Neag Alumnus Elected President of the National School Boards Association

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Mary Broderick has always gravitated toward education. As an English major undergraduate, she had just completed her MBA when she first moved to East Lyme, CT. At the time, her children were very young and she started attending board of education meetings for the East Lyme school system, which had 2,600 students (it’s now up to 3,300 students). She quickly got hooked: that was 1989 and she hasn’t looked back since.

She first began with writing reports of the board meetings, which were used for the PTA newsletters. Board elections were coming up and board members approached her about running for a position. Broderick was successful in getting elected and her MBA, from the University of Toronto, prepared her for effective school board governance, since she understood finance and budgets, community engagement and marketing, and motivating staff.  She became very involved with the East Lyme school board, serving as board chairperson for two terms and a myriad of committee chair roles, when the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education (CABE) came calling in the early 1990s. During that time, she also worked closely with the Connecticut Department of Education on issues ranging from preschool education to teacher recruitment and mental health issues.

Her leadership skills and education knowledge proved beneficial while serving on the CABE’s board of directors.  She then progressed to a two-year term as president of CABE in 2002. Broderick’s passion and enthusiasm for education and advocacy on behalf of public school children grew and she felt compelled to serve at the national level and she was elected to serve on the National School Boards Association (NSBA) board of directors in 2005. NSBA leaders saw her potential too, and recently elected her president of the national organization for a one-year term. She had previously served as secretary-treasurer and president-elect.

“We are delighted to have Mary Broderick, who has such a long history of board leadership and advocacy on behalf of students in public education, as NSBA’s new president,” said Anne L. Bryant, Executive Director of NSBA. “Mary brings her ability to create an effective vision for public education and her skills at reaching those goals to the arena of local school governance.”

Broderick will draw on her experiences to hone in on traits that bolster environments for students to flourish and said those characteristics can be incorporated by school officials across the country.

“Student success must be the priority,” Broderick said.  “I look forward, as NSBA president, to hearing from and working with educational leaders at all levels to encourage new investments in innovation to promote student learning.”

In her “spare” time, which is obviously quite spare, she recently completed a Ed.D. in Educational Leadership at UConn’s Neag School of Education. Broderick, now officially Dr. Broderick, focused her dissertation on the practices of superintendents in school districts outperforming demographically similar districts. She was able to integrate academic research with her 20+ years of school board leadership experience and advocacy, an ideal combination for her role as NSBA president.

The decision to pursue an Ed.D. was “actually someone else’s brilliant idea” recalled Broderick.  “We had a dynamic superintendent (at East Lyme) who wanted to bring doctoral opportunities to a number of talented administrators and teachers in our region,” she said. “He first talked UConn into offering a cohort in our area, then he encouraged me and others to apply. He thought it would be interesting for me to get a credential for all the work I’d been doing in my then 16 years on the local board.”

Broderick selected the Neag School of Education’s program due to the School’s strong reputation and she had met some of the professors. “I thought I would be able to study some interesting topics. Plus, it was offering a local Ed.D. cohort, so it was feasible.”

Her Ed.D. has already helped her professionally. The speech she gave before the 5,000 NBSA annual conference attendees was closely tied to her dissertation work. She also continues to use many the concepts she studied at Neag in her columns and speeches.

“Thanks to my course work, I am well-informed about motivation and adult learning, which allows me to offer alternative perspectives to many current issues (like value-added compensation),” she continued.

In addition to her role of NBSA president, Broderick works with communities on efforts to improve odds of early school success as an educational consultant with the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund. She also supports communities across the state in conducting conversations about educational topics of their choosing. Broderick previously worked as a facilitator for the Community Coalition for Children and in higher education in financial aid and admissions at Wheelock College.

With 20+ years of school board leadership experience behind her, along with completing her Ed.D., Broderick has some sage advice for fellow education leaders. “Take the time to build a strong team, empowering school board members as well as staff,” offered Broderick. “When the district and community – especially through the board – are aligned behind a common vision, great learning can happen. CABE and NSBA offer tools to help boards and superintendents work together more effectively.”

Broderick thinks it’s important to avail oneself to those tools for the sake of the students. “School board governance is very important to ensure that communities own and support their schools.”

At the end of the day, it’s all about the students.

Endowed Chair Will Memorialize a Beloved Sister

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Ray Neag, CLAS ’56, grew up in a working-class family that embraced giving. His father was a molder in a foundry in Torrington, Conn., a heavy smoker who worked each day with molten metal that so desensitized his fingertips that he could – and did – stub his cigarettes out on them without feeling any pain.

The son laughs heartily at the memory, but rejoices even more fully in his parents’ generosity.

“We sort of grew up understanding that if you had enough to eat and a good home, you should share your fortune with other people,” says Ray, who with his wife Carole has emerged as UConn’s most avid and generous supporter. “They brought us up in an era when everybody shared whatever they could. There was no selfishness.”

Ray Neag’s mother died when he was 10, and his older sisters stepped in to raise the family. Among them was Letitia Neag, whose loving and kindly nature Neag remembers with particular fondness. Letitia Neag Morgan died last October, leaving a devoted collection of family and friends. Ray and Carole Neag wanted to pay tribute to her caring nature, and have given $1.5 million to create the Letitia Neag Morgan Chair for Educational Psychology in the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut.

