In New Book, ’87 Grad Tackles Challenges and Science of Change

Posted on July 19, 2012February 17, 2023 by

Aaron Anderson wrote “ Aaron Anderson book Engaging Resistance: How Ordinary People Successfully Champion Change” not just for practical reasons, but for idealistic ones, too.

“Several books offer recipes on the ‘right’ way for businesses to implement organization-wide change. But until mine, none explained why people tend to be so quick to buck change or how to best overcome that resistance,” said Anderson, who in 1987 earned a bachelor’s of science in math from UConn’s Neag School of Education and is now acting executive director of graduate business programs at San Francisco State University.

“I also wrote the book to improve the world for my kids. It’s somewhat selfish of me, but I’m hoping education leaders will use my findings to create improved systems that will lead to my kids having an even more fantastic and powerful educational experience than I did.”

Describing both how resistance occurs over time, and specific strategies proponents can take to overcome it, “Engaging Resistance” includes the detailed case studies of two schools, Olivet College and Portland State University.

Both colleges in the early 2000s decided to implement radical curriculum changes to overcome financial shortfalls–a move that, as many would expect, was met with “major resistance” at all levels of the organizations. Anderson studied the schools’ transformations and staffs’ “healthy resistance” as part of his doctorate dissertation at the University of Michigan Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education in 2003.

At the end of the process, he considered using results to write several journal articles, but members of the dissertation committee suggested the work would be more powerful kept as a whole.

Stanford University Press (SUP) agreed, as well as saw that Anderson’s findings about the nature of change resistance crossed over and were applicable to all types of businesses and disciplines–not just education.

After several revisions, SUP published Engaging Resistance in February 2011, listing it in its catalogue as a Business/Management and Leadership title.

In chapters dedicated to analyses, Anderson details why resistance to change is a natural and healthy part of an organic process, as well as how businesses can use it to both improve change efforts and strengthen the organization overall.

“Truly, the findings from studying the broad-based changes that occurred at Olivet and Portland State transcend the classroom. Now, my hope is that they’ll do a little good in the world,” Anderson said.

“It’s scary to put a book like this out there,” he continued, “because it’s all me. I gathered all the data, made all the analyses and then put so much time and work into presenting it in an understandable way.”

Now focused on the fall semester at San Francisco State, Anderson said he no longer compulsively looks for positive online reviews or the book’s sales ranking on Amazon, but instead for feedback on how “Engaging Resistance” has concretely helped an organization president, CEO or other administrator.

“One clear aspect of change is this: If you make a change and don’t get resistance, you’re not really changing the operation, you’re just tinkering with it,” Anderson said. “Big change sparks big resistance. And as my book shows, resistance can come in many forms, from completely crazy to absolutely legitimate.”

He also plans to make a conscious effort to apply the lessons in “Engaging Resistance” to his own daily life: “When we don’t carry out the best practices we find, we’re not being true to who we are, and should be, as academics.”

Inaugural iPad Conference is a Success

Posted on July 18, 2012December 31, 2020 by

The Neag School of Education presented its first “Teaching and Learning with iPad Conference” in May to a sold-out crowd of 400 educators, administrators and learning technology enthusiasts.

Organizer Del Siegle, Ph.D., chair of Neag’s Department of Educational Psychology, said the conference was designed to provide practical tips to educators on how to teach with this “exciting technology.”

“I wanted to show that the Neag School of Education and the Department of Educational Psychology were interested and involved in cutting-edge educational innovations,” said Dr. Siegle.

While Siegle took a leadership role with the conference, other groups were involved as co-sponsors, including Connecticut Educators Computer Association (CECA) and The UConn Chapter of Phi Delta Kappa International (PDK), which helped move the event forward and get out word about the first-time event. Siegle also wanted to make a concerted effort to share the department’s expertise with the education community, while providing a forum for educators to share their experiences with iPads. Personal experience also encouraged his interest in the technology.

Siegle, who has been using an iPad for about a year, said he’s been impressed with the technology, as well as has noticed an increase in use among UConn colleagues. He’s also been amazed at his two young children’s attraction to it and the smaller iTouch.

“They began using them independently at home and without any instruction,” noted Siegle. “I had shown my daughter, Jess, a jigsaw puzzle app, which she enjoyed. Then one day my wife, Betsy, noticed that Jess was completing puzzles by herself. She asked if I had turned on the iTouch and opened the app for Jess. I had not.”

“Both of us were surprised that she had mastered those skills by simply observing me a couple of times. The pattern repeated with our son, Del. Before he was two years old, he had also independently mastered using the iPad,” continued Siegle. “These experiences convinced me that this was a very powerful learning tool that educators needed to be well-versed in using.”

The iPad, he said, is “an intuitive tool that young people seem to instinctively understand” and an important piece of technology for today’s educators to explore.

“The plethora of apps that are readily available really do allow teachers to teach in a different way,” he noted. “With the iPad, we can create exciting learning environments that promote creativity, problem solving and critical thinking–skills that are essential in the technology- and data-rich environment young people are growing up in.”

When they began organizing the conference, Siegle and others had hoped for 100 participants. They had to stop registration two weeks early when it hit 400.

“The response was gratifying and overwhelming,” Siegle added.

The conference also provided the opportunity to formally introduce a new Neag School program: Cognition, Instruction and Learning Technologies. Coordinated by Scott Brown, the program merges two previous programs, Cognition and Instruction with Learning Technology. There were also promotional opportunities for Two Summer MA in Learning Technology, led by Mike Young.

Plans are already being made for a follow-up conference on Saturday, Sept. 29, 2012.

