Save the Date(s) … You Are Invited!

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The Neag School of Education Alumni Society has some great events coming up in January and February. We hope to see you there!

January 9 and 29 — The Neag Alumni Society invites you to take part in two upcoming events taking place at the Westport Library regarding the 2013 UConn Reads selection The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The first event will take place on January 9th from 7:30-9 pm. A host of local celebrity readers will read selections of The Great Gatsby.  For additional information, click here.  The second event will take place on Tuesday, January 29th at 7:30 pm. Dr. Kathy Knapp, a professor of English at the Torrington campus, will lead a discussion on The Great Gatsby.

February 2 — The Neag Alumni Society and The UConn Alumni Association Greater University Chapter invite you to a women’s basketball game watch at the UConn Alumni Center on Saturday, Feb. 2 at 1:30 p.m. Cheer on the Huskies with fellow alums, family and friends as you watch the UConn Women take on St. John’s! Watch for more information and registration details in next month’s Spotlight.

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

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104516017-hands-clapping1-300x2001Accolades – below are news and notes from our alumni, faculty, staff, and students. We are proud of all the amazing accomplishments by our Neag family. If you have an accolade to share, we want to hear from you! Please send any news items (and story ideas) to shawn.kornegay@uconn.edu.

Students

John Paul Williamson, a fifth-year student, was recently recognized for helping to raise Bacon Academy’s SAT scores. He did his master’s thesis on sophomore and junior perceptions of the SAT at Bacon Academy and concluded that the students had not practiced and felt unprepared to take the SATs. He suggested establishing a SAT preparation program and an initiative to encourage students to take the SATs.

Alumni

Sandra Bidwell, ’87 MA in curriculum and instruction, ’90 Sixth-Year Diploma in curriculum and instruction with a concentration in reading education, is a reading educator at Staffordville School and was recently recognized with reading awards. Three awards were given – one to Staffordville School; one to the school’s reading program, which Bidwell oversees; and one to Bidwell.  At a recognition event, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Patricia Collin read a letter and Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition from U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney to Bidwell; State Sen. Tony Guglielmo read a citation to her; and State Rep. Penny Bacchiochi read yet another one.

Scott Hurwitz has been selected as the next assistant principal at Gideon Welles School. Most recently a history teacher at Glastonbury High School, Hurwitz previously taught at Gideon Wells for five years before moving to the high school.

Steve Kilgus, former doctoral advisee to Sandy Chafouleas and now an assistant professor at East Carolina University, was awarded the Outstanding Dissertation Award by Division 16 of the American Psychological Association.  His dissertation was recently published in the division journal, School Psychology Quarterly.  The study involved collaborative efforts with committee members (Chafouleas and Welsh in Neag) around new directions in school-based behavior screening.

Chris Martin, ’79 finance (School of Business) and ’80 MA foundations in education, was recently named senior vice president and senior private banker for Webster Bank. He has been at Webster since 1982.

Jane Simao, ’89 MA, a fourth-grade teacher at Putnam Elementary School was recently named the district’s 2013 Teacher of the Year by the Putnam Board of Education. Simao, a former special education instructor, began her career in the Putnam district 30 years ago as a special education teacher. After 19 years, she became a classroom teacher.

Faculty/Staff

The EDLR Department has a revised PhD program in Learning, Leadership and Education Policy. Applications are currently being accepted.

Teacher Education hosted a special dinner recently, Celebrating Diversity in Education, to encourage students of color to consider teaching as a profession. The dinner featured presentations from Neag alums, Violet Sims and Leslyann Jimenez, along with a spoken word performance by UConn student Shantel Honeyghan.

Lawrence Armstrong is serving as a second vice president for the American College of Sports Medicine. This is an elected position, as voted by the international membership of ACSM.

Phil Austin, former UConn president and current EDLR faculty member, was recently named interim president of the Board of Regents of Higher Education.

Doug Casa was an editor of the newly released book ACSM’s Sports Medicine: A Comprehensive Review.

Kathy Gavin has received the Distinguished Curriculum Award for nine consecutive years from the National Association for Gifted Children.

Susan Glenney received her Geriatric Specialty Certification.

Robin Grenier gave a presentation in Salt Lake City at the Annual Conference of the American Association of State and Local History on the “Role of Adult Learning in Supporting Museum Visitors.”

Jason Irizarry was invited to deliver the keynote address for the Summit for Courageous Conversations around Race in San Antonio, Texas. The Summit, hosted by Pacific Educational Group, brings together dedicated leaders for racial equity from across the nation to engage in a deepened conversation about systemic racism and its impact on opportunity and achievement for all students.