“Our focus is UConn,” says Ray Neag, “and in thinking about what to do with some of our good fortune, we thought that because education was so important to Letitia, wouldn’t this be a nice way to honor her?”

Their enthusiasm for this particular gift, one given in tribute to a woman they both loved and admired, is evident. They delight in remembering Letitia, and interrupt one another’s sentences in their eagerness to recall stories about her spontaneity and generosity.

“She was a wonderful mother, and she loved being with the children,” Ray Neag says. “And she far preferred making cookies with them to making the beds.”

She had a way with older people as well.

“She had a wonderful capacity for caring for people, and a kindness and gentleness,” Carole Neag says. “Here’s an example: Letitia was Episcopalian, but every Sunday, she would pick up one lady, an elderly retired schoolteacher, and take her to the Catholic Church. Letitia sat with her there week after week, and the priest finally said to her, ‘Mrs. Morgan, you’re here all the time but I don’t see you on our registry.’ And Letitia said, ‘Well, Father, I’d like to join. But I belong to the Episcopalian church up the street.’”

And Carole Neag laughs and laughs, because the story is so typical Letitia, a woman who helped other souls throughout her life, and was sure to take care of her own too.

Her obituary in the Torrington Register-Citizen is evidence of a life well-lived and fondly remembered: “She loved to read and she loved Torrington. She loved singing and music, ice water, her church, her Romanian heritage, and her friends. She loved family occasions and holidays. She filled every event with her personality and her energy. She was so proud of her children that she talked about them more than she should have sometimes. She was the best mother, grandmother, aunt, and friend that anyone could have. She took care of many people as a Head Start teacher’s aide, a nurse’s and home health aide, and a grandma. She was the light in every room and the heart of her family. Throughout her life, her most joyful occasions were times spent with her children and grandchildren. Letitia’s life is a testimony to simple gifts and pleasures: time with those you love, swimming on a sunny day, a snow storm, a rain shower; singing hymns, reading on a quiet afternoon, and jet skiing on her 80th birthday – all were regarded as celebrations of life and gifts of joy.”

Letitia Neag Morgan can now add one more accomplishment: a chair that will support education at the University of Connecticut, where so many of her loved ones received their education.

“This gift will help UConn with its goals to get the brightest and the best,” her brother says, “and Letitia would have liked that.”

To give to the Neag School of Education at UConn, please contact the Foundation’s development department.

Failing Bright Kids: Connecticut Schools Struggle to Retain Gifted-student Programs

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Stock image: girl on violinNigel Hayes, 9, of Frenchtown Elementary School in Trumbull, looks forward to Wednesdays.

That’s when he and 23 other fourth-graders identified as academically gifted in the district converge on Middlebrook School to spend the morning exploring issues not addressed in their assigned classrooms.

One recent day, they were investigating the relationship between red knot birds and horseshoe crabs and the interdependence between a bird that migrates from South America to the Arctic each year and the eggs of a Delaware Bay crab whose blood is used to test the purity of medicines. When asked by the teacher about their interdependence, hands fly up into the air.

Hayes said it’s nice not to be the only one with his hand up. It’s often frustrating to go back to his regular class and review things he already knows.

Hayes is one of the luckier gifted students in the region. For at least another academic year, Trumbull is managing to hold onto its gifted program, although it is smaller than it once was, said Assistant Schools Superintendent Gary Cialfi. Once at five teachers, there are now two spread six elementary schools.

In other districts, faced with increasingly difficult budget situations, programs that target academically gifted students are becoming scarce.

Bridgeport is poised next year to lose its 24-year-old gifted education program that serves more than 250 students across the district. Monroe lost its pull-out gifted program some years ago. Seymour. Ansonia, Easton, Derby are without gifted programs. Only two districts in the region, Milford and Fairfield, are managing to bolster their gifted programs next year.

Even the University of Connecticut‘s Neag Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development has a funding cut. It lost a $1.7 million research grant and a separate $400,000 reading grant.

Dr. Sally Reis Renzulli, principal researcher at the center, called the state of gifted education in Connecticut embarrassing.

“It’s way down. Every year at budget time, gifted (programs) almost always are the first or second to go,” said Renzulli. She believes it to be a contributing factor to the U.S. falling behind other nations on academic score cards.

Last year, Connecticut was one of only a handful of states that did not participate in a national survey on gifted education. Connecticut had no annual report on gifted education because there was no one at the state level to compile it. In 2007, there were 9,082 students in the state identified as being gifted, roughly two percent of some 500,000 public school children. Of the state’s 166 school districts, 42 reported having gifted programs and another 40 identified enrichment activities for the gifted. Renzulli believes the numbers have shrunk since then but she doesn’t know for sure because a state consultant on gifted programs who compiled the information retired and was not replaced.

CHALLENGING THE GIFTED

Definitions of “gifted” students vary. Most districts use a combination of test score data and aptitude criteria to determine the top students. In some districts, the line is drawn at the top five percent mark, others include more. Regardless of the cutoff, Renzulli said a lot of kids at advanced levels are slipping because they aren’t provided with the advanced content they need.

“Bright kids go to school and never encounter anything that makes them extend effort. They grow up thinking being smart means they don’t have to work very hard,” said Renzulli. “The first time they encounter something difficult they think they are not smart anymore.”

Brooke Burling, a Monroe parent and executive director of the Connecticut Association of the Gifted, said the attitude he often encounters is that smart kids will be fine.

