For almost 30 years, the College of Education at Michigan State University has been a trailblazer in the international arena under the masterful leadership of Professor John (Jack) Schwille. As one of the leading colleges of education in the country, our college has the responsibility to educate the next generation of globally-conscious educators, administrators, policymakers and researchers. They must be prepared to transcend domestic and international boundaries to lead schools, colleges and universities, and other institutions of education. Building on the strong legacy of international engagement at MSU, the College of Education is strategically poised to train world-class graduates who can engage diverse students, domestically and internationally.

My vision for the next phase of international work in the College of Education is deeply rooted in my firm belief that “people matter.” Some of the educational experiences during my formative years in South Africa deeply influenced my scholarship and approach to leadership. I have devoted a significant part of my career studying higher education issues to understand experiences of historically marginalized populations, primarily in developing countries.

It is my sincere desire to understand issues of equality, equity, access and justice is grounded in the words of Nelson Mandela: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Therefore, one of the core goals of the Office of International Studies is to develop an integrated international strategy that builds programs and opportunities for students and faculty – to engage globally in the curriculum, research and outreach.

The College of Education has a track record of excellence as evidenced by exceptional national rankings across a number of our graduate programs. To continue this tradition, the Office of International Studies will work with department chairs, program directors and faculty to:

• Integrate international and global perspectives in the undergraduate and graduate curriculum and produce graduates prepared to engage seamlessly in cross cultural/ international contexts

• Create synergies in global programming across programs

• Develop and implement short and long-term strategic objectives for internationalization of the curriculum. Coordinate curricular options (e.g. courses, internships, practica) for undergraduate and graduate students (e.g. the Global Educators Cohort Program and the Fellowship to Enhance Global Understanding) to ensure our graduates are globally competent

• Coordinate international study tours, study abroad experiences and other faculty-led programs.

Faculty support is also critical. My staff and I will:

• Collaborate with the associate dean for research to provide support to faculty interested or engaged in international research.
• Work with the associate dean for research and the Development Office to explore opportunities to grow external funding for internationally –oriented programs, grants and contracts, and solicitations from private donors

Last, we will continue to foster deep connections across the university. This requires exploring opportunities for collaboration around international research and activities with other MSU colleges with a truly interdisciplinary spirit (e.g. Global Center for Food Systems Innovation).

I am honored to be appointed to this role of assistant dean for international studies and look forward to serving the college to maintain our tradition of excellence.

Over the course of the year, I have had the chance to meet in large and small groups with the majority of the 150 faculty in the college, as well as many of the additional 150 staff who help support our teaching, research and outreach missions. I have also met hundreds of our alumni and supporters at events on campus as well as in Detroit, Grand Rapids, Oakland County, Chicago, Florida, Vancouver and Ireland. Even though I am no longer in the classroom, I have still managed to find time to interact with our undergraduate and graduate students on occasion.

I come away from these encounters incredibly uplifted by the energy, enthusiasm and expertise that I find on a daily basis in the college. Our people bring great skills and experiences to some of the nation’s — and the world’s — most pressing educational and health-related problems. This issue of the New Educator describes some of this work.

Our cover story focuses on online teaching and learning. Many of our faculty members teach in fully online programs, and some of them — primarily those in our Educational Psychology and Educational Technology program — conduct research on best practices in online education. Forty-four percent of all graduate students in the college and almost two-thirds of master’s students are enrolled in online or hybrid programs, which mix computer-mediated instruction with traditional, face-to-face instruction. Last spring, we dedicated the CEPSE/COE Design Studio in Erickson Hall, a facility that provides the latest technological tools for faculty teaching online or for those who want to make more effective use of technology in their face-to-face classes. The Design Studio consultants have expertise in a variety of state-of-the-art tools, including video production, website development, game design and animation development.

Also featured in this issue is a profile of Justin Grinnell (’04, Kinesiology), owner of State of Fitness, a personal training gym in East Lansing. Justin is a successful entrepreneur who gives back to his alma mater by hosting student interns from the Department of Kinesiology in his facility. Kinesiology is our fastest-growing undergraduate program, with enrollments almost doubling over the last decade. As the nation becomes more health- and fitness-conscious, we expect enrollments to continue to grow.

We introduce a new feature in this issue, Faculty Viewpoint, in which our faculty weighs in on hot issues from their research. Professor David Arsen of the Department of Educational Administration has written an open letter to Governor Rick Snyder of Michigan, in which he describes the possible impact of some important educational changes being proposed in our state.

There is much more inside these pages, so I hope you will take time to read about what we are doing, and why being a dean is like drinking from a fire hose — there is so much coming at you that it is hard to keep pace. But trust me, you don’t want to miss a drop.

As teacher educators await the results of a controversial, nationwide review of teacher preparation programs, the leader behind the project made a stop at Michigan State University. It was the first time Kate Walsh, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), spoke in a college of education — and the discussions were frank.

“We know that teachers arrive in classrooms not ready to teach on day one,” Walsh said. “There is no reason that a teacher prepared by a traditional program shouldn’t be better prepared than a Teach for America teacher.”

Calling teacher education “a field in disarray,” she outlined common goals in university programs — forming professional identify, confronting assumptions about race and class — that are contributing to a “clear disconnect between teachers prepared in higher education and what’s expected in PK-12.” There is not enough focus, she says, on raising student achievement and training educators to actually practice the best teaching methods.

The NCTQ review is expected to be released in April 2013 as a partnership with U.S. News & World Report. It evaluates more than 1,100 teacher preparation programs based on standards determined with input from superintendents and various experts and evidence gathered via course syllabi, policy manuals, surveys of local school districts, etc.

Although she disagrees with some of NCTQ’s methods, MSU’s teacher education Chairperson Suzanne Wilson invited Walsh as part of an ongoing effort to understand and respond to public criticism about university teacher education. The Marianne Amarel Lecture Series continues on campus this spring.

Professor co-leads global food systems center funded by USAID

Michigan State University is using a grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development to improve agricultural production and reduce poverty in parts of the world suffering from rapid urbanization, population growth and skills gaps.

Receiving up to $25 million over five years, finding solutions to the problems that affect food production will be the focus of MSU’s new Global Center for Food Systems Innovation.

The center will work with food and agricultural sciences, engineering and education experts to discover, test and implement food system changes in Central America, East Africa and Southeast Asia. Reitumetse Mabokela, professor of Higher, Adult and Lifelong Education (HALE) in the College of Education, is co-director with Ajit Srivastava, professor and chair in the Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering at MSU.

“One of our goals is to reach not only the academics and technical experts but also the people on the ground who are going to be addressing these major issues,” Mabokela said. “That requires us to engage youth and train the next generation of development experts.”

With extensive international experience, Mabokela will play a lead role in building collaborative relationships with the partnering institutions around the world:

• Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania
• Wageningen University and Research Centre in the Netherlands
• The Energy and Resources Institute in India

MSU’s International Studies and Programs will house the center.

Higher Education Solutions Network

More broadly, the new center is part of USAID’s Higher Education Solutions Network (HESN) — a partnership with seven American and foreign universities designed to develop solutions to global development challenges.

More than 20 people representing MSU — including Mabokela and HALE doctoral students John Bonnell and Tonisha Lane — went to Washington, D.C. in November 2012 to celebrate the launch of HESN. The trip included meetings with USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as well as an opportunity for students to showcase their work.

“By collaborating with top universities around the world, we hope to tap today’s brightest minds and focus ingenuity on global development challenges,” said Shah. “With the right ideas, we can reduce extreme poverty by more than 60 percent — lifting more than 700 million people back from the abyss of hunger and malnutrition — in just one generation.”

The other universities receiving grants are Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Texas A&M University, the College of William and Mary, University of California-Berkeley, Duke University and Makerere University in Uganda. Each will establish Development Labs that will work with USAID’s field mission experts and Washington, D.C. staff to apply science and technology to address problems in areas such as global health, food security and chronic conflict, he said.

John (Jack) Schwille, assistant dean for international studies in the College of Education, said the HESN will help Michigan State strengthen its international impact significantly.

“It reflects MSU’s priority on working across colleges, as well as with institutions outside the U.S.,” he said. “There is a lot of important work going on in other countries and this project will be a basis for helping us understand that better.”

Farming, literacy, equity and more

Leaders of MSU’s Global Center for Food Systems Innovation will start by visiting each region being targeted to identify the top problems in food production and distribution. They will then develop a set of interventions with potential to create long-term change.

Solutions will be disseminated to stakeholders, such as USAID, agro-industry businesses, farmers, traders and other food system workers throughout the globe. Undergraduate and graduate students will form the Translational Scholars Corps, and as future leaders will be key to the center’s success.

Mabokela has long-conducted interdisciplinary research in developing countries such as Ghana and Pakistan. She is excited about the center’s potential to increase the involvement of women in global food security and to create brighter futures for all people in the targeted regions.

“This project gives me an opportunity to engage with a set of issues that are not only food-related but, in the long run, influence whether children go to school for example,” she said, noting literacy is a major issue in food system improvements. Using a new fertilizer can help crops grow faster, she said, but that will not happen if farmers struggle to read the application directions correctly.

Up to two-thirds of the world is hungry according to UNICEF and the center will be exploring solutions all along the chain, from food production to consumption.

Says Srivastava: “If we ‘bend the trend’ toward equitable and sustainable development and build the body of knowledge on how to harness these trends, we can have the largest impact on the productivity of global food systems.”

Dear Gov. Snyder,

Last summer you requested legislation to profoundly change funding for Michigan’s K-12 schools with a sweeping replacement of the School Aid Act of 1979. Since financial arrangements decisively influence school operations, many Michigan citizens took note.

Your goal was to incorporate the new legislation into the state’s budget for the 2013-14 school year. You received the proposed Michigan Public Education Finance Act of 2013 in November as planned, but didn’t mention it in your recent State of the State address. As one finance nerd to another—alas, I’m an economist (guess what, my wife is too!)—I applaud your decision to slow down and give fuller consideration to the proposed changes.

These policy decisions will have very far-reaching implications for Michigan’s public schools, so it’s important to get them right.

The proposed funding system was drafted by the Lansing-based Oxford Foundation, which was established “to lessen the burdens of government.” You asked Richard McClellan, a distinguished lawyer and one of the founders of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, to lead the effort. The proposed legislation and related documents are available via www.oxfordfoundationmi.com.

The goal of Oxford’s finance reform is to facilitate a 21st Century “Any Time, Any Place, Any Way, Any Pace” learning model in which funding is student-centered, not district-centered, and focused on things that work so it is more cost-effective. The drafters also sought to “allow nonpublic school students and home school students maximum access to public education resources.”

As you know, since Proposal A took effect in 1994, all operational funding for Michigan schools has followed students when they move to another district, to a charter school or recently to an online school. The Oxford proposal, however, embodies two key innovations. First, it “unbundles” education services. Rather than all state funding following students to a single school, students could allocate their enrollment and state funding across multiple schools and districts. In a standard six-hour school day, students might take classes in six different districts.

Since the challenge of transporting students among multiple schools during the school day could limit choice, the Oxford proposal envisions a robust expansion of online instruction. Districts and charters could offer online and face-to-face courses to any student in the state.

The Oxford group calls its second key innovation “performance-based funding.” Students would take standardized tests at the start and end of each class. Schools would lose a portion (expected to increase over time) of the state funding for every student who did not make sufficient progress.

The Oxford proposal was explicitly designed to operate in conjunction with 2012 House Bill 5923, which would allow new entities (private businesses, municipalities, cultural institutions) to establish public schools in virtually any location, with little oversight and without regard to their impact on existing schools. It removes enrollment restrictions on cyber schools. Significantly, HB 5923 authorizes some schools to use selective admissions based on student academic ability, gender or migrant-worker status. Schools established by businesses could give enrollment preference to children of company employees.

The Oxford funding proposal and HB 5923 represent a truly dramatic strategy to shift the provision of Michigan’s educational services outside locally-governed school districts. They would establish the closest approximation to a universal statewide voucher system ever implemented in the United States. This possibility drew the excited attention of observers across the political spectrum. But with so many high-voltage policies commanding Lansing policymakers’ attention at the end of 2012, progress on these landmark policies stalled, leaving them for the current legislative session.

This is an ideal moment for you to offer leadership. The drafters staunchly maintained that they were implementing your vision for Michigan schools, as set forth in an April 2011 address (a few months after you took office while you were getting acquainted with many areas of state policy): http://ow.ly/h8AGE. The opportunity for more reflection makes this is a good time to clarify your views for Michigan policymakers and citizens.

In the spirit of constructive dialogue, I offer some initial reactions to Oxford’s 300-page proposal. The proposal lacks coherence. Indeed the drafters acknowledge that many elements (like student testing) remain unresolved. Rather than focus on these, I direct attention to a few important considerations that have been overlooked.

Michigan’s current funding system has many problems when assessed against standard evaluation criteria from the field of school finance. Remarkably, the Oxford proposal doesn’t simply fail to address these problems; it would make them worse.

Revenue Trends

Click to enlarge

The Oxford reformers did not consider which revenue sources should fund the system. Nor did they ask how much money is needed. They didn’t even consider how earmarked revenues that currently fund Michigan’s public schools have fared. If they had, they would have observed a striking trajectory. The figure to the left shows general fund revenues for Michigan’s K-12 local school districts and charter schools, adjusted for inflation and enrollment.

Between 2002 and 2011, real per-pupil funding of Michigan’s public schools fell by $2,643 or 24.5 percent. Consequently, virtually all schools have cut services. Some of this decline is due to the state’s decade-long economic contraction which depressed sales, income and property tax collections. But that’s not the main story. Sixty percent of the revenue decline can be attributed to declining tax effort — in other words, policy decisions. If we had merely devoted the same share of our personal income to public schools in 2011 as in 2002, per-pupil funding would have been $1,589 higher.

Massachusetts, the highest-performing state on most student outcome measures, spends about 40 percent more per pupil than Michigan. Our revenue decline has not yet hit bottom. The Oxford proposal does nothing to arrest this disinvestment. Instead it creates new drains on available school aid funds.

Equity, Adequacy and Perverse Incentives

As a school finance specialist, I’m surprised to see a statewide plan that completely ignores equity and adequacy. Proposal A narrowed but did not eliminate funding inequalities among districts. Adequacy, however, requires that district revenues match the costs of producing outcomes expected by the state. We rate poorly on this standard. Part of the problem is the collapse of revenues already noted. I focus here, however, on the mismatch between state revenues and local costs. Since the state controls operational funding for all Michigan districts and charter schools, these problems could be solved.

Michigan’s school aid distribution is not adequately adjusted to reflect the differential cost of expensive special-needs students, regional cost-of-living variations or declining enrollment costs (which arise because revenues decline faster than costs — some costs are fixed in the short run — which then forces cuts in programs for students left behind) (Arsen & Plank, 2003).

School choice policies exacerbate the problem. Funding arrangements give choice schools a strong incentive to enroll low-cost students (elementary versus secondary students, regular versus special education). On average, Michigan’s local districts devote over 9 percent of their spending to special education services, while the percentage in charter schools is less than half this amount (Arsen & Ni, 2012c). Such cost creaming lowers average costs in choice schools, by simultaneously increasing average costs in the schools their students formerly attended.

Michigan’s school choice policies promote sustained outflows of students and revenue from districts charged with educating the highest-need children (Ni & Arsen, 2011), significantly contributing to fiscal stress (Arsen & Ni, 2012a) and the prospect of state emergency management (Arsen & Mason, forthcoming).

The Oxford proposal would surely expand such problems. It does not fix foundation grant inequalities or align them with costs. It simply divides foundation grants among course providers based on their share of a student’s total classes. Course providers would have a great incentive to attract low-cost students into low-cost classes — not special education, for example, or high school science labs. Inexpensive online classes with large enrollments would be preferred. Schools losing students to such ventures would see average costs rise, undercutting their ability to continue offering high-cost classes and other services.

Good schools now offer an array of additional services—libraries, reading specialists, transportation, student newspapers, sports, assemblies and so on. By failing to allocate revenue to cover the costs of such services, the Oxford proposal would discourage schools from providing them. Over time, these incentives would force district programming and operations to progressively converge to those of stripped-down online vendors.

Whereas participation in Michigan’s school choice policies is currently concentrated in urban areas, participation would grow substantially in suburban and rural districts under the Oxford and HB 5923 choice plans. Indeed, districts with per-pupil foundation grants thousands of dollars above the basic level would be prime targets for external course providers. (Hello, Detroit suburbs.)

A third-grade student who can’t read could be enrolled in several online classes by his guardian. Under the Oxford plan’s performance-based funding, if he didn’t learn anything in those classes, the course provider would forfeit 5 percent of the state funding. What would prevent a (mostly) home-schooled student from taking advantage of a district’s extracurricular offerings, without bringing any corresponding revenue to that district, while the bulk of her foundation grant goes to a company that provides her with a computer used for online classes — and the family business, too?

Efficiency

The Oxford proposal would generate inefficiency in many ways. It would increase administrative costs to implement complex and essential student recordkeeping. It introduces new ways for enterprising service providers to game the funding system, requiring costly monitoring procedures to discourage misuse of public funds. And it would increase costs to transport students between classes in different schools, costs borne by schools or families.

Educational efficiency is defined by student outcomes relative to the cost of providing them. It is inherently linked, therefore, to instructional practices. The Oxford proposal drafters don’t know much about teaching and learning. They appear unaware that effective schools establish cohesive cultures that inspire and coordinate the efforts of all educators and students. Otherwise they would recognize that a plan to encourage students to come and go as they please, without their school’s consent, could undermine outcomes for choosers and non-choosers alike.

They ignore clear evidence that noncognitive skills and social adaptability matter greatly for student and adult success, so they do not consider the possibility that their preoccupation with cognition as measured in test scores could generate a serious bias in instructional practice, undermining desired student outcomes and efficiency.

The drafters assert that the proposals will make Michigan’s education system more cost-effective, but don’t really want anyone to check. The proposal eliminates existing requirements for schools to report the costs of their online operations.

Many once presumed that new, entrepreneurial education service providers, in contrast to bureaucratic public school districts, would shift spending from administration to classroom instruction. Yet on average, Michigan’s charter schools spend nearly $800 more per pupil per year on administration and $1,110 less on instruction than the state’s school districts (Arsen & Ni, 2012c). What would prevent HB 5923 and the Oxford proposal from accelerating this top-heavy reallocation of school spending?

Many once expected competition from charter schools to improve educational efficiency in district schools, but on balance this has not been found in the accumulating research (Arsen & Ni, 2011, 2012b; Ni & Arsen, 2010). Michigan’s poorly designed school finance and choice policies are interacting to create a downward spiral in the state’s urban districts. These are now such extraordinarily turbulent educational settings that comparisons of charter and district performance need to account for the adverse impact of charters on districts (Ni, 2009). What would prevent the proposed reforms from creating similar harm in other districts?

School Facilities

While the state controls funding for school operations, funding for Michigan’s school facilities is left entirely to local districts. School infrastructure is financed primarily by local property taxes. Variations in per-pupil property wealth across communities create huge inequalities in local districts’ ability to pay for school facilities. Consequently, dramatic disparities in facility quality across Michigan districts are strongly correlated with local property wealth (Arsen & Davis, 2006, 2008).

Property tax millage rates in some poor districts would have to be 10 times the level in affluent districts to generate the same per-pupil revenue. As a result, facilities in many of Michigan’s poorest school districts are inadequate. Michigan’s current system of school facility finance has generated unequal opportunities for students and unequal burdens for taxpayers. It is a shameful situation that courts and lawmakers in other states have rectified (Mason & Arsen, 2010).

These problems could be addressed with suitable state policy. Michigan is one of a handful of states that provide no state aid for facilities. The state’s only role has been to lower local district borrowing costs under certain circumstances by guaranteeing the construction loans. Remarkably, at the very end of 2012, when so many contentious bills awaited your signature, you signed the little-noticed Public Act 437, which within a year will terminate even this meager state support, effectively ending facility construction in most districts.

Further Reflection

Gov. Snyder, the Oxford funding proposal and HB 5923 fail to solve the actual problems facing Michigan schools. Instead they would worsen those problems and create a host of new ones. While claiming to advance a plan for globally competitive schools, the drafters propose a set of policies found in no high-performing nation’s educational system. While claiming to advance a modern 21st Century system to replace the old “factory” model of schooling, they in fact offer a plan based on the grim principles of 19th Century piece work production that relied not on collaboration but rather on the coercive measurement of individual effort. The proposals are not based on empirical evidence of what works but rather on faith.

This is a plan to privatize Michigan’s public schools. The Oxford proposal and HB 5923 explicitly seek to undermine local school districts as the providers of education services. But most Michigan citizens like their local public schools, and they like having democratic control over school boards. Their communities are defined by their local school districts. For some, the most pertinent defense of public schools is that the “whole is greater than the sum of the parts.” What is lost with “unbundling” is community. Community is real. We know that it matters for health and happiness. And people are willing to pay for it.

Real estate markets reflect the value people place on local school districts in home prices. Identical homes on opposite sides of a district boundary can differ in price by tens of thousands of dollars. Destroy the districts where people have paid extra for their community schools, and property values will fall.

Trust Your Judgment

My hunch is that you have a pretty good sense of what makes for a good school. You had the opportunity to send your own child to excellent public schools, but chose Greenhills School, a wonderful private school in Ann Arbor. It is selective. The school has attractive facilities and grounds, a student-faculty ratio of eight and an average class size of 17. Greenhills strives to provide a wide range of stimulating and challenging classes. Teachers and administrators take pride in the school’s democratic decision-making; it’s not top-down.

Annual tuition for Greenhills is nearly $20,000, and, as you know better than I, that doesn’t cover all operating costs. If the trend line for Michigan public school revenues looks like a frown, then the one for Greenhills looks a bit more like a smile.

I don’t question your choice. But this is what puzzles me. Students at Greenhills do not take standardized tests until they apply to college. The school’s educators sympathize with their public school colleagues whose professional lives now revolve around tests.

Greenhills does not accept credit for online classes, nor offer classes for credit in the summer. It takes a firm position against students taking courses at other institutions, including colleges or universities, unless they have already taken the school’s most advanced course in a subject. Greenhills students don’t graduate early, but rather all together at a spring commencement. The school is designed around remarkable physical spaces devoted to “forums” for students in each grade to meet, deliberate and socialize.

The school has a thoughtful rationale for these decisions: it wants students to interact with one another and faculty to establish a durable and supportive community. I try to imagine how the families and educators at Greenhills would react if they were forced to operate under the rules embodied in the Oxford proposal and HB 5923.

As you search for strategies to improve Michigan’s public schools, you might consider Massachusetts, the top-performing state, which years ago established broad-based task forces comprised of experts from universities, government and business, along with educators and citizen group representatives to develop long-term plans for funding and other aspects of the state’s public schools.

If you do so, there’s a collection of really smart people, just down the road from your office, in a College of Education with top-rated programs in elementary and secondary education and other fields, who, despite the fact that the state is funding an ever-dwindling fraction of their salaries, would be happy to offer assistance.

Most importantly, citizens across Michigan care deeply about these issues. Please listen to what they have to say.

Sincerely,

David Arsen

The content of this article reflects the views of the author and not necessarily those of Michigan State University or the MSU College of Education.

References

Arsen, D., & Davis, T. (2006). Taj Mahals or decaying shacks: Patterns in local school capital stock and unmet capital need. Peabody Journal of Education, 81(4).

Arsen, D., & Davis, T. (2008). Underinvestment in capital facilities in Michigan’s urban schools: Dimensions of the problem and state policy options. Michigan State University Center for Community and Economic Development. Urban Policy Research Series. Report 1. http://ced.msu.edu/publications/reports/public-policy.

Arsen, D., & Mason, M.L. (forthcoming). Seeking accountability through state-appointed emergency district management. Educational Policy.

Arsen, D., & Ni, Y. (2011). Shaking up public schools with competition. The School Administrator. 68(7): 16-19.

Arsen, D., & Ni, Y. (2012a). The effects of charter school competition on school district resource allocation. Education Administration Quarterly, 48(1), 3-38.

Arsen, D., & Ni, Y. (2012b). The competitive effect of school choice policies on performance in traditional public schools. In G. Miron (Ed.), Exploring the School Choice Universe: Evidence and Recommendations. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Arsen, D. & Ni, Y. (2012c). Resource allocation in charter and traditional public schools: Is administration leaner in charter schools? Education Policy Analysis Archives, 28(31).  http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/1016

Arsen, D., & Plank, D. N. (2003). Michigan school finance under Proposal A: State control, local consequences. Education Policy Center at MSU. http://education.msu.edu/epc/library/reports.asp.

Mason, M. L., & Arsen, D. (2010). The role of state courts in securing school facility adequacy and equity. Education Policy Center at MSU. http://education.msu.edu/epc/library/Policy-and-research-reports.asp.

Ni, Y. (2009). Do traditional public schools benefit from charter school competition? Evidence from Michigan. Economics of Education Review, 28(5), 571-584.

Ni, Y., & Arsen, D. (2010). The competitive effects of charter schools on public school districts. In C. Lubienski & P. Weitzel (Eds.), The Charter School Experiment: Expectations, Evidence, and Implications (pp. 93-120). Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

Ni, Y., & Arsen, D. (2011). School choice participation rates: Which districts are pressured? Education Policy Analysis Archives, 19 (October). http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/777.

Editor’s note: This post was updated on April 23, 2013 to clarify revenues sources represented in the figure.

By Nicole Geary

Have you taken a course online? How about a hybrid program?

The College of Education led the charge into web-based teaching more than a decade ago and currently claims nearly 900 students pursuing degrees completely online. That population accounts for almost two-thirds of all master’s candidates in the college—and that doesn’t include hundreds of others who now take online courses as part of traditional (face-to-face) programs.

The mission hasn’t changed, but the reach is far greater.

Online programs make higher education opportunities available to more people in more places. Fewer students feel they can sacrifice time and professional commitments to travel to campus, and improving technology and web accessibility means they don’t have to.

More than ever, professors are prepared to foster learning online without sacrificing the quality of instruction that Michigan State University is known for. At least a third of the full-time faculty now teaches online.

BUT BEING ONLINE ISN’T ENOUGH.
Recent media coverage has marveled over making online education even more expansive — take the movement toward massive open online courses, or MOOCs, that can enroll more than 100,000 students in a single class, for example.

In the MSU College of Education, the question is not how many students can be reached. The question is how the online experience — like any other educational experience — can become more meaningful.

“We used to ask questions like whether we should or not, and if the technology will actually work,” said Cary Roseth, assistant professor of educational psychology.

In 2013, he says, instructors must be prepared to ask themselves which software platforms and instructional methods best match the tasks assigned and the students involved. It’s the rationale outlined by the TPACK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) framework, developed at MSU and adopted by educators around the world: rather than being just a vehicle for transmitting knowledge, technology must be an integral component of the teaching and learning process.

Keeping the goals of the course or particular lesson in mind, instructors must think about the boundary conditions, as some refer to it. At what point does the technology being used no longer make sense?

“Up against the boundary, I have to adjust and I start wondering about what I can accomplish,” Roseth said. “Teachers make these kinds of decisions all the time, like what to do in the time left before recess. The online world forces us to think about another context.”

The questions have become:

•  WHEN should students work independently (asynchronously) and when should they interact live (synchronously)? 
• WHERE should they interact, whether online, face-to-face or some combination of formats (hybrid)?

Graduate education in today’s universities is becoming a complicated mix of these hybrid options, and the College of Education offers one of the most innovative so far: a hybrid doctoral program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology (EPET).

“The hybrid was developed to meet a need in the mix of doctoral students we wanted to attract to the four-year program — namely, mid-career leaders in education,” said Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Special Education Chairperson Richard Prawat. “The resident or face-to-face program was successful in drawing those with recent BA degrees and those who wanted to change careers, but not necessarily those who could not afford to put their careers on hold for a length of time.”

With 24 professionals enrolled across 10 states (and one in Dubai), the hybrid program must run completely online — in concert with the traditional doctoral group — except for two weeks each summer. The first students have been able to integrate doctoral coursework and research projects into their world of practice somewhat seamlessly, which in turn contributes more realistic and grounded knowledge to the conversations on campus.

With their faculty leaders, the hybrid Ph.D. students are establishing a brave new model for scholarly community, and a laboratory for the rest of the college.

“It’s an urgency that drives innovation,” said John Bell, co-coordinator of the program. For example, Bell has been developing ways for the hybrid Ph.D. students to participate in face-to-face classes via video conferencing systems (GoToMeeting is a favorite) and the use of iPads mounted to desks. The tablets become what he calls “physical avatars,” which represent the remote students’ spaces in the room.

Bell also is director of the new CEPSE/COE Design Studio, a physical and philosophical gathering space for experimenting with and implementing new technologies in teaching. Launched in 2012, professors from every department within the college are testing and employing the use of synchronous technologies, reconfigurable chairs called Node chairs, remote controlled cameras and other equipment in their classes. They are sharing knowledge from their hybrid or online teaching experiences with each other more frequently through roundtable discussions and featured lectures.

The Design Studio builds on existing resources in the college such as the Center for Teaching and Technology and helps professors address emerging needs in their teaching, from creating Khan Academy-style videos with green screen technology to building new online course infrastructure and testing real-time learning assessments that pop up on students’ screens. The studio includes four staff and graduate assistants, two designated classrooms and about $300,000 worth of technology on the fourth floor of Erickson Hall. Research is integrated throughout their projects.

“We are a resource for faculty and instructors, but a very proactive one. We strive to push the conversation forward,” said Bell, whose father Norman retired as a College of Education faculty member specializing in educational technology after more than 30 years.

“The goal is to use our own expertise to guide ourselves.”

Why synchronous?

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The first fully online program in the College of Education, the Master of Arts in Education (MAED), started in fall 2001 with just over 50 students. It now claims more than 600 graduates and is one of six fully online master’s programs within the college. Other programs in teaching and curriculum, special education, higher education, educational technology and health professions education all began within the last five years, with more expected in the future.

College of Education faculty members often win awards on campus and from outside organizations (read more about the 2013 Best Practice Award from AACTE) for their use of and research on technology in teaching. One of the top challenges continues to be finding ways to cover the same amount of content from a face-to-face class in a virtual group format. Computer-mediated communication can take up to four times as long, according to MSU Communication Professor Joseph Walther.

Faculty members say synchronous technologies like Google Hangouts for group video discussions and Etherpad for real-time collaborative editing can help cover more material while leading to much richer learning.

And happier students.

When Tanya Wright began teaching in the online Master of Arts in Teaching and Curriculum (MATC)—a program for teachers including those hoping to become reading specialists—students told her that their online courses had often felt too much like independent study. They longed for “real instruction” and discussions that didn’t feel “staged.”

So, like many other professors who find themselves problem-solving in the online world, she got creative. She hosts live Adobe Connect meetings to discuss case studies about struggling readers. The sessions are optional, but more than 90 percent of students participate. Wright also sets up professional book clubs that meet synchronously by time zone. She makes video presentations through which students actually see and hear her, either live or on their own time.

“Even at a distance, students crave interaction with one another and want to know the faculty member as a person,” she said.

When communicating in-person, both teachers and students know more immediately whether their messages are being understood. However, asynchronous interactions are also valuable because they give students opportunities to reflect, review materials or resources and, for those less likely to speak up in large groups, a chance to contribute more actively to discussions.

For instructors, teaching in online or hybrid formats is more labor intensive. They have the added responsibility of sorting through technical problems, time logistics and a stream of student communication that doesn’t start and stop with one class session. But students aren’t the only ones learning through the process.

“I have learned far more about my teaching through online teaching than I have face-to-face,” said Marilyn Amey, chairperson of the Department of Educational Administration, during a college-wide roundtable event last fall. “It’s caused me to really question my assumptions about learning, about how I know students are learning. It’s changed, fundamentally, how I teach a face-to-face class as a result.”

The hybrid experiments

Synchronous learning takes on different dimensions with hybrid courses, in which students gather live at least some of the time. In vertical hybrids, students flip between attending face-to-face classes and engaging in various web-based interactions. In horizontal hybrids, some students see their instructor in person while others participate from elsewhere.

MSU teaching interns placed in Chicago schools, for example, rely on Polycom video conferencing to connect with fellow interns and their instructors on campus. Teachers and school leaders enrolled in the off-campus K-12 Educational Administration master’s programs based in Birmingham and Detroit learn through a mix of face-to-face sessions and online activity — both asynchronous and synchronous — designed to mesh with their professional lives.

Professors such as Kenneth Frank from the Measurement and Quantitative Methods faculty alternate teaching between two locations. Others including Roseth, Matthew Koehler, Punya Mishra, Christine Greenhow and Douglas Hartman are experimenting with connecting students from multiple locations to a single live classroom.

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In Erickson Hall’s Room 452, they are testing ways to make remote students feel almost as though they are sitting amid the group, able to see and hear all details of class.

And participate in small groups, too.

One night during Mishra’s CEP 917 course in Room 452, Tracy Russo sat at her laptop, silently chatting and creating a document along with one student sitting on the other side of the room and two others sitting in their homes hundreds or thousands of miles away. In total, 10 students were in the room and 10 were off-site. When the whole group came back together, the faces of students from Texas, Idaho and Utah appeared on the large screen, which they call “the balcony.”

The groups struggled a little to summarize what they had just communicated with each other (through writing) on Etherpad: “You can spew a bit more online, but it’s hard to rein it in at the same time,” said Andy Driska, a kinesiology doctoral student in the class.

Sometimes, an iPad attached to a tripod serves as a camera that can be moved around the room to help remote students follow the person who is speaking more closely (and read facial expressions). They jokingly call it the TriPad and, yes, it is not a perfect system.

Yet.

Students and faculty in the College of Education embrace a spirit of experimentation and a shared goal no matter what new technology is being integrated: to improve learning.

According to Professor Patrick Dickson, the Design Studio and EPET hybrid program are beginning to add powerful contributions to a conversation about best practices in teaching with technology that is long-running within the college—and rare.

“There are not many institutions that have this kind of discourse,” he said. And graduates of the college, who have taken online or hybrid courses and/or taught them themselves, are leaving with the knowledge they will need to lead future models in K-12 and higher education settings.

With online learning integrated into every discipline offered, “it’s in the DNA of their study,” Dickson said.

“Our students will, no doubt, be instructors online. They will be collaborating and writing with people at a distance.”

It is the reality, ready or not.

Center for Teaching and Technology

Housed just off the lobby in Erickson Hall, the Center for Teaching and Technology provides a variety of services to help faculty, staff and students use technology in teaching and learning. This includes offering workshops, lending equipment such as cameras, digital audio recorders and iClickers, and providing in-classroom support. In 2012, the center launched an iPad loaner program allowing instructors and their students to explore the device’s potential throughout an entire course.

BY SARAH WARDELL

The perception of a young Amita Chudgar—now an assistant professor of educational administration at the College of Education—may be described as anything but ordinary.

Growing up in India, Chudgar lived in a non-traditional, middle-class Mumbai household with surgeon parents. At the end of 10th grade, Chudgar made a choice that many schoolchildren in India must make: the direction of their career path.

Chudgar chose social science—“a less prestigious decision,” she says—in comparison to her peers who opted mainly for commerce, engineering or medicine. The choice wasn’t a popular one.

“The decision broke from a perceived social norm, which freed me from seeing the world through a narrow lens,” Chudgar adds.

She even had a school principal tell her that she had ruined her future.

While the societal opposition she faced was steep, Chudgar went on to earn both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in economics with a quantitative concentration at University of Mumbai. She graduated with honors and received a prestigious gold medal in economics.

Take that, naysayers.

Chudgar then went on to discover her passion for social issues while teaching economics to undergrads in Mumbai. It was here she had one of many aha moments concerning her desire to contribute to pressing social challenges using sophisticated research and analysis.

“Economics are beautiful, really,” Chudgar says with a smile. “It’s beautiful to be presented with complex situations and to find simple, elegant patterns … It’s really very exciting to me and I am fascinated by research that systematically makes sense of human behavior.”

After turning down a full ride at University of Oxford, Chudgar continued her journey at University of Cambridge to pursue a multidisciplinary master of philosophy in development studies. After Cambridge, Chudgar worked for a year on multiple research projects in rural India. It was here that she identified education policy and equity as the primary social issue she wanted to focus on, and pursuing a Ph.D. in Economics of Education at Stanford University was the next logical step.

“There are so many issues in this world, and I have decided to focus on educational challenges more closely,” Chudgar says. “I went to far-flung schools in India and saw deplorable teaching-learning conditions. I have seen classrooms with hardly any furniture or learning material, teachers teaching with few resources and bright, enthusiastic children short-changed by an under-resourced system.”

Chudgar adds: “Deep-rooted gender inequities and unfair social norms often make these challenges even harder to address. The consequences of these disadvantages are similar everywhere, even Detroit—all our children are unable to access quality education. It’s simply not okay anywhere for this to be happening.”

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Fast-forward to today, and one sees clearly that Chudgar has established herself as a leading researcher in the study area of disadvantaged children worldwide, and the implications of their resource-constrained conditions. In October 2012, Chudgar released study findings that contradicted past research by concluding there is no systematic benefit for school-aged children to attend private versus public schools, if the vast differences in their home backgrounds are carefully accounted for.

Now, with several awards and honors throughout her career, Chudgar remains humble, saying that she feels very privileged to do the work she does. “I feel fortunate. I love what I do. This is my passion—this work breaks my heart and brings me to tears.”

Chudgar places a high value on mentoring, and is currently working with three graduate students, James Pippin, Ben Creed and Madhur Chandra. Along with colleagues from Claremont Graduate University, the team is generating a cross-national understanding of teacher distribution across more than 20 countries through a $229,000 UNICEF-funded grant project that will wrap up in late 2013.

A Global Partnership

In partnership with the Azim Premji Foundation in India, Chudgar and Chandra are currently working with Radhika Iyengar from Teachers College, Columbia University on the Child Friendly School Initiative (CFSI). The team has collected two waves of data from 90 schools, which includes about 3,000 children, to examine the association between learning levels and community attributes.

“Perhaps the most exciting outcome of this joint research project is a panel I have organized at the upcoming Comparative and International Education Society’s Annual Conference in March 2013,” she says. The panel will consist of four papers related to the project, and Chudgar says she’s expecting three to four members from the foundation’s research team to attend.

“I am very glad that just as we are able to benefit from their research and data collection capabilities on the ground, we are able to share this international exposure and attention with them,” she says.

When asked about her future plans, Chudgar says she intends to expand her work with bolder projects. “The research community at MSU has been incredibly supportive, and I appreciate the institution’s commitment to global issues,” she adds.

Exploring urban education may also be on the horizon for Chudgar, as the relevancy of her current work in resource-constrained environments abroad would be a natural foray into an area with similar issues and challenges closer to home.

For now, Chudgar is content living a multi-continental lifestyle, speaking at international conferences and performing groundbreaking research—with her biggest “problem” being that her passport is too full.

Music education student shines as leader of growing youth ensemble

“Ready? One, two, ready, go.”

The conductor’s baton drops and swirls into the beat, while a stageful of teen musicians practice a Trans-Siberian Orchestra piece for an upcoming concert.

The auditorium is empty and there is laughter between each song. But their leader is preparing them for something bigger than their next performance.

A talented violinist, Lyndra Tingley spent her childhood becoming serious about beautiful music. Now she is serious about teaching.

And beautiful music.

She was hired as director of the Mason Philharmonic Orchestra when she was just a sophomore in the music education program at Michigan State University. Two years later, the extracurricular group has tripled in size from 20 to more than 60 kids—and growing.

As members joined from other nearby communities, Tingley arranged to move rehearsals from the group’s base in Mason to Okemos, where the central location and school-based strings program have helped the group flourish. She has planned concerts, summer camps and a visit to Michigan’s well-known Interlochen Center for the Arts, from which she graduated in 2008.

Playing in an orchestra can be a rare opportunity for youth as schools struggle to keep or expand arts programs, especially those including string instruments. In the Mason Philharmonic, Tingley has created a community where fun and confidence seem to flow along with music from the strings, woodwinds and brass sections.

“She really motivates the kids and keeps them interested,” said Kay Lancour, whose son and daughter are members of the orchestra. With Tingley’s encouragement, they both have received opportunities to play solos and even, in Joey Lancour’s case, a chance to conduct a piece at the winter show.

“I just see a lot of growth in my kids,” Kay said. “I don’t know how she does it all.”

This fall, Tingley completed her teaching internship, a one-semester requirement for MSU music education students, at St. Johns Public Schools. Meanwhile, she also continued teaching private violin lessons for over 40 students, played with her quartet at special events nearly every   weekend and started a violin club for preschoolers.

It’s a schedule that demands commitment, particularly with what it takes to meet the expectations of the music education program at MSU — a mix of requirements from the College of Music and the College of Education.