Donald Leu received the Connecticut Reading Association Literacy Award. This award, presented by state associations of the International Reading Association recognizes institutions, individuals, and organizations that have made significant contributions to literacy at the state level.

David Moss has taken on the director of teacher education position for the academic year.

Shamim Patwa was a door prize winner at the UConn Work/Life Expo. She won a Dairy Bar visit with President Herbst.

René Roselle had a recent publication with a past IB/M grad in the Journal of Urban Learning, Teaching and Research. She collaborated with Kevin Liner (‘11) on “Pre-Service Teacher Vision and Urban Schools.”

George Sugai is on a national consensus-building project — Council of State of Governments (CSG) Justice Center — with 100 leading policymakers, experts and advocates. The 18-month project will focus on documenting better ways to match youth to appropriate interventions that can produce academic successes and less frequent juvenile justice involvement. He also recently co-published a series of articles in the Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, where he reviewed research in this area and outlined a way at looking at culture in schools from the perspective of school-wide positive behavior supports.

 

 

 

 

 

 

African Native Finds True Calling in Pursuing Education, then Becoming an Educator

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Zato K. In the United States, children typically begin formal education once they turn five or six years old, but this is not always the norm in other countries. Zato Kadambaya, a Neag School of Education alum, started first grade when he was 11 years old. Born in Togo — a small West African nation where children are needed to work on family farms, schools are located far from homes and education is not a priority — Kadambaya was fortunate to have a mother who supported his desire to learn.

“Once I started school, I realized I was very good at it,” Kadambaya explains. “I did very well and started to realize I could do better for myself than my parents did.”

Unlike most students in Togo, who finish school and then return to the farm, Kadambaya decided to go to college and continue his education in the United States. In 1990, he took the Togo national exam for college, scored the first in the nation with high distinction and received a scholarship to attend Central State University in Ohio as a manufacturing engineering student. There, he met his future wife, Leonille.

After graduating from Central State, he and Leonille moved to Connecticut to attend graduate schools at UConn. While his wife received a degree to teach special education from Neag, Kadambaya received his master of science in Electrical Engineering. Upon graduation, he took what he learned back to Togo to work as an electrical engineer, but quickly realized he wasn’t happy. Among other things, he saw there the great need for Togo people—and all people—to receive better education. Inspired by that, he returned to UConn and the Neag School of Education to become a certified teacher through Neag’s Teaching Certification Program for College Graduates. “I believe education is the key to everything,” Kadambaya says simply.

Excelling and scoring four out of four in the BEST evaluation program used at the time,  Kadambaya is currently the head of the math department at Norwich Free Academy. He will soon be moving to the New London school district to become the math and science coordinator and STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) administrator at New London High School.

Zato Zadambaya, Leonille Zadambaya
Pictured L-R: Vice Provost for Public Engagement Robert McCarthy, Zato Zadambaya, Leonille Zadambaya and Interim Provost Mun Choi.

Since becoming an educator, his awards have included the Norwich Branch NAACP Excellence in Education Award, the Connecticut General Assembly Official Citation, the City of Norwich Public Proclamation, and the Outstanding Alumni Award from CCSU Educational Leadership. Recently, he and Leonille were also recognized with the UConn Provost’s Awards for Excellence in Public Engagement, alumni category.

Currently, Kadambaya says his favorite grade to teach is 9th, because students are still young  and not yet too set in their ways. “The transition from middle to high school is a very important one,” says Kadambaya, “and if you can make that transition easy and successful, it’s very rewarding.”

He also enjoys getting to watch his students graduate, and to see how much they have changed. His future plans include returning to Togo, where he will use his education and experience to not just teach students, but to train other quality teachers—something he believes Neag well-prepared him for: “Neag gave me many opportunities, and I really appreciate everything I learned here. I now work to pass on all that and more, because when people aren’t educated, everything else passes by.”

When asked what advice he would give to aspiring teachers, Kadambaya stressed the importance of young people first and foremost taking care of themselves: “You must be healthy and strong-minded to help students,” he says. “You can’t make a difference for your students if you are stressed out.” Teaching is also a profession you must grow into, he added: “Your second year will be better than your first and so on and so forth.”

