’s Doctoral Scholar program website.

New Faculty Members Join the Neag School

Posted on September 22, 2014December 13, 2021 by

The Neag School of Education recently welcomed new faculty members through its continued effort to elevate the academic and research focus and help transform education.

Dr. Noel Card is an associate professor in the Measurement, Evaluation, and Assessment (MEA) Program of Educational Psychology at the Neag School. His methodological interests include meta-analysis, longitudinal data, and dyadic data. His substantive interests center around social development during childhood and adolescence, especially peer relations, aggressive behaviors, and peer victimization. Card’s work has been funded by NIH, NSF, and other agencies, and it has been published in Child Development, Developmental Psychology, Structural Equation Modeling, and in several edited and authored books (e.g., Applied meta-analysis for social science research; Handbook of developmental research methods).

Prior to joining the MEA faculty in 2014, Noel received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from St. John’s University, completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Quantitative Psychology at the University of Kansas, and spent eight years on the faculty of Human Development and Family Studies at the University of Arizona.

Dr. Erica Fernández is an assistant professor in Educational Leadership at the Neag School. She holds four degrees from Indiana University – Bloomington, including a doctorate in Educational Policy Studies. Her primary research is focused on centering, listening to and sharing the educational engagement experiences of Latin@ immigrant parents, particularly for those living amid threatening and hostile anti-immigrant environments. Critical Race Theory, Latin@ Critical Race Theory, Latin@ Cultural Citizenship and Chicana feminist epistemology theoretically ground her work, while also helping to center the narratives of Latin@ immigrant parents. She hopes that the narratives of Latin@ immigrant parents will help highlight how oppressive institutional policies create barriers for authentic engagement within schools.

Dr. Erik M. Hines is an assistant professor in Educational Psychology at the Neag School. Dr. Hines teaches in the counseling program and prepares graduate students to be professional school counselors. Dr. Hines’s research agenda centers around: (a) African American male academic achievement and college readiness; (b) parental involvement and its impact on academic achievement for students of color; and (c) improving and increasing postsecondary opportunities for first generation, low-income, and students of color (particularly African American males). Additionally, his research interests include career exploration in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) for students of color in K-12.

Hines has secured research funding to study the college readiness and persistence of African American males to improve their academic and career outcomes. Further, Dr. Hines has worked on several grants aimed at increasing awareness of STEM careers for students of color and rural students. His research has appeared in peer-reviewed journals, such as the Journal of Counseling and Development, Professional School Counseling, and The High School Journal. Dr. Hines received his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, College Park in Counselor Education with a concentration in Urban School Counseling. Finally, he has worked as a counselor in various K-12 settings and for the Ronald E McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program.

Dr. Devin Kearns is an assistant professor of Special Education in the Neag School and a research scientist for the Center for Behavioral Education & Research (CBER) at the Neag School. He received his Ph.D. at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Kearns has seven years of classroom experience, working in elementary education as a general-education teacher, literacy coach, and reading specialist. He has also provided professional development and done curriculum design for the National Center on Intensive Intervention, the University of California, Los Angeles, Vanderbilt University, the University of Oregon, the University of Texas, the national teacher program Teach For America, and independent charter school networks. Devin has worked with large and small school districts in urban and rural areas in all regions of the United States and with multiple school boards in Canada.

Kearns’ research focuses on the development of word recognition in children with or at-risk for reading disability. His latest research has focused on how children read polysyllabic words, that is, words with more than one syllable. Older struggling readers have a particularly difficult time with these words, and it is not clear why or how best to help these students. He has conducted research to understand what these words are so difficult and to test interventions to address these issues. In his previous work at Vanderbilt, he worked on large-scale implementation of Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies and developed a beginning reading intervention for first graders.

Dr. Mark Kohan is a teacher educator and assistant clinical professor in the Neag School. Before coming to UConn, Dr. Kohan helped create the Center for Hope & Justice Education at the University of Cincinnati where he served as its director. His work there included grassroots youth and community organizing to support improved schooling, teaching, and teacher education. He worked closely with area schools as well as community and cultural organizations, such as The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, The Center for Holocaust & Humanity Education, and the Cincinnati Reds Urban Youth Academy, to create new educational supports for students and teachers in the region.

His teaching career began as a high school English language arts teacher at a public alternative school in West Virginia. Those experiences, coupled with transformative professional development fellowships with Freedom Writers Institute and the National Writing Project, drive him to develop more inquiry-based and culturally-responsive educational partnerships that support community development and educational change.

