Jennifer Russo — ��鶹��Ʒ

Solvay-School of Education Partnership Not Derailed by Pandemic

Jennifer Russo — Wed, 24 Mar 2021 20:53:15 +0000

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the education system to pivot and adapt. Every function of schools has been drastically affected, including special education and resource services, extra-curricular and enrichment activities, and community programming. Life during the pandemic has forced many educators to break from familiar and successful routine, becoming innovators in technology and communication in order to reach remote students in new and meaningful ways. For several literacy-focused summer programs located in Solvay with School of Education collaboration, remote learning was a reality as well as a research topic and theme.

The Syracuse University School of Education and the Solvay Union Free School District formed a University-school partnership in 2014, although the two institutions collaborated informally for many years prior. A hallmark of the partnership has been a three-week summer program for youth, called InquiryU, for its focus on inquiry-based learning, staffed by SOE faculty and graduate students working with Solvay teachers. Additionally, a summer literacy program, offered in one form or another by the School of Education for more than 60 years, now operates in connection with the Solvay partnership and is planned in conjunction with InquiryU.

Over the years, InquiryU and the Literacy Clinic have provided important summer enrichment for K-12 students while also providing field placements for teacher candidates in eight different certification areas. The summer of 2020, with an abrupt shift to remote and online instruction having affected most schools, plans for InquiryU and the Literacy program were not deterred.

Kelly Chandler-Olcott

Kelly Chandler-Olcott, Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence in reading and language arts, has been one of the leaders of InquiryU on the University side since its inception six summers ago. She commends her Solvay colleagues for their commitment to the program, especially during the challenging pandemic time. “Many of the same teachers have been involved with InquiryU since the beginning, and they are devoted to true inquiry, to a program driven by student-developed questions,” she says. “You could not ask for a better partner.”

Katie St. Laurent is the Library Media Specialist at Solvay High School and has supported the InquiryU program every year. “Our collaboration is one of those rare situations that benefits everyone,” she says. “Solvay students get additional adult support and enrichment opportunities, Solvay teachers get to participate in thinking deeply about teaching practice, and Syracuse students have an authentic but mediated first experience teaching kids and collaborating with professional teachers. The program is greater than the sum of its parts; year after year we learn new things.”

The summer 2020 version of InquiryU, led on the university side by SOE alums Heather Waymouth (M.S., literacy education ‘08, Ph.D., literacy education ‘21) and Molly Lahr (B.A., English education ‘14, M.S., literacy education ‘15), was dubbed the “Digital Leadership Academy,” not just because of the digital format, but because the inquiry topic was built on the spring 2020 emergency closures. Student projects addressed better practices for sharing information, allocating resources, and designing digital instruction in K-12 schools, all with the intention of helping Solvay leaders devise a plan for the next school year that would be responsive to student perspectives from the spring of 2020.

“The kids embraced the online space and format,” Chandler-Olcott says. “They were quick to learn digital tools, adapt, and be active in their learning.”

Another silver lining to the digital and remote programming was that students were able to present their final projects to a wider audience using web presentation tools. In addition to their classmates and families, Solvay administrators could see student groups’ findings and recommendations for improving online learning.

Kathy Hinchman

The Literacy program was led by Kathleen A. Hinchman, professor of reading and language arts, and Keith O. Newvine (B.A., English education, ‘02, M.S., literacy education, ‘07), a current Ph.D. candidate in literacy education. The program occurred simultaneously and was planned collaboratively with InquiryU, although combined activities were reduced due to remote-learning challenges. Sixteen fifth and sixth graders received one-to-one tutoring from students in their culminating experience for the Literacy Education master’s program. Attendees also participated in program-wide community-building activities and project showcases.

According to Hinchman, “Solvay families and school staff, including teachers, school media specialists, guidance counselors, all levels of administrators, and the technology coordinator, were helpful beyond measure with student enrollment, resource allocations, and support. It was pure pleasure to design literacy instruction in such a supportive community.”

Hinchman also noted that student attendance was more consistent than in previous in-person years, likely because there were no transportation issues or vacation conflicts.

With the education system in flux it’s difficult to plan, but Chandler-Olcott says that no matter what, the Digital Leadership Academy theme will continue again this summer. She also stresses that Solvay is going above and beyond in this pandemic time. “We are grateful that Solvay continues to partner with us, despite all the challenges of the pandemic,” she says. “That the district continues to pursue instructional improvement while investing in student enrichment is really impressive.”

CAS in Intercollegiate Athletic Advising and Support Addresses Unique Needs of College Student-Athletes

Jennifer Russo — Thu, 25 Feb 2021 20:30:04 +0000

The Department of Higher Education in the School of Education is expanding their curriculum offerings to prepare current and future higher education professionals (e.g., advisors, administrators and coaches) to learn how to support and advocate for the success of intercollegiate student-athletes. A certificate of advanced study (CAS) in Intercollegiate Athletic Advising and Support (IAAS) was reimagined and relaunched for a cohort of students beginning in fall 2020 and continues to gain traction.

Previously offered as a dual program with the Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, Cathy Engstrom, faculty member in the higher education program, redesigned the program to offer a set of courses, many accessible remotely, that give students a foundation about how colleges and intercollegiate athletics work and the impact of these intersecting, and at times conflicting, systems on student-athletes’ identity and college success.

Engstrom says, “Consistent with SOE’s mission, IAAS students are pushed to examine how race, gender, national origin and class shape student-athletes’ experiences, and ways in which ‘isms’ (e.g., racism, sexism, heterosexism) operate. They learn to uncover systemic inequities, tensions and demands many students encounter. In a few courses, they are asked to propose well-researched, feasible programs or policies that promote student-athletes’ well-being and position student-athletes to excel in the classroom, on the field and as they transition out of college. The intent is that intercollegiate athletic programs will seriously consider adopting these exemplary proposals.”

The relaunch coincided with an unprecedented time in higher education, as spring 2020 student-athletes were granted an additional year of eligibility due to COVID-19 and the resulting halt to many collegiate sports. Students from four different spring sports enrolled in fall 2020 after concluding that this program addressed their academic needs and career goals while fitting into their demanding intercollegiate athletic schedules.

Graduates of this program will be well-positioned to consider positions as academic advisors, intercollegiate athletic coaches or continue their studies with a to prepare them in student affairs/higher education administrator roles. In addition, several current master’s students in higher education are enrolled in this certificate program concurrently.

These possibilities attracted lacrosse player Drake Porter ’20, who enrolled in the program when the NCAA granted him an additional year of eligibility. Porter says the IAAS program has given him the tools he needs to prepare for a career in coaching after his student-athlete days are over and will offer him a leg up in a competitive job market. He adds that the program was the right support for his professional goals, and the design of the instruction has fit well with his other academic, personal and athletic commitments.

As an undergraduate, his commitment to his sport placed stress on his commitment to his academics, causing friction in his classes. “On group projects, where meeting outside of class was required, my groups would perceive me to be lazy or unwilling to meet because my schedule did not allow me to meet at regular times during the day,” Porter says. “Misconceptions like this were damaging, and sometimes my peer evaluations and grades could suffer as a result.” He says the barriers to academic participation and inclusion he faced as an undergrad have not been an issue in the IAAS program.

For international student and member of the Syracuse women’s rowing team Maddy Horridge ’20, the IAAS program provided place and purpose during uncertain times. “I am a student that thrives by being in the classroom. Being home and working constantly on the computer I have struggled to balance a healthy social and work life.” She says the peer network of student-athletes and the IAAS cohort provided support. “Some new challenges that student-athletes faced were testing more frequently compared to other peers, working and being very flexible with workouts while balancing classes, and trying to keep healthy.”

In his role as assistant athletic director, Morey Mossovitz ’08, G’10, has seen firsthand the unique experiences of student-athletes, and that has informed his practice as an adjunct professor in the IAAS program.

Mossovitz says the program stands out in its preparation of students to work at the crossroads of athletics and higher education. “Professionals that work with student-athletes require insight into many facets of higher education, particularly the structure of athletic departments, NCAA rules and particular challenges that face student-athletes. Currently, there are not many programs that provide a focused curriculum for student-athlete support fields.”

Horridge says, “There were a handful of student-athletes in [Prof. Mossovitz’s] class, but the majority were non-student-athletes. I believe the discussions opened the eyes of students about what student-athletes go through.”

Assistant Provost Tommy Powell agrees that the student-athlete culture is complex, and that the IAAS program is responding to it and preparing for its future in conscientious ways. “The program has been an incredible help in providing a voice and expertise on issues impacting student-athletes and athletics in general. It emphasizes ethics and integrity within the professional world and promotes the highest standards of diversity, equity and inclusion as critical elements of student-athlete success,” he says. “Additionally, the focus on scholarly research to help educate, prepare and advocate for student-athletes through transition, retention, graduation and beyond is needed in this field to support policy change within athletics and the academy.”

As the pandemic continues and the dynamics of higher education are changing, the importance of programs to prepare students for student support roles in intercollegiate athletics will increase and be more complex. Mossovitz says other shifts are on the horizon for college athletics, particularly around branding, image and concerns for social justice. “Professionals working with college athletes will need to understand these topics and develop the skills to help support the students they work with, so they can be leaders who develop the critical evaluation and thinking skills to advance and support the institutions they work for.”

The CAS program in Intercollegiate Athletic Advising and Support is currently enrolling students for fall 2021. The School of Education is offering 50 percent tuition scholarships for eligible students. For more information, contact program coordinator Cathy Engstrom.

Writing Our Lives Nurtures Young Writers Online

Jennifer Russo — Fri, 30 Oct 2020 18:03:01 +0000

In October 2019, the Writing Our Lives program marked its 10-year anniversary in the Syracuse community. From its early days in the community rooms of libraries with handfuls of students, to recent years’ programming including conferences with hundreds of participants and after school programs from around Central New York, the Writing Our Lives program has had an impact on a generation of young writers.

Marcelle Haddix speaks during the Writing Our Lives 10th anniversary conference in 2019.

In this year of the COVID-19 pandemic, Writing Our Lives is a virtual experience, but emerging writers are still connected to the very best writers, poets and performers dedicated to nurturing young voices.

This week, students have been receiving daily writing prompts from mentor writers through video on social media, including Abdi Nazemian (“Like a Love Story”) and Jenny Torres Sanchez (“We Are Not From Here”). A virtual conference culminates on Saturday morning with a live, interactive writing and performance session hosted by local poets, authors and artists. To support their writing practice, Writing Our Lives has provided “writing survival kits” for the week including notebooks pens, and snacks that students could pick up at the South Side Communications Center. The kits and conference are supported by Believe in Syracuse and the Department of Reading and Language Arts in the School of Education.

The Writing Our Lives program began shortly after Marcelle Haddix, department chair and Dean’s Professor of Reading and Language Arts, relocated to Syracuse with her family. In early 2009, she participated in a community forum on the state of education in the city of Syracuse, and heard the concerns of parent and community groups about the schooling experiences of Black children.

“My involvement was first as a parent who had a challenging experience with the school district, but also as a literacy scholar and English educator from Syracuse University,” she says. “I listened to the stories from other parents and community members who expressed frustration with the ways they felt the education system was failing their children.”

Haddix recalls that few parents were aware of the local school data that reported a graduation rate hovering around 50 percent for all students but 25 percent for African American male students. As a concerned parent, scholar and community member, she followed up with school leaders and community members to understand the local history of education for African American youth, and wanted to identify solutions to create more positive educational experiences.

Haddix began holding free writing workshops at local community organizations and public libraries. The student interest was high, especially among African American males, with 12-15 students attending each workshop. Building on the interest of the students and parents, she collaborated with local community youth centers and university sponsors to host a youth writing conference in the fall of 2009 that was attended by more than 100 students.

Since that first conference, Writing Our Lives has continued to host an annual youth writing conference and has worked with community, school and university partners to offer Saturday mini seminars on writing, after-school writing programs and summer writing institutes for youth writers in middle and high school.

“I wanted to create spaces where youth writers define, understand, challenge and use writing in and out of school, and where they are critical ethnographers of their own writing lives,” Haddix says. “I wanted to offer writing events for youth writers to be leaders of writing instruction for themselves, teachers, peers and members of the community.”

In this year of the COVID-19 global pandemic, where the lives of young people have been disrupted in immeasurable ways, violence and trauma have become increasingly normalized. Haddix says they see and experience violence on multiple levels—physical, verbal, emotional, intellectual, through media and through bullying. “They are aware of violence against immigrant youth, against Black and Brown youth, and against transgender youth,” she says.

Writing Our Lives serves as a space for healing and for resisting and working against violence. “Through Writing Our Lives, we aim to offer opportunities for students to write about their experiences, to tell their stories and to participate in the global conversation,” Haddix says.

University Community Mourns Passing of Staff Member and Student Bridget Lawson

Jennifer Russo — Tue, 06 Oct 2020 14:10:16 +0000

The Syracuse University community is mourning the passing of Bridget Lawson, a dedicated staff member, friend, mentor and emerging scholar. For 20 years, Lawson was a fixture in many Syracuse University initiatives, academic opportunity services and organizations that benefitted diverse populations of students in educational and community settings.

Lawson had recently stepped into a new professional role as the assistant director of the Syracuse Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Engagement (The SOURCE). For three years prior, she was the coordinator of academic services for the Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program (CSTEP).

Leonese Nelson, program director for CSTEP, says Lawson’s impact “reached beyond the campus community to the greater Syracuse community. She was a true advocate for students.”

Lawson held a bachelor’s degree in human services from Cazenovia College and a master’s in social work from Syracuse University. She was near completion of a Ph.D. in cultural foundations of education in the School of Education, and her degree will be conferred posthumously.

“Bridget Lawson was my friend, colleague and a mentor of mine,” says Hugh Burnam, Lawson’s friend, former classmate and officemate. “Bridget was a couple years ahead of me in the program, so I relied on her for advice and support. When I became overwhelmed, messed up or stumbled in some way, she shot me a quick look, and many times said something along the lines of, ‘Boy, get your act together!’ She made me laugh and became my first friend in my Ph.D. program which means so much to me.”

Throughout her doctoral studies, Lawson worked as a graduate assistant for initiatives such as Early College High School at Nottingham, Say Yes to Education and Writing Our Lives.

Jeffery Mangram, associate professor in the School of Education, was at the helm of the Early College High School project and recalls Lawson’s contributions as an assistant instructor. “She held historical, institutional and social knowledge about the Syracuse City School District and the South Side of Syracuse. She became touchstones for so many of the 100 students or so we worked with, listening to and counseling the students on not only academic issues but also personal issues. She was proud to have graduated from the Syracuse city schools and living, still, on the South side of Syracuse. She modeled for the students (and for all of us) the dignity and grace of being an African American woman.”

Through Writing Our Lives, Lawson worked with Marcelle Haddix, Dean’s Professor of Reading and Language Arts and department chair, and formed an academic bond and a friendship. “Syracuse University, the School of Education and the entire Syracuse community will feel the gravity of this loss for some time,” Haddix says. “As her advisor and friend, I feel blessed that I had the opportunity to know Bridget and to work closely with her. She was an exemplar of what it means to be of service to one’s community.�� She was that silent force and presence, always there and giving of herself.”