Neag Team Leads the Way on Intensive Early Reading Initiative

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Michael Coyne,
Michael Coyne, associate professor of educational psychology, reads with a group of first, second and third graders at the Windham Center School. (Peter Morenus/UConn Photo)

Connecticut has some of the nationʼs worst disparities when it comes to the reading performance of low-income students compared to their more affluent peers, but an innovative new initiative coordinated by the University of Connecticutʼs Neag School of Education aims to study and change that.

Launching this fall, the CT K-3 Literacy Initiative (CK3LI) will support schools in implementing research-grounded practices to improve the reading abilities of children in kindergarten through third grade, a crucial time for developing strong literacy skills.

The initiative, announced in August by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy as part of the Stateʼs Education Reform to improve overall outcomes, was developed by the General Assemblyʼs Black and Puerto Rican Caucus. The initiative is based on research gathered in 2011 through a study funded by the Grossman Family Foundation promoting best practices in early literacy and closing the academic achievement gaps. Literacy How conducted the study in 15 Connecticut schools that showed the importance of proper reading assessment tools, timely interventions, well trained teachers and

coaches, and school leaders who make reading a priority. The Commission on Children also participated, teaching parents how children learn to read and what they can do at home and in school to bolster reading.

“If kids are reading well by the end of first grade, thereʼs an 80 to 90 percent chance theyʼll continue to read well,” said Neag School professor Michael Coyne, whoʼs overseeing the initiative along with fellow Neag professor George Sugai. Both are researchers in the Center for Behavioral Education and Research. “Unfortunately, the flip side is also true: we know that if students arenʼt reading well by the end of first grade, thereʼs an 80 to 90 percent chance theyʼll continue to struggle with reading.”

This expanded initiative commits $1.77 million in funding to support 25 new reading interventionist and literacy coach positions at five more schools selected in September through a competitive process, and showing a demonstrated commitment to improving reading outcomes. Each of the five elementary schools will have a literacy coach and four reading interventionists who will help adapt existing effective programs, develop new instructional methods, tailor lessons to individual student needs, and gather data to document student progress and implementation fidelity or accuracy. Each child not reading at proficiency will receive an individualized reading intervention plan. Parents will be informed and engaged as authentic partners. The Neag team will be supported by Hill for Literacy researchers in coordinating the initiative in the five schools.

Another important CK3LI objective is to give existing school and district staff the tools and strategies to continue to use methods and strategies that prove to be effective in improving reading skills.

“Itʼs so exciting that thereʼs real commitment to this initiative at the state level,” Coyne said. “This is going to enable us to focus resources and intervention efforts on those kids who need them the most.”

The five schools that will be participating in the CK3LI initiative are:

Ann E. Norris Elementary School in East Hartford Latino Studies Academy at Burns School in Hartford John Barry Elementary School in Meriden Truman Elementary School in New Haven Windham Center Elementary School in Windham

The state will increase that number by five schools per year. Among the responsibilities that the schools accepted as part of the CK3LI initiative are a commitment to providing students with uninterrupted reading instruction, access to evidence-based small group intervention strategies, and the creation of literacy teams that will meet regularly to examine studentsʼ progress and plan and adjust instruction. School and district administrators have committed time and priority to CK3LI implementation so that students, parents, and teachers will truly benefit from this unique opportunity.

In addition to intensive interventions at the five selected schools, the law also requires major statewide reforms, including a coordinated state-wide reading plan to bring consistency and quality to the way reading is taught across the state; reading instruction based on science; reducing the disproportionate and inappropriate ID of minority students as Special Ed.; professional development in reading for teachers and administrators; incentives for schools that improve their reading performance trend; and recommendations for a proven reading assessment tool that helps identify the specific individualized learning needs of early readers, K-3. The UConn Team will also be assisting with these important initiatives.

“There is compelling evidence that an intensive focus on literacy, particularly for those

identified as struggling early readers, can have a dramatic impact on a childʼs future school success,” said Connecticut Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor in a statement. “The General Assembly, particularly members of the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus, deserves great credit for making early reading a priority as part of education reform this year. We look forward to building on this commitment.”

Right now, Coyne said the focus is on making sure the program is up and running at the five participating schools, but heʼs hopeful the initiative will provide the evidence and framework for an effective literacy approach that can take root in other schools.

In the end, all CT students will benefit from this unique effort; however, students who are at greatest academic risk will be experiencing an unprecedented opportunity to become successful readers.

New Practice Guide: Teaching Elementary School Students to be Effective Writers

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ThinkStockTeaching Elementary School Students to Be Effective Writers, a new What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) practice guide, provides four recommendations that teachers and other educators can use to improve students’ writing. After examining the relevant research evidence, a panel of experts in writing, language arts, and education research developed the practice guide that highlights the following recommendations. 