Titled “Teaching and Learning with iPads: Apps Applied,” the conference will give educators the opportunity to bring their iPads and work directly with specific apps. Attendees will not just hear how educators are using specific apps in learning situations, but have the chance to use them.

“I believe this hands-on approach is unique for a conference, and should enable participants to feel comfortable with the technology and effectively use it to promote student learning in their classrooms,” Siegle said. “It’s pretty exciting.”

Details about the Sept. 29 conference, including how to register, will come soon.

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

Posted on May 31, 2012April 1, 2016 by

Accolades – 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

The Neag School of Education recognized the following students in the Neag Research Awards: Stephen Kilgus and Rebecca Stearns have received 2012 Outstanding Doctoral Student Researcher Award; Lesley Willis has received the 2012 Outstanding Master’s Student Researcher Award; and Briana Hennessy has received the 2012 Outstanding Teacher Candidate Researcher Award. The Neag Research Awards were established to emphasize the high value Neag School faculty and leadership place on research and to recognize those faculty, students, and alumni who are making significant contributions to knowledge in their fields through the implementation of extensive, ground-breaking, and influential research agenda.

A team of students from the Renzulli Academy of Hartford, earned top honors by a panel of accredited designers and architects at the first annual New England Design Symposium (NEDS), hosted by the Independent Day School of Middlefield. The Renzulli team, operating on a landscape theme, came up with a solution to the school’s inadequate parking lot problem. Presented with a complicated problem involving parking and student drop-off in the morning, the students offered a solution based on creating a new parking lot, widening the existing driveways, and reconfiguring IDS’s central circle.

Don Briere, a doctoral candidate, was recognized at the 9th International Conference on Positive Behavior Support in Atlanta, GA. Briere received the Outstanding Poster Presentation award, which has been established in honor of Dr. Edward (Ted) Carr. The award recipient receives a stipend from anonymous donors to the Ted Carr fund and their work is posted on various PBIS websites.

The University of Connecticut selected its 2012 Legacy Leadership Students. Out of 15 recipients, three were Neag students, including: Chris Campbell, Matt Dempsey and Meagan O’Brien. These students, individually and collectively, represent a rich diversity of leadership experiences, personal accomplishments, and academic excellence. Through their actions these Legacy Students have personified character, integrity, maturity, and the potential that lies within every UConn student.

School psychology graduate student, Marisa del Campo, made a presentation at AERA Universid 21 and she was recognized as a representative on the graduate student committee for AERA Division H: Research, Evaluation and Assessment in Schools.

Jessica Raugitinane, an IB/M student, was recognized as an Alma Exley Scholar for her dedication to public service in education.

Stephen Slota, Andrew B. Cutter, Gerard Jalette, Greg Mullin, Benedict Lai, Zeus Simeoni, Matthew Tran, and Mariya Yukhymenko, led by Professor Michael Young, published “Our Princess Is in Another Castle: A Review of Trends in Serious Gaming for Education” in Review of Educational Research.

Alumni

Monika Lopez Anuarbe is an assistant professor of economics at Connecticut College in New London, Conn. She has been a visiting assistant professor in economics at Connecticut College since fall 2010 and a visiting instructor since 2006.

Manju Banerjee, an ADHD expert, was named director of the Institute for Research and Training at Landmark College, a two-year institution in Vermont that specializes in serving students with learning disabilities and attention-deficit disorders. She earned a PhD in special education.

Miguel Cardona, principal of South Meriden, was selected as Connecticut’s National Distinguished Principal Award by the National Distinguished Principal Committee. He earned an EdD and is a current student in the executive leadership program.

Gregory Fink is assistant director of Fraternity and Sorority Life in the Department of the Student Center and Campus Life at Quinnipiac University, after previously working at the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life at UConn.

Jennifer Fullerty recently published a book entitled, Lifelong Learning. It was published by Parkgate Press and can be found on Amazon.com. She earned an EdD.

Reyhan Burcu Kaniskan won the AERA Division H Dissertation award. Burcu won first prize for her dissertation research “Assessment of Growth: A Comparison of Models for Projecting Growth. She defended her dissertation in September of 2011. She is currently employed as a psychometrician at Pearson, Inc., in San Antonio, Texas.

George R. Lanoue retired as an educator in the Killingly School System of Danielson, Conn., and lives with his wife of 50 years in Island Pond, Vt., where he writes poetry, novels, and articles for the local newspaper.

David Larson, director emeritus of CAPSS and consultant to CommPACT, was named interim superintendent for Middletown.

Sharon Misasi was inducted into Saugerties Sports Hall of Fame. Misasi earned her PhD in educational psychology/counseling psychology.

Marc Nachowitz a doctoral candidate in educational theory and practice at the University of Albany in Albany, N.Y., is the recipient of a State Farm Companies Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Award for his dissertation, “Reading for Deep Understanding: Knowledge-Building and Conceptual Artifacts in Secondary English.”

Peter Scaramuzzo, a teacher at Emolior Academy in the Bronx, was recognized by Chase Bank as a winning teacher in the “My Favorite Teacher” contest.

Keith Sevigny, a science teacher at Annie Fisher School, was recognized as Hartford Schools’ 2012 Teacher of the Year.

Peter Solomon was named Faculty Head Coach of Men’s and Women’s Swimming & Diving at Wesleyan. Solomon earned his MA in kinesiology.

Nicole Waicunas, an English teacher at EO Smith, was recognized with a Sondheim Teacher Award. She graduated with a master’s degree in gifted and talented.

Perry A. Zirkel received two awards at the recent annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, the organization’s Relating Research to Practice Award for Interpretive Scholarship and the Division A (Administration, Policy and Leadership) Research Excellence Award. She earned a master of arts in education and doctorate in educational administration.

