The Neag School of Education continues to achieve top-ranking status as a graduate school of education in the U.S.; it is the #1 public graduate school of education in the Northeast, and it is overall #33 in the nation by the 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 #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. Dr. 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.
According to an alumni survey response, “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,” said DeFranco.
“Based on the indicators from the U.S. News report, we are certainly moving in the right direction toward our goal,” said DeFranco.
Dear Alumni and Friends of the Neag School of Education:
The Neag School of Education Alumni Society and the faculty of the Neag School of Education cordially invite you to attend our 13th Annual Awards Dinner on Saturday, May 14, 2011 at the South Campus Ballroom (Rome Ballroom) on the Storrs campus. Click here for directions or here for the UConn campus map.
This evening promises to be memorable as faculty and alumni gather to formally recognize the achievements of some of our outstanding graduates. It is our hope that you will be among those returning to the University for this event. 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 theEric 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.
Come and bring others with you to honor your colleagues and friends who are so influential in the field of education. The evening begins with a reception at 5:30 p.m. followed by dinner at 6:30 p.m. The entrees include a chicken or salmon choice. A vegetarian meal is also available. Attire is semi-formal. No-host bar. The cost of the dinner is $45.00 per person for members of the UConn Alumni Association ($55 for non-members). To make reservations, go online at www.UConnAlumni.com/NeagAlumniDinner or call (888) 822-5861 by May 5, 2011. If you have questions, please call Shawn Kornegay at (860-486-3675) or shawn.kornegay@uconn.edu.
We look forward to greeting you on May 14th for our celebration.
Neag math instructor and researcher Megan Staples, top center, watches as Hartford teachers work together on a math problem during the summer 2008 Math ACCESS institute at UConn. Photo credit: Robert Frahm
It all started with the fear and loathing Strand 25 brings to some math classrooms in the state.
Strand 25 is the part of the benchmark Connecticut Mastery Test that presents what was once known as “word” or “thought” problems. Now they’re known as “open-ended, non-routine” problems with a lot of language involved. Similar problems appear on the state high school standardized exam the Connecticut Academic Performance Test. And they present particular issues for students who are challenged with fluency in English.
“Teachers are sometimes told, ‘Don’t even bother trying to teach Strand 25,’” Neag math educator Dr. Megan Staples says.
Staples and Neag colleague Dr. Mary Truxaw, both assistant professors in mathematics education in the Neag School of Education, arrived at UConn about the same time with a similar interest in language as the “invisible curriculum” in mathematics and higher order thinking. They started with research on the topic with the help of four participating Hartford teachers in the summer of 2007.
In the second year, supported by a state grant, they expanded the work into a professional development project with 23 teachers at Batchelder, Kennelly and Bulkeley public schools in Hartford and the private Watkinson School to link language goals to the content goals in their math lesson plans. Teachers also met bimonthly in teams during the school year to support one another and develop the lessons.
That project was known as ACCESS, or Academic Content and Communications Equals Student Success, and Staples and Truxaw were co-directors. The project Staples and Truxaw seeded continued unofficially (without funding) in the 2009-10 school year and is alive in a similar form this year through Neag’s Integrated Bachelor’s/Master’s Teacher Education Program at Batchelder.
“We learned that we could make an important impact so that, if you deliberately attend to language, students can make progress on these open-ended responses,” Staples says.
Neag Dean Tom DeFranco, whose field is mathematics, says much research has been done to help K-12 students improve their problem solving, but by applying this newer research on math discourse to the classroom, “Drs. Staples and Truxaw are providing teachers effective instructional routines and strategies that will help their students be successful problem solvers.”
Not far behind that success, however, is what Staples and Truxaw both cite as the huge benefit from sustaining collaboration among teachers related to specific classroom work.
Truxaw says the collaboration was often magical, better teaching resulted and so did increased mutual respect. “When there are not enough hours in their day, to figure out ways to make that happen is really powerful,” she says.
William Conroy (IB/M Grad 2007), a third-grade teacher at Batchelder who participated in the ACCESS project, agrees and would like to be able to pursue a more complete training.
Conroy’s biggest realization from the project was that “we could reach all the students” through the lesson plans. “We were able to create polished lessons that were able to focus on how the kids could justify their answers and how they could have a deep understanding of math concepts as opposed to our teaching the skill discretely,” he says.
Truxaw and Staples adopted three pillars that cropped up in their reading during the development of the project: centralize justification in the classroom, develop academic language, and make rigorous content accessible to all.