The Recommendations

  • Provide daily time for students to write. Students need dedicated instructional time—a minimum of one hour a day—to learn and practice the skills and strategies necessary to become effective writers. During that hour, teachers can observe the way students write, identify difficulties, and assist them with learning and applying the writing process.
  • Teach students to use the writing process for a variety of purposes. Writing well requires that the writer think carefully about the purpose for writing, plan what to say, plan how to say it, and understand what the reader needs to know. Students should be introduced to a variety of strategies for carrying out the writing process and learn how to write for different purposes.
  • Teach students to become fluent with handwriting, spelling, sentence construction, typing, and word processing. When these basic writing skills become relatively effortless for students, they can focus less on the mechanics of writing and more on developing and communicating their ideas.
  • Create an engaged community of writers. Teachers should create a supportive environment in their classroom so that students are motivated to write well. Teachers should participate in the writing community and provide opportunities for students to collaborate with others, make decisions about what to write and how to write about it, and receive constructive feedback.

Each recommendation includes implementation steps and solutions for common roadblocks. The guide also uses a set of ratings — strong, moderate, or minimal — to indicate the strength of research evidence supporting each recommendation. Evidence ratings reflect the degree to which each recommendation is supported by high-quality experimental and quasi-experimental design studies that meet WWC standards. Information about these standards and other practice guides are available at whatworks.ed.gov. A pdf of Teaching Elementary School Students to Be Effective Writers can be downloaded here.

About the Panelists: Recommendations in the practice guide were developed by a panel of seven practitioners and researchers who have expertise in writing instruction:  Alisha A. Bollinger, M.Ed., is a teacher of fourth grade at Norris Elementary School in Firth, Nebraska; Carol Booth Olson, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Education at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), and director of the UCI site of the National Writing Project; Catherine D’Aoust is the coordinator of English language arts, K–12, in the Saddleback Valley Unified School District in Mission Viejo, California, and co-director of the University of California, Irvine (UCI) site of the National Writing Project; Steve Graham, Ph.D., is the Warner Professor of Special Education at Arizona State University; Charles MacArthur, Ph.D., is a professor in the School of Education at the University of Delaware; Deborah McCutchen, Ph.D., is a professor of education at the University of Washington; and Natalie Olinghouse, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of educational psychology and a research scientist in the Center for Behavioral Education and Research at the University of Connecticut.

About the What Works Clearinghouse: A project of the U.S. Department of Education, the WWC is a central and trusted source of scientific evidence for what works in education. The WWC develops and implements standards for reviewing education research, assesses the rigor of research evidence on the effectiveness of interventions (programs, products, practices, and policies), and produces user-friendly practice guides for educators. The WWC is administered by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences through a contract with Mathematica Policy Research.

Neag Study: School Psychologists Can Play Key Role in Reducing Obesity, Raising Scores

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Husky Sport
Husky Sport

How school psychologists can help students prevent obesity and, in turn, achieve academic success is the focus of a study conducted by Neag School of Education researchers and published in the National Association of School Psychologists’ School Psychology Forum.

Based on research Neag Educational Psychology doctoral student Scott McCarthy conducted for his dissertation, the study entitled “The Link Between Obesity and Academics: School Psychologists’ Role in Collaborative Prevention” outlines for educators what McCarthy calls a “practical and sustainable” plan for school psychologists like himself to implement interventions such as increased regular physical activity and nutrition education that, among other benefits, can contribute to academic achievement.

“It’s proven that obesity leads to physical health problems like diabetes and emotional problems like depression, as well as to other troublesome, negative results like social isolation, being bullied and low self-esteem,” said McCarthy who, in addition to pursing his Ph.D., works full-time as a public school psychologist in Greenwich. “The science of how weight influences students’ school performance is still emerging, but real evidence is there and, as educators, we need to be concerned and begin conceptualizing what we can do to help students succeed.”

Although a concrete cause-and-effect relationship between childhood obesity and academic performance has not yet been concretely established, research conducted by organizations like the Centers for Disease Control and American Academy of Pediatrics—along with additional studies published in journals like the Journal of Adolescent Health and Preventative Medicine—make the connection impossible to ignore, McCarthy said. Results of these studies and others show that students who are overweight or obese score  lower on standardized measures of academic achievement, as well as perform worse in the classroom.