Faculty/Staff

The School Psychology Doctoral Program was ranked No. 4 for its research productivity on authorship credit, journal article publication and citations by the Journal of School Psychology.

Three faculty were recognized by UConn’s Institute of Teaching and Learning at their awards banquet — Doug Kaufman, Catherine Little and Rene Roselle. Kaufman and Little were each recognized as University Teaching Fellows. They were the only faculty to receive the award this year. The University Teaching Fellow Award is the most prestigious award given by the university that recognizes excellence in teaching at the university. Roselle was awarded the Teaching Scholar Award and the only faculty to receive this award. This award recognizes excellence in teaching for non-tenure track faculty within the university.

The Neag School of Education recognized the following faculty members with the Neag Research Awards: Morgaen Donaldson received the 2012 Outstanding Early Career Scholar Award; Katherine Gavin received the 2012 Distinguished Researcher Award; and Lisa Sanetti also received the 2012 Outstanding Early Career Scholar Award. The Neag Research Awards were established to emphasize the high value Neag School faculty and leadership place on research and to recognize those faculty, students, and alumni who are making significant contributions to knowledge in their fields through the implementation of extensive, ground-breaking, and influential research agenda.

The Neag School of Education also recognized the following faculty members for their hard work and dedication with tenure and promotions. The individuals include:

Michael Faggella-Luby, earned tenure and promoted to associate professor

Jason Irizarry, earned tenure and promoted to associate professor

Megan Staples, earned tenure and promoted to associate professor

Casey Cobb, promoted to professor

Janet Fink, promoted to Professor

Xae Reyes, promoted to professor

John Settlage, promoted to professor

Tutita Casa, promoted to associate in residence

Jean Gubbins, promoted to professor in residence

Stephanie Mazerolle, promoted to associate in residence

John Zack, promoted to associate in residence

Melissa Bray was a featured scholar in “Strategies and attributes of highly productive scholars and contributors to the school psychology literature: Recommendations for increasing scholarly productivity,” published in the Journal of School Psychology.

Doug Casa was selected to receive the 2012 President’s Challenge Award by the National Athletic Trainers’ Association. He will be recognized at the annual meeting in June. The honor recognizes a single individual for a lifetime of outstanding contributions that have directly impacted the athletic training profession.

A manuscript that resulted from Casey Cobb’s study of Connecticut magnet schools has been accepted for publication in Education Policy Analysis Archives. He also co-authored an article “Intergroup Relations in Integrated Schools: A Glimpse Inside Interdistrict Magnet Schools” in Education Policy Analysis Archives.

Morgaen Donaldson co-authored an article “Strengthening teacher evaluation: What district leaders can do” in Educational Leadership.

Rachael Gabriel was recognized by the International Reading Association with a 2012 Elva Knight Research Grant, for the project “The Role of Teacher Language in Mediating Student Understanding During Reading Comprehension Instruction.”

NASP announced that Tom Kehle will receive the Legend in School Psychology award at NASP’s next convention.

Jennifer Lease Butts and her advisee, Alex Matiash, a graduate student in the Higher Education and Student Affairs (HESA) program, presented the results of an assessment of the UConn in Cape Town study abroad program. This assessment had been a year-long project involving Lease Butts, a faculty member in the HESA program, and Dr. Ana-Raluca Nahorniac, a program specialist in the Office of Global Programs.

Jennifer Lease Butts, Sue Saunders, and Alex Matiash presented High Impact Practices for Teaching and Conducting Assessment Projects at the American College Personnel Association Conference annual convention.

Melissa Madaus was invited to publish an online article, with her graduate assistant Laura Ruberto, “Application of self-modeling to externalizing and internalizing disorders” in the journal Psychology in the Schools. Madaus also co-presented with Michael Faggella-Luby on “Keeping up with the Joneses: National Post-School Outcome Collection Practices and Keys to Success” at the Annual Capacity Building Institute.

Anysia Mayer has been elected to serve as Program Chair of the Tracking and Detracking SIG for 2012-2015. Her term begins after the conclusion of the 2012 Annual Meeting.

Yuhang Rong gave the Commencement Address at the Southern Connecticut Chinese School graduation. Rong was named chair of AACTE’s Global Diversity Committee and participated as a panelist on “The Policy and Politics of Global Teacher Education” at the AACTE conference in Chicago. In addition, he presented “Clinically Based Teacher Education in the US” at the AERA-Universitas 21 Educations Deans Conference.

Sue Saunders co-presented a program entitled “Supervision strategies for early career professionals: Creating new possibilities” at the American College Personnel Association Conference.

Richard Schwab has a book chapter out in Attaining an Academic Appointment. In addition, he was elected to serve on the university-wide “Committee of Three” for a three-year term. The Committee of Three functions in faculty dismissal and grievance procedures. Complaints involving promotion, tenure, and reappointment decisions may be brought to the Committee of Three only at the end of a sequence of peer review procedures, including those of the Faculty Review Board.

Rebecca Stearns and Kelly Pagnotta, with the Korey Stringer Institute, presented “Exertional Heat Illness” at the Mercy Sports Medicine Conference.

Class of 2012: Melanie Rodriguez

Posted on May 31, 2012December 8, 2016 by

Melanie Rodriguez ’11 (ED), ’12 MA. (Peter Morenus/UConn Photo)

As the first person in her immediate family to go to college, Melanie Rodriguez ʼ11 (ED), ʼ12 MA grew up getting her ideas of what university life is like from books and movies.

“I couldnʼt ask my parents what going to college was like,” she says, although older cousins and teachers did also play a role in shaping her perceptions of life on a college campus.