Then they applied a professional model that incorporates language and content goals in the lesson. This strategy is “good for anybody who may not have the academic language,” Truxaw says. “I find I’m doing that in my university lessons now, partly to model but partly because you need the vocabulary and you need to make sense of it and impact the language that’s there,” she says.
Many of the students in Hartford schools are fluent in English socially but not academically. “You think kids get it because they say socially appropriate things but they still may not be able to justify, they still might not be able to understand the academic language. And that’s a huge thing for me,” Truxaw says.
The researchers point out that it takes about seven years for an English learner to become academically fluent, but students are eligible for state-supported programs only for 30 months.
Language concerns are not about vocabulary per se but often about subtle differences in colloquial speech. For instance, in doing math comparisons, the difference between the phrases “at least” and “the least” can be huge. A problem asking students to combine packages of hot dog buns to come up with at least 40 buns for a picnic can be confusing.
“They will aim for exactly 40 but not realize you could have slightly more than 40,” Truxaw says. Prepositions and articles make a huge difference, she says, “but you don’t think about it at that level.”
One technique for a student struggling with explaining a math concept is to give him or her a “language frame,” such as, “I know the answer is correct/incorrect because…” Truxaw says. “A language frame is not doing the math for them but it’s giving them a little scaffolding to explain what they did.”
Carl Lager, a noted researcher at University of California, Santa Barbara, says math, and particularly algebra, is where push comes to shove for the English learner struggling to close the achievement gap. “No other mathematics content filters out English learners faster than algebra. Algebra allows students to move from concrete to abstract thinking,” he wrote in 2004.
Staples says that, especially with new federal Common Core standards for math going into effect in 2014, there is much work ahead in the area of expressing mathematical reasoning. “I still feel like we’re at the beginning of it. You have a whole bunch of people working on language, but they don’t get close enough to content. And then you have this group of people who are so close to content they aren’t steeped in the language. We need more work on the intersection.”
Truxaw and Staples, along with Dr. Fabiana Cardetti in the math department, have applied for a state Department of Higher Education grant as part of their math leadership work to train teachers who support other teachers in the classroom. The two researchers have published and presented their work widely in the last two years.
HESA faculty member Jennifer Lease Butts interviews a prospective student. Photo credit: Shawn Kornegay
In 2004, when a graduate program for higher education administrators started to flounder, Vice President of Student Affairs John Saddlemire and Richard Schwab, then dean of the Neag School of Education, formed a partnership. They created a new version of the Higher Education Student Affairs (HESA) program in which Neag would support the curriculum and bestow a Master of Arts degree and Student Affairs would offer students hands-on experience through assistantships, in essence an on-site laboratory for future higher education professionals
For the 19 open slots in the program next fall, 323 graduate students applied. Seventy finalists were interviewed Feb. 28 on the UConn campus, and the very competitive selection process is under way for 2011-12.
“It has just grown like gangbusters,” Saddlemire, the program’s director, says now.
The benefits Saddlemire lists include “keeping my staff on their toes,” improving the program’s environment, sending the HESA graduates out to do great work in the field all over the nation, and spawning an effective set of UConn ambassadors who encourage others to apply to the program and UConn in general.
“This was not all altruism, it was something that served the division very well,” he says.
Two full-time faculty at Neag and assorted UConn administrators, including past and now acting President Phil Austin, teach at least one class for the program and infuse it with real-life tales from the front. As an example, Sue Saunders, HESA program coordinator and extension professor in Educational Leadership at Neag, says, “A person like Assistant Vice President [of Student Affairs] Cynthia Jones can talk about human resources development and can bring in a problem from her inbox.”
And acting president Austin “lifts the curtain,” she says. “He can help students see the unseen complicated messy issues that are going on behind the scenes. He really helps them understand campus politics. He just tells it like it is, and he’s delightful to work with.”
Saunders, one of the two full-time HESA faculty, calls the job a “great fit” for her research and background in connecting classroom theory with practical experience. “We learn a tremendous amount on the job, more than just on the job training. We learn about how an organization functions and we learn about politics… The practical experience is more than just a job, it’s an essential part of their education,” Saunders says.
Jennifer Lease Butts, who came from seven years assisting with the undergraduate honors program to become the second full-time HESA faculty member just last summer, says the program stresses a combined learning experience versus the usual segmented approach. “You don’t just think about law and ethics when you have a legal case at hand, you think about law and ethics when you’re designing a class. It all interrelates.”