Beyond her contributions to Syracuse University, Lawson had worked for the Syracuse City School District as a substitute teacher, for the Center for Community Alternatives, the Dunbar Association, Contact Community Services and SUNY Oswego. She dedicated her life to creating opportunities for academic success initiatives, preparing students for research opportunities and facilitating diversity, equity, community-based and social justice activities.

“Bridget was always happy to see me and others, I could not have been more proud to have worked with this remarkable woman,” says Mangram. “The loss is both sad and tragic. She had so much knowledge and grace to share with all of us.”

Dipre Awarded $20,000 Counseling Fellowship from NBCC Foundation

Jennifer Russo — Thu, 27 Aug 2020 13:37:40 +0000

Kirsis��Allennys Dipre

Kirsis��Allennys Dipre, a doctoral student in the counseling and human services department in the , was recently selected for the NBCC Minority Fellowship Program for Doctoral Counselors (NBCC MFP) by The NBCC Foundation, an affiliate of the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC). As an NBCC MFP Doctoral Fellow, Dipre will receive funding and training to support her education and facilitate her service to underserved populations.

The NBCC Foundation will distribute $20,000 to Dipre and 19 other doctoral counseling students around the country selected to receive the fellowship award. Dipre, a native of North Bergen, New Jersey, is a graduate of Ball State University and Northwestern University. At the School of Education, she is also an AACTE Holmes Scholar through the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. As part of this prestigious group, Dipre will be supported for three years of doctoral study at the University while participating in mentorship, leadership, research and policy activities on a national scale.

“Kirsis is known amongst CHS faculty and her peers as a staunch advocate for multicultural and social justice reform,” says Derek Seward, associate professor and chair of the counseling and human services department. “She is a catalyst for raising awareness regarding oppressive systems no matter the context.”

Dipre is interested in researching the structural barriers to access of mental health services that exist for Latinxs, particularly Afro-Latinx immigrants in the United States. Her interests are focused on understanding how systems—political, social, and economic—may contribute to the salient concerns outlined in the literature for Afro-Latinxs, which include colorism, lack of belongingness, stereotypes related to literacy, mental health stigma and acculturation processes.

As a graduate assistant at Syracuse University, one of her roles is providing clinical supervision to counselors-in-training working with clients of marginalized identities. The fellowship will help Dipre to continue her research through completion of her dissertation, advocacy efforts for improved training and education of counselors-in-training, and participation at national conferences.

SummerStart Goes Virtual This Year to Support 100 Incoming Students

Jennifer Russo — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 20:04:25 +0000

Like many other educators and student support professionals, the staff of the Arthur O. Eve Higher Education Program (HEOP) and Student Support Services (SSS) faced unique challenges this summer of 2020. All incoming HEOP and SSS students typically attend a mandatory, six-week residential summer bridge program, SummerStart, and this year the hallmark transition program had to be adapted to an online format.

HEOP and SSS are opportunity programs that developed out of the social justice movements of the 1960s and 70s. Both programs serve primarily first-generation college students from underrepresented populations. HEOP and SSS are about maximizing potential; with academic and other wrap-around supports, at-risk students perform as well or better than their peers who may have had more opportunities to prepare for college and career. One of the key contributors to their success is participation in SummerStart.

SummerStart Virtual Residence Hall 3rd Floor Friday Lounge with HEOP and SSS students Symphony Hylton, Mamadou Samba Jr., and Bryan Hernandez with SSS Associate Director Amy Messersmith and 3rd Floor College Mentor Karen DeVose, assistant director of academic advising in the College of Arts and Sciences.

SummerStart offers many benefits to HEOP and SSS students. By taking two required classes, students get a head start on earning credits prior to fall semester. They also take a college readiness seminar that builds their study skills and introduces them to campus resources. Because SummerStart is typically a residential program, students experience what it’s like to live in a residence hall and how to manage their new lives on campus, including study, sleep, diet and socializing. They become comfortable on campus and make important connections with staff and fellow students. When HEOP and SSS seniors reflect on the years they’ve spent at Syracuse University, SummerStart almost always tops the list of favorite memories.

When COVID-19 caused many summer programs to cancel or re-calibrate to new formats, the staff of HEOP and SSS rose to the challenge to make sure incoming students would have a top-notch experience, even if they could not physically be on campus.

The HEOP and SSS staff created a comprehensive virtual SummerStart program that upholds the primary objectives of the original summer bridge program, ensuring safety while building the community that HEOP and SSS are known for. This year’s eight-week SummerStart program began at the end of June with 100 new Syracuse University students onboard. University College provided support, establishing students in their online platform so they could take two classes and participate in the college readiness seminar. To help students adjust to distance learning, HEOP and SSS enlisted the Center for Learning and Student Success (CLASS), which leads weekly table sessions in maximizing online learning and guided study. Students also have access to academic advisors and writing and math consultants.

To build community and foster supportive peer relationships, SummerStart students have been sorted into virtual residence halls. Students are divided into 10 “floors” with approximately 10 students per floor. The floors are broken up by school/college so that students can get to know other students who are in the same school or college. Each floor also has two to three upperclasss HEOP/SSS student mentors who provide support to help the new students acclimate to the program. Additionally, each floor has an academic advisor that acts as a college mentor as well as an upper level administrator who is the floor’s University mentor.

A week in SummerStart begins with a mandatory Monday floor meeting. HEOP/SSS staff facilitate the weekly check-in and review the coming week’s programming, including topics for what’s called “Friday Lounge.”�� “Friday Lounge” virtual events are student driven and can range from movies and TV shows to discussions on current events to identity exploration. Each week, the floor selects two to three student leaders to facilitate the discussion. Students can choose to stay in their floor’s lounge or they can opt to visit the lounges of other floors if there are other topics that interest them, just as they could in a real residence hall. HEOP/SSS staff feel the model has been successful and find that students have made connections based on common interests. “The lounge and the floor plan give you an opportunity to branch out and meet people,” one student says.

Additional programming by HEOP/SSS staff is offered to SummerStart students on Wednesday and Friday afternoons. Wednesday programming is related to the content of the college readiness seminar, and Friday activities are designed to be more fun, with some life skills mixed in. Activities have included a virtual scavenger hunt, a virtual escape room and a communication skills workshop.

Craig Tucker, director of HEOP and SSS, commends his staff for adapting the SummerStart experience so successfully. “The efforts of the HEOP and SSS staffs have been nothing short of extraordinary,” he says. “Engaging the students in the virtual programming came with some challenges. However, we committed ourselves to the tasks and creativity is facilitating the cultivation of healthy bonds amongst our students, our programs and the Syracuse University campus community.”

Tucker adds, “There are many challenges in moving a residential education program to a virtual setting, especially on a tight timeline. HEOP and SSS thank University College, the school and college advising units, School of Education IT Services and the many offices and staff members whose support and collaboration was immeasurable in launching Virtual SummerStart 2020.”

Being Fat, Being Disabled and Doing Things That Feel Good

Jennifer Russo — Fri, 06 Mar 2020 03:57:31 +0000

Mike Gill

In his research, Mike Gill, associate professor of disability studies in the department of Cultural Foundations of Education in the School of Education, references an episode of the public radio show “This American Life” titled “Own Worst Enemy” featuring stories of people that “can’t get out of their own way” to the point of sabotaging their physical health. He specifically references people with food allergies that continue to eat the foods they are allergic to, even though the consequences can be varying degrees of discomfort and sickness, including death.

For people with food allergies, ingesting certain foods, especially when done intentionally, is behavior that can be seen as risky or dangerous. This kind of behavior is mitigated by warning labels, detailed menus, “allergen-free” schools and restaurants, and controlled access to rescue medication. Other behaviors–such as sexual activity or body shape—are similarly policed through laws, social construction or retail. In all of these instances, though safeguards are in place, individuals still choose to engage in activity that brings a certain amount of pleasure but can ultimately be seen by others as irresponsible or self-sabotaging.

Gill’s research is centered around agency—the choices people make with the constraints with which they’re faced.

“My attempt is not to pathologize or vilify these individuals,” he writes. “Rather, I consider these brief narratives to help expand on the various choices made to highlight how desire, pleasure, taste, and risk can be intertwined.”

Gill is exploring how individuals navigate food allergies in his forthcoming book, “A Cultural Politics of Food Allergy: Immunity, Interactions, and Environments.”

Though Gill completed several chapters of the book while on research leave in Korea, much of the research for the book was done in the United States and influenced by his own experiences with food allergy and cultural diversity. He says that food allergies internationally vary greatly, not only in the types of allergies that occur (sesame, for example, is an emerging allergen in Canada, but is not as prevalent an issue in East Asia), but there is also great variation in food allergy labeling laws and how different foods and allergens are classified (i.e., coconut is labeled as a tree nut in the United States, despite it technically being a drupe and not a nut).

Though Gill will admit that his research interests and publishing have “jumped all over the place,” they are connected through a common thread of agency. And, taking that a step further, Gill is interested in the policing of bodies and behavior that are seen as right or wrong.

“We often think that pleasure is reserved for those who deserve pleasure,” he says. “if you are not an able bodied, heterosexual, cisgender white man, your pleasure is wrong. White men’s pleasure is always perceived as the norm, and it can be seen as really oppressive.”

He says that disabled people, particularly people with intellectual disabilities, are seen as not able to access pleasure. They rely on others to assess the risks and benefits on their behalf and make decisions.

“I think there’s something really powerful about people accessing pleasure, and feeling like they have a right to it,” Gill says. “I’m not just talking about sexual pleasure, but just being able to do the thing that you really want to do.”

Gill says that his interest in agency, his work in disability studies and his recent work in fat studies intersect here—where people feel like medical facilities and practitioners have told them that their bodies are wrong.

Concurrent with his food allergy research, Gill delved into fat studies and produced the book chapter ‘“Hey, Little Fat Boy”: My Impaired, Fat, Hairy, White, Male Body’ in “Thickening Fat: Fat Bodies, Intersectionality & Social Justice” (Routledge 2019) edited by May Friedman, Carla Rice and Jen Rinaldi.

“The field of fat studies has a lot in common with disability studies,” Gill says. “Particularly around embodiment, how our bodies are in the world, whether that is excessive, lacking or regulated.”

Prior coming to Syracuse University, Gill taught courses in women’s and gender studies at several other universities, and in his WGS intro course he would teach that “fat phobia” is a socially accepted phobia. “There’s this way in which fat people get almost universally stigmatized,” he says. “It leads me to think about the intersections between disability and fatness, the common experiences with staring and snide comments.”

When Gill was writing his book chapter on fatness, he says he was in a place that he was feeling free and at peace with his own body. His physical body was no different than it had been, or is now, but he was at a conference among colleagues sharing similar values.

“I think a space had been cultivated by these other fat studies folks,” he says. “Our bodies don’t have to be regulated in certain ways. The physical body does not change, but the spaces that we interact with can be more welcoming. It’s not just fatness. Fat discrimination works in conjunction with other systems of discrimination and oppression.”

Gill plans to continue to explore interlocking systems of oppression and privilege. In his disability studies classes, he teaches with materials that include voices and experiences that aren’t often shared. For example, he invites autistic people who type to communicate, or disabled people of color to present in class, or share media they have created.

With Beth Myers, the Lawrence B. Taishoff Assistant Professor of Inclusive Higher Education, Gill is working on a project that is under contract with the University of Minnesota Press. They are collecting and collating the stories of students who are in inclusive higher education programs around the country.

“The research on inclusive higher education programs is that they are good,” Gill says, “but there are not a lot of student voices available.” Myers and Gill and are creating a website where student stories will live and will also generate a printed volume of student stories.

Gill’s interests in disability studies, inclusive higher education and agency extend through his teaching. He leads a semester-long course on sexuality and sexual health for InclusiveU students and empowers them to make decisions about their own lives and access resources.

Zell Lecture with Magda Matache Examines Centuries of Roma Enslavement and Road to Healing

Jennifer Russo — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 13:56:42 +0000

Romani justice scholar and activist Margareta (Magda) Matache, director of the Roma program at the Harvard FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, will present the School of Education’s annual Zell Lecture on Tuesday, March 3, at 6 p.m. in the Physics Building’s Stolkin Auditorium.

Her talk, “The Roma Case for Reparations,” is free and open to the public. Communication Access Real-Time Translation will be provided. Free parking is available in the University Avenue lots.

Margareta (Magda) Matache

The Zell Lecture is presented by the interdisciplinary minor in atrocities studies and the practices of social justice.

The Roma in Europe have been persecuted for more than five centuries, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe. Romani peoples have been enslaved (reparations for Roma enslavement in Romania is the topic of Matache’s talk), subjected to “Gypsy hunts,” and forcibly removed from their families to be adopted by non-Roma. Matache’s talk will examine reparations as an element to healing and accountability, across the globe and in the case of the history of the enslavement of and injustice against the Roma. She will discuss the concept of reparations, translating theory into possible strategies that may prevent future wrongdoing.

In the 20th century, Roma were targeted for extermination by the Nazis—through involuntary sterilization under the 1933 Law for the Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases; were banned to intermarry under the 1935 Nuremberg Laws; labeled as “anti-socials” under the 1937 Laws Against Crime; confined to ghettos; and murdered in killing centers and massacred by mobile killing units. Some estimate that up to 70 percent of the Roma population was exterminated in the early- to mid- 20th century.

The vestiges of these atrocities remain in the systemic racism and denial of human rights, according to Julia White, assistant professor in the Department of Teaching and Leadership in the School of Education, and coordinator of the minor in atrocities studies and practices of social justice. White is also a scholar of Romani culture and history, having been a Fulbright scholar to the Slovak republic, and completing her dissertation research on the education of Romani children in Slovakia. She says that Roma are often denied housing and forced to live in settlements outside of towns. They are refused employment; the unemployment rate for many Romani is 25-55 percent throughout Europe (compared with 5-20 percent for non-Roma), with some regions as high as 100 percent.

“Romani children are vastly overrepresented in special education, with the majority being taught in segregated schools,” White says. “Roma women are still sterilized without consent, and there are still pogroms against Roma.”

Matache will talk about how Roma are calling for reparations for enslavement and a mending of the Roma culture that has suffered since slavery was ended during the industrial revolution. “By acknowledging this enslavement, and the impact of continued, systemic racism, she will both highlight a history that is largely unknown and allow us to make parallels to other cases,” White says.

White says Matache’s message connects to present-day issues and will inform how we think about justice in on our campus and in our country. As coordinator of the interdisciplinary minor in atrocity studies and practices of social justice, White educates about how to recognize oppression, but also how to stand up to atrocity through having informed conversation, activism or larger-scale movements.

“We have a responsibility to learn history, not to be willfully ignorant of how history shapes current repressive and oppressive systems,” White says. “We have to acknowledge the past, and act on it in material ways, to ensure that everyone can enjoy the human rights to which they are entitled.”