Rodriguez had wanted to be a teacher since kindergarten, and to achieve her ambition she needed a college degree. With the Neag School of Educationʼs Integrated Bachelor’s/Masterʼs in elementary education ranking among Americaʼs top 25 teacher education programs, UConn was her No. 1 choice. But after growing up in Bridgeport, the prospect of living in Storrs was very different.

“Coming from the city, Storrs was a culture shock,” she says.

Rodriguez was fortunate to have support from UConnʼs Student Support Services (SSS) program, a pillar of the Universityʼs commitment to helping first-generation college students succeed.

“SSS helped me make a great transition from high school to college and prepare myself for the academic workload,” Rodriguez says. “I made connections with amazing mentors.”

Those initial connections started what became a hallmark of Rodriguezʼs UConn career. “I really just dove in, got to meet a lot of different people, and formed friendships,” she says.

She has since gone on to win the Neag Schoolʼs William Randolph Hearst Scholarship, Connecticutʼs Minority Teacher Scholarship, an American Association of University Women Scholarship, and an SSS grant.

In addition to the student teaching that is a cornerstone of teacher education programs, UConnʼs program also requires its prospective educators to intern in a school system. This more administrative experience facilitates networking with principals, vice principals, secretaries, people in a school districtʼs central office such as curriculum specialists, and even the superintendent. During her masterʼs year in the Neag program, Rodriguez served her internship at Hartfordʼs Clark Elementary and Middle School and seized the opportunity to make a permanent difference.

While some interns wrote a report suggesting how to solve a particular schoolʼs problem, Rodriguez and another Neag intern actually closed a gap in the Clark Schoolʼs academic offerings by resurrecting the schoolʼs library, which had fallen into disuse. Youngsters at the school will now once again have a school library, thanks to the UConn studentsʼ work.

Rodriguez and her colleague entered a Facebook contest sponsored by the We Give Books organization. Like all the other contestants, the two posted a photo on the social network of a child being read to. The photo that received the most “likes” would win $500 to spend on books as the winner desired.

“We won the contest!” says Rodriguez. “Iʼm an RA at UConn and I sent it out to the RA listserve and to everyone in Neag – ʻplease “like” this photo.ʼ We had over 2,000 ʻlikes!ʼ” Along with winning the contest, the pair held seven book drives throughout Connecticut, and received a donation from Scholastic Books, reopening the library with a total of 8,000 books.

Having expanded her comfort zone to forge personal and professional relationships and obtain her education, Rodriguez now hopes to give back to her community by obtaining a teaching job in Bridgeport.

Class of 2012: Rebecca Stearns

Posted on May 31, 2012February 16, 2023 by

Rebecca Stearns Itʼs hard to match UConn Kinesiology Professor Douglas J. Casaʼs energy and dedication when it comes to protecting athletes from exertional heat stroke and promoting the research of UConnʼs Korey Stringer Institute for the prevention of sudden death in sport.

But the instituteʼs rise as a major research, advocacy, and educational resource for schools and athletes across the country would not have been possible without the tireless efforts of Rebecca Stearns, a UConn doctoral student who currently serves as the Instituteʼs vice-president of operations and director of education.

The past year has been a busy one for Stearns, who juggled her dissertation preparations around a hectic travel schedule. Over the past 12 months, Stearns has been flying around the country lobbying for better high school athlete safety protocols in places like Missouri and Florida. The Instituteʼs goal is to get all 50 states to adopt new guidelines that will phase in intense summer practice sessions for high school athletes, who are particularly prone to exertional heat stroke if they push their bodies too hard too soon in the summer heat.

A certified athletic trainer and researcher with UConnʼs Human Performance Lab, Stearns specializes in research dealing with the impact of heat and hydration on sport performance. She has served as the lead author on several journal publications, written book chapters, and co-authored position statements related to preventing sudden death in sport and creating proper safety guidelines for collegiate sport conditioning sessions. For her doctoral thesis, Stearns studied the influence of cold water immersion on muscle recovery and performance in elite athletes participating in the Kona Ironman World Championships.

Last month, Stearns gave a presentation on improving athlete safety before the National Football Leagueʼs Players Association in New York City. The Korey Stringer Institute, part of UConnʼs Department of Kinesiology in the Neag School of Education, is named after the former NFL player who died of complications from heat stroke following a pre-season training camp in 2001. The NFL is one of the Instituteʼs sponsors, along with Gatorade and TIMEX.

“Becca has played an integral role in the creation, development, and implementation of the Korey Stringer Institute,” says Casa. “From the start, she has been the in-the-trenches colleague that has allowed the KSI to work toward its goal of preventing sudden death in sport.

“Becca has done more as a doctoral student than most professors do in the first 10 years of their career,” Casa continues. “Keynote talks at major meetings, webinars for national organizations, meetings with executives from Fortune 100 companies, working on policy changes for major sporting organizations … the KSI would not be the KSI without her.”

Stearnsʼ accomplishments are particularly impressive given the fact that she almost didnʼt make it into UConnʼs kinesiology graduate program, considered the top doctoral program in the country by the National Academy of Kinesiology.

If Stearns has a weakness, itʼs testing. She smiles as she talks about it today. But she admits that when she first enrolled at UConn, she had not passed a section of her athletic trainer certification and almost lost her spot in the program, which required her to serve her graduate assistantship as an athletic trainer at a local high school. But Casa and Professor Carl Maresh, the kinesiology department head, saw Stearnsʼ potential and rerouted her into a research assistantʼs post until she passed the test. The rest, as they say, is history.