Enrollees work with staff and undergrads in such diverse areas as student activities, student affairs, risk management, counseling and mental health services, residence life and the various cultural centers on campus. The program itself builds a cohort of grad students of varied backgrounds, ages, cultures, sexual orientations and economic situations. They are alike, however, in their leadership successes inside and outside the classroom.
Charmane Thurmand of Detroit is in her first year of the program and is doing an assistantship at UConn Connects, an academic intervention program for students who get a warning or are placed on probation. But it’s open to anyone who wants help with study skills, time management, takings tests or just some peer support. Thurmand sees high school valedictorians come in and have a rough first semester. She tells them, “You have the smarts to do it. You may not have the tools.” She adds, “I like helping them work through that.”
Tiago Machado of Milford, Mass., also in his first year of HESA, supervises 10 undergrads who put together themed activities at the Student Union on Friday nights. “Late Nights” have included a zombie theme, a farm theme with a cow-milking contest and, his favorite, a live dungeons and dragons-type quest, with assistance by costumed members of the Medieval Arts and Culture Club on campus.
Machado does the administration, such as contracts and purchasing. “It’s up to me to make those dreams happen,” he says.
Catherine Cocks, director of Community Standards at UConn, graduated from the HESA program in its earlier, more traditional format. She co-teaches the law, ethics and decision-making course, supervises assistantships and practica, and says the program provides a safe place to take risks and to make the inevitable mistake. “I often describe our office as this learning laboratory. Not every decision is perfect and not every project is going to go the way you want. Part of our role is to help students learn how to cope.”
One graduate of the HESA program, Fany Hannon, now works as manager of student and alumni relations for the Alumni Association. Born in Honduras, she came to the United States at age 20 without knowing the language. She recalls an awkward moment as a HESA student that led to better cultural understanding.
In a class with Cynthia Jones, students focused on campus “sub populations.” “I was reading the list. And I saw ‘Greek.’” She thought, “So we have international students. We have Greeks.’ But she was confused and bravely said, “Dr. Jones, I’m so sorry to ask you this question: Where are the Italians, where are the Romanians? Why do we have only Greeks?”
Jones was amused and explained the mysterious reference to sororities and fraternities. “I made sure I understood what it means to be in a fraternity, what it means to be in a sorority,” Hannon says. “Now in my new role in the Alumni Association, I have so many students who want to join a fraternity or sorority and I can help them.”
HESA students recently supervised the Huskython dance marathon for charity. Student research has led to policy changes in areas, such as violence against women on campus. A recent student study on the quality of supervision of higher education professionals merited a national research award, named for Saddlemire’s father, Gerald, who was a leader in the field of higher ed administration.
Despite the burgeoning number of applicants to the program, there are no plans to expand it. If the cohort size grows, seminar classes become unwieldy, Saddlemire says. “We’re at the right size and want to make sure we don’t outgrow our ability to provide the kind of experience we think our students deserve.”
HESA graduates are becoming resident hall directors, student activities program coordinators, career counselors, academic advisers, multicultural affairs officers and administrators of an array of other campus services. They have jobs at schools ranging from the University of Washington in Seattle to Barnard and Columbia in New York.
For a program with the UConn campus as its lab, the leaders are constantly reminded of the goal, and they have it in mind when they select the participants competing for a few coveted spots.
“When you think about sending your kid to college, who do you want as a guide?” Saunders poses, then pauses and answers, “An excellent role model who is extremely kind, who is intelligent and humane enough to make good decisions.”
Montville, Conn. — Age 34. Education: bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Connecticut, master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from Neag School of Education at UConn. Experience: teacher, South Windsor High School, 2002-05; teacher, Enfield’s Enrico Fermi High School, 2005-08; assistant principal, Enrico Fermi High School, August 2008-December 2010.
Woodstock native Chad Ellis arrived at Montville High School on Jan. 5 as its new principal and with a personal mandate: Maintain what’s working, and strive to make it better. Ellis replaced Thomas Amanti, a 36-year veteran of the district, who retired Jan. 1.
Q What are your initial impressions of the school district and the building?
A Everything is positive. The facility is gorgeous. It’s immaculate. Everything is clean. If I were a parent walking into this building, I would have a very positive feeling about it, just by the way it looks.
Q What are your thoughts on how the high school is going to fare through the budget process?