Emerging research, however, suggest that when students lose weight, their grades improve.  School-directed initiatives and best practices shown to be effective include:

  • Walking for 15 minutes before the start of class
  • Having gym every day
  • Incorporating nutrition and obesity education into health and science classes
  • Eliminating sugary soft drinks from school lunch options and adding more vegetables and fruits
  • Getting rid of school soda and candy vending machines
  • Providing parents and school staff with nutrition and obesity education
  • Adding intramurals or other afterschool programs that give students additional opportunities for physical activity

In addition to these and similar strategies, schools in nine states (Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and West Virginia) also annually conduct Body Mass Index (BMI) screenings to determine whether students’ degree of body fat, or BMI, make them obese, according to national and CDC guidelines.

School psychologists, who among other roles work to identify subgroups of students with special needs, are in the ideal position to advocate for, encourage or coordinate these kinds of efforts, the Neag study says.

“What’s important about Scott’s paper is that it not just shows the connection between a healthy weight and academic success, but that it provides simple interventions that can be integrated into health and science classes, at lunch time, or at other points during the school day,” said Neag School of Education Assistant Professor and Research Scientist Lisa Sanetti, PhD, who with Neag doctoral student Lindsay M. Fallon served as study co-authors.

Scott McCarthy
Neag doctoral student Scott McCarthy presents a research poster based on his dissertation.

Equally important, McCarthy added, is that these interventions can be maintained: “So many times, schools get funding for great programs that make a difference for a while, but then are dropped when the grant ends or needed resources are no longer available. That’s why the suggestions we outline revolve around schools using current staff and are varied, so educators can pick what might work best based on their specific needs and circumstances.”

National Association of School Psychologists members can access the complete article here.

McCarthy also stresses that while most obesity-academic studies and projects have focused on elementary students, middle and high school students need to be included as well: “Ideally, steps can be taken to prevent obesity before it occurs. But at all grade levels, our job as educators is to serve the whole child—not just their academic needs, but their overall health and well-being needs as well. School is a powerful place. Every child spends six or seven hours a day here, so we can really make a difference.”

“Researchers will continue to study the connection between academics and obesity,” McCarthy added. “But just like schools have implemented programs to show the kids the dangers of doing drugs, or being a bully, schools now need to show the dangers of obesity.”

Neag Alum is Teaching in China

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Nicholas Banas ʼ10 (ED, CLAS), ʼ10 MA
Nicholas Banas ʼ10 (ED, CLAS), ʼ10 MA

During my final year at UConn, my passion for travel and foreign cultures led me to seek a teaching position abroad. With a 12-hour time difference, a history steeped in mystery and legend, and a written language based on thousands of characters, the Peopleʼs Republic of China was about as far away as I could go.

Currently, I teach English and history at the international division of Shanghai High School, one of the most prestigious schools in the country. Although about 40 percent of the staff are foreign teachers like me, and courses based on an international curriculum are offered, it is still very much a ʻChineseʼ school: There is a heavy emphasis on testing and teacher-centered instruction. The hard sciences are favored over subjects like history. Change occurs slowly. Suggested improvements must be made subtly and indirectly before passing through a long bureaucratic process, a staple of Chinese society.

For someone passionate about social studies and who graduated from UConnʼs Neag School of Education – which offers one of Americaʼs premier education programs – these cultural differences present some major challenges. I came to China with the ʻnobleʼ intention of observing local culture and understanding it. This I have managed to do. However, Chinese culture manifests itself in my workplace as mentioned above, and though I understand it, I struggle to work effectively in its context on a day-to-day basis. On more than one occasion, I have left meetings fuming over a pedagogical disagreement I had with a Chinese teacher.

These challenges aside, the work experience is immensely rewarding. One of my best lessons was an interview project in my ninth-grade honors history class. I offered students an extra credit assignment to interview relatives who had lived under Chairman Mao (1945-76). The heart-wrenching stories they came back with blew me away. Just as I respected my grandparentsʼ generation for their hard work and struggles through the Great Depression and World War II, so do I now respect Chinaʼs “Greatest Generation.” Not only did they live through the Japanese invasion, they then survived starvation and epic purges at the hands of their own government.

Experiences outside my job have also contributed to my developing an unabashed pride for China. From sparking a conversation with locals to ordering food at a restaurant, I feel I grow as a person and learn things constantly, just by going through my daily routine!