Jennifer “Jen” Michno is the clinical instructor and coordinator of the University of Connecticut Administrator Preparation Program (UCAPP) Residency in the Neag School of Education. In that role, she’s overseeing the design and coordination of a residency model Principal Preparation Program to train emerging leaders to assume leadership roles in lower-performing “Alliance Districts” in CT. This work is the cumulative effort of the CT State Department of Education, Neag School of Education and LEAD CT partners, with a focus on strengthening the instruction in all CT schools.

Prior to joining UConn, she was a principal at Elizabeth Green Elementary School in Newington and both an educational administrator and psychologist at the Capital Region Education Council. Jen Michno is currently in the Ed.D. program at the Neag School of Education. She also has a CT 093 Superintendent Certificate, from UConn; a CT 092, Educational Leadership Certificate from UConn; and a Sixth-Year Certificate in school psychology from the University of Hartford.

Neag School of Education to Host 15th Anniversary Celebration

Posted on September 22, 2014July 8, 2022 by

Ray and Carole Neag in a classroom — Carole and Ray Neag are among the most prominent figures in UConn’s 138-year history, next to brothers Charles and Augustus Storrs, who donated the land and funding in 1880 to start the University.

A celebration marking the 15th anniversary of the naming of the Neag School of Education will take place during UConn’s “Huskies Forever Weekend” at the Storrs campus.

Also known as “Alumni Weekend,” Friday, Oct. 24, and Saturday, Oct. 25, will feature an honors ceremony, keynote speaker, panel presentations and a luncheon to commemorate the Neag School and its accomplishments.

“Fifteen years ago, I promised Ray and Carole Neag that their gift would be transformative,” said Neag School Dean Richard L. Schwab, “and our faculty, staff and students have worked hard to make that occur. We have become one of the top 30 public graduate schools of education in the nation, we award close to 175 scholarships a year, we have some of the most talented faculty in the nation, and we generate over $11 million in annual grant productivity.”

Kicking off the weekend will be an Investiture and Medals Ceremony on Oct. 24 at the Konover Auditorium at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, where Provost Mun Choi and Dean Schwab will honor the latest Neag endowed professors and educational psychology professor Scott Brown, who is this year’s UConn Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor–the highest honor given to a UConn faculty member.

On Oct. 25, Brown and endowed professors Preston Green, Jonathan Plucker, Sally Reis, Joseph Renzulli, George Sugai, and Suzanne Wilson will facilitate a series of breakout sessions and panel discussions. Topics will range from exploring current happenings in the field of education and analyzing academic research findings to discussing school culture and teacher-student classroom dynamics.

“These distinguished professors produce scholarship that answers critical questions on a range of educational issues, from literacy to student behavior,” Dean Schwab said. “The celebration is an excellent venue to share this knowledge with alumni, students, practitioners, policymakers and all others who attend. We’re very proud of all we’ve accomplished and the level of expertise we have to impact education’s future.”

RoigBW130711a151 The Neag School is also honored to have Sandy Hook Elementary School first-grade teacher and Neag alumna Kaitlin Roig-DeBellis present the keynote address on Oct. 25. Roig-DeBellis, who earned a master’s in 2005 and a bachelor’s in 2004, saved the lives of her students during the 2012 shooting tragedy at the school. She also created a non-profit organization called Classes 4 Classes that helps elementary schoolchildren provide educational gifts to other classrooms.

Praised as a hero by President Obama and Former First Lady Laura Bush, Roig-DeBellis was named one of Glamour Magazine’s Women of the Year and a “L’Oreal Paris Women of Worth” as one of “10 Inspiring Women Making Beautiful Differences in their Communities.” Roig-DeBellis also spoke at the 2014 Neag School of Education Commencement Ceremony

“Kaitlin is a perfect speaker for the event, as she both benefited from the Neag gift as a student and has distinguished herself as an alum,” said Dean Schwab. “She embodies the spirit, tenacity, and love of students that the Neag School works so hard to nurture.”

After the speaking program on Oct. 25, there will be a group photo of Neag School alumni and current students at noon in the Laurel Hall atrium. Participants will be given a complimentary event T-shirt at check-in and are encouraged to wear their T-shirt for the photo-op.

The event-filled weekend will conclude with a luncheon in the recently revamped Student Union Mall for alumni, faculty, staff, students, and their guests.