A Everybody is going to have to tighten their belts, and it’s a reality. I’m coming from a school district where budget cuts were the norm, not the exception, so I have some experience with making things work with what you’re given. Hopefully, we’re not going to go backward. Hopefully we won’t lose any staff, but we’re constantly bombarded with things by the national and state government and there’s never any money attached with it.
Q Why do you think these unfunded mandates always fall on the shoulders of public education?
A Almost everybody has gone through a public school, and education is one of those fields where, because people have experienced it themselves as students, they feel they’re qualified to comment on what schools should be doing. There’s no question that schools are the single most expensive part of any budget. Because of that, they’re also the most visible and probably the easiest to target.
Q As principal, how important is the philosophy of transparency?
A Transparency is paramount to building trust. If people don’t know what’s going on, they’re going to reach their own conclusions. Without being in a position to say, ‘This is us, this is what we’re doing,’ people will fill that in themselves. I work for the people of this town, the kids of this town and the teachers in this building. I want them to know what’s going on, because, if they have questions, I want them to ask informed questions, and I want the parents to know what we’re about. You really can’t be a partner with the community unless you have that transparency and unless you’re honest with them.
Q What was your first day like?
A It was great. Anytime you get a new principal, and I’ve been a teacher who’s gotten new principals and in other positions of leadership where new principals have come on, people get a little bit anxious, because you never know what you’re going to get. It was interesting to see how people looked at me. Everybody was welcoming, but it was pretty much, ‘We’re going to see how this guy does.’ But it wasn’t difficult. It was very easy and comfortable for me, even with that atmosphere.
Q Tom Amanti was a big Yankees fan and this office was adorned with Yankees memorabilia for years. Are you going to carry on that tradition?
A Absolutely not. Tom has been wonderful to me. But on opening day we are going to do an exorcism in this office of all the Yankee spirits. I was thinking of painting this section of the wall green.
Copyright 2011 Norwich Bulletin. Reprinted with permission.
We want to hear from you! Accolades is a special section in the Spotlight about the accomplishments from our faculty, alumni, and students. If you have some great news to share, please let us know. Feel free to email them to shawn.kornegay@uconn.edu.
Elizabeth Osga (Sixth-Year Diploma in special education ’85, Ph.D. in education leadership ’05), superintendent of Region 18 public schools, was presented with the Superintendent of the Year Award during the annual CABE (Connecticut Association of Boards of Education)/CAPSS (Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents) Convention. She was selected because of her leadership in the Region 18 schools, particularly for providing high-quality learning experiences for students, providing modern and efficient school facilities for the children in the district and for leading successful efforts to improve the learning of those children, according to the association.
Cesarina “Ces” Thompson (M.S. in nursing ’83, Ph.D. in adult and vocational education ’93) was inducted as a fellow in the National League for Nursing – Academy for Nursing Education. She credits the adult education program and especially Barry Sheckley, Neag professor of adult learning, for the knowledge and skills she developed as a doctoral student.
Professor Sirmsree Sevatamorn Chaisorn (Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction ’75), former dean of education at Chiang Mai University in Chiang Mai, Thailand, received a national university teaching award given by the president of the Privy Council of Thailand at the Annual Conference of Higher Education, The award recognizes her teaching excellence and lifetime professional achievement for her work as department head, dean and creator and chair of graduate programs at Chiang Mai University during her 33-year career.
Emily Hall (athletic training ’10), heading to Indiana University for her master’s degree in athletic training, was selected for the first annual Penny F. Dunker-Polek Scholarship from the Connecticut Athletic Trainers’ Association.
Stephanie “Stevie” Clines (athletic training ’11) was selected to attend the Young Professionals Leadership Conference for athletic training students. The workshop, which required an application and acceptance, is very competitive and is designed to help foster leadership skills and networking.
Del Siegle (Neag associate professor of educational psychology and past president of the National Association of Gifted Children) was asked to be a co-author of the newest edition of the best-selling textbook Education of the Gifted and Talented by Gary A. Davis and Sylvia Rimm. The sixth edition of what is considered to be the bible on the gifted and talented has been revised with updated research in several areas, practical classroom strategies and case studies.
Mary Yakimowski (Neag director of assessment) was invited to participate in the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Innovation and Improvement meeting on Teacher Quality Programs and designed for grant directors and evaluators.
Xae Alicia Reyes (associate professor Curriculum and Instruction and of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies) was asked to be a member of the state task force on the achievement gap in Connecticut’s public schools.
Hayley MacDonald (exercise science Ph.D. student in kinesiology) contributed to planning UConn’s 25th Annual Student Health and Wellness Fair that took place in October.