“I wouldnʼt be where I am today if they had not done that,” says Stearns. “Iʼm not a test-taker. I attribute my success to just working hard.”

Stearnsʼ hard work is reflected in the Korey Stringer Instituteʼs success. Since its founding in April 2010, the institute has become a major research and advocacy center working with states, organizations and athletes around the country.

Always an athlete, Stearns says she also has a passion for science. Her father is a chemist; her mother, a nurse. She became interested in being an athletic trainer after shadowing an athletic trainer for a day at the University of Rochester when she was a high school student in New York. She said athletic training offers a perfect combination of two things she really enjoys.

“I like the excitement that comes from being the first responder on site,” Stearns says. “I also can relate to that passion athletes have for wanting to perform at their best. I really enjoy being the person who can keep people healthy, and essentially aid in that whole process of maximizing an athleteʼs performance.”

Stearns says athletic training has come a long way from the stereotyped image of a trainer on the sideline with a towel, a water bottle, and a bag of ice. Todayʼs athletic trainers use computer diagnostics and remote body sensors to make sure athletes are obtaining peak performance and quick muscle recovery. While they still are often the first ones to treat an athleteʼs injury during competition, athletic trainers are also an integral part of athletesʼ training preparations, keeping them safe and helping them improve while avoiding injury.

No longer limited to the sidelines, todayʼs athletic trainers are also in the board room, helping coaches and teams avoid injuries, set policy, and improve performance. Stearns cited recent concerns about concussions in the NFL as one area where athletic trainers have played a key role.

“Weʼre the ones who are on the field and who work with the athletes every day, so we can help bring these issues to light,” says Stearns. “We know that concussions caused by a traumatic blow can have serious, even fatal, consequences. But as athletic trainers, weʼre also bringing to light the damage that can be done by sub-concussive blows, those that may not be immediately measurable but over time can have long-term implications on memory and cause other health deficits.”

Stearns would like to see the same attention given to concussions currently applied to exertional heat stroke in the near future, especially at the high school level.

Unlike the NFL or the NCAA, the National Federation of State High School Associations does not dictate what each state should do in terms of preparing students for interscholastic sports. So it is part of the KSIʼs mission to convince each state to adopt new acclimatization guidelines in order to reduce the risk of exertional heat stroke, which can be fatal.

“If you acclimatize athletes prior to the start of intense training and exercise – if you let their bodies adjust to their environment – you can reduce a lot of heat illnesses, injuries, and potential cases of heat stroke,” says Stearns. “Thatʼs one of the biggest things weʼre doing to protect athletes.”

In the past nine months, five states – New Jersey, Texas, Connecticut, Georgia, and North Carolina – have adopted the guidelines promoted by the KSI. The Institute is currently working with 10 other states that are actively considering doing so.

Message from the Dean

Posted on May 31, 2012December 8, 2016 by

Not long ago, during a trip to the West Coast, I met with a UConn alum working in the biotech field. During our conversation, he mentioned he could not hire college graduates to work in his company because the graduates he interviewed had strong technical backgrounds but lacked both written and oral communication skills, or vice-versa. His belief was that the U. S. educational system fails to educate students with the necessary competencies to be successful in the 21^st century workplace.

I’ve heard this story many times before, and as, dean of the Neag School of Education, take the message seriously. Although there is no magic bullet to fix the problem, steps are being taken by us and other leaders in education to provide the necessary context – and action – to affect a change that will make a difference. So what exactly is the problem we face and the steps we’re taking?

The U.S. public education system consists of about 55 million students in 14,000 local school districts and 99,000 schools. Approximately 45 percent of these public schools students are children of color, with almost 20 percent from families below the federal poverty line and more than 40 percent eligible for free or reduced-price school lunches. More than 90 percent of funding for public schools comes from state and local sources, with most key educational policies determined at the state and local levels. However, the federal government plays a limited but influential role in K-12 education through requirements are attached to federal funds.

In Connecticut, the story is similar. A little more than one-third of Connecticut’s public schools students are children of color, with 11.3 percent from families below the poverty line and 32.3 percent eligible for free or reduced-priced school lunches. Approximately 5.3 percent qualify as Limited English Proficient, while 12.2 percent require special accommodations as special education students.

This brief overview paints a picture of K-12 schools as complex organizations where oversight and instruction are shaped by superintendents, principals, teachers, students, parents, unions, accreditation processes and state and federal policy makers. Programs like No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top – as well as the prevailing winds from Washington — impact the day-to-day operations of schools across our nation, and, ultimately, how U.S. students achieve.

International and national test comparisons of these achievements show mixed results. For example, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), commonly referred to as the nation’s report card, found that since the 1990s, 4^th and 8^th grade students’ reading and math scores have increased, while 12^th graders’ reading scores have decreased. Further, there has been little progress in narrowing the achievement gaps between white and African American, Latino and Native American students. Students from low-income families also have lower average test scores than students from higher-income families. In addition, more than 25 percent of students fail to graduate from high school in four years. For African-American and Hispanic students, this number is approaching 40 percent.

While the NAEP scores of students in Connecticut are “slightly better” than the national average, state scores overall are bleak. African-American and Hispanic 4^th and 8^th graders, for example, scored as much as 35 points below white students in both mathematics and reading. Statistics also show that while last year 89 percent of white and Asian students graduated high school within four years, only 69 percent of African-American students, 64 percent of Hispanic students and 63 percent of low-income students achieved the same goal.

The issues of student achievement and the achievement gap are of particular concern in Connecticut. As previously mentioned, the gap in scores between white students and students of color, as well as between low-income and non-low-income students, is unacceptable and, in fact, the largest of any state in the country. Connecticut’s achievement gap is a real and complex problem, and closing the gap will take a sustained and comprehensive effort from educational stakeholders, unions, parents and policy makers from across the state.