“There’s nothing that I have right now I am willing to give up,” Tingley said, not long before graduating from MSU in December. “I care so much about all these kids.”

The path to teaching

The daughter of a violin teacher, Tingley started playing at age 3 in her hometown of Batavia, Ill. She was only one of two violinists accepted to attend Interlochen as a high school freshman and she dreamed of recording movie soundtracks with a professional orchestra.

When she came to MSU, she was a music performance major.  She changed her major soon after she began interacting with the music education faculty and teaching private lessons based on referrals from local teachers.

“Once I got teaching, it just really opened a door,” said Tingley, who had not attended public schools herself. “I love being able to share my musical knowledge with my students and make great music together.”

Michael Steele is an assistant professor of mathematics education in the College of Education and current president of the Mason Orchestral Society, the parent organization of the youth orchestra. Tingley was up against veteran musicians and doctoral students when she got the director job.

“What stands out is that, at her young age, everything for her is a teaching and learning opportunity,” Steele said. “Every interaction I see her have with kids, even when there are 45 of them bouncing around a rehearsal room, is about little learning moments.”

And those moments can be challenging to achieve in music, while managing multiple students, instruments and ability levels. Mitchell Robinson, chair of music education, says music teacher candidates at MSU begin in-school field experiences as freshmen and focus on building skills for “teaching people, not music.” They also are encouraged to serve the community in entrepreneurial ways.

“Lyndra took so much initiative to do things outside her coursework,” said Associate Professor Judy Palac, who specializes in strings and has been a mentor for Tingley. “She has a good handle on how to treat kids, when to smile and when not to smile. And she is unusually mature.”

With her positive and ambitious spirit, Tingley keeps finding ways to bring music to more people. She earns respect from both students and parents, pushes her pupils to deliver performances they thought they couldn’t handle and shares her responsibilities with MSU classmates. Charlie Lukkari, a junior music education student specializing in the tuba, served as assistant director of the Mason Philharmonic.

Tingley recently received a job offer from a school for gifted students in Peoria, Ill., but she turned it down. She has a long-term substitute teaching assignment in St. Johns for former mentor teacher Jenn Parker. Meanwhile, she has begun her job search, hoping to start one next fall and keep working with her orchestra and private students.

She is serious about helping them make beautiful music.

And sharing what they have learned throughout life.

“Yes, I want them to be successful and play their best,” Tingley said. “But at the end of the day, my goal is that they will walk out of here with a passion and that they will want their children to one day have that same experience.”

BOB, BIF — a Basic Information Flotation device that monitors water pollutants — and a host of related hands-on activities became part of a yearlong project focused on environmental stewardship that was led by Beels and her mentor, former Michigan Teacher of the Year June Teisan. Together, they showcased their innovative efforts to teach science to urban youth during the Microsoft Partners in Learning forum attended by 100 educators in Seattle last summer. Then, as one of just 11 teams selected to win awards at the U.S. event, Beels and Teisan were invited to attend the program’s Global Forum in Prague in November. The forums highlight the world’s most creative uses of technology to transform learning.

“It honestly felt like a dream to be surrounded by so many talented educators that supported one another and were genuinely interested in our project,” said Beels, a secondary education (biology) graduate from St. Clair Shores, Mich. “Being able to collaborate with people from around the globe … for seventh-graders, I think that’s absolutely amazing. We really helped them understand how anybody at any age can be a scientist.”

A full-time intern with Teisan now, Beels actually had to delay her MSU teaching internship for one year because she didn’t pass the required Michigan Test for Teacher Certification (MTTC) on time — by two questions. Teisan, who was looking for strong intern candidates, had already met Beels and begun talking about the year ahead. The two women clicked.

“My heart was broken for her but I saw the potential for a beneficial partnership,” Teisan said. So she asked Beels to help with the new grant-funded water project getting underway the following fall in Future Think, a class for high-achieving students at Harper Woods. “When our students hit a wall, we have to help them climb over the wall, and I think that’s what Alex and I ended up doing together when it was her wall to climb.”

Beels worked closely with Teisan and the Future Think group throughout the year, thinking through lesson plans, arranging BOB visits and even helping students win three national competitions — and a $10,000 prize! Meanwhile, Beels passed the MTTC and secured a long-term substitute teaching position in Fraser Public Schools.

Now Beels is in the classroom with Teisan every day, working on her final semester in the MSU teacher preparation program and dreaming up unusual, community-based learning experiences for her own future students.

“I don’t know why she picked me … She is a blessing in my life,” she said. “I have heard, ‘You are only a student teacher and you already set the bar this high. What are you going to do next’? I’ll be able to take what I’ve learned and apply it to bigger, better things down the road.”

Teisan is now working with Future Think students on a project focused on infusing art into science, technology, engineering and math — which she calls STEAM — through the Detroit Institute of Arts and the murals of Diego Rivera. MSU teaching intern, Kelly Herberholz, is assisting. 

The goal of the project is to help educators gain expertise for teaching about Africa in K-12 schools. Each of the selected teacher candidates will be paired with their mentor teacher for the forthcoming internship year (2014-15), during which they will integrate what they have learned through lesson plans and other interactions with students.

“In this way, both the teacher and the mentor can develop as teachers who are able to teach for global competence,” said Margo Glew of the Department of Teacher Education. Glew is co-directing the project with John Metzler of the MSU African Studies Center. The Center for Advanced Study in International Development (CASID) is also a partner.

Prior to the trip, participants will take a spring semester course specifically developed for the program. Their tour of Tanzania will provide in-depth understanding of history, culture, politics, economics and more in Eastern Africa. Overall, they will learn how to situate that knowledge within the major themes of social studies and humanities across the K-12 curricula, including new state standards and benchmarks.

Laura Apol, associate professor of teacher education, serves as curriculum director for the program and will join Metzler on the tour in Tanzania. Kyle Greenwalt, also a faculty member in teacher education, is a consultant.

All education students at MSU, and particularly members of the Global Educators Cohort Program (GECP), are encouraged to broaden their knowledge and perspectives for teaching through international travel. Glew, who coordinates GECP, said pairing teacher candidates with their mentor teacher for study abroad is unusual.

“We are really committed as a program to making these global experiences as accessible as possible, not only for GECP students but for all teacher candidates in our program. All teachers need to be able to teach today’s children for tomorrow’s world.”

Students can apply for the Tanzania program starting in fall 2013. Contact glewmarg@msu.edu for more information.

Another experience: Costa Rica

Some College of Education students will be going to Costa Rica this summer as part of another Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad program for teachers. That trip, led by Kristin Janka Millar of the MSU Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, will empower both practicing and pre-service teachers to explore the UN Millennium Development Goals using Costa Rica as their laboratory. Participants will be immersed in the Spanish language and stay with local families.

Recruiting is now underway, and some slots have been reserved for GECP students. Contact kristin@msu.edu for more information.

The 2012 Homecoming Tailgate Party was a great time! Over 550 College of Education people visited our party and it was wonderful seeing and visiting with old friends as well as meeting new friends. The weather was not the best, but that did not stop Spartan alumni who came and enjoyed excellent food, watched the MSU Marching and Alumni Bands practice and visited with each other. It was a great time experienced by all!

Your Alumni Board has been busy selecting major goals that will give the board directions for this year as well as future activities.

We have narrowed our goals to two:  

1. Providing financial resources and
2. Establishing a greater presence in K-12 schools.

The board has established two committees that will develop these goals. Our task will be to develop these two goals into activities for this coming year and future years.

One of the many events that the College of Education Alumni Association is involved in is the Get A Job Conference. This event is scheduled for Saturday, March 9, and about 50 MSU graduates who are teachers, principals and superintendents come to campus and interview over 150 seniors who are looking for teaching jobs. Each of the College of Education seniors is able to go through a practice interview with an experienced teacher or administrator. The alumni interviewers are able to give feedback to the students on their interview skills. It is a great day for the MSU seniors as well as the alumni involved.

If you have not already done so, please check out the College of Education’s social media channels by liking our Facebook page at facebook.com/MSUCollegeofEd. It is an excellent method of gathering information concerning the College of Education.

The College of Education has also started publishing an eNewsletter. I know you will find the eNewsletter informative. There are many good features that will inform you about what’s happening in the college. If you have not received the eNewsletter and would like to receive it, contact Sarah Wardell at wardells@msu.edu.

We will continue to look for alumni willing to serve on the College of Education Alumni Board of Directors. If you are interested, you can go to our webpage, www.education.msu.edu/alumni for information or contact Sara Jones at joness99@msu.edu or me at gunnardj@yahoo.com.

I hope 2013 brings you the best year ever! Happy New Year!

In the case of EAD 315 (formerly 415): Student Leadership Training, more than 500 former instructors — the majority of whom are graduates of the College of Education — share in a tradition of preparing student leaders at Michigan State University that goes back to the 1950s.

Faculty and staff from the university’s Division of Student Affairs and Services and the Department of Educational Administration have collaborated throughout the course’s history to provide a powerful learning experience for any undergraduate on campus interested in becoming a leader.

Along the way, teaching the elective course has become a valuable and popular opportunity for graduate students from two program areas, Student Affairs Administration (SAA) and Higher, Adult and Lifelong Education (HALE).

Last spring, many former EAD 315/415 instructors gathered in Erickson Hall and during special receptions in conjunction with national conferences in those fields. They shared stories about their experiences — the first time teaching for many — and received pins to show their affinity to the unique group.

“My co-instructor and I had the opportunity to connect with students, explore their interests and creatively engage them in discussions about leadership, diversity and social justice,” says Briana Martin, a master’s student in SAA. “This experience definitely ignited a passion within me to teach.”

More than 5,700 students have enrolled since the current course format (315) was established in 1992. A summer online-only version was added in 2007.

“It has made a significant difference in the quality of the leadership of the students that then get involved with different student governments … the residence halls, sororities and fraternities and other off-campus groups,” said Professor Emeritus Louis Hekhuis, one of the course’s early instructors and coordinators. “It gave the students an opportunity to meet together and to form a better idea of how they could participate and contribute in their positions as student leaders.”

EAD 315 continues to draw a particularly high percentage of students of color and diverse backgrounds. Known for transforming both student and instructor perspectives, it has often been replicated at other institutions.

Patricia Enos oversaw the course from 1985 until she retired as a faculty member and assistant vice president for student affairs last year, passing on the role to EAD Assistant Professor William Arnold.

“I want you all to know what I know, which is how this course goes across generations and people,” Enos said. “It’s really very special and thank you so much for making it that way.”

Do you have your pin?

If you taught EAD 315 or 415 at Michigan State University, the department wants to hear from you. Contact William Arnold at arnoldwh@msu.edu or (517) 355-6613 to request your affinity pin and to provide your up-to-date contact information.

Mentor teacher and College of Education alumna Heather Peterson (’98, secondary teaching certificate) has received the 2012 National Outstanding Biology Teacher Award.

Peterson received the award from the National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT) during the association’s recent professional development conference in Dallas.

“We don’t get a lot of recognition in teaching, so it feels nice to have the recognition from peers and professors,” said Peterson. “We’ve also had a supportive school and community — our doors are always open.”

Now in her 21st year of teaching, Peterson (BS ’92, MS ’97, MSU College of Natural Science) is a biology teacher at Holt High School and has served as a mentor teacher to dozens of teacher candidates and interns. This year, she is working with four MSU seniors.

“She [Peterson] is a wonderful mentor, and a great example of professional growth,” said associate professor of teacher education Gail Richmond. “She advocates for ambitious pedagogy and models what she teaches. She is a significant force at Holt and she shares her knowledge not just within but outside the classroom.”

Peterson is also head coach of the Holt Science Olympiad team. She is the science department chair and participates regularly on numerous panels and committees related to the field of biology. In addition to biology, Peterson also teaches human physiology and botany.

More Alumni News

Peter Flynn

College of Education alumnus Peter Flynn, MA ’69, Ph.D. ’71 (Curriculum, Secondary Teacher Education), has received the 2012 Superintendent of the Year award from the Illinois Association of School Administrators (IASA). Flynn retired earlier this year as superintendent of the Freeport School District 145 in Freeport, Ill. after 12 years.

During his 41-year career, he spent time as a teacher, assistant professor and, prior to joining the Freeport school district, served as superintendent of schools in Pennsylvania, Iowa and Kentucky.

Michael DeGagne

Higher, Adult and Lifelong Education alumnus Michael DeGagné, Ph.D. ’02, has been selected as the president and vice chancellor of Nipissing University in Ontario, Canada, beginning a five-year term in January 2013. Nipissing is a public, liberal arts institution. Before his selection, he was serving as the executive director of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation in Ottawa, Ontario.

Dan Vaughn, Ph.D. ’05 (Kinesiology), has been appointed editor-in-chief of the Journal of Manual & Manipulative Therapy (JMMT). Vaughn is based at the Physical Therapy Program at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Mich., where he has both teaching and clinical practice responsibilities. His research at Grand Valley has focused on the efficacy of manual therapy interventions and the influence of therapeutic exercise on spinal posture.

Ericka (Olson) Fatura, MA ’06 (Curriculum and Teaching), was named the 2013 Michigan High School Science Teacher of the Year by the board of the Michigan Science Teachers Association. Fatura is a teacher at Pentwater Public Schools. She was chosen for inspiring her students, demonstrating innovative teaching strategies, being an excellent role model for students and other teachers and exhibiting a passion for science and teaching. She will be honored at an awards ceremony during the 2013 MSTA Conference.

Walk into State of Fitness on an average day and visitors not only see that statement painted on the wall, but they will enter into a cacophony of sound and activity.

Amid weights clanging, upbeat music and machines humming, it’s Thursday and Michigan State University kinesiology alumnus Justin Grinnell is working with a small group of high school students involved with the Sports Performance Academy.

The kids are scattered around the gym. There are those working with Grinnell, and others who are working with trainers—nearly all of whom are either current MSU students or recent graduates of the university’s kinesiology programs.

Grinnell is intently watching the kids do jumping squats while lifting five-pound weights with one arm. It’s a tricky move and some of them aren’t doing the squat correctly—but Grinnell is patient. He doesn’t get mad or frustrated; he simply demonstrates the move and asks them to try again.

An incredibly driven person, “How bad do you want it?” has become a mantra of Grinnell’s. Those who know him describe him as ambitious, assertive and motivated.

So, where did one of the highest-grossing trainers to ever come out of the Michigan Athletic Club learn the science of movement?

The fundamentals

At 19, Grinnell was studying business at MSU and working at a local health supplement store to make extra money.

Was he happy? Not so much.

Restless? Definitely.

“I had no idea what I wanted to do, but people were saying I had a knack for training,” Grinnell said. “It was when I began training my brother for the Major League Baseball draft that I thought, ‘I can do this.’”

An athlete in high school, Grinnell was always interested in fitness and had become a bodybuilder. Heading into his sophomore year at MSU, Grinnell decided to take it to the next level and switched his major to kinesiology, health promotion; he became a certified trainer and worked in a local gym.

“The first thing I realized was that I needed to learn more about the science behind exercise. I knew about nutrition but I needed the base the ‘Kin’ major offered me,” Grinnell said. “It gave me the scientific knowledge that backed up what I had already learned in the real world.”

But Grinnell didn’t want to just graduate, he wanted to be the best—“not just a meathead bodybuilder,” he added.

“There were a couple professors who really pushed me,” Grinnell said. “While at MSU, I had opportunities to work with those who were autistic or in wheelchairs … basically, I learned how to work with people. I conversed with other experts and trainers in the field so I knew what I was talking about.”

Things took off after graduation in 2004. Grinnell got married—to another kinesiology graduate—and began working at the MAC in East Lansing as a trainer. While there, he built an intern program that became highly sought-after by kinesiology students.

After four years and loads of hard work, Grinnell began asking questions many pose throughout their professional lives: “How can I get better? What’s next for my career?”

At the same time, kinesiology graduate and physical trainer Rebecca Klinger was asking the same question. And, after some prompting from a real estate friend to open State of Fitness in its current location, Grinnell and Klinger became willing to take the risk of business ownership.

And into the deep end they jumped.

A new chapter

Grinnell, now 31, and Klinger are co-owners of State of Fitness, a unique exercise and training facility for all ages and fitness levels, located on Grand River in East Lansing. The gym has become a well-oiled machine, fueled by the high energy of its owners and staff. At the end of 2012, there were six MSU kinesiology graduates and 13 MSU student interns working with Grinnell.

Ben Boudro, an exercise physiology graduate student and current trainer at State of Fitness, said Grinnell embodies all the qualities of a true leader.

“I sometimes get to the gym at 4:30 a.m. and Justin is already there, and he’ll stay until seven at night,” said Boudro. “He also meshes well with different personalities—he finds a way to connect then uses that connection to make it the best workout a person has ever had.”

Grinnell has created an innovative intern program and considers it a feeder system. He says that, on occasion, there are even those that return for a second internship.

Jo Hartwell, lead advisor for the Department of Kinesiology, has known Grinnell a number of years. “We encourage the students in the kinesiology program to get out and do,” Hartwell said. “Justin is a good example of an alumnus giving back to the community and encouraging students to do the same.”

Each month, Hartwell sends out a newsletter to students and graduates that typically highlights jobs or internships, and nearly every month Grinnell is seeking one or both.

“A lot of interns don’t get much out of their internships, and I don’t think that’s fair,” remarked Grinnell. “I’ve got to always be on my toes, so they get the best education. I have to hold up my end and give students a great experience.”

Now, after three years in business, Grinnell feels the company is doing well with a solid business model and efficient staff. Marketing-wise, Grinnell has written columns for a number of years for local fitness magazine Healthy & Fit as well as national magazine Muscle & Fitness. He also has a blog (www.grinnelltraining.com) and is currently working on an e-book about different approaches to nutrition.

Yet, challenges within the industry remain.

“Unfortunately, there aren’t many places like this [State of Fitness] that are qualified to offer sound advice,” Grinnell adds. “We are going to start seeing fewer and fewer massive gyms, and in the next five years I know we’ll see an explosion in the demand for personal trainers.”

Hartwell couldn’t agree more.

“Personal trainers are definitely in demand,” she said. “A Bachelor of Science in kinesiology provides an excellent foundation. Students are prepared by learning everything there is to know about the human body—and that, combined with a recognized personal trainer certification, makes our graduates very marketable.”

As for the future, Grinnell and Klinger hope to open another facility within the next couple of years, which means more staff—good news for the local economy and MSU kinesiology graduates.

Until then, Grinnell will keep asking himself: “How bad do you want it?”

And then he’ll go get it.

BY SARAH WARDELL

It’s great to be home! I joined the College of Education Development Office team on Dec. 3, 2012 and, so far, I have loved every minute of being back in Spartan country.

I graduated from Michigan State in 1997 and am a Spartan through and through. Most recently, I spent time as the senior director of development for Iowa State University’s College of Business and prior to that was an associate director of development for the University of Pennsylvania’s Western region. I started my career in development with a five-year stint at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business.

I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to lead this team. In collaboration with Dean Donald Heller, who brings a great deal of expertise, enthusiasm and determination to the job, I anticipate great things to come for our college in the near future.

As a student, I understood the impact a scholarship can have. Scholarships are not handouts. They can be, and often are, a much-needed vehicle that can make the difference in a person’s future.

As a young woman and single parent, I wanted desperately to attend and graduate from college. I would be the first person in my family to receive a degree. I had been working since the age of 15 and didn’t come from a family that had the financial means to support four years at a major university. A scholarship was my only hope to go to college. Through perseverance, family support, many extra hours in the classroom and always having my nose in the book, I qualified to receive a scholarship.

Because of that scholarship, I was able to continue my education at Michigan State. Because of that scholarship, I was able to take steps toward ensuring a secure future for myself and my daughter. Because of that scholarship, I became the first person in my family to graduate from college.

I share that story because the true power of a scholarship cannot be measured. Each prospective student or potential recipient is different. Each scholarship will have a special impact, but most importantly, each scholarship is extremely vital to the success of our students, who are our future leaders.

I truly understand the power of a scholarship because I wouldn’t be where I am today without the many wonderful alumni, faculty, staff and friends of MSU. Similarly, the success we have achieved in the College of Education would not be possible without the alumni, friends, faculty and volunteers who give of their time, talent and resources.

Dean Heller has remarked that “we have a great responsibility educating students who will be future educators, researchers and leaders.” Our goal is to provide the support needed to help the college continue to build on its success, and to recruit the best and the brightest students and most talented faculty and staff. The College of Education is poised to build on our momentum and provide opportunities for our students and faculty. I hope that you will help us elevate the college to the next level.

I’m thrilled to be back and will work hard every single day to make a positive impact on the College of Education and Michigan State University as a whole.

Go State!

“Why isn’t my job search getting me anywhere?”

As the director of alumni career services for the MSU Alumni Association, I frequently get this question from graduates. Let me give an example.

A recent call came from Kate (not her real name), who is a 2008 MSU College of Education graduate. She secured a position immediately, but found herself on a job hunt in 2012 after an unexpected layoff.

At the time of her call, Kate was three months into her search and frustrated. Not only was she not getting job offers—she wasn’t even getting calls from résumé submissions and applications.

What was wrong with Kate? Nothing. Kate was a great elementary school teacher who happened to be a terrible job seeker. Most professionals are better at doing their life’s work than looking for work; however, the current job market demands that professionals have a strong job search strategy.

Kate had three main trouble spots.

The first was overly-generic content in her cover letters and résumé. With the exception of changing the name and address of the school in her cover letter, all submissions were identical. Though there are many universal similarities among what schools value when it comes to educating children, there are differences. The differences are often what set schools apart.

What Kate was failing to recognize was that she wasn’t selling her background in connection with what was unique about each school in terms of its mission, philosophy, programming, student population, parent involvement, innovation strategy and the like.

By treating each institution as “just another school,” she was being treated as “just another candidate.” Kate solved the problem by:

• Reading annual welcome letters from principals and superintendents on school websites
• Studying schools’ mission statements
• Reviewing Board of Education minutes
• Researching communities the schools served
• Absorbing the information found in staff bios and school newsletters

She used the information she found to pinpoint what the schools valued—and tailored each submission accordingly.

The second trouble spot was an impersonal approach when engaging prospective employers. Kate’s cover letters began with: “Dear Hiring Manager.” By using this impersonal label, Kate was missing an easy way to show respect for (and interest in) the person she hoped to work for some day.

In her defense, contact names were not provided in the original postings. Most schools, however, are extremely transparent when it comes to staff directories. She solved the problem by inserting the principal’s name when the primary contact wasn’t clear. If a school has an opening, it’s a safe bet the principal will be involved.

The third—and probably most significant—trouble spot was relying on superficial contact to get herself noticed. While pressing submit on an electronic application, Kate would cross her fingers, hoping that someone on the other end of the digital black hole would 1.) see her,

2.) realize how great she was and 3.) pluck her out of a sea of other qualified applicants.
Today, even with a targeted message and personal approach, getting noticed may not happen. Knowing someone within the inner-workings of an organization greatly increases the odds of success. Kate’s challenge was that she didn’t have any direct contacts in the schools she was approaching. The good news is that individuals who work within education tend to be approachable, visible and enthusiastic about meeting other people who do what they do.

So to build connections where none had existed before, Kate contacted teachers, administrators, parent leaders and board members involved with the schools to build awareness of her interest in joining their community. She even sought out their perspectives on the school’s goals, accomplishments and culture.

Kate also began networking through LinkedIn and other channels to see if any Spartans worked for the school. For the districts near her, Kate made schools aware of her willingness to volunteer and substitute, so they’d have chances to get to know her.

Because of her hard work and willingness to step out of her cookie-cutter job search approach, Kate is closing in on a new opportunity and enjoying the momentum she’s experiencing. She’s discovered she is not only a great teacher—she is a great learner.

Upcoming Events:

March 9
Get a Job event. To volunteer as an interviewer for current interns visit: http://ow.ly/gQjkG

April 15
Teacher & Administrator Recruitment Fair http://ow.ly/gycG8

Today also marks the day that most faculty appointments begin for the new academic year. Most of the faculty members in the college are on nine-month contracts covering the fall and spring semesters. To the outside observer – which includes many state legislators, who are often critical of the lack of productivity among professors in public universities – faculty jobs can appear to be quite cushy. After all, they may teach just a couple of courses a semester, each for only a few hours a week, advise a handful of graduate students, write a journal article or two and that’s it, right?

What most people are not aware of is all the work that goes into those tasks. Preparing for teaching classes, keeping the material up-to-date, providing formative feedback to students both in office hours as well as on written work, supervising teaching assistants – all of these take time. Many of our faculty members teach online courses, and keeping the course material current and meeting the expectations of the digitally-oriented Millennial students takes much work. Some of our faculty members have won awards for their online courses, and we will be highlighting our efforts to improve online teaching and learning in the next issue of the magazine.

Many people have an image of the lonely professor sitting in her office, hunched over a computer writing an article or book chapter. But this is only part of the research experience — the culmination of the long path of discovery and dissemination of new knowledge. Much of the work of faculty in the College of Education is field-based research, which requires them (and their research assistants) to spend intensive periods of time in schools, colleges and other settings, both in this country and abroad. Many faculty members need the summer, when they are not tied to teaching schedules, to spend these extended periods for on-site research. And they do so even though they are not technically “on the clock.”

Other research projects involve the collaboration of scholars in the College of Education and elsewhere. For example, the Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics (TEDS-M), profiled on page 32, is a College of Education-led effort of researchers in 17 countries to improve the preparation of mathematics teachers around the world. Collaborative projects like this involve a large amount of work for those leading the effort.

Faculty also expend much effort on service and outreach activities, whether it is serving on department, college and university committees; conducting professional development programs for teachers, administrators and other professionals; or working with youth organizations. This work is too often invisible to those outside of academe, but it is crucial to the functioning of a university.

There are many positive things about being a professor: the autonomy, the ability to work with bright and engaged students and colleagues, the wonderful sense of community, the cultural and athletic activities on campus. But the notion that being a faculty member is a “cushy” job is just not true, at least not at a research institution like Michigan State.

I hope that this issue of the New Educator will give you a good idea of the variety of work conducted by our faculty in the College of Education. We welcome your feedback, and if you would like more information about any of these stories, please do not hesitate to contact us.

The teacher preparation program at Michigan State University is highly regarded nationally, and many faculty members in the College of Education are considered national and international experts on teacher education policy and practice. This positions MSU as an institution that can play a leading role in the discussion, not just in professional organizations, but at the state level, in national talks about teacher education practice, programs and policies, and in movements to hold programs and teachers accountable.

If you have been wondering how the College of Education is engaging in these issues, here are some of the latest developments.

The Faculty Conversation

With its history as a hotbed for teacher education reform, MSU certainly has the potential to influence future approaches for preparing teachers. Department of Teacher Education Chairperson Suzanne Wilson says faculty members have a responsibility to respond to the current attacks on university-based teacher education.

But not before asking themselves tough questions, and weighing all the options.

To stimulate thinking about what should be done institutionally and individually, the department began sponsoring a series of visitors last spring that will continue this academic year.

The series is underwritten by the Marianne Amarel Fund, which was donated by friends and family members in honor of Amarel, a long-time teacher and teacher educator who participated in the development of the Holmes Group and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

The speakers – most with connections to the College of Education – were Deborah Loewenberg Ball and Francesca Forzani of University of Michigan, Ken Zeichner of University of Washington and Sharon Feiman-Nemser of Brandeis University.

All of the visitors gave public talks and spent time meeting in small groups with faculty, staff and doctoral students. Among the issues discussed, attendees debated the core competencies teachers need to be effective today and how they learn best, whether that means moving teacher education further into schools and communities or – and? – reshaping the curriculum to help teachers master a different mix of knowledge and practices.

“The solutions are going to come by finding really thoughtful teachers who want to think through the problems with us,” said Feiman-Nemser, one of the field’s best-known scholars of teacher learning. Now at Brandeis, she was on the MSU faculty in the 1980s during some of the most pioneering achievements in teacher education research.

“We can’t take our reputation for granted,” she said. “We have to find more compelling ways to demonstrate the value-added of what we are doing.”

Up to six more speakers will visit campus during 2012-13 to add perspectives to the College of Education conversation. With new strategies for preparing teachers always underway at MSU, Wilson said more substantive program changes, public advocacy efforts and research could all be possible pieces of the university’s next steps toward positioning itself in the national discourse.

The Michigan Policy Process

Michigan passed legislation in 2011 calling for sweeping changes that will make teachers and school administrators more accountable for student outcomes. The group responsible for building a statewide evaluation system for educators, the Michigan Council for Educator Effectiveness (MCEE), has recommended conducting a pilot program during the 2012-13 school year.

Council member Mark Reckase, a University Distinguished Professor of Measurement & Quantitative Methods in the MSU College of Education, said this will give educators an opportunity to essentially try out different (1) tools for classroom observation and (2) methods for assessing student growth before creating a system for widespread implementation, a process that will require broad support and training.

“It’s really difficult to see how these things might be brought to scale for a whole state,” said Reckase, an educational assessment expert who was appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder. “We said the only way to really know is to do a pilot study.”

The study is now moving forward in 12 school districts with $6 million in state funding.

Gov. Snyder also appointed two MSU College of Education graduates to the MCEE: its chairperson Deborah Loewenberg Ball (’76, ’82 and ’88), dean of the University of Michigan School of Education, and Nick Sheltrown (’99, ’07), senior director of measurement, research and business intelligence at National Heritage Academies. Michigan Department of Education official Joseph Martineau (Ph.D. ’04) serves on the council without vote.

The other members are David Vensel, principal of Jefferson High School in Monroe, and Jennifer Hammond, principal of Grand Blanc High School. Suzanne Wilson, chair of the MSU Department of Teacher Education, provides technical support to the committee as well.

Reckase has been studying what works best among one popular type of student growth measure, value-added models or VAMs, under a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Jeff Wooldridge, University Distinguished Professor in the MSU Department of Economics, and Cassandra Guarino, associate professor at Indiana University, are co-principal investigators on that project.

As in other states considering policies related to educator evaluation, Reckase said Michigan’s new system will have implications for researchers studying questions of teacher quality – including how prior education plays a role.

VISIT Michigan Council for Educator Effectiveness: mcede.org

The National Rsearch Front

Michigan State University has been represented in recent national projects focused on improving teacher preparation. For example, Suzanne Wilson contributed to a 2010 National Research Council report on the need for better data about teacher preparation across the country. She and fellow MSU distinguished professor William Schmidt have served on panels in association with a forthcoming national review of teacher preparation programs by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ).

Now, the National Academy of Education is creating a new framework to assess the quality of teacher preparation programs. College of Education Associate Dean Robert Floden and alumna Deborah Loewenberg Ball are on the planning committee for that project, which is funded by the National Science Foundation. Wilson also participated in the committee’s first meeting this summer.

Famous novelist James Patterson gave credit to MSU as one of the nation’s best places to prepare urban teachers when he created a new scholarship program in the College of Education specifically for new members of UECP (see right). And one UECP member from Detroit, Chris Waston (above), was named Michigan’s best student teacher of the year for his creative efforts to engage urban students in learning (see next page).

The Urban Educators Cohort Program, now entering its seventh year, is one of several initiatives in the College of Education designed to prepare students for the unique challenges of working in urban areas (see “A pipeline of programs,” page 17). Cohort members spend their first two years at MSU (before entering the formal teacher preparation program) visiting urban classrooms and taking specialized courses together.

VISIT www.education.msu.edu/urbancohort

JAMES PATTERSON FUNDS NEW SCHOLARSHIPS

This fall, eight MSU freshmen are starting the journey toward becoming successful urban teachers as Patterson Scholars.

They are the first recipients of a scholarship program created by the mega-selling author James Patterson, who approached the university earlier this year after searching for the nation’s best teacher preparation institutions.

His $60,000 gift to the College of Education will provide $7,500 a year for selected members of the Urban Educators Cohort Program.

“When I read about the excellent teaching programs at MSU’s College of Education and its Urban Educators cohort, I hoped there would be an opportunity for me to help,” said Patterson, the writer of detective novels such as the well-known Alex Cross series as well as several children’s books.

In a letter to MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon, he noted, “…my passion is to get more and more kids excited about reading, and training the next generation of great teachers is essential to that mission.”

All candidates for the scholarship must demonstrate potential to become leaders in urban education and select English or Language Arts as their teaching major or minor.

Patterson and his wife Susan have funded various scholarship programs at the institutions from which they graduated: Manhattan College, Vanderbilt University and University of Wisconsin.

The author, who is expanding his efforts to boost literacy in the U.S., has told MSU leaders he hopes to continue, and possibly expand, the program at MSU.
“We are very excited to have James Patterson supporting our aspiring teachers,” said Donald E. Heller, dean of the College of Education. “While many may know of him for his best-selling mystery novels, he has long been a supporter of literacy and education. This commitment of scholarships to the College of Education is an indication of how much he values helping to prepare the next generation of teachers.”

MICHIGAN STUDENT TEACHER OF THE YEAR 2012

As soon as he set foot on campus, Christopher Waston knew he had the potential to become a role model for children. Combining his energetic personality with a fresh approach to teaching, the 2011 elementary education graduate has created a big impact for one group of students in particular: urban youth.

During his internship at Bates Academy in Detroit last year, Waston was encouraged by his mentor teacher, Robin Howard, to enter the 2012 Michigan Student Teacher/Intern of the Year competition. Although hundreds of student teachers across the state entered, Waston was the only one selected to win.

And it was the second consecutive year for a Spartan: MSU child development graduate Katie Kosko took first place in the 2011 competition, then went on to win National Student Teacher of the Year.

Waston’s winning lesson plan, focused on teaching third-graders about action verbs, incorporated a variety of different elements, including technology, local culture and even a rap that involved singing and movement. When Waston put his lesson plan into action, his class thoroughly enjoyed it — especially when it came to jumping and clapping to the song (VIDEO: michiganate.com/stc.html).

“It’s important to make teaching interactive and fun, because kids don’t want to do things that don’t interest them,” said Waston, a member of the Urban Educators Cohort Program (UECP). “They’re able to grasp a deeper understanding of the material if it’s memorable and relevant to their lives.”

Waston himself attended Detroit Public Schools. As a student at Renaissance High School, he volunteered as a math tutor for sixth- and seventh-grade students. That, coupled with teachers that had inspired him in the past, sparked his interest in teaching.

But it wasn’t until he participated in the College of Education’s Summer High School Scholars Program — a four-week retreat on MSU’s campus for urban teenagers preparing to attend college — that Waston realized his potential to become an agent of change in urban education.

“It was the first time I was able to look critically at education as a whole, or see the faults,” he said. “I was fortunate enough to attend a (high) school in which 95 percent of the students went on to college, but I was also frustrated how these experiences weren’t being translated to everyone, especially in urban areas. I knew I needed to do something.”

Waston decided to apply to MSU and focus on becoming an urban teacher through UECP.

As a freshman, he co-founded the Black Males in Education Network (BMEN), an organization of students who conduct research, create outreach programs and serve as mentors for young black males in urban areas. BMEN members were driven in part by the fact that less than two percent of teachers in the U.S. are black males.

Like many MSU teacher candidates, Waston experienced teaching in Detroit through the six-week Urban Immersion Fellowship offered each summer. As a recipient of the Broad Future Teacher Award, he has committed to teaching in Detroit for at least three years after the internship year.

This fall, he is teaching fourth grade at a new charter school, Henry Ford Academy: Elementary School, in Detroit’s Northend community. He also expects to complete the MSU Master of Arts in Teaching in Curriculum (MATC) this spring.

Reflecting on his experiences at MSU, Waston said the rigorous teacher education coursework, the opportunities to teach in urban areas and encouragement from his own mentors – Professor Sonya Gunnings-Moton, College of Education doctoral graduate Curtis Lewis and field instructor Grace Vereen – contributed greatly to the shaping of his teaching practice.

Gunnings-Moton, assistant dean for student support services and recruitment, first met Waston when he was a scholar in the summer high school program. Now he serves as one of the instructors. Looking back, she says Waston is a constant reminder of why the college’s work is so critical.

“Chris is an exemplary model of what we hoped we would accomplish through our pipeline of urban education initiatives,” Gunnings-Moton said. “He’s been one of those young men whose success is not only about a pride we have within the college, but he represents a personal pride as well. With my role in the college, I’ve been fortunate to see students move through the program — but Chris is one of those students who has moved me.”
— Lauren Mehringer

UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOW

LaShawn Hanes, a member of the Urban Educators Cohort Program (UECP), was part of a select group of undergraduate students across the nation to receive a research training fellowship from the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in 2012.

Free of charge, Hanes went to Vancouver to participate in the Undergraduate Student Education Research Training Workshop during the association’s Annual Meeting. Undergraduate fellows, who are interested in pursuing doctoral degrees in education, attend networking events and seminars where they learn how research is conducted and applied. They also explore graduate education and pair up with distinguished mentors.

Hanes, who is from Detroit, was nominated by Assistant Professor Rebecca Jacobsen, who helped her design a research project focusing on urban youth and their perceptions of the collegiate experience.

“That really ignited her passion for the potential to get involved in education beyond teaching,” Jacobsen said. “She still wants to teach but it’s important, especially for a first-generation college student like LaShawn, to learn about the potential she can have to really influence the field.”

Hanes was able to attend AERA presentations by some of the scholars whose work she read in her courses as a member of UECP. She graduated earlier this year and is now working on her teaching internship in Chicago.

“I have had several opportunities afforded to me throughout my matriculation that I know have prepared me for the field of education,” Hanes said. “It has given me hands-on experience and new outlooks on diversity and multiculturalism.”

By: Nicole Geary

As a World Grant institution, Michigan State University considers globalization core to its mission. And when it comes to study abroad, MSU sends more students overseas than any other public university.

However, study abroad has been an experience traditionally enjoyed by undergraduate students. At the graduate level, international learning opportunities tend to vary widely and be less readily available.
So when former dean Carole Ames announced in 2010 that every doctoral student in the MSU College of Education would be eligible to go on an international study trip — with nearly all expenses covered — it represented a bold step within the university and among graduate schools nationwide.

Since then, nearly 100 emerging scholars have participated in the annual Fellowship to Enhance Global Understanding with destinations in China, Vietnam, Botswana and Cyprus. Next up is Indonesia.
Although each trip is different, fellows interact with students and faculty at universities, visit schools and community organizations, explore cultural activities and learn from each other in the process. Participants, who must be in their first three years of doctoral study, come from every discipline in the college.

“We can teach about other countries’ educational systems in our classrooms here in East Lansing, but it’s not the same experience as having our students participate in an intensive visit to another country,” said current Dean Donald E. Heller, who has committed to continuing the program.

“These trips provide our doctoral students with a firsthand, in-depth understanding of how these systems work in other countries. The college invests a large sum of money to ensure that our students are provided with these opportunities.”

To keep resources from hindering students’ access, the fellowship covers costs for travel, lodging and some meals over two to three weeks.

Prospective students say the program sets the College of Education – which is already known for offering a high level of research support to graduate students – further apart from other institutions.
Each trip is led by faculty members with a rich background in or connections to the host country. The trips are non-credit bearing, and students are encouraged to immerse themselves in the culture and educational climate in ways that suit their professional interests.

However, there are also clear expectations. Faculty leaders demand a high level of intellectual engagement in debriefing sessions. They have assigned fellows to present lectures while in country, complete final projects back in the U.S. and share their experiences with the rest of the college community.

The results have been, well, life-changing.

One student, as Professor John Dirkx found in a related research project (see page 25), said the trip was “like dropping off a cliff.”

“It caused her to completely question her identity as a student, educator, mother and American,” he said.
Not every traveler reports such a profound impact, but the study trips are shaping the personal and scholarly journeys of all Ph.D. students involved in important ways.

As fellowship coordinator Reitumetse Mabokela puts it, they are gaining a broader understanding of the human experience – living, learning, teaching, dealing with challenge. For some, the excursions have opened new possibilities for international research and even sustained projects in the same world regions. For others, the trips have added outside perspectives to their search for educational answers within the United States.

And for all participants, the experience has taken them one step closer to becoming truly global citizens.
It is a goal the college, the university and educators everywhere are now striving to meet.
“I find the overseas experience unparalleled for opening minds to other ways of thinking and interacting with one another,” said Associate Professor Lynn Fendler, coordinator of the Cyprus trip. “I don’t think there’s anything more valuable, educationally speaking.”

Cyprus is small, a Mediterranean island not quite as big as Connecticut. But the nation’s long history of conflict and conflict resolution makes it an especially powerful place to learn about peace or, more specifically, peace education.Much has happened since the Greek military coup and Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974. The conflict resulted in an imposed border between north and south, but Cyprus has now been non-violent since the 1990s. Since then, many Cypriot educators have become known for their pioneering approaches to teaching social justice, cross-cultural communication and other topics against the backdrop of vast ethnic, religious and cultural differences.