Miguel Cardona, who was honored with an Alma Exley Memorial Scholarship in 1998, has been appointed to co-chair a state task force on the academic achievement gap in Connecticut’s public schools. The task force was formed by the General Assembly to study the gap between racial and socioeconomic groups and recommend effective approaches to closing it. Cardona earned an M.A. in bilingual bicultural education in 2001, a Sixth-Year Diploma in educational administration in 2004 and is currently a student in the Department of Educational Leadership’s Ed.D. program.
Mike Faggella-Luby, Natalie Olinghouse and Michael Coyne (all in the Educational Psychology Department) are co-PIs for a Center for Behavioral Education and Research contract with the Providence, RI, school district. The team will help support the writing and implementation of their new K-12 English Language Arts Curriculum. The multiple-year contract also involves several Neag Ph.D. graduate assistants who are working on site with teachers and administrators.
Sandra Chafouleas (professor of school psychology) was elected as fellow of the American Psychological Association. In 2009 she received the Alumni Association award for Faculty Excellence in Teaching, at the graduate level.
Neag Center for Gifted Education received the 2010 National Association for Gifted Children’s Curriculum Studies Award for outstanding curriculum development. The award is in recognition of the first published unit, funded through the National Science Foundation under Project M2: Mentoring Young Mathematicians, entitled Designing a Shape Gallery: Geometry with the Meerkats. It is an advanced curriculum unit on geometry for second-grade students. M. Katherine Gavin, Neag math specialist, directs the five-year M2 grant project.
Sally Reis (Board of Trustees distinguished professor and teaching fellow in Educational Psychology) was a presenter on “Enabling Environments that Nuture Leaders” at the 2010 First Ladies Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Reis is also prinicipal investigator of the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented.
Joseph Madaus (associate professor, Educational Psychology, and director of the Center on Postsecondary Education and Disability) was invited to join the advisory board of the National Post-School Outcomes Center. The center is in the federal Office of Special Education Programs. Madaus also was asked to join the editorial board of TEACHING Exceptional Children, which is the Council for Exceptional Children’s practitioner journal.
Michael Alfano (TCPCG), Shuana Tucker (UCAPP), Michael Faggella-Luby (Special Education), Austin Johnson (School Psychology), and Mary Yakimowski (Dean’s Office) gave a presentation on “Extreme Assessment: Going beyond the Classroom.” This was the third consecutive year that individuals from the Neag School gave a presentation for the New England Educational Assessment Network, established in 1995 by a group of higher education professionals interested in supporting a regional exchange of ideas related to assessment.
Lawrence Armstrong (professor in the Human Performance Laboratory) was invited to speak on “Influence of Progressive Mild Dehydration on Cognitive Performance and Mood in Men and Women” at the Second Annual Hydration for Health Conference in Evian, France.
Stephanie M. Mazerolle (program director for the undergraduate athletic training program) reports a 100 percent pass rate on the Board of Certification exam on the first try – a first for the Neag program.
One of the hottest topics in public education is the issue of evaluating teachers. Two years ago, a fierce competition for federal Race to the Top money prompted states to propose using data analysis to tie teacher performance directly to student test scores.
“I think we’ve all realized it’s far more complicated than it appears,” says Casey Cobb, Educational Leadership department head and director of the Center for Education Policy Analysis. “Educators in Connecticut want to use teacher evaluation more formatively, not only to hire and fire, but to develop instructional leaders in their schools,” he says.
Cobb and several Neag faculty members were architects, presenters and respondents involved in a recent two-day symposium on the subject that drew national experts and a sell-out crowd of administrators and educators. The idea for it was to examine the research before trying to put policy into practice.
Larry Schaefer, staff associate for leadership development at the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents (CAPSS) and organizer of the symposium, said they planned a space for 100-150 participants, but in the first hour of online registration, 200 had signed up. “We had to shut it down. Nobody else got in,” he said, attributing the success to the hot topic, the national experts Neag lined up and the design of the symposium by Morgaen Donaldson, assistant professor of Educational Leadership and research associate at the Center for Education Policy Analysis. Donaldson is also a research affiliate of the Project on the Next Generation of Teachers at Harvard.
On the first day of the symposium, six experts from the University of Wisconsin, Neag and Harvard shared research and expertise. Their sessions showed the gray areas in using test results data to determine teacher and principal effectiveness, the positive role of peers in observing teachers in the classroom, the use of standards-based evaluations, and a point of view that, despite its pitfalls as a system, districts should use the more expedient Value Added Methodology to weed out bad teachers now for the sake of the students.