“The reality is that smart kids whose needs are not met underperform and sometimes become really bad students,” he said.

Burling believes his children would qualify for gifted programs in Monroe if the town offered them. He said often the gifted programs that are in place are not adequate.

“A pull-out program would be better than nothing, but the reality is gifted kids aren’t just gifted for an hour a week when they get pulled out for enrichment,” said Burling. “What they really need are ongoing, day-long appropriate education tailored to meet their needs.”

Some would call that tracking. Not Renzulli who, with her husband Joe Renzulli, recently worked with a school in Hartford to start a program for children not challenged in regular classrooms.

“They need to be where it’s OK to be smart,” she said.

Burling doubts such programs will become widespread as long as local school districts are inadequately funded.

Renzulli counters that grouping gifted students together is one way to budget-proof the program because those students would get what they need from their classroom teacher, not a separate pull-out teacher, who could be considered an extra expense.

GROWING PROGRAMS

Two school districts in the region are expanding their programs.

In Milford, where there was concern earlier in the spring that gifted programs might fall to budget cuts, the final appropriation was enough to allow full-time gifted instruction, an increase from part-time instruction, at the middle school.

Fairfield is preparing a new gifted program that increases services and changes identification of gifted children by weighing aptitude before test scores. Gifted students in grades three through five will continue to receive pull-out services but lessons will combine math and language arts. Each middle school will have a part-time gifted teacher to engage students in independent interest-driven research studies. The program will cost Fairfield $552,322, which is $25,871 more than this year.

In Bridgeport, cutting the TAG program would shave about $262,238 off the budget. Gary Peluchette, a teacher of the gifted there, called the potential loss sad and shortsighted. “These are our bright students who really need the environment of a gifted classroom where they are able to pursue their interests and use their strengths,” said Peluchette.

School board member Sauda Baraka said the gifted program is the only outlet for bright kids not lucky enough to get into a magnet school. Peluchette said gifted education is more than giving smart students more work to do. They need work that goes deeper. Peluchette’s seventh graders are reading Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream.” His eighth graders are tackling MacBeth. Bridgeport has specially-trained teachers for gifted students at Dunbar, Winthrop, Batalla, Marin and the swing-space school currently occupied by Columbus School. Margarita Otero-Rivera, parent of a former TAG student from Winthrop, said her son got into Greens Farms Academy in Westport because of Bridgeport’s TAG program. She has another child she hoped would be in TAG next year and is outraged with the proposed cut.

In Trumbull, the gifted program in its present form has been around since 2005 but is weaker now because it has fewer teachers. There used to be five; now there are two who split up to provide enrichment classes at three elementary schools each.

Reprinted with permission of the Connecticut Post.

Hi Everyone, Katie here,

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Photo credit: Shawn Kornegay
Photo credit: Shawn Kornegay

Prior to her graduation in May, eighth-semester undergraduate at Neag blogged about her experiences through UConn Welcome Mat

This semester is a little different for me as a UConn Neag School of Education student than most other students who are second semester seniors. I’ve transitioned into what I call an “adult real world schedule” where I’m in teacher mode from 7:30 a.m. to around 5 p.m. every day.  Thursdays I’m lucky if I even can stay awake to watch Jersey Shore, let alone go out of my apartment! Regardless, I am learning first-hand what it means to be a “real teacher” and a little bit about being a “real adult.”

I student teach at Mayberry Elementary School in East Hartford.  We have a wonderful class of 20 unique students, each with their own quirks and personalities.  I love discovering their strengths, observing their habits, sharing in their excitements and expanding on their interests as I learn more and more about the best ways to teach each of them.

We’ve  just over a month left in student teaching rotation and there are so many things to on which to reflect.  As far as what I’ve learned, I could better explain myself if I were given the task to write a book.  But two overarching ideas will suffice:

1. Expectations: As a teacher you need to have expectations for your students and also for yourself as an educator.

Students- If I’ve learned anything about classroom management, its that the fact that one must have realistic expectations of each of their students, and beyond this FOLLOW THROUGH with each incident.  In academics, if you know your student is capable of more, challenge them.  Similarly with behavior, if your expectations are realistic and the students play a role in determining them, they will more likely be reachable.  But once again, you MUST follow through with consequences for rules and expectations to have meaning.  This means constant and regular feedback for all students.  A lot of us student teachers are amazed at how much we talk throughout the day, it feels like we never stop sometimes!  But that is what it takes to keep everyone on track.

2. Excitement: The more genuinely excited you are to teach something, the more excited your kids will get.  I started teaching science this week, and my teacher was in her element sitting and watching the reactions of the students.  Because I was excited to teach them, the kids were hanging off of every word I said.  When we finally got to the experiment, their reaction was priceless.  Gasps, “oohs!” and “ahhs”…just over seeing a tablet of Alka Seltzer dissolve in water!  Their motivation to learn pushes me to continue creating fun lessons for them, which helps to push their motivation to learn, and so we end up motivating each other.

Student teaching placement provides valuable experiences in learning to become a teacher.  I have learned how much time, effort and drive it takes to be the kind of teacher that inspires me and which I aspire to become.  So here’s a shout-out to all those student teachers out there whose social lives have dissolved like that tablet of Alka Seltzer. We’re on our way:)

UConn Welcome Mat is a blog posted through the University of Connecticut’s Lodewick Visitors Center. Designed to provide prospective and current students information about the daily lives of select UConn undergraduate students, it allows readers a glimpse into the personal interests and academic and social activities of those living the Husky experience.