The 15th anniversary celebration comes at an exciting time for the Neag School. U.S. News & World Report’s 2014 rankingsagain list the Neag School as the #1 public graduate school of education in the Northeast and #24 among all public graduate schools of education in the nation. It also ranks three Neag School programs in the top 20 nationally.

UConn’s School of Education was renamed to honor Ray Neag in 1999 after he donated $21 million to the school. At the time, his generous donation was the largest gift any school of education in the country had ever received. Mr. Neag also established the Neag Chair in Gifted and Talented Education and the Neag Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development.

“I am a product of public education. My gift to the School of Education is a way to acknowledge and repay what teachers and schools have done for me,” Neag said when he announced his intentions. He described his donation as a “strategic investment” to ensure that the School of Education would become one of the top schools of education in the country.

The Neag School’s recently released “Our Time: UConn’s Path to Excellence” strategic plan was designed to help achieve that goal. Dean Schwab said: “Our plan is to elevate the Neag School of Education to new heights, making it a state, national and global leader in how educators are taught, as well as how educational policies and teaching methods are developed and implemented. This weekend will celebrate both the great things we’ve done, and the great things ahead.”

For more information on the events and to register, visit Regonline.com/neag15.

For Talented High Schoolers, Summer Fun Includes an Academic Challenge

Posted on September 22, 2014November 7, 2017 by

A course in the mathematical field of topology was one of many choices for students in the Neag School of Education’s Mentor Connection summer program. (Peter Morenus/UConn Photo)

For some high school students, summer means a choice between working at a local farm stand or burger joint, or choosing to sleep late and then maybe hitting the beach. But for academically talented students, UConn offers a more challenging option.

The Neag School of Education’s Mentor Connection program attracts some of the nation’s best and brightest high school students to the Storrs campus each July. Once they arrive, they plunge into such diverse topics as nanoparticle-based drug delivery, making memories in the mammalian brain, and the mathematical field of topology – described by Patrick Dragon, assistant professor-in-residence in the Department of Mathematics, as being “like geometry, but squishier.”

Asked why he chose to spend precious summer weeks studying one specialized aspects of mathematics, Nicholas Serrambana from East Hartford, Connecticut and a student at the Classical Magnet High School in Hartford said, “I didn’t see a course offered [in any other program] that would be as obscure yet as important as this one. It’s unique for a high school student to be able to study topology. I can’t tell you exactly what my expectations were, but this program has a college environment, and I feel it has given me the skills to problem solve – to work collaboratively when I need to and also to work on my own.”

Mentor Connection was established in 1996 with the goal of bringing gifted high school students to UConn for a summer program where they would work side by side with faculty, graduate students, and research assistants on current research initiatives. Housed in the Neag School of Education’s Neag Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development, the program has so far reached more than 1,000 students, who have traveled from around the country and even overseas to attend.

Patrick Dragon, assistant professor-in-residence of mathematics, worked with high school students who hailed from as far away as California, during the Mentor Connection program. (Peter Morenus/UConn Photo)

Mira Varma is a rising junior at Greenwich High School in Greenwich, Conn. For her, enrollment was a tossup between a course on the theory of relativity at Brown University, or Dragon’s course on topology at UConn.

“I really wanted to do a summer course,” she says, “and I felt Mentor Connection had fewer kids in class and it offered the opportunity to work closely with professors. I want to become a cosmologist and that involves math and that’s why I came here. I’m really glad I did.”

But it’s not just students who benefit. Dragon, who was voted Honors Faculty Member of the Year for 2013-14, says this is the third year he has participated in Mentor Connection, and every year is both different and rewarding. “The goal of the program is to give these students a research experience similar to what they would get on an undergraduate level in college but while they’re still in high school. The students I have this summer are great, they’re all talented and they all know the [math] terminology fluently, to a degree I would expect from an ‘A’ student. They’re fun to teach.”

As she was wrapping up her three-week experience, Ilana Freeman who attends Dougherty Valley High School in San Ramon, Calif., said, “I took AP calculus [in high school] which is supposed to be college level, but they don’t teach it like Dr. Dragon teaches. He really makes it interesting and challenging at the same time. This has been a great experience.”

Freeman will be making college visits on her way home from UConn. Chances are, this future math major will be using the lessons learned in Mentor Connection when she makes her final selection.