To help remedy the situation, Governor Malloy declared 2012 the “Year for Education Reform” and, recently, signed an education reform bill that has the potential to reshape and improve Connecticut’s educational landscape. Translating research into practice is oftentimes difficult. However, the Neag School of Education is committed to improving the academic performance, health and well-being of ALL children in this state, and we are positioned to do so because of a very special gift given to the school over a decade ago.

In 1999, Mr. Raymond Neag, a successful businessman, entrepreneur and gentleman, decided to invest in education and made a very generous gift to the school of education. His gift transformed the school, turning it into one of the premier schools of education in the nation. Today, according to the latest US News & World Report, the Neag School of Education is ranked #32 among all graduate schools of education in the nation, the #1 public graduate school of education in the Northeast and #22 among all public graduate schools of education. Additionally, our Elementary Teacher Education program is ranked #14 in the nation, while the Secondary Teacher Education program is #17 in the nation. That is impressive, given there are more than 1,400 teacher preparation programs in this country! In addition, our doctoral program in the Department of Kinesiology remains the #1 ranked program in the nation.

Further evidence of the strength of our teacher and administrator preparation programs is documented by yearly assessments and through research on our graduates. For example, research studies on our teacher graduates found that in a limited number of school districts across Connecticut, elementary students being taught by Neag graduates outperformed students taught by all the other teachers in those districts on the mathematics portion of the Connecticut Mastery Test. Similar results were found in reading.

As I look to the future, our vision is clear—the Neag School is dedicated to developing a team of faculty committed to conducting research and working collaboratively with educators, parents, unions, legislators and state department of education personnel to turn around our lowest performing schools in Connecticut. Building on the strength of our nationally ranked teacher and administrator preparation programs, we have developed a plan to do so. Designed to help schools establish climates more conducive to learning, the plan incorporates comprehensive and sustained professional development opportunities to improve school leadership and teacher quality, enhance professional development and provide technical assistance. It also assists with meaningful wrap-around services like parental engagement, after school programs, mental health and disability supports, community service and alternative learning programs. We also are committed to developing a research agenda around the work of closing the achievement gap, and providing school leaders with the tools and systems that can enhance turn-around decisions in support of low-performing schools.

As we move forward on our initiative of closing the achievement gap, we need to be mindful that performing well on high-stakes tests is a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition in educating students. In addition to closing the scores, we need a comprehensive and sustained plan to insure students have acquired the skills needed to enter college and contribute to Connecticut’s workforce.

When Mr. Neag gave his gift he stated, “I saw this gift as an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of thousands of schoolchildren in Connecticut and the nation.” At the Neag School, we take his words very seriously. As a school, our mission is clear: We are committed to producing highly effective teachers, principals, superintendents, researchers, exercise scientists and physical therapists in order to improve the academic performance, health and well-being of ALL children in this state and across the nation.

Today, more than ever, teachers and administrators need to look beyond the classroom and be advocates for children, especially those in our most challenging schools. Closing the achievement gap is both an economic and moral imperative for the future of our state as well as the children of Connecticut. The work will be difficult and costly. However, it is important that concerned citizens like you support the work and become an integral part of the conversation. Have a great summer!

Warmly,

Thomas C. DeFranco

Dean

Neag Grad Publishes Fourth Book on College Presidents

Posted on May 31, 2012February 17, 2023 by

Decades of Chaos and Revolution JFK’s assassination; the civil rights, women’s and free speech movements; Vietnam; the Cold War; and an array of social inequities made the 1960s and ’70s one of the most compelling and challenging eras in not just the history of the United States, but in the history of higher education.

Neag School of Education graduate Steve Nelson, ’96, focuses much of his book “Decades of Chaos and Revolution: Showdowns for College Presidents” on this timeframe, sharing both his perspective and college presidents’ own words to tell a story that both analyzes and argues the impact of college presidents past and present.

“College presidents in the 1960s through about 1975 faced events that shook the foundations of academia, and today’s college presidents are grappling with many of the same parallel issues and, really, much of the same chaos and criticisms that presidents 50 years ago also experienced,” said Nelson, a Rhode Island resident and associate professor of educational leadership at Bridgewater State University. “What I do in this book is throw out a lot of ideas for people to read, chew over and take me on if they wish.”

Published in March by Rowman & Littlefield, this is Nelson’s fourth book about the successes and challenges of U.S. colleges presidents. It’s an interest Nelson said emerged in the mid-1990s while working on his PhD in higher education administration at UConn, under the guidance of now-retired professor William Jellema, PhD, who was Nelson’s advisor.

“I told Dr. Jellema that I was interested in how college presidents use rhetoric to command a public stage, and that turned into both my dissertation and my first book, ‘The Moral Voice of College Presidents,’ ” said Nelson, also a senior scholar in the 32-member academic Leadership Alliance at Brown University. “Some people are natural born researchers, and I discovered that not only did I have researching in my blood, but a real passion for college presidents and becoming a champion, of sorts, for their role as intellectual leaders. Thus, the four books.”

His other earlier titles include “Leaders in the Crossroads: Success and Failure in the College Presidency” and “Leaders in the Labyrinth: College Presidents and the Battleground of Creeds and Convictions.”

In “Decades of Chaos and Revolution,” Nelson compares college presidents of the ’60s and ’70s with those of the early 21st century, questioning which, of the two eras, required more profound leadership.