The second day focused on three Connecticut districts – Bethel, New Haven and Hamden – and their practices in the field of educator evaluation.
Donaldson says that some form of more formal evaluation is coming and that, before teacher evaluations became such a hot-button issue, “More often than not it’s just been a process that principals dutifully do and teachers dutifully endure, but it hasn’t really been meaningful.”
Betsy McCoach, a first-day presenter who has expertise in an assessment technique called growth curve modeling, wanted to impart that different analytical models will produce varying results. “It can’t be this panacea for teacher effectiveness. It’s really important to triangulate that information with other forms of information, like teacher observation,” says McCoach, associate professor in Measurement, Evaluation and Assessment in the Educational Psychology Department at Neag.
When she presented data showing that only a third of teachers who ranked in the top quartile one year would appear there in the next year, and that 10 percent ranking at the bottom one year would show up in the top quartile the next year, “People’s jaws just started to drop.”
“People like models because they can shift the work away and just get the answers at the end of the day. But you can’t necessarily trust it,” McCoach says.
Other Neag respondents and participants included Jessica Goldstein, assistant professor in residence in Measurement, Evaluation and Assessment; Robert Villanova, director and clinical faculty in the executive leadership program, and Anysia Mayer, assistant professor in Educational Leadership.
Schaefer noted that the Regional Education Laboratory Northeast & Islands of the U.S. Department of Education funded all of the experts chosen for the symposium’s first day, a sweeping endorsement that also kept the cost down for attendees. Symposium partners from Neag, the state superintendents group and the Connecticut Department of Education met recently to start planning a follow-up event, or perhaps two, in the research and practices format next year. “And we’re going to get bigger halls,” Schaefer says.
Cobb says this year’s symposium was meant to “slow down a bit and find out what works and what doesn’t work.” Next fall the focus should be on more practical applications and ideas on assisting districts to evaluate teachers fairly. And, then the state would be ready to embark upon action, augmented by professional assistance.
Cobb says Neag researchers would like to be there to assist in those new efforts, understand them, observe the successes and report back on the experiences. “That’s where UConn has something to add,” he says.
Dr. Jason Irizarry, Dean Thomas C. DeFranco, and Julia Leonard gather at the awards event.
On Nov. 29, 2010, the University of Connecticut held the fifth annual Awards for Excellence in Public Engagement, in which a professor and student from the Neag School of Education were recognized as finalists.
The Office of Public Engagement selected one faculty member, one staff member, one graduate student, one undergraduate student and one university program based on involvement and leadership in public outreach. A total of 41 nominations were received this year.
Two of the 16 finalists were Jason Irizarry, an assistant professor of Multicultural Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and faculty associate in the Institute for Puerto Rican and Latino Studies, and Julia Leonard, a sixth-semester special education major.
In addition to course work, Irizarry most notably has taught class at a local high school free of charge the last three years, helping promote academic achievement of youth by addressing issues associated with teacher education. To Irizarry, public engagement is simply part of his job. He hopes to scale up in the future from his current work with small groups to multiple classrooms with teachers and students working together over longer periods of time.
“I never thought of [service] as something extra,” said Irizarry.
A Groton resident, Leonard was nominated by Matthew Farley, associate director for community outreach at UConn, and Gina DeVivo Brassaw, senior program coordinator for community outreach. Leonard’s involvement on campus ranges from being a teaching assistant and First Year Experience mentor to a UConn Connects facilitator through the Office of First Year Programs and Learning Communities.
As a student leader, Leonard acts as the project director for Special Olympics, which includes planning a dodgeball fundraiser, as well as the Husky Classic, a statewide soccer tournament that occurs in the spring. In this position, Leonard also advocates for individuals with disabilities
Both the Neag School’s faculty member and student were honored by their recognition and plan to continue providing leadership and service to their community involvements. For further information on the Office of Public Engagement awards, programs or how to get involved, call (860) 486-4854.
Susannah Everett is a research associate with the Center for Behavioral Education & Research. Her focus is to support the research and implementation of School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS) in the Hartford Public Schools, with specific attention on targeted interventions. She will also work with CT State Education Resource Center and other organizations to coordinate PBIS training and on-going professional development throughout the state. Everett has been an instructor with Neag’s Dept. of Educational Psychology since 2002 and previously was a school psychologist and School-Wide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS) coach with Ashford School. She earned her Ph.D. in clinical and school psychology and her M.Ed. in clinical and school psychology from the University of Virginia and a B.A. in history, with a concentration on psychology, from Williams College.