Neag Alum and Best-selling Author Wally Lamb Heads to the Big Screen

Posted on September 22, 2014December 7, 2021 by

Wally Lamb served as executive producer of a forthcoming feature-length film based on his novel Wishin’ and Hopin’, which was filmed locally in Willimantic, Jewett City, and Norwich. (Angelina Reyes/UConn Photo)

Even best-selling fiction writer Wally Lamb ’72 (CLAS), ’77 MA admits he never could have envisioned it: The house in which he spent roughly 16 years penning several of his celebrated novels is now part of a movie set for a forthcoming feature-length film based on one of those books.

Lamb’s fourth book, the comic novella Wishin’ and Hopin’ (HarperCollins, 2008), is the first of his works to be adapted for the big screen. Filmed in Connecticut by Rocky Hill-based Synthetic Cinema International, the movie – slated for limited release across the country later this year – was shot in part just minutes from the UConn Storrs campus, in a quiet, residential neighborhood in Willimantic. There, inside the same unassuming, three-story home where the UConn alum had for many years rented space as a writing sanctuary, his characters will now come to life on film.

Among the stars cast are Molly Ringwald, Meat Loaf, and Annabella Sciorra. Lamb himself will also make a cameo appearance in the movie, playing the role of a school janitor.

“I still scratch my head sometimes and say, ‘How did all of this happen?’” Lamb says. “I have a pretty good imagination, but I couldn’t have imagined a life for myself that has become this cool and this interesting and this challenging.”

Leap of faith

Set at Christmastime in 1964, Wishin’ and Hopin’ tells the story of 10-year-old Felix Funicello, a parochial school student growing up in the fictional town of Three Rivers, Conn. Lamb – who is more well-known for his lengthy, powerful, often heartrending novels – refers to Wishin’ and Hopin’ as his “comic-relief novel.”

“I wanted to try to remind myself that you can walk on the sunny side of the street,” he says of writing the book, which followed The Hour I First Believed, a novel based on the 1999 Columbine massacre.

The lighthearted, nostalgic story of young Felix is not only a departure in style for Lamb, but also a marked shift for the production company Synthetic Cinema, which has traditionally developed horror movies. Yet Lamb says it didn’t take much convincing to get him onboard with the project. Andrew Gernhard, president of Synthetic, is one of Lamb’s former students from Norwich Free Academy, a high school in Norwich, Conn., where Lamb taught for 25 years. Gernhard approached Lamb with the idea for the film.

“I wanted to take a leap of faith with this company, not only because it’s a Connecticut company and because I had personal connections with the producer, but also I wanted to see what moviemaking was like,” says Lamb, who serves as executive producer for the film. “I wanted to study the process, and they invited me into that process.”

Although the movie rights for several of his other novels had been sold previously, none of those deals has yet led to the development of a feature-length film. “Suddenly, this project was a go,” Lamb says. “It’s been a very fast sort of turnaround, and I have nothing but praise for this company, the crew, and the casting of both the major stars and the kids. It’s really been a peak experience for me.”

Bringing the story home

Throughout the 23 days of filming, interacting with the young members of the cast was among the highlights for the former high school teacher and university professor.

“I got along famously with the kids,” says Lamb, who spent time between scenes entertaining the child actors with his skills as a caricaturist. On the cast’s occasional days off, Lamb also took the children and their parents on area field trips – from the UConn Dairy Bar to a Chinese restaurant’s karaoke night, where he joined the children in singing “Wishin’ and Hopin’,” the Dusty Springfield classic after which the book and film are named.

The movie, which wrapped up filming last month, was shot in the Connecticut towns of Willimantic, Jewett City, and Norwich – another source of excitement for Lamb, who was born in Norwich and still lives in Connecticut.

“One of the delightful things for me about this experience was the chance to bring the story back to home port,” says Lamb, who had suggested to the film’s producers the idea of using the house in Willimantic as one of the movie sets. The interior of the house was subsequently transformed into the Funicello family home, and the office in which Lamb wrote the novel Wishin’ and Hopin’ became Mr. and Mrs. Funicello’s bedroom in the film.

“It was kind of surreal,” says Lamb, though he believes the late owner of the home, his friend and former landlady Bernice “Bunny” Bennett, would have approved. “I knew she would have gotten a kick out of using her house,” he says.

With the film now in post-production, Lamb is looking forward to its theatrical release this November. He hopes to have one of the movie’s premieres scheduled at a nonprofit performing arts theater in Connecticut to help raise funds benefiting charitable organizations in the area.