Lynn Fendler, associate professor of teacher education, reached out to one of the world’s foremost experts on peace education, former MSU colleague Michalinos Zembylas, to plan MSU’s first doctoral study trip to Cyprus. The group spent time at Open University in Nicosia, where Zembylas is on the faculty, and visited several types of schools and organizations in a search to understand what continues to divide — and reunite — the Greek and Turkish Cypriots.

Adding to the planned agenda, MSU students say they talked candidly with locals in and around their home-base hotel and felt some of the Cypriots’ deep-rooted frustrations over being forced to migrate when they passed through the buffer zone separating the two halves of the country. There they also visited the recently opened Home for Cooperation, the first shared space for all Cypriots focused on intercommunal dialogue, historical inquiry and research.

The MSU doctoral students also explored ancient culture with visits to archaeological sites.

Playing For Peace

From the basketball court used by Peace Players International in Cyprus (see photo above), you can see aging bullet holes in the nearby building and barbed wire around the perimeter.
It’s a place within the buffer zone where youth from both sides of the island come together to shoot hoops and learn to respect each other’s differences in the process. And, unless you have special clearance from the United Nations, it’s off limits to outside visitors.

However, four Ph.D. students from the MSU College of Education had the chance to dribble, run through drills and discuss the program as a side-project during their stay in Cyprus.

“They not only talked to us, but got us out there to experience some of the curriculum,” said Leslie Jo Shelton, a doctoral student in Higher, Adult and Lifelong Education (HALE). “We didn’t get to see the kids play themselves, but I could just imagine what it would be like.”

What she did see was how moving and laughing together could start to break down generations of mistrust among adolescents growing up in mostly segregated communities. Basketball clubs throughout Cyprus meet for education sessions throughout each week then gather for monthly “twinnings” (tournaments) in the neutral area between north and south Cyprus.

Shelton sought out the opportunity to explore Peace Players, an organization operating in other conflict-ridden parts of the world, along with School Psychology student Marla Pfenniger Saint Gilles and Kinesiology students Missy Wright and Alison Ede. Wright and Ede created a joint final project based on the experience, and expect to incorporate their firsthand knowledge into existing kinesiology courses and projects back on campus.

It was a rare chance to understand more fully how sport can support the goals of social justice — and that social justice doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone, everywhere.
“It’s a different perspective on what I take for granted,” Ede said. “I can’t imagine if I had to show my passport just to go to … Ohio.”

The itinerary starts in Beijing, where students are briefed on the broad scale of educational challenges in China at Beijing Normal University, visit Tiananmen Square and climb the Great Wall. They give lectures and pair up with students with similar interests at Southwest University (SWU) in Chongqing, explore Shanghai and visit a range of school settings along the way.

It didn’t take long for College of Education leaders to see how the three-week experience influences doctoral students’ perspectives on research and teaching in powerful ways. After two successful China trips, in 2009 and 2010, Ames announced she was expanding the program to all Ph.D. students in the college and asked faculty members to propose additional destinations abroad.

Along the way, MSU has developed a particularly strong relationship with SWU, a key university that shares many similarities with MSU. Every fall since the first U.S. student trip to China, SWU’s Faculty of Education has sent about a dozen of its students and faculty members to stay and study on the MSU campus for nearly the entire academic year. The College of Education organizes a range of academic and social activities for the visiting scholars.

Late last spring, new Dean Donald Heller traveled to Chongqing to meet SWU’s dean – who is also new – and reaffirm MSU’s commitment to the faculty and student exchange program. Heller also hosted the farewell reception for last year’s Chinese delegation in his own home.

“In the Asian culture, those actions are highly symbolic,” said Dan Schultz, who has led numerous MSU-sponsored trips to China for educators and other groups.

Because MSU and SWU have a formal Memorandum of Understanding, and with the Chinese scholars spending an extended time at MSU, the Michigan State students who travel to China find familiar faces when they arrive in Chongqing. Their scholarly exchanges – and friendships – have become year-round.

“A Field That Doesn’t Exist”

To most students, the Great Wall is amazing. Like many travelers to visit schools in China, Kristen Girard was also amazed by the size of classes — about 50 students — and the high level of control and discipline that goes with them.
It was an eye-opener in terms of thinking about classroom management.

“But I kept thinking to myself, what happens if one or two students in the class are really struggling?” said Girard. As a school psychology scholar, she found herself looking for practices from an educational field that doesn’t really exist in China.

She learned that while the Chinese system provides services for students with learning disabilities, it’s often up to families to seek outside resources to obtain a diagnosis for their child’s mental or emotional difficulties. At Southwest University, she learned more from a special education professor about the Asian nation’s take on inclusion versus specialized classrooms and how students are originally diagnosed with various disabilities.

Girard is from Rhode Island. She came to MSU three years ago because she liked the community feeling of the School Psychology doctoral program, which has opened opportunities for her to study strategies for improving early reading skills, a major interest.

Now that she has shared long plane rides and language-restricted restaurant adventures with students from other programs, Girard feels like she is part of a much broader community, one that carries across the whole College of Education – and entire continents.

“I had a very clear mindset about what I thought a good U.S. classroom looks like, but there are different ways of doing things and some are better,” she said. “When I get back into the schools this year, it will definitely change my lens.”

From north to south, the MSU delegation to Vietnam travels nearly the entire length of the country. And that is by design, says coordinator John Dirkx, who wants the doctoral students to see each of Vietnam’s three distinct cultural regions and come away with a broad overview of the educational system.
The nation is rapidly developing. Schools, vocational centers and colleges are moving quickly to keep pace, which makes Vietnam an exciting place to study efforts to build administrative and instructional capacity.Dirkx himself, a professor of Higher, Adult and Lifelong Education (HALE) at MSU, has been working with universities and colleges in the Mekong Delta region to improve teaching and learning for students in higher education over the past six years. He knows Vietnam well and has worked closely with three Vietnamese students in the MSU College of Education to plan the study trip. They are Ngoc Lan Thi Dang and Le Thi Thuy Trieu, who also accompanied the group and provided translation this year, and Hoa Thi Pham, who went in 2011.

The 2012 travelers visited beautiful beaches, mausoleums and remnants of the war that still haunts many aspects of life in Vietnam (even climbing through hidden underground tunnels formerly used by soldiers). They observed secondary and postsecondary teachers teaching, shared research with scholars at several universities and visited the rural villages where MSU Professor Emeritus Christopher Wheeler led a lasting project integrating school reform and community development.

Wheeler, Dirkx and other MSU faculty members have established partnerships with Can Tho University, which helps MSU develop the itinerary for the study tour by identifying contacts in host cities and facilitating relationships with host faculty members and administrators.

Breaking The “Bubble”

When James Pippin started the Ph.D. program in Educational Policy at Michigan State, he planned to learn more about education in the United States. After spending years teaching in Asia and obtaining a master’s degree in international education, dissecting American schools felt like the missing piece of his puzzle.

But the prospect for more global travel was a powerful pull for the Ohio native. During his trip to Vietnam, Pippin discovered something else he had been missing: the chance to access a foreign ministry or department of education.

“That was really profitable for me to sit in on meetings at real policymaking levels and learn what kinds of challenges leaders in that country are dealing with,” he said. During brief personal encounters, he began to see how policymakers and researchers in Vietnam react to questions related to educational quality and policy implementation. He also got a glimpse of the processes and cultural norms he would have to navigate if he were to return to conduct policy-related research in Vietnam, or a similar nation.

Thinking over the trip, however, Pippin said he will remember the train rides across the countryside most vividly. From the hectic hustle through crowds at boarding time to the ground-level views of the poverty at play in students’ lives, the experience immersed Pippin and his fellow travelers more fully in their Vietnamese surroundings — and gave them a chance to reflect along the way.

Like a metaphor for what they intended to break free from as U.S.-centered scholars, the tour bus, as the group decided, often felt more like a “bubble” as it traversed through busy Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
“Visiting other countries, for me, will never be finished. It’s not a checklist,” Pippin said. “I feel like I need to be repeatedly put into a different cultural environment to sort of renew my interests.
“Going to Vietnam helped narrow down some (research) topics and created an explosion of others at the same time.”

 

Based in the capital city of Gaborone, the MSU delegation to Botswana set out daily to understand what goes into child development in a sub-Saharan African nation.The doctoral students learned about tribal history, family structures, literature and other topics from faculty at the University of Botswana (UB), where they lodged in dormitories. Then they traveled to – and sometimes hiked – to places where they could see the contexts in which children live, learn and play: primary and secondary schools; a “village” serving as home and school for children living without their parents due to AIDS and other reasons; a community athletic complex where the MSU students challenged the kids to a soccer game (and donated 60 pairs of cleats).

Halfway through the trip, the group also embarked on a camping trip in the Moremi Game Reserve. Hyenas explored their camp occasionally and elephants shuffled within earshot. Co-leader Evelyn Oka, associate professor of school psychology in the College of Education, says visitors cannot fully appreciate the values of Batswanan people, such as commitment to environmental stewardship, respect for life, collaboration and resourcefulness, without going into the bush. Desert covers 70 percent of the country, which has limited the scope of development and created a long history of migration and assimilation for parts of the population. Eco-tourism is emerging as a key industry.

The first Botswana trip, in 2011, was led by Dan Schultz and kinesiology Professor Deborah Feltz. She first established connections with UB through Leapetswe Malete, a two-time MSU kinesiology graduate who is now an associate professor and director of international education there. Through the study trip, a former UB student, Tshepang Tshube, has also become a Ph.D. student in the MSU Kinesiology Program. Tshube served as a guide and translator for the group during this year’s trip.

The Power Of Storytelling

Teacher education student Raven Jones booked her trip to Botswana with a narrow concept of being abroad. And she was nervous because she was the only African American student going.

Born and raised in Detroit, she wondered if her own cultural experiences would have any connections with those of the Batswana and how they would perceive her. When she greeted the university’s deputy dean of education on the first morning, the familiar-looking woman didn’t just welcome Jones. She said, “Welcome home.”

By the time the journey ended, Jones recalls, she didn’t want to go back home. In fact, she can see herself returning there to teach and conduct research. A former debate coach for alternative high school students, she is interested in how students acquire literacy in non-traditional ways – especially when they are free to draw on their own language and daily lives.
“Sometimes we, as in people in the U.S., only think literacy to mean anything dealing with reading and writing, but it’s so much more than that,” she said.

In Botswana, she saw the power of storytelling, poetry and music – a kindergarten class gathering every morning to sing Setswana lyrics about bright futures for themselves despite their disabilities. She also saw children thriving despite humble means – an experience not so far from her own. She returned with those scenes ingrained in her mind, and with her own stories to tell.

A first-generation college student, Jones described the trip as a “pilgrimage” on behalf of her husband and family.

“People invested in me financially, emotionally and spiritually and encouraged me to come back and share my stories,” she said. “It was absolutely amazing.”

More Online: msubotswana.blogspot.com

The Research

Research on graduate study abroad has been almost non-existent. Michigan State is starting to change that with a study led by scholars in the College of Education.

Working in collaboration with colleagues from International Studies and Programs at MSU, Professor John Dirkx and a team of doctoral students are gathering data about what types of international experiences are available to graduate students in institutions across the Midwest, and how those experiences make an impact.

The Graduate Learning Experiences and Outcomes (GLEO) project will create a valuable overview of programs offered across each of the 13 CIC (Committee on Institutional Cooperation) member universities, plus New York University. Using survey instruments designed to assess student outcomes, GLEO is believed to be the first systematic study of graduate-level study abroad.

“There’s been no attempt to provide an overarching conceptual framework for graduate study abroad,” said Dirkx, a faculty member in Higher, Adult and Lifelong Education (HALE).

The College of Education’s Fellowship to Enhance Global Understanding, although unusual, is one example of graduate education abroad. And Dirkx is conducting research on that, too.

He has funding from the MSU College of Education for a sub-study that has been exploring what College of Education Ph.D. students gain from the study trips and what factors make a difference, factors such as students’ pre-journey preparation and whether they stay in residence or keep moving from location to location within the country. The data come from personal interviews with participants, as well as written assessments.

Graduate study abroad has been a focus for Dirkx since last summer when he became the current Dr. Mildred B. Erickson Distinguished Chair in Higher, Adult and Lifelong Education. The three-year appointment, funded by W. Bruce Erickson (see page 58), provides resources for HALE professors to conduct research and outreach activities tied to their interests. Dirkx is particularly interested in how international travel for graduate students can be a transformative learning experience.

“A lot of students take a very academic approach, to get as much information as possible,” he said. “What they are not really paying attention to is their emotions. Their affective responses are associated with some potential for really deep learning.”

In March 2012, more than 60 people attended a special symposium on the power of graduate study abroad at Erickson Hall featuring author and world traveler Phil Cousineau.

The GLEO project also has support from the MSU Graduate School. With Dirkx, the co-primary investigators are Kristin Janka Millar, associate director of the MSU Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and Brett Berquist, executive director of the MSU Office of Study Abroad. The research assistants are Gina Vizvary, Julie Ann Sinclair and Nathan Jay Clason.

On The Web

GLEO research project: education.msu.edu/ead/outreach/gleo
Erickson Chair: education.msu.edu/ead/outreach/ericksonchair.asp

A STEADY PACE

In 1992, Feltz was inducted into the National Academy of Kinesiology, a group of leading scholars capped at 150 members. She also served as president of the academy from 2000-2002. Her leadership has been influential on editorial boards of research journals, international exchange programs and even the U.S. Olympic Committee, for which she remains a registered sport psychologist.

But Feltz had made her most lasting contributions to the field by advancing the theory of self-efficacy in sport, or the confidence that athletes, coaches, teams and referees need to perform at high levels. Her 2008 book with former students Sandra Short and Philip Sullivan, Self-Efficacy in Sport, summarizes more than 30 years of research and is considered the go-to reference on the subject.

Feltz hasn’t slowed down.

Putting her own theories to the test, she became the 800-meter track champion at the National Senior Olympics in 2009. She continues to train and compete as a mid-distance runner with coaching assistance from a former student, Johnny Allen.

And the next phase of her research is just starting to take off.

Feltz received a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to study how virtual partners affect motivation to exercise. In a lab using video chat and gaming technology, she and her team have found that people will work out up to twice as long when they are trying to keep up with a person appearing on screen.

Next, says doctoral student Samuel Forlenza, the goal is to determine whether the effects are similar when participants actually know the workout partner they are seeing is pre-recorded or the partner is computer-generated (like an avatar).

Originally from Buffalo, N.Y., Forlenza came to MSU to study with Feltz because she is a long-term leader in sport psychology who knows how to stay on the cutting edge.

“Dr. Feltz has really steered the department to where it is today,” he said. “She has been cognizant of everything going on, not just in the college and department, but in the broader world of kinesiology.”

Indeed, she has steered the faculty to focus more on improving the physical health and well-being of children and youth. Along the spectrum of studying physical activity “from cells to society,” pediatric kinesiology has the greatest potential to influence future generations in a time of growing concerns about obesity and sedentary lifestyles.

Not to mention that’s where federal research funding has shifted.

“It’s a really exciting time to be in this field as we look at the many issues surrounding physical activity, in terms of health and fitness, but also at the neuroscience level,” Feltz said.

She recently hired two new faculty members who study the connection between movement and brain functioning, such as how physical activity helps students with ADHD focus on reading and other cognitive goals.

Athletic training also has expanded greatly since the early 1990s through the addition of faculty members leading efforts to develop academic opportunities. Working with colleagues from Spartan Athletics, they received accreditation for the undergraduate program in 2003. In 2007, the program shifted from a specialization within Kinesiology to a separate Bachelor of Science in Athletic Training.

Like student enrollments, the size of the faculty has also ebbed and flowed over the past 20 years. Following several retirements, the faces of the department will be nearly all new to anyone who studied and worked there before or during the 1980s.

Crystal Branta, Martha Ewing and Dianne Ulibarri are each retiring in 2013 after more than 30 years.

Feltz herself arrived fresh from completing her doctorate at Penn State in 1980 and accepted the chairperson’s job (first as acting chair) eight years later. Professor Emeritus Vern Seefeldt, who led the committee that hired her, said he is still very proud of that decision.

“One of the important tasks is to keep faculty happy and make sure they have the resources they need to do their job. Deb was very good at that, very sensitive and perceptive to the needs of students, too,” he said. “When you put those things together, it makes for a productive department.”

Feltz says she is especially appreciative of her first and only administrative assistant Verna Lyon. Both new to their jobs from the start, they have been learning together along the way.

During those 24 years, Feltz stood up for her programs and peers under the threat of budget cuts. She advocated for curricular changes to make academic requirements more rigorous. She helped push faculty and student achievements into the ranks of the nation’s most reputable research destinations.

And she did it while remaining a department chair longer than anyone on campus.

“We have thrived because we have been flexible and adaptable to change, and it’s made us stronger,” Feltz said. “It’s been a great trip and I am glad to have been a part of it.”

Meet the new leader

Alan L. Smith is having a big year.

He finished collecting data on two major research projects, including a before-school physical activity program involving 180 kids.

He was named president-elect of the professional organization for sport and exercise psychologists, NASPSA (the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity), in June. In September, he was inducted into the National Academy of Kinesiology.

During that time, he also became the new chairperson of the Department of Kinesiology at Michigan State University. Smith, an expert on the links between physical activity and youth development, settled into East Lansing this summer to begin leading the next era of kinesiology at MSU.

He comes from Purdue University, where he was director of graduate studies in the Department of Health and Kinesiology and co-director of the Sport and Exercise Psychology Laboratory.

MSU Professor Dan Gould, who led the national search for a new chairperson, said Smith’s focus on pediatric kinesiology and, in particular, the social and psychological aspects of sport and exercise made him an excellent fit.

“We are already one of the top places for studying pediatric sport psychology and exercise psychology and Dr. Smith really helps us further improve on this strength,” Gould said. “He also has a history of collaborating with people across areas and departments, whether in exercise physiology, psychology or education.”

Smith’s current five-year project with colleagues from University of Vermont, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, explores the impact of a before-school physical activity program on K-2 students with ADHD. He is also well known for his work on how social relationships influence young people’s motivation in sports.

Smith has held several administrative roles at Purdue including associate chair of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) for Human Subjects Research. He also was a fellow in the CIC Academic Leadership Program during 2010-11.

Smith received his bachelor’s in psychology from University of Rochester, his master’s in exercise and sport science from University of North Carolina-Greensboro and his doctorate in exercise and movement science from University of Oregon.

He joins the MSU community with his wife Sarah Hatfield-Smith and their two children, ages 9 and 10.

“Clearly the youth focus of kinesiology at MSU was very attractive to me,” Smith said. “I am really looking forward to leading the department and contributing to such a highly regarded college.”

50 YEARS IN KIN, “A Spartan Forever”

Jo Ann Janes says she isn’t one for talking about her accomplishments. But her career, and the emotion that wells up when you ask her about it, definitely speaks for itself.

Janes retired this summer after 50 years as a staff person in the Department of Kinesiology at Michigan State University. She started as a research assistant in the Human Energy Research Laboratory (HERL) and leaves as secretary for both the lab and all matters related to graduate studies in the department.

Above any official job description, she is the person students and faculty members turned to when they needed support or a problem solved. In the words of long-time chairperson Deborah Feltz, Janes has been the “heart and soul of the department.”

“Not only has she been there to witness the department’s growth, she has been absolutely instrumental in its growth over the span of five decades,” said doctoral student Kimbo Yee. “Jo Ann helped each and every one of us by putting us in the best possible position to succeed with whatever our objectives or goals were for that day or moment.”

Janes was honored as one of the university’s best support staff members when she received the Jack Breslin Distinguished Staff Award in 1994. Throughout the challenges of her changing duties, from operating EKG recorders in the 1960s to rejecting student applicants in the ’90s, it is the people that have kept her in kinesiology.

“They are just good people. It’s a small department where everyone knows each other and gets along,” she said. “I was going to retire after 25 years and do something else but I just kept staying. I stayed because I like what I’m doing.”

She says she has loved being around the beauty of campus and students who, despite personalities and trends that come and go, still have the same high levels of energy and ambition. She handled the entire process for graduate students, from first inquiries to enrollment – the department receives about 200 applicants each year – and through to graduation.

“She is there for students from the start to the finish,” said Verna Lyon, assistant to the department chair and a close friend (in the same department for 28 years!). “They know they can count on her.”

And faculty members do too. Janes’ job includes arranging travel, purchasing lab equipment, paying research participants and much more. Professor James Pivarnik, director of HERL and a nationally known expert in exercise physiology, says Janes has more to do with his success than any other person at MSU.

“From her friendship, loyalty, personality and extreme competence, there never has been, and never will be, anyone better,” he said.

In retirement, Janes plans to spend more time with her husband, George, traveling and enjoying her favorite activities. She loves to garden, hike and boat while at their cottage on Torch Lake in northern Michigan. A resident of Haslett, she also plans to do volunteer work at the local library or food bank.

“If you see something that needs to be done, you just do it,” Janes said. “That’s the way I have always been.”

MAKING THE TEAM

Jan Davenport, another long-serving staff member in the Department of Kinesiology, retired this summer after 26 years. Davenport has had many responsibilities during that time, handling class scheduling, student hiring and support for several faculty members. She also has helped oversee the reference library, department newsletter and annual awards program.

Tonya BARTELL, Assistant Professor
Department of Teacher Education
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison
Tonya Bartell is interested in exploring teaching practices that promote mathematics learning for all students. Her research focuses on issues of culture, race and power in mathematics teaching and learning, with particular attention to teachers’ development of mathematics pedagogy for social justice and pedagogy integrating a focus on mathematics, children’s mathematical thinking, and children’s community and cultural knowledge.

Scott A. IMBERMAN, Associate Professor
Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Special Education & Department of Economics
Ph.D., University of Maryland
Scott A. Imberman is an economist who specializes in the economics of education and education policy. His research focuses on issues in domestic education, and he has recently studied charter schools, classroom peer-effects, school finance, gifted education and school uniforms. Currently he is researching teacher incentive pay and technology use in schools. He is also a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Madeline MAVROGORDATO, Assistant Professor
Department of Educational Administration (K-12)
Ph.D., Vanderbilt University
Madeline Mavrogordato’s research focuses on issues of school reform and improvement for disadvantaged students. She investigates how the social context of education, implementation of educational policies and school leadership shape outcomes for underserved students, particularly immigrants and English language learners. She is studying the process by which English language learners are reclassified as English proficient, school strategies to engage immigrant parents in schools, and the social and policy implications of school choice.

Lanay M. MUDD, Assistant Professor
Department of Kinesiology
Ph.D., Michigan State University
Lanay M. Mudd is an exercise physiologist and perinatal epidemiologist. Her research focuses on the short- and long-term health benefits of physical activity during pregnancy for both the mother and the child. Part of her work is geared toward investigating the fetal origins hypothesis which posits that health conditions developing in childhood and adulthood may be related to the in utero environment. Mudd also has investigated knowledge of health guidelines and health-related behaviors among college students, and she plans to extend that line of research to other special populations.

Alan L. SMITH, Professor/Chairperson (see page 30)
Department of Kinesiology
Ph.D., University of Oregon
Alan L. Smith’s research focuses on the link between sport and physical activity involvement and young people’s psychological and social functioning. He is known for his research on peer relationships in the physical activity domain and the motivational implications of these relationships for children and adolescents. He is funded by the National Institute of Mental Health to examine physical activity as a means of ameliorating symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in young children. He is president-elect of the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity and was elected a fellow of the National Academy of Kinesiology.

Connie SUNG, Assistant Professor
Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Special Education (Rehabilitation Counseling)
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison
Connie Sung’s educational background includes rehabilitation counseling/psychology, neuropsychology and occupational science. Her research focuses on evidence-based practice, psychosocial adjustment, vocational rehabilitation and quality of life of individuals with neurological disabilities, and multiculturalism.

Michael K. WEISS, Assistant Professor
Department of Teacher Education & Program in Mathematics Education (PRIME)
Ph.D., University of Michigan
Michael Weiss studies the capacity of mathematics education to represent authentic mathematical values and practices, and the extent to which school mathematics can cultivate a mathematical sensibility in students. A former high school teacher, Weiss has analyzed narratives of mathematical practice to identify a network of dispositions that mathematicians draw upon to value and guide their work. He has used these dispositions both as a theoretical frame for studies of teaching and learning, and to generate models of possible classroom practice.

FACULTY PROMOTIONS

To Professor:

Matthew Koehler
Educational Psychology and Educational Technology

Kristen Renn
Higher, Adult and Lifelong Education

John (Jack) P. Smith
Educational Psychology and Educational Technology

To Associate Professor:

Dorinda Carter Andrews
Teacher Education

Janine Certo
Teacher Education

Kimberly Maier
Measurement and Quantitative Methods

Michelle Williams
Teacher Education

By: Nicole Geary

Marita Gilbert’s grandmother lived through Hurricane Katrina.
She stayed with family in Texas for a time and returned to see her New Orleans home, passed down through generations, covered in mold floor to ceiling.
Everything was destroyed.

“It’s one thing to know it’s going to be difficult,” said Gilbert, a Ph.D. student in Kinesiology at Michigan State University who saw the storm’s aftermath herself not long afterward. “It’s different to smell it and see it and have to put the mask on.”

Fast forward five years to a football arena where few people could have predicted the city’s pro team would have what it takes to win its first Super Bowl. But they did. And it was a moment when seemingly every New Orleanian ran celebrating into the streets, whether their houses were new or still covered by tarps.

After growing up there, Gilbert knows firsthand how residents have struggled to regain hope after the hurricane. Now as a sport sociologist, she is exploring how the Saints’ historic season played a role in post-Katrina recovery.

During intimate interviews with her research subjects, who were all black women, she used photo elicitation techniques (see selected photos, right) to find out how the football team’s journey affected their own. She was surprised to uncover how game-watch parties or parades could be connected to honoring the legacy of loved ones and the city itself.

And yet, she found, “The Saints aren’t really the story. They are a chapter.” A chapter in the story of transformation after the storm, and in the historical accounts of African American women striving to “recover home.”

Many researchers study the psychological and sociological effects of sport because they know the old “It’s just a game” response is far from the truth. Within the context of New Orleans, Gilbert says, celebrating seemingly impossible athletic victories became an extension of a celebratory culture that has helped define people for centuries.

“The game is important because it underscores their understanding of home,” Gilbert said. “And the game allows people the opportunity to have catharsis. It’s not just a release, it’s a culturally specific practice.”

Who ‘Dat?

From the chants of Who ’Dat? in the arena stands to New Orleans’ classic “second line” street parades, you wouldn’t find the same thing in, say, Oakland or Detroit.

And in contrast to the images of flooded homes and teary eyes, those football-related festivities became even more important. Gilbert argues that the rest of the world did not give New Orleanians a chance to be credible contributors to their own narratives about the Katrina experience.

The Super Bowl-winning season helped residents resist the sense of victimhood. It gave the city something else, something positive to be known for, at least temporarily.

“It’s hard to convince academics, who most likely were not athletes, about the power of sports,” said Feltz, former chairperson of the MSU Department of Kinesiology and a preeminent expert on sport psychology. “But if you look worldwide, how do countries get on the world stage?”

Consider, for example, the impact of the first major sporting event after the end of apartheid, when South Africa won the Rugby World Cup. And Michigan State University itself is often known to people in other parts of the world not for its research, but its Spartan sports teams.

Indeed, the media has portrayed the Saints’ success as a symbol of recovery in New Orleans. However, Gilbert says, those stories did not always include the voices of people who actually live in New Orleans — particularly black women. In fact, when she searched through thousands of digital images, she could find only two depicting black women celebrating the Saints’ success. And yet, when she talked to 10 women of vastly different ages and occupations — all who lived in the city before and after the storm — they revealed how the football team’s story symbolized their own efforts to return to and resume a sense of normalcy at home.

One’s daughter was a cheerleader for the team. Another said she made a point to go to the games because it was important to her terminally ill mother, who stayed outside in the cold for hours, despite being sick, to be sure she watched the parade.

“I would have never thought black women would say the Saints are important to home in such significant ways,” Gilbert said.

But these unknown narratives of African American women, in many contexts, have unfortunately woven a common thread throughout history.

This black feminist perspective, along with the use of photo elicitation as a qualitative method, created a bit of uncharted territory in the field of kinesiology.

It required Gilbert to collaborate and consult with other scholars from across campus, such as Steven Gold in the Department of Sociology and Kristie Dotson in the Department of Philosophy. Above all, it took the encouragement of fellow kinesiology researchers who helped Gilbert grow her research aspirations beyond the bounds of their own disciplines.

She defends her dissertation this fall and hopes to become a faculty member in kinesiology — still an uncommon career path for African American women — in the near future. Gilbert is a King-Chavez-Parks Fellow and will be a visiting scholar at Allegheny College for the 2012-2013 academic year. She previously directed student-athlete development programs at the University of New Orleans and many of her family members live in the city.

“MSU is the place that could push me the most and the hardest,” Gilbert said of her decision to pursue her doctorate in East Lansing five years ago. Feltz has been a driving influence (see page 26 for more
on her).

“In the time that I’ve been here, Dr. Feltz has really encouraged us, not only to dream big things but to really take on big challenges.”

UPDATE: LESSONS LEARNED, OR UNLEARNED?

Gilbert says broadcasts covering Hurricane Isaac, which hit New Orleans on Aug. 29, 2012, ignored neighborhoods, particularly those home to black women, in favor of continued focus on the French Quarter and Central Business District. This suggests the recovery narratives of New Orleanians are still being largely overlooked.

Meanwhile, Gilbert says Saints fans have been unwavering in their support of the football team in lieu of the recent scandal alleging players were paid bonuses or “bounties” for injuring opponents. Hopeful resilience as a tenet of “home” in New Orleans is again pervasive.

Welcome to a new year, whether it is your first year or your 50th, as a Michigan State University College of Education alumnus. We have a new dean, new board members and a new direction that will be set in place for the Alumni Association following our board meeting in September. I am looking forward with eager anticipation to a busy and productive year for our Alumni Board.

I am Gunnard Johnson, your 2012-13 president of the College of Education Alumni Association. I graduated from MSU in 1966 with a BA in Elementary Education and an MA in Educational Administration in 1969. I retired in 2005 after 38 years in K-12 education as a teacher, principal and superintendent.

Our Alumni Board (listed on this magazine’s inside back cover) is made up of college alumni who serve for two, three-year terms. This September, we welcome Spike Braunius, Justin Grinnell, Melissa McDaniels and Lynette Moyer as new members, and Ross Vandercook and Leland Wheaton as new member alternates. You can also go online, www.education.msu.edu/alumni/board, to see the College of Education Alumni Board members. If you are interested or know someone who is interested in becoming a member of the Alumni Board, please let us know.

The College of Education continues to make all Michigan State University alumni proud of their accomplishments and success! As featured on page 3 of this magazine, the 2013 edition of Best Graduate Schools from U.S. News and World Report listed seven programs from the MSU College of Education in the nation’s top-five, with elementary education and secondary education each coming in at No. 1 for the 18th straight year! We congratulate the administration, faculty and all who work for the College of Education for a job well done!

Michigan State’s Homecoming is October 13, 2012 against Iowa. The College of Education’s Homecoming Celebration is being planned and we do not want you to miss it. Remember, you can come and enjoy the party whether you attend the game or not! The game starts at noon, so our tent party will begin at 10 a.m. Come join us, and enjoy the food and conversation with other alumni. This year we are asking alumni and friends who would like to attend to register in advance. Just go to www.education.msu.edu/alumni/homecoming and fill out the online form.

You can always go online at www.education.msu.edu/alumni for information concerning the College of Education, the Alumni Board or becoming a member of the Alumni Association. For those who would like to purchase a College of Education sweatshirt, hat, scarf, tie, cup or other College of Education merchandise, you can use the same webpage.

I am fired up for another year in the College of Education Alumni Association that includes both activities and events and am looking forward to serving as your president. If you have suggestions on how the Alumni Board can better serve you, contact me at gunnardj@yahoo.com.

By: Nicole Geary

It’s Wednesday morning in World Studies and freshmen are touring European cities through the eyes of Google Earth.
Taking cues from their teacher, they each access the web through their own laptops and take notes on an iPad at the same time. No paper.
Or pencils.
Unless, for instance, it’s time to practice taking the ACT.
They attend VOISE Academy, a 1-to-1 technology school on Chicago’s westside where, although fights often break out in the surrounding streets, learning abounds in the hybrid spaces between classroom and computers.
The close-knit school stands apart on the third-floor of a three-school campus, built on big ideas and the leadership of a Spartan.
Principal Todd Yarch, a graduate of the Michigan State University teacher preparation program, has been striving to create a successful blended learning model for urban students since VOISE – Virtual Opportunities Inside a School Environment – opened in 2008.
Earlier this year, Yarch briefed Congress on the future of digital classrooms and watched the first class of 99 students graduate from one of the first fully blended high schools in the country. At more than 80 percent, the four-year graduation rate at VOISE is significantly higher than the average for Chicago Public Schools.
“They are not just layering technology on an old instructional model,” said Susan Patrick, president of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) and a keynote speaker at the school’s first commencement ceremony.
“Todd is leading a revolution, a revolution to dramatically change outcomes for student learning with technology and strong interdisciplinary instruction.”

FINDING THE RIGHT TOOLS, THE RIGHT TEACHING…

VOISE opened as part of Chicago’s Renaissance 2010 initiative, which was intended to create 100 high-performing public and charter schools for areas of high need. VOISE was designed by a team including Northwestern University faculty and CPS leaders, including former distance learning manager Sandi Atols. Starting with freshmen, a new class has been added each year.
The students, who come from all over the city, are each assigned personal laptops on which they do and organize nearly all of their work. Few families can afford Internet access at home.
Although students are not permitted to take the devices home each night, most spend extra time at school. In fact, up to a third of all VOISE students – and many teachers – come on Saturdays to continue class projects or catch up on self-paced assignments. The daily attendance rate is also high for the neighborhood, at about 84 percent.
A former history teacher, Yarch landed the job at VOISE after completing the New Leaders for New Schools training program. He says online learning has often been misconstrued, especially in urban or alternative schools, as simply a means for struggling students to make up credits or for schools to replace teachers.
Blended learning is a term used to describe any mix of web-based and live instruction, and it’s a growing concept.
“More and more people are finding that a combination of both is better than merely online or merely face-to-face,” said Punya Mishra, professor of Educational Psychology and Educational Technology (EPET) in the MSU College of Education. “If it’s fully online, you don’t have the personal connections that can be particularly important in high school. At the same time, there are a lot of things in school that can be done individually by students in an online environment.”
One VOISE teacher Rachel Ward – also a graduate of the MSU College of Education – said a typical lesson for her might start by prompting students to respond to a question in a shared Google Doc on their laptops, then leading a class discussion on the topic. Next, she would show something from YouTube or Khan Academy to further illustrate the concept before turning students loose for a more in-depth assignment.
“It takes a tremendous amount of creativity on the part of the teachers and the leader,” said Yarch. “What we do is very highly engaging and it’s technologically advanced, and that is what really attracts kids to us.”
But it doesn’t stop there. VOISE teachers use technology not only to make whole-class lessons more exciting but to actually meet the needs of the population, student by student. At least one period per day, they use various web-based software tools such as Flexbooks from the CK-12 Foundation to help students work through content independently based on pre-identified skill deficits.
Yarch and his staff decided during the school’s third year that the comprehensive online curriculum founders selected was not flexible enough, especially for students arriving with elementary-level achievement – or worse.
“The problem is, how can you access high school content if you can’t read?” said special education teacher Amy Bray, who helped rethink the curriculum and introduce a more formal response-to-intervention (RTI) plan last year.
“The whole idea is to meet the kids at their instructional level, and we have seen achievement increase dramatically.”
On average, student reading achievement has improved by almost two grade levels. The average ACT score grew by 1.2 last year, from a 14.4 to a 15.6 composite.
Some of the other places using blended learning to personalize education include Carpe Diem Schools in Arizona and School of One in New York.

… AND THE RIGHT LEADER

Teachers credit much of the success at VOISE to the dedication of their leader. As they have ventured into new territory together – in some form or another every year – Yarch has been receptive to change and yet insistent on meeting his original goals: giving students otherwise-implausible opportunities to succeed and above all, providing a safe, trusting environment.
Junior Darrell Greaves knows this well. He was shot twice last year, just after Christmas, when he was in the wrong place and situation. Like so many unfortunate events, it happened in the world outside of school.
But every one of his teachers visited him in the hospital. When he moved with his mom to another part of Chicago, he made sure he could stay at VOISE.
“It helps me focus more,” the 16-year-old said of doing his work in the digital realm. And Mr. Yarch? “He’s straight because I know he wants us to achieve and go to college.”
Sitting in his corner “office,” Yarch often keeps his own laptop in the hallway where he can simultaneously greet and chastise students during passing times. “We’ve created a culture where the students know we care about them – but we’re not soft by any stretch of the imagination,” he said.
Yarch himself saw the differences between urban and more affluent communities while attending Everett High School in Lansing, Mich. Growing up in the area, he first came to MSU’s campus while delivering furniture with his father, Richard Yarch, who was
an upholsterer at the university for
25 years.
He spent a few semesters attending Calvin College where he was on the baseball team before eventually settling into the secondary teacher track at Michigan State. He wanted to be a teacher and coach, but he also got a glimpse of his administrative potential during the internship year at Lansing’s Eastern High School.
Mentor teacher Manuela Jenkins said she could tell he was going to be a principal, but advised him to teach for at least 10 years first. That stuck with him – except he actually spent eight years at Simeon Academy in south Chicago, where he coached baseball, became the social studies department chair and helped introduce the first Advanced Placement courses.
He was a tireless advocate of using technology to improve teaching. And he wanted to lead.
“I really loved helping kids, but I felt like when I was helping teachers do their job, I was helping more kids,” Yarch said.
Fellow Spartan Rachel Ward, who was one of the first MSU teacher candidates to complete the full-year internship in Chicago, didn’t know what to expect at VOISE when she interviewed with the new principal for a full-time job. She found many of the social and academic barriers at play in urban high schools but with a smaller staff and the added pressure to blaze the blended learning trail – a challenge she faces every day.
“A lot of schools and districts are looking at us to see, is this working?” she said. “This is a difficult task, not only with the technology, but here, with our community. It’s hard. You have to pretty much dedicate your life to it and (Todd) has.
“Every single kid sees him every single day … His presence makes a difference.”
Over the summer, VOISE was selected as one of five CPS schools named as a Spotlight on Technology School. Yarch has begun consulting for other educators experimenting with blended models and he would like to see it work in more Chicago-area schools.
But he is far from satisfied with the progress toward higher achievement levels at VOISE, and he doesn’t want to go anywhere else.
“We can’t just be the cool factor. The question has to be, is this something that’s going to be, instructionally, the right way to go for kids?” he said. “I fully believe that that’s what we’re doing.
“We had some great founders that wanted to take a chance – take a chance on me – to build a 21st Century type of school in a neighborhood that probably needs it more than any.”

AWARD-WINNING GRAD

Aaryn Finklea, a member of the first graduating class at VOISE, was selected as a 2012 Gates Millennium Scholar. The program covers college tuition and housing (possibly up through a Ph.D.) for 1,000 students out of about 24,000 applicants nationwide.
www.gmsp.org

David and Beatrice Meyers have been quietly and consistently making an impact within the College of Education for over three decades. The Meyerses have made a donation to the college for 31 years without missing a year, currently making them the college’s longest-running annual donors. And they have been giving to Michigan State University in some form or another for even longer: 59 years.
David (’57, Business) and Beatrice (’52, Education) met in 1952 at the Chassell, Mich. Strawberry Festival. David had just returned home from serving in the South Pacific in World War II and Beatrice had recently graduated from Michigan State College and was teaching in the Tapiola School District. They married in 1953.
Although he could have relied on the G.I. Bill, David chose to finance his own education and transferred from Michigan Tech to Michigan State University to pursue a degree in business. While David attended MSU, Beatrice taught in Holt Public Schools and worked toward her master’s degree in education. In 1957, the Meyerses proudly wore their graduation gowns together as they listened to then-Vice President Richard Nixon deliver the commencement speech.
A flurry of career moves followed, moving the couple from Michigan to Indiana, Montana and finally to Chicago, Ill., where they grew roots and raised their family. Beatrice ended her teaching career after 18 years of employment in the Woodridge School District in Illinois. David also eventually retired after proudly watching all three of their children graduate from MSU (Keith ’81, Business, Kirsten, ’85, Social Science and Kimberly, ’86, Agriculture). The Meyerses now divide their time between their summer home in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and their winter home in Florida.
When asked why they have chosen to remain such loyal supporters of the College of Education, David said it has always been their strong belief that, “You should give back to your school what it gave to you.” Their daughter Kimberly mentioned that even when finances were tight, her parents always managed to carve out their annual donation in support of the College of Education and other programs at MSU. For the Meyers family, giving back is a value that endures.
Annual giving dollars allow the College of Education to respond quickly to new opportunities and help to meet unexpected budget challenges. The college relies heavily on a strong foundation of annual support.
If you wish to begin your own tradition of giving to the College of Education, please visit us at http://www.education.msu.edu/development or call 517-432-1983.