Lastly, if you have not had a chance to try it, real Chinese food is amazing. Most takeout restaurants in America are not representative of authentic Chinese cuisine, and the dust found in Lipton tea sachets is not tea. The variety of dishes and broad spectrum of flavors and colors is enough to satisfy even the most discriminating of foodies. My favorite dish is Shanghaiʼs most famous dumpling called xiaolongbao, a juicy morsel of seasoned pork wrapped in a delicate piece of dough, steamed to perfection. The teas are so delicious you never need to mask their flavor with milk, lemon, or sugar. The leaves can be infused sometimes as many as a dozen times without losing flavor!

The Peopleʼs Republic of China is larger than the continental U.S. and contains hundreds of ethnic groups, each of which has their own language and customs. The rich history and challenging work environment have inspired me to sign on for a third year.

Nicholas Banas ʼ10 (ED, CLAS), ʼ10 MA grew up in Mystic, Conn., but has been living in Shanghai, China, since fall 2010. He teaches AP World History, Ancient Civilizations, Honors 20th-century History, and English as a Foreign Language to students in 9th through 12th grade. His website, nicholasbanas.com, includes a blog about life in China.

Retired Educator Pledges Estate to Endow Scholarship Fund

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Neag alumAs a biology teacher and department head for E.O. Smith High School in Storrs, Jack Cohen helped educate young people for most of his life.

Retired in 1989 after 31 years, Cohen still believes deeply in the value of education and has decided to support it even after he is gone.  Cohen has pledged his considerable estate to establish an endowed scholarship fund at the University of Connecticut, which governed E.O. Smith during much of his tenure at the high school.

Financial support for college is something Cohen knows about first hand.  “Friends of family helped me while I was in college,” says Cohen, who relied on the G.I. bill after serving in the military during World War II to get his bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri and his master’s degree from the University of Lausanne in Switzerland.  He received a master’s degree in education from UConn in 1965.

For the grandchildren of a close friend, Cohen has provided a helping hand, covering room and board. He continues to help with college expenses.  “I have one more to get through college,” says Cohen, who never had children of his own.

Cohen’s passion for helping is encouraged by his memory of a colleague’s story about growing up poor and going to college with help from the family who employed her mother as a maid.  “After hearing that story, my wife said we should do something like that,’” says Cohen.  His wife passed away more than 20 years ago but her memory will live on with his, through the fund that will carry their names, the Jack and Francine Cohen Scholarship.

“I’m fortunate that I have done well in life and I am happy I can help,” says Cohen.

The UConn Foundation, which raises funds from private sources to support the University, is ramping up its efforts to increase scholarship support for UConn students, says Heather McDonald, director of development for the Neag School of Education.

“During the 2010-2011 academic year, 72 percent of UConn undergraduates applied for need-based financial aid and 76 percent of those who applied received it. But of those who received need-based financial aid, only 16% had their need fully met,” says McDonald.  “We are working to make our alumni and friends aware of the University’s growing need for privately funded scholarships. Mr. Cohen’s generous gift will make a huge difference to a lot of our students.”

For more information on supporting the Neag School of Education, click here or contact Heather McDonald at hmcdonald@foundation.uconn.edu.

Major League Baseball Calls Anderson to the Big Leagues

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Jeffrey Anderson
Dr. Jeffrey Anderson, director of sports medicine and clinical director for research in the Neag School of Education Human Performance Laboratory. (Peter Morenus/UConn Photo)

Jeffrey Anderson, the physician responsible for the health and safety of the 650 student-athletes who represent UConn in 24 sports, has been named the new independent administrator of the Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program for Major League Baseball (MLB) and the MLB Players Association.

In his new role Anderson will administer testing requirements, monitor collection procedures and testing protocols, and audit test results for major league players. He will also administer the process of the Therapeutic Use Exemption, which permits athletes to take a prohibited medication. In addition, Anderson will prepare and release an annual public report on the programʼs findings.

The appointment of Anderson follows the announcement in early June by MLB and the Players Association of several revisions to their Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program, including adding testing for human-growth hormone, increasing the number of random tests of players during the season and off-season, and strengthening protocols for addressing drug abuse by players. Since baseball introduced its random drug testing policy in 2004, strengthening its ban on controlled substances in place since 1991, 66 active major league players have been suspended for use of performance-enhancing drugs, according to Wikipedia.

Anderson will continue his responsibilities in Storrs as director of sports medicine at UConn and acting director of medical services within Student Health Services. He has served as an assistant clinical professor of family medicine at the University of Connecticutʼs Health Center since 1996, and medical director for research in the Department of Kinesiologyʼs Human Performance Laboratory in the Neag School of Education since 2005. Anderson serves as chair of the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports. The University of Michigan Medical School graduate is board-certified in family medicine, with an added qualification in sports medicine.