Meanwhile, he continues to write, with work underway on a prequel to Wishin’ and Hopin’, titled Vote for Miss Rheingold and slated for release next year through the publisher eBook Extreme. According to Lamb, this latest work promises to offer a multimedia experience for the reader, incorporating narration and some documentary-style elements, as well as some original filming. Whether or not this will lead to another Lamb cameo appearance, however, remains to be seen.

Three New Graduate Certificates Offer Innovative Ways to Prepare Educators

Posted on September 22, 2014February 17, 2023 by

Click onto the recently expanded Neag Online Programs home page, and proof of the Neag School of Education’s commitment to finding new and innovative ways to prepare the next generation of educators and leaders is clear. The Neag School has doubled the number of online professional development programs it offers to include 12-credit graduate certificates in School Law and Gifted Education and Talent Development, as well as a 12-credit graduate certificate in Leadership and Diversity Management in Sport.

It’s also revised its 12-credit Postsecondary Disabilities Services graduate certificate program, which in recent months has led to inquiries from potential students living as far away as way as California, Texas, Louisiana, Nevada and India.

Coupled with the Neag School’s existing two-summers Educational Technology and three-summers Gifted and Talented Education online master’s degrees, these programs represent two of the of five online master’s degrees and four of the eleven online graduate certificates offered by UConn overall.

“Finding ways to meet emerging needs and providing ways for educators who want to further their professional learning, but can’t come to campus, is part of the Neag School’s overall mission,” said Director of Neag Online Programs Jae-Eun Joo, EdD.

It’s also part of the Neag School’s recently released “Our Time: UConn’s Path to Excellence” strategic plan, which outlines how the school can and will become a state, national and global leader in how teachers are taught, as well as how educational policies and teaching methods are developed and implemented.

Online classes that eliminate geographic or transportation barriers and allow busy professionals a flexible schedule are a significant part of that.

“Online courses and programs turn obstacles into opportunities,” Joo continued, “and make it possible for people who might not otherwise be able to learn from the Neag School’s outstanding faculty, or earn a UConn degree, to do so.”

Discussion boards, blogs and other online learning tools also provide students and faculty members with the ability to have extended and deeper dialogues, capture thoughts, allow ideas to grow over time, and share information in a way that can’t happen in a traditional classroom.

Submitting work online also allows a student to assemble a portfolio of work that they can save and, if desired, share with others. The fact that discussions take place in writing, and that students have the opportunity to read and respond to each others’ ideas, also means that more thought and consider is put into responses, leading to greater leaning. Plus, recent developments in synchronous virtual conference tools such as Skype and FaceTime offer free and easy access to the teacher and fellow students.

Indeed, studies prove that online students tend to be more engaged, Joo said.

“Sit in a traditional classroom with 15-20 other students, and there’s no way to involve everyone in an in-depth conversation. But online, when properly designed and facilitated, it can happen, and it’s not just faculty-to-student conversations, but peer-to-peer. Our faculty routinely tell us that online classes give students the opportunity to delve into issues they’d never have time to explore in the classroom because of the strict time schedule. But online, the conversation is always there.”

The added plus of online documentation and sharing is it allows data to be captured for faculty doing research and connects educators with each other, creating opportunities for networking and ongoing support.

Expanding opportunities for K-12 educators to share ideas and learn from each other is also part of the Neag School’s mission. Agreeing with the need for greater professional collaboration is Connecticut’s State Department of Education, which recently contracted the Neag School to develop a series of online modules for teacher professional development on the new CT Educator Evaluation System, which will be piloted this fall.

It’s a huge opportunity, Joo said, as well as one that well-illustrates what collaboration can achieve. Although her title is “director” of Neag Online Programs, she by no means works alone.

Close collaboration with the eCampus, which provides the central gateway for all online courses and programs at UConn, has been critical in conceptualizing and developing the three new online certificate programs with Neag faculty members. The 13-member Neag Online Learning Committee—consisting of Neag faculty, staff members and eCampus leadership—has aso worked together to develop the upcoming Neag Online Teaching Readiness Survey to assess individual faculty members’ familiarity with online teaching and to collect their particular needs for Neag faculty development.

“The Neag Online Committee worked last year to support the growth of the Neag School’s online offerings, and also to explore additional ways that online strategies can support progress toward the goals in the new strategic plan,” said Professor Jonathan Plucker, PhD, chair of the Committee. “In addition, the Committee has worked to help Neag capitalize on a range of external relationships, with groups such as eCampus and the Connecticut State Department of Education, to collaborate on new programs and initiatives.”