Invest in Positive School Culture to Prevent Bullying Behavior

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Stock photo: school bullyingRather than react to bullying incidents in schools with heavily punitive policies, a systemic, preventive approach that avoids demonizing students and strengthens the overall climate in classrooms is the way to go, Neag School of Education‘s George Sugai and co-authors advise in a paper prepared for President Obama’s White House Conference on Bullying Prevention held this spring.

“Academic success and positive overall school and classroom climate for all students may be our best preventive approach to bullying and other problem behaviors,” Dr. Sugai, director of Neag’s Center for Behavioral Education & Research (CBER) at UConn, e-mailed from Australia, where he was guest-lecturing on advances in school-wide discipline.

Sugai and report co-author Rob Horner of the University of Oregon are co-directors of the national Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. The PBIS center was established by the Office of Special Education Programs at the U.S. Department of Education. CBER and the PBIS center jointly released the recent paper. Rob Algozzine at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, also was co-author.

The paper, entitled “Reducing the Effectiveness of Bullying Behavior in Schools,” was presented in a collection of materials at the president’s conference and is also posted on the PBIS Web site with other bullying prevention strategies.

In recent years, schools and their communities have found themselves reeling when a  shooting occurs or a student takes his or her own life or harms a classmate. The presumption is that students come to school socially equipped to handle the school culture, but often it’s an informal, trial-and-error process. When violence erupts, districts may resort to responding in harsh ways.

The paper suggests a much less punishing, and a more preventive, system-wide approach to violence and bullying behavior. The positive school and classroom culture is achieved when adults teach social skills to students, actively supervise them in and out of the classroom, and acknowledge successful behaviors that result, Sugai says.

The paper, organized around eight central questions, provides an overview for establishing an effective framework to prevent school violence and bullying behavior. It starts with a guide to what competent schools have in place:

  1. A curriculum that stresses targeted social skills instruction.
  2. Positive classroom and school social structures where learning is emphasized.
  3. Practices that maximize academic success.
  4. Continuous, positive and active supervision of students.
  5. Regular reinforcement of academic and social behavior successes.
  6. Active involvement of students, families, faculty and community members.
  7. Multi-year and multi-component approaches to implementation.
  8. Adults who model the social behaviors and values expected of students.

The article describes three tiers of the PBIS approach to preventing bullying. In Tier 1, all students and staff are taught how to behave in safe, respectful and responsible ways in all school settings. Under Tier 2, students who don’t respond to Tier 1 teaching, receive targeted social skills instruction, more monitoring by adults, daily feedback on behavioral progress and extra academic supports, if necessary.

In Tier 3, students unable to respond to the first two sets of strategies and supports will undergo individualized academic and/or behavior intervention planning, more comprehensive wrap-around processes and school-family-community mental health supports.

Sugai, who has written more than 100 articles and several textbooks on effective teaching practices and positive behavior support, has researched at-risk student populations with severely challenging behavior. Outside factors that may affect the PBIS strategies for students who engage in bullying behavior and also for those who are targets include behavioral learning history, socio-economic status, social skill competence, academic achievement, disability and peer and family influences, the report says.

Sugai cites at least four randomized control trial research studies that have documented successes in the school-wide PBIS framework, leading to decreases in disciplinary referrals, increases in academic achievement and reports of improvements in overall school climate, health and safety. Recent unpublished research suggests that PBIS implementation is associated with reductions in teacher reports of student bullying behavior.

The national PBIS center Sugai co-directs aims to inform schools, families and communities that the school-wide behavioral technology exists and is feasible and effective at the individual, school, district and state levels.

Under the PBIS framework, educators are encouraged to discard the word “bully” as a student label in favor of using language that describes the behavior.

“Not only do we propose that a positive and preventive approach (rather than reactive and punishing) be emphasized, we also suggest that we avoid demonizing and degrading those who bully, and instead focus on providing productive support to students who engage in bullying behavior,” Sugai says. That tactic must be coupled with strengthening responses from students who are targets and bystanders of bullying behavior, he says.

The more respectful “person first” language is an accepted professional ethic in special education and mental health fields. “The same respectful approach should be used with the problem of bullying behavior,” Sugai says, “So, instead of saying, ‘George is a bully,’ we should be saying ‘George displayed bullying behavior.’ Even more specifically, we should say that ‘George is engaged in teasing, intimidating, personally harmful, or derogatory behavior.’”

Incidents of bullying behavior are occurring in increasingly widespread settings, for example, in cyberspace, classrooms and hallways, at social events, and on buses and streets, the report says. In some contexts, such as sporting events, reality TV shows and competitive cooking shows, bullying behavior is viewed as acceptable and even entertaining, Sugai says.

“We have become more sensitive and aware because entertainment and social networking have become such a prevalent means of engaging and communicating with a vast range of other individuals. What used to be private has become much more easily public,” Sugai says, adding that, as a result, the line between school and non-school is less distinct.

The report, which is careful to say the PBIS framework is not meant as a packaged curriculum or practices manual, encourages local expertise, cultural relevance and durable interventions. The report also offers guidance for assessing whether a school has problematic bullying behavior and steps to address it.