The Zell Lecture is sponsored by Lauri ’77 and Jeffrey Zell ’77. This annual lecture invites speakers from disciplines related to the intersections of history, memory, international human rights to discuss how we can use the lessons of the past to inform and improve our world. Co-sponsors of this year’s event are the Syracuse University Humanities Center, the Lender Center for Social Justice, the College of Law Journal of Global Rights & Organizations and Impunity Watch News, the International Relations Program, the Social Sciences Ph.D. Program and the Department of History.

Speaking Up About Stuttering

Jennifer Russo — Wed, 19 Feb 2020 14:57:51 +0000

Michael Wilson, Haley Evans and David Haas after the MBS screening in January

It was standing room only in the Peter Graham Scholarly Commons on the night of Jan. 23. Over 100 people, including Syracuse University students, families and medical professionals, were there to see the screening of a new documentary film about a common but often misunderstood speech disorder: stuttering. According to the National Stuttering Association, about five percent of children will stutter, and one percent of the general population will continue to stutter throughout their lives. Though the severity varies widely, it’s estimated that there are over three million stutterers in the United States alone.

Haley Evans, a graduate student in the inclusive education (grades 1-6) master’s program in the School of Education, is one of them. Haley’s advocacy and connections were the catalyst for the successful campus screening event of “My Beautiful Stutter,” and opened the door for others to share their experiences with stuttering without fear of stigma. The documentary follows five kids who stutter, and after having suffered bullying and stigmatization, find friendship and solace in an arts program. The Jan. 23 event screened the emotional film and followed it with a discussion panel featuring Haley and members of the community who stutter.

Growing up in Cazenovia, New York, Haley did not know anybody else who stuttered. As supportive as her family and friends were, she says that they could not truly understand what it means to live with the stress of having a stutter.

“Fighting stuttering can be very lonely,” she says, “especially when you are trying to hide it so you don’t get judged.”

For Haley, connecting her communities at home and at Syracuse University with the support she receives from the local chapter of the National Stuttering Association has been a fulfilling part of bringing the film to campus.

“Last summer I was scrolling through Instagram, and there was an ad for a documentary on stuttering. They were looking for people’s experiences,” Haley recalls. “I sent back a blurb of and let them know that I would love to help with anything they need.”

Haley continued to follow the social media account for the documentary through its development, and in the fall the film crew reached out to see if she would facilitate a screening in Syracuse.

“I thought only close friends and family would come,” she says. But Haley cast a wide net and drew the support of professors Beth Ferri and Christy Ashby in the School of Education. She also assembled a discussion panel, including David Haas, co-leader of the Syracuse chapter of the National Stuttering Association, who is a local writer, historian and blogger, and Michael Wilson, D.D.S., owner of a multi-location dental practice.

“The amount of support from the school, and Professor Ferri especially, was overwhelming. I am very proud to be a part of a school that wanted to showcase this film as much as I did,” Haley says. “The faculty and staff were very helpful with showing me the steps to bring a film like this on campus.”

Haley says that all of her experiences at Syracuse have been positive, and taking on a large event like this was no exception. “My first meeting at Syracuse University was with Christy Ashby. She was so patient and understanding of my stutter, which was a wonderful introduction to the campus community,” she recalls. “That impression has stayed with me. My peers and other professors have showed me their compassion and understanding. I’ve felt supported every step of the way through my journey here.”

Haley intends to teach in a special education setting, but also earn a doctorate in special education. Her dream job is to serve as a director of special education for a whole school district. Ready to begin her career as an educator, Haley offers this important lesson, a line from the film:

“we are all human beings who want to be heard, and that means letting everyone have as much time as they need to speak…”

Masingila Appointed to NYS Professional Standards and Practices Board for Teaching

Jennifer Russo — Tue, 28 Jan 2020 18:21:53 +0000

Joanna Masingila

School of Education Dean Joanna Masingila has been appointed to the New York State Professional Standards and Practices Board for Teaching (PSPB). The 31-member board serves in an advisory capacity to the Board of Regents and the commissioner of education on matters related to teaching in New York state. The board is composed of K-12 teachers and administrators, higher education representatives, public representatives and one teacher education student. Masingila will serve through September 2023.

“It’s an honor to be selected to serve and be asked to advise the Board of Regents and the commissioner of education on things related to teaching and teacher preparation,” Masingila says. “This appointment aligns with my strong interest in preparing well-qualified teachers and supporting teaching practices at all levels in New York state, and allows me to use my experience as president elect, president, and now past president of the New York Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (NYACTE) in service to the profession.”

Masingila serves on the PSPB Higher Education subcommittee. Full board meetings are held monthly in Albany, and the two-day agendas include whole-board discussions and subcommittee discussions. Meeting agendas are based on input from directives from the commissioner or Board of Regents, New York State Education Department-developed initiatives presented for PSPB input, and PSPB-generated issues and topics of interest.

Masingila cites several issues that have been at the forefront of teacher education for the last five years. Her roles as a dean, in NYACTE and now on the PSPB have allowed her a platform to engage in advocacy around these challenges that include: teacher shortages, supporting and retaining new and developing teachers, holding alternative certification programs to the same standards as teacher education programs at institutions of higher education, and addressing the de-professionalization of teaching.

“I look forward to working with other members of the PSPB on addressing these and other issues,” Masingila says.

School of Education Hosts 16 Fulbright International Teachers for Spring 2020 Semester

Jennifer Russo — Fri, 17 Jan 2020 14:47:40 +0000

For the second consecutive year, the School of Education is hosting recipients of the Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Program for International Teachers (Fulbright DAI), which brings international primary and secondary teachers to the U.S. for a semester to pursue individual or group projects, take courses for professional development, observe and share their expertise with U.S. colleagues.

For the second consecutive year, the School of Education is hosting recipients of the Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Program for International Teachers.

Sixteen teachers from 13 countries, including Botswana, New Zealand, Indonesia and Uganda, will live on campus for the semester and participate in classroom placements in the Syracuse, Jamesville-DeWitt, East Syracuse-Minoa and Solvay school districts. In addition to working in area schools, these teachers will collaborate as a professional learning community on inquiry projects to develop materials, workshops or other resources to meet an educational need in their home country.

Teachers are supported by faculty advisors from the School of Education through advising and mentoring, and graduate student peer mentors are also supporting the group as they settle in the Syracuse community. Members of the community will also serve as area hosts, or “friendship families,” sharing cultural and social experiences with the visitors.

“We are thrilled to be hosting another cohort of Fulbright DAI recipients,” says School of Education Dean Joanna Masingila, who co-leads a weekly seminar course for the Fulbright teachers. “The Fulbright DAI selection process is highly competitive, so these 16 scholars represent the very best of what is happening in global teaching and learning. I’m thrilled that the School of Education was again chosen to be a host institution for this program.”

The Fulbright DAI program is sponsored by the U.S Department of State, with support from the U.S. Government, and is administered by IREX, a global development and education organization. Two other institutions are also hosting Fulbright DAI cohorts in spring 2020—Arizona State University and Indiana University of Pennsylvania. The Fulbright teachers arrived in Syracuse late last week, after several days of orientation in Washington, D.C. with the participants from the other institutions.

Finding the Beat, Finding the Story: Researching Music Education

Jennifer Russo — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 18:02:05 +0000

Where is hip-hop in school music education, asks David Knapp?

Music education should stress the vernacular—that is, reflect the music language of students—says Knapp, assistant professor of music education in the School of Education and the Setnor School of Music in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, who uses hip-hop, rock and steel drums in his efforts to reach more students.

David Knapp works with a student from the Leadership and Public Service High School in New York City.

“Hip-hop is the No. 1 musical genre in the United States and the world. It also represents a powerful and important segment of American cultural history. Yet, it is essentially absent from school��music education,” says Knapp. “Along with others in the field, I am trying to articulate a vision for music education that includes hip-hop on its own terms.”

To that end, Knapp facilitated a workshop in the Syracuse University Early Scholars Series, “Hip-Hop and American Life,” at the Fisher Center in New York City late last year. Educators, producers and emcees worked with students from lower Manhattan’s Leadership and Public Service High School, who broke into small groups to compose their own verses and accompanying beats. They were introduced to Ableton Live software, the industry’s standard tool for composing, recording and arranging beats, also used by DJ’s and mixmasters.

The program began by connecting a discussion of misogyny to the Queen Latifah track “U.N.I.T.Y.” and inviting students to think of something they’ve observed��in their own��lives.

“The results were amazing,” Knapp says. “I later heard��the school administration and teachers remark that they had never seen some of these students work so hard on a project, that students who had not lifted their heads off the desk in English class all year were spending hours focused on writing��their verses.”

Knapp emphasizes that music education must understand the cultural stories that music tells. His participation in the New York City workshop was part of his research into music��teaching models that allow greater equity and access for��student participation.

Approximately 24 percent of U.S. high school students take a music class, with racial minorities and lower socioeconomic status students even more underrepresented. Knapp says he’s exploring the theory that “if we create more diverse vernacular music opportunities in schools, meaning music that reflects the musical language of students, more students will enroll in music classes.”

At Leon High School in Tallahassee, Florida, steel drum instructor Elizabeth DeLamater introduced Knapp to the instrument and its cultural importance.

“The music was important, but equally important were the stories the music told, the music’s connection to the people and places in Trinidad,” Knapp says. “Though I had been heavily��involved in music throughout all my schooling, I had never experienced this kind of thick narrative within music education.”

Knapp started his teaching career as director of the steel band at Leon High School. He received a Ph.D. in music education from Florida State University in 2012 and has used rock bands to study music’s effect on homeless and immigrant populations. He remains a professional steel band performer whose book, “Introduction to Steel Band,” was published in 2009.

But in 2012 jobs were hard to find for someone with this eclectic background, so Knapp decided to take his interests to the United Arab Emirates. He taught high school and became an assistant professor of music education at the Emirates College for Advanced Education in Abu Dhabi.

His most memorable student was a granddaughter of Yemen’s deposed leader, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to whom he taught guitar. Since she wore considerably more modest hijab than the other girls, Knapp says, he was careful to avoid the professional touch typically used to teach guitar fingerings and posture.

“She was a delightful student and a��Taylor Swift fan, so apart from her prominent last name,��she fit right in.”

Knapp’s interest in vernacular music education parallels his work in community music. They share “the same underlying philosophy of developing music education��to empower��diverse communities,” he says.

Shortly after arriving at Syracuse University in 2015, he learned of the Catholic Youth Organization’s work with the city’s large refugee population. He began volunteering to help refugee students with their schoolwork, and over several years laid the framework for the New American All-Stars, a rock band that’s the hallmark of his Music in the Community program.

The band—with members from Afghanistan,��Congo, Jordan, Rwanda, Sri Lanka and Syria—celebrates its second anniversary in February. The performers write songs that tell their personal stories, several of which have been recorded. And the band is filming a music video for its lead singer’s song “I’ll Come Back for You.”

Knapp’s first descriptive��article about the band will appear in School Music News, and this semester he will collect qualitative data for an article in the International��Journal of Community��Music to be presented at��its biannual conference in Helsinki in August. Last year he co-authored “The Shelter Band: Homelessness, social support and self-esteem in a community music partnership,” also in the International��Journal of Community��Music. Rock band members included homeless shelter residents and university music education students in Florida. Qualitative data showed band participants demonstrated improved perceptions of social support and self-esteem.

With his Syracuse University students, Knapp has formed the Syracuse All Steel Percussion Orchestra (SASPO). Its musical styles include calypso, jazz, rock and hip-hop, a range for pan that Knapp favors. They ensemble performs publicly during the academic year, a recent performance late last year featured internationally renowned steel pan artist Victor Provost.

When he finds any free time from these musical passions, Knapp indulges his interest as a player and spectator of e-sports, particularly StarCraft II. He hopes for a few hours each week to watch his favorite players compete in South Korea’s Global StarCraft II League.

Syracuse University Part of $7.5 Million Grant to Support Doctoral Students in Special Education

Jennifer Russo — Wed, 30 Oct 2019 12:34:12 +0000

Syracuse University joins Florida International University (FIU) and Arizona State University (ASU) in securing a $7.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to support students pursuing doctoral degrees in special education.

The grant, along with matching funds, will support a total of 26 doctoral students in Project INCLUDE (INclusive Consortium of Leaders in Urban Disabilities Education) in the School of Education and at FIU and ASU. Eight doctoral students will be funded at Syracuse, and they will research ways to address the needs of culturally diverse students with disabilities in inclusive urban settings. A national recruiting effort is underway to attract a cohort of applicants who will begin the program in fall 2020.

Universities and school districts face shortages of special education faculty, particularly those who are prepared to work with culturally and linguistically diverse students with disabilities. Project INCLUDE will bolster the ranks of university faculty preparing future teachers for diverse and inclusive classrooms.

“Project INCLUDE will be a leader in creating the next generation of doctoral leaders in inclusive education,” says Beth Ferri, professor of inclusive education and coordinator of the doctoral program in special education in the School of Education. “To address some of the most pressing issues facing special education, including the school-to-prison nexus and the overrepresentation of students of color in segregated classrooms, there is an urgent need for teacher educators who possess the knowledge and skills to implement culturally sustaining inclusive practices and to improve outcomes of multiple-marginalized students with disabilities in urban schools.”

Co-principal investigators on this grant project are Associate Professor Christy Ashby and Assistant Professor Julia White from the department of Teaching and Leadership in the School of Education.

By recruiting a diverse cohort for the program, Project INCLUDE will help to diversify special education faculty. Research has shown that diversifying the faculty increases the likelihood of success among all students.

Students accepted into one of these doctoral programs will work with expert researchers and their doctoral peers at all three universities. Travel funding will be provided to present joint research projects, and annual research forums will bring students from the three institutions together.

School of Education Partners with IVMF and University College to Offer Online Degree to U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy Fellows

Jennifer Russo — Fri, 06 Sep 2019 20:20:39 +0000

These 10 sergeants major stationed at Fort Bliss in Texas have begun work on master’s degrees in instructional design, development and evaluation (IDD&E) offered fully online through the School of Education.

As thousands of students began classes at Syracuse University this week, 10 sergeants major stationed at the academy at Fort Bliss, Texas, also joined the Orange Family. They are part of the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy Fellowship Program, and through a partnership with Syracuse University, the fellows will complete master’s degrees in instructional design, development and evaluation (IDD&E), offered fully online through the School of Education. The fellows, who are assigned to Fort Bliss for three years, will finish their degrees within a year and go on to design and instruct the academy’s Sergeants Major Course, which educates the military’s enlisted personnel to operate on all levels of leadership.

For this inaugural cohort, the fellows were welcomed to Syracuse University when seven members of the University’s senior leadership, faculty and staff visited Fort Bliss for a program orientation in the middle of August. In the future, the fellows may have opportunities to visit the Syracuse University campus. Syracuse was selected as an educational partner for the Fellowship Program not only because of the high quality of the IDD&E master’s program, but the support and partnership of the Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) and the Center for Online and Digital Learning (CODL) at University College.

