Please join the School of Education in congratulating its faculty and students and SOE colleagues in affiliated centers on their achievements over the month of September 2015.

The School of Education monthly achievements is a regular feature of the news section of the SOE website. Please consider sharing recent awards or grants, publications, presentations, and collaborations across campus or in schools.

You may also read about these achievements in UDaily’s October 9 “For the Record” column.

School of Education shares September 2015 achievements

Jan Blits, professor emeritus of education, has published Rome and the Spirit of Caesar: Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar (Lexington Books).

UDaily published an article on the applied research of Jeffrey Menzer, Robert Hampel’s former student in the Ed.D. program. Please read the article here.

William Lewis, associate professor of literacy education, led a professional development day for Sussex Academy on August 26, titled “Using the CSET Strategy for Discipline Specific Argumentative Writing.”  The CSET strategy is an argumentative writing strategy that Dr. Lewis developed as a classroom teacher and refined during his time at UD. It has been adopted by a number of DE school districts to teach the basics of argumentative discourse and text-based argumentative writing. The Common Core Standards require that schools focus on argumentative discourse and that students develop the ability to support valid claims about texts by using  “relevant and sufficient evidence drawn from a text.”

Dr. Lewis also began leading a literacy initiative for secondary content teachers in Smyrna School District. This initiative began with a professional development session titled “Connected Reading and Writing in Content Area Classrooms: Building students’ ability to read and write complex texts.” This PD was developed for teacher leaders and the literacy team at Smyrna School District and was focused on connected reading and writing activities that improve student ability to comprehend complex texts and write clearly about those texts. Dr. Lewis’s literacy initiative at Smyrna will continue into the fall and winter.

Kathleen Minke, professor of education, with collaborators Skalski, A.K., Rossen, E., Cowan, K.C., Kelly, J., Armistead, R., and Smith, A, published the NASP Practice Model Implementation Guide. Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists. This guide became available in hard copy and will soon go live on the NASP website as an interactive tool. The Implementation Guide is NASP’S primary resource for assisting school psychologists at the individual, district, and state levels to align their work with the NASP Model for Comprehensive and Integrated School Psychological Services.

Associate professor Chrystalla Mouza (PI) and Amy Trauth-Naure, associate director for science in PDCE and assistant professor of education, received a $125K Teacher Quality grant from the Delaware Department of Education to provide job-embedded professional development in high need DE schools.

Dr. Mouza (PI) and Lori Pollock, professor of computer science, also received an 87K matching grant from the Delaware Economic Development Office to support their Partner4CS project. Partner4CS has originally been funded by the National Science Foundation to improve the development of computational thinking skills among middle and high school students and provide effective teacher professional development on computer science principles.

Dr. Mouza also served on the technical committee for the refresh of the National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS) under the auspices of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). Other committee members included faculty from higher education, K-12 practitioners and administrators, and the Director of the U.S. Office of Educational Technology.

Rosalie Rolón-Dow, associate professor of education, has been appointed associate director of the Center for the Study of Diversity (CSD). In this role, she will be collaborating with academic and administrative units across campus to advance scholarship that facilitates dialogue about the social and academic impact of diversity.

Elizabeth Soslau, assistant professor of education, published “Student-teachers’ emotional needs and dichotomous problem-solving: non-cognitive root causes of teaching and learning problems” in Educational Action Research, 2, 1-24. DOI: 10.1080/09650792.2015.1072052.

Joshua Wilson, assistant professor of education, finalized and begun work on a Delegated Authority contract for $30,000 from Measurement Incorporated to continue my research on the use of PEG Writing, an automated essay evaluation software program, in local elementary and middle schools. The citation is: Wilson, J. (2015). Using PEG Writing in middle and elementary schools to support the teaching and learning of writing. Delegated Authority Contract with Measurement Incorporated. Funded (1yr, $30,043). Reference No. EDUC43291416001.

Dr. Wilson, together with his project coordinator, Shelby Dorr, a student in the M.Ed. in Exceptional Children and Youth 4+1 program, doctoral student Huijing Wen, and a team of 16 junior and senior SOE majors, begun data collection at local elementary schools to investigate (a) ways of improving writing assessment and instructional decision-making, and (b) how PEG Writing be support teaching and learning of writing.

The members of the Student Literacy Council (SLC) have been reviewing books for Teachers’ Choices, a program sponsored by the International Literacy Association. The books will then be donated to the West End Neighborhood House’s (WENH) Connie Leeson Memorial Library (created by the SLC) for the children in the after-school program to enjoy.

The SLC is also in the process of cataloging more that 3,000 traditional and e-books (on Kindles) to be distributed among 4 WENH classrooms ranging from kindergarten through high school.

On October 14, SLC members will be writing the text for books created by future (UD) teachers; the children at the WENH will then illustrate these pages.

The SLC members have begun both bi-monthly tutoring and read-aloud at WENH.

Professional Development Center for Educators

Jon Manon, an associate director for mathematics in the PDCE and assistant professor of education, has agreed to serve a second two-year term as Treasurer of the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics (NCSM). Dr. Manon was also nominated to serve as the President of the Delaware Foundation for Science and Mathematics Education (DFSME).

Mathematics associates, under the leadership of Faith Muirhead, an associate director for mathematics in the PDCE, are working in 588 teachers’ classrooms, across grades K-12, in 43 different schools. The PDCE mathematics associates are working in ten school districts, four charter schools, and four catholic schools. This work represents 18 partnerships.

Fran O’Malley, an associate director for history in the PDCE, is one of three individuals nationwide invited by US DOE to present on the Teaching American History grant legacy (out of 1100 grant PIs nationwide). This work was presented in September.

Amy Trauth-Nare, an associate director for science in the PDCE received a DE DOE Title II grant to fund STEM-related professional development to 40 teachers working in high needs schools (during the 2015-2016 academic year).

Kim Wagner, literacy specialist in the PDCE, is working with 80 teachers within 7 PDCE  writing partnerships. She also has 6 reading partnerships and is working with 104 teachers. She is also partnering with Schools That Lead and providing coaching support to 18 teachers.

Jackie Wilson, interim director for the Professional Development Center for Educators (PDCE), has been asked to participate as a member of the national committee responsible for revising the 2008 ISLLC Standards for school leaders. The committee met in Reston, VA on September 24-25 to finalize their work. The national standards are the foundation for state policy related to principal preparation, performance evaluation, licensure and certification, and professional development. Dr. Wilson served as co-chair of the 2014 ISLLC refresh committee and was invited by the Council for Chief State School Officers to participate as a member of the new committee who will finalize the work and make recommendations regarding the new standards to the National Policy Board.

Delaware Academy for School Leadership

The Delaware Academy for School Leadership kicked off the new University of Delaware Principal Preparation Program (UDEL PPP). The UDEL PPP is a DOE-approved alternative route to certification program that provides a professional development experience to qualified applicants who already have a master’s degree and are seeking certification as an assistant principal/principal. Twenty individuals applied and 15 were selected for DASL’s inaugural cohort. The program is managed by DASL associate Alison Dubinski. The first course is being co-taught by Dr. Marion Proffitt, retired assistant superintendent from Appoquinimink School District, and Dr. Joan Buttram, director of UD’s Research and Development Center and assistant professor of education, and a faculty member in the EDD program for School Leadership.

DASL associates John Kreitzer and Deb Denson conducted a Boot Camp on behalf of the Delaware Department of Education to provide training to all new administrators who are required to take and pass an assessment to demonstrate knowledge of content and processes for conducting teacher and specialist performance evaluations using DPAS II. Forty-four administrators from DE schools were prepared and passed the assessment.