Training should be strategically organized and presented to build durable implementation capacity. “Traditional one-shot professional development sessions are good to introduce ideas, but ineffective for changing teacher practice,” Sugai says.

It’s Not the Time Spent in School, It’s How It’s Used

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Stock photo of classroomIn the last decade or more, the national debate about effective learning has centered on teacher quality. Now the discussion is turning to a second major resource in education: Time.

A new joint report from the National Center on Time & Learning and Neag’s Center for Education Policy Analysis sets the baseline profile for the amount of time in the school day and school year in schools across the nation.

“What this report does is establish a national profile for how time is spent in schools,” says co-author Dr. Tammy Kolbe, assistant research professor who came to the Neag School of Education last fall from Florida State University. Kolbe’s policy interest focuses on the cost effectiveness of extending time in the school day and year.

Content in the report, “Time and Learning in Schools: A National Profile,” is based largely on 2007-08 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) data, the only nationally representative source for identifying variations in the amount of time students spend in public, private and charter schools. Even so, researchers say, its information is limited in describing how time in school is spent.

The joint report, written by Kolbe; Mark Partridge, a graduate student she worked with at Florida State University, and Fran O’Reilly, vice president of research at NCTL, makes a strong call for much tighter federal data on how the time students spend in school is used.

“We’re not advocates for more use of time, alone,” O’Reilly says. “We realize there are other things – targeted instruction and leadership, instructional quality, teacher collaboration. All of those things need time.”

Kolbe says the report’s conclusion, in part, “was to give the feds a nudge, to say, ‘Look, guys, you need better data.’”

The average school day is 6.75 to 7 hours and the average school year rests right at 180 days, the report says. But the quantity of time cannot be translated into the quality of learning.

“It’s what we do with those school days that is at the heart of the issue,” Casey Cobb, head of the Neag Center for Education Policy Analysis, says. “There’s no sense doubling up the time if it’s not working for kids.”

Kolbe says the federal data available cannot show a causal link between time in school and student performance. “Increasing the time or extending the year, is that a strategy to boost student achievement? Right now we can’t link time to student achievement on a national level.”

Some key findings in the time and learning report, which studied schools with third and eighth grades, are:

  • Despite national interest, the goal of increasing in-school time for most students is a long way off.
  • In the last 10 years, the net gain in average length of school day was only about 4 minutes.
  • The public school day still falls short of the typical private and charter school day.
  • The 180-day school year remains the norm for public schools, with only 17 percent of them adding three to six more days a year. By contrast, nearly 10 percent of charter schools have gone to more than 187 days.
  • Evidence suggests that adding time to the school year is a strategy used to serve schools with more at-risk students, predominantly in urban areas.
  • Public schools without teachers’ union are more likely to adopt an extended year or longer day than their unionized counterparts.
  • Elementary students in schools with longer-than-average days not only get more instruction in core subjects, especially math, science and social studies, but also non-core subjects such as physical education and music.

“The NCTL and Neag report is an important first step to translate the quantitative data of time in school into something that will inform analysts and policy makers’ recommendations about how to best use time,” says Cynthia G. Brown, vice president for education policy at the Center for American Progress.

Educators and policymakers took notice of the time issue when two key reports, “A Nation at Risk” (1983) and “Prisoners of Time” (1994), recommended that American students spend more time in school.

In 2009 President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan leveraged the debate when they challenged states to use American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to kick start school reform, including rethinking the traditional school calendar.

“We can no longer afford an academic calendar designed when America was a nation of farmers who needed their children at home plowing the land at the end of the day. The calendar may have once made sense, but today, it puts us at a competitive disadvantage,” Obama declared.

Policymakers soon started making comparisons between U.S. schools and those in developed nations abroad. The new time and learning report does not address such comparisons.

Co-author O’Reilly cautions, “People are batting around all these comparisons about how much time students in other countries, especially high-performing countries, spend compared to the U.S. We need to have good numbers on that,” she says, adding that a lot has happened in federal education policy since the last time-in-school data was collected in 2007-08.

Kolbe says the key to thinking about more time in school is considering a redesign of the school day, for example, with more emphasis on academic and enrichment activities along with more professional collaboration among teachers.

“A national policy of going to 10-hour days may not make sense,” she says. “We need more research to see under what conditions it’s a promising practice and is it cost-effective relative to other reform models.”

The TIME Act, or Time for Innovation Matters in Education Act, was introduced in the U.S. Senate in 2009 and in mid-April 2011 in the U.S. House. The bill calls for expanded learning time initiatives.

The Time and Learning report points out several gaps in the SASS data, for instance, that while the database identifies schools with longer than average school days or school years, it does not reveal how many days are in the school week. “Without this piece of information we cannot assess the extent to which schools make trade offs between longer school days and shorter school weeks – a practice that has gained attention as schools struggle to operate within increasingly difficult fiscal conditions,” the report says.

“There is an urgent need to respond to these information gaps,” the report finishes, saying the lack of information stymies intelligent policy on adding time in schools, something encouraged by federal grant initiatives.

“With hundreds of public schools poised to increase learning time through federal funding, understanding the landscape and identifying opportunities for further research and evaluation is imperative,” the report states.

Kolbe, who studies how resources and policy intersect, says, “We need to keep in mind that we haven’t moved very far away from the same model for time allocation in school than what we had in 1900. It hasn’t really changed.

“Now we’ve moved down the field quite a bit about teachers as resources, but we need to start that conversation with time.”