“We are proud of this significant opportunity to partner with USASMA and our colleagues in the School of Education and University College,” says J. Michael Haynie, vice chancellor for strategic initiatives and innovation and IVMF executive director. “This partnership is a natural fit given the University’s longstanding commitment and history serving veterans and other military-connected students, preparing them for leadership opportunities in their respective services and beyond. The University is excited to continue and extend this legacy as a result of this new partnership.”

The online master’s degree in instructional design, development and evaluation consists of 30 graduate credits with the goal of developing expertise to design, create, implement and evaluate non-technology and technology-supported instructional solutions for a variety of educational and professional settings. Students participate in coursework areas such as�� principles of instruction and learning, techniques in educational evaluation, ��technologies for instructional settings, and strategies in educational project management.

“During orientation, several fellows asked about the use of these competencies after their military career,” says Tiffany A. Koszalka, professor of instructional design, development and evaluation in the School of Education. “We shared examples of where our alumni have secured positions all around the world. Some fellows suggested that they will continue with their military career and this will be helpful to them. Some suggested they will retire from the military and move into civilian instructional design careers.”

“The decision to build and support the M.S. in IDD&E program with University College demonstrates the University’s commitment to leveraging our deep capabilities in course design and production, proven experience marketing online programs, and feature-rich platforms and infrastructure,” says Michael Frasciello, dean of University College. “The level of support, quality production of rigorous courses, faculty engagement and student success we are achieving are now institutional benchmarks for developing and producing future Syracuse University online programs.”

“The online version of the M.S. IDD&E is the same high-quality program with the same instructional goals and expected learning outcomes as our long-running campus-based M.S. IDD&E program,” Koszalka says. “Several activities and resources were digitized for access by a distributed audiences and new communication channels, both asynchronous and synchronous, were added to provide communication with peers and the instruction. Each course (both online and campus-based) contains ample opportunities for interactions between learners and content, learners and peers, and learners and instruction.”

The online program has also enrolled non-military students into the inaugural cohort, Koszalka says. The numbers of distance learners are expected to grow over the next few years as Fort Bliss has projected 15 students for next year, and IDD&E has been seeing an uptick in inquiries for the new master’s program as well as the department’s certificate of advanced study in designing digital instruction.

“We are very pleased with our partnership with USASMA and excited to see a fully online MS in IDDE program,” says Joanna Masingila, dean of the School of Education. “Our collaboration with University College and CODL is very important to us, and we see a great potential for growth for School of Education courses and programs that serve both military personnel and civilians in an online format.”

City High School’s Summer Bridge Program Connects to Syracuse University

Jennifer Russo — Fri, 02 Aug 2019 14:28:30 +0000

Fifteen rising ninth graders are on the Syracuse University campus this week as part of a developing program to encourage students from the Institute of Technology at Syracuse Central high school (ITC) to seek pathways to college and careers in bio-tech fields.

The students will be learning about reading maps, calculating distances and collecting data, and applying that knowledge to determining the average response times of emergency vehicles to different areas of the City of Syracuse. Their assignment is to determine if Syracuse needs an additional hospital, and if so, where in the city it should be located. The students put their orienteering, navigational and measuring skills to the test on a tour of campus earlier in the week.

ITC math teacher David Fraher is planning to use the week’s activities and findings throughout the school year. “We discussed coming up with a proposal, where the students might contact a city official, to give them the experience of advocating using the data they collected,” he says.

The four-day campus program is being led by School of Education professors Duane Graysay and Thomas Bull and five teachers from ITC. This campus component is an extension of the ITC’s existing Summer Bridge Program for new freshman offered through the Syracuse City School District, but the hope is to develop lasting relationships with the students and teachers at ITC through this and future collaborations.

“The idea for this came out of one of our Field Relations Advisory Committee meetings, and we are optimistic about the reciprocal benefits for the ITC and School of Education,” says Tom Bull, director of field relations and assistant teaching professor in the School of Education.�� “ITC students will have a learning experience on the Syracuse University campus early in their high school careers, hopefully igniting a desire to make a commitment to higher education down the road. And we have an opportunity to build relationships with the great educators at the ITC who we rely on to host and mentor our pre-service student teachers during the year.”

ITC Principal Donna Formica agrees. “It’s been a wonderful opportunity for our students and teachers.”

Naomi Ali G’00, living environment teacher at ITC, is excited about the theme of the workshop, and hopes the content will inspire an appreciation for learning in the students as they begin high school. “Whether its math, or science or art, it’s not just material on a test, it’s part of your life. Own it,” she says.

Exploring Education in Kenya

Jennifer Russo — Wed, 26 Jun 2019 19:48:09 +0000

After two decades of teaching, learning, research and mentoring, the ’Cuse in Kenya program has evolved into a study abroad course, EDU 400/600 Experiencing Education in Rural and Urban Settings in Kenya.

Led by Joanna Masingila, School of Education dean and professor, and Jeffery Mangram, associate professor of teaching and leadership and Provost’s Faculty Fellow, the two-week course is an opportunity for seven education graduate students and one education undergraduate student to engage in learning about the Kenyan educational system. The students work with teachers and students in a rural day secondary school and primary school, and an urban boarding secondary school and school for students with disabilities.

The group will also visit cultural and historic sites, and engage in lecture discussions with several Syracuse University alumni around education in Kenya and the social, cultural and political history of Kenya.

Dean Masingila was a Fulbright Scholar to Kenya in 1998. “There are many things we can learn from education in Kenya, including how education happens in a more collectivist society and how learners are supported in becoming fluent in multiple languages,” Masingila says. “For example, children in upper primary and secondary school are able to read, write and speak in their mother tongue, Kiswahili, and English.”

The “’Cuse in Kenya” series of projects began in 1999, when students from Kenyatta University first came to Syracuse University for graduate studies through a special partnership. A formal agreement between the schools of education at Kenyatta University and Syracuse University was signed in 2000, renewed in 2006 and again in 2014. The two schools have collaborated on research projects, mentoring doctoral students and hosting international conferences.

In 2011–2014, the partnership with Kenyatta University resulted in a grant from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) that built the capacity of the teacher education faculty members at KU—in teaching strategies, technology usage and research. Kenyan doctoral graduates from Syracuse University are building capacity in Kenya, working in Kenyan universities and at other Kenyan educational institutions. Others are working on these initiatives from the United States.

Last year, the 20 years of collaboration was marked with the first Syracuse University alumni event hosted in Kenya, and hosted by School of Education faculty and Board of Visitors members. A second event will be held this year, and hosted again by Dean Masingila.

“We have increasing interest among alumni in Kenya to support current and future students, as well as network among those who have returned to Kenya to work,” Masingila says.

Beyond the teaching and learning in educational settings, the study abroad group will experience the cultural and environmental wonders of urban and rural Kenya during their two-week stay. Trips are planned to Kiambethu Tea Farm, an animal orphanage and giraffe center, Maasai Market, and national parks and museums.

The class is blogging about their trip at and is active on social media at .

Canadian Physiologist, Mount Everest Expert Speaking Today

Jennifer Russo — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 14:24:14 +0000

Trevor Day at Mount Everest base camp.

Trevor Day, associate professor of physiology at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, is giving a lecture today (Tuesday, April 16) hosted by the Department of Exercise Science in the School of Education. His talk, “Cerebral Blood Flow Regulation During Incremental Ascent to Everest Base Camp in Nepal,” is at 7 p.m. in Maxwell Auditorium in Maxwell Hall. To request accommodations, contact Julia Fuqua at��jafuqua@syr.edu or call 315.443.2115.

Day is an integrative cardiorespiratory, cerebrovascular and acid-base physiologist committed to physiology education through his teaching and laboratory research in basic and applied human physiology.

His laboratory and fieldwork research interests and expertise include the chemoreflex control of breathing in response to acute and chronic blood gas challenges (e.g. high altitude), cardiorespiratory reflexes and interactions, orthostatic stress, cerebral blood flow regulation, acid-base physiology, sedentary behavior and sleep apnea, all in healthy human participants.

Day has worked extensively on the physiology of high altitude in the Mount Everest region since 2012 and has organized or co-organized three previous research expeditions to Everest Base Camp in the Nepal Himalaya (2016, 2017, 2018). He was an expert collaborator on the 2018 Syracuse University Mount Everest expedition led by Tom Brutsaert, professor and chair of the Department of Exercise Science, where 29 students and scholars participated in various field research studies on the human body’s response to high altitude.

He also has an active interest in science communication, particularly how scientists can better engage the public in the importance and relevance of the scientific endeavor.

Exercise Science Professor Gwendolyn Thomas Secures NIH Grant to Study Exercise and Cannabis Use

Jennifer Russo — Tue, 09 Apr 2019 22:06:08 +0000

Gwendolyn Thomas, assistant professor of exercise science in the School of Education, has received a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to study the effects of resistance exercise on people with severe cannabis use disorders (CUDs). It’s the first such study, Thomas says.

Gwendolyn Thomas

Thomas, director of the Exercise Prescription Laboratory (ExRx Lab), will perform this research under the NIH Small Grant Program (R03), for projects completed in two years or less.

“Given this increased prevalence of problematic cannabis use, identifying effective behavioral strategies for individuals experiencing problems with addiction would offer significant benefits,” Thomas says. “Exercise, particularly resistance exercise, is a behavioral intervention with considerable potential as an adjunctive treatment for CUD.”

Rates of hazardous use of cannabis—the most widely used illicit drug—and CUDs have continued to rise in recent years. Increased exposure produces higher risk for detrimental psychological and behavioral effects of cannabis use, Thomas says.

The study will address these issues by implementing an acute resistance exercise protocol in men and women with severe CUD. The study will examine the effects of acute resistance exercise on craving, mood, anxiety and markers of reward and stress regulation, and the trajectory of these effects in the subsequent days.

As an exercise physiologist, Thomas focuses on exercise endocrinology and exercise prescription in the management of chronic disease in at-risk health populations. Her research examines the role of resistance exercise in prevention and treatment of chronic disease, with particular interest in metabolic and immune mechanisms.

Explaining “an acute bout of exercise,” she says: “My lab looks at acute protocols and chronic protocols. An acute bout of resistance exercise is one session, or basically one workout. If you string a bunch of workouts together, you have a chronic protocol.

“So basically what I’m hoping to investigate is how will one session affect the hormonal response that can then affect craving” and other markers.

She will recruit participants to meet eligibility requirements who are either community or University members.

The project is a collaboration between the Exercise Prescription Laboratory and the REPEAT Lab in the Department of Psychology, run by Emily Ansell, associate professor of psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences. The REPEAT lab uses repeated measurement to understand individual differences in risk and resilience.

Thomas is the principal investigator on the grant, and Ansell is co-investigator.

This is the second NIH grant to the Department of Exercise Science in two years and the fourth among current faculty, says Tom Brutsaert, professor of exercise science and department chair.

“It is significant that our faculty are successfully competing for federal research dollars from the NIH and underscores the importance of physical activity and exercise as primary factors determining population and individual-level health and well-being,” he says.

“This R03 award recognizes the merit of Dr. Thomas’ project investigating cannabis use and resistance exercise, and signifies this work as an important area of research inquiry,” says School of Education Associate Dean for Research Melissa Luke. “We anticipate that Dr. Thomas’ innovative work has a high potential for additional NIH funding in the future.”

Thomas cites the goal of the NIH and the National Institute on Drug Abuse to develop new and improved treatments to help people with substance use disorders achieve and maintain meaningful, sustained recovery. “Resistance exercise is a treatment that could produce promising results,” she says. “Resistance exercise is an intervention that is both easy to implement, readily available, could support abstinence, and address psychological effects associated with early withdrawal.”

The study’s findings will inform further development of exercise interventions for individuals with CUD, she adds.

School of Education Offers Tuition Support for Master’s Degree Programs through Orange Family Scholarship

Jennifer Russo — Wed, 31 Oct 2018 13:06:00 +0000

Children of Syracuse University faculty and staff members who have graduated within the last five years and enroll into any School of Education master’s degree program are eligible for the Orange Family Scholarship. The School of Education Orange Family Scholarship will cover 25 percent of the cost of tuition for any of the school’s 25 master’s programs across 7 academic departments.

Graduate degrees from the School of Education lead to careers in teaching, technology, counseling, research and leadership in diverse fields in the United States and globally. Many School of Education master’s programs can be completed in one year.

Prospective students are invited to learn about programs, the Orange Family Scholarship, and other funding sources at the School of Education Graduate Programs Open House on Friday, Nov. 9, from 4:30 – 6 p.m. in the Sharon Jacquet Education Commons, Huntington Hall. Faculty and students from across departments, admissions staff and financial aid staff will be present to talk with interested students about opportunities for graduate study at the School of Education.

For questions and more information on School of Education graduate programs, scholarship opportunities, or applying, contact��Speranza��Migliore at��gradrcrt@syr.edu��or 315-443-2505.

CFE Doctoral Student Receives Prestigious Fellowship

Jennifer Russo — Thu, 17 May 2018 20:05:56 +0000

Kelsey Dayle John��(Diné)

Kelsey��Dayle John (Diné), a doctoral candidate in the Department of Cultural Foundations of Education (CFE) in the , has been selected by the National Academy of Education to receive a 2018 Spencer Dissertation Fellowship. According to the NAEd website, the $27,500 Spencer fellowships support “individuals whose dissertations show potential for bringing fresh and constructive perspectives to the history, theory, analysis or practice of formal or informal education anywhere in the world.” John was one of 35 fellows chosen from a highly competitive pool of applicants.

“The NAE/Spencer fellowships are among the most prestigious awards supporting education-focused doctoral research in the U.S.,” says Kelly Chandler-Olcott, associate dean for research in the School of Education. “This is a singular recognition for Kelsey as a scholar, and it brings important visibility to the CFE department and the School.”

“My dissertation is about centering Diné��(Navajo) people and knowledges by��collecting Diné��knowledge about horses to strengthen��Navajo Tribal College and Universities systems,” says John. “I center the��horse because it represents connection, healing and decolonizing education for Diné.”

In 2014, John received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. She completed a CAS in women’s and gender dtudies in May 2016, and an M.S. in cultural foundations of education in May 2017. She earned a B.S. in educational studies from Colgate University.

��John grew up in Oklahoma, and says that horses were her “first friends and first teachers,” and therefore influenced her research interests. She chose to pursue her studies in CFE at ��Syracuse because of the program’s interdisciplinary scholarship and pedagogy.

Interdisciplinary study is, “really��important��for my work with my community because in the Navajo way everything is connected,” she says. “Just like the horse, it��connects��to all��parts of life and has to be taken holistically.”

New American All-Stars Music Group to Make Debut Appearance Wednesday

Jennifer Russo — Tue, 24 Apr 2018 17:46:05 +0000

Two-dozen music students from Syracuse University and the Syracuse City School District will collaborate in a rock concert in Setnor Auditorium Wednesday to celebrate the diversity of music in the community.

The New American All Stars practice for their debut concert at Setnor Auditorium.