Success For Novice Teachers: The Importance Of Fit

In recent years, there has been growing focus in Michigan and the nation on beginning, or novice, K-12 teachers. And for good reason: according to recent data from the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, more than 20 percent of teachers are in their first four years of teaching and there are more teachers in their first year than at any other level of experience (Carroll & Foster, 2010). With research indicating that teacher quality has a significant impact on student learning outcomes, many school administrators and policymakers are exploring ways to bolster the effectiveness of novice teachers and increase the likelihood that they will remain in the profession.

A common strategy used to support beginning teachers involves assigning a formal mentor to work one-on-one with them. Under certain conditions, working with a formal mentor can help novice teachers with regard to confidence in their teaching and the quality of their instruction; mentoring can also provide an important source of psychological support. At the same time, large-scale research on mentoring for beginning teachers has produced indeterminate results (Glazerman et al., 2010). While this strategy seems to have much potential, in practice it tends to have a limited impact.

Match Matters

Why does mentoring seem to have mixed results? What are some alternative ways to structure support for beginning teachers? Over the past few years, Ken Frank (MSU professor of measurement and quantitative methods), myself and several Ph.D. students have looked to the field of organizational psychology for possible answers to these questions. For the past decade, researchers in this field have studied how well individuals outside of K-12 education fit with their work environments and they have found strong relationships between increased fit and positive outcomes, such as work performance and retention.

In studying fit, one can examine how well an individual fits with:

• the goals and values of their organizations (referred to as person-organization fit),
• the beliefs and practices of their co-workers (person-group fit) and/or
• the expectations and requirements of their job (person-job fit).

Researchers can get subjective measures of fit, by asking individuals about their perceptions of how well they fit with their organization, group or job. They can also obtain objective measures of fit by comparing an individual’s self-reported beliefs, values or practices with those associated with their organization, co-workers or profession.

In recent research on 200 beginning teachers in Michigan and Indiana, we found that higher levels of subjective and objective fit with one’s close teacher colleagues were associated with higher levels of commitment and retention (Grogan & Youngs, under review; Pogodzinski et al., under review). In other words, when a novice teacher fits in with their colleagues, they are more likely to exert effort to carry out the school’s mission and to continue teaching. In contrast, novices who do not fit in with their colleagues are less likely to work to execute the school’s mission or to remain in the profession. Similarly, in research using the 1999-2000 Schools and Staffing Survey, we found that higher levels of both person-organization and person-job fit were related to higher levels of teacher retention (Grogan & Youngs, 2011).

Start With Hiring

What are the implications of our research on beginning teacher fit? Using a social psychological approach draws our attention to the process of teacher hiring. In particular, schools and districts that (a) share information about their teaching philosophies and practices with applicants and (b) obtain information about applicants’ teaching philosophies and practices are better positioned to hire teachers who are likely to fit in with their new colleagues and their new school as a whole.

In addition, those applicants who have completed extensive student teaching assignments (such as those required at Michigan State) or who have other types of teaching experience may be more likely to remain in teaching over time. Instead of focusing on one-to-one mentoring relationships, it may make sense for district administrators and principals to look to their hiring practices as a key way to support novice teachers.

These visits provided me with the opportunity to confirm what I had learned when I interviewed for the position last spring: the College of Education at Michigan State is filled with bright, hard-working and wonderful individuals. When I spoke at the Fall Graduate Convocation, I told the audience that the people I met during those interviews were the main reason I accepted the position. The college has earned the stellar national and international reputation it has because of these individuals, along with support from the university, research sponsors, alumni and other donors. My goal as dean will be to build on this work and enable the college to reach even greater heights and accomplishments.

Since I arrived on the job on Jan. 1, I have been meeting with a number of people both within and outside the College in conversations that I will be continuing throughout the spring semester. While each discussion is somewhat different, they all generally revolve around four key questions:

• What do you think the College is doing well?
• In what areas do you think the College needs to improve?
• What should be the College’s priorities in the coming years – both in efforts that are already underway as well as in new initiatives?
• What support and resources do you and your unit need from the Dean’s Office and more broadly, the university, in order to achieve excellence and distinction?

I am hoping that these conversations will help us best understand the current strengths and weaknesses of the College, and to determine what we need to do to continue the excellence in teaching, research, outreach and administration that we have already achieved and to expand on that into the future. I expect 
to share the results of these conversations in future issues of the New Educator.

I feel a strong connection to this issue of the New Educator because it contains a series of articles about efforts within the College that focus on improving the pathways from high school into college for students who historically have been underrepresented in higher education in our nation. This is a research topic that I spent much time on in my own work over the years.

As you likely have heard, President Obama has established a national goal of returning the United States to the position of having the highest postsecondary attainment rates in the world. While we used to enjoy that position, over the last two decades other countries have surpassed us so that today the educational attainment of our youngest cohort of workers – those in the 25 to 34 year-old age category – has fallen out of the top 10 among developed countries, according to data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. If we are to achieve President Obama’s goal, we will need to focus our efforts on  these underserved students, and the research being conducted in the College is an important part of that effort.

Other highlights of this issue include a profile of our newly-hired director of the CREATE for STEM Institute, Joseph Krajcik, who joined us this fall. In addition, you will see a feature on Katie Kosko, selected this fall as National Student Teacher of the Year by Kappa Delta Pi and the Association of Teacher Educators.

There is much more to read here, so please enjoy this issue of the College’s magazine. I look forward to the opportunity to meet many of you 
in the coming years.

-Dean Donald Heller

Today’s school systems are operating in a time of fast-changing resources, responsibilities and expectations. The educators who aspire to leadership positions – faculty at Michigan State University argue – need a different set of skills.

As they lead efforts to improve teaching and learning, superintendents and other district leaders should embrace the power of schools to reshape communities.

“One of our biggest failures is we don’t teach our leaders how to engage multiple stakeholders in solving problems,” said Professor Susan Printy, who coordinates the K-12 Educational Administration programs at MSU.

That’s one reason she and her colleagues will begin offering a newly designed degree program, a Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership, or Ed.D., this fall. Shorter and more structured than the traditional Ph.D., the three-year program was created to help Michigan prepare a new generation of advanced system-level administrators.

Educational leaders who know how to bring people together, create consensus about issues and take action.

“It’s actually an old idea, that schools should be an epicenter for community life and development,” said Professor David Arsen. “We’re aiming to develop skills for people who are committed to that mission.”

Over time, faculty members say the Ed.D. has real potential to influence thinking about educational change throughout the state. Each year, students will facilitate intensive summer forums on campus with stakeholders such as policymakers, parents and teachers. Instead of individual dissertations, they will work on group capstone projects intended to address a significant problem facing Michigan schools and communities.

The program is now in final stages of approval, and recruitment is underway.

“We need people who are bold, willing to step out when needed – to speak up,” said Printy. “School leaders can be powerful agents in a community. Teaching students how do that will be an important part of our program.”

A next step for educators with school-level leadership experience, the Ed.D. is oriented toward Michigan’s Central Office Administrator (COA) standards.  The Department of Educational Administration will seek program approval for the credential in the fall. Courses will cover core knowledge of leadership for school operations, finance, curriculum, instruction and data analysis.

A national trend

MSU continues to offer the Ph.D. in Educational Administration, which is being redesigned to focus more intensively on research. The university previously offered an Educational Specialist (Ed.S.) degree in K-12 Educational Administration, but that program was discontinued in 2009.

There has been a resurgence of Ed.D. programs across the nation as prestigious schools of education– especially those involved with the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate – strive to strengthen how they prepare leading practitioners as well as leading scholars, which is typically the focus for Ph.D. programs.

Although Ed.D. students will share some courses with Ph.D. students at MSU, their program will follow a distinct design focused on civic engagement and practical applications. Up to 20 students will be enrolled in each cohort, with most expected to be working professionals attending part time.

Visit education.msu.edu/ead/k12.

Aaron Scheidies, BS ’04 (Kinesiology), received one of two Distinguished Young Alumni Awards from the Michigan State University Alumni Association in 2011 – and it’s no wonder why.

Scheidies is a physical therapist, model, public speaker and triathlete who has less than 20 percent of the vision of a fully sighted person.

Despite being born with Stargardt disease — a condition that slowly deteriorates vision — the 29-year-old has competed in more than 100 triathlons. Wildly successful in his pursuits, Scheidies is an eight-time National Champion and a seven-time World Champion.

He also is the world’s first and only disabled athlete to complete an international distance triathlon in less than two hours.

Michael Hudson, director of MSU’s Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities, nominated Scheidies. The two met when Scheidies first arrived at MSU, and Hudson says he has always admired Scheidies’ sense of drive.

“He exceeds expectations, excels in academics, athletics and community service, and is now leading in a challenging career,” Hudson said.

“Combine all this with a promising future and an unsurpassed Spartan identity and we all have something to celebrate with Aaron.”

During his time at MSU, Scheidies was president of the Triathlon Club and volunteered more than 100 hours to help other students with disabilities, all while maintaining a perfect 4.0 grade point average.

He was a finalist for Best Male Athlete with a Disability at the 2011 ESPYs.

Visit cdifferentwithaaron.com

MSU Honorary Alumna: Carole Ames

Former College of Education Dean Carole Ames received the Honorary Alumni Award during Homecoming week 2011 for her outstanding record of service to Michigan State University.

Her nominator, retired Associate Dean Cassandra Book, said the award reflects Ames’ extraordinary 18-year influence as dean, during which the College of Education achieved high national rankings and maintained an unmatched standard of quality in teaching, scholarship and service.

Ames supervised a variety of milestones in the college’s history: the first homecoming tent party, the first online degree program, the initiation of partnerships to improve urban education and the establishment of several outward-reaching centers and institutes such as the Office of K-12 Outreach and the Education Policy Center. Ames, who also was a professor in the Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Special Education, is well known for her research on children’s social and academic motivation. Prior to her appointment at MSU, she served as associate director of the Institute for Research on Human Development and then chair of the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

For a more complete look at Ames’ accomplishments at MSU, visit 
edwp.educ.msu.edu/new-educator/2011/carole-ames-era/

College of Education Distinguished Alumna: Sonya Gunnings-Moton

Sonya Gunnings-Moton has spent much of her career improving educational opportunities for young people, especially those growing up in underserved or underresourced communities. She is a faculty member and two-time graduate of the MSU College of Education, which presented her with its prestigious Distinguished Alumni Award on Nov. 11, 2011.

Gunnings-Moton serves as assistant dean for student support services and recruitment in the college and as an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Special Education. Her job is to foster the recruitment and retention of underrepresented groups for undergraduate and graduate program study. She has done so through a variety of successful partnerships and programs, many of which focus on addressing a critical mission of the college: improving urban education.

Through the Broad Partnership, she created powerful connections with the Detroit Public Schools and established a pipeline of opportunities that help young people from urban areas pursue higher education – and particularly careers in education – at MSU.

Today these efforts continue with the Summer High School Scholars program, the Urban Educators Cohort Program and the Urban Immersion Fellowship, which each year exposes dozens of future teachers to the challenges and rewards of teaching in urban environments.

Gunnings-Moton has also been instrumental in setting up the College of Education’s connections in Chicago Public Schools (where many MSU teacher candidates now spend their internship year), seeking new scholarship opportunities and reshaping curriculum to ensure all students understand the issues at stake in today’s urban schools.

Carole Ames, former dean of the college, has stated that “this College of Education owes its urban agenda to Dr. Sonya Gunnings-Moton… She has been the core and fiber of our progress in addressing urban education and social justice.”

By Nicole Geary

Science is about exploring and explaining phenomena – how food fuels the body and how new materials can be made from old.

Too often, however, today’s students aren’t able to use what’s presented in school to explain the world around them. Or understand why those ideas might be important in their own lives.

“Science classrooms have phenomena too,” says Joseph Krajcik, who recently came to Michigan State University to direct the promising new CREATE for STEM Institute (Collaborative Research for Educational Assessment and Teaching Environments for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).

The mysteries of teaching and learning – why some kids struggle to learn in science and others succeed – is what drove him to become a teacher and researcher. Krajcik has a passion for delving into ways to make science meaningful and engaging to all students, and for helping teachers and university instructors create learning environments that allow students to develop understanding of core science concepts and the practices of expert scientists.

He is “a classroom instruction person,” a former high school chemistry teacher who has been studying innovative teaching practices and curricula in schools for more than 20 years while on the faculty at University of Michigan.

He hopes that CREATE for STEM will have a positive impact in improving science learning and as such show that MSU is a prominent player in the nation’s movement to reform science and mathematics education, from kindergarten through college.

The institute was referred to as the Institute for Research on Mathematics and Science Education (IRMSE) during its first year.

Taking over for interim director William Schmidt this fall, Krajcik changed the institute’s name, refined the mission and outlined some of the first ambitious projects that will be associated with it.

“If our nation is going to prosper, we have to get our act together in mathematics and science,” said Krajcik, who has been a leader in the national effort to create new K-12 science standards, particularly in physical science. “My goal is to create new innovations based on what we know, try them in educational settings and obtain evidence about what really works in classrooms.”

Innovating, investigating and illustrating

Krajcik

CREATE for STEM, co-administered by the College of Education and the College of Natural Science, will accomplish that by bringing together faculty, K-12 teachers and resources from across campus and tackling issues from some of the most critical fronts.

In the undergraduate arena, for example, Krajcik is particularly concerned about the high percentage of freshmen nationwide who must take – and retake – remedial math classes before they can progress to credit-bearing coursework. So the institute is conducting a pilot study on improving instructional outcomes in Michigan State’s MTH 1825, which enrolls nearly 1,000 students each semester.

“I cannot name the profession that would not require a person to have at least that basic level of math involved in daily life,” said Krajcik. “Those courses need to have the best instructional practices in place.”

But it’s also extremely important for the research institute to focus its efforts in the K-12 community, he said.

“If we don’t tackle the problems in schools by working collaboratively with teachers, we are never really going to improve teaching and learning in college.”

The growing list of projects affiliated with CREATE for STEM includes a proposal to improve how middle school math and science teachers teach argumentation, a skill many students lack but need to be successful in all subject areas.

Krajcik’s current research interests involve helping high school students understand how materials are held together by forces at the molecular level, a concept that supports learning in many of the STEM fields. He also plans to explore how structured online communities can prepare teachers to implement the next generation of science standards.

Together with expertise, experience and creative ideas from faculty in education and the sciences as well as practicing teachers, the institute’s overriding 
mission will be to develop systematic research agendas that can be supported by collective efforts across the university and beyond.

The institute staff, including Assistant Director Robert Geier, will be planning events and meetings, cultivating new talent, offering help writing research proposals and more. They will also look for more opportunities to share findings with policymakers and to work with global partners; Krajcik is currently developing relationships with scholars in Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan.

MSU is already known for improving teaching and learning in mathematics and science. With CREATE for STEM, Krajcik says, the university has great potential to impact the quality of education in future classrooms and, ultimately, position itself as a global leader in mathematics and science education.

“I hope five or six years down the line that we have tackled some important problems in mathematics and science education,” he said. “That we have improved teaching and learning locally, but also generated knowledge that can be used nationally and internationally.”

CREATE for STEM projects at a glance:

• Investigate improvements for remedial math courses at MSU (MTH 1825)
• Improve teaching in Integrated Studies (general undergraduate science) courses at MSU (ISB/ISP)
• Develop instructional materials to help high school students understand forces at the molecular level
• Develop middle school teachers’ knowledge and practice for teaching students to construct arguments
• Create an online professional development model, with Michigan Virtual University, that could help teachers understand new national science standards

By Nicole Geary

Donald Heller knows higher education.

He comes from the No. 1-ranked graduate program in the nation and has studied the issues that nearly every university must face, from financial planning to setting the conditions for struggling students to achieve success.

More importantly, he has been putting his expertise to work within the heart of administrative discussions – and before policymakers at all levels – when some of the most significant educational policy decisions must be made.

Officials at Michigan State University believe Heller’s experiences, combined with his open, even-tempered approach to leadership, make him a fitting addition to the Spartan team.

He became dean of the MSU College of Education on Jan. 1, 2012, leaving his post as professor and director of the Center for the Study of Higher Education at Pennsylvania State University. Carole Ames, who has been dean for 18 years, stepped down in August 2011.

“Heller knows the roles of a research university and how a college of education fits within higher education,” said University Distinguished Professor Robert Floden, who served as interim dean during the fall semester.

“He has been successful talking to a wide variety of policy audiences and that can add to the influence and visibility of the institution, which is important to us.”

Heller also cares deeply about promoting diversity and equitable opportunities within the educational environment – the focus of his scholarship over 15 years. His core values, which he shared during his first visit to campus, have resonated well with faculty, staff and students in the College of Education:

• Respect.
• 
Transparency.
• Fun.

“We have a great responsibility educating students who will be future educators, researchers and leaders,” Heller said. “It’s also important that people look at the College of Education and think of it as more than a place to learn or to work – to feel that there is a larger sense of community.”

“An effective advocate”

Hired last summer, Heller was on campus to begin meeting alumni, students and staff during Homecoming weekend and again during commencement ceremonies in December. Not surprisingly, he has been spending the early part of his tenure talking to faculty and other groups about what is going well and what can be improved across the college’s four departments.

For now, the College of Education – described as “a big ship with a lot of momentum” – is in stable financial shape after recent budget reductions and set to continue focusing on critical goals such as preparing high-quality teachers, improving mathematics and science education and addressing challenges in urban education.

“For me, the most exciting part will be working with the people in the college, who share a sense of accomplishment and see great opportunities for additional work,” said Heller, who comes to East Lansing with his wife, educator Anne Simon, and two teenage daughters. “My inclination is to do a lot of listening during the first few months. I’m not going to come in on Jan. 1 and say, ‘Here are my 10 priorities.’”

Fortunately, Heller is already familiar with some of the social and political contexts in which the college conducts academic programs, research and service projects.

Penn State and its College of Education, where Heller has been a faculty member since 2002, share MSU’s land-grant mission and, with it, a central commitment to meeting the needs of schools and educators across the state. Teacher preparation is a critical component.

Aside from his own teaching and administrative duties at PSU, Heller chaired the Faculty Council in his college and has helped reach consensus about interdisciplinary issues, including difficult program consolidations. He has also served on several university-wide committees.

“Don has been someone who I have relied on to provide strong scholarly input for our strategic planning process,” said Penn State President (formerly provost) Rodney A. Erickson. “He is nationally recognized as an expert on higher education and clearly one of the most often-quoted scholars in the areas of student financial aid, tuition and competition.”

A first-generation college student himself, Heller became interested in policies and practices that can bridge racial and socioeconomic gaps in educational attainment while a graduate student at Harvard University. He is most known for illuminating how financial aid programs affect underrepresented students’ ability to go to college. Among many other publications, he is the author of two notable reports on that topic from the Civil Rights Project, a research and advocacy organization now based at UCLA.

Heller has also served as a consultant to university systems and policymaking organizations in 10 states, been an expert witness in federal court cases and testified before Congressional committees and state legislatures. Tennessee lawmakers, for example, were the first to give merit scholarship recipients from low-income families more money than their higher-income peers based on recommendations from Heller and others.

“Policymakers don’t always listen to the experts, but I feel I have been an effective advocate for policies that promote educational success at the state and national levels,” he said. “As dean, I won’t do as much research, but I will be able to expand my portfolio and become a voice for other education policy issues and decisions.”

Heller is particularly familiar with the educational climate in Michigan having been a faculty member at the University of Michigan School of Education from 1997 through 2001. Prior to that, he was a visiting lecturer at the University of Massachusetts.

He has also worked on issues related to the education of LGBT students, first as a commissioner of the Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth in Massachusetts, and later as a member of the Commission on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Equity at Penn State.

The public connection

Dean Donald Heller, his youngest daughter Lena and wife Anne Simon pose for pictures with Sparty at the College of Education homecoming tent party in October 2011.

Besides challenging his former Penn State students to a competition at the bowling alley at least once each semester, Heller has enjoyed breaking away from the intensity of academia by playing golf, tennis and volleyball, and through cooking an “eclectic repertoire” of recipes.

He also loves technology.

He blogs.

Before completing graduate school, Heller was an IT administrator in charge of the design, development and support of administrative computer systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His decade-long career at MIT, which included overseeing a 50-person, $3 million department, gave him a preview of the administrative skills he brought to academic leadership roles at Penn State and, now, to Michigan State.

Maintaining excellence is not new to Heller. The PSU Center for the Study of Higher Education, which he directed from 2007-2011, consistently recruits talented graduate assistants to work with nationally regarded faculty members and assist with research projects averaging $1 million in annual funding. Two journals, Perspectives on the History of Higher Education and the student-managed Higher Education in Review, are also based at the center.

“He has been a real leader in regard to higher education and public policy and particularly in doing work that informs public thinking, which is a distinctive contribution,” said Ann Austin, a professor of higher education in the MSU College of Education. “I think he brings people together and listens to them; he will be able to help our college position all of the excellent research that happens here within the broader dialogue.”

Heller has not been removed from the challenges facing K-12 education. He co-taught general education policy courses with colleagues from those fields and has been called to consult with various boards and panels as they review issues at stake for students transitioning from secondary to postsecondary education.

He is interested in the best approaches for bringing international perspectives into today’s classrooms – he has lived abroad as a visiting professor at the University of London’s Birkbeck College in England.

And Heller says he is particularly concerned about the continuous public attacks on teachers, as well as teacher education. He plans to create more exposure for the many MSU faculty members who have expertise and research in those areas and, if there are critical areas where the college lacks expertise, look at recruiting even more top scholars.

“Given our current situation in Michigan, I hope – both as an alumna and a K-12 educator – that our college would be a strong voice of reason in those debates,” said Wendy Darga, president of the College of Education Alumni Association. “I have been impressed with Dr. Heller’s ideas about engagement and outreach and I look forward to working with him.”

Heller at a glance:

Hometown:  Madison, Conn.

Family: Wife, Anne Simon, and two daughters, Rose (senior year of high school) and Lena (eighth grade)

Education:

• Harvard Graduate School of Education – Ed.D., Higher Education; M.A., Administration, Planning and Social Policy
• Tufts University – B.A., Economics and Political Science

Experience:

• Pennsylvania State University -
Director and Senior Scientist, Center for the Study of Higher Education; Professor of Education, Department of Education Policy Studies
• University of Michigan –Assistant Professor of Education, Center for the Study of Postsecondary Education
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Director, Administrative Systems Development

By Nicole Geary

College is basically the only thing you “see” when you walk into the CAP Center at Eastern High School.

Admissions viewbooks cover tables and bookshelves and brightly colored university pennants point like arrows around the room.

Everything that happens there – tips for homework, research on scholarships, conversations about career choices – is intended to help students visualize and achieve success in postsecondary education, no matter what challenges or doubts abound beyond those walls.

But unlike some programs created to increase college attendance rates among students of limited resources, it doesn’t end with a single room or a certain approach. The College Ambition Program (CAP) mixes multiple strategies known to influence college attainment – including campus visits – into one program, and makes them available to the entire school.

Actually, four schools so far.

As the demand for more American youth to become college graduates grows, researchers in the Michigan State University College of Education believe they are developing a promising school-based model to help students make the complex transition from high school to college.

CAP is funded by the National Science Foundation, staffed by a talented, diverse team of graduate students and founded on 15 years of research by University Distinguished Professor Barbara Schneider, the principal investigator.

American teenagers and their families, as Schneider’s research has shown, often have very high ambitions but lack the tools and information they need to make them a reality. She first stressed that conclusion, based on a landmark study of 7,000 teens, in her 1999 book with David Stevenson, The Ambitious Generation.

This disconnect is especially great for students from low-income families. According to the Educational Longitudinal Study (ELS: 2002), students of low socioeconomic status aspire to attend college at rates similar to their middle and higher income peers but lag in college enrollment rates by at least 20 percentage points.

CAP is designed to even the playing field.

The program places a particular emphasis on addressing issues at stake for under-represented students in urban schools, as well as rural locations where less research has been conducted. It also focuses, in part, on preparing students to major in science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM), fields that continue to outpace overall job growth.

“It’s always been my dream to construct an intervention that was solidly based on adolescent development and what we have learned, to help students who have the qualifications to go to college but not the right knowledge and opportunities,” said Schneider, the John A. Hannah Distinguished Chair in education at MSU.

“The components are integrated in a holistic way so we can try to change not only the expectations but the strategic plans of young people as they think about college.”

Four components, 1-on-1

Take, for example, one recent high school graduate who is now a freshman at University of Michigan. He says going to college was always his plan, even though it had never been a reality in his family.

He had top-notch grades and he was hell-bent on being a better role model for his four younger siblings.

But by junior year, the student had already taken the highest level math course available at his school. He didn’t know how to fill out the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), or where he had the best chances to be admitted.

He needed more resources.

CAP staff including former program director Clay Braggs helped arrange for the student to dual-enroll in calculus classes offered on MSU’s campus. They helped him develop his college entrance essay themes and suggested many otherwise-unknown financial options to fund his college education along the way.

“Even with me being on top of things, they were on top of me to make sure I was on top of those things,” said the student, who is now attending U-M on a full ride.

The advising staff at his high school, as in most cash-strapped urban areas, is stretched thin – the average counselor-to-student ratio in Michigan is about 1 to 630. And his parents, working hard to provide for their households, don’t have experience with what it takes to thrive in college.

“I can’t really go to them and say, ‘I’m having this problem,’” he said. “The CAP team definitely made me feel that I am not so alone in this.”

Now in its second year of implementation, the College Ambition Program aims to be fully embedded in the culture at each school.

A coordinator who works closely with the principal, counseling staff and teachers is on site from approximately 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at least three days each week. Graduate assistants and student volunteers – mostly undergrads majoring in education or mathematics and science fields – work together to offer four major components:

• Mentoring and tutoring
• Course counseling
• Financial aid advising
• College visits

“We’re the only program I know of doing ALL of the things we’re doing,” said Kri Burkander, CAP site supervisor and a doctoral student in the Educational Policy program at MSU. “We know that each of them matter.”

The high schools selected to participate in CAP (so far, two urban and two rural) have lower than average college enrollment rates.

Conversations about achieving postsecondary dreams, Burkander says, often begin during after-school tutoring – a time for help with schoolwork students already have to do, and when many students begin to realize how their grades will stack up in the competitive college application process.

Course counseling goes hand in hand with mentoring and tutoring. CAP tutors/mentors encourage students to take the most rigorous courses possible early on, and they are there nearly every day to make sure they don’t drown in the content.

Mentors are recruited through collaborative partnerships with departments and organizations at MSU, such as the Honors College, Graduate Women in Science (GWIS) and the Department of Teacher Education. They attend a two-hour training session developed by Burkander for CAP where they learn how to build relationships with, listen to and empower youth.

They practice how to ask effective questions, especially about career goals, college hopes and the very-personal obstacles (financial or otherwise) that may seem impossible to overcome.

“If you are in 12th grade and you have had no one asking you those questions, you really are at a loss,” Burkander said. “And that’s happening. That happens to way too many kids.”

Making it real

Visiting several college campuses may be the norm for middle and upper class families, but transportation issues, parent work schedules and other variables make those trips off limits for many teens.

Most students in CAP schools, which are all located near East Lansing, have never even been to Michigan State.

So CAP brings them on campus, and takes them to a variety of four-year colleges and universities across the region. Schneider and her team believe these site visits, available to all students 5-6 times each school year at no cost, are a critical component that is often missing from interventions designed to increase college entrance.

Research on the topic has been nearly non-existent in the literature.

When students sign up for the CAP-arranged excursions, they attend a preliminary workshop, explore aspects of each campus from academics to social activities and write down their reflections about the experience while they are still on the bus. Researchers also collect data during individual semi-structured interviews soon after the trips.

Preliminary evidence, as presented at the 2011 national conference of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), shows the college visits can help students better understand information such as admissions requirements and available scholarships. But most importantly, they can help students visualize what it would be like to be a college student. As one teen said, “I can actually see myself like walking around, being a part of the community, rather than just some student.”

For some, the visits seemed to completely overturn original assumptions: “It’s not exactly like high school, as I thought it would be, which is why I didn’t want to go in the first place. But it’s just something that … I’ll at least try now, instead of just giving up completely.”

Students in CAP schools also have had opportunities to explore what it means to be a scientist through field trips to places such as the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL), the School of Packaging and the Department of Forestry, all at MSU. They have brought their parents to information nights on financial aid.

“It’s all about expanding their knowledge base in a way that allows them to make more informed decisions,” said graduate research assistant Justina Judy, also a doctoral student in Educational Policy.

If CAP can help students visualize themselves in college and transform their interests into a realistic action plan, then the hope is that they will not only get into college, but persist once they are there. That, Judy says, is the conceptual framework of CAP.

Ten Steps: The College Ambition Program uses
a 10-step checklist to help high school students prepare for college. Video tutorials for each step featuring Leah Beasley-Wojick (left), a doctoral student in Higher, Adult and Lifelong Education at MSU, are available at collegeambition.org

The program provides the details students need to realize their ambitions, in part, through the “Ten Steps” checklist.

CAP mentors refer to the materials, developed by Higher, Adult and Lifelong Education doctoral student Leah Beasley-Wojick, like a curriculum as they work with students. They are also publicly available – with videos – on the program website for high school students, parents and teachers.

“It is not revolutionary; everything we do has been done before,” said Judy, who handles much of the data collection and analysis for CAP. “It takes what we know about preparing for college and packages it in a way that makes sense for schools, in a way that works with schools.”

Measuring the impact

CAP has been gathering information about students’ postsecondary ambitions, preparation and knowledge, and comparing the sample to state and national data, through an initial online survey administered to students in all grades and a senior exit survey at the end of the school year. The research design also incorporates interviews, observations and mentor contact logs.

Although it is too soon to establish a significant effect of CAP, data from the spring 2011 exit survey showed a 10 percent increase in the number of seniors planning to attend college in the fall, compared to spring of 2010. That’s a good start, at least, for realizing CAP’s goal to increase the number of students who matriculate to four-year schools by 10 to 15 percent.

With a growing collection of preliminary data, the next step is to scale-up. Schneider hopes to expand to 16 schools, which would generate enough data to have evidence that would justify scaling up the intervention.

Her team will continue to fine-tune the model as they learn more about what it takes to influence individual students’ thinking about postsecondary education and – perhaps more importantly – the collective college-going culture of an entire school.

Urban or rural, Schneider says each school community has a unique identity that must be understood when introducing an intervention like CAP. The program is focused on identifying universal principles for increasing college expectations that can be adapted for use in all types of schools.

“We recognize that high schools are dynamic places,” she said. “In order to accommodate changing student populations and communities, we have to be aware of certain kinds of things as they relate to people making this transition into more education.”

So far the package of components CAP has targeted — mentoring, course counseling, financial aid advising and college visits — looks promising.

“While several other reformers have implemented aspects of this across the country, I remain convinced they have to be integrated to really make a difference,” Schneider said.

The program’s close collaboration with teachers, counselors and administrators in each building holds potential to make CAP sustainable after official funding comes to a close.

At Eastern High School at least, it seems the spirit of CAP has been spreading subtly down the hallways, and starting to reshape future plans for a growing number of students.

One senior there says no one talks about college at home, and it’s difficult to focus on her homework once she’s there. So she’s been spending time in the CAP Center until 5 p.m. nearly every day.

Last year, CAP staff members helped her through her first Advanced Placement courses. They took her to university campuses.

“It’s exciting and it gives me hope that I can go to college even though I am a minority student and I don’t have all the money to go,” she said.

“I wish it was here my freshman year because I would have had even more of a head start.”

*  Student names have been omitted to protect research subjects’ privacy.

Students from King College Prep High School in Chicago check out a collection of MSU Men’s Basketball memorabilia on display in the concourse during a tour of the Breslin Center.

Getting a private tour of the basketball facilities at Breslin Center isn’t a common occurrence.

Especially if you are a high school student in inner-city Chicago.

But it was part of the experience when Michigan State University welcomed 50 students from King College Prep High School to campus last fall. A longer-than-average college visit, the trip meant traveling about five hours each way to explore the admissions requirements, academic options and, yes, athletic excitement of a Big Ten institution up close.

And there was a long wait list to get a seat on the bus.

Assistant Dean Sonya Gunnings-Moton, who helped coordinate the first-time event on behalf of the College of Education, said the presence of MSU teaching interns at King appears to be making an impact on the college-going culture of the school, which puts a heavy emphasis on post-secondary preparation. When the school surveyed students about which institutions they wanted to visit for the annual “King Goes to College Day,” Michigan State was the top pick.

”Every year, there are student teachers from MSU leading their classes and that intrigues them,” said Kyle Shack, an MSU/Chicago teaching intern who traveled with the group. “It really provides perspective on leaving their comfort zone. The idea of going to Michigan for college is a little scary and talking to someone who’s been there is something they appreciate.”

Currently, Shack is one of six interns – and at least two alumni – from the MSU teacher preparation program who serve as Spartan role models while teaching at King. The university has been able to develop deep relationships with several Chicago schools since the internship program expanded to the Windy City in 2008.

“We have a set of pipeline initiatives with Detroit that is focused on preparing urban youth for college and the professional preparation of future urban educators,” said Gunnings-Moton. “This is our way of springboarding that kind of relationship with Chicago Public Schools.”

In addition to the internship, the College of Education recently began accepting Chicago high school students into the annual Summer High School Scholars program, a four-week experience on campus designed to elevate the college readiness of students from urban communities.

The College of Education is committed to increasing the number of low-income, minority and first-generation students attending college – especially as education and kinesiology majors – through its own programs and partnerships with organizations such as the Young Educators Society and the new Detroit Public Schools/Higher Education Consortium. Many efforts involve visiting campus and observing successful students or working teachers in action.

Like many aspects of the College Ambition Program, the College of Education also focuses on helping young people visualize their success in higher education.

“We provide whatever opportunities we can to have students see, experience and feel what it is we truly hope they will attain,” said Gunnings-Moton. “We’re trying to make it real.”

education.msu.edu/engagement/urban

It’s at least one variable in the calculation for young people predicting their post-graduation success: the standardized test.

In Michigan, education officials recently decided the assessment administered to high school students — or at least what it takes to pass it — does not accurately indicate whether students are prepared for college and careers in today’s workforce.

They made the controversial move to raise cut scores, otherwise known as the levels of achievement students must reach to be considered proficient, for the 11th grade Michigan Merit Exam (MME) as well as all grades and subject areas tested by the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP).

One of the lead architects behind the change, Joseph Martineau, is a College of Education graduate.

Martineau became the first full-time psychometrician hired by the Michigan Department of Education in 2004, the same year he received his Ph.D. in Measurement and Quantitative Methods at MSU.

He has helped grow the department’s in-house capability to manage the design and validity of assessments and now serves as director of the Bureau of Assessment & Accountability, overseeing all aspects of educational testing and evaluation for the state.

Martineau sat down with the New Educator to explain the rationale for raising cut scores, a major turning point for Michigan and, possibly, a case study for making the link between standardized test results and college success more realistic nationwide.

Question: Why did the Michigan Department of Education recommend increasing cut scores?

Answer: We thought it was important to move toward more rigorous cut scores based on the changing nature of the economy in Michigan. We had cut scores that were based on being able to succeed in an old-line manufacturing economy. When the recession happened, it became clear that kind of economy was going away in Michigan. We could no longer indicate that students were ready for post-high school work with only a basic set of skills; almost any job that is going to have a reasonable wage is going to require much more. We need to focus on preparing students for postsecondary technical training or college.

Q: Does this assessment reform align with changes to curriculum or standards?

A: Yes. We had new high school content expectations in 2006. Those were based on what students need to know and be able to do to succeed in college. (So) we also set the new cut scores to be reflective of college readiness. We actually benchmarked our cut scores against success in college – so that being proficient on the Michigan Merit Exam gives us a good indication if a student is going to perform well in college.

Q: What methods were used to identify the new cut scores?

A: We used something called signal detection theory. The purpose of signal detection theory, at least in this instance, was to maximize consistent classifications from high school to college. So we wanted to maximize the consistency of being considered proficient with achieving a B or better in the first credit-bearing course.

Essentially, we looked at the score on the MME that would maximally consistently classify students as both proficient and getting a B or better in their first credit-bearing course OR not being proficient and not getting a B or better. Essentially you can interpret the new cut scores as the score on the MME that gives you a 50 percent probability of a B or better in your first credit-bearing course. So it’s very likely that they will pass the course.

That’s what we did for transitioning from high school to college. We did the same kind of thing… We mapped backward from high school down to 3rd grade using signal detection theory as well so that if you are proficient in 8th grade, you also are maximally likely to be proficient in 11th grade… and so on down the line.

No one else has used signal detection theory to do this kind of work. Other people have used something called logistic regression. The purpose is to arrive at a specific score with a given probability of success later on. We thought it was more important to do maximally consistent classification so that you have consistency from one grade to the next and from high school to college.

Q: How will the change affect achievement levels for Michigan students?

A: There will be a significant drop in the proficiency rates, but we do anticipate that educators will rise to the occasion. We’ve seen it in the past. The MEAP has been around since 1971, and cut scores have been set many, many times. Educators simply rise to the occasion.

We have had relatively rigorous cuts scores in the high school writing test since 2007, and we’ve seen educators and students really improving on that assessment. So we anticipate that we will see, at first, a dip – a significant dip – in the proficiency rates, but then we will see that rise over time.

Q: How will it affect our performance under No Child Left Behind?

A: It will likely throw many more schools into not making Adequate Yearly Progress, unless we get the waiver that we are going for. Under No Child Left Behind, all schools have to have 100 percent of students proficient by 2014. That’s… quite a task. We are looking for a waiver to extend the time period by at least 10 years and give schools a target to get to that is much more reasonable.

Q: What are other states doing?

A: Tennessee and New York recently did something similar; they raised their cut scores to represent college and career readiness. There are other states that raised their cut scores to represent proficiency on the NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress). We chose to peg them to career and college readiness because that is an outcome that really matters in students’ lives. Whether or not you achieve proficiency on the NAEP is not tied to some external success factor.

We are likely in the top tier of states in terms of the rigor of our cut scores now, whereas we were in the middle to bottom in the past. We have higher expectations, and I think we are being more transparent about whether students are prepared for the next level of education. If their test scores in high school show they are proficient then there is a strong probability of success in college, and if they are proficient in a lower grade then there is a strong possibility that they will be proficient in the next grade.

Q: You are the father of five students attending public schools. How do you feel, personally, about the decision to raise cut scores in Michigan?

A: It took a lot of courage for the State Board of Education to do it, because this will have an impact on a lot of students and a lot of schools. It would have been really easy just to stay with the status quo and not have to worry about people asking about a student, “Well, he used to be considered proficient, so why isn’t he now?”

But we had heard from enough parents saying, “Why did my student have to take remedial math or receive instruction in remedial reading when the state told me they were proficient on the MME?” I think we simply needed to be more transparent in saying, this is what students need to succeed today and that should be reflected on state tests.

Q: How did your education at MSU prepare you for your job?

A: There were two things that were really critical. One is the quantitative methods I learned; you have to have them to be in this type of position. The second is I was encouraged by my advisor (Mark Reckase) and Ken Frank to spend a lot of time working with substantive researchers and not just methodological researchers. I did a lot of work with Nell Duke, Victoria Purcell-Gates, Yong Zhao and other faculty members, in actually looking at literacy or technology in education. That got me to a place where I could talk beyond the methods. That advice was critical to helping me survive in an environment where there is as much policy as there is psychometrics.

More than 40 percent of Michigan educators aren’t applying some of the most effective teaching methods for use with students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), despite their proven track record, according to a study by Michigan State University education scholars.
The ASD-Michigan Project is the first statewide study to explore how Michigan’s public schools are responding to ASD, the fastest-growing developmental disability in the country. Summer Ferreri, assistant professor of special education, and Sara (Bolt) Witmer, associate professor of school psychology, found that:

• 41 percent of Michigan educators were not using Applied Behavior Analysis, or ABA
• 44 percent were not using Social Stories.