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

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Hands ClappingAccolades – 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.

News items regarding Neag alums:

  • Superintendent Dr. Edward A. Bouquillon of Minuteman Career & Technical High School in Lexington is the recipient of the Martin Meehan Educational Leadership Award, which he recently accepted at the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office Awards Ceremony at Woburn High School. Bouquillon received a B.S. in Agricultural Education in 1978.
  • Dr. Robert D. Cronin has been selected by the North Haven School Board to serve as the Superintendent for the Region 14 School District.  Dr. Cronin completed his Ph.D. in Educational Administration in 1994.
  • Stephen Dlott was appointed interim principal of the Groton-Dunstable Regional High School in Groton, MA following the sudden resignation of the former principal.  Dlott completed a Ph.D. in educational administration in May of 1976.
  • Betsy Fuller, BS Physical Therapy, was recently promoted to VP of Academic Affairs and Dean of the College at Becker College where she been a faculty member since 1996.
  • Sherryl Hauser, Jeff Corbishley (both secondary math) and Catherine Little wrote an article that appeared in Math Teaching in the Middle School in 2009 entitled “Constructing Complexity for Differentiated Learning.” The article was recently awarded the Linking Research and Practice Outstanding Publication Award.
  • Colorado State University has named Jeffrey A. McCubbin, Oregon State University executive associate dean and distinguished professor, as dean of the College of Applied Human Sciences. McCubbin will begin his new position on July 1.  He received his masters from the Neag School of Education in physical education in May 1978.
  • Susan Muirhead, assistant principal of Mabelle B. Avery (MBA) Middle School in Somers, is the 2011 CAS Middle School Assistant Principal of the Year.  Though an assistant principal at MBA for only three and a half years, her efforts and influence have dramatically shaped the culture and climate of the school and community.  Muirhead earned her sixth-year certificate in Educational Administration in 2004.
  • John Sullivan has been named interim superintendent for Haddam and Killingworth. Sullivan has been a high school principal in Nantucket, MA and in the Wilton School System, as well as a superintendent of Wesbrook schools and the Unified School District II in Meriden. Sullivan completed a sixth-year diploma in 1981.
  • Christine Syriac has been named the new Superintendent of Schools in Seymour, CT.  Syriac completed the Executive Leadership Program certification in 2009.
  • The Enfield Board of Education has selected Timothy Van Tasel to be the new principal of John F. Kennedy Middle School. Van Tasel is currently the principal of Eli Whitney Elementary School and will start on July 1st, following the retirement of Timothy Neville. Van Tasel completed a sixth-year certificate in educational administration in 2005.
  • Margaret Williamson, Principal/Chief Administrator of Northwest Catholic High School, was one of six people nationwide to be recognized as an outstanding high school educator by the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA). Williamson completed her sixth-year certificate in Educational Administration in 1990.

News items regarding Neag faculty members:

  • Dr. Larry Armstrong delivered the closing keynote address at the British Dietetic Association annual conference in London, England.
  • Dr. Melissa Bray and Dr. Thomas Kehle were participants at the recent 2011 SPRCC Distinguished Breakfast Panel. Their topic was “Advice from Highly Productive Scholars in School Psychology.”
  • Dr. Jenifer Lease Butts contributed to a book Advancing Undergraduate Research: Marketing, Communications, and Fundraising that recently came out. In the book, Jennifer shares how she works with donors to ensure their contributions in undergraduate research are appreciated.
  • Dr. Tutita Casa’s session at the NCTM Annual Conference in Indianapolis has been selected as one of six sessions that was audio taped and offered to NCTM members as a downloadable podcast. Her session was selected because she is a Teaching Children Mathematics author. The podcast was available as a companion piece to the online version of her article, “Connecting Class Talk with Individual Student Writing” as a means to help readers connect with her on-going work.
  • Dean Thomas DeFranco and Dr. Janet Fink have been elected to the University Senate for three-year terms beginning July 1, 2011 and ending June 30, 2014.
  • Dr. Wendy Glenn participated with the 2011 English Festival sponsored by Youngtown State University (Ohio).  She served as this year’s James A. Houck Lecturer, a well-known honor in the field of Young Adult Literature.  In this capacity, she talked with 3,000 middle and high school students from around Ohio and Pennsylvania; their teachers, parents, and librarians; and scholars in the academic community.
  • Dr. Jason Irizarry arranged for the Neag School to serve as a viewing site for the Latino Education and Advocacy Day’s (LEAD) 2nd Annual Summit, which took place in March. Worcester Mayor John O’Brien has formed a task force to work at decreasing the achievement gap between Latino students and their counterparts in the Worcester public school system.  Dr. Irizarry will be assisting the 29-member commission as they meet over the next several months.
  • Dr. Don Leu spoke at the annual Benjamin Cluff Jr. Lecture hosted by the David O. McKay School of Education at Brigham Young University.  Dr. Leu spoke on “The Future of Reading and Reading Instruction.”  He was also interviewed by a report from CNN regarding his study on students’ ability to critically evaluate the information they find on the Internet.  Following this interview, several articles appeared on such websites as Yahoo!News, DailyMailOnline, newKerala, International Business Times.  Dr. Leu was then interviewed by IEEE Spectrum for their “This Week in Technology” feature.
  • Dr. Alan Marcus received the 2011 AAUP Excellence Award for Teaching Innovation, which was presented to him at the State Capitol.
  • Dr. Rachelle Perusse has been asked to give the keynote address at Utah State Office of Education’s Comprehensive Counseling and Guidance Program Summer Conference.  This conference typically has 750 to 800 participants.  Rachelle was selected for this honor due in part to the NOSCA National Advocacy Award for Leadership she received last year, as well her broad knowledge, experience, and advocacy in school counseling.
  • The Phi Delta Kappan journal is doing a Kappan Classics series and they selected a 1978 article by Dr. Joe Renzulli, “What Makes Giftedness” and a new introduction for their May issue.
  • Dr. Eliana Rojas was invited to join U.S. leaders on the launch of U.N. women “Honoring the Past – Envisioning the Future for Women and Girls” at the United Nations Headquarters.
  • Dr. George Sugai was invited to the White House to be one of four professional asked to answer questions on a panel of bullying experts. This panel of experts was part of the White House Conference on Bullying Prevention, the President and First lady’s national campaign to help end bullying in schools and communities nationwide.
  • Dr. Jeff Volek was quoted in several articles regarding his work with the Atkins diet.  This included articles in the Los Angeles Times, PR Newswire, and NutraIngredients.com.
  • Anjale Welton was selected for AERA’s Committee on Scholars of Color in Education Mentoring Program. She was recognized at AERA’s annual meeting in April.
  • Mary Yakimowski is a lifetime Diplomate for the American College of Forensic Examiners Institute’s (ACFEI) American Board of Psychological Specialties and has been awarded a certificate as “Fellow.”  The Fellow designation is the highest honor ACFEI can bestow upon a member. This designation is reserved for members with outstanding achievements and excellence, as well as participating actively in ACFEI programs.