“It’s not giving anything away to say that I believe the 1960s to the mid-1970s was the most difficult for college presidents in the entire history of higher education in America. That to me is the bottom line, and I really feel this most recent book is my best.”

Neag Alumnus Jack Hayes Named Athletic Director at Brown

Posted on May 31, 2012December 8, 2016 by

Jack Hayes (’92), currently director of athletics at Hofstra University, has been named director of athletics at Brown University. Hayes will begin his work at Brown July 1, 2012, succeeding Michael Goldberger.

“We have recently affirmed the significant role of athletics at Brown and initiated an important set of improvements to the program,” Brown President Ruth J. Simmons said. “Jack Hayes offers the leadership experience to carry through successfully on the goals that have been set and the measures that have been put in place under the exceptional tenure of Michael Goldberger.”

As director of athletics at Brown, Hayes will have responsibility for 37 varsity teams and their coaches, as well as 17 intercollegiate teams that compete at the club level. The Department of Athletics and Physical Education also supports an extensive intramural program, organizes exercise classes for faculty and staff, and manages the University’s athletic facilities, from satellite fitness centers in residential halls to the ice rink, swimming pool, and varsity facilities. A major new athletic complex, including an aquatic center, fitness center, and varsity strength and conditioning facility, will be put into service soon and dedicated in May.

“During two decades as a university sports administrator, Jack Hayes has developed a deep understanding of the role of athletics — how it can thrive in an academic setting and how it can enrich the campus experience for all students,” Klawunn said. “He is well prepared to help Brown athletics achieve its very promising future.”

Hayes is a native of Providence, graduating from Providence Country Day School, where he lettered in football, basketball, and lacrosse. He attended Providence College, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1989 and was a member of the varsity lacrosse team. After graduation, he completed a sports information internship at Brown University, then headed to the University of Connecticut for graduate school, earning a master’s degree in the Neag School of Education with a concentration in sport management.

Hayes has more than 20 years of experience in university sports administration. He served at Fairfield, St. John’s, and Fordham universities before his appointment as associate director at the University of Connecticut in 2001. At Connecticut, he had responsibilities for fundraising, including annual giving, major gifts, and coordination of capital project campaigns. He also represented Connecticut’s Division of Athletics as a public speaker at donor, alumni and community events.

Hayes moved to his current position at Hofstra in 2004. In addition to full responsibility for managing staffing, budget, fundraising, and facilities, Hayes has focused on achieving and sustaining a higher level of academic and athletic achievement. Hofstra varsity teams have averaged greater than a 3.0 GPA during his tenure, with 10 academic all-American honors and 16 conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year awards. The teams have been competitive, with 21 Colonial Athletic Association championships and 35 post-season appearances, including 26 NCAA tournaments.

“I am thrilled with the opportunity to go to Brown,” Hayes said. “Brown’s tradition of academic and athletic excellence was the principal factor in my candidacy for the position. I look forward to returning to Providence and beginning my work with Brown’s coaches, staff, and student athletes.”

A Teacher at Heart

Posted on May 31, 2012December 8, 2016 by

Wendy Glenn says there are two reasons she will always be a teacher at heart, even though today she is also a Fulbright Scholar, an expert in young adult literature, and associate professor of curriculum and instruction in the Neag School of Education.

“Iʼve always loved books; Iʼve always loved writing,” says Glenn. “The second had more to do with the opportunity to build meaningful relationships with kids.”

One way in which she connects with students is through her interest in Young Adult (YA) literature.

Written for students 12 to 18 years old, YA literature has exploded in recent years as publishers realize that teenagers have more expendable income than in the past. Glenn puts these works through a critical literary lens, showing they can be evaluated like the classics.

“My work now is not only looking at these works from a critical perspective, but also thinking about the readers who will ultimately be picking them up,” says Glenn. “YA lit features voices of people who we donʼt often hear, [who] expose us to the reality that not everybody sees the world the way we do.”

Itʼs that reality that brought Glenn to Norway as a Fulbright Scholar. For 10 months, the Arizona native worked with students in grades 8, 9, and 10 to help undermine the stereotypical portrayal Norwegian students have from watching American television, listening to American music, and reading American newspapers.

With topics like censorship in American public schools, the teenage experience in America and around the world, representations of young people of color in America, and sports, Glenn offered a more complicated view of what it means to be an American living in America.

“I visited probably 45 different schools in every region of Norway,” says Glenn. “From the more urban, densely populated city communities, to tiny, tiny towns where there were 15 students enrolled in the entire school, to schools along the coast, to schools where the polar bears live on the archipelago of Svalbard, religious schools, liberal schools, everything and anything in between. It was unbelievable.”

Glenn also provided professional development for teachers in those classroom communities, modeling different teaching practices for use in their schools. Changing demographics are bringing more immigrants to Norway, and with them come different cultures and languages. “In the U.S., weʼve supported language immersion for a long time,” says Glenn. “How do you teach a group of 20 students when five or six of them speak a language thatʼs not Norwegian as their primary language?”

Now home, Glenn is back in American classrooms co-teaching with former students.

“I think itʼs really important for faculty in teacher education to keep a foot in both of those worlds,” says Glenn. “I donʼt know if we can effectively prepare future teachers if weʼre not aware of the realities of schooling today and what teachers are grappling with. To me, that connection to schools is really important.”

Neag Alumni Society Recognizes Outstanding Alumni

Posted on May 31, 2012July 6, 2020 by

2012 Neag Alumni Awardees — 2012 Neag School Alumni Awardees, pictured L-R, top row: Dr. Anthony R. Artino, Dr. Thomas P. Hebert, Dean Thomas C. DeFranco, Dr. Avron Abraham, Dr. Les Sternberg and Dr. Carol Garber. (bottom row, L-R) Kimberly Ruiz, Claudia Norman, Dr. Marcia Gentry, Mary Duffy Zupkus and Dr. Mary P. Conway.