Central to Neag’s online program offerings is the Neag Online Programs website, which in addition to providing students with detailed course descriptions and admissions and registration information, provides Neag faculty with a listing of enrichment seminars, such as how to incorporate iPad and Twitter into teaching. It also provides information about the online course and program development process that eCampus leads.

“One of the key projects this coming year is to collect and analyze data from some of our online classes to better understand how students learn online, and then use that information to refine the online courses we offer. It will be also great to continue our partnership with the CT State Department of Education to expand the Neag’s reach to the K-12 educators by leveraging online learning opportunities. My role is to both help educators of all levels see the big picture about online learning and then walk them through the steps of making their quality online teaching as effective and innovative as possible, to meet their learners’ needs and expectations. To achieve this, the shared vision and ongoing collaboration is vital.”

Are Creativity and Mental Illness Linked?

Posted on September 22, 2014December 7, 2021 by James Kaufman

James Kaufman, professor of educational psychology and an internationally recognized expert on creativity. (Peter Morenus/UConn Photo)

Robin Williams’ suicide was a staggering blow to the multitude of fans who recognized and praised his tremendous talents on stage, television and in film. While the disconnect between Williams’ effusive positive energy – his public persona – and the shocking details of his death stirred many emotions, it is also a potent reminder of the struggles creative individuals endure and the sad history of suicide among the writers, performers and other artists among us.

But is there a link between creativity and mental illness? The trope that has emerged of the sad clown or, more broadly, the creative genius tormented by inner demons may not, in fact, be true. Decades of research has not unequivocally established a link between creativity and mental illness. As an educational psychologist, I’ve thought and written a lot about creativity and mental illness over the last 15 years. It is a topic at the center of my professional life. I have come to find it is also a topic that fascinates and enrages; what psychologists often consider to be data points are also human lives. People identify with being creative and people identify with mental health. But merging the two is a different matter altogether. And it is hard to discuss the nuance of specific scientific studies in the face of actual suffering.

What we are left with are two very significant questions: Are creative genius and mental illness related? And, what does this mean for me if I am creative? The answers are quite different.

Scientists argue both sides of the first question. Some scholars say that not only are creativity and mental illness related but it’s undisputed fact. Others claim there is not a shred of evidence connecting the two concepts. I fall somewhere in the middle; much of the classic work is unbelievably flawed, but there’s too much of it to dismiss it completely. This question has great importance if we want to understand the workings of a genius like Robin Williams.

The second question relates to the average person. Many people see creativity as an integral part of their life, and it can take many shapes. Maybe you play guitar or tinker in your garage or make fantastic lasagna or can tell the best jokes at a party. This everyday creativity – the joy from the process – is something all of us have felt and enjoyed.

Yet, if I am creative, am I also at greater risk for mental illness? If Robin Williams, with such amazing creative gifts, was unable to keep perspective, then what does that say about the rest of us and our own paltry attempts at contributing something new and original to the world?

The key is not to make that leap. Creative genius, or what researchers call the “Big-C,” is a different beast from everyday creativity, or what we like call the “little-c.” Microwaved chicken nuggets and baked Chicken a la King at the fancy restaurant in town are both chicken, but their nutritional value and their taste are radically different. It’s the same thing with “Big-C” and “little-c.” Whatever researchers conclude about Big-C and mental illness – and any connection, if there is one, is more nuanced than we like to admit—there is no association between little-c and mental illness. Everyday creativity is linked to higher resiliency, being in a better mood, having less stress, and better physical health.

Ruminations about Robin Williams, Sylvia Plath, or Ernest Hemingway may turn our thoughts to the connection between creative genius and mental illness. But the subject – if not the people – is still an open book.

James Kaufman is a professor of educational psychology at UConn. His book Creativity and Mental Illness just came out and is available on Amazon.com.

Challenging Others to Support Excellence

Posted on September 22, 2014July 19, 2017 by

Johneilia Bariffe (on the right) conducts cell testing with Alyssa Matz during their Mentor Connection research work at UConn. Photo credit: Shawn Kornegay

Linda and David Glickstein believe so strongly in the value of UConn’s Mentor Connection enrichment program for talented high schoolers, they established a challenge grant to encourage others to help support it.