 

News items regarding Neag students:

  • Sheena Boyle was recognized as a Alma Exley Scholar for 2011. She was honored at a reception in May. Boyle graduated near the top of her class at Wilby High School and graduated from the IB/M program in May. She was a double major in English literature and English secondary education.
  • Alex Clark, 1st semester grad secondary social studies education major, along with other Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) brothers, took it upon themselves to clean up the football fields at E.O. Smith High School.  The fraternity plays intramural softball at the E.O. Smith, noticed the trash on and around the fields and decided to clean it up as a way to help others.
  • TaShauna Goldsby was recently accepted into the 2011-2012 ACSM Leadership and Diversity Training Program (LDTP). This year the LDTP received a record number of highly competitive applicants.
  • Two of our current IB/M Honors juniors, Sarah Harris and Julianna MacSwan, were admitted to the prestigious University Scholars program. Julianna will do a project related to work she has already started with Kathy Gavin’s Project M2.  Sarah will be working on a project related to education of homeless children and youth, which she has already laid some important groundwork on in Windham with the help of Becky Eckert and personnel in the district.
  • Karen Rambo, a doctoral student in the Measurement, Evaluation, and Assessment program, was appointed to serve as Division D Senior Representativefor the Graduate Student Council (GSC) of the American Educational Research Association in 2010-2011.

 

UConn’s Neag School Ranked Among the Nation’s Best Schools of Education

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The Neag School of Education continues to achieve top-ranking status as a graduate school of education in the U.S.; it is the No. 1 public graduate school of education in the Northeast, and it is overall No. 33 in the nation, as ranked by U.S. News & World Report.

In its annual review of the best graduate schools in the country released in March, U.S. News & World Report ranks the Neag School No. 33 among the 279 private and public education schools. Also significant are the rankings of the Neag School’s core programs, which are individually assessed by U.S. News. Three rank among the nation’s top 25, including Elementary Education (18), Special Education (20) and Educational Leadership and Supervision (22).

Each year, U.S. News gathers opinion data from school superintendents and deans to rank professional school programs. Thomas DeFranco, dean of the Neag School, describes the findings as “very encouraging” and believes the rankings serve as one of several barometers used by the Neag School to assess its reputation and quality of its programs.

DeFranco also believes a factor helping to build the Neag School’s reputation is its work with public schools in Connecticut and across the country. “Faculty within the Neag School are not only focused on research and scholarship, they are committed to working in partnership with classroom teachers and sharing information about best practices and improving the academic performance of children,” he says.

One alumni survey responder said, “I think the most valuable experiences I had in the Neag School were the connections I made with my professors. I always felt well supported and mentored by the professors I had, and I still email with several of them for advice and help. These professors are not only experts in their fields, but valuable resources and friends to all students in the Neag School.”

“Our goal is to produce highly qualified teachers, principals, superintendents and health professionals who will impact the academic performance and health and well-being of children and adults in Connecticut and in the nation,” DeFranco says.

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

Neag Alumni Society Recognizes Outstanding Alumni

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Neag alumni awardees
Top row, L-R, Rachel Buck, Dr. Diana Payne, Sidway McKay, Dr. Jean Wihbey and Dr. Heather Gibson; bottom row, L-R, W. Kurt Telford, Dean Tom DeFranco and Fran Mainella

The Neag School of Education Alumni Society and the faculty of the Neag School of Education recently held its 13th Annual Awards Dinner and recognized outstanding alumni.

“This evening was memorable as faculty and alumni gathered to formally recognize the achievements of some of our outstanding graduates,” said Dr. Tom 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.”