It’s the debut concert of the Music in the Community program run by David Knapp, an assistant professor of music education in the and . The musicians include music education students in VPA’s Setnor School of Music and the School of Education and members of the New American All-Stars from the Catholic Youth Organization’s Refugee Youth Program. The program includes popular and original songs from the United States, Syria and Rwanda.

“The primary goal is to provide the students at CYO with a feeling of success and accomplishment,” says Knapp. “By doing this, the audience will see the rich diversity and talent within our city.”

Twelve students between the ages of 13 and 18 comprise the core of New American All-Stars. Coming from Congo, Rwanda, Syria, Jordan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, they represent the diversity of Syracuse, says Knapp.

They perform on a��variety of rock band instruments—including electric guitars and basses, a drum set and��keyboard—and will be joined by 14 undergraduate and graduate��students in the Secondary General Music Methods course, who will play their own songs and accompany the New American All-Stars.

The New American All-Stars and students in the methods course wrote or selected all the music on the program, Knapp says. “Once students selected their music, I simply transcribed and taught them��the chord changes. But many of these students at CYO��were already so��musically talented, they were able to figure out the music themselves.”

Music in the Community began in fall 2017 to connect undergraduate and graduate student experiences with community programs, Knapp says.

“In doing so, music education was able to partner with community organizations, like CYO, in providing much-needed services, while also giving our students meaningful pre-service learning experiences with diverse groups in our Syracuse community.”

The performance is made possible by support from the John L. and Dona Lynn Kreischer Scholars Initiative at the School of Education. Jack Kreischer��III ’65 is a Life Trustee of Syracuse University and his wife, Lynn Duncan Kreischer ’66, is an emerita member of the School of Education Board of Visitors and former chair. They set up the fund to support the Teaching English Language Learners program, with preference for literacy collaboration with the music education program on community music.

The Kreischers’ “continued commitment to the university and Syracuse community��has allowed for this kind of opportunity to partner in ways that support student and community outcomes,” Knapp says.

The New American All-Stars concert runs from noon-1 p.m. in Setnor Auditorium of Crouse College, followed by a reception. The events are free and open to the public.

School of Education’s Inaugural Keith Distinguished Speaker Series to Feature Pinkney Family

Jennifer Russo — Wed, 14 Feb 2018 15:30:43 +0000

A new lecture series devoted to early childhood literacy debuts this week with the most prominent family in the field of children’s literature and illustration.

Jerry Pinkney, Gloria Jean Pinkney, Brian Pinkney and Andrea Davis Pinkney ’85 will visit Syracuse for a two-day residency on campus and off, Thursday and Friday, Feb. 15 and 16. They will discuss how social justice and representation of African American culture in children’s literature became their life’s work. The Pinkneys will appear as the inaugural presenters in the Jo-Linda and Dennis Keith Distinguished Speaker Series.

The Pinkneys will sign books on Thursday evening at 6:15 p.m. in the Milton Atrium of the Life Sciences Complex. Following the book signing event, at 7 p.m., the Pinkneys will present a public keynote titled “Raising Readers.” In this interactive live stage presentation they will share the influences that have inspired them to collaborate on hundreds of notable children’s books. Attendees will be invited into their creative book-making process through storytelling, imagery and song.

On Friday, the family will present at a local Syracuse city school, and will also host a community reading event at Beauchamp Branch library, at 2 p.m. The library event is open to families, librarians and members of the community.

On Friday evening, the Pinkneys will wrap up their residency with events at the Community Folk Art Center. At 5 p.m. the Pinkneys will present the talk “TWO SHED LIGHT—The Visual Storytelling of Jerry & Brian Pinkney” in combination with a gallery showing of selected illustrations from the collections of Jerry and Brian Pinkney. A book signing and reception will follow from 6-8 p.m.

For more information about these public events, directions, parking and accommodations, visit soe.syr.edu or call the School of Education at 315.443.4696.

Books—and reading—are the Pinkney family fabric. Their name is on the covers of more than 175 books, and it seems as if they have won almost as many awards.

Andrea Davis Pinkney, who graduated from the , married into the family. Brian is her husband, Jerry and Gloria his parents.

Davis Pinkney remembers learning how to read when her parents introduced her to “The Snowy Day”��by Ezra Jack Keats.

“Keats’ beautifully��simple narrative and evocative illustrations were a game-changer for me. They took me by the hand and invited me into the experience of words and pictures,” says Davis Pinkney, vice president and executive editor for Scholastic and a 2008 winner of the Arents Award, Syracuse University’s highest alumni honor.

“I��later discovered ‘The Snowy Day’��(published in 1962) was the first mainstream book to feature an African American child as the main character. I’m sure that seeing��myself reflected in��Peter’s, the main character’s,��world played a big role in my desire to embrace books and reading. Books with a multitude of experiences and representations offer��a powerful reason why diversity is vitally important in the books we share with children.’’

Davis Pinkney’s books have received multiple Coretta Scott King Book Awards, Jane Addams Children’s Literature Honor citations and four NAACP Image Award nominations. She was named one of the 25 Most Influential Black Women in Business by The Network Journal and has received the Medgar Evers College Lifetime Achievement Award.

Between them, she and Brian have published more than 50 children’s books. She wrote and he illustrated “Duke Ellington,” a Caldecott Honor book, and “Alvin Ailey,” a Parenting Publication gold medal winner. Brian also illustrated another Caldecott Honor book, “The Faithful Friend,” by Robert D. San Souci. Brian received the Coretta Scott King Medal for illustrating “In the Time of the Drums” by Kim L. Siegelson, and is also an NAACP Image Award nominee. Their latest collaboration, “Martin Rising: Requiem for a King,” has received six starred reviews, and is a New York Times Editors’ Choice.

Author, illustrator and artist Jerry Pinkney won the Caldecott Medal in 2010 for “The Lion & the Mouse.” He began his career in 1964 with “The Adventures of Spider: West African Folktales” and has illustrated “The Tales of Uncle Remus”; “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi”��by Rudyard Kipling; and “The Old African”��by Julius Lester. His wife and collaborator, Gloria Pinkney, has provided research for his work and is the author of “Back Home” and several more based on its characters, including “The Sunday Outing”—Jerry illustrated them.

“I’ve always taken great pride in my SU heritage” and visited campus many times, says Davis Pinkney. Jerry Pinkney has served as a guest lecturer and instructor in the Department of Illustration in the .

“Now, as a family, we’re very honored and excited��to share our life’s work with the University and surrounding Syracuse communities,” says Davis Pinkney.

Jo-Linda Keith ’65, who spent most of her career as an early childhood teacher in pre-K to first grade, and her husband, Dennis Keith, established this lecture series with a gift last year.

“I have always believed that children need to love reading and writing by the end of first grade,” says Jo-Linda Keith.

“Literacy education—which really includes reading, writing, speaking and listening—has always been, in my mind, the basis by which children learn to communicate and navigate in the world.

Early childhood literacy is the foundation; so, the richness with which teachers present and encourage children to become enthralled with the love of literacy is of great importance.”

In her career in the multicultural town of Montclair, New Jersey, she credits the influence of M. Jerry Weiss,��Distinguished Service Professor of Communications Emeritus��at New Jersey City University. He encouraged her and a colleague to present ways to enhance literacy at state and national reading conferences.

“Those experiences inspired me to use print and pictures from many kinds of early childhood books to widen the horizons of learning with all children. It also gave me ways of incorporating poetry, author studies and reading theater scripts to make every day memorable for literacy adventures.”

In her visits with thousands of schoolchildren annually, Davis Pinkney says, “I am struck with the sad reality that too many children don’t have books in their homes.” She says she gives thanks for public and school libraries, book fairs and book clubs that make access to reading materials affordable, and “caring teachers who��share books in their classrooms.”

About Syracuse University

Founded��in 1870, Syracuse University is a private international research university��dedicated to advancing knowledge and fostering student success through teaching��excellence,��rigorous scholarship and interdisciplinary research. Comprising 11��academic schools and colleges, the University has a long legacy of excellence��in the liberal arts, sciences and��professional disciplines that prepares��students for the complex challenges and emerging opportunities of a rapidly��changing world. Students enjoy the resources of a 270-acre main��campus and��extended campus venues in major national metropolitan hubs and across three��continents. Syracuse’s student body is among the most diverse for an��institution of its��kind across multiple dimensions, and students typically represent��all 50 states and more than 100 countries. Syracuse also has a long legacy of��supporting veterans and is home to��the nationally recognized Institute for��Veterans and Military Families, the first university-based institute in the��U.S. focused on addressing the unique needs of veterans and their��families.

School of Education’s Haddix Wins AACTE Outstanding Book Award

Jennifer Russo — Wed, 31 Jan 2018 20:22:28 +0000

The (AACTE)��has announced Marcelle Haddix as the recipient of the 2018 AACTE Outstanding Book Award for her book “Cultivating Racial and Linguistic Diversity in Literacy Teacher Education: Teachers Like Me.” Haddix is Dean’s Associate Professor and chair of the Department of Reading and Language Arts in the . She will be recognized formally with the award at AACTE’s next month in Baltimore.

Marcelle Haddix

This volume, published in 2016 by Routledge, engages the literacy and English education community in a much-needed conversation about the limited presence of racially and linguistically diverse teachers in the field. It also offers approaches to improve preservice teacher preparation in all subjects in order to better meet the needs of candidates from a variety of racial, ethnic and linguistic backgrounds. Reviewers praised this book for its clear and engaging writing and its well-sourced, thoughtful scholarship—as well as its timely and critical focus on diversifying the teaching workforce.

This award is given annually by AACTE to recognize a book that makes a significant contribution to the knowledge base of educator preparation. Overseen by the AACTE Committee on Research and Dissemination, this award also seeks to honor books that not only are well-written but offer a fresh lens on current assumptions or practices, reorient thinking in the field and show potential for significant impact on policy or practice in educator preparation.

Based in Washington, D.C., AACTE is a national alliance of 800 colleges and universities with educator preparation programs dedicated to high-quality, evidence-based preparation that assures educators are profession-ready as they enter the classroom. The has been recognizing excellence since 1996 in both member institutions and individuals who have made significant contributions to the field of educator preparation. By honoring notable programs and practices, professional accomplishments and scholarship, these awards encourage AACTE members to strengthen the profession through innovation, leadership and inquiry.

Forty School of Education Students Installed into Kappa Delta Pi Honor Society

Jennifer Russo — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 14:30:08 +0000

A student-led initiative has established a chapter of Kappa Delta Pi, the international honor society in education, at the . Forty students were initiated as charter members of Alpha Delta Iota chapter at the installation ceremony in November.

Professor Ben Dotger, School of Education students Patricia Maciolek and Josephine Ryder and Dean Joanna Masingila, from left, present the Kappa Delta Pi Charter at the installation ceremony of the new Alpha Delta Iota chapter of the honor society.

“We all are deeply excited at the prospect of having such a strong communal bond to tie together the entirety of our School of Education,’’ says chapter President Josephine Ryder ’19. “We do not have any other programs like this that are open to the entire school, nor do we have anything that encourages such a sense of family and connectivity within our school.”

Using a variety of programs, services and resources, KDP supports and advances educators throughout the phases and levels of their teaching careers. Founded at the University of Illinois in 1911 to foster excellence in education and promote fellowship among those dedicated to teaching, the society’s membership exceeds 1.2 million.

Students are anticipating their outreach activities, says Ryder, who is dually enrolled in the as well as the School of Education and is a triple major in secondary science education, physics and psychology. Students plan to work with SOE faculty on the Teach Syracuse initiative that aims to get youth of color interested in education professions. Teach Syracuse was a pilot program in three city high schools last year: Corcoran, PSLA @ Fowler and the Institute of Technology at Central.

“We are all excited to have the opportunity to work with these future educators on Literacy Alive projects,” says Ryder about the program run by KDP. Chapter members will schedule an events planning meeting at the beginning of the spring semester. They will discuss fundraising ideas that can support their outreach goals.

“Having a Kappa Delta Pi chapter allows our students to be honored for their academic achievements and provides opportunities for our students to join together to support learners through chapter activities. Additionally, our students can be supported in their professional development throughout their career,” says School of Education Dean Joanna O. Masingila.

A discussion with friends sparked Ryder’s interest in KDP.

“The more I learned about the organization and the amazing work all of the chapters are doing, as well as the resources the society provides to its members, the more excited I became,” she says.

Faculty took notice when students rented a room for an organizational meeting and posted fliers. Ryder credits Amie Redmond, senior assistant dean for academic and student services, for logistical help and contact with a KDP representative.

“I am grateful��for all of the work that everyone has put in to make this happen,” Ryder says. “It has been such a long time coming. I am overjoyed that it is now official.”

The criteria for student membership��are a GPA of at least 3.0, completion of 24 credit hours of collegiate work and completion of six credit hours in the SOE.

Ryder encourages people to like the chapter’s Facebook page () and follow the chapter on Instagram at KDP_SU.

University to Host State of the Art Conference on Postsecondary Education and Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities

Jennifer Russo — Tue, 14 Nov 2017 19:10:09 +0000

The ninth annual State of the Art Conference on Postsecondary Education and Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities runs Wednesday and Thursday, Nov. 15 and 16, at the Sheraton Syracuse University Hotel and Conference Center and the Schine Student Center.

Students in Syracuse University’s InclusiveU program are among the growing population of Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities in higher education and the workforce who will benefit from the work of the researchers at this weekend’s conference at Syracuse University.

Including a first-time parallel Student Leadership Conference, the event will draw more than 300 participants, providing opportunities for colleges and universities, researchers, program staff, parents and self-advocates to learn about the current state of research and practice in the field and to network with each other. Panels include faculty and staff from postsecondary education initiatives, parents, self-advocates and other experts sharing effective practices during breakout sessions with opportunities for group discussion.��The student conference will bring high school and college students into the conversation.

For the first time, the conference—hosted by George Mason University’s Helen A. Kellar Institute for Human Disabilities and the Lawrence B. Taishoff Center for Inclusive Higher Education at Syracuse University—takes place in Syracuse.

“We have professionals coming from universities and centers all over the world, including Austria, Ireland, Canada, Hawaii and Washington,” says Beth Myers, executive director of the Taishoff Center and Lawrence B. Taishoff Professor of Inclusive Education in the . “Tracks include academic supports, promoting policy and systemic change, campus life, innovations in higher education, independent living, family and community support, research and evaluation, program development and transition.”

Filmmaker Dan Habib from the University of New Hampshire Institute on Disability and Micah Fialka-Feldman ’15, a Taishoff Center staff member, will present the opening keynote, including clips from Habib’s forthcoming documentary “Intelligent Lives.” The film tells the stories of Fialka-Feldman and two other young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs).

“I’m sure they will talk about the construction of intelligence as a marker of success and show how some individuals with IDD are pioneers in inclusion, breaking stereotypes about intellectual disability,” says Myers.

Retired Navy Capt. Robert Taishoff, a Syracuse University Trustee, will speak Wednesday afternoon. He is chairman of the Taishoff Family Foundation, which created the Taishoff Center. It’s named for his grandfather, who made it his priority to aid in research and educating society about Down syndrome.