The researchers held a media roundtable with reporters on Sept. 12, 2011 and presented their findings to the State Board of Education the next day.
“Both Applied Behavior Analysis and Social Stories are established, evidence-based practices for teaching students with ASD, so this was an important finding,” Ferreri said. “There are more than 15,000 students with ASD in Michigan classrooms, so the findings are important to thousands of Michigan families and to state policymakers as well.”
Ferreri and Witmer sampled a wide range of ASD educators – from paraprofessionals to teachers – across the state. They also sampled the parents of students with ASD to determine how they viewed their child’s school experience. They met considerable roadblocks in attempting to access statewide data on students with ASD, however, and concluded that better access is crucial to determine whether the services schools provide are actually helping students succeed.
Suzanne Wilson, a University Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Teacher Education, said autism education is one of the most pressing issues facing educators today.
“While autism rates have rapidly increased, many new and experienced teachers have little to no experience working with children with autism,” Wilson said. “Without the appropriate education, new teachers could, at worst, marginalize these students and, at best, be supportive but not effective.”
Researchers also found that:

• Even when educators reported using effective strategies, most didn’t use them regularly. Only 32 percent of ABA users studied employed the technique at least one to five hours per week.
• Many Michigan students with ASD do not have access to the curriculum offered other students. Twenty-six percent of the targeted students with ASD never or rarely had learning opportunities that reflected the general education curriculum.
• Many educators have low academic expectations for students with ASD, even though high expectations are an important aspect of effective teaching. One-third of the 194 Michigan teaching professionals responding said their students with ASD wouldn’t meet any grade-level achievement standards.

“We know that there are thousands of Michigan teachers doing their best to help students with ASD get the education they need to be successful,” said Witmer. “These findings highlight some important practices that, if more frequently used, could help teachers serve these students better.”
The $310,000 study was funded by Eileen and Ron Weiser, the Kellogg Foundation and the Skillman Foundation. Eileen Weiser is currently a member of the Michigan Board of Education.
— Andy Henion

ASD certification at MSU

Teachers can earn the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) endorsement through the MSU College of Education, either alone or as part of the online master’s program in Special Education. Visit education.msu.edu/cepse/specialed.

All along, Michigan State University child development graduate Katie Kosko has learned that good teaching requires stopping to reflect on strategies in the classroom.

So when the reality of her first full-time experience – the yearlong internship – set in, she took that message seriously. Kosko entered the annual Michigan Student Teacher/Intern of the Year competition coordinated by the Michigan Association of Teacher Educators (MATE). In the spring she was named Michigan Student Teacher of the Year, placing her in consideration for the national award coordinated by the Kappa Delta Pi Educational Foundation and the Association of Teacher Educators.

She was among hundreds of student teachers across the nation to record, analyze and submit a 30-minute lesson plan.

And she won.

“Effective teachers are not only responsible for their students’ learning, but their own learning,” said Kosko, who completed her teaching internship (a requirement of the College of Education program) at Gompers Elementary School in Detroit. “I entered the competition to grow as a teacher … I was shocked and completely honored to win.”

Kosko was recognized for her award at the KDP closing banquet in Indianapolis on Nov. 5, 2011. Additionally, she was invited to the annual Association of Teacher Educators’ 2012 conference in San Antonio.

The rewards of urban teaching

By the time Kosko was named Michigan Student Teacher/Intern of the Year last spring, she was deeply ingrained in the day-to-day transformations occurring in her kindergarten classroom at Gompers.

She had been nervous about spending the academic year in a Detroit Public Schools building where most students come from low-income homes. But that didn’t last long.

“They have such a strong sense of community at Gompers and they really brought me on board and said, ‘You are part of our staff,’” she said.

She had personal and professional guidance from her mentor teacher, National Board certified Linda Mangiapane, and field instructor Susan Florio-Ruane, a professor of teacher education in the MSU College of Education. Equipped with knowledge from her previous coursework and field experiences at MSU, Kosko’s passion for trying innovative teaching approaches took off.

Her award-winning lesson plan integrated arts with literacy by encouraging children to use pantomine to show the beginning, middle and end of a story.

When March came along, Kosko designed a reading challenge that resulted in students reading more than 700 books. They also wrote about their books on a blog and invited family members – some of whom themselves can’t read well – to share in the excitement.

“They were so proud to have their parent reading their favorite book to the class. To see that look on the child’s face … it will be in my mind forever,” Kosko said.

“In these high poverty areas, I was able to connect well with the students and the families and build relationships that, at first, I didn’t think I was going to build.”

Fresh perspective for the future

Kosko was hired by Wayne-Westland Community Schools, where she is now teaching fifth-grade at Marshall Upper Elementary School. There, she has continued to demonstrate her commitment to open-minded improvement – a trait she attributes to the teacher preparation program at MSU.

In regards to her award, Kosko will forever possess an honor on her résumé that very few new teachers can claim.

“I think it shows I’ve gone above and beyond my internship and that I want to further my own education,” she says. “We need teachers who seek out professional development opportunities and who really know how to diversify their instruction to meet the needs of all students.

“I’m a young, enthusiastic face and I am ready for the challenge.”

Ann Schultz is a Fellow in the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Woodrow Wilson Michigan Teaching Fellowship. She is learning to teach biology to ninth-graders in the heart of Detroit, which is, she says, exactly where she wants to be.

When the mother of two teenagers decided to get her teacher certification, it was because she felt a drive to make high quality education available to students who can’t afford the kind of experiences she gave her own children. She had seen how much academic rigor can vary from one community to the next as a child moving with her military family.

So she doesn’t mind driving 45 miles from her home in Whitmore Lake, Mich. to the teaching internship at Detroit International Academy for Young Women.

Or making the trip to Michigan State University for her coursework.

Schultz requested MSU – one of six Michigan universities participating in the new alternative teacher certification program – because she wanted the intensive, full year of student teaching the College of Education is known for.

“I can’t imagine just jumping in by myself without all of the support I have, from the Fellowship itself and from the MSU faculty,” she said.

“I am in the process of the best preparation I could possibly receive.”

Preparing urban teachers

To meet the 2011 W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Woodrow Wilson Michigan Teaching Fellows click here.

That preparation began last May, when Michigan State welcomed its first cohort of WKKF-WW Teaching Fellows to campus. Over the summer the diverse group of students developed close relationships with one another as they were immersed in what it means to be a successful teacher, from general pedagogy to understanding the role of race and equity in education.

The Fellowship, which also has been rolled out in Indiana and Ohio, is focused on helping individuals with backgrounds or academic preparation in mathematics or science fields become excellent teachers in high-need school districts. In the case of MSU, the program has been designed specifically to prepare teachers for careers in urban communities.

Schultz and her fellow cohort members were able to begin testing their own prior knowledge and assumptions by interacting with urban students who were participating in the Summer High School Scholars program held by the MSU College of Education each year on campus.

“I never thought about racism as a system of advantages and disadvantages because I had the luxury of not seeing it,” said Schultz, who has a master’s degree in chemical and life science. “And now I see it.”

Like other secondary education interns from MSU, the first WKKF-WW Fellows were placed in Grand Rapids or Detroit public schools this fall for a progressively more responsible teaching experience that lasts the entire school year. Ironically, Schultz landed – after a few logistical moves throughout DPS – in the classroom of one of the first teacher candidates to complete MSU’s full-year internship: Nina (Cook) Ashford. Up to a quarter of their students struggle to get to school on a daily basis and many are learning English as a second language.

“They see a textbook and a lot of vocabulary that’s foreign to them, but it’s exciting for me to be challenged to bring the study of life, basically, to life for them,” Schultz said. “My mentor teacher and I have a dynamic, mutually respectful working relationship. She has really encouraged me to take the lead.”

Once the MSU internship ends this spring, Fellows will complete the additional requirements to obtain the master’s degree in Teaching and Curriculum and get their teaching certificate. They will continue to receive mentoring as a benefit of the Fellowship during their first three years as full-time teachers.

The next cohort of WKKF-WW Fellows, which are selected on a competitive basis, will be announced in May 2012.

Sound like you or someone you know?


The W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Woodrow Wilson Michigan Teaching Fellowship will be recruiting its third cohort starting this summer. The final application deadline will be in January 2013. Visit wwteachingfellowship.org for more information.

New Members

At our October retreat, we welcomed several new members. Joining the College of Education Alumni Association Board of Directors were Dana Bryant, Jeanie Crosby, Mark Dziatczak, Jim Lalik and Josh Perusse (our undergraduate student representative). Spike Braunius and Melissa McDaniels joined the board as alternates in January. Get to know them and the rest of our current board members by visiting the Alumni & Friends website.

Board members come from all parts of our college, all over the country and now another corner of the world (Spike Braunius is a graduate of the online Master of Arts in Education (MAED) living in Switzerland). To apply, you need to be a College of Education Alumni Association member—this is automatic when you join the MSU Alumni Association and indicate the College of Education as your affiliate. Each board member is elected to a three-year term that is renewable once for a total of six years. In June 2012, five of our current members will complete their service on the COEAA Board. Please consider applying for one of those openings. For more information and the online application, you can visit the alumni webpage.

Fall Events

The annual Homecoming Tent Party was once again the most well-attended party on campus! It was great to share a beautiful day, music, memories and a great meal with more than 600 alumni and friends of the College of Education. We look forward to seeing all of you again next year, if not sooner.

We also supported the college Technology Conference, a great professional development opportunity. Mark your calendar to present or attend this year on October 27.

Alumni Awards

This fall, the College of Education Alumni Association also presented the 2011 Distinguished Alumni Award. The recipient was Dr. Sonya Gunnings-Moton, who serves as assistant dean for student support services and recruitment in the College of Education and as an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Special Education. She received her master’s degree and doctorate from the college.

The Distinguished Alumni Award is one of three awards presented to alumni by the College of Education Alumni Association Board of Directors. The other honors are Outstanding Alumni K-12 Teacher and Outstanding Alumni K-12 Administrator. To nominate an alumna/us, please visit education.msu.edu/alumni/awards and complete your nomination by June 1.

Welcome Dean Heller

Lastly, we look forward to working with new Dean Donald Heller as he joins the College of Education full time this semester.

Warm wishes for a wonderful 2012!

Go Green!

Michigan State University Alumni Association membership means continued COEAA membership. MSUAA membership prices are increasing this summer, so now is a great time to join or renew.

Endowment Day

One of the new ways we will engage alumni, donors and friends is with a half-day celebration of the named endowed funds in the College of Education. This event will allow our donors who have funded endowed scholarships and fellowships to spend time with the recipients of their award, and for our alumni and friends to learn more about the impact of named endowed funds. Our endowment is currently valued at over $13 million and generates over $600,000 in support of students, programs and research. The new event will build upon the success of, and replace, the college’s Awards Reception typically held each spring. You will be learning more about this, but for now I hope you might save the date on your calendar: Friday, Sept. 21, 2012. The MSU football team will play Eastern Michigan University in Spartan Stadium on the following day, so you might consider making it a two-day visit to campus.

Recognizing educators

We will also be considering new avenues for recognizing outstanding educators, which has been important to the College of Education throughout its history. We are discontinuing the Leadership Circle, an annual giving club unique to the College of Education, and the related Crystal Apple Awards Dinner. This event, started in 1995, provided a platform for Leadership Circle members to recognize educators who they believe exemplify excellence. More than 400 educators have been honored with this award, including 13 during the event last fall. As the program comes to a close, I would like to extend my congratulations to all recipients of the Crystal Apple Award once more. I also encourage alumni and friends to consider nominating exemplary professionals for the Distinguished Alumni, Outstanding K-12 Teacher and Outstanding K-12 Administrator awards presented each year by the College of Education Alumni Association.

Opportunities to connect

Though some programs will no longer be a part of our college’s activities, we look forward to your involvement in the new Endowment Day and interacting with you personally at many college and university events held throughout the year. This includes the always-popular Homecoming Tent Party as well as Grandparents University (GU), a chance for grandparents and grandchildren to stay in residence halls and attend classes together on campus. We will also continue to participate in Alumni Reunion Days, with a special lunch hosted by the dean on June 7 for College of Education alumni who graduated in the 1960s or earlier. Attendees learn what’s happening in the college and we learn what everyone has been doing since leaving MSU. It’s always a chance to hear incredible stories.

If you have not done so already, please check out our new website on giving to the College of Education. I also welcome your ideas and hope you will send them to me at mmertz@msu.edu.

The site, which currently showcases a video about the power of giving to the College of Education, also includes many new features such as simplified navigation, event photos and useful explanations of the various types of funds housed in the college. Whether you are looking to make an immediate online gift or explore other giving opportunities within the college, this site is an excellent resource.

You can access the site directly or navigate from any page on the College of Education website just by clicking “Giving” in the top right corner.

Please visit and find out how you can make a difference.

The College of Education honored 13 professionals for outstanding careers in education during the 2011 Crystal Apple Awards. The event, held Nov. 11 at the University Club, featured an elegant dinner, a keynote address from Michael Flanagan, Superintendent of Public Instruction at the Michigan Department of Education, and tributes to each distinguished recipient.

The Crystal Apple Awards, which are being discontinued this year,  were established in 1995 as a way for donors to recognize educators who played a significant role in their lives and who represent a commitment to the teaching profession. This year’s recipients were:

Diane Bishop

Retired Teacher, Monsignor Hackett Catholic Central High School — Kalamazoo, Michigan

Nominators: Joseph Brocato, Don Brocato, Susan Brocato, Catherine Dristy and Karen
Habra Smyth

Robert E. Floden

University Distinguished Professor and Interim Dean (at time of award), College of Education, Michigan State University — East Lansing, Michigan

Nominators: Gail Nutter, Suzanne Wilson, Avner Segall, Deborah Feltz, Jack and Sharon Schwille, Michael Sedlak, Marilyn Amey, Dick Prawat, Sonya Gunnings-Moton and Barbara
Markle

Brian C. Kalt

Professor of Law, Michigan State University — East Lansing, Michigan

Nominator: Elaine M. Tripi

Thelma Sternberg Horn

Associate Professor, Department of Kinesiology and Health, Miami University — Oxford, Ohio

Nominator: MSU Institute for the Study of Youth Sports

Kimberly Leverette-Brown

Principal, Harvard Park Elementary School — Springfield, Illinois

Nominators: Joyce Putnam and Sonya Gunnings-Moton

Mary A. Lundeberg

Professor of Biology, University of Wisconsin-River Falls — River Falls, Wisconsin

Nominator: Donna Forrest-Pressley

Paul Palmer

Health and Physical Education Teacher and Head Football Coach, Okemos High School — Okemos, Michigan

Nominators: Sonya Gunnings-Moton and Taylor Moton

David Peterson

Superintendent, Lakeview School District — Battle Creek, Michigan

Nominators: Henry and Betty Montoye

Timothy Richey

Chief Operating Officer, Think Detroit PAL — Detroit, Michigan

Nominator: MSU Institute for the Study of Youth Sports

Diane Ruonavaara

Program Manager, Tanzania Partnership, Michigan State University — East Lansing, Michigan

Nominators: Jack and Sharon Schwille

Suzanne Slater

Principal, Webberville Elementary School — Webberville, Michigan

Nominator: Susan Dalebout

Robert Voigt

Fifth Grade Teacher, Glencairn Elementary School — East Lansing, Michigan

Nominators: Patrick and Robin Dickson

Kim Wilcox

Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Michigan State University — East Lansing, Michigan

Nominator: The Richard Lee Featherstone Society

This reflection should raise at least three important questions:

• Do we know who is coaching our children?
• What should we expect from those that coach our children?
• What can be done to keep children safe and healthy?

More needs to be done to protect our children: They deserve it, and they do not have the power to protect themselves. The vast majority of coaches are positive influences in the lives of our children, but there are always some who are not. We have the power to protect children against manipulative, ill-meaning adults.

Yet, it is very possible we are not taking the first step: Parents often do not know who is coaching their children. Research from West Virginia University reveals 66 percent of parents assume – but have not directly asked – that coaches are qualified, certified and have been screened. Not asking allows those that would harm our children to continue to do so. We recommend all coaches undergo background screenings, but that is not enough. We also need to raise our expectations of coaches.

It is often a failure in the system that allows abuse to occur. Leagues need to set up procedures and guidelines for educating parents about what is appropriate and inappropriate, and then monitor their coaches. Finally, a mechanism to deal with any concerns that are raised needs to exist – a process that first and foremost protects young athletes but also provides coaches due process.

One thing is clear: We cannot allow this to happen anymore. As parents and members of communities throughout this country, we need to hold our coaches and those that supervise sport programs to a higher expectation. A recent U.S. Anti-Doping Agency survey revealed coaches are seen as the No. 1 positive influence on children. We have to make sure we prepare our nation’s coaches for such a large responsibility.

This is by no means an attack on coaches; good coaches are some of the most important people in our lives. Along with my colleague Daniel Gould from MSU’s Institute for the Study of Youth Sports and fellow coaching education experts Kristen Dieffenbach of West Virginia University and Cecile Reynaud of Florida State University, we put forward a call to all stakeholders to expect more when it comes to protecting our children, and even more, create a positive learning experience.

Parents: Know the qualifications of your coach, hold your leagues accountable for providing educational training to coaches and make sure policies and procedures exist that hold coaches accountable. Specific actions you can take include: Ask for your coach to be certified, get to know the coach on and off the court, educate your child about behaviors that would be considered abuse and avoid situations where the coach and the child are spending too much time together alone.

Coaches: Ask for your certifying organization, club, etc. to provide continuing education because it will make coaches better and make your program a safer place.

Administrators: Use due diligence by interviewing candidates, talking to previous employers and sport organizations and monitoring the activities of coaches. Most importantly, provide children a simple, confidential and respectful way to report things that just don’t seem right.

Most of us make sure that our  mechanic is certified. Why would you leave the training of a coach to chance?

Carole Ames

This is my last column for the New Educator as I have announced that I will be stepping down as dean of the College of Education in August 2011. After 18 years in this role, it was certainly a bittersweet decision. I have enjoyed my tenure as dean and looked forward to each year with anticipation and renewal. The years brought exciting new opportunities as well as challenges. Indeed, the past several years of budgetary constraints and reductions have presented enormous challenges and required some difficult decisions. However, we responded admirably and met the challenge. In my view, the college remains strong and is well positioned for the future.

There is never a best time to retire from this position, but leaving when the college is in good shape, able to move forward and begin new initiatives makes it easier. During my tenure, I have been blessed with a talented and respected administrative staff. Each has proved to be an invaluable resource and support to me. I will forever be indebted for their loyalty and leadership. When I came to the college, there was already a nationally renowned faculty, and over the years, we have continued to hire the finest faculty in the country. There is none better. I have been privileged to serve as dean of this college and to represent the college to many external audiences and get to know so many devoted alumni.

This college stands for excellence in all its endeavors. We have always set the bar high and modeled ambitious goals and standards. This college is committed to making a difference in the quality of education across the k–20 spectrum for all learners. We strive to build the research base that will influence practice and policy, and we strive to prepare educators and leaders who will make a difference in the lives of others. I have no doubt that this will be the future.

As I close, I want to share some thoughts with you by asking you to:

• Remember the days of the little red schoolhouse with a single teacher who taught students across all grades and all subjects, with the only available technology of chalk and chalkboard.
• Remember the Sputnik era with the national call to prepare the next generation of students to be internationally competitive in mathematics and science. Alongside this urgency to reclaim our international leadership came the reality of how our educational system had failed to guarantee equal opportunity and equal access to a quality education for all children.
• Remember the millennium when ubiquitous technology offered new ways of teaching and learning, gave us instant access to information and connected people across schools, communities and around the world. High on the list of educational concerns was the need to be globally competitive, the increasing preponderance of failing schools, especially in large urban districts, and the demand for accountability to close the achievement gap.
• Consider the challenges that face our educational system today—continued demands for accountability to turn around failing schools and close the achievement gap; a cycle of rising and falling reading and math scores; unacceptably high drop-out rates in urban environments; increasing evidence that many teachers are ill-prepared to deal with the diversity, including native languages, special needs and ethnicity, in their classrooms; and the reality that we live in a globally connected, “flat world.”
• Envision a time when every student has access to the highest quality education; every graduate is ready to work and participate in a global society; technology is able to connect people any time and any place; basic skills, critical thinking, problem solving and creativity are equally valued learning outcomes; and the social, emotional and physical well-being of students are achievable goals for all schools.

I think our college is uniquely positioned not only to envision but also to realize these goals.

I thank you for your continuing loyalty and commitment to this college.

Best regards,

From The Associate Dean

Cassandra Book

Metamorphosis. I have decided that is what I have enjoyed most in my 37 years as a faculty member and administrator at Michigan State University, my beloved alma mater. As I retire from MSU and my role as associate dean for external relations in the College of Education, I reflect on the different means we have for communicating now as compared to when I began. Who, mere decades ago, would have thought that we would be able to instantly communicate around the world and reach people on their handheld computers? As a former professor of communication charged with publishing this magazine, the New Educator, as well as overseeing our website and other publications, it is not surprising that I am especially proud of the transformation our college’s communication has undergone in the 18 years of Dean Ames’ leadership. Her encouragement and insistence that the College of Education be effectively represented to our many constituencies through our communication outlets has been a challenge I have enjoyed. It is fun to remember that once a 4- to 8-page newsletter, this biannual magazine has changed from black and white to full color and often exceeds 60 pages. Now, our feature stories will also have expanded media coverage on our website and readers can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

I have been blessed to work with talented editors/writers who each brought their own expertise, talents and special qualities that resulted in changes to our publications. Debra Peterson, Victor Inzunza, Andrea Billups and Nicole Geary pursued their visions for the magazine and each added their own imprint to improve the stories, the coverage, the photographs, the graphics and the messages about the quality of the College of Education. Through them all, Charlie Sharp of Sharp Des!gns effectively transformed their ideas and words into images and final products that have garnered much praise and attention from alumni, colleagues, faculty and friends of the college.

I have been blessed to work in a college filled with nationally renowned faculty and my staff and I have tried diligently to tell their stories and share their research with the public. I am grateful to have been part of this great college and to have been able to advocate on its behalf.

The transformation of communication in the last 30 years has been amazing and as I leave this position, I am thrilled with the commitment to excellence and professionalism that comes from the current staff as they take communication in yet a new direction, particularly one that connects print and electronic media and utilizes the web and social media. Nicole Geary is providing keen leadership as the college’s communication director; Tony Cepak is bringing great creativity as the graphic designer and photographer; Justin Rappaport is providing outstanding computer programming and direction as our webmaster; and Sara Jones, as the newly appointed alumni coordinator, is making it easier for our alumni to connect through social media and a stronger web presence. Through the high energy, creativity, collaboration and future orientation of such young talents, the College of Education’s communication will move to new levels. I look forward to what they will inspire and am appreciative of the chance to learn from them and to see their work transform our efforts.

I thank you for the opportunity to publicly share my personal appreciation for the people who have contributed to the metamorphosis of our college’s communication and who have added so much to my enjoyment of these changes.

Cass Book
Assistant/Associate Dean (1981–2011)

Sara Jones

I’M EXCITED TO introduce myself as the new alumni coordinator for the College of Education. I started in mid-December and landed in Spartan country by way of another Big Ten institution, Penn State University. I worked at Penn State’s Alumni Association, with responsibility for overseeing all student engagement programs for the association—the largest dues-paying organization of its kind—over the past three years.

Before moving to Happy Valley, I worked at Florida State University after completing my master’s in higher education administration through FSU’s College of Education. My experience working with students and alumni, in membership organizations and various university units, has definitely prepared me for my role with the College of Education. The most important and enjoyable part of my work is the individual relationships created with people.

I look forward to having the opportunity to engage with many of you through reunions, conference receptions, regional college and alumni association activities, as well as any time you return to campus. I encourage you to visit the new college Alumni and Friends website to stay connected (or reconnect) at www.education.msu.edu/alumni. And if you have any helpful hints about the college, favorite experiences or any advice that might help me in the transition, feel free to share. You can reach me at joness99@msu.edu, (517) 353-5067 or 513 Erickson Hall, East Lansing, MI 48824. If you’re in the neighborhood, please come by and say hello!

Go Green!

THE MASTER OF ARTS in Special Education at MSU has been attracting larger numbers of students—especially teachers working full time—since it became a completely online program for the first time in fall 2010.

Students can earn an endorsement in Learning Disabilities (LD) or in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), which is new at MSU this year.

Special education teachers are in high demand in many places throughout the United States. Over half of the students enrolled in special education have learning disabilities, and the number of students with autism spectrum disorders has increased dramatically in the past decade.

Assistant Professor Summer Ferreri said the Centers for Disease Control estimates 1 in 110 children have ASD and, in Michigan public schools alone, there are 12,000 to 14,000 students with an ASD diagnosis.

“We know there is demand in the system,” she said. “We want to start training educators so they are better prepared to improve the quality of life for those students.”

Although Ferreri has been the only College of Education faculty member specializing in autism, she is expected to be joined by a new hire selected after a nationwide search this fall.

Faculty members at MSU are known for innovative research about what works for students with disabilities in general and special education classrooms. They are former special education teachers who can successfully help educators improve their instruction and, ultimately, the achievement and motivation of their students.

With all courses online, practicing teachers can complete the master’s program without coming to campus—or missing out on the academic rigor expected at MSU. In most cases, projects and clinical experiences can also be completed in their own classrooms or schools.

Graduates of the teacher preparation program at MSU may transfer credits earned during their internship year to the master’s program; 12 credits for special education majors or 6 credits for elementary and secondary education majors.

The program allows students to earn the master’s degree and endorsement, just the master’s degree or just the ASD endorsement.

For more information, contact Lisa Plascencia, lisaplas@msu.edu or (517) 432-0418.

FROM VIDEO GAMES, to smartphone apps, to geo-tagging on Facebook, technology plays an ever-increasing role in just about everyone’s life. At Michigan State University, researchers in the field of rehabilitation counseling want to know how technology can make a difference for those with intellectual disabilities.

Last fall, MSU co-hosted an international conference on the topic in Ireland and announced that it would join an interdisciplinary research team to study the issue.

The newly formed Interdisciplinary Research Institute on Intellectual Disability (IRIID) at the Daughters of Charity Service in Ireland aims to help inform policy and practice while also improving service, care and outcomes for individuals served by the charity.

The IRIID partnership includes the Office of Rehabilitation and Disability Studies in the MSU College of Education and five Irish universities: Dublin City University, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin and University of Limerick in Ireland.

IRIID hopes to address the role of assistive technology in the daily lives of those with the most severe and significant intellectual disabilities, such as mental retardation and some forms of autism. Up until now, the research within this population has been limited at best.

“I am very confident that our interdisciplinary institute will lead to an increased amount of attention from researchers, product designers and practitioners on the technology needs of those with intellectual disabilities,” said Professor Michael Leahy, director of the Office of Rehabilitation and Disability Studies at MSU.

Leahy, who also traveled to Ireland for the official IRIID opening this April, said the institute will study technology issues along with a broad scope of research focused on the livelihoods of people with intellectual disabilities.
Started with Study Abroad

The research institute is the result of an ongoing relationship built over a five-year period between the rehabilitation counseling programs at MSU and the Daughters of Charity, which provides services in the Dublin and Limerick regions.

In 2007, MSU launched an innovative study abroad program in Ireland called Disability in a Diverse Society to expand study abroad opportunities for students with disabilities and to examine issues related to their experiences.

Leahy has focused on combining coursework and service-learning during the trip to create a high-quality, transformative experience for students. Ireland models an innovative “universal design” policy that frames disability as a natural aspect of life.

“We saw early on that this connection in Ireland could lead to fruitful research opportunities,” said Leahy. “The applied research that we intend to pursue through the institute offers real value to people.”

Jeffrey Riedinger, dean of International Studies and Programs at MSU, says that the formation of the IRIID is an excellent example of aligning educational programming and research abroad.

“Our vision is to give all of our students, faculty and staff the opportunity to help solve some of the world’s most pressing problems,” he said. “One way we achieve this is through our study abroad office, which works to ensure a broad offering of programs and increased accessibility for our students.”

About 20 graduate students and faculty members from MSU were able to attend the international conference, called DOCTRID (Daughters of Charity, Technology and Research Into Disability) in Dublin last fall. Leahy foresees many opportunities for rehabilitation counseling students and graduates to participate in future research ventures of the IRIID.

>> Stephanie Motschenbacher

Coaching has become a common word in school reform, it seems. There are leadership coaches, instructional coaches, data coaches, assessment coaches and more.

“They have been a centerpiece of the intervention for schools that need improvement in Michigan,” said Barbara Markle, assistant dean for k–12 outreach in the College of Education. “However, we have not had a common definition and language around coaching.”

At least, not until last fall when Michigan State University began providing a professional development program for all educational coaches across the state, no matter their specialization or background. It’s called Coaching 101.

The MSU Office of k–12 Outreach is leading the initiative with a $1.6 million grant from the Michigan Department of Education and a state-instituted challenge to train all Title I–funded coaches prior to the 2011–12 school year. Meeting that goal will likely take longer, but coordinators say the program has already made great strides toward uniting a large and influential group of educational leaders around shared principles and skills.

One of the major goals of Coaching 101 is to shift participants’ thinking from how coaches do their work to what it means to be a coach. All effective coaches, program coordinators attest, provide support for educators based on fundamental knowledge, skills and dispositions that can help build capacity in schools, and ultimately lead to improved student achievement in the classroom.

Much of the training focuses on what happens during one-on-one conversations between coaches and teachers about how the school can improve. Coaching is not about going into schools and “fixing things.”

“Many coaches become ‘experts’ too soon and it’s not effective because the teacher or principal has not had a chance to develop their own thinking,” said Diane Jackson, director of Coaching 101. She said facilitators for the program teach coaches how to build rapport, set a positive, growth-focused mindset and, most of all, be active listeners.

“To be completely present with a person without thinking of your own personal agenda is very difficult. These skills take practice.”

Coaching 101 participants attend an orientation followed by an intensive three-day training session, which includes mock conversations, self-observation through video and an assessment required to determine their continued employment in the field.

Additional sessions, or academies, come later depending on whether the person needs additional training in particular areas. Coaches can also check their own progress online using the 5d assessment of instructional awareness, an instrument originally developed by the University of Washington.

About 400 coaches, from the new to highly experienced, will complete the core program this year. MSU works with intermediate and local school districts that employ coaches to identify participants.

“Coaching 101 has been a good way to start creating some coherence of thinking and bring everybody together,” said Andrew Rynberg, a leadership coach for the past six years.

“For me, it’s very succinctly described the actual components of what I do. Once I associated specific terms with the behaviors I was using, it made it more clear which strategies I should employ to make sure conversations materialize into something of practical value for the principal and their school.”

The College of Education’s Office of k–12 Outreach has been developing and implementing programs for instructional coaches since 2003, when

it created the abcs (Alliance for Building Capacity in Schools) consortium in response to the Michigan Department of Education’s plan for assisting high-priority schools.

In 2007, the office launched the Michigan Coaches Institute which continues to prepare academic coaches assigned to work with principals of schools that have not made Adequate Yearly Progress for several years. Those principals participate in a partner professional development program called the Michigan Principals Fellowship.

Markle said Coaching 101

builds on the research knowledge and experience MSU has been accumulating.

“When schools are successful and no longer in the Principals Fellowship, they are just heartsick to lose their coach. But that’s the price of success,” said Markle. “Our goal is to develop experienced educators who know how to create capacity in schools that will result in long-term, sustained improvement.”

(Coaching 101: www.micoaching101.org)

Educators from around the world gathered at Michigan State University in February for the 7th iNet International Conference, an event focused on transforming education.

Showcasing the best strategies and technology in schools, the “Navigators of Learning” conference gave Michigan teachers and school administrators an unusual opportunity to interact with global educational leaders and peers without leaving the state. They also heard from Michigan officials, including new Gov. Rick Snyder, about taking education into the future.

International Networking for Educational Transformation, better known as iNet—the world’s largest network for sharing school reform—selected MSU to help create this year’s conference in honor of the university’s continuing efforts to improve k–12 teaching and learning through global perspectives.

Recent iNet international conferences have been held in South Africa, China and Mauritius, an island nation off the southeast coast of Africa.

“This is truly a worldwide network, so to have it focus on MSU is quite significant,” said Barbara Markle, assistant dean for k–12 outreach in the College of Education. “As a world-grant university, we appreciate that education is changing around the world. We have been learning from one another in order to rethink what it means to create high-performing schools in the U.S.”

Markle’s office established MSU as the first United States–based hub for iNet in 2009. Since then, nearly 200 Michigan schools have become iNet members with shared access to information about effective school improvement through various events and online resources.

Seeing reform in action

The international conference focused on issues of global competence and curriculum, meeting the needs of all students, leadership and change management, new technologies and global entrepreneurship.

Along with presentations from prominent academics and leaders of iNet’s parent organization, the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (ssat), participants learned about school transformations occurring in the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, the Netherlands, England and Wales—often through direct interactions with educators and students.

Up to 40 delegates attending from outside the U.S. also had an opportunity to visit schools in the Lansing area.

“Globalization means that it is vital that schools give their students the knowledge and skills they will need to thrive in our rapidly changing world, as well as helping them to become global citizens,” said Elizabeth Reid, chief executive of ssat. “More than ever before schools are looking right round the world for examples of classroom practice that will give all young people the very best possible start in life.”

In one presentation, students from Utica Academy for International Studies, a new International Baccalaureate school in Utica, Mich., spoke to conference attendees about their experiences learning in an environment that holds “student voice” and personalization among the most critical ingredients for success.

School director Tom Lietz said he first learned about the concepts of giving students more authority—an approach becoming well established in the United Kingdom—at an international iNet conference in Beijing, China. He and his colleagues later relied on resources provided by iNet, such as published research literature and webinars with London-based peers, to make the vision a reality in their school district.

“Rethinking high schools, in particular, is an international challenge,” said Lietz, also an MSU doctoral student in k–12 educational administration. “For us, iNet has been more than talking about school reform; it’s seeing that reform in action and making an impact on student learning.”

After three years in operation, Utica Academy for International Studies is now attracting interest from peers across Michigan. Lisa Diaz, for example, hopes to interest more charter high school leaders in the student voice model. She is vice president of strategy and planning for the Michigan Association of Public School Academies (mapsa).

“Exposure is the first step toward change,” she said of attending the iNet conference. “We want to be globally competitive, so we need to ask what that looks like and what ideas we can glean from others to help us get there.”

A continuing commitment

The College of Education at MSU is committed to helping schools incorporate global perspectives into their curriculum and teaching, through its connection to iNet as well as through faculty research, globally infused coursework and programs for learning Chinese language and culture.

The Office of k–12 Outreach holds a conference on internationalizing education every year which, thanks to iNet, expanded into a major international event this year.

“(MSU) is truly one of our world-class assets,” Gov. Snyder said. “The dialogue you are having is great for our state. Let’s keep the dialogue going and help us help Michigan with its reinvention.”

iNET: www.ssat-inet.net
Office of K-12 Outreach: www.education.msu.edu/k12

By Nicole Geary

“In the last 18 years, education research at Michigan State University has arguably become broader, bolder and more connected to the world beyond campus.

Technology has transformed the way faculty members teach and the very infrastructure of Erickson Hall.

The College of Education’s collective emphasis on quality—in teaching, scholarship and service—has been backed by high national rankings that have yet to falter.

And during that time, a period marked by prosperity in spite of budget pressure, major school reforms and shifting priorities, there has been one dean.”

-Carole Ames

She steps down from the position this summer as the longest serving dean on campus, a respected voice among peers across the country and, to those who have worked or studied in the college, a leader who has never let a challenge keep the institution from moving forward.

“You will not see her do something because it’s the easiest, most comfortable or cheaper way,” said Michael Sedlak, associate dean for academic affairs. “She listens, she changes her mind, but there is never a case where some other entity or special interest undermines the things she stands for.”

And those principles, fellow administrators say, are not framed by certain fields of study, or personal and political agendas that exist across the educational landscape.

“She is all about excellence,” said MSU Provost Kim Wilcox.

“People believe that she has the right values and right aspirations for the college and university . . . She has been the leader, but it hasn’t been all about Carole.”

Since her arrival, Ames was clear that faculty—in all programs—are the college’s No. 1 strength and should be encouraged to pursue research and outreach projects within their interests.

That meant continuing to hire some of the nation’s most talented, renowned scholars and instructors—including nearly 70 percent of the current faculty—and “rebalancing” the college-wide portfolio of work to keep teacher education at the forefront while elevating other critical areas of study, from higher education to rehabilitation counseling.

“She’s a person that empowers people, and she came knowing we had to broaden our purview,” said Richard Prawat, long-time chairperson of the Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Special Education (cepse).

Notes Deborah Feltz, who chairs the Department of Kinesiology: “She has really relied on the talent of the faculty and leadership in the college to help shape the good ideas that have come about. That’s probably what defines her the most.”

Although key priorities have emerged, the faculty has by-and-large continued to set the direction with access to the opportunities and resources they need to do strong independent work as well as contribute to initiatives focused, for example, on urban education, globalization and online teaching and learning.

Students in the college experience a culture of high standards that respects individual merits and fosters collaboration for the good of the final goal, whether that be preparing outstanding teachers, improving achievement in the classroom or contributing breakthrough knowledge through research.

“I think this college is very collegial and faculty respect each other,” Dean Ames said. “You can hire very smart, talented people but if they’re focused exclusively on themselves and not dedicated to the college, it doesn’t serve the whole.”

People say Ames is a great motivator —and not by accident.

She became a leading scholar on the development of social and academic motivation as a faculty member at the University of Maryland and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She left her position as chair of the University of Illinois Department of Educational Psychology to take the helm at MSU, in August 1993.

Her tenure since then, rich with accomplishments from many perspectives, gives everyone associated with the College of Education reason to reflect on what has changed, how far we have come and, most importantly, how the faculty and programs will be prepared for what’s next.

Building Strengths, Breaking Ground

By the early 1990s, the MSU College of Education was clearly a powerhouse when it came to producing strong teachers and strong scholarship on teacher education. The faculty had taken on some of the nation’s largest, most ambitious efforts to improve teaching and learning through research and close partnerships with schools.

Ames’ first academic year as dean, 1993–94, was particularly busy as the university continued managing the major logistics of shifting from a quarter to semester system (which started the year before). During fall 1993, the first pilot group of teacher candidates also was venturing into the full, fifth-year internship, a feature that today remains a hallmark of the rigorous preparation program.

“Carole recognized the importance and centrality of teacher education to our identity, even though it wasn’t in her background,” said Professor Suzanne Wilson, now chair of the Department of Teacher Education.

A quick learner with her pulse on national trends, Ames “has helped the institution maintain and really flesh out that reputation.”

But it is a big college, Wilson says. While MSU has long been a magnet for people who think carefully about teacher preparation, it’s also come to be known as an inclusive community with a “deep bench” of scholars.

And that team of staff and faculty, like its dean, seems to have little tolerance for doing things the same as always.

Eight graduate study areas, including educational psychology and k–12 administration for example, are ranked (and have been for many years) within the nation’s top-11 by U.S. News & World Report based on quality measures such as research dollars and peer assessments. (See page 4 for the full list of current rankings.)

The commitment to preparing both scholars and practitioners for the most pressing challenges in their fields, from school psychology to exercise physiology, exists across more than 15 academic program areas (undergraduate and graduate) that continue to evolve. Several, including the major in Athletic Training and Ph.D. programs in Educational Policy and Mathematics Education, have been developed during Ames’ tenure.

“She has indeed made a great difference for us,” said Michael Leahy, professor and director of the rehabilitation counseling program currently ranked No. 2 in the nation. “It’s hard to imagine working in a college environment more conducive to creative thinking and strategic visioning.”

Leaders say the college has been especially quick to respond to high-need areas under Ames’ guidance. That includes efforts related to improving U.S. outcomes in mathematics and science education, supporting the needs of low-performing schools in Michigan and connecting educators and policymakers with research data when critical decisions are at stake.

Ames helped establish major portals for that work; namely, the Office of k–12 Outreach a few years after her arrival and the Education Policy Center in 2000.

Both of those operations have provided a means to marshal related faculty expertise and student interest from across the college, and they continue to exercise significant influence off campus. Programs range from professional development for school administrators to forums for sharing hot-topic research directly with legislators.

“A college of education has to be connected to the communities of practice and that could be at the state, district and school level,” Ames said. “People look to us to provide some expertise and assistance, but they need to know who to contact—centers that can provide coordination and leadership.”

Along with new approaches to outreach (primarily led by Barbara Markle, Susan Melnick and Sonya Gunnings-Moton—see pages 24 and 32), Ames also has ushered in a more formal emphasis on effective teaching. She believes the college must not stop at teaching tomorrow’s teachers to foster productive learning environments. Faculty and graduate students must also model the best pedagogical approaches for their own pupils and colleagues.

She convened a taskforce that led to the creation of a new center focused on the scholarship of teaching, a related annual awards program and even college-wide policies requiring faculty members to demonstrate their capacity for strong teaching along the way to tenure.

“The college has really been on the forefront of talking about scholarly teaching, using it at the k–12 level and also at the college level,” said Melissa McDaniels, a doctoral graduate in Higher, Adult and Lifelong Education (hale).

Supporting—and Attracting—Students

Since Dean Ames’ arrival, financial support and incentives for graduate students in the college—and therefore the number and overall quality of talented Ph.D. candidates—has increased dramatically.