The Distinguished Alumnus is Ms. Fran Mainella, B.S. ‘69, visiting scholar with Clemson University’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management. Prior to that, she had a 40-year park and recreation career culminating as director of the U.S. Department of Interior’s National Parks Service.

The Outstanding Higher Education Professional is Dr. Jean A. Wihbey, Ph.D., ’02, provost with the Palm Beach State College, Palm Beach Gardens, FL.

The Outstanding School Administrator is Mr. W. Kurt Telford, B.S., ’79, principal with West Forsyth High School in Clemmons, NC.

The Outstanding School Educator is Ms. Rachel L. Buck, B.S. ’01, M.A. ’02, math teacher with the Connecticut IB Academy, East Hartford, CT.

The Outstanding Kinesiology Professional is Dr. Heather Gibson, M.A., ’89, Ph.D, ’94, associate professor in the Department of Tourism, Recreation and Sport Management at the University of Florida and an associate director of the Eric Friedheim Tourism Institute in Gainesville, FL.

The Outstanding Physical Therapy Professional is Ms. Sidway A. McKay, B.S. ’85, physical therapist with the Concentra Medical Centers in Denver, CO and lecturer/adjunct faculty member with the University of Colorado, School of Medicine’s Physical Therapy Program.

The Outstanding Professional is Dr. Diana L. Payne, Ph.D. ‘07, assistant professor and education coordinator with Connecticut Sea Grant, in Groton, CT.

For more information on the Neag School of Education or the Neag Alumni Society, visit www.education.uconn.edu. To visit a photo album from the event, click here.

Vision for New Neag Math Academy: Content Plus Pedagogy = Leadership

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The classroom middle and high school math teacher has a lot to tackle these days. He or she needs to continue developing content knowledge as it pertains to algebraic and proportional reasoning, help students form an academic language for expressing and understanding math concepts, and shape a pedagogy that will enhance justification and higher order thinking skills.

But they also are called on to step up and be math leaders in their schools, often in settings where they are part of a committee and not officially in charge.

With this scope of skills in mind, a group of Neag math educators and a mathematician are creating a yearlong Math Leadership Academy for about 30 teachers in four school districts, with the support of a $380,000 grant from the state Department of Higher Education. The 12 credits of graduate coursework begin with training in July, continue with weekly seminars in the fall and spring, and culminate in an April 28, 2012, symposium.

“If we do this well, we’ll have a nice collaborative group that will be a resource for one another to work together on problems and improve their practice,” Dr. Megan Staples, a Neag math educator and co-director of the project, says.

Participating math teachers or those in related specialties will have at least three years of classroom teaching experience, hold a provisional or professional educator teaching certificate, and be motivated to improve their practice and leadership skills. Tuition and fees are paid through the grant. The 30 spots are almost filled and there is a wait list, Staples says.

The teachers are in districts already connected through Neag’s Integrated Bachelor’s/Master’s Teacher Education Program and its post-graduate teacher certification program. Districts are Hartford, East Hartford, Manchester and Vernon, with at least two teachers chosen from most of the participating schools in an effort to strengthen the academy’s ongoing impact.

Participants can earn 12 credits toward a master’s degree or a Sixth-Year Certificate. Six credits are tied to two courses – math and pedagogy – in the intensive nine days of training in July. The fall and spring weekly seminars each carry three credits. During the year, participants will apply coursework and new ideas and support other teachers’ learning. The year will culminate in a symposium open to academy enrollees, Neag students and others.

Setting up a leadership network among in-service teachers in Grades 6-12, even between districts, is the new piece.

“We define leadership a little bit more broadly, not just as formal leadership,” Staples says. “Teachers are taking on leadership roles on committees in collaborative relationships. How does one navigate a system that is flat hierarchically?”

Staples explains that on a committee in a school setting with a flat hierarchy, “you’re supposed to be peers with everybody but you might be the point person to facilitate and make recommendations. The districts were very excited that this was an aspect. They told us, ‘Yes, we need that.’ ”

Dr. Mary Truxaw, also a Neag math educator, is the project director and will teach the pedagogy course with Staples. Dr. Fabiana Cardetti, co-director on the project and assistant professor in the UConn Math Department, and Dr. Reed Solomon, an associate professor there, will teach the math content class. Elements from the two courses will be tied together in the training, and academic year seminar project ideas will grow out of that work.

The other elements of the academy’s focus – content reasoning, math justification discipline, academic language and pedagogy – are crucial underpinnings for the leadership goal.

“In leadership how this all fits in, especially in a flat hierarchy, somebody’s expertise in an area is very important for them being able to influence or being turned to as a leader,” Staples says. “One of the most important pieces for someone who is in a role is that pedagogical expertise. We’re really working on pedagogy and content because that is the foundation for being a math leader. You need to be confident in what you’re doing to express that to others.”

Due to recent federal budget cuts, the Math Leadership Academy has funding for one year only, Staples says. But she is hopeful about its impact, which will reach not only teachers in the field, some former Neag graduates, but pre-service teachers at Neag.

One academy participant, Vanessa Rodriguez, a Neag IB/M program graduate who has been teaching math for five years at Bulkeley High School in Hartford, will be supervising a Neag intern next school year. “That student gets wonderful exposure and will see work Vanessa is doing through the academy,” Staples says. “Because we partner with student teacher districts, the idea is that this overall capacity building cycles back and supports our students and the work we do here.”