The State of the Art Conference will have 250 participants; 85 students are expected for the Student Leadership Conference. The latter event is open to all students, with an emphasis on young adults who are transitioning into college and current college students. The focus is on students with intellectual disabilities and their peers, including traditionally enrolled friends, classmates and mentors.

Sessions for the students will cover academic life, social connections, self-advocacy, self-representation and housing, along with a ropes course, yoga and a karaoke party.

“The SLC is a gathering of current and future college students with intellectual disabilities. This is so hugely significant because 30 years ago not only would these students not be attending college, many or most of them would be isolated or institutionalized,” says Cara Levine, a Ph.D. student in counseling and counselor education at the School of Education and coordinator of the student conference. “The conference will provide a space for participants to acquire self-advocacy skills and learn about the college experience from one another while making valuable social connections with peers from across the United States and Canada.”

For more information, visit .

Educators Prepare for New State Science Standards at ‘It’s Go Time! Science for All’ Conference

Jennifer Russo — Tue, 07 Nov 2017 15:06:21 +0000

With new state science standards in effect since July 1, another sold-out crowd of teachers and administrators from across the state will converge on Roxboro Road Middle School��today for a conference that brings together national leaders in science education; “live” science lessons featuring Central New York teachers and students; and a special focus on providing equitable and rigorous content for students of all backgrounds.

Lesson study allows teachers to see what works, and what doesn’t, for learners and different levels.

The event marks the second year of a unique collaboration between the Onondaga-Cortland-Madison Board of Cooperative Educational Services (OCM BOCES) and the Syracuse University . Support is also being provided by the Smithsonian Science Education Center and several local teacher centers: Central New York/Oswego County; Jamesville DeWitt/Syracuse University; West Genesee/Syracuse University; Syracuse; and Cayuga-Onondaga.

Called “It’s Go Time! Science for All,” the conference in Mattydale��is focusing on the new standards but also incorporate a research-driven professional development practice called lesson study, which is generally defined as a collaborative process for planning, analyzing and continuously improving instructional practices.

Keynote speaker Okhee Lee is a professor of childhood education at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development. She led the equity and diversity writing team for the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), an initiative developed by 26 states and several private foundations that formed the basis for the New York State Science Learning Standards (NYSSLS). The standards include pre-school through 12^th grade.

“As the NGSS begin to take hold in schools and classrooms across the nation and the state, it is critically important that educators are prepared for classroom implementation,” Lee says. “This conference occurs at this critical juncture.”

At the conference, teachers and students from four Central New York districts��are participating in lessons aligned with the new state learning standards. As the lessons unfold, conference participants will stand close by, observing individual students and taking notes on how each student’s learning progresses.

The lessons include:

How can you send a message with sound? (featuring first-graders from Bolivar Road in Chittenango)
Understanding earth’s topography and how it can change (featuring fourth graders from Dr. Weeks Elementary School in Syracuse)
How can we provide fresh water to those in need?(featuring fifth-graders from Roxboro Road Middle School in North Syracuse)
Analysis of honey bee colonies to understand colony collapse(featuring students from Marcellus High School)
Developing models to explain energy transfer when magnets interact��(featuring eighth-graders from Jamesville-Dewitt Middle School)

“Lesson study gives teachers the chance to carefully observe learning as it occurs,” says Catherine E. Lewis, a conference speaker and internationally known lesson study researcher at Mills College in Oakland, Calif. “As teachers share their notes from observing individual students, they notice what worked—and what didn’t—for various learners.” The process of observing barriers and breakthroughs for students of all backgrounds “allows teachers to design future instruction that supports those breakthroughs,” she adds.

Jessica Whisher-Hehl, coordinator of the OCM BOCES Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning, is organizing the conference for a second time in partnership with Sharon Dotger, associate professor of science education and lesson study researcher at the Syracuse University School of Education.

At OCM BOCES, Whisher-Hehl’s division is providing one new science unit per grade level this year for grades K-6 in 31 districts. That includes assembling the kits and providing training for teachers. In addition, a $200,000 grant from the Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC) is allowing about 70 kindergarten, first-grade and second-grade��teachers in the region to support early elementary students to engage in engineering practices with new SSEC curriculum units. The grant includes professional development on lesson study and participation in one full lesson-study research cycle.

Jamesville-DeWitt teachers attending the conference say they appreciate lesson study because it centers on student learning, rather than focusing solely on the teacher. That, in turn, allows teachers to “refine curriculum and delivery of instruction,” says seventh-grade science teacher Kelly Colone of Jamesville-DeWitt Middle School, who spoke for the group.

In addition to focusing on lesson study, science education experts at the conference will offer context and inspiration for the implementation work that lies ahead, especially in the area of using the curriculum to enhance equity and access for students of all backgrounds.

“We really hope to shine a light on the fact that this kind of science helps all learners in all content areas, not just science,” Whisher-Hehl says. “It really focuses on getting students to think critically, work collaboratively and communicate ideas.”

In addition to Lee, speakers at the conference include:

Krystal Barber, assistant professor of elementary mathematics education at SUNY Cortland, who recently completed dissertation research that investigated teachers’ learning from a mathematics lesson study cycle.
Mariel Laureano, principal of the Dr. Jorge Prieto Math and Science Academy in Chicago. Laureano has led her entire staff in conducting lesson study for the last eight years and hosts the annual Chicago Lesson Study Conference in her building.
Catherine Lewis, Distinguished Research Scholar at Mills College in Oakland, Calif. Lewis is an internationally known lesson study researcher and the only founding member of the World Association of Lesson Study from the United States.
Brian Mandell, division director of curriculum and communications at the Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC). Mandell leads the development of SSEC’s curriculum materials focused on the NGSS.
Terrance Burgess, a third-year doctoral student in teaching and curriculum (science education) at Syracuse University. His research focuses on how access to high-quality STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) instruction may increase STEM engagement for students of color in K-12 settings and in sustaining interest in STEM careers. He was a named a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow in 2017 in recognition of his scholarship.

For more information, please go to the at ocmboces.org.

School of Education Offers New Graduate Scholarship Initiative, Open House Nov. 10

Jennifer Russo — Mon, 06 Nov 2017 14:36:45 +0000

The ��has announced a new scholarship initiative that will provide master’s tuition support for the children of Syracuse University employees.

A new scholarship initiative will provide master’s tuition in the School of Education for the children of Syracuse University employees.

The Orange Family Scholarship will offer funding covering 25��percent of the cost of tuition to children of Syracuse University faculty and staff members who have graduated from their undergraduate degree programs within the last five years and newly matriculate with full-time enrollment in the 2018-2019 academic year into any School of Education master of science (M.S.) degree program. Students may be eligible beginning in summer 2018.

Dean Joanna Masingila of the School of Education says, “We have outstanding programs in the School of Education and want to offer children of SU employees a scholarship opportunity to assist them in pursuing graduate studies in education, in the same way that we offer SU alumni within the last five years scholarship support.”

The School of Education also offers competitive ��such as the ��for master’s program students enrolled full��time in the high needs areas of literacy, mathematics, science, special education and teaching English language learners; and the Graduate Tuition Scholarship for graduates of Syracuse University undergraduate programs. Though these SOE scholarship programs cannot be combined, students remain eligible for merit-based awards, assistantships and financial aid.

The School of Education will host a Graduate Programs Open House on Friday, Nov. 10, from 4:30-6 p.m. in the Sharon Jacquet Education Commons in Huntington Hall. Prospective students are encouraged to attend and learn from the faculty and current graduate students who will be representing over��40 M.S., C.A.S., Ed.D. and Ph.D. program offerings in teaching, and non-teaching areas.

Financial aid and admissions specialists will also be present to work with prospective students individually.

For more information about School of Education graduate programs and to register for the Open House, visit or call Speranza Migliore, assistant director for graduate admissions in the School of Education at 315.443.2505.

School of Education Hosts Research Conference Nov. 3-5 for Special Education Thought Leaders

Jennifer Russo — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 17:58:08 +0000

Researchers, theorists and federal policy makers will gather at the this weekend to grapple with issues focused on improving post-school outcomes for students with significant cognitive disabilities (SWSCD).

The conference—“Policy, Practice, and Long-Term Outcomes: The Current State and Future Directions of Research for Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities”—received a $28,000 American Educational Research Association (AERA) Research Conference grant. It runs Nov. 3-5 at the Sheraton Syracuse University Hotel and Conference Center.

Julia White, assistant professor in the School of Education’s Department of Teaching and Leadership, led the team that secured the AERA grant and is also teaching a doctoral seminar in special education organized around conference participation.

White says the goal is to “convene leading scholars in the field and articulate a comprehensive research agenda using multiple methods to investigate the impact of educational contexts and other variables, including evidence-based instructional practices, on long-term outcomes for SWSCD.”

The conference “is looking at a larger issue that impacts all of education right now—what should be considered evidence-based practice? The conference will consider what counts as evidence, science, or scientifically based research,” says Beth Ferri, professor of inclusive education and disability studies and a conference participant. “Are other ways of knowing—say from case studies, qualitative research, etc.—equally valid ways of knowing or evaluating what works in education?”

The conference is attracting a “who’s who in this field,” says Kelly Chandler-Olcott, associate dean for research and Laura J. & L. Douglas Meredith Professor of Teaching Excellence in Reading and Language Arts.

Chandler-Olcott notes the conference’s focus on significant cognitive disabilities: “Learners with those labels have often been less visible in conversations about K-12 and postsecondary education than learners with other disability labels.��So, to put their needs at the center is a potentially transformative move in and of itself.”

Among SWSCD, 87 percent are taught in self-contained classrooms or schools. While many researchers have argued instruction on the core curriculum for SWSCD is best done in general education classes, conference organizers cite a dearth of research on long-term outcomes associated with inclusive instructional practices, supports, services and interventions.

White says, “Collaborative work to establish evidence-based practices will help answer Congressional calls for quality long-term outcomes—such as postsecondary education, integrated employment and community engagement—for these students.”

Chandler-Olcott praised White’s work on the team that includes Qui Wang, associate professor for measurement and research methodology in the Department of Higher Education; Meghan Cosier (Chapman University); John McDonnell (University of Utah); Mary Morningstar (University of Kansas); and Diane L. Ryndak (University of North Carolina at Greensboro): “This is a successful team, in a competitive milieu.”

‘Deej,’ Film about Autism and Inclusion, to Screen on Sept. 25

Jennifer Russo — Mon, 18 Sep 2017 19:32:25 +0000

This month, the team behind the acclaimed new documentary, “Deej,” launches the Deej Inclusion Tour, a series of more than 50 campus and community screenings across the United States. The goal is to promote inclusion—in families, schools and communities—of all neuro-divergent people, especially nonspeaking autistics. The Deej tour stops at Syracuse University on Monday, Sept. 25, when the film screens at Watson Hall Theater at 6 p.m.�� The event is free and open to the public.

A scene from the film “Deej”

The screening will be followed by a discussion with DJ “Deej” Savarese.

The film is captioned; American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation and Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) will be available for the discussion.��Parking is available in the Booth Garage on Comstock Ave. Additional accessible parking is in the Q5 lot on University Place. If you have requests for accessibility and accommodations, please contact Dani Weinstein at 315.443.9379 or daweinst@syr.edu.

Abandoned by his birth parents and unable to speak for himself, DJ Savarese (“Deej”) found not only a loving family but also a life in words, which he types on a text-to-voice synthesizer. As he makes his way through high school and dreams of college, he confronts the terrors of his past, obstacles to inclusion and the sometimes paralyzing beauty of his own senses. In his advocacy on behalf of other nonspeaking autistics, he embraces filmmaking and poetry, and discovers what having a voice can truly mean.

In this first-of-its kind collaboration between a veteran filmmaker and a nonspeaking autistic, Robert Rooy and DJ share editorial control as they navigate the challenges of representing autism. “Deej,” the result of this often difficult partnership, is a story told largely from the inside, by DJ—not by his parents or autism experts or even the camera. At its core, “Deej” reflects the level of participation that disability rights advocates insist upon: “Nothing about us without us.”

The “Deej” screening event is presented by the School of Education, Cultural Foundations of Education, Disability Cultural Center, Institute on Communication and Inclusion, Taishoff Center for Inclusive Higher Education, Center on Human Policy and the Douglas Biklen Landscape of Urban Education Lecture Series.

“Deej” will have its broadcast premiere on America ReFramed on Tuesday, Oct. 17, at 8 p.m. on the PBS World Channel (check local listings).

Institute on Communication and Inclusion Hosts April 6 Drumming Workshop Led by Performer Jim Donovan

Jennifer Russo — Wed, 22 Mar 2017 13:26:37 +0000

The (ICI) invites campus and local community members to participate in a high-energy evening of drumming and musical expression with renowned performer and educator Jim Donovan. Regardless of musical experience, cultural background or disability, drum circles help people connect with each other through the universal language of rhythm.

Donovan will lead the community drumming workshop on Thursday, April 6, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at Skybarn, 151 Farm Acre Road, on South Campus. The cost is $10 per person or $25 per family, and drums and other rhythm instruments will be available for use. Pre-register online . While there will be specific attention to strategies for supporting individuals on the autism spectrum, this event is for anyone who wants to make collective music or support others that do.

“I’ve been coming to the Syracuse region since my days with Rusted Root back in the ’90s. I love how receptive people in the region are to trying new things—especially when it comes to using music for things beyond entertainment,” Donovan says. “I’m looking forward to sharing what I know about how rhythm helps people with ASD.”

Donovan is an assistant professor at Saint Francis University and an inspirational performer and educator who believes in the power of music to bring people together. Over the past three decades, Donovan has performed thousands of concerts and learning events across the United States and Europe. As a performer, Donovan writes and records with his rootsy groove-rock band . As an educator,��he brings his motivating brand of openhearted, big-energy, truth-telling to every event he leads—whether it be a conference keynote, corporate team building, educational training or wellness retreat.

Donovan got his start as a founding member of the three-time platinum ’90s band��Rusted Root,��where he co-wrote and performed “Send Me on My Way,” a song whose unforgettable whistle has been featured in the films “Matilda” and “Ice Age.” During his touring work with Rusted Root, he shared arena stages with rock legends such as Carlos Santana, The Grateful Dead,��members of Led Zeppelin and Sting, among others.

Donovan is the author of the book “ and regularly offers training to organizations that teach people how to lead group music-making as a way to support wellness and social connection. These events include evidence-based programs for people who work with individuals with disabilities and with those who work in recovery.

For more than 20 years, the Institute on Communication and Inclusion has been giving a voice and a means to communicate to people with disabilities who may have otherwise been living in silence or isolation by conducting research and promoting support for people with disabilities to communicate in schools and society. The ICI is an active research institute and the nation’s leading resource for information about supported typing. The ICI provides training at all levels and multi-platform public access to the most up-to-date information about��supported typing.