Associate Dean Sedlak said the dean immediately began seeking more funding for fellowships, from the MSU Graduate School as well as outside sources, to help recruit exemplary students and cover their costs while on campus. Combined with creative budgeting and aggressive admission strategies, the college went from providing about $300,000 in annual graduate fellowships to more than $2.4 million today.

“The difference that that has made . . . in the climate and the experiences of students is without words,” said Marilyn Amey, chairperson of the Department of Educational Administration, which regularly has about 20 full-time graduate assistants compared with just one or two at a time during the mid-1990s. “There are so many more opportunities.”

Beyond chances to teach, publish and present in collaboration with faculty, many doctoral students receive additional resources specifically intended to help them develop and pursue their own research. For example, this year the college will offer summer research fellowships to about 60 Ph.D. students; five years ago, that opportunity was available to just 15 students.

“I have never felt like I needed support and didn’t receive it,” said Todd Drummond, a Ph.D. student in Educational Policy. “The international opportunities, for me, have been especially important.” (See box below for information about international study tours for doctoral students.)

A Focus for Fundraising

Students, says Senior Director of Development Michelle Mertz, have always been the first priority for Ames when it comes to fundraising.

“Our focus has been to make certain students who work very, very hard and wish to pursue teaching or another degree in the college are able to do that, no matter what their economic status,” said Mertz, who joined the staff in 2001. “That’s really the essence of MSU.

“It’s also something that resonates with donors, to reach back and help educate the next generation of educators.”

Gifts from individuals or families who wish to establish named scholarships for students have accounted for the bulk of donations, a trend made evident by the large Awards Reception held each spring and a major increase in the College of Education’s overall endowment.

Worth about $2.5 million in 1999, the college’s endowment is now valued at more than $13 million and will generate interest income in perpetuity. The college raised $50 million alone—double its original goal—during the most recent capital campaign. Another university-wide campaign is set to begin in the next few years.

Forging Connections, Finding Solutions

Not every college or school of education is well-respected on its own campus, in constant connection with state educational leaders and at the table when national issues are at stake.

For the MSU College of Education, however, most agree all those things have been true.

Dean Ames, her faculty and her extremely stable team of administrators (most on board for 15 years or more) have established a network of relationships that keeps the college apprised of what’s happening across the spectrum of k–16 education—and external communities aware of how the college can help influence needed changes.

Partners range from other colleges and departments at MSU, an alliance of Michigan-based k–12 education associations, major field- or content-specific academic organizations and peer research institutions.

Ames has been a member and often a leader of national groups that bring together deans of education colleges, such as the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC/Big Ten) Education Deans.

“Amongst the education deans across the country, she is one of the voices that I always pay attention to,” said Rick Ginsberg, dean of the School of Education at University of Kansas. “She doesn’t shy away from controversy and she is always willing to take a hard stand.”

Other education deans agree that Ames’ reputation as a lasting, strong presence in the field has helped MSU maintain its stature, especially in the face of increasing critiques against traditional teacher education programs and frequent financial reductions.

“She’s a premier leader for a place with the strength and the history that MSU has,” said Deborah Loewenberg Ball, dean of the University of Michigan School of Education. Ball also is a graduate and former faculty member in the MSU College of Education.

“(Carole) is a very good strategist about how to position the college and get results,” she said.

The most recent round of budget cuts at MSU meant reducing personnel and eliminating programs in the college. However, Associate Dean Robert Floden said Ames oversaw that decision process, as she has before, “in a way almost everyone felt good about.” That involved a careful, straightforward analysis of priorities and the active participation of staff and faculty.

Amazingly, the college emerged last fall after a one-year hiring freeze ready to search for up to 16 new faculty members in high-demand areas for research and teaching such as Chinese language education, literacy and autism spectrum disorders.

“I think we are set for some time,” said Gail Nutter, long-time assistant dean for college budget and operations. “We have enough flexibility in our budget to maintain our priorities if there is a decrease in university funding.”

The college has already made adjustments to cover the latest anticipated cut in Michigan higher education appropriations, about 15 percent as proposed by Gov. Rick Snyder.

Ames was up for her latest five-year reappointment in the midst of financial discussions during spring semester 2010, offering what could have been an opportunity to announce her departure. But she waited.

“I care too much about the college,” she said. “That would have been abandoning everyone right in the middle of some very difficult decisions.”

The Fun Factor

Every year at the annual meeting of aera (American Educational Research Association), the MSU College of Education hosts one of the most highly anticipated parties of the week and, without fail for 25 years, a rock band featuring college faculty and staff takes to the stage before a crowd of alumni, peers and friends from across the country.

In recent years, the music group—called “Against School Violence”—has been joined for a few songs by a team of singing, “dancing deans.”

Assistant Dean Susan Melnick, one of those five famous performers, said it was Dean Ames who originated the idea and talked her colleagues into the first performance after much negotiation.

“It helped me understand how relentless she can be when she wants to accomplish something,” said Melnick with a smile.

It also shows just how much fun can mean to Ames, a dean known for softening the most serious situations with light-hearted humor and for finding ways to build community when the college could otherwise be very disconnected.

Under her leadership, the college began honoring outstanding educators with the Crystal Apple Awards and the annual Homecoming festivities grew from a sort of quiet tea party after the game to a fun-filled, free gathering with food and music for upwards of 800 alumni under a big white tent.

In addition, new faculty members can cash in on a “free lunch” to get to know colleagues. Staff and faculty take part in the annual “Green Tree” competition for saving money on photocopies. All employees are invited to a picnic outside Erickson Hall to open the new academic year.

“I think this gives everyone just a wonderful feeling of camaraderie,” said Assistant Dean Barbara Markle. ”It creates, just, a spirit that I hope we can continue.”

A Foundation for Forward Thinking

Since the university began searching for Ames’ successor, some have called the position “the best dean’s job in the country.”

They list the features: smart faculty, collaborative culture, sturdy reputation.

In the words of long-time Professor Philip Cusick, “The place is so well run that we forget somebody is actually running it.”

There are hundreds of talented new graduates each year, many strong leaders among the ranks, clear consensus about what matters to the college and forward momentum to make those things happen.

As Dean Ames herself says, “This college is a really strong place. It’s not dependent on me.”

But it certainly owes much to the courage, the guidance and the passion that—whether you have seen it in action or not—Ames has devoted to leading the college for nearly two decades.

As faculty, students and alumni shined under many spotlights for their knowledge and commitment to improving education, she was working to create more innovative learning opportunities, clear hidden hurdles and encourage even grander aspirations with each new academic year.

“She was very committed to dealing with day-to-day issues but always doing so with a long-term vision, bringing the college to higher levels of respect,” said Cheryl Offutt, a former MSU doctoral student in school psychology and research assistant to Dean Ames.

As strong as ever when it comes to preparing teachers, the college is known for excellence across a broad spectrum of education and for focusing on the challenges that matter most in the field.

If there is a right time to step down from the job, many College of Education leaders say Ames has found it.

“This was a good college before, but she dug into it and understood where we had to go next,” said friend and Associate Dean Cassandra Book. “I have never known anybody like Carole who sees a way to successfully move a whole college to higher levels of achievement.”

The Research

Research had become an increasingly high priority for the College of Education before Ames became dean, and the college’s capacity for producing powerful scholarship has been growing ever since.

Based on records of grants and contracts, research funding in the college has nearly doubled over the last 20 years—from an annual average of $9.1 million in 1990 to $17.9 million in 2010. The number of faculty members serving as principal investigators on funded projects has also been on the rise, from approximately 30 percent in 2000 to 49 percent in 2010.

Those changes clearly made research activities a more integral part of the experience for graduate students, and more and more undergraduate students. (See page 21 for more information about support for doctoral students.)

The research picture has been punctuated by major projects, especially Teachers for a New Era, an institution-level effort to rethink teacher preparation with $5 million from the Carnegie Corporation and other funders, and prom/se (Promoting Rigorous Outcomes in Mathematics and Science Education), a staggering $35 million effort to improve mathematics and science teaching in partnership with more than 60 school districts.

Comparative international work, policy, urban education and mathematics/science (often in collaboration with the College of Natural Science) have been hallmarks.

However, the research agenda in the college is peppered with an impressively broad range of studies, from tiny pilots to disciplinary centers and nation-wide investigations, that collectively call into question—and address—many of the most critical issues at stake in practice.

Curriculum. Assessment. Access. Pedagogy. Health. Standards. Technology. Administration.

“Through a blend of encouragement and support, Dean Ames has helped to enhance the quality and scope of research done by faculty and doctoral students,” said Associate Dean Robert Floden.

As research productivity has grown, so has in-college support for faculty to obtain grants and manage research-related logistics.

Over Ames’ tenure, the Institute for Research on Teaching and Learning, which Floden directs, doubled in size and expanded the range of services it provides to faculty and doctoral students. The institute now essentially serves as a one-stop shop for help leveraging the best available research resources from the university and outside funding sources.

The Technology

E-mail was brand new when Dean Ames arrived and building-wide wireless Internet access, not to mention a mostly online Ph.D. program, were concepts few people could foresee.

But bringing cutting-edge technology to the College of Education has always been one of her top priorities.

She started sending e-mails to faculty members when many weren’t ready to leave paper memos behind. Soon after, books were cleared from the first-floor library to make way for computers in a “Technology Exploration Center.”

It was the beginning of her quest to give faculty and students access to the best resources for improving teaching and learning and, subsequently, overhaul Erickson Hall one floor at a time.

“Her vision was that, in order for us to maintain our reputation as a highly ranked college of education, our faculty and students were going to need an environment that goes beyond what others can offer,” said Facilities Manager Eric Mulvany. “What happened in a roughly eight-year span was Erickson Hall turned from a 1950s construction to a building designed for 2010 and beyond.”

Although too numerous to mention, the dramatic transformation has included:

• Creating interactive, technology-embedded classrooms and a new suite of meeting rooms

• A 4,000-square-foot building addition with space for more grant-funded research projects

• Replacing all windows at Erickson Hall

• Adding 3,500 square feet of lab space for exercise physiology research at IM Sports Circle

• Opening a successful Sparty’s Café, which helps bring in money for scholarships

As the buildings evolved, so did support—and expectations—for faculty to use technology in ways that would enhance their research and teaching. Some of the most tech-savvy faculty members helped usher in what has become today’s Center for Teaching and Technology, a college-wide hub for learning to use and conduct research on technology.

Around the turn of the new century, the College of Education also began exploring the possibility of teaching courses online. Faculty say it was Dean Ames who not only initiated the conversation but gave them the resources and incentives needed to create MSU’s first fully online master’s program, the Master of Arts in Education (maed). See page 33 for more information on the maed, as well as Susan Melnick’s role.

The college now offers six successful online master’s programs plus a nearly unheard-of hybrid doctoral program that is mostly online (in Educational Technology and Educational Psychology).

The Global Perspective

The College of Education—like MSU—has a history of engaging in international work and, according to Assistant Dean for International Studies Jack Schwille, Dean Ames has helped resurrect internationalization as a top-line priority.

Long-standing goals include recruiting talented students from other countries and conducting international and comparative research. Recently, the college has been especially focused on helping k–12 schools bring international perspectives into their classrooms and on creating more opportunities for College of Education students to experience global contexts.

It’s about learning to succeed in a world that is increasingly interconnected.

“The importance of preparing teachers, administrators and researchers who understand their work within a global context cannot be overstated,” says Ames. “Developing an appreciation of other cultures and traditions is important, but educators also benefit by learning about educational practices in other countries.”

Many courses in the college have been redesigned with globally themed projects and materials and the Global Educators Cohort Program, launched in 2008, gives teacher candidates a unique opportunity to prepare for careers in diverse classrooms or settings that help students develop global competencies.

The college’s Office of k–12 Outreach held its first annual Internationalizing Michigan Education conference in 2007. With support from k–12 Outreach and the Confucius Institute, the college also has organized many study tours and exchanges allowing Michigan-based educators to interact with international colleagues, particularly in China and England.

Most recently, Dean Ames announced that all doctoral students in the college can apply to participate in a faculty-led study trip to an international destination—with all major expenses paid. The initiative, which began with previous successful trips to China, involves sending groups to China, Botswana and Vietnam this spring.

Students in the Global Educators and Urban Educators cohort programs also have their own specialized opportunities to travel overseas (to China and England, respectively), adding to the list of at least a dozen study abroad programs available to students across the college.

Other notable achievements in the area of globalization include:

• Becoming a world-recognized leader for providing innovative opportunities to learn Chinese language and culture—particularly online—through the Confucius Institute at MSU.
• Creating a model for merging Eastern and Western teaching practices that has been implemented in schools across Michigan; a project of the former U.S. China Center for Research on Educational Excellence.
• Conducting highly visible comparative research on U.S. mathematics achievement. This includes the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (timss) and the 16-nation Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics (teds-m), for which MSU serves as the international and national headquarters.
• Receiving the Goldman Sachs Foundation’s Prize for Excellence in International Education, in 2005.

The Urban Agenda

The College of Education’s promise to prepare students for careers in urban communities will continue well past Dean Ames’ tenure—through the year 2017 alone based on funding in place for recipients of the Broad Scholarship.

That program, which supports Detroit Public Schools graduates committed to becoming teachers, was one of several initiatives launched in 2003 as part of the landmark Broad Partnership. A $6 million agreement between MSU, the Broad Foundation and DPS, the project pieced together a pipeline of experiences for young people (high school students through education majors) to explore urban teaching that is still going strong.

The partnership also helped cement a college-wide commitment to addressing the unique contexts and challenges of education in urban settings.

“Carole Ames has positioned this college to forge a very aggressive urban education agenda,” said Sonya Gunnings-Moton, assistant dean for student support services and recruitment. “She did that in recognizing that a premier college of education must maintain its relevance.”

A regular day in the college might now include “urban-infused” undergraduate courses, professional development for urban school leaders across Michigan and prospective teachers interning in the classrooms of Chicago Public Schools. The college’s continuing commitment to Detroit, which includes placing teaching candidates in the city, was recently reaffirmed when the university opened a new facility for events and classes right on Woodward Avenue.

The first group of students in the college’s specialized Urban Educators Cohort Program, which begins each fall with new freshmen, will finish their internships this spring. And graduate students are finding more opportunities to study their interests within urban contexts through the new Urban Specialization.

Although increasing racial and ethnic diversity among students remains a challenge, Ames has made the matter more personal by hiring a full-time recruiter and making a point to interact with prospects from under-represented groups during an annual event of the national Institute for Recruitment of Teachers.

Over time, the College of Education’s outreach efforts have actually helped grow the total number of graduates from Detroit Public Schools attending MSU. The number of DPS grads pursuing teacher preparation specifically has increased by more than 250 percent since 2003.

A new scholarship opportunity for high-achieving urban high school graduates who want to become teachers will be available at MSU starting this fall. Ames leveraged donations to the college to set up the program, which includes a 2-to-1 match in funding from the university’s Office of Financial Aid.

“Our goal is not only to admit more students from urban schools to MSU,” Gunnings-Moton said, “But to ensure their graduation and successful completion of our teacher preparation program.”



She is one of the firstt smiling people greeting alumni outside the Homecoming tent, a presence on stage each time the college honors educators and the driving force for all pieces of public communication.

But for every time Cassandra Book shares the College of Education’s mission with the world beyond campus, there are dozens of ways she has helped keep things moving smoothly behind the scenes.

An assistant or associate dean since 1981, she now oversees external relations as well as all issues of student affairs, from undergraduate advising and admissions to scholarship selections and disciplinary disputes. She makes sure programs meet state requirements and organizes the commencement ceremonies that bring each semester to a close.

Known for her fairness, high expectations and, most of all, genuine commitment to the institution, Book retires this summer after 37 years at Michigan State University.

“I’m not sure if everyone understands the magnitude of her position and her impact,” said Assistant Dean Susan Melnick. “She’s a Spartan through and through, but so much more than a cheerleader.”

Communicating greatness

Indeed, Book’s work as both an administrator and ambassador for the college has been guided by her deep-seated knowledge about teacher preparation and expertise in the field of communication.

She originally prepared to become a speech teacher as an undergraduate at MSU. Later she taught college communication courses—and supervised student teachers—as a graduate student at Northwestern and Purdue.

By the mid-1970s, Book had written the nation’s first textbook on speech communication for high school students (with Kathleen Galvin) and returned to MSU as a rising star in the university’s Department of Communication. She became the department’s first female faculty member to achieve tenure and soon broke into administration as a Fellow of the American Council on Education.

Choosing to stay at MSU for the fellowship, she served as assistant to the provost for one academic year just before being hired to the teacher education faculty, in 1981.

Her role since then has been vast and evolving, with opportunities to teach, conduct research, direct programs and promote projects.

“I am proud to be part of a college that takes a scientific, academic approach to education and remains committed to changing practice,” Book said. “Michigan State has given me a variety of interesting things to do that ultimately make a difference.”

She started disseminating information and scholarship as a researcher in teacher education, and she has gone on to create a tradition of top-quality external communications that have reflected highly on the entire College of Education.

After becoming associate dean, Book turned two-color newsletters into the type of New Educator magazine you hold today, a signature publication among many others produced to help the college meet major objectives, from recruiting talented students to sharing research findings with educators in the field.

Today those efforts also take the form of newly designed websites,
videos and updates on Facebook. No matter how technology has changed, people in and outside the college have praised Book and her staff members for presenting materials that are rich with professionalism, pride and inclusiveness.

“You can have a lot of good things going on but they can’t be kept a secret,” said Dean Carole Ames. “Alumni and external relations have been transformed under her leadership, absolutely transformed. (Cass) has made the college nationally and internationally visible.”

Book’s position has required someone who establishes lasting relationships and can, in the words of Professor Suzanne Wilson, “see the work of the college from different people’s perspectives.” That includes students, leaders at peer institutions, donors and alumni—
a group 54,000 strong.

As chief liaison to the MSU and College of Education alumni associations, she has worked with the college’s Alumni Board to coordinate frequent activities and initiatives focused on engaging graduates such as reunions, conferences on technology and career preparation, Grandparents University and the always-popular Homecoming Tent Party.

Along the way, Book’s outgoing personality and deep institutional connections have been invaluable for securing major financial gifts, new partnerships and continuing trust in the college’s commitment to quality academics—often through firsthand interactions here and across the nation.

“She deserves more than her fair share of credit for all of the successes of the College of Education,” said current Provost Kim Wilcox. “There are a thousand issues in the life of a dean, and many of those have involved Cass.”

Standing up for students

Book’s other administrative hat, so to speak, is student affairs. And it can be a difficult hat to wear, colleagues say.

Her team of advisors typically represents the first line of contact for undergraduate students and new or returning teacher certification candidates. Partnering with faculty, their job is to explain various program guidelines, help keep students on track and, when trouble arises, determine what’s in the best interest of the student as well as the institution.

Those issues, which range from simple credit transfer requests to serious questions of academic integrity, must be approached with consistency and compassion.

“She expects us, like her, to support high standards and take hard positions at times, but also to have a balance,” said Joella Cogan, head advisor in the College of Education. “Not everyone knows this side of Cass, but I have seen her come to tears when hearing about students struggling with situations.”

Many colleagues echoed that statement.

“She can be as tough as nails, and she can also be the most soft-hearted person you know,” said Eric Mulvany, staff personnel manager for the college.

Book has handled student matters at the Ph.D., master’s and undergraduate levels, often meeting students’ needs by sparking more efficient and innovative programs, from speed advising to the teacher internship program in Chicago. And she has been the person responsible for signing off on students’ accomplishments, ultimately signaling they are ready to enter the field of teaching or to receive their graduate degrees from a top-rated research institution.

Whatever hat she wears, alumni, peers and friends say she has been an incredible face for the college—thoroughly Spartan green, loyal, rare.

“A single person cannot replace all of her roles,” Ames said. “It would be impossible.”

Many doctoral students in the College of Education get to know Susan Melnick. They know she will make time for them, for advice, for a chance to test their thinking about teaching or another topic.

She may have taught one of their courses, she may have been on their dissertation committee—or maybe not. Melnick, assistant dean since 1999, is known for putting the personal and intellectual needs of students first.

And, not surprisingly, she has been the college’s leader when it comes to serving students studying beyond the traditional bounds of the university community: off-campus, overseas and online.

Each of those domains represented new or evolving endeavors for the College of Education during Melnick’s time as an administrator and, fellow faculty members say, she has set a precedent for successful forms of academic outreach. She retires this summer after 30 years at MSU.

“Susan’s versatility and willingness to step to the plate when called upon has led to many significant contributions,” said Associate Dean Cass Book. “She is endeared by many, many graduate students, and her breadth of influence spans from the department to the college to the university.”

Advocating quality off-campus

A former high school teacher, Melnick came to Michigan State in 1980 to work with Teacher Corps, a project focused on improving teaching in low-income areas. She brought a deep scholarly interest in issues of race, poverty and class to her work as a faculty member in the Department of Teacher Education.

Colleagues say Melnick’s commitment to equity and high quality in education has persisted as a centerpiece of her administrative decisions.

“It’s hard to be connected to those issues if you are not that kind of person,” said teacher education associate professor and friend Avner Segall. “She has gained a lot of respect from faculty as a thoughtful and caring colleague.”

Melnick collaborated with faculty members across the college to offer degree programs for educators in places such as France, Thailand and Switzerland. The Graduate Studies in Education Overseas (gseo) programs, which were phased out due to declining enrollment a few years ago, grouped mostly expatriate teachers who were working in international schools into cohorts that took courses during the summer months.

Off-campus programs in locations across Michigan also grew under Melnick’s leadership, helping hundreds of practicing educators complete a master’s degree at times and places convenient within their professional lives—without sacrificing access to the rigor and tenure-stream professors that set MSU apart.

Today, the college’s Educational Technology program continues to operate the only remaining off-site programs, including a certificate course sequence in select Michigan cities and a master’s degree in Rouen, France.

Melnick said the college was quick to embrace a new frontier in online learning when economic and logistical realities began threatening the viability of face-to-face degree programs off-campus. Today, there are six online master’s programs that build on the college’s history of successful academic outreach in other formats.

“We learned a lot about making courses connect with what people needed to know, and I think we managed to cement our reputation for learning about teaching,” Melnick said. “(Going online) expanded our goals by broadening the audience with whom we could work, and that’s proved to be true—especially with the all-college maed program (see below).”

Entering the Online Frontier

The online Master of Arts in Education (maed), directed by Susan Melnick and conceived by Carole Ames, has been one of the most significant College of Education success stories in the past 10 years.

Ahead of the curve from its launch, the program paved the way for an era of online teaching and learning at MSU and has enhanced the careers of more than 800 graduates—teachers, school administrators, coaches and adult educators.

By the year 2000, few faculty members understood how to design coursework that would be effective in an electronic format. After inquiring about their interest, Ames convened a task force that, led by Melnick, went on to spearhead special training opportunities for faculty, financial incentives for early adopters and the first online courses in fall 2001.

With six concentration areas to choose from, the maed exposes students to in-depth content within their interest area as well as a breadth of knowledge about key issues in education. They become part of a dynamic online community, no matter where they are in the world or how their careers differ.

“Dr. Melnick has provided a great deal of leadership in developing the program’s structure and high quality,” said Dean Ames. “Its success was huge for the field, and for this college.”

Along with the maed as an anchor, three departments now offer online-only full degree programs, and the additional tuition revenues have been increasingly returned to the departments to support student fellowships and other activities.

Other leaders in the college say the breakthrough into web-based academic programs came about by empowering faculty members to explore new, entrepreneurial projects with appropriate support from both college- and central campus–level administration—a process that has often repeated under Ames’ leadership.

See page 42 for a taste of the types of students that have enrolled in the maed, and what they think.

www.education.msu.edu/onlineed

Robert Floden

In any given year, a teacher’s pay with a school district is primarily set on the basis of a “schedule” that determines the annual salary as a function of the teacher’s level of education and years of experience. A teacher with a bachelor’s degree and three years of experience, for example, would be paid $41,278 in East Lansing Public Schools, while one with a master’s degree and nine years experience would receive $58,522. (See table on page 36 for data from the 2010–11 ELPS Salary Schedule.) Pay might be supplemented for an additional special assignment such as coaching basketball, but for the most part the salary would be determined solely by level of education and years of experience.

This approach to setting teacher pay began in the 1920s, as a way to set compensation on an impartial, transparent basis. Before the adoption of a single schedule, differences in pay might have arisen due to favoritism, cronyism or discrimination by race or gender. By 1970, 97 percent of U.S. school districts used a single schedule to determine pay.¹ The schedule is typically adjusted annually, with some increase in pay at all points in the schedule. In Michigan, as in many other states, the details of the schedule vary across districts, so that a teacher with three years of experience and a master’s degree might make $40,000 in one district, but $55,000 in a neighboring district.

In addition to its virtues of even-handedness and transparency, the typical single schedule can be seen as rewarding some desirable characteristics. It provides an incentive for teachers to complete additional coursework and adds to teachers’ pay as they gain job experience.

As policymakers have looked more closely at teacher pay, however, they have begun to wonder how much education and experience are worth, and whether other characteristics that demonstrate skill and effectiveness, especially teacher performance, should be given greater weight in determining compensation.

Some policymakers are now focusing on connecting teacher rewards to student scores on standardized tests. Using that criterion, a teacher earning a master’s degree in the subject taught (especially a master’s in mathematics or mathematics education for high school mathematics teachers) may have some effect on student achievement worth additional compensation, but getting just any master’s would not. Many studies have found a connection between student scores and teacher experience, at least in the first years of teaching. But that benefit levels off after three to five years of experience. So the current bases of the single salary schedule have some empirically established connections to student test scores, but research has not established a tie to simply gaining master’s degrees, or to teaching experience beyond the initial years.

The Push for Performance-Based Pay

Recently, policymakers have insisted that the system of setting teacher compensation must be changed. Substantial changes are likely to occur. To some extent, the changes will be driven by political considerations. As the discussion unfolds, however, it would be prudent to keep the goals for a compensation plan in mind, and to look at the range of options that could be built into a new system.

Goals often mentioned for changing compensation are:

• Providing incentives for all teachers to be more effective
• Encouraging the “best” teachers to stay
• Encouraging the “worst” teachers to leave
• Attracting effective teachers to the occupation
• Drawing effective teachers to high-need areas, including high-poverty schools and subjects like mathematics, science, special education and bilingual education

Common-sense arguments suggest that moving away from a single salary schedule could help to achieve all of these goals. If pay were determined at least in part by some measure of job performance, teachers would have a financial incentive to do well on that measure. Those teachers most rewarded for their performance would have a greater reason to keep teaching; those least rewarded might be more likely to consider other options. People considering whether or not to pursue a teaching career might find it appealing to have the chance to improve their pay with top performance. If the rate of pay varied by teaching specialty and assignment, districts might attract teachers in areas of need.

Performance Pay Options

With these goals in mind, a range of options might be used to provide financial incentives. The mix of options chosen would affect both the structure of the financial incentives and the overall expenditure on teacher compensation. Three features of a compensation system are particularly important:

• Whether a reward is made as a one-time bonus, as a supplement tied to a teaching assignment or as an increase in base salary
• Whether rewards are given to individuals or to groups of teachers
• Which indicators are used to determine the award—ratings from a principal, structured classroom observation or a measure of student learning

Bonus, Supplement or Increase in Base Pay?

One characteristic of an incentive system is whether an increase is permanent, or tied to a single year or particular assignment. A pay increase might be given as a one-time bonus, as a supplement for particular classes or as an increase to the base salary. In the first case, for example, teachers could be given a $5,000 bonus if their students met an achievement target. Getting a bonus the next year would depend on meeting a target again. In the second case, pay would be supplemented if a teacher took on an assignment in a high-poverty school or was assigned to teach mathematics or special education. The supplement would continue as long as the teacher had such an assignment, an incentive which might bring new teachers to a district or persuade teachers to gain the additional expertise needed to teach a new content area or to succeed with students in a challenging environment. In the third case, teachers could be given a $1,000 boost in base pay, which would increase their salary throughout their employment. The initial amount for this type of award would be smaller, but the long-term amount would be larger if the teacher continued to teach in the district. Under this option, there would be an incentive to perform well each year, plus an incentive for the top teachers to stay in the district as their annual rate of pay increases.

Rewards to Individuals or Groups?

Another characteristic of the incentive system is whether the financial award is made at the individual level or at a group level, such as to all teachers in a school. Awards to the individual fit the idea that every teacher should be rewarded for his or her own contribution to student learning. Those favoring individual rewards might also point to the possibility that some ineffective teachers would benefit from the high performance of their colleagues under a group award model—the so-called “free rider” problem. Group level awards have several advantages, however. If rewards are based on the performance of all students in a school, teachers would benefit from collaboration and be more likely to help each other succeed. Group awards also avoid the difficulties in sorting out the contributions of individual teachers in schools where students are taught by several different teachers. In a middle school, for example, a student might improve in science both because of what happened in science class and because of gains in reading ability from an English class.

Measuring Quality: By Principals, Structured Observations or VAMs?

Everyone agrees that teacher quality is critically important, but we are far from consensus about how quality should be measured. To some extent, the single salary schedule itself can be seen as linked to teacher quality. To the extent that level of education and years of job experience are indicators of quality, the current schedule ties pay to quality. As noted earlier, however, evidence linking these to student outcomes is weak. Moreover, degree level and experience are only indicators of teacher characteristics, with uncertain connection to a teacher’s actual performance in the classroom.

Three alternative ways to measure teacher quality, all linked to performance, are evaluation by the school principal, structured classroom observations and analysis of student test scores. Each of these has some appeal; each also has weaknesses.

Evaluations by the school principal are the traditional way school districts evaluate the work of teachers. In most school districts, evaluations by the principal are weighted heavily in the crucial decision about whether a new teacher should be granted tenure. Principals are also expected to do annual evaluations of teachers. Principal evaluations have intuitive appeal, based on the thought that principals have regular contact with teachers. But research on principals’ ability to judge teacher effectiveness is mixed. Even studies generally supporting the validity of principal judgments acknowledge the difficulty of making consistent evaluations of teachers in the middle of the distribution. Principal evaluations may also be subject to abuse, with principals punishing teachers for union activity or for expressing views contrary to their own.

The use of structured classroom observations can increase the sense that performance evaluations are objective, particularly if the observations are carried out by someone other than the principal, perhaps a team from the district central office. A weakness of this approach is that little empirical evidence exists to demonstrate that any particular observation system is closely tied to student learning. The Gates Foundation is currently undertaking a massive study to examine the links between performance observation systems and student learning, but results from that study are still years away.² In addition, most existing observation systems were developed for use with young children, with work yet to be done to modify them for use in high schools, where subject matter specificity will pose further challenges.

The measures of teacher performance that have been recently highlighted by the news media are value-added measures (VAMs), which are increasingly being included as at least one component of teacher evaluation. Value-added measures start with gains in student test scores, then use statistical procedures to take account of the fact that classrooms vary enormously in the entering characteristics of their students. The adjustments are needed because a teacher with a class of low-performing students from low-income families will have a harder time producing learning gains than a teacher with students from high-income families who begin the year well above grade level. The idea of rewarding teachers for the value they add to student learning is tremendously attractive. Unfortunately, close examination of these value-added measures has shown that they appear to have a large amount of “noise,” with variability due to factors other than teacher performance. In addition, they depend on having student test data from prior years, which means that they can seldom be used for teachers in subjects other than mathematics and literacy, or for teachers below grade 4 or above grade 8. (States test literacy and mathematics in grades 3–8, but testing is much less frequent in other grades and subjects.)

The problem for policymakers is that each of these measures of teacher performance is imperfect. Using a variety of approaches may reduce the impact of any one measure’s weakness but it does not eliminate the difficulties.

The Bottom Line

The basis for teacher pay is already changing in many districts. Greater change will occur in the next few years. Many of the changes will shift the system from being based solely on degree and experience to including links to teaching performance and assignment. Still to be determined is exactly how those links will be made.

Will strong performance lead to increases in base pay, or only to temporary bonuses or supplements? Will rewards be given on the basis of individual teacher performance, or on the basis of what an entire school does? Will performance be measured by principal ratings, systematic observations by central office or student test results? Some of the consequences of these choices can be predicted, but research is still scant about the effects of the various approaches. For long-term improvements in education outcomes, it will be important to think carefully as these choices are made, then to do systematic studies of their effects.

Education Policy Center: education.msu.edu/epc

1. Koppich, J. E. (2010). Teacher unions and new forms of teacher compensation. Phi Delta Kappan, 91(8), 22–26.
2. For more information, see the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project. http://www.gatesfoundation.org/highschools/Documents/met-framing-paper.pdf.

Retraction

A university investigation has found that three previously published New Educator articles written by Professor Sharif Shakrani contain instances of plagiarism. Those articles were found to contain material from other sources without proper attribution. They include “Teacher Turnover” (Fall/Winter 2008), “A Big Idea: Smaller High Schools” (Spring 2008) and “Education Stimulus Funds: An Opportunity to Plan Ahead” (Spring/Summer 2009).

The College of Education and the Education Policy Center are strongly committed to research integrity. Therefore, we have retracted those articles and extend a sincere apology to our readers.

The Erickson Hall Kiva was packed with students, faculty, alumni and current and former educational leaders from across Michigan on January 14, 2011 as well-known educational administration Professor Philip Cusick set out to summarize an entire half-century of educational change.

The talk, as friends say, was “pure Cusick.” It started with a wry comment from the influential scholar—“Don’t you have anything better to do?”—and ended, after a candid and insightful overview of three key shifts in thinking about schools in the United States, with a powerful standing ovation.

When Cusick retires this spring, “he leaves a legacy of excellence that serves as the mark for those who follow,” said MSU colleague Gary Sykes, who did the introduction. “He is an intellectual craftsman of the highest order.”

Cusick came to the College of Education in 1970 and has continually laid out key questions to be asked of educators and policymakers in rigorous and theoretically significant ways, prompting scores of related research. He always emphasized the need to be tied closely to schools through outreach, scholarly engagement and preparing school and district leaders—hundreds of them in his case.

Among his faculty and administrative duties, Cusick twice served as chair of the Department of Educational Administration. He is the author of many articles and books, including Inside High School: The Students’ World, The Educational System: Its Nature and Logic and A Passion for Learning: The Education of Seven Eminent Americans.

The fifth edition of Foundations of Sport and Exercise Psychology, co-authored by MSU kinesiology Professor Daniel Gould and Robert S. Weinberg (of Miami University of Ohio), was published by Human Kinetics in January 2011. The volume is one of the most highly used textbooks in the field.

Sally Labadie, instructor and intern coordinator in the Department of Teacher Education, recently published her second book, Danger on the Cliffs, a story of adventure for students ages 7 to 11. Her first, The Good, the Oops! and the Funny: Events in the Life of a Teacher, is a memoir about her experiences as a public school educator.

Associate professor John P. Smith III is the editor of Variability is the Rule: A Companion Analysis of k–8 State Mathematics Standards, published in 2011 by Information Age Publishing. Ph.D. students Gregory Larnell and Leslie Dietiker also co-authored chapters.



Louis Stamatakos

Beloved Professor Emeritus Louis Stamatakos died Jan. 25, 2011 at home in Okemos. He was 85.

In 1967, Stamatakos joined the faculty of what is now called the Higher, Adult and Lifelong Education (hale) program and retired 25 years later. Along with a few other professors, he is credited with developing programs in student affairs administration that broke new ground in the field and established MSU as a lasting national leader.

Stamatakos also prepared numerous doctoral students—perhaps more than anyone in the country at the time—who went on to become senior student affairs officers and college presidents. He was committed to creating learning environments and practitioner-scholars who would really take the overall well-being of college students seriously.

Each year, the Student Affairs Administration master’s program gives an award in Stamatakos’ name to a student who demonstrates a strong commitment to the student affairs profession and to the ethical standards that epitomize his values. The award is announced at the annual American College Personnel Association (acpa) conference.

Among his many career honors and accomplishments, Stamatakos was named a “Legacy of the Profession” during the 2010 conference of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (naspa). In February, his family surprised him when he was presented with the Silver Star medal for heroic action during World War II.

Thomas C. (Clint) Cobb, professor emeritus of education, died Oct. 31, 2010 at age 90. Cobb joined the faculty in 1957 and worked for a time on a major study of school finance issues in Michigan. He oversaw the Graduate Student Affairs Office and served as assistant to the dean under Dean John Ivey. Cobb later became assistant dean under Dean Keith Goldhammer and was in charge of many administrative duties, including budget and facility issues. He retired in 1982.

Nancy Crewe

A scholar devoted to improving lives for individuals with disabilities, Professor Emeritus Nancy Crewe died unexpectedly April 7, 2011 at the age of 71.

Crewe officially retired from Michigan State University in 2004 after serving as a leading faculty member in the university’s counseling psychology and rehabilitation counseling programs over 17 years. She has continued contributing to the field as a consultant, author and teacher—participating in major research projects during the most recent (2010–11) academic year.

Crewe made landmark contributions to understanding the disability experience and enhancing the quality of rehabilitation services. This is particularly evident through her pioneering work on the importance of independent living and the need for capacity- rather than deficit-based assessments. Her 20-year study of persons with spinal cord injury chartered new territory in the understanding of long-term adjustment, health and aging for people with disabilities.

Of her award-winning and influential colleague, rehabilitation counseling faculty member Virginia Thielsen writes, “Nancy was the embodiment of leadership with grace. Her balance of gentleness and strength inspired a commitment to individual excellence and a feeling of community for students and colleagues alike.”

The program is for nearly anyone—teachers, administrators, coaches, adult educators—working nearly anywhere in the world. Most students complete a 30-credit mix of rigorous courses, which are taught by MSU tenure-line faculty, from the comfort of their homes while successfully juggling full-time jobs and family responsibilities.

The MAED has been setting the bar for online education at MSU and beyond for 10 years now. Read these pages to learn what the program means to students, in their own words. (www.education.msu.edu/maed)

Every week, Maybury Elementary School collects three 96-gallon bins full of paper that’s sent to be recycled.

A few months ago, students and staff at the southwest Detroit school didn’t think they could ever fill the giant containers.

And at the beginning of the school year, one particularly green—and determined—Michigan State University teaching intern was carting boxes of recycling from Maybury to her Dearborn home with much bigger plans in mind.

Clare Adamus didn’t let limited school resources, or even the College of Education internship’s time-consuming requirements, keep her from implementing a sustainable school-wide recycling program in an environment where survival must come first for most families.

She embedded ecological issues into the curriculum of her third-grade bilingual classroom, influencing activism down the school hallways and into children’s homes.

“I really want to empower the students so they feel that they can effect change in their community,” Adamus said. “It is important for them to learn that even at 8 or 9 years old, they do have a voice.”

Protecting, and finding, resources

The program began with a simple box for gathering recyclable items in room 101.

Noticing students’ interest, Adamus decided to design and implement a language arts unit using reading materials about protecting the planet. Soon, her collaborating teacher Irma Arias said, reusable water bottles began replacing throw-away plastic versions on students’ desks.

If they saw paper on the floor, they would pick it up and exclaim “We have some Plooters in our school!” or “Michael Recycle would be so disappointed,” referring to a poem and a book character Adamus introduced. When she asked them to respond to the literature with their opinions, she had never seen them write so much on a topic.

Meanwhile, the 2010 elementary education graduate was busy beyond the school day tracking down recycling options that could work for Maybury, a Detroit Public Schools building with 600 students and absolutely no extra funding.

Principal Ellen Snedeker had asked the MSU College of Education interns for help with the task when she met them last summer. The idea had never panned out in the past.

“We tend to be the recipients of donations and offers to help, and we felt like we wanted to do something that’s good for the world,” Snedeker said. “(Clare) pursued it the most diligently.”

Adamus tried to secure grants and sorted through potential recycling services that would cost too much. Finally she spotted the name of a company, Covert Shredding, affixed to recycling receptacles in a Dearborn school where she happened to be voting for the November election. She immediately called owner Ron Covert who explained the company could pick up Maybury’s recycling for free and, as a major bonus, give 10 percent of its sellable value back to the school.

With help from fellow intern Michelle Scott, Adamus found a fire marshall–approved collection area, asked for support at staff meetings, posted sign-up sheets and created a tree in the school’s main lobby to measure and remind students about their efforts.

The bins from Covert Shredding arrived just a few days after the environmental language arts unit ended for her third-graders, who were fired up about putting their new knowledge into action around school.

“She’s innovative, she’s resourceful and she has follow-through,” said Anne-Lise Halvorsen, assistant professor in the Department of Teacher Education and Adamus’ field instructor in Detroit.

“It’s important for students in urban and low socioeconomic settings to see that they can change things in their own lives, but so often the citizen component involves cleaning up a park or something similar and it doesn’t go any further. What Clare did was make it a much more intellectual task.”