On the “Rate My Professors” website, where students across the US rate and comment on their professors – both good and bad – Dr. Thomas Hébert has three 5.0 ratings on a 5.0 scale for overall quality, helpfulness and clarity. While his rating on easiness is a 1.5 out of 5.0, he would probably be okay with that, since he is an outstanding educator and strives for excellence. Although the website does not provide scientific data or compare to the academic research that’s conducted by Neag School students, alumni and faculty, it does provide a glimpse to what Hébert represents to excellence in education.

As the Neag School of Education’s Outstanding Alumnus of the Year, Hébert has a long history of excellence, and his students at the University of Georgia, where he’s currently a professor of educational psychology, agree: “He is so passionate about gifted students and his work and definitely relays that to his class. He’s a great professor and it does require work, but it’s worth it.”

Another student thinks he’s a “wonderful professor, passionate about the subject. Incredibly useful if you are/will be a teacher. Definitely assignment-rigorous, but he does everything he can to help you.”

His students recognize his expertise, but he’s also a nationally recognized leader in gifted education. Hébert teaches graduate courses in gifted and creative education, as well as qualitative research methods. His research focuses on social and emotional development of gifted students, underachievement in high-ability students, culturally diverse gifted students and problems faced by gifted young men.

Hébert has more than a decade of classroom experience working with K-12 gifted students and almost 20 years in higher education training graduate students and educators.

Neag’s own Dr. Joseph Renzulli, who has known Hébert for all of those 20 years, provided the nomination along with the introduction during the awards ceremony.

“He was an outstanding teacher in a gifted program in Connecticut and in the Department of Defense Schools, is a national expert in gifted education and the social/emotional needs of gifted and talented children,” said Dr. Renzulli in the nomination. “Tom is an outstanding teacher, has exceled in research, and has served in many capacities for the (National Association for Gifted Children), including being a member of the Board of Directors.”

Dr. Renzulli recalled, “From the time he graduated from our doctoral program, he has focused on the identification and development of programs for the gifted and the social and emotional needs of gifted students, gifted males, and culturally diverse students.

“This is clear from the extensive number of publications and invitations to contribute chapters on these topics in books edited by leading scholars in the field,” he continued.

Dr. Renzulli mentioned how Dr. Hébert is a fine teacher, having won multiple teaching accolades and awards including, most recently, the Ira Aaron Award for Teaching Excellence and Collegiality at the University of Georgia.

The key word Dr. Renzulli highlighted is “collegiality.”

“Tom has a keen ability to collaborate with a variety of individuals at his university and in the field at large. His personal skills, his thoughtful and sensitive way of working with colleagues and his graduate students, and his all around ‘nice guy’ demeanor have made him a pleasure to work with over the years,” continued Dr. Renzulli.

“I would unequivocally rank him as one of the top two or three doctoral graduates from our program at the University of Connecticut and a major influence among the current generation of leaders in the field.”

Coming from Renzulli, the national gifted and talented guru, that’s a tremendous compliment.

“This evening was memorable as faculty and alumni gathered to formally recognize the achievements of some of our outstanding graduates,” said Dr. Thomas DeFranco, dean of the Neag School of Education. “Our award recipients are educators who have made significant contributions across all levels of education. We know that you will agree with our outstanding selection of alumni to honor.”

Other honorees during the Awards Dinner included the following:

The Outstanding Higher Education Professional is Dr. Marcia Gentry, Sixth Year Diploma in Special Education ’92, Ph.D ’96, professor of educational studies and executive director of the Gifted Education Resource Institute at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN.

The Outstanding School Administrator is Claudia Norman, Sixth Year Diploma in Educational Administration ’98, co-principal of Lewin G. Joel Elementary School in Clinton, CT.

The Outstanding School Educator is Kimberly Ruiz, BS ’99, MA ’00, fourth grade teacher at Dorothy C. Goodwin Elementary School in Mansfield, CT.

The Outstanding Kinesiology Professional is Dr. Avron Abraham, MA ’82, Ph.D ’90, director of the Center for Academic Success and University Studies and associate professor in the Department of Health and Exercise Science at the University of Delaware in Newark, DE.

The Outstanding Physical Therapy Professional is Mary Duffy Zupkus, PT ’73, president and clinical director of Physical Therapy Associates of Concord, in Concord MA.

The Outstanding Professional is Dr. Les Sternberg, ’68 BA, ’70 MA, ’73 Ph.D, special advisor to the provost of the University of South Carolina (USC), and previously served as dean of the College of Education at USC in Columbia, SC.

The Outstanding Young Professional is Dr. Anthony R. Artino, Jr., ’08 Ph.D, associate professor with the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and commander in the Medical Service Corps of the US Navy, both in Bethesda, MD.

The Outstanding School Superintendent is Dr. Mary P. Conway, Sixth Year Diploma in Educational Administration ’95, Ed.D. ’05, superintendent of schools in Vernon, CT.

The Alumni Distinguished Research Award was given to two individuals:

Dr. Marcia Gentry, Sixth Year Diploma in Special Education ’92, Ph.D ’96, professor of educational studies and executive director of the Gifted Education Resource Institute at Purdue University
Dr. Carol Garber, BS ’75, MA ’83, Ph.D ’96 is associate professor of movement sciences and education at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York, N.Y. She serves as vice president of the American College of Sports Medicine.

For more information on the Neag School of Education or the Neag Alumni Society, visit www.education.uconn.edu.