Yoga Educator and Scholar to Present Lecture, Workshop March 7

Jennifer Russo — Mon, 06 Mar 2017 21:04:45 +0000

Chelsea Jackson Roberts

Chelsea Jackson Roberts, Ph.D., E-RYT, an educator, scholar and yoga practitioner will present a talk and yoga workshop on Tuesday, March 7, beginning at 4:30 p.m. in Rooms 304 ABC of the Schine Student Center. Hosted by the School of Education, Roberts’ visit is part of the Douglas P. Biklen Landscape of Urban Education Lecture series, and is the final installment in the 2016-17 series.

Roberts will present her talk, “Developing Critical Inner Literacy: Reading the Body, The Word and the World” at 4:30 p.m. Grounded in her work with teen girls in Atlanta, Georgia, Roberts shares the findings of her qualitative research focused on yoga, literature and the ways in which embodied practices support critical literacy development.

Committed to understanding both the individual and collective benefits of yoga, this lecture will focus on how yoga can be used as a tool to resist oppression experienced by marginalized and vulnerable communities, how deeper understandings of the connection between the body and mind can be used to strengthen awareness and participation in the world. The presentation is free and open to the public, and CART transcription service will be provided.

Marcelle Haddix, Dean’s Associate Professor and chair of the Reading and Language Arts Department, organizes the popular lecture series. “Dr. Chelsea Roberts is unapologetic about making yoga, health and wellness accessible and inclusive for all, especially those from marginalized communities. Also, she��provides a��model for how we can teach about positive body image and wellness with youth and in our schools. I am ecstatic that she will bring her gifts to the Syracuse community.”

Following her talk, at 6 p.m., Roberts will lead a��“Yoga for All Bodies”��class that will integrate some of the topics covered and techniques shared within the lecture. The yoga class is free and open to the public—all levels and abilities are welcome to attend. Participants should bring a yoga mat and dress comfortably.

Roberts is a certified yoga teacher and yoga educator who has shared yoga at the White House during the Obama Administration, appeared on the cover of Yoga Journal magazine, and currently travels the country leading workshops and trainings for yoga teachers, educators, and social justice advocates interested in yoga, inclusivity, and community engagement. She is the founder of , a platform for discussion on yoga, race and diversity, and also operates , a non profit organization that provides diversity trainings for educators and yoga teachers who are passionate about working with marginalized communities.

Since 2005, the Landscape of Urban Education Lecture Series has been dedicated to navigating the U.S. urban educational terrain. The series is made possible by a generous gift from Jeryl Mitchell ’81, G’83, a member of the SOE’s Board of Visitors, who named it in honor of retiring dean, Douglas P. Biklen.

Refugee High School Students to Participate in ‘We Are Syracuse’ Event at School of Education March 1

Jennifer Russo — Tue, 28 Feb 2017 20:14:04 +0000

Refugee students from Nottingham High School will come to share their stories at the We Are Syracuse event that’s dedicated to celebrating their cultures and promoting tolerance.

The third annual “We Are Syracuse” event will be hosted on Wednesday, March 1, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m in the Sharon Jacquet Education Commons, Huntington Hall, on the Syracuse University Campus. Refugee students from Nottingham High School will come to share their stories at this gallery-style event that’s dedicated to celebrating their cultures and promoting tolerance.

Students from Nepal, Uganda, Myanmar (Karen), Iraq, Congo and Somalia will tell of their experiences through written and spoken narratives, small-group PowerPoint presentations, and conversation over food and artwork, says Nottingham English as a New Language teacher Lauren Cirulli G’10. The event is a collaboration between her and faculty in the School of Education’s Teaching English Language Learners (TELL) program.

Cirulli calls the event “extremely beneficial” for the participating refugee students.

“It allows them to visit a college campus and interact with professors, students and the community. It allows them to hone in on their public speaking skills, too. Most importantly, these students get to share their culture with others. They get to educate, which is an incredible thing to be part of,” she says.

Associate Professor Zaline M. Roy-Campbell, coordinator of the TELL program, says We Are Syracuse offers “a way for the community to better understand the plight of our immigrant and refugee population in Syracuse.”

Cirulli initiated the event, Roy-Campbell says, “as she wishes to showcase the talents and stories of her students.”

English Language Learners make up about 30 percent of the approximately 1,200 students enrolled at Nottingham, Cirulli says.

“These students are extremely resilient, and at Nottingham we get to watch them grow every day. That being said, students do struggle with acquiring the academic language and also navigating a new place and understanding how their culture fits in,” Cirulli says.

But, with acceptance and adjustment, success follows.

“I have to say that Nottingham is an extremely welcoming place, and students quickly find activities to join and friends to hang out with, and their culture is appreciated here,” Cirulli says.

“In terms of successes, you have those everyday successes like a student writing a paragraph for the first time or passing their first Regents exam. You have students joining a club or playing a sport and eventually you get to help them apply for college, which is extremely exciting. Ultimately, the greatest success is watching a student cross that stage at the end of the year for their diploma.”

And that diploma opens up the possibility of higher education.

“One of the biggest achievements is that some of the students who arrived in Syracuse��as refugees within the past 10 years have��become students at Syracuse��and other universities,” says Roy-Campbell.

When ELLs visit campus, School of Education students also benefit, gaining more knowledge about some of the students they will teach in the near future.

“The SOE students will learn about the cultures here in Syracuse and hopefully be able to take away some of the knowledge they gain throughout the event and apply it in their own classrooms,” Cirulli says. “The number of ELLs in schools nationwide has increased, and this offers them a one-on-one opportunity to be part of something special.”

Cirulli and her students will also offer henna, the powdered leaves uses for dye and coloring, for a donation to benefit the Refugee Resettlement Services program of Catholic Charities.

For more information about We Are Syracuse, contact Roy-Campbell at zmroycam@syr.edu.

Vincent Tinto Selected for NASPA Award for His Contributions to Higher Education

Jennifer Russo — Mon, 27 Feb 2017 21:41:25 +0000

, distinguished professor emertius of higher education in the , has been selected as the recipient of the 2017 George D. Kuh Outstanding Contribution to Literature and/or Research Award by .

NASPA is the leading association for the advancement, health and sustainability of the student affairs profession. NASPA provides high-quality professional development, advocacy and research for 15,000 members in all 50 states, 25 countries and eight U.S. territories.

The award honors an individual who has demonstrated a lifetime commitment to research and scholarship related to higher education. The honoree’s work should address important and substantial issues, and have had a significant or transformative effect on higher education and student affairs practice in a national or international context.

Tinto has carried out research and written extensively on higher education, particularly on student success and the impact of learning communities on student growth and attainment. Tinto has served as a consultant to many federal and state agencies, independent research firms and foundations, and with two- and four-year institutions of higher education. He has also served on the editorial boards of several journals, organizations and professional associations concerned with higher education.

Tinto chaired the national panel responsible for awarding $5 million to establish the first national center for research on teaching and learning in higher education and served as associate director of the $6 million National Center on Postsecondary Teaching, Learning, and Assessment funded by the U.S. Department of Education.

His most recent book, “Completing College” (University of Chicago Press, 2012), lays out a framework for institutional action to enhance student success, describing the range of programs that have been effective in enhancing student experience and achievement, and detailing the types of policies institutions should follow to successfully implement programs in ways that endure and scale-up over time.

Tinto and the other national award winners will be honored in March at the 2017 NASPA Annual Conference in San Antonio, Texas.

Counseling and Human Services Faculty Member Receives National Honors

Jennifer Russo — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 18:51:48 +0000

Melissa Luke

Melissa Luke, associate professor of counseling and human services and coordinator of school counseling in the School of Education, has been recognized with two honors, adding to an impressive portfolio of recent professional accomplishments.

Luke has been selected as the 2017 recipient of the Chi Sigma Iota Thomas J. Sweeney Professional Leadership��Award. Named for Thomas J. Sweeney, founder of Chi Sigma Iota (CSI), the international honor society for students, professional counselors and counselor educators, this award recognizes and honors persons who through their vision, leadership and concern for others have strengthened, expanded and enhanced the counseling profession at local, state, national and international levels.

Luke will be presented with the award during the CSI Delegate Business Meeting��in at the 2017 ACA Conference in San Francisco, California.

Luke is also the recipient of the 2016-2017 Association for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues in Counseling (ALGBTIC) Mentor Award.��This award is presented to an individual identified for his or her significant contribution to mentorship in the ALGBTIC community and persons with the LGBTQQIA community.

School of Education Dean Joanna Masingila says, “Dr. Luke is a highly valued member of the School of Education, the University and her professional communities because of her exemplary research, engaging teaching and outstanding service. She is truly a gem!”

Luke has been recognized for her research, teaching and service to the profession at the University, nationally and internationally.

In 2016 she, with Kris Goodrich ’09, Ph.D., co-authored the book “Group Counseling with LGBTQI Persons,” which received the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision’s (ACES) Publication in Counselor Education and Supervision Award.

She is currently serving a three–year term in the Professional Trustee position for the Association for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues in Counseling (AGLBTIC). In this position, Luke spearheads a research, scholarship and grants initiative for the association.

Luke has authored over 40 peer-reviewed journal articles, and has presented nationally and internationally. In addition to being a celebrated scholar, she has received accolades for her teaching and mentoring from her department, Syracuse University and professional organizations.

Luke also serves the School of Education, Syracuse University and the field of counselor education through active service on many committees, organization and editorial boards.

SUPAC Conference on Transition Planning for Life after High School for Students with Disabilities

Jennifer Russo — Tue, 14 Feb 2017 20:19:04 +0000

The Syracuse University Parent Assistance Center (SUPAC), the Mid-State Regional Special Education Technical Assistance Support Center (RSE-TASC) and Onondaga Community College (OCC) will host a free conference, “Finding Your Way! Understanding Transition Planning In and After High School.” The event, scheduled for Monday, March 13, on the OCC campus in Syracuse, is an exciting opportunity for families, professionals and students with disabilities to learn about planning for life after high school and the services offered in their community.

Doors open at 8:30 a.m., with the final session of the day ending at 2:30 p.m. Parking on the OCC campus is free.

The goal of this event is to support students with disabilities to find opportunities and services so they can achieve their post-secondary goals and dreams. Providing information and resources for living, learning and working after high school, this unique combination of workshops and information will help educate students and their families to unlock their potential options for their future.

The conference will offer a family/professional track and a student track, and includes a keynote presentation, a panel discussion sharing success stories and a resource fair providing information about a wide range of programs and services.

The keynote presenter will be local media personality Geoff Herbert, who calls himself “DeafGeoff.” ��He is an entertainment reporter and search engine optimization lead for Syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. He writes about music, movies, television, celebrity gossip and other hot topics, as well as working in SEO for the Syracuse Media Group. On nights and weekends, he works as a DJ. As his nickname suggests, he is deaf. He was born with a profound binaural hearing loss, which means that he hears about 10 percent as well as the average person. He will share his personal stories of hard work and perseverance to kick off the event.

The “Stories of Success” panel discussion session includes individuals who are currently transitioning or who have transitioned successfully into their adult lives. The audience will learn about the panelists’ individual triumphs as well as how they navigated obstacles and worked towards post-secondary success.

The resource fair will feature a variety of community support agencies, post-secondary program, and other organizations displaying their products and services. These vendors will offer information on adult services, post-school options and more.

There is no cost to attend to conference, but registration is required. To register, find more information on the schedule, or participate as a vendor in the Resource Fair, visit .

Syracuse University Parent Assistance Center is the Mid-State Special Education Parent Technical Assistance Center, funded through a contract with the New York State Education Department Office of Special Education and seeks to empower parents of children with disabilities to become meaningfully involved in their children’s education. SUPAC is a project of the Center on Human Policy under the School of Education.

School of Education, Newhouse Co-Host NYC Lecture by Expert on Media Literacy Feb. 15

Jennifer Russo — Mon, 13 Feb 2017 23:10:24 +0000

David Buckingham

British media educator David Buckingham will speak on critical thinking in the digital media age in The Douglas Biklen Landscape of Urban Education Series at 91 Horatio in New York City Wednesday, February 15.

Buckingham, an Emeritus Professor at Loughborough University in the United Kingdom, has published 30 books and 250 articles about media, young people and education. He will address the need for critical thinking about media and technology and consider whether media literacy is a sufficient response to the challenges of a “post-truth” era.

“David walks the line between illuminating critical perspective and healthy skepticism in the reading of media messages and inspiring the cultural power of human storytelling through media,” says Michael Schoonmaker, an associate professor and chair of the Department of Television, Radio and Film in the S.I. Newhouse School of Pubic Communications.

“In what he frames as ‘the post-truth’ era, Buckingham demonstrates the ever-rising importance of educating a media-literate citizenry to bring clarity, reason, and humanity to an often-misleading media environment of alternative facts and demagoguery,” Schoonmaker adds.

In 2014 Buckingham developed a teaching pack called Developing Media Literacy, published by the English and Media Centre. The pack, resulting from a four-year research project, contains an extensive set of multimedia teaching materials for use in primary schools.

Asking, “What do media learners learn to do?” Buckingham wrote, “Our focus here is on what learners need to be able to do with media—and in particular how they make meaning from and with media,” using more than just technical skills. “We’re also talking about the ability to analyze, to communicate, to express meaning, and to reflect on these things.”

He breaks this down into three components: reading, writing and context. “Reading is about interpretation, understanding, response, and critical analysis; writing is about expression, communication, and creative production. Both involve imagination, reflection, and the making of meaning,” he wrote.

“It’s important to emphasize that media education is not about reading and writing in isolation: we also need to understand the contexts in which these things take place,” he continued. “As we come to understand reading and writing in context, we look at how a given text relates to other texts, and how texts are produced, circulated and read or used by different audiences.”

(See a summary of Developing Media Literary at )

“There are few scholars who have had an impact in the field of media education than David Buckingham: author, co-author, or editor of 30 uncharacteristically approachable books along with hundreds of articles on the subject of young people, media and education,” Schoonmaker says. “Fewer still are able to bring the sleeves-up perspective to the rich and complex juxtaposition of the fields of media and education that David does as a media maker, novelist, musician, and teacher.”

The School of Education and the Newhouse School offer a joint master’s program in Media and Education, the only such program of its kind in the United States. “There could not be better time for these once-opposed fields of study to lock arms in facing challenges of the world today,” Schoonmaker says.

Since 2005 The Douglas Biklen Landscape of Urban Education Series has presented current ideas and strategies for navigating the U.S. urban education terrain. A gift from SOE Board of Visitors member Jeryl Mitchell ’81, G’83 named the series in honor of former Dean Biklen.

Buckingham’s program, “Reinventing Literacy: Critical Thinking for the Age of Digital Media,” begins with a reception at 5:30 p.m. and his speech at 6:15 p.m. at 91 Horatio Street in New York City. For more information or to R.S.V.P., contact Jennifer Russo at jhrusso@syr.edu.

University to Host ‘Redefining Inclusion’ Events in San Francisco, Los Angeles

Jennifer Russo — Wed, 18 Jan 2017 20:39:35 +0000

The will be on the road next week, bringing its message of lifelong inclusion to San Francisco and Los Angeles on Jan. 25 and 26, respectively, to kick off a series of events called “Redefining Inclusion.”