Nancy Gianetti
Nancy Gianetti is a program assistant II where she provides sponsored research and general financial management support for the Center for Behavioral Education and Research. Gianetti assists with event-planning logistics and conference arrangements, manages the grants both pre- and post-award, as well as processing student payroll and coordinating the hiring of new personnel. Prior to her new position, Gianetti worked as the executive assistant to the president of Guida’s Milk and Ice Cream. She also previously worked as the executive assistant to the commissioner at the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. Gianetti earned a bachelor’s degree in communication, with a minor in marketing, from Central Connecticut State University and holds an A to Z Grantwriting Certificate from Manchester Community College.
Tammy Kolbe
Tammy Kolbe is an assistant research professor with the Center for Education Policy Analysis (CEPA). Kolbe has considerable experience and expertise in education policy analysis and program evaluation, with an emphasis on analyzing education policy reforms and resource allocation at the state, district and school levels. Prior to joining CEPA, Kolbe was an assistant professor with Florida State University’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, an AERA-IES post-doctoral (Department of Education Policy Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park), and a professional evaluator with Abt Associates, Inc. She received her Ed.D. in education leadership and policy studies from the University of Vermont, and holds a M.S. in policy analysis and program evaluation from Pennsylvania State University, and a B.A. from Kalamazoo College.
Shawn Kornegay
Shawn Kornegay serves on the Neag School of Education advancement team and is responsible for the planning and execution of public relations, communications and marketing activities designed to promote programs, events and services, and alumni relations for the nationally ranked school of education. Prior to joining Neag, she worked at Texas Christian University as the associate director of communications where she managed the marketing for various schools and colleges, including the school of education and department of kinesiology. Before TCU, Shawn worked at San Diego State University, where she was responsible for the Alumni Association’s communications. Shawn earned a B.S. in marketing from SDSU and an M.S. in advertising/public relations from TCU.
Kimberly LeChasseur
Kimberly LeChasseur is an assistant research professor with the Center for Education Policy Analysis at the University of Connecticut. Her current research concentrates on issues of equity and access in education, with particular attention to the school contexts provided through school choice policies and small-scale schooling reforms in urban settings. She is specifically interested in data-driven decision-making, both in schools and in other learning communities. At UConn, LeChasseur is involved in a multi-year evaluation of the CommPACT Schools Initiative, as well as a study of inter-district school choice in the Hartford region. LeChasseur received her M.Ed. and Ph.D. in urban education from Temple University and holds a B.A. from the College of the Holy Cross.
Anna Long
Anna Long serves as the project manager on an IES-funded Goal 2 grant (PRIME). Her primary area of research focus is implementation science in schools. Specifically, she is interested in increasing the adoption of evidence-based practices, as well as improving the treatment integrity and sustainability of those practices. Prior to joining the CBER staff at UConn, she was a postdoctoral research associate at 3-C Institute for Social Development (ISD) in Cary, N.C., where she assisted in the development and evaluation of socio-behavioral interventions and evidenced-based practices for children, parents and schools. Long received her Ph.D. in school psychology from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, her B.A. from the University of Maine-Orono, and is a licensed psychologist in North Carolina and Connecticut.
Melissa Root Madaus
Melissa Root Madaus is a new assistant professor in residence hired to work with Michael Faggella-Luby in the Neag School of Education’s Department of Special Education. Root Madaus’ work primarily focuses on improving and disseminating the Indicator 14 Post-School Outcomes data for the state of Connecticut. Prior to coming to the university, Root Madaus worked at Mitchell College in New London, Conn., teaching math to students with learning, emotional and physical disabilities, along with those without disabilities. She also served as a consultant to the state of Connecticut on the STAR program, facilitating the understanding and agreement between disputing schools and families over the educational placement of students with intellectual disabilities (related to the PJ settlement in the state). Root Madaus received her Ph.D. in educational psychology with a concentration in school psychology from the University of Connecticut and holds a B.A. from the University of New Hampshire.