The Glicksteins will match dollar for dollar any pledge up to $1,000 per donor for a total of $15,000. Their goal is to raise at least $30,000 for the program by next summer when another cohort of talented teens arrive to work with faculty, graduate students and research assistants on current research initiatives. Housed in the Neag School of Education’s Neag Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development, Mentor Connection has brought students to campus from around the country and overseas. The program is offered to high school juniors or seniors ranked in the top 25 percent of their class with a GPA of 3.0 or higher. Applicants must demonstrate their commitment to academic excellence in order to be considered.

“The program is designed to engage the students in more hands-on, investigative and creative activities rather than the more typical high school kind of learning that involves sitting, listening, taking the test and getting a grade,” says Joseph Renzulli, professor emeritus of educational psychology who helped develop the program.

“Mentor Connection provides high school students with education that is usually far beyond what they have experienced and gives them something to aspire to” says Linda Glickstein, who taught gifted students for many years in Pennsylvania, and, with her husband, David, has supported the program for 15 years.

Linda and David hiking in Alaska #1 — Linda and David Glickstein enjoying a trip to Alaska.

“The students get to meet like-minded kids they might not otherwise get to know and join a community where their academic ambitions are accepted and applauded,” says David Glickstein, who received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering from UConn.

“We hope this challenge grant will encourage more people to support the Mentor Connection program,” says Linda Glickstein. “No donation is too small. Our hope is that the students who participated in the program will think about giving back at whatever level they can, and we can supplement their donation by matching it.”

The philanthropic support provided by the Glicksteins and others has helped ensure the program remains accessible to talented students who might not otherwise be able to afford it, says Heather Spottiswoode, a coordinator of the program. “It’s a residential program, which means the students are really immersed in the college experience, but it also means it costs a bit more. We rely on philanthropic support from the Glicksteins and other individuals and foundations to enhance the program’s diversity, which we think is an essential component of its success.”

More than 1100 students have participated in the Mentor Connecticut program since it began in 1996, says Spottiswoode, who has been working to track participants and their perception of the influence of the Mentor Connection program on their academic and career accomplishments.

About 17 percent or 192 Mentor Connection participants attended UConn for their undergraduate studies and of those about 150 participated in Mentor Connection with the help of a scholarship. Other universities attended by groups of 7 or more Mentor Connection students include Boston College, Cornell, Dartmouth, John Hopkins, MIT, Stanford and Yale.

“One of the missions of Mentor Connection is to expose the students to college and encourage them to go, but we are always especially pleased when they attend UConn.”

To make a gift that will be matched, contact Heather McDonald via email or at 860-486-4530.

Nominations are Open for Neag Alumni Society Awards

Posted on September 22, 2014December 7, 2021 by

Awardees from 2014 -- bottom row, L-R: Jennifer Nelson (outstanding early career professional), NiCole Keith (outstanding kinesiology professional), Felice Duffy (outstanding professional), Sandra Bidwell (outstanding educator), Sally Reis (outstanding higher education professional); top row, L-R: Michael Reed (outstanding physical therapy professional), Louis DeLoreto (outstanding school administrator), Dean Thomas DeFranco, Jon Welty Peachy (outstanding early career professional), Paul Freeman (outstanding superintendent), and Robert Pianta (outstanding alumni). — Awardees from 2014 — bottom row, L-R: Jennifer Nelson (outstanding early career professional), NiCole Keith (outstanding kinesiology professional), Felice Duffy (outstanding professional), Sandra Bidwell (outstanding educator), Sally Reis (outstanding higher education professional); top row, L-R: Michael Reed (outstanding physical therapy professional), Louis DeLoreto (outstanding school administrator), Dean Thomas DeFranco, Jon Welty Peachy (outstanding early career professional), Paul Freeman (outstanding superintendent), and Robert Pianta (outstanding alumni).

Do you know any outstanding Neag alumni? The Neag School of Education is seeking nominations for the annual Neag Alumni Society Awards. You are invited to nominate individuals for any of the six prestigious awards. Click here for specific award categories, qualifications and the nomination form. See videos of last year’s winners.

All nominations are due no later than Tuesday, November 11, 2014.

Awardees will be honored at the 17th annual awards ceremony on Saturday, March 28, 2015. All Neag alumni are invited, so mark your calendars and come celebrate with us as we honor our outstanding alumni. Event information coming soon. For questions, please contact Robyn at robyn.wilgis@uconn.edu.