While Andersonʼs responsibilities will be separate from his role at UConn, it is the second time a major sports league has looked to a member of the faculty in UConnʼs top-ranked Department of Kinesiology for their expertise. The department is home to the Korey Stringer Institute, which was established by the National Football League to provide information, resources, assistance, and advocacy for the prevention of sudden death in sport, especially as it relates to exertional heat stroke. The chief operating officer of the Institute is Douglas Casa ʼ97 Ph.D., professor and director of athletic training in the Department of Kinesiology and a nationally known expert on heat stroke.

“The health of athletes and concern for their safety and prevention of injury continue to be increasingly important throughout all sports,” said Pat Courtney, spokesman for MLB. “Dr. Andersonʼs appointment was a joint decision made by us and the Major League Baseball Players Association. The process included lengthy review of candidate resumes, multiple interviews, and discussions with anti-doping experts.”

Carl Maresh, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Kinesiology and head of the kinesiology department, says, “This is a great opportunity for Jeff. I think it not only speaks well for his skill as a clinician and an educator, but to the reputation he has made as a researcher as part of his work as medical director of the Human Performance Laboratory. Our department can claim some of the best faculty in the United States with expertise in the strength and conditioning, and health and safety, of athletes. We are extremely fortunate to have Jeff Anderson as a highly dedicated member of our research team.”

Anderson says during his discussions with MLB and the Players Association the independent role of the position in the testing of athletes was highlighted.

“In the interview process I went through, they hit me with terrific questions – a lot about my independence and objectivity, because itʼs very important that I maintain my objectivity in the job,” he says. “Itʼs not just a symbolic position that they created so they have somebody there. Where I would ultimately come in is if there is an adverse result when it comes in from the testing lab. Iʼm responsible for determining if itʼs a true positive and then reporting to the Commissionerʼs office and Players Association simultaneously.”

Anderson, whose published research has included work in the area of the effects of drugs on athletic performance, says while there is no evidence more athletes are using performance-enhancing drugs, the attention on those cases that become the focus of widespread media coverage and legal action, such as former pitcher Roger Clemens, makes it seem so.

“I know more people are being caught because more testing is occurring,” he says. “Like anything else, itʼs being talked about so itʼs getting attention. We have 8,000 media outlets that have to fill 24 hours of sports talk. They need things to talk about.

“Basically the thrust of any good testing program is that it tries to do the right thing,” he adds. “You donʼt want to punish people who are innocent, but yet you donʼt want people to participate in activities that harm themselves, harm their sport, and harm people who aspire to be in that sport. [Testing plays] a really important role in both the health of the athlete and the integrity of the sports.”

Anderson says that while his work with Major League Baseball is not directly related to his work at UConn, the experience will benefit the student athletes whose health and safety he oversees.

“It helps round me out as a physician taking care of them” he says. “I donʼt know how many of the kids will know. It does make me better able to give them good advice based on further experience and things that Iʼve seen.”

Neag’s Korey Stringer Institute Fighting to Keep High School Athletes Safe

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Two and a half years after it opened in the Neag School of Education, UConn’s Korey Stringer Institute is on a mission to protect high school athletes around the country from heat stroke and other serious illness and injury.

To date, eight states – Texas, Georgia, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, New Jersey and Connecticut – have adopted important pre-season practice guidelines promoted by the Institute. The guidelines eliminate intense “two-a-day” workouts at the start of preseason and allow young athletes’ bodies to gradually adjust to exertion in hot weather during phased-in summer practices.

Fourteen others states are currently working with the KSI to improve their existing policies so they are in line with the Institute’s recommendations.

UConn Kinesiology Professor Douglas J. Casa, the Institute’s chief operating officer, says the KSI’s goal is to have every state in the country adopt the guidelines within the next few years.

“The majority of heat stroke cases occur during initial summer workouts when athletes are neither prepared to cope with the environmental conditions nor the new physiological demands placed on them during workouts,” says Casa. “These heat acclimatization guidelines mandate that athletes be eased into these intense practice sessions, lowering their chances for exertional heat stroke.”