Changing culture and, hopefully, the community

Halvorsen gave a presentation about Maybury’s recycling story, on behalf of Adamus, earlier this academic year before a group of College of Education faculty and graduate students who are interested in issues of urban education.

Although previous recycling projects have failed, Principal Snedeker says she is certain the initiative will continue along with Covert Shredding’s stated commitment to remain a partner. Each teacher has his or her own classroom collection box, routine for contributing to the school bins and way of reminding students why their efforts matter.

Next fall, Maybury is moving into a new school building across the street due to school district downsizing, so the 100-year-old school has had a lot of old books and materials to recycle—and reasons to think about an even brighter future.

The students hope to plant a tree at their new school in recognition for covering the lobby “tree” with leaves this year, one for each full bin of recycled paper.

“Creating the mentality that we are supposed to take care of our environment, I think, really helps change the culture of the kids and consequently the community,” said Arias, whose students helped carry recycling for the kindergarten classes each week.

They have also started writing a petition, as part of a social studies unit, to gain curbside recycling services in their neighborhood. Like most MSU teaching interns in schools across Michigan and Chicago, Adamus took even more responsibility for her students’ learning as lead teacher during the spring semester.

“I don’t know if it’s just Clare or if it’s Michigan State . . . ,” Arias said. “But she is a very dedicated, well organized and prepared teacher. She loves what she’s doing and it shows.”

Wendy Darga

We have much to celebrate this spring. Our College of Education programs have again received top national rankings with elementary and secondary education remaining No. 1 for the 17th consecutive year. Six additional study areas also were ranked within the top-11. Congratulations to our faculty and students—their leadership, scholarship and dedication are unmatched.

New Alumni Coordinator

Welcome to Sara Jones, who joined the college as our alumni coordinator in December 2010. Sara brings a wealth of experience from her work with students and alumni at Penn State and Florida State universities. We look forward to working with Sara to better connect with you.

Celebrations

We also celebrate the careers and contributions of many people this spring. With a hearty thank-you for their service and dedication to the College of Education Alumni Association, we say farewell to four members of our Board of Directors. Jan Colliton, Sue Gutierrez, Cathy Pavick and Bill Price have served their fellow College of Education alumni for the past six years. Katie Cefaratti, our undergraduate student representative, also will be leaving the board as she graduates and heads to Chicago to begin her teaching internship. Thank you for your time and talents—you will all be missed.

After leading the College of Education for 18 years, Dean Carole Ames is stepping down (see page 16 for the full feature story). One of the longest serving deans in MSU history, her vision and dedication to quality teaching that leads to learning for all have made our college the model to emulate nationwide. On behalf of the coeaa, I say thank you, Dean Ames. Thank you for honoring College of Education alumni in so many different ways—the best Homecoming Tent on campus, the Crystal Apple Awards, your tireless efforts to build scholarships for our students, for representing this college both here and abroad and for truly being involved with our meetings and events. We will miss working with you as dean.

The Alumni Connection: Honoring Cass Book

An MSU undergrad in the late 1960s, a tenured professor in the 1970s and an administrator in the College of Education since the early 1980s, Cassandra Book has spent the last 45 years living what it means to be an Spartan. She, too, will be stepping down later this year (see page 28).

Cass has filled many roles at MSU. She began her teaching career in the Department of Communication where she was one of the first women hired and tenured. Moving to the College of Education, she has served as a professor, assistant and associate dean since 1981. Cass has authored textbooks, mentored Ph.D. candidates and taught undergrad courses. She has represented the college locally, nationally and internationally, served on national boards and been honored with countless awards. But it is her respect for and devotion to COE alumni for which I wish to express the deepest appreciation. As the faculty connection for the coeaa, Cass has coordinated the efforts of the Board of Directors and association for more than 20 years. When I asked current and former coeaa board members for their thoughts about working with Cass Book, the themes in the word cloud on this page emerged time and again. Her enthusiasm for our ideas, openness to our suggestions, tireless support of our efforts and constant presence with us show just how much she and the College of Education value the connection with alumni.

As a student in one of her undergraduate courses many years ago, I came to know and respect a very demanding teacher who challenged her students to work hard and to think hard. Her assignments made us apply what we were learning and she held us accountable—I still have the notes from her class on my bookshelf! As a member of the COEAA Board of Directors, I have come to admire an educator and administrator who has devoted her career to developing excellence in the students, staff, faculty and alumni of this institution. Thank you, Cass. Michigan State University will miss you, the College of Education will miss you and I will certainly miss you.

The new College of Education Alumni and Friends website can provide all of that and more. To keep up with the college’s new home page that debuted in the fall, the alumni site has a new look and has been updated with easy-to-find information and resources that can make alumni life a little easier. The Alumni Association Board works hard so that the College of Education remains a source of support in your professional life.

Visit the site, see what interests you and make sure to check out the Resources section regularly. We have free, fun downloads, such as wallpaper for your computer, bookmarks and retro-style pennants to help show your pride as a Spartan.

Visit www.education.msu.edu/alumni

The Michigan Association of School Administrators (masa) named Brian Davis, Ed.S. ’00 (k–12 Educational Administration), as the 2011 Superintendent of the Year. Selected by a panel of Michigan’s education stakeholders, the Holland Public Schools leader was recognized for his leadership in exploring new learning models, increasing accountability and gaining support for repair and renewal of district facilities. Davis also becomes a finalist for the National Superintendent of the Year award. Here, masa Executive Director William H. Mayes (right) visited the Holland Public Schools Board of Education meeting in November 2010 to present Davis (left) with the award.

For more stories about what our alumni are up to, visit the new College of Education Alumni & Friends website.

By Nicole Geary

Doctoral graduate Josh Plavnick has experienced that moment more than once.

In a recent study, he showed preschool-age students, who until that time were completely non-verbal, video footage on an iPod touch that depicted an older child asking an adult for something exciting, like a favorite toy inside a clear container.

Then Plavnick set the exact same item in front of the student and waited.

The child may not have responded the first few tries. “Open the box” may have started as only “Oh . . .” in later attempts.

But, in three out of four cases, the children in his study ultimately acquired verbal language and kept it.

“His results were amazing,” said Plavnick’s advisor Summer Ferreri, assistant professor of special education in the College of Education. “Before, these students just did not have any communication skills whatsoever.”

Plavnick’s dissertation at Michigan State University, the kind of research project that can launch a stellar academic career, grew from years of experimenting with innovative behavioral interventions for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and all the steps leading up to their success.

In the case of his final project, he applied existing techniques to address one of the most important (yet lesser studied) skill deficits for the population—the ability to communicate basic needs and wants.

Rather than focusing on what it would take to reduce associated problem behaviors, he conducted an in-depth advance assessment to determine what particular conditions led each child to make gestures when they wanted something, actions that could otherwise be replaced with spoken words.

Then he produced highly customized videos as models for the students, a practice that is still rare—especially by handheld iPod.

When he graduated in December 2010, his work had already garnered the attention of highly respected autism scholar Sam Odom, who recruited Plavnick for a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of North Carolina’s Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute.

“It was really important for me to have an impact on the kids,” Plavnick said. “I know that the research I conducted at MSU will shape all the things I do as I move forward.”

Real classrooms, real impact

Plavnick is a native of Lansing, a graduate of Sexton High School who began his undergraduate studies at MSU.

He left the area to volunteer with AmeriCorps and ended up working at a wilderness program for adjudicated youth, many of whom had learning disabilities or behavioral issues, in Utah. He found his way back to East Lansing after working as a special educator and consultant in Spokane, Wash. and Ann Arbor, Mich.

Starting the Ph.D. program, Plavnick knew the field had an increasing pool of knowledge needed to deliver effective education programs for children with autism, especially as the rate of ASD diagnoses skyrocketed. He wanted to figure out how he could help more teachers put that information to work in real classrooms.

“Good interventions are complicated and they take time and training,” he said. “It’s so important not to make mistakes because if you do, students fall further behind.”

Mary Mariage’s special education classroom in Holt Public Schools is one of several locations where Plavnick, Ferreri and other MSU scholars have studied best practices for teaching children with ASD—and left lasting lessons for parents and teachers in the process.

Plavnick frequently engaged with a few of Mariage’s early childhood students over the course of his dissertation research, bringing fresh ideas from the science of applied behavior analysis.

“He transformed in a lot of ways the way we work with kids and the way we look at behavior,” said Mariage, a 24-year veteran of teaching (and wife of MSU associate professor of special education Troy Mariage).

“I’d have him move into the district if I could. He is absolutely brilliant with kids and brilliant with data.”

New potential, at MSU

At the Frank Porter Graham (FPG) Child Development Institute, Plavnick is one of three scholars currently completing a prestigious research fellowship funded by the federal Institute for Education Sciences (IES).

He is on a team evaluating research literature in order to identify the best, evidence-based practices for children with ASD. He’s also assisting with data collection and analysis on a cutting-edge, multi-state study that compares two forms of early interventions for preschoolers with autism.

By the end of the two-year training program, Plavnick should have his own line of fundable research well underway. He recently launched a new project that uses video modeling to teach social skills to adolescents with autism in a group setting.

“We think he’s going to be an emergent scholar in the field,” said Odom, director of the FPG Institute and principal investigator on the IES post-doc. “We are very pleased he decided to move here and join us.”

Like many young scholars, Plavnick is a spouse and parent who must balance family and career obligations. Amazingly, he completed the Special Education Ph.D. Program at MSU in just three years.

“I think that says a lot about what can be done here,” said Ferreri, who as the only special education faculty member focused on autism has been working to build even more capacity for conducting ASD-related education research at Michigan State.

The College of Education hopes to begin accepting more doctoral students focused on ASD—of which there is a fast-growing pool—now that the Special Education Program offers a teaching endorsement with related courses in ASD (see page 6) and expects to hire another faculty member specializing in the area by this fall.

Plavnick will be looking for his own faculty position, taking his persistent talent and Spartan spirit for making a difference wherever he goes.

“He’s literally the guy that everyone wants to hire as soon as he arrives,” Ferreri said. “I think he is going to do amazing things. I can’t wait to see what he does.”

-Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, www.fpg.unc.edu

Michelle Mertz

The College of Education endowment represents funds designated by college alumni and friends to specific areas. Typically, this includes funding to support students through scholarships and fellowships, funding to support faculty, and funding to support specific programs.

When donors establish an endowed fund, they have the option to name the fund—for themselves, creating a legacy typically at their alma mater—or for someone in their lives, such as a parent or faculty member. Endowed funds are pooled and invested by the university and the college benefits in the form of interest income generated from the investment. The current payout rate (amount of interest paid) for endowed funds, as established by the MSU Board of Trustees, is 5 percent (based on market value). The “gift,” known as the principal, is never spent but is instead pooled and invested by the university. Thus, the fund continues to generate interest income for the area designated by the donor—often this is in the form of financial aid for students through scholarships and/or fellowships—in perpetuity.

In 1993, when Dean Carole Ames was hired to lead this college, our endowment was $1.3 million, which generated about $65,000 in support of student financial aid. From the beginning, Dean Ames has been clear that fundraising efforts should focus on providing assistance for students attending the College of Education. During her tenure, the college’s endowment grew about 10 fold, today valued at over $13 million and generating over $600,000 in support of future educators. This is funding from our generous donors that the college can count on year after year. This is support that provides stability for the college long-term and allows countless students the opportunity to attend MSU. This is one of many lasting legacies Dean Ames leaves with the College of Education.

Ripe for Recognition

The College of Education honored 16 professionals for outstanding careers in education during the 2010 Crystal Apple Awards. The event, held Oct. 29 at the Kellogg Center, featured an elegant dinner, a keynote address from James E. Ray, Superintendent for School Redesign at Detroit Public Schools, and tributes to each distinguished recipient.

The Crystal Apple Awards were established as a way for donors to recognize educators who played a significant role in their lives and who represent a commitment to the teaching profession. The opportunity to select a recipient is a benefit to donors in the College of Education Leadership Circle.

The 2011 event will be held on Friday, Nov. 11 at the University Club. If you are interested in selecting a recipient, contact Julie Bird, assistant director of development, at (517) 432-1983 or birdjuli@msu.edu.

The 2010 recipients were:

Jim Ballard
Executive Director, Michigan Association 
of Secondary School Principals
Lansing, Mich.
nominators: Barbara Markle and Phil Cusick

Wendy L. Darga
Media and Technology Teacher, Hart Middle School
Rochester Hills, Mich.
nominator: Cassandra Book

Linda A. Fuller
Special Education Teacher, Averill Elementary School, Lansing School District
Lansing, Mich.
nominator: Edna Felmlee

Rudy Hobbs
State Representative, 35th House District
Lathrup Village, Mich.
nominators: Frank and Ernestine Simmons

Christopher Jennison
Retired Publisher, Literacy Education Book List, Guilford Press
Hopkinton, Mass.
nominator: Donna Forrest-Pressley

Thomas Sampson
Assistant Professor of Education, Olivet College
Olivet, Mich.
nominator: Janet Wessel

Joan S. Stark
Dean and Professor Emerita, University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Mich.
nominators: Ann Austin-Beck and John Beck

Mary Stephen
Retired Educator, Utica Community Schools
Utica, Mich.
nominators: Lillian Demas, Nancy Searing 
and Susan Meyer

William D. Strampel
Dean, Michigan State University College 
of Osteopathic Medicine
East Lansing, Mich.
nominator: MaryLee Davis

Gerry Gunnings-Stroman
Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, 
Indiana University, Kokomo
Kokomo, Ind.
nominator: Sonya Gunnings-Moton

Kellie A. Stroud
Young 5s Teacher, Max Larsen Elementary School
Coldwater, Mich.
nominator:  Mary W. Smith

Clarence Underwood, Jr.
Outreach Consultant, Office of Admissions, 
Michigan State University
East Lansing, Mich.
nominators: Fred and Janet Tinning

Sue Usiak
Retired Teacher, Lansing School District
Lansing, Mich.
nominators: Arlene Brophy, Jim and Barb Gallagher and Kay Hillberg

Paul S. Visch
Professor in the School of Health Sciences, 
Central Michigan University
Mount Pleasant, Mich.
nominators: Henry and Betty Montoye

Lorraine Ware
Principal, Red Cedar School
East Lansing, Mich.
nominators: Jack and Sharon Schwille

Nancy Wonch
Professor of Law, Cooley Law School
Lansing, Mich.
nominator: Elaine M. Tripi

Roger Baldwin

The American college faculty is undergoing a major transformation that has gone largely unnoticed. In recent years, the number of faculty eligible for long-term (tenured) appointments has declined while the number of faculty on short-term (contingent) contracts has ballooned. Today, more than half of the instructional workforce in U.S. colleges and universities holds contingent appointments, either full-time or part-time (American Association of University Professors, 2010). In other words, fewer faculty have long-term relationships with their institutions, colleagues and students.

This transformation of the academic profession is not the result of a thoughtful public dialogue on the future of higher education or research on conditions that promote effective teaching and learning. Nor was it mandated by government policy or fostered by well-reasoned analysis by independent foundations. The move to greater use of contingent faculty (full-time and part-time) has been a gradual process resulting from incremental staffing decisions in an era of tight budgets. This trend has also been driven by the need to preserve program flexibility in a time of rapid change with shifting enrollment patterns. Over the course of two to three decades, the American faculty has tipped from a largely stable workforce to one that is rapidly evolving as conditions change.

Just what this staffing shift means for students and for the quality of education is unclear because this change in faculty staffing has occurred with little attention to its educational impact. This should be a major concern for academic leaders and policymakers. As increasingly diverse students come to higher education with varied levels of preparation and skill, it is essential that they work with educators who are well prepared to deliver quality instruction and able to give students the time and attention essential to their academic success.

Research my MSU colleague Professor Matthew Wawrzynski and I report in a forthcoming special issue of the American Behavioral Scientist suggests that this staffing trend may have negative consequences that have been overlooked as institutions hire growing numbers of contingent faculty.  Our analysis of data from the 2004 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty identified significant differences in the teaching practices of contingent part-time faculty and faculty (both tenure-eligible and contingent) with full-time faculty appointments. We learned that part-time faculty were less likely than their full-time colleagues to use learning-centered teaching methods (e.g., essay exams, course papers, group projects, multiple drafts of written work). Part-time faculty were also less likely to employ technology in their teaching (e.g., communicating with students via e-mail, using web pages in instruction). There clearly is a need to look more deeply at the instructional practices of full-time and part-time faculty. However, these initial findings suggest that the trend toward more part-time contingent faculty may inhibit the use of instructional practices that can make education more learning centered and more responsive to diverse students. This is a worrisome trend as many institutions hire more part-time faculty to cope in a time of limited resources and increasing demands for new educational programs.

The quality of an educational institution is directly related to the expertise, skill and working conditions of its faculty. As colleges and universities navigate a challenging environment, they must monitor trends in their faculty staffing to insure a healthy balance of instructors with different types of appointments. In addition, institutions should require and support quality teaching by all faculty, not just those with long-term or full-time positions. Finally, colleges and universities should consider converting part-time positions to full-time faculty jobs when possible. Institutions can recruit from a larger, and probably higher quality, pool of applicants when they offer a full-time rather than a part-time appointment. In addition, full-time faculty can concentrate their energy on the responsibilities of just one job rather than two or more which is often the case for part-time faculty. Full-time positions can give faculty the time to invest in enhancing their teaching and develop supportive relationships with their students—key hallmarks of a quality higher education institution.

Carole Ames

What a difference a month makes. The elections are over, and the political climate across the nation has changed dramatically. Although much “blue” has become “red,” the challenges that face our educational system have not changed. We are seeking solutions to the same questions. How can we assure that every child is taught by a high-quality, well-prepared teacher? How can we close the pernicious achievement gap? How can we break the continuing cycle of rising and falling reading and math scores? How can we reverse unacceptably high drop-out rates? And how can we, as a nation, come to grips with the inequality in opportunity and access that affects those growing up in the most under-resourced schools and communities?

These challenges belong to all of us. As a college of education, these realities are central to how we design our programs, reach out to schools and conduct our research. We must additionally face the reality that we live in a globally connected, “flat world,” and we must prepare the next generation of scholars and educators for this global society. Through first-hand engagement and immersion, we are helping our students learn about curriculum, teaching practices and educational policies and structures in other countries around the world. Learning about cultures very different from our own is essential to gaining a global perspective and an appreciation of diversity within our own society. It also brings new and critical dimensions to research on educational problems and the human condition.

In this issue of the New Educator, you will find reports of research, new programs and new initiatives that represent some of the ways we are trying to embrace these issues. Our Education Policy Center is also focused on the connections between our work and the policy context at the state and national level. This edition’s column “On Policy” is prepared by Robert Floden, who was recently appointed as co-director of the policy center.

Indeed, we envision a time when every student has access to the highest quality education; every graduate is ready to work and participate in a global society; technology is able to connect people anytime and anyplace; basic skills, critical thinking, problem solving and creativity are equally valued learning outcomes; and the social, emotional and physical well-being of students are achievable goals for all schools.

We know you share our vision. We thank you for your support of our endeavors to make a difference.

Carole Ames

Graduate students in the College of Education now have an opportunity to study issues of urban education in greater depth through the new Urban Specialization.

The interdepartmental sequence of courses is primarily for doctoral students who have a particular interest in teaching and conducting research within the contexts of urban communities.

Students are required to earn 12 credits from the selection of new and revised classes on topics such as Teaching in Urban Contexts, Critical Race Theory in Education, and Diverse Families and Communities. They also must complete an internship developed in consultation with their advisor with a focus on urban education.

Addressing inequities in education for students of color, English language learners and young people growing up in under-resourced communities is a major priority of the Michigan State University College of Education. The college also has a specialized undergraduate teacher preparation program focused on education in urban areas.

“We have said urban education is important, and this is one thing we are doing to make an impact,” said Christopher Dunbar, coordinator of the Urban Specialization for graduate students and a professor of educational administration.

“We want school districts to know that MSU is a place where educators can gain the knowledge and insight to successfully teach, lead and conduct research in urban school environments.”

The college helped launched the initiative this fall (2010) with the first in a series of guest lectures that will emphasize urban research and perspectives. Ronald F. Ferguson (pictured), a racial achievement gap expert at Harvard University, gave presentations at MSU on Oct. 13, 2010. Pedro Noguera, a well-known urban sociologist at New York University, is expected on Jan. 26, 2011 and Lorraine Monroe, whose institute trains public school leaders around the country, plans to speak on March 23, 2011.

The Urban Education Perspectives lecture series is funded by the MSU Office for Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives and the College of Education.

Interested?

Students interested in the Urban Specialization for graduate students may contact Christopher Dunbar at dunbarc@msu.edu.

The college’s ground-breaking hybrid doctoral program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology (epet) started with 14 students during an intensive two-week session on campus last summer. Their in-person introduction has been followed by online coursework continuing throughout this academic year.

The first cohort includes educators from five different states—and one from the United Arab Emirates—with a diverse range of research goals and a common interest: earn a Ph.D. while working full time.

Before coming to MSU, Chris Sloan, a high school teacher in Salt Lake City, said he “searched planet Earth” for a program that would allow him to study Web-based teaching strategies without being removed from the classroom—his research base.

“I asked, does it have to be that doctoral education is tied to bricks and mortar, and the answer was yes,” he said. “None of the other places I looked honor the practitioner; they don’t say your experience is worthwhile.”

Through the epet hybrid, a rigorous and almost entirely online program, Sloan joins a community of learners where he can develop skills for scholarly discourse and begin to answer questions emerging directly from his practice. He will only need to leave Utah to attend classes at MSU for a short time each summer and during one semester later in the program, which will span four to five years total.

Fellow students include college instructors, instructional designers, a technology director, an intermediate school district administrator and director of an executive development program. Designed and taught by expert faculty, the program is expected to expand into a second cohort this summer.

For more information, contact coordinator Robin Dickson at epetphd@msu.edu or (517) 884-2094
or visit: edtechphd.com.

Literacy expert and Professor Nell K. Duke is motivated to prepare students to be high-quality educational researchers and to introduce them to the inner workings of academe. During her rigorous courses, Dr. Duke “. . . makes her expertise visible and accessible to her students” in a way that shows her willingness to be vulnerable and available for the sake of learning. She also is an extremely generous mentor whose advice extends beyond the scholarly development of students to include skills that will help them navigate ‘real life’ in a university.

Assistant professor of social studies education Anne-Lise Halvorsen is highly skilled at using effective pedagogical strategies in multiple settings—from negotiating work with students in class, to choosing ambitious conversation topics with significant subject matter focus. An active scholar of her teaching, Dr. Halvorsen collaborates with graduate students planning methods courses, helps undergraduates foster effective discussions, and applies techniques such as lesson study to help teacher candidates develop their instructional practices. She has a long history of excellence, having begun her career as a successful kindergarten teacher.

Students and peers value Carlin Borsheim’s commitment to engaging questions of diversity and multiculturalism, and her innovative integration of technology, in preparing the next generation of English teachers. Borsheim, a teacher education Ph.D. student, conceptualizes new media technologies as tools that serve curricular goals; she initiated what has become a program-wide use of wikispaces. But she also pushes students to consider how technologies impact the nature of reading and writing. Her scholarship is complemented by a skill for building relationships, particularly a capacity for being “in-touch with students’ needs and strengths.”

Kinesiology doctoral student Megan Holmes devises unique activities to ensure her students master concepts in anatomy and physiology. In one instance, she choreographed a dance, or “human study guide,” for students to learn the concept of Einthoven’s Triangle. Holmes also provides significant leadership in the Anatomy Cadaver Laboratory, where she developed learning aids to standardize the quality of instruction and increased service opportunities for previous students. A caring instructor, Holmes actually charts the performance of students struggling in her courses and seeks them out to determine troubling issues.

Doctoral student Sarah Little is clear that she wants to influence teacher candidates, but also that she wants to respond to students and their concerns. She notes, “. . . the more I provided opportunities for my students to think, talk and write about their experiences in the field, the more they started to apply the concepts from the readings to real world contexts.” Through a wiki and other pedagogical tools, Little builds an inclusive learning community and models how that can be done with k–8 students. She also has used inquiry into her teaching to influence the practices of fellow literacy instructors.

Adriane Slaton focuses on developing future urban educators who will be prepared to counter the negative images that often characterize urban communities. The teacher education Ph.D. candidate creates a space in her teaching where students openly and critically examine their beliefs and gain deeper understanding of power, privilege and oppression and the ways they impact teaching. Slaton draws upon solid research and even makes her own assumptions transparent to model the self-reflection she expects. It is not enough to discuss these ideas, however; Slaton also helps students move closer to creating classrooms that enact the ideas they espouse.

Doctoral candidate Shannon Sweeny shares good news with the parents of her master’s students in teacher education, modeling teacher-parent communication and helping them feel what that’s like for families. One parent wrote to Sweeny: “You seem to have been able to grasp her attention, keep her thinking and, overall, earn her respect.” The rigor of Sweeny’s class is evident in her carefully assembled lessons and her devotion to the teaching of mathematics—stressing that students know why numbers behave the way they do, not just that they do.

-Excerpted from recipients’ encomiums

Beginning next academic year and beyond, all doctoral students in the college will have the opportunity to participate in a faculty-led study trip to an international destination – with most major expenses paid.

These trips will immerse students in cultures very different from their own and provide unique opportunities to learn about aspects of the host nation’s educational system. Unlike traditional study abroad programs, students do not take courses for credit during the two- to three-week time period. They visit school settings to learn about teaching practices, curriculum and policies from teachers and administrators. They also have opportunities to engage in discussions relevant to their own interests with faculty and graduate students at a partnering university.

College of Education Dean Carole Ames decided to extend international study trips to all Ph.D. students after successfully sending groups of doctoral students to China during the past two years. Those experiences, arranged through a partnership with Southwest University in Chongqing, enhanced students’ learning about the K-16 educational system in China and brought a global perspective to their own studies and career aspirations.

“All of our students must have a breadth of knowledge and experience to fully understand today’s educational issues in a flat world,” Ames said. “We want this international experience to influence how doctoral students teach, and how they conduct research.

“It is a very important investment for us.”

Faculty members have been challenged to propose, and plan, the study trips to countries where students can stretch their thinking. The trips are primarily for doctoral students in their first three years at MSU and must be of interest to candidates across various programs and departments in the college.

The college will cover the costs of travel and housing for each qualified, full-time doctoral candidate to participate in one trip. Additional expenses may also be covered.

Reitumetse Mabokela, a professor of higher education with a strong record of international research, is coordinating the program. She said three international study trips will take place during summer 2011: to Botswana, Vietnam and China.

For more information

If there are general questions, please contact Dr. Mabokela, mabokela@msu.edu or 517-353-6676. If students have specific questions about a particular study tour, please contact the faculty coordinator(s) of that program.

Michigan State University students interested in becoming teachers participated in a nationally televised conversation about the teaching profession with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on Sept. 27, 2010.

MSU was one of only four institutions across the country, including Arizona State University, Howard University and Miami Dade College, asked to join the MSNBC broadcast live from their campuses. The one-hour special on teaching was part of Education Nation, a weeklong NBC News event featuring in-depth coverage on improving education in America.

“We are pleased the Department of Education and NBC News recognize Michigan State University as a leader when it comes to preparing teachers ready to meet the challenges in our nation’s schools,” said MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon. “The broadcast gives our students a tremendous opportunity to contribute to a national forum on the importance of teaching.”

Joining host Tom Brokaw via satellite from a packed room at Breslin Center, about 60 students watched as Duncan introduced a new national campaign encouraging more young people to pursue careers in education. Although many of them prepared questions for the Secretary, time constraints limited the on-camera opportunity to only one MSU student—elementary education senior Elita Holloway.

“You mention money as an incentive to come to the inner city as a teacher, and I was wondering what, besides that, would be a motivation?” she asked. “I’m a product of Detroit Public Schools, and in those types of urban districts, teachers really need incentive to stay—and to get there in the first place.”

Like many students in the audience that day, Holloway has been preparing to teach specifically in under-resourced school settings as a member of the Urban Educators Cohort Program in the College of Education.

The Urban Educators program, and the separate Global Educators Cohort Program, give students early exposure to classes and field experiences that will help them become effective teachers in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms and in urban schools where talented teachers are needed most.

“I would strongly encourage her to come back to Detroit Public Schools,” Secretary Duncan said following Holloway’s question. “That is a school system that desperately needs reform and desperately needs the next generation of talent.

“I’m so proud that she did well, but far too many of our young people in Detroit drop out of school . . . We have to do everything we can to encourage great folks to work there.”

With questions from educators in NBC’s New York studio and students at the other campuses, the conversation jumped from parent accountability and school violence prevention to recruiting more minorities into teaching and the overall need to elevate the profession in the minds of all Americans.

A smaller group of the MSU students stayed at Breslin afterward for a follow-up conversation on camera with Devin Scillian of WDIV Local 4 News in Detroit, which handled the local connection for MSNBC. WDIV aired some of the footage during their regular newscasts later that evening.

Despite the frustration many teachers feel regarding salary, respect and narrowing curriculum standards, teacher candidates in the College of Education told Scillian they feel highly motivated—and prepared—to deliver top-quality instruction in their future classrooms. They worry the new federal teach campaign, which includes commercials featuring celebrities talking about great teachers, could attract young people to the profession for the wrong reasons.

When it comes to research on education, the Education Policy Center serves as the university’s main information portal for decision-makers who shape the quality of schools from kindergarten through college.

Established in 2000, the center recently refined its goals and priorities under the leadership of a new co-director. University Distinguished Professor Robert Floden joined William Schmidt, also a University Distinguished Professor, at the helm during spring 2010.

While the EPC mission – bringing MSU faculty expertise to bear on today’s major policy issues in K-12 and higher education – remains the same, Floden and Schmidt hope to achieve it on a larger scale. They plan to increase visibility by holding a national conference this spring and by pursuing more large grant-funded projects.

Graduate students across campus and in the College of Education, particularly in the Educational Policy doctoral program, will also have more opportunities to participate in EPC-affiliated research that has critical implications in American education reform.

The federal government has taken a more active role in influencing education policies across the country, and governors have been coming together to talk about changes that should be made on a broad scale.

“In this context of increased national interest, it’s important for faculty like those associated with the Education Policy Center to share what is known about the likely consequences of different policy directions,” said Floden, a National Academy of Education member whose distinguished research record extends over 30 years at MSU.

“These issues are important for Michigan, but we believe we can also speak to a national audience and bring in insights from international research to help inform policymaker decisions.”

Current projects include, for example, a study assessing the impact of the Michigan Merit Curriculum and an evaluation of value-added models being used to hold teachers accountable for student achievement. MSU also has an interdisciplinary doctoral specialization program in Economics of Education that’s expected to generate new quantitative research on challenging education policy questions.

To help focus its efforts on critical issues in the field, the Education Policy Center now receives oversight from a Faculty Advisory Committee made up of five high-caliber scholars at MSU. Barbara Schneider, the John A. Hannah Professor of Education, is chairperson.

She is joined by Christopher Dunbar, professor of educational administration; Peter Youngs, associate professor of teacher education; Barbara Markle, assistant dean for K-12 outreach programs, and Jeff Wooldridge, University Distinguished Professor of economics.

“One of the things we have been able to accomplish in the center is to bring strong academic research to bear on important educational policy issues,” said Schmidt. “We can, for example, play an important role in influencing the creation of rigorous, focused and coherent content standards, which research suggests can improve the education of our nation’s children.

“What better role can an education policy center play?”

Robert Floden

Teacher quality is the key to improving k–12 education. Some policies aim to improve teacher quality through more aggressive recruitment, doing more to retain the best teachers or developing teacher evaluation systems that reward top performance and remove those who perform poorly. Those approaches may have some payoff, but any overall strategy for improving teacher quality must also take account of the fact that hundreds of thousands of classrooms will be staffed each year by recent graduates of teacher preparation programs. So the search for ways to improve teacher quality must include attention to the substance and structure of teacher preparation.

Policy makers are paying increasing attention to teacher preparation. Federal higher education legislation now requires that states make public reports about all teacher preparation programs. States and large cities encourage development of teacher preparation programs outside colleges and universities. Many think Teach for America exemplifies a dramatically different approach to teacher recruitment and preparation.

Is there research to support any of these developments? What studies have been done to answer the range of policy questions about teacher preparation, from basic requests for description to challenging questions about effectiveness? Specific questions being asked include: What is the current state of teacher preparation? How much do programs vary in what and how teachers are taught? How does teacher preparation vary across nations? How are program characteristics related to the quality of graduating teachers?

Policy makers are calling for summaries of research on these questions. Congress inserted some of these questions into legislation asking the National Research Council (nrc) to examine the current state of teacher preparation in the United States. Legislators wanted a report on the characteristics of students entering teacher preparation and the instruction provided by various U.S. types of programs. They also asked that the report describe the degree to which the preparation for mathematics, science and reading teachers is “consistent with converging scientific evidence.” Finally, perhaps anticipating that solid evidence on teacher preparation might not be available, Congress asked for recommendations about the data systems that would be needed to give trustworthy information about models of teacher preparation and their effects.

The nrc assembled a committee of distinguished scholars, chaired by education historian Ellen Condliffe Lagemann, to address these questions. Suzanne Wilson, chair of the MSU Department of Teacher Education, was a member. The committee gathered information by convening workshops, examining reports and commissioning small studies. In its report, “Preparing Teachers: Building Evidence for Sound Policy,” the committee expressed surprise at the absence of data available to address questions about student and program characteristics. Data on individual programs is available, but the size and variability of the teacher preparation enterprise in the U.S. makes it difficult to write an accurate description of the system as a whole. Students sometimes complete teacher preparation requirements at more than one institution, perhaps beginning in community college, transferring to a four-year college for a bachelor’s degree, then taking a few final courses after graduation. Because many teachers follow such complex pathways in their preparation, it is hard to characterize typical program types.

Although the nrc committee could not say whether U.S. teacher preparation was consistent with “converging scientific evidence,” they were able to list teacher preparation outcomes having evidentiary support. For teachers of reading, a key outcome is knowing how to help pupils master foundational skills, including phonics and comprehension; for mathematics, teachers must be able to help students develop mathematical proficiency, including conceptual understanding, procedural fluency and problem-solving skills.

The nrc committee ended its report with recommendations for developing a comprehensive system for gathering data about teacher preparation. A data system, perhaps supported by the federal government, is needed to answer questions about who enters teacher preparation, what they study and what knowledge and skills they have at program completion.

Two studies worth noting

Fortunately, systematic data gathering has already begun. Two recent projects, for example, have just begun reporting on systematic, nationally representative data about the preparation of U.S. teachers in two subject areas: mathematics and early reading. Both projects describe current teacher preparation content and outcomes, with some comparison data that can be used for judging the quality of current teacher preparation.

The study of mathematics teacher preparation is the Teacher Education Study in Mathematics (teds-m), for which MSU serves as both the lead institution for international work and as the research center for the U.S. component. Following the guidelines of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (iea), each of 16 countries used a survey design that supported conclusions about teacher preparation in the nation as a whole. Thus, for the U.S., study reports include descriptions of characteristics of mathematics teacher preparation, the sorts of descriptions that the nrc committee had been unable to find in previous work. In addition, teds-m gathered representative data about important outcomes of mathematics teacher preparation, including assessments of graduating teachers’ knowledge of mathematics content and pedagogy.

The full reports from the study will paint a clearer picture of how U.S. mathematics teachers are prepared. Because the 16 countries in the study used a common set of data-gathering instruments, comparisons among countries can also be made, shedding light on how U.S. mathematics teacher preparation measures up to preparation in other nations, both in content and in outcome. Early results show substantial differences between the U.S. and countries known for high mathematics student achievement, especially in the mathematical preparation of middle school teachers, where U.S. teachers are far less likely to have taken linear algebra and calculus. See page 24 for an article on the U.S. teds-m findings.

A study just released by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (ies) comple­ments the teds-m study by offering a nationally representative description 
of reading teacher preparation for early elementary school teachers. The report, “Study of Teacher Preparation in Early Reading Instruction,” responded to a Congressional mandate, as did the nrc study, again showing the interest federal policy makers have in teacher preparation.

Consistent with the nrc study’s assertion that scientific evidence is converging on conclusions about what reading teachers need to know, the study of reading teacher preparation is focused on a set of teacher skills linked to both phonics and comprehension. The report asked a representative sample of teacher education students whether their preparation programs included content on these key areas of reading instruction. Like the teds-m study, the reading study also collected teacher outcome data, in this case through an assessment of graduating teachers’ knowledge about the “essential components of reading instruction.”

As seen in Figure 1, about 30 percent of teachers reported that their coursework had a strong focus on alphabetics and fluency, but only 14 percent reported that coursework had a strong focus on meaning. For the field experience component of teacher preparation (i.e., student teaching and other school-based experiences), the proportions indicate that preparation had a stronger focus on meaning (see Figure 2).

These reports on program focus differ from teachers’ reports of how well prepared they felt to teach in each of these areas. As Figure 3 shows, almost all teachers felt at least moderately well prepared in the area of meaning, with three-quarters of them feeling adequately prepared. For alphabetics, however, less than half felt adequately prepared, with 12 percent feeling inadequately prepared. This contrast between low program focus on meaning, yet high feeling of preparation, is evidence that can inform ongoing discussions about the content of teacher preparation.

Evidence is emerging

The reading teacher education study also did an assessment of teachers’ knowledge in each of the three component areas. To give a context for interpreting the results, they compared the performance of teacher preparation graduates to the performance of experts (a group of reading researchers and teacher educators) and to the performance of novices (recent college graduates with no coursework or project experience related to reading instruction). For all three component areas, the teachers scored significantly better than novices, and significantly lower than the experts. The results indicate, in other words, that teacher preparation results in knowledge beyond what comes with a college education, but not yet at the level of experts.

These two new studies demonstrate that, despite the enormous variability in U.S. teacher preparation, it is possible to conduct systematic studies that can ground policy discussions in trustworthy evidence about the content and outcomes of teacher preparation. As other research studies are carried out, policy makers will begin to have a basis for answering their questions about the current state of teacher preparation. The next challenge for researchers will be to move beyond descriptive studies to gather evidence about the differences in outcomes produced by varying the content of programs.

By Nicole Geary

WASHINGTON D.C.—Michigan State University called together 50 of the top mathematicians, mathematics educators and researchers in the United States this fall to begin tackling one of the most important policy issues in education: how to improve mathematics learning for all children.

Given that 37 states and the District of Columbia have recently adopted shared standards in mathematics, the conversation also focused on the most immediate challenge: How can we make the Common Core State Standards work?

Led by well-known scholar William H. Schmidt, the two-day colloquium on mathematics education in Washington, D.C. helped pinpoint issues for updating curriculum, preparing teachers, setting policy and especially pursuing new research directions as much of the country attempts to adopt a clear and consistent framework for teaching mathematics.

The gathering also gave MSU the opportunity to reintroduce itself as a national leader in mathematics as well as science education. While in Washington, Provost Kim Wilcox joined the deans from the university’s colleges of Education and Natural Science to announce the creation of a new, interdisciplinary research center.

The Institute for Research on Mathematics and Science Education is expected to continue bringing together top scholars from the science and education fields—within and beyond MSU’s campus—and to facilitate projects that can address the most pressing challenges related to learning math and science, from kindergarten through the first years of college.

“It seems to me it’s a really unique opportunity in time to have this institute be introduced,” said Jere Confrey, a presenter at the colloquium and the Joseph D. Moore Distinguished University Professor of science and mathematics education at North Carolina State University.

“Michigan State has had such an important role to play historically around curriculum and content areas. It represents a uniquely qualified group to consider the policy implications of the standards and to provide some advice to the nation.”

A team approach

Schmidt, whose comparative studies have brought to light critical issues in U.S. mathematics achievement, was appointed interim director of the new institute.

John Easton, director, Institute of Education Sciences

He said excellent research on math and science education demands more involvement from mathematicians, biologists, chemists and other experts in the relevant subject matters. Likewise, partnering with educational researchers who deeply understand learning, pedagogy and assessment can help scientists translate their findings to the classroom.

Research grants to scientists and mathematicians have increasingly required principal investigators to integrate educational outreach activities into their projects.

“This institute will provide support for that kind of collaborative work and increase it to a larger scale,” said Schmidt, a University Distinguished Professor in the College of Education and the Department of Statistics and Probability. “We know it’s really important for students to receive a strong foundation in math and science, and this is about the research needed to accomplish that.”

Initially, research affiliated with the Institute for Research on Mathematics and Science Education will focus on mathematics, biology and physics, particularly in grades 7–12 and the first years of college. Projects will address issues of preparing high-quality teachers, educating individuals pursuing science-related careers and developing general mathematics and scientific literacy.

The initiative is co-administered by the College of Education and the College of Natural Science and has been receiving guidance from an advisory board of leading MSU professors—including those representing cutting-edge projects such as the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (frib) and the beacon Center for the Study of Evolution in Action.