Anjalé Welton
Anjalé Welton is an assistant research professor focusing on the educational opportunity networks of low-income students and students of color. Her research interests also include critical policy analysis, school districts’ response to demographic change, social justice leadership, post-secondary access for low-income students and students of color, conducting community-engaged research, and preparing educators to teach and lead in an increasingly diverse and complex society. Prior to UConn, Welton was coordinator of a leadership and empowerment program for urban youth, facilitator for a teacher preparation program for urban teachers and a special education teacher in both Washington, D.C., and Austin, Texas, public schools. Welton is a first-generation college graduate and has a Ph.D. in educational policy from the University of Texas at Austin, an M.A. in early childhood special education from George Washington University, and an M.A. in educational policy and leadership, specializing in higher education, from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Materials and data record sheets used during previous field study at Mansfield Hollow State Park, CT.
When most people think about dehydration — if they think about it at all — they probably associate it with physical exertion or athletic performance. But a Neag professor’s latest research shows that dehydration can result even from leisurely activity such as sitting at a computer, with possibly detrimental health consequences.
Lawrence Armstrong, who has spent more than 20 years working in the Department of Kinesiology’s Human Performance Laboratory, says despite the popularity of bottled water, most people walk around mildly dehydrated most of the time because when they experience thirst, they may already be dehydrated by 1 to 2 percent of body weight.
“We sometimes don’t think to drink,” says Armstrong. “The average person loses about 2.5 quarts of fluid per day. We have this constant turnover that has to be maintained with frequent hydration, but people get busy and forget. That can reduce mental performance and alter mood, even at a low level of dehydration.”
A recent study Armstrong conducted with fellow Neag professors Carl Maresh and Douglas Casa showed that the effects of even mild dehydration can range from headache to fatigue to problems with concentration. But the research also found that there were effects on mood and feelings. “We saw that these subjects generally felt more tense, more anxious, that they experienced more confusion, all as a result of their mildly dehydrated state. We believe that these findings confirm that all of us can perform optimally only when we are adequately hydrated.”
Armstrong says that past research has focused on severe dehydration, leaving the milder forms neglected. Most previous studies, he adds, have also targeted the consumption of sports drinks rather than water. With research funding from Danone, the second-largest bottled water producer in the world, Armstrong has delved more deeply into water’s effects on hydration and health.
In his book, Performing in Extreme Environments, Armstrong developed a urine color chart that, in his words, was “not rocket science” but did re-think old concepts. “This chart is accessible and easy to understand,” Armstrong says. “The gradations are clearer, showing that if urine is straw-colored or pale yellow, the body is releasing water and the person is well-hydrated. A darker color shows the body is conserving water because it is in a state of dehydration. People get this.”
Coupled with his work on hydration here at home, Armstrong has also been a strong advocate for proper hydration in the developing world. In a recent presentation at a medical conference in Indonesia, he saw the difficulties firsthand. Despite being housed at one of the country’s finest hotels, he saw warning signs telling guests not to drink the tap water. In addition, though it is a nation of more than 220 million people, Indonesia’s sewage treatment and potable water sources are not available to even a majority of its citizens. Thus, dehydration can result from either the intestinal ailments that occur from drinking unsafe water or from not drinking water at all.
Armstrong cites one hopeful development. Third-world physicians may be doing more to advise patients about hydration because they are finally learning more about it themselves, partially as a result of presentations like his. “Physicians have not been trained to talk to their patients about hydration states,” he says. “That’s why I felt my talk in Jakarta opened a lot of eyes to this problem and to the need for administrators to incorporate this kind of training into the Medical School curriculum.” Armstrong also hopes it eventually will lead to action by the Indonesian government to provide an adequate supply of clean drinking water for its people.
The U.S. has, of course, made steady progress over the past 20 to 30 years in terms of its understanding of hydration. Armstrong credits professional organizations, like the American College of Sports Medicine, for raising awareness of the need for adequate daily hydration. He also cites enhancements in the education of athletic trainers, including those in the Neag School’s Department of Kinesiology, for triggering increased awareness.
“The competencies of athletic trainers have changed over the years, due in part to the efforts of my colleague, Doug Casa. Those changes are the little steps that have done so much to benefit so many people,” Armstrong says. “Now, we should disseminate this information and awareness to as much of the rest of the world as we can.”
The Neag School of Education continues to achieve top-ranking status as a graduate school of education in the U.S.; it is the #1 public graduate school of education in the Northeast, and it is overall #33 in the nation by the U.S. News & World Report.
Dear Alumni and Friends of the Neag School of Education:
We want to hear from you! Accolades is a special section in the Spotlight about the accomplishments from our faculty, alumni, and students. If you have some great news to share, please let us know. Feel free to email them to shawn.kornegay@uconn.edu.