According to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, heat illness is the leading cause of death and disability among high school athletes in the United States, sidelining athletes for more than 9,000 days a year, with most occurring in August when intense pre-season practices start. Since 2006, there have been 20 heat stroke-related deaths of high school athletes, according to the University of North Carolina’s National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury. A 2012 study by researchers at the University of Georgia revealed that deaths of high school football players due to heat nearly tripled from 1994 and 2009 compared to the previous 15 years.

Named after the Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman who died from extertional heat stroke in 2001, the Korey Stringer Institute is dedicated to providing first-rate information, resources, assistance and advocacy for the prevention of sudden death in sport.  Heat stroke is one of seven core issues the KSI focuses on. The Institute also advocates for greater use of automated external defibrillators; mandated athletic trainers on site for all high school practices and games; expanded coaching education; use of wet bulb globe temperature for more accurate weather readings reflecting both heat and humidity; and the creation of clearly-defined emergency action plans for when athletes fall ill.

Stringer’s widow, Kelci Stringer, created the Institute at UConn because of the University’s national reputation for top-flight research in heat, hydration and other issues impacting the performance of athletes and the physically active. The National Football League, Gatorade and TIMEX support the Institute’s work as corporate sponsors.

Casa and staff from the KSI have been traveling around the country over the past two years meeting with coaches, parents, athletic associations and lawmakers in an attempt to gain support for the heat acclimatization guidelines, which were first introduced through the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) in June 2009. Casa co-chaired the NATA committee overseeing the new standards.

One state was particularly aggressive about adopting the new guidelines. After three young athletes collapsed from exertional heat stroke during one of the hottest summers on record in 2010, Arkansas officials moved swiftly to put greater protections in place.

One of the athletes, a 16-year-old high school football player named Tyler Davenport, died from complications due to exertional heat stroke. Two others, high school football player Will James and junior high basketball tryout Logan Johnson, survived, primarily due to quick-thinking staff members who moved swiftly to cool the boys’ bodies prior to transport to a local hospital.

Nine months after the incidents, Arkansas officials adopted new laws requiring all public high schools to have emergency action plans for serious athlete illness or injury; automatic external defibrillators on site and additional emergency medical training for coaching staff.  Arkansas adopted NATA’s heat acclimatization guidelines in 2012 and is now considered a national leader in protecting its high school athletes on the practice field.

“I absolutely think these policies were needed,’ says Jason Cates, head athletic trainer at Cabot Public Schools in Arkansas and current president of the Arkansas Athletic Trainers’ Association. “We had three high-profile incidents in the state of Arkansas in 2010. We had no choice but to make changes to how we were managing two-a-day workouts in Arkansas.”

Heat-related incidents were dramatically reduced in college athletics after the NCAA adopted stricter practice standards in 2003. The National Football League eliminated two-a-day contact practices as part of its 2011 collective bargaining agreement with the NFL Players Association. But high school athletics is different, Casa says. There is no overarching national governing body that has the authority to mandate policy changes and states are left to their own devices in terms of regulating athletic practice sessions. Most states’ policies are conveyed as recommendations with little or no penalty for non-compliance.

So the struggle, for the Korey Stringer Institute, NATA and the high school parents and community associations looking for change, centers on the local and state level.

“The body of evidence supporting heat acclimatization is large,” says Casa. “By not mandating heat acclimatization guidelines, states are failing to protect their athletes; and, in fact, are placing them at greater risk for exertional heat stroke and other heat-related illnesses. We urge coaches, school leadership, parents and legislators to push their states to establish new guidelines or have inadequate guidelines revised.

Cates praised Casa and his staff for their tireless effort.

“Getting those eight states to adopt these rule changes has been a monumental feat,” Cates says. “Change is hard on any level, but the facts have been proven from studies done at KSI, at the NCAA level, and with the recent three-year study in the state of Georgia. We still have a long way to go, but we now have eight states that serve as models.”

Casa is quick to mention that it shouldn’t take an untimely athlete death to draw attention to critical issues like heat stroke and the need for more athletic trainers on site at high school practices to keep students safe. The Korey Stinger Institute is in the process of drumming up additional financial support so that it can continue conducting research, building a national policy database and advocating for families and youths across the country. The Institute has garnered many supporters along the way. Andrea Johnson, Logan Johnson’s mother, is one.

“Our family has been fortunate to meet Dr. Douglas Casa of the Korey Stinger Institute and we hope that through Logan’s story, others will be educated about exertional heat stroke and help spread the word to save many lives.” Johnson says.

Anyone wishing to donate to the University of Connecticut’s Korey Stringer Institute may do so here.

To view a video about the Korey Stringer Institute, click here.