Provost Wilcox, who provided institutional funding for the institute, says creating new research centers is something university leaders can’t take lightly in current economic times.

“But this is particularly important,” he told the audience in Washington.

“MSU faculty members understand the importance of math and science education in today’s society, as well as the responsibility they have to the nation to help make a positive difference in these areas.”

Starting with a challenge

The Common Core State Standards represent a dramatic and controversial development in the teaching of mathematics by intending to describe what all k–12 students should understand and be able to do, no matter where they attend school in the U.S.

The standards were released by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers in June and are now being implemented by a majority of states. Leading scholars are just beginning to determine how the new framework will impact students and educators, and what steps are needed to study and improve the process.

Some individuals who were consulted in developing the math standards were in attendance for the kick-off colloquium Oct. 27 and 28 at the Fairmont Hotel, including Schmidt, Confrey, Hyman Bass, Jason Zimba and keynote speaker William McCallum, who led the national work group.

“We have an opportunity to do research in a way we couldn’t do before,” said McCallum, a University Distinguished Professor of mathematics at the University of Arizona. He said the MSU research institute has a promising role to play.

“It’s building on a lot of efforts to bring together the math community and the math education community, and Bill has the ability to do it.”

William Schmidt

Most recently involved with an international study of mathematics teacher preparation (see above), Schmidt presented data on the unequal opportunities for students to learn important math concepts now existing across the country and how those inconsistencies affect the nation’s ability to compete with high-performing nations.

“This is the hard reality of American education—it’s why we need standards, and why they will be difficult to implement,” he said in summary during an evening reception to an audience that included alumni, donors, foundations, organizations, legislative staff and government representatives. The program also included remarks from Provost Wilcox, College of Education Dean Carole Ames, College of Natural Science Dean James Kirkpatrick and John Q. Easton (right), director of the Institute of Education Sciences (ies), the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education.

Other prominent speakers over the two days included marketing expert (and MSU graduate) Jim Taylor of the Harrison Group, who provided insights on how American families view the state of education, and Bruce Alberts, a biochemist and current editor-in-chief of Science magazine.

MSU plans to publish each of five papers that were commissioned for the colloquium along with proceedings from the conference, which should be available online in 2011.

The event was intended to help establish a more definitive research agenda for faculty affiliated with the institute—and their colleagues—in the area of mathematics. It was the first of several events to be held nationwide, with forums on biology in Chicago this spring and on physics in San Francisco next fall.

On the Web

Common Core State Standards

MSU Institute for Research on Mathematics and Science Education

IRMSE Advisory Board

•           Wolfgang Bauer, Department of Physics and Astronomy

•           Konrad Gelbke, National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory

•           John Merrill, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics

•           Richard Triemer, Biological Sciences Program

•           Yang Wang, Department of Mathematics

•           Kenneth Keegstra, Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center

•           Glenda Lappan, Department of Mathematics

By Nicole Geary

Step inside Kristen Renn’s office and it’s hard to miss the affinity for her undergraduate alma mater.

There are posters and pendants from Mount Holyoke College on the wall and a calendar of campus photos near her desk.

It’s been 25 years since Renn, an associate professor in the College of Education and nationally known scholar of student affairs, graduated from the world’s oldest women-only institution in Western Massachusetts.

But Mount Holyoke is where she first felt the empowering potential of academia.

“I would not be here if not for Mount Holyoke,” she says. “It’s the reason I went into higher education.”

And now, during a career spent studying issues of college student identity and student affairs administration, women’s colleges and universities have become the focus of an exciting worldwide research journey for Renn.

Although the number of female-only institutions in the United States continues to shrink, women’s colleges and universities are thriving in places such as Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Renn has explored 15 campuses on five continents so far on a mission to determine the current status – and value – of women’s colleges in a global context.

With little known about the topic beyond U.S. borders, she will be the first to piece together a trans-national picture showing how contemporary women’s colleges fit within societies and systems of postsecondary education.

“Single-sex institutions provide a window into the status of women in education overall,” said Renn, who spends four to five days interacting with students and faculty at each site, from a rural outpost of 60 pupils in Kenya to a 20,000-student campus in South Korea.

“The situation of women in higher education is really country- and region-specific.”

‘The world needs to know’

Not surprisingly, Mount Holyoke was instrumental as Renn’s ambitious research plan unfolded.

She first began interviewing leaders from international women’s institutions during a 2008 conference of Women’s Education Worldwide (WEW), an association of approximately 50 women’s colleges and universities around the world that was co-founded by former Mount Holyoke President Joanne Creighton and Smith College President Carol Christ.

According to Renn, Women’s Education Worldwide has provided an unprecedented opportunity to study women’s higher education from a comparative perspective. She established contacts that facilitated her case studies in the United Arab Emirates, China, Kenya, Australia, Korea and Japan, as well as forthcoming trips this spring to Bangladesh and India.

Renn also conducted an exploratory study in 2008 while attending a leadership conference at Mount Holyoke, sponsored by WEW, for students from women’s colleges around the world.

Individuals often question why women’s colleges are still needed (and financially viable) in North America and Europe, where women account for the majority of postsecondary students and may attend all but a few remaining all-male institutions.

However, complex issues of culture and access – to safe places to learn, affordable tuition, specific curricula or leadership opportunities, for example – support the existence (and new development) of female-only schools in many other parts of the globe. WEW represents all sizes and types.

“People may think of women’s institutions as a dying breed, whereas actually there are some wonderful stories about the creation of institutions in places that are quite inhospitable in general to women’s education,” said Creighton, who serves as WEW project director and is now on sabbatical from Mount Holyoke. “Even though we are long-standing institutions, we have a lot to learn from these emerging institutions.”

Renn, as Creighton says, is one of the lone “ground-breakers” answering the critical need for international, comparative research in the area. Her research has been funded by the MSU College of Education and the Spencer Foundation.

“I think Mount Holyoke and all of the other institutions will be exceedingly interested in her findings,” Creighton said. “The world needs to know what’s happening in women’s education.”

Tension and bigger questions

Driven, she says, but not clouded, by her own life-changing experience in a women’s college, Renn has devoted one semester on sabbatical, as well as summer and spring breaks to hop on airplanes and see what role women’s institutions are really serving.

In Japan, for example, she learned the small number of women’s institutions that have persisted give young women unparalleled access to female professors as role models, particularly in high-tech fields.

In Dubai, women have no coeducational universities to choose from, unless their families can afford a private option. And, in other places, where coed is the predominant model, women’s institutions often provide the only program in a particular area of study, or at least a more welcoming environment to study in a traditionally male-dominated field.

Creating “access” to higher education, at least in the legal or historical sense, no longer seems to be the main impetus for female-only institutions, Renn said. Today the argument for their existence is based more on addressing a mix of economic and cultural factors, depending on where you look.

Perhaps the one common thread is symbolism, she said.

“There is a tension that is sometimes spoken and sometimes unspoken between traditional gender roles and this vision for what women could be,” Renn said.

“There are legitimate questions about why we still have women’s colleges in the U.S… But, in other countries, the question is why do we send women to college at all? The answers to both of those questions raise other questions for us about equality in society.”

‘The whole community benefits’

Jillian Kinzie, who serves as associate director of the Center for Postsecondary Research at Indiana University-Bloomington, said Renn’s round-the-world project comes at a time when researchers and university leaders in the U.S. are becoming increasingly interested in the status of postsecondary education from global perspectives.

More importantly, learning about international women’s colleges will help shape our understanding about the role of special-mission institutions in the U.S., including Historical Black Colleges and Universities, military academies and religious colleges.

“I think it’s important to maintain and not try to homogenize institutions for all students,” said Kinzie, lead author of a well-known 2007 study that showed students at women’s colleges benefit from greater access to leadership opportunities and more meaningful interactions with faculty when compared with peers attending coed institutions.

“They are valuable forms of undergraduate education and what Dr. Renn is doing is really important to empowering women worldwide.”

Kinzie said she would have attended a women’s college – which do tend to be elite, private and expensive in the U.S. – if she would have known more about them.

Renn, who for 29 years has had to defend going to a women’s college, is hoping her project will at least provide guidance and some shared understanding for the administrators of women’s institutions as they face current and expected challenges.

She will wrap up travel and data analysis by summer 2011. She plans to publish additional journal articles and a book that will summarize and document her journey.

She knows how her personal and professional aspirations were shaped by attending a women’s college, where she was “taken seriously intellectually, as a leader.”

And now Renn has seen firsthand – perhaps more clearly than any other scholar of higher education – how women’s institutions are striving to educate, elevate and protect women within unique contexts from nearly every corner of the globe.

“I would like to come up with something useful for the leaders as they continue to make the case for the enduring value of their institutions, whether their case is about access or student leadership or faculty development,” she said. “There is evidence that when women are better educated, the whole community benefits.”

Joanne Creighton

Mount Holyoke president to speak at MSU

Former Mount Holyoke president and Women’s Education Worldwide co-founder Joanne Creighton is expected to present a seminar at Michigan State University during spring 2011. Visit the Center for Higher and Adult Education for more information.

On the Web

Kristen Renn

Women’s Education Worldwide

By Nicole Geary

“Moja, mbili, tatu… Team!” the boy from Tanzania shouts, throwing his arms up in unison with friends from Burma, Kenya, Ethiopia and … Michigan State University.

Then the huddle breaks and, despite differences in language, history and hardships, they throw themselves into an experience they can all appreciate: soccer.

There are no score-keepers, or even goal posts. The tiny gym, in the basement of Lansing’s Refugee Development Center, is simply a place where they can play sports, laugh and pick up lessons about respect and responsibility from their leaders.

A former college basketball captain, the program director towers over most of the teenage refugees in height. But Meredith Whitley, who often squats to speak with students eye to eye, gets down to their level in more ways than one.

They know the founder of their weekly Refugee Sport Club, a sport psychology scholar from MSU, has her heart in the game. For three years, the structured experience she created has been helping young people who have had to flee their home countries, many in fear, transition to life in the United States – and build character in the process. Research on the program is underway.

“She’s in heaven with these kids,” said kinesiology Professor Daniel Gould, who supports the project as part of MSU’s nationally known Institute for the Study of Youth Sports. “You can see the kids light up, and she does too.”

Check out Whitley’s Spartan Saga
for more photos and audio.

Making connections (cautiously)

While completing her Ed.M. in counseling at Boston University, Whitley served as an academic coach and life-skills mentor to inner city high school athletes, including immigrants and refugees.

Gould recruited her to the sport psychology concentration in MSU’s doctoral Kinesiology Program knowing that she had the credentials and, more importantly, the spark. She is motivated to understand how sport transforms attitudes off the court.

When Whitley, the recipient of the prestigious University Distinguished Fellowship at MSU, first walked into the Refugee Development Center (RDC) in downtown Lansing, sports time for dozens of youth who rely on the center’s services amounted to what looked like a chaotic open-gym session. She saw an opportunity.

The Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility Model was originally conceptualized in the 1970s by University of Illinois at Chicago Professor Don Hellison (who also received a College of Education Crystal Apple Award). His model has been adapted to many settings as a framework for helping underserved youth build character through physical activity. However, it had never been used specifically for refugee youth.

So with approval from the RDC, which helps resettle more than 600 refugees from around the world each year, Whitley and her team became the pioneers in sensitive territory.

Most of the young refugees in the sport club were born in refugee camps, their families having faced persecution and a life on the run – or worse. Some have been in the U.S. for years, others just a few weeks.

“We are not quite sure what they have been through,” Whitley said. “They have all had so many different experiences growing up, so you have to be respectful to them and not ask intrusive questions.”

Getting to the know the kids, as she knows, takes a lot of kind words, high fives and sometimes hand signals, depending on their English-language abilities. Early in the fall semester when she wasn’t writing research manuscripts or preparing detailed lesson plans for the program, Whitley was recruiting students during daily tutoring sessions available to them at Eastern High School.

“I’m not really that good,” one student said.

“That’s okay. I’m not really good either. We are just there to have fun and try sports,” Meredith said from her perch next to his desk and waited.

“… Alright, I will play,” he said and broke into a smile.

Welcome to basketball

Each Monday night, the club meets to shoot hoops and go through a series of teachable moments, scripted and unscripted. Sitting in a circle during one break, Whitley led them through some deep breaths to help them focus. Then, she rolled out a world map so each participant could point out their home country and get to know one another.

They also talked about what it means to be respectful, both while playing sports and when they are at home and school. Then it was back to the game. Many of the refugee teens say they never had a chance to shoot a basketball, or try volleyball for example, before coming to the U.S.

“If we think about the big picture and what sport can do for underserved youth… I think we can see it as a hook,” said Whitley, who has also studied sport-based youth development programs in Detroit as a research assistant in the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports. “You can use that excitement and teach them something along the way, without them really realizing it.”

After a pilot study on the impact of the Refugee Sport Club during fall 2009, Whitley is now pursuing multiple case studies to document how some of the participants are growing and changing. Along with undergraduate volunteers, she is collaborating with fellow Ph.D. student Elizabeth (Missy) Wright. Wright helped administer the program this year by leading a separate Refugee Sport Club for the middle-school-age refugees.

The easiest thing for these students and their families, uprooted from their own culture, is to retract themselves from extra-curricular activities, said Shirin Kambin Timms, executive director of the RDC. But the sport club members want to keep coming back.

Staff members at the RDC have been able to use messages relayed through the program as a strong point of reference when talking to the youth about making good decisions. It is another welcome partnership with MSU’s College of Education, which has long arranged for teacher candidates to volunteer as academic tutors for the center.

“Meredith has been able to lay best practices and good research over a very unique set of circumstances that are part of life in Lansing,” Timms said. “She used the threads that exist in our community and has woven them all together with this program.”

International insight on youth sport: South Africa

Finding a balance between conducting research and providing direct service to the community is central to the land-grant mission of MSU of course, as well as an enduring priority in the more than 30- year-old Institute for the Study of Youth Sports.

“Most of our students have one foot in the research world, and one foot in the practical world,” said Gould, who as director oversees a variety of projects focused on coaching education and youth development through sports. “That’s what we expect here.”

Making a difference in international communities, as Whitley is now learning, can be particularly challenging. She and Gould are working on exploratory studies about the nature of sport for underserved youth in South Africa, where they found issues of poverty, substance abuse and limited resources are similar to some urban areas of the U.S. – only magnified.

In parts of Stellenbosch, South Africa, where Whitley spent much of summer 2009, a basketball backboard won’t last 24 hours without security and girls fear walking home after 5 o’clock.

“Coaches talk a lot about getting kids off the street and into sports, but they are not really teaching life skills yet,” said Whitley. She facilitated focus groups and interviews with South African coaches and community members that turned up heartbreaking findings about the physical (i.e. no facilities or transportation) and social (non-existent parental interest) barriers to meaningful participation in sports.

Whitley also ran a short-term, culturally adapted sport program based on the Personal and Social Responsibility model for children in the underserved Kayamandi Township just outside of Stellenbosch. She trained facilitators who live and work in the community – but continuing such a program is nearly impossible with few committed partners in the field and thousands of miles between them.

Gould and Whitley presented a paper on the South Africa research at the Association for Applied Sport Psychology conference in October 2010. They also gave a symposium in Morocco and continue to analyze data collected during their time in South Africa.

“We are thinking about what other things we can do to inform the coaches in the community, and make sure we are not just conducting research but giving back as well,” Whitley said.

Most likely, MSU researchers will look for other global contexts in which to explore the potential for youth empowerment through sport. Gould said there is little international research in the area, including on the impact of big charitable organizations such as Right to Play and Kicking AIDS Out.

‘Catching’ character, and more, on the court

Back in Lansing, the enthusiasm of young refugees offers a glimpse into the status of youth sports in some parts of the world.

One young man whose family fled from Burundi to Tanzania* said he played soccer often while still living in Africa. But he remembers always screaming at other kids just to get his chance at the ball.

That was before he came to the RDC, started learning about sports with Meredith and playing on teams for his new American school. He tells everyone about the day Meredith had former MSU basketball star Goran Suton visit the club to demonstrate dunk shots, discuss doing well in school and share his own path to America.

Now 18, this young refugee speaks clear English and is ready to graduate from high school.

“Actually, Meredith is a good person. We’ve been friends for like three years,” he said. “She taught us how to work with a team… like even when you lose, you tell your teammate ‘It’s okay.’”

Whitley it seems, under the guidance of Gould and other esteemed faculty members at MSU, is one of many students in kinesiology that are putting the principles of sport psychology into action in ways that can dramatically shape the future of young lives.

Under Whitley’s wing as a mentor in the Refugee Sport Club, recent kinesiology graduate Gem Sabolboro had a chance to participate in research firsthand and learned that social lessons can’t be learned just by playing sports. They must be purposefully taught in order to transfer to the real world.

“It has inspired me to start my own program using the same model for the disabled population, because I know and see how it works,” said Sabolboro, now pursuing her master’s degree in occupational therapy at Western Michigan University in Grand Rapids. “You have to develop a relationship with every child at every session and, even if they are having a bad day, you try to lift them up.”

Despite this being Whitley’s last year on campus, she and the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports have taken steps to make the refugee program sustainable with the help of Wright and, hopefully, additional groups of graduate and undergraduate students yet to arrive.

“It hasn’t changed the life of every refugee that comes in, but the kids know 100 percent that the MSU mentoring team cares for them,” said Gould.

“We always say that kids don’t catch character through sports – it’s taught by caring adults.”

On the Web

Refugee Development Center

Institute for the Study of Youth Sports

* Student names were not published in this article at the request of the Refugee Development Center.

By Nicole Geary

Before they began learning about blogs, podcasts and international beats, students in Akesha Horton’s technology class considered a critical question.

What is hip hop?

“If you think hip hop is dead like Nas said, type in 32902,” Horton said as she directed the Detroit teenagers’ attention to an on-screen list of responses:

• It’s music (and I love it!)

• It’s music (and I hate it)

• It’s a culture . . . a way of life

“To me it’s more than music, it’s a lifestyle,” 16-year-old Lindsay Marshall chimed in. “Hip hop . . . it’s a passion,
a rush, you can’t describe it.”

Hip-hop has been used to refer to a vast array of cultural practices including rapping, spinning, graffiti, breakdancing and other domains such as fashion, language, style, knowledge and politics.

However it’s defined, hip hop—as the students were soon to find out—is also prevalent in many other parts of the world. And exploring popular music in other nations—the lyrics, the videos, the clothing—can provide some not-so-unfamiliar perspective about the experiences of other cultures.

Horton, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Teacher Education, has been teaching urban youth about issues of global and digital citizenship through a focus on hip hop for three years as part of the Summer High School Scholars Program.

The summer 2010 session, for example, included analyzing socially conscious lyrics from a 1980s rap song, watching videos by a racism-blasting singer in the Czech Republic and discussing hip hop directly with artists or MSU students (in person or by Skype) from Australia, Japan, Palestine and Liberia. Horton’s students used their new music and knowledge to create informational podcasts and audio or video blogs.

“For some of these high-performing kids from Detroit, they said it was their first time thinking about how they are part of a global community,” Horton said. “It gives them a new lease on hip hop; many already love hip hop and now they have a different lens through which to examine it.”

Artists as educators in Australia

Now Horton is expanding her research on global hip hop and education with a Fulbright-mtvU Award to spend an academic year in Australia.

She is one of only four U.S. students selected in 2010 for the prestigious fellowship program, which supports projects that explore aspects of international music as a “cultural force for expression.”

Fulbright partners with mtvU, MTV’s 24-hour college network, to offer the program.

While her fellow awardees study in Indonesia, Senegal and Peru, Horton is based in Sydney where, as she learned during a previous study abroad trip, some Australian hip hop artists voluntarily participate in educational programs for urban youth in partnership with the University of Technology in Sydney (UTS).

“I thought it was really interesting that hip hop artists took the extra effort to learn how to teach in order to work with youth and help convey positive messages,” Horton said in a Fulbright-produced video.

“You don’t usually hear about well-known hip hop artists here doing that but if you look at the foundation of hip hop, it’s about education and the passing of oral histories.”

She plans to interview Australian artists and spend time in a couple of Sydney community centers where young people learn about various subject matter (social justice issues, mathematics, etc.) through hip hop. She also will be talking to students and teaching components of the technology class she developed at Michigan State University to see how Australian youth develop ideas about global citizenship, particularly in comparison to kids from Detroit.

Anyone interested in Horton’s research will be able to follow the journey through blog entries on the mtvU Web site. She is convinced Australia is the perfect place to collect data for her dissertation.

“When I first went there, I was amazed at the diversity and that it wasn’t segregated. Everyone was interacting with one another,” she said. “I’m looking forward to meeting as many people as possible, listening to their stories and trying to see how they can inform my teaching, curricula and philosophy about education.”

A critical perspective on pop culture

Horton grew up with hip hop in Gary, Indiana. She admits she had nearly stopped listening to the music when
her Summer High School Scholars students from Detroit told her they were most interested in two things: hip hop and the world.

Since then she has been collecting tracks, resources and general knowledge about critical hip hop pedagogy as well as hip hop with social and cultural messages from around the globe. More
importantly, she has been recognizing the potential for powerful learning—about history, civil rights, intellectual property, creativity and much more—that can’t be ignored.

Deciphering and particularly writing good rap lyrics is, by design, a very productive exercise in ingenuity. Hip hop artists can teach a lot about technology through their use of audio and visuals, or the “art of the remix.” And, of course, one mention about a social topic in a song may be all it takes to inspire a student to look for more information online.

“They are going to listen to the music anyway. It helps if a teacher is there to guide that learning process and help them think critically about what pop culture is encouraging, because those messages can be misconstrued,” Horton said.

“The argument is being made, at least, that hip hop is something that needs to be studied by academics, especially by those interested in teaching youth in urban settings.”

On the Web

Fulbright-mtvU blogs

University of Technology in Sydney

Jennifer Aldridge knows she is going to college. She’s sure she wants a career in sports medicine, or maybe child psychology.

But the 17-year-old from Detroit didn’t know what to expect as an undergraduate until she spent four highly anticipated weeks at Michigan State University last summer. She is a Summer High School Scholar, one of more than 500 high-achieving students from urban school districts who have been invited to campus for an experience that can’t be matched at home or in school.

The scholars live in residence halls and experience college life. They take the ACT and develop skills for writing and using technology. With MSU students as mentors, participants learn about issues of social justice and—most of all—what it will take to achieve their dreams.

“I think I have grown and matured a lot since I’ve been here,” Aldridge said a few days before the program ended—the first time she was away from her family for more than one week. “This helped me realize that college is going to be a challenge, but it’s also going to help me reach my goals in the future.”

The Summer High School Scholars program began in 2004 as part of the Broad Partnership between the College of Education and Detroit Public Schools, a $6 million collaboration designed to develop well-trained teachers for urban environments. Today it continues to increase urban teenagers’ knowledge about higher education as a successful “pipeline” to MSU academic programs, and particularly teacher education. In addition to Detroit, high schools in Chicago, Grand Rapids, Saginaw, Flint and Lansing also now send students.

The number of students from Detroit Public Schools pursuing teacher preparation at MSU has grown significantly, from 21 students during fall 2003 to 71 as of spring 2010. Many of them focus on preparing to teach in city settings as members of the Urban Educators Cohort Program.

“I’ve always wanted to be a teacher, but the program made me even more interested,” said Amber Lawson, a DPS graduate who attended the summer scholars program three times before eventually enrolling in the teacher preparation program at MSU. “It also made me want to go into urban education. The classes revealed the truth about stereotypes applied to urban students, and how as a teacher I should help change those stereotypes.”

The scholars complete an intense academic program that includes developing effective study habits and writing skills. They conduct research to debate current issues in education that are particularly important in their lives. Scholars also enjoy participating in daily physical activity and discussing health disparities, as well as a talent show production.

“The classes helped me feel like I have a voice,” said Lindsay Marshall, a student at Detroit’s Renaissance High School who returned for her second summer in 2010. “I always wanted to go to college. This year, I decided I want to be a Spartan.

“It just feels right.”

Wendy Darga

Our College of Education includes programs in teacher education, kinesiology, rehabili­tation counseling, administration, educational technology, school psychology, higher education and many others. Although they sometimes represent very different fields of study, one thread that ties them together is alumni and the sense of Spartan pride they share.

The Board of Directors of the College of Education Alumni Association represents graduates from all of those programs, and we need your participation. The coeaa Board is comprised of 22 members including a Young Alumni Representative as well as Undergraduate and Graduate Student representatives. Our current board includes educators, both practicing and retired, from across the state of Michigan as well as one in Texas.

Each year brings changes to our board. Last year, we wished William Mayes well and thanked him for his service as he finished his term on the board and welcomed Becky Brewer to fill his place. We also welcomed new Young Alumni Representative, Kim Watson, and Graduate Student Representative, Robyn Carlson. At the end of this year, five board members will complete their terms leaving five vacancies. While it may be hard to say goodbye to some fantastic Spartans, it is an opportunity to grow the breadth and depth of our reach academically, professionally and geographically.

Teachers and school administrators are well represented on our current board while other professions such as those related to kinesiology are not. In much the same way, all but one of our board members are local to the state of Michigan. Using teleconferencing technology, we are now able to have board members from across the country. Get to know the current board members by visiting the alumni Web page at www.education.msu.edu/alumni/board.htm. Please contact us—we welcome your thoughts, questions and suggestions.

So what does the Alumni Board do? Our largest and most visible event is the College of Education Homecoming Tent Party. Over 700 alumni attend and enjoy lunch, live music and a visit from Sparty. The coeaa sponsors the Get-a-Job Conference for our teaching interns and participates in the Technology Conference and Grandparents University. Each year, we award scholarships to undergraduate and graduate students as well as honor distinguished alumni. Finally, we strive to increase our connection with you through Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, as well as by planning face-to-face social events.

To further explain the value of our coeaa board, I asked current members to share their thoughts with me about serving. The Wordle above represents the whole of their responses, but I’d like to share a few specifics.

John Jobson shared that, “It’s an opportunity to pay it forward . . .” “Sitting on the coeaa board has helped me to feel as though I am ‘giving back’ to my profession as we assist the next generation of educators get started in our field,” says Patty Trelstad, “and we are able to honor the people who will and have made significant contributions through scholarships and distinguished awards.” The themes of giving back, providing input to the college, building networks and loving the feeling of being back on campus echoed through all of their comments.

Please consider serving on the coeaa Board of Directors. In the words of one of our newest members, Becky Brewer, “we guarantee—you’ll never be ‘board’, you’ll enjoy a lot of laughs and you’ll learn a lot along the way, too.”

We look forward to hearing from you!

Wendy Darga

Class of 1989 and 1992

Know someone?

If you would like to serve on the Board of Directors for the College of Education Alumni Association, contact President Wendy Darga at WDarga@rochester.k12.mi.us.

David Legg

David Legg left the kind of legacy that has potential to influence people every day.

Successful former students who, no matter their profession, know how to clearly express themselves.

And—especially if you live in Novi, Michigan—an FM radio station and cable TV channel that continues to kick out student-created content from leaders in the making.

Legg was selected as a finalist for Michigan Teacher of the Year in spring 2010, just before his retirement from teaching after 36 years. The celebrated language arts and broadcasting teacher, who coordinated award-winning on-air programs at Novi High School over 33 years, credits much of his evolution as an educator to two master’s degrees he completed through Michigan State University.

“The matc (Master of Arts in Teaching and Curriculum) program really made me think differently not only about what I did in the classroom, but about what learning is,” he said. “I noticed an immediate change in the way I approached what I taught and how I taught.”

Always interested in improving his practice, Legg decided to follow up the matc (1997) with the MSU certificate in Educational Technology and then the Master of Arts in Educational Technology (maet), which he completed in 2002. Even though he had been surrounded by technology throughout his career, from the days of editing film with razor blades and audio tape to streaming video online, Legg said the maet program helped him integrate technology into his teaching in more seamless, natural ways.

He has had to align his unique curricula to three sets of standards: language arts, performing arts and technology. However, the ultimate goal when assigning students to operate cameras or compose radio shows, for example, has been centered on teaching communication skills through personal connections.

“I have tried to involve technology at every step of the way, allowing students to connect with what they love and really find important . . . And to use that as a springboard for the things that they create,” Legg said. “Students are able to engage intellectually, but also very emotionally, in that kind of learning.”

In retirement, Legg has been supervising student teachers for Madonna University and cultivating his love for photography.

Leigh Graves Wolf, a former Novi H.S. student and current MSU coordinator of Educational Technology master’s programs, wrote a letter of support for Legg before he was recognized in the Michigan Teacher of the Year competition, which recognizes one winner and two finalists.

“It is not only the technical facts and how-to that has stuck with me, it is the ability to finesse these tools into a message to deliver to others,” Wolf wrote. “Mr. Legg has clearly, consistently and passionately been leaving a digital footprint by preparing students for change during his entire career.”

By Nicole Geary

Two years ago, Georgia Watson was testing soil samples for heavy metals.

She was a lab tech by training even though her heart, by that time, was aching with another aspiration.

Teaching.

Going back to school seemed out of the question for the Michigan State University biochemistry graduate (’99) and busy single mom.

“For me to be as bubbly and outgoing as I am, I started feeling like the lab wasn’t really the place for me,” said Watson, 33, who had begun working as a substitute teacher in schools near her Indianapolis home. “I thought it was the most fun I had ever had at any job, but I didn’t have the qualifications to teach.”

That was before Watson became a Woodrow Wilson Indiana Teaching Fellow. Today she is in her own classroom, certified and helping high school students build the confidence they need to master physics and chemistry lessons. She is working toward her master’s degree.

The alternative certification program, which includes a $30,000 stipend, prepares individuals with experience in mathematics or science fields to teach in high-need school districts in less than two years.

And the fellowship is now available at Michigan State University. The first cohort of W.K. Kellogg Foundation Woodrow Wilson Michigan Teaching Fellows begins classes this summer.

“In these challenging economic times, it is more important than ever that we have teachers of science and mathematics who not only are well prepared, but committed to supporting the learning of children in schools with the greatest need,” said Gail Richmond, MSU program director and associate professor of teacher education.

“We are quite excited about this new phase of our partnership with the Detroit and Grand Rapids school districts and with the challenge of creating a program that will prepare MSU Fellows for productive careers as urban teachers.”

MSU was one of six universities selected to participate in the Michigan version of the Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship, a model for launching education careers that has been implemented in Indiana and is also underway in Ohio.

The Michigan initiative was created after the W.K. Kellogg Foundation awarded a $16.7 million grant to the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, which administers the programs.

MSU plans to prepare up to 40 post-baccalaureate teaching candidates specifically for careers in urban schools, where they must commit to teach for at least three years. Fellows will take summer courses on content and teaching methods and complete a full-year teaching internship in Detroit or Grand Rapids modeled after the university’s highly regarded initial teacher certification program.

Fellows may complete the requirements for a master’s degree in the year following their certification. They will also receive mentoring and other forms of induction support during their first three years on the job.

Watson’s cohort in Indiana included students ranging in age from 25 to 69, with previous occupations ranging from a stay-at-home mom to a medical school professor. The group took courses together, spent two semesters student teaching and shared a common mission: to make math and science learning more effective through real-life connections.

A Spartan chemist turned teacher, Watson says the Fellowship gave her the chance to use her expertise where it’s needed most.

“Do I want to produce scientists? Totally. But is that a goal of mine? Not necessarily,” Watson said. “I just want my students to be able to analyze things, think critically and make informed decisions.

“To me, that’s what science is all about.”

For more information

Know someone who would be interested in the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Woodrow Wilson Michigan Teaching Fellowship? Candidates apply to the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation directly and may select Michigan State University as their first-pick institution.

Visit http://education.msu.edu/te/wkkf-ww/ or contact MSU Director Gail Richmond at gailr@msu.edu or (517) 432-4854.

Dr. Cameron Brunet-Koch received only one of her three degrees, a master’s in college student personnel, from Michigan State University.

“But when I think of the academic preparation I needed for my career, it’s Michigan State,” she said. “I jump at the chance to come to campus.”

Now president of North Central Michigan College in Petoskey, Mich., Brunet-Koch (’80) last made the trip to connect with former classmates during Hale Alumni Weekend on Sept 24–25, 2010. With about 70 people in attendance, the event marked the first time the Department of Educational Administration has gathered graduates of all its Higher, Adult and Lifelong Education programs with current faculty and students.

Inside Erickson Hall, guests heard insights on higher education from MSU President and Hale grad (’74) Lou Ann K. Simon, interacted with College of Education Dean Carole Ames and learned about ongoing research and developments on campus. Many current projects emphasize the faculty’s commitment to globalization, as well as a special focus on issues of teaching and learning in mathematics and science.

Terry W. Hartle of the American Council on Education gave a keynote address on “The Uncertain Future of the University” during an evening dinner and reception at the Kellogg Center. Alumni also had a chance to attend the football game and share their own memories.

“It’s good to hear about the future directions of the program,” said Jim Lucas, who received his Ph.D. in Hale in 2009. He now works on Internationalizing the Student Experience in the MSU Office of Undergraduate Education. “For those of us who went through as a cohort, it does become like a family.

“I feel like I owe a lot to the Hale program.”

Hale coordinator and Professor Roger Baldwin said he expects that more alumni events will be held in the future.

By Michelle Mertz, senior director of development

Michelle Mertz

During his lifetime, Dr. Jere Brophy made immeasurable contributions to the College of Education at Michigan State University and to the field of teacher preparation. A University Distinguished Professor, the highest faculty distinction in the university, Jere was a professor of teacher education at MSU from 1976 until his death in 2009.

Now, his loving wife of 46 years, Arlene, is carrying on his legacy by providing resources to MSU that will exist in perpetuity. Funded through her generosity is the Jere E. and Arlene Pintozzi Brophy Endowed Fellowship in Education. This prestigious fellowship will have a positive impact on doctoral students in the college whose interests are in learning, motivation and student engagement—Jere’s area of research.

Arlene shared Jere’s commitment to the achievement and well-being of elementary and secondary school students. As a school social worker, she worked with students who had learning, emotional and social difficulties.

Gifts to the Pintozzi Brophy Fellowship can be sent to the College of Education Development Office at 513 Erickson Hall, East Lansing, MI 48824; phone (517) 432-1983.

Michelle Mertz

Alleman, Brophy and Knighton also co-authored Homework Done Right: Powerful Learning in Real-Life Situations (Corwin) based on shared understandings about authentic, family-involved homework that emerged through action research conducted in k–12 classrooms. College of Education graduates and teachers Ben Botwinski, Rob Ley and Sarah Middlestead also co-authored Homework Done Right.

Kinesiology faculty members Dan Gould and Larry Lauer are co-editors of the USTA Mental Skills and Drills Handbook, a guide to sport psychology-based strategies for tennis coaches and players. The book, which was developed out of research MSU conducted for the United States Tennis Association, includes activities that can be applied in any sport. It was co-edited by Paul Lubbers and Mark Kovacs and published by Coaches Choice.

Professor of teacher education Patricia A. Edwards is co-author, with Gwendolyn Thompson McMillon and Jennifer D. Turner, of Change is Gonna Come: Transforming Literacy Education for African American Students, published in 2010 by Teachers College Press.

Mary M. Kennedy, whose research has focused on how to define and measure teacher quality, is the editor of a new broad-sweeping volume on the topic: Teacher Assessment and the Quest for Teacher Quality: A Handbook. Published in 2010 by Jossey-Bass, the book explores and critiques all forms of teacher assessment, including often-controversial measures of beliefs and values. Fellow MSU faculty members Peter Youngs and Gary Sykes are chapter co-authors.

Professor of educational psychology Kelly Mix is co-author, with Linda B. Smith and Michael Gasser, of The Spatial Foundations of Language and Cognition: Thinking Through Space, published in 2010 (New York: Oxford University Press).

Researchers from six nations led by co-principal investigators William Schmidt and Maria Teresa Tatto authored a new volume based on their international research about mathematics teachers’ knowledge and training. Teacher Education Matters: A Study of Middle School Mathematics Teacher Preparation in Six Countries is expected to be published in December 2010 by Teachers College Press.

Carol Frederick Steele, an instructor in the Department of Teacher Education, is the author of The Inspired Teacher: How to Know One, Grow One, or Be One, published by ascd (formerly the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) in 2009.

Shirley A. Brehm, professor emeritus of teacher education, died Sept. 17, 2010 at age 84. Brehm was on the faculty from 1959 to 1988.

Philip (Sam) Reuschlein, professor emeritus of physical education and exercise science, died April 3, 2010 at age 79. Reuschlein joined the faculty in 1969 and retired in 1995.

John Wagner, professor emeritus of mathematics, died March 19, 2010 at age 88. He joined the staff in 1961 and retired in 1989.

By Kenneth Frank, professor of measurement and quantitative methods

Kenneth Frank

Economics is the current metaphor for educational reform. Schools must be more “accountable” in a bottom-line sense of educational achievement. Charter schools must be developed to create competition for public schools. All this should force schools to compete in an educational marketplace that will ultimately lead to improved educational outcomes.

But what if the standard economic metaphor is wrong? It says little about how schools should be governed as social organizations. Indeed, Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson recently shared the Nobel Prize for economics by challenging the standard economic metaphor—Williamson for characterizing how transactions are more efficient within organizations and Ostrom for addressing collective action problems in small communities. Each of these could be applied to schools, which as organizations act collectively to reduce transaction costs among teachers who share knowledge and information to produce outcomes.

In order for schools to realize their potential as social organizations for delivering education, we must address the issues of school governance. Schools face competing demands from different sets of parents and community members who are vested in the educational marketplace. In order to adjudicate these demands, schools must systematically develop rules for governance.

Here, I propose a set of guidelines in the form of a constitution, a valuable genre for constructing institutions to negotiate among competing internal interests and external forces. I propose it because successful schools require broad buy-in from community members, parents and labor unions, as well as faculty and administrators. The articles of the constitution do not concern themselves with specific matters of leadership, pedagogy, teachers’ practices or curriculum. Instead, they pertain to the method of adopting and implementing changes in policies, practices and personnel.

Together these articles create a series of checks and balances as outlined in the constitution (right). Articles 1 and 2 provide the school with a check against community pressures, while Article 3 gives the community a check on the school. Article 4 provides the principal a check on the teachers, and Article 5 gives teachers a check on the principal. Thus, as a set, the articles provide a framework for schools to govern themselves internally while negotiating complex external demands.

Each of these articles will have opponents. Reformers and parents may feel obstructed by the need for a two-thirds vote of faculty and may not want to wait three years for improvement in their students’ education. Principals may not want to be vulnerable to a vote of a local lay board or to the career decisions of teachers. Teachers and their unions may resist “subjective” decisions of principals.

But the key to the constitutional framework is that the set of articles must be taken as a whole, protecting the interests of each set of stakeholders. For example, community members may not like Articles 1 and 2, but they have enormous power to shape school policy through Article 3.

Again, do not expect that adoption of this or any similar constitution will create short-term dramatic improvements in educational outcomes. Instead a constitution should give a school a stable and strong social foundation to implement current and inevitable future reforms while cultivating an enduring process that respects the positions of various stakeholders.

Think of it as an investment in the social infrastructure of the school that will serve the community for generations. Or perhaps longer.

• Article 1: Adoption of Reforms, New Policies & Practices.

No school-wide reform or change in policy or practice may be implemented unless two thirds or
more of the teachers in the school approve the change.

This is the practice used by comprehensive school reform programs such as “Success for All.” It allows teachers to make decisions for their school based on their assessments of how a reform meshes with their existing practices, commitments, student composition, etc.

• Article 2: Community Expectations.

The effects of any change in practices or policies on student achievement should not be expected for three years.

It takes teachers time to learn about a reform, adapt the reform to their contexts and then reestablish coordination with each other. Pushing for results before three years can generate superficial change or exert counterproductive pressure on teachers and the relationships among them.

• Article 3: Community-to-School Link: Governing Board.

The school shall be governed by a board composed of at least 50 percent community members.

The board can replace a principal by a vote of two thirds or more. This applies to urban districts, giving them the localized school decision-making typical of suburban districts. Critically, the board can direct policy through their latent and manifest power to appoint the principal.

• Article 4: Removal of Teachers.

A principal can use a streamlined procedure to remove not more than 5 percent of the teachers in a given year.

This gives the principal the capacity to exert influence over the teachers. Note that it does not support a wholesale replacement of teachers, but a streamlined procedure for a select number of teachers. For example, in an elementary school of 20 teachers, the principal can use the streamlined procedure to replace not more than one per year.

• Article 5: Removal of Principal.

A principal can be evaluated for replacement if more than 20 percent of the teachers in the school request transfer or leave in a given year (excluding planned retirements).

This gives teachers, as a collective, influence over the principal. If a modest-sized group of teachers feels strongly enough about the principal to request a transfer, then the principal is vulnerable to losing her position.