Colleges and universities across the United States are placing more emphasis on disability and inclusion. “We see disability as an important part of that diversity,” says Beth Myers, executive director of the Taishoff Center. “We put together these events in California in order to engage a wider audience in new conversations about inclusion. We’re hoping to make some new allies and give the community a chance to hear from local and national advocates about new ways to think about disability and higher education.”

The “Redefining Inclusion” events are free and open to the public, and are being hosted in partnership with Syracuse University Los Angeles. The panel discussions in each city will have a distinct theme, and feature well-known experts and celebrities connected to the field of disability studies.

Each event will start off with a short preview of the upcoming film “Intelligent Lives,” which challenges the social constructs of society’s definition of “intelligence.” Panel discussions, moderated by Myers, will follow and will include: filmmaker ��(“Intelligent Lives” and “Including Samuel”); ,��self-advocate and Outreach Coordinator for the Taishoff Center, featured in “Intelligent Lives”; and , professor of inclusive education at Rowan University. Disability advocate and actor Andy Arias will also participate on both panels.

In San Francisco, the panel’s topic will be “Inclusive Education” and experts will include: Cheryl Theis,��education advocate, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund; and Kathleen Gee,��professor of special education, California State University. The event, held at the Delancey Street Foundation, beginning at 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 25.

The Los Angeles event will address “Disability in the Media,” and will feature , actress, producer and activist; and ; a writer for ABC’s “Speechless.” The Los Angeles panel will be on Jan. 26 at 6 p.m. at the Intercontinental Century City.

Myers says, “We hope attendees will engage with us in conversation about how we view intelligence. We hope everyone will leave thinking critically about how disability and intelligence are represented and negotiated in society.”

RSVP’s are strongly encouraged. Please visit for more information about the Redefining Inclusion events and to RSVP.

IDD&E offers new program in designing digital instruction

Jennifer Russo — Tue, 03 Jan 2017 20:10:29 +0000

In response to the growing demand for instructional designers—from both on campus and off—the ’s Department of Instructional Design, Development and Evaluation (IDD&E) has created an online certificate of advanced studies in Designing Digital Instruction.

The Department of Instructional Design, Development and Evaluation has created a new certificate of advanced studies in Designing Digital Instruction.

“This CAS will get professionals prepared and credentialed faster than an M.S. degree,” says Professor Tiffany A. Koszalka, former chair of IDD&E. “And given it is built on internationally validated instructional design, online instructor and online learner competencies, the program prepares graduates to take on design responsibilities quickly.”

The CAS will help students develop competencies required to design digital learning resources and effective and efficient online or e-learning instruction.

Inquiries have come from people in the military, higher education and students from across campus, Koszalka says.

“Digital instruction is used in almost any context you can think of: health care, higher education, business and industry, military and security, K-12, retail, food hotel and tourism, nonprofits, government, small business,” she says. “Anyone with a bachelor’s degree and interest in learning how to design digital instruction is a potential student.”

The focus is on working professionals who want to enhance their competencies in creating effective, efficient and acceptable digital learning experiences.

On campus, students might come from the , which provides online programs to support veterans across the county.

The CAS program includes four required courses, one elective and a portfolio with sample digital projects and reflections on the student’s development of instructional designer, online instructor and online learner competencies. The required courses are “Technologies in Instructional Settings” (fall semester), “Design of Online Courses” (winterlude), “Strategies in Educational Project Management” (spring) and “Advanced Instructional Design” (summer session).

The program provides students with what IDD&E calls a 360-degree view of digital instruction and learning—from the perspectives of the designer, the facilitator and the learner. The student will then be able to design and create sound instructional resources and environments that will lead to quality learning experiences.

Koszalka says the CAS will stimulate students “to really think about how to design quality digital instruction that engage learners.”

The certificate can be completed within one year with fall, spring and summer courses. Students must work with their advisor complete and submit a CAS program of study before their second semester. There are no graduate course prerequisites.

School of Education, Athletics, Driver’s Village Support Otto’s Reading Kickoff for Local Schools

Jennifer Russo — Tue, 03 Jan 2017 19:55:14 +0000

Otto, the Syracuse mascot, doesn’t speak, so it may be difficult to assess how well Otto can read.

But Otto clearly recognizes the value of reading, and a December 2016 visit to Ed Smith Elementary School in Syracuse thrilled the third- and fourth-graders who had scored the highest participation rate in Otto’s Fall Reading Kickoff. The (SOE), SU Athletics and Driver’s Village in Cicero organized the reading program.

Otto helps third-and fourth-graders and Ed Smith School celebrate reading.

“Some of the fourth-graders who thought they were too cool to get excited about meeting Otto ended up being very excited,” says Gerri Berish ’87 G’89, a fourth-grade teacher at Ed Smith. “He was very playful, and kids loved getting hugs from him.”

The SOE invited schools to participate in the one-month program. Students would read at least 20 minutes every night and complete a weekly summary of what they read. They filled out paper footballs to track how much they read and posted the footballs on their lockers and in classrooms.

Otto, photographers from cuse.com and officials from Driver’s Village visited to celebrate Ed Smith’s success and reinforce the importance of reading.

“A couple of students asked me why Otto was visiting and there were all the cameras,” Berish says. “I told them it was because they participated in the reading challenge. And they asked, ‘You mean it’s because we read?’ And I told them, ‘Yes, because you read.’”

Teaching reading is challenging, Berish says.�� “Students have different reading abilities. We have students who are very below level all the way to students who are reading at high school levels,” she says.

“We also see that our students have very different experiences that lead to these levels”—from homes that encourage reading to homes that don’t to special needs students to immigrant students just learning English.

All but a few of the Ed Smith third- and fourth-graders participated.

“Kids could read whatever they wanted. They read according to their abilities. We have some students reading picture books and others reading 500-page books,” Berish says. A third-grader read the most—2,500 minutes.

SU Athletics provided free tickets for students to the Florida State football game in November. Family members and school staff received discounted tickets. Driver’s Village presented a $1,000 DonorsChoose.com gift card to the school.

“One of the goals of our partnership with SU Athletics was to create an engaging, educational incentive for Syracuse schools.��Otto’s reading program exceeded our expectations, and we were proud to offer a prize to the top school, helping them to purchase the tools necessary to facilitate their students’ reading,” says Ken Ellender, a marketing specialist at Driver’s Village.

With the gift card the school will purchase 15 Amazon Fire tablets and headphones and two charging ports.

Berish says a key concern is the needs of English as a New Language (ENL) students.

“Some students come from places where they did not have many of the same materials we take for granted here, and some had a very limited educational experience before moving here. So having students with little to no English, it is very hard to teach them higher concepts when they cannot visualize some basic places or objects.”

She teaches content subjects that involve much writing, in paragraphs and essays. She envisions the ENL students using tablets with programs that teach basic concepts, while higher-level students, who finish assignments quickly, use tablets to conduct research or use an app that challenges them.

The attention Otto paid the school emphasized the value of reading.

“For some students, I think they saw that reading is highly valued. It is not just something that the teachers say they need. For the students who are voracious readers, I think it just confirmed what they already knew, that reading is important,” Berish says.

Literacy Pioneer Ruth Colvin Turns 100

Jennifer Russo — Mon, 12 Dec 2016 15:01:53 +0000

For almost as long as she’s been an advocate for adult literacy, Ruth J. Colvin’s work has involved the .

Ruth Colvin

So the School of Education and the University joyfully joined the recent communitywide celebration of Colvin’s 100th birthday. Chancellor Kent Syverud presented Colvin with the University’s William Pearson Tolley Medal for Distinguished Leadership in Lifelong Learning.

“Ruth has been ‘one of us’ for a very long time,” SOE Dean Joanna Masingila said at the event in Marriott Syracuse Downtown’s Grand Ballroom in November; LiteracyCNY hosted the centennial birthday celebration. “Beginning in 1968 with your consultation with Dr. Frank Greene, you integrated the very latest in research findings on reading and worked closely with our School of Education faculty to support your successful teaching methods for literacy volunteers around the globe.”

In 1969, an alarmed Colvin ’59, H’84 read that 11,000 people in Syracuse were functionally illiterate. The next year, she helped to initiate the adult literacy movement when she formed Literacy Volunteers of America. LVA merged with Laubach Literacy International, also based in Syracuse, in 2001 to create ProLiteracy Worldwide, the word’s largest adult basic education and literacy organization. Colvin continues to tutor.

Pamela Kirwin Heintz ’91, G’08, associate vice president and director of the Mary Ann Shaw Center for Public & Community Service, recalls the formation of an SOE course in reading and language arts in 1993. Heintz, Shaw, Colvin and Professor Kathleen Hinchman G’85 developed the course that allowed students LVA certification. Hinchman taught the course. Shaw, Hinchman and Heintz also all served on the board of the local LVA affiliate, now known as LiteracyCNY.

“Kathy and I co-taught the course for several years, and Ruth often participated as well,” Heintz says.��“Teaching is a lifelong commitment of Ruth’s, and we believed it was important for SU students to meet Ruth whenever possible.��Ruth loves mentoring, teaching and knowing as many people as she can, to share her passion and ignite the same in others.”

In her remarks at the celebration, Masingila cited the work of Hinchman and Professor Corinne Smith ’67, G’73 with Colvin.

“They remember well conversations, symposia and volumes of “TUTOR,” (“TUTOR: Techniques Used in the Teaching of Reading,” a textbook by Colvin and Jane H. Root) that have been a part of this remarkable collaboration over the decades,” Masingila said.

“On behalf of our emeriti and current faculty, I would like to thank you for your heart-filled, awe-inspiring tenacity to eradicate illiteracy, as well as your humility in asking for critique from others while you sought to always better the pedagogy you used. We are better because of you.”

“The field of adult literacy is not for the weak at heart. It’s an issue foundational to addressing our poverty issues, yet difficult to find supporters,” Heintz says.��“Ruth has the gift of reaching people in ways many of us cannot yet do and inspires us to keep at it.”

Colvin received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from the University in 1984 and the George Arents Pioneer Medal in 1996. President George W. Bush awarded her a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2006.

Colvin, who has lived in Syracuse more than 70 years, turns 100 Dec. 16.

SOE Alumna Appointed to President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities

Jennifer Russo — Thu, 17 Nov 2016 19:37:52 +0000

President Barack Obama has announced his intention appoint Rebecca S. Salon MS ’75, PhD ’01 (Special Education), to the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities (PCPID).

Rebecca Salon

Salon is project director for the LEAD Center. Led by��with funding from the��, the LEAD Center—known formally as the National Center on Leadership for the Employment and Economic Advancement of People with Disabilities (LEAD)—brings together a range of organizations, thought leaders and best-practice innovators to expand policy, employment, leadership and��economic advancement opportunities and outcomes for all people with disabilities. Salon has more than 20 years of experience with management of federally funded projects and has over 35 years of experience working with people across the spectrum of disabilities. Salon is also working at the District of Columbia Department on Disability Services (DDS), where she is the lead for the district’s Employment First program initiatives.

The mission of PCPID is to provide advice and assistance to the president and the Secretary of Health and Human Services on a broad range of topics that impact people with intellectual disabilities and the field of intellectual disabilities. Undergirding the committee’s mission is the goal to improve the quality of life that is experienced by people with intellectual disabilities by upholding their full citizenship rights, independence, self-determination and life-long participation in their respective communities.

Thirty-one members comprise the PCPID, including 18 citizen members and 13 ex officio (federal government) members; a maximum of 21 citizen members is allowed. Citizen members are appointed by the president and serve for a maximum of two years.

Salon joins staff member Micah Fialka-Feldman�� on the committee. Fialka-Feldman is outreach coordinator for the Taishoff Center for Inclusive Higher Education, and was appointed to the PCPID in 2015.

School of Education Highlights Graduate Programs at Nov. 4 Open House

Jennifer Russo — Wed, 02 Nov 2016 13:53:24 +0000

The will host an open house for potential students interested in graduate study on Friday, Nov. 4, from 4:30-6 p.m. in the Sharon Jacquet Education Commons, located in Huntington Hall on the corner or Marshall Street and University Avenue.

Faculty, staff and current graduate students will be available at the open house to answer questions.

Faculty, staff and current graduate students will offer information on the School of Education’s M.S., C.A.S. and doctoral programs in: counseling and human services; cultural foundations of education; exercise science; higher education; instructional design, development and evaluation; reading and language arts; and teaching and leadership. The School of Education offers graduate degrees that lead to careers in teaching, technology, health, research and leadership in diverse fields in the United States and globally. Online and flexible-format programs are available, and are designed for the busy professional or remote learner. Most master’s programs can be completed in one year.

School of Education faculty and academic advisors will be available to discuss program plans and “fast-track” options that are available in some programs.�� Additionally, information will be available regarding financial aid and competitive scholarships, including:

School of Education scholarships
high needs scholarships
graduate tuition scholarships
Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant Program

The open house format of the event allows for students to attend at any time between 4:30-6 p.m., and to interact with representatives from the programs they are most interested in. Refreshments will be served.

For more information or to register, call Speranza Migliore, graduate admissions recruiter at 315.443.9319, or visit http://soe.syr.edu.

Art Education Conference Hosted on Campus Features Alumni Scholars

Jennifer Russo — Fri, 28 Oct 2016 15:36:55 +0000

The art education department will host the 13th annual��Graduate Research in Art Education (GRAE)��conference this weekend, Oct. 28 and 29. This is the first time Syracuse University has hosted the summit. All events are in Room 102 of the Whitman School of Management and are free. Friday’s keynote takes place from 6:30-8 p.m., including a short question-and-answer session. Graduate student presentations take place Saturday from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Mary Ann Stankiewicz

James Haywood Rolling Jr., dual professor of art education in the and the , was able to facilitate the department’s hosting of the conference with support from the Lila Bull Trust Fund at the School of Education, which also provides 1-2 assistantships and scholarship prizes annually for students who major in art education.

Rolling says, “The conference organizers acknowledge and appreciate the generous support of both the School of Education and the College of Visual and Performing Arts during the organization of this event.”

The opening keynote will be given by noted art historian and Syracuse alumna Mary Ann Stankiewicz ’70, G’76, professor of art education at Pennsylvania State University, who will speak on “Categories and Experience: Returning to the Start of a Career” on Friday evening. An authority on the history of��art teacher preparation at Syracuse University, where she received a B.F.A. and M.F.A., she is one of three alumni presenting at the two-day conference.

The GRAE conference provides a forum for students from Penn State, Ohio State University, Teachers College at Columbia University and Syracuse University to meet to discuss issues and developments in art education that are being opened up by current graduate student research. This conference features 10 dissertation research presentations on Saturday, organized into three panels.

Rolling says the conference promotes “collaboration and the sharing of ideas generated by emerging graduate student researchers while facilitating the dissemination of our students’ research and creative activities to offer a more diverse range of feedback before their projects reach completion.”

Friday’s presentation and keynote address are centered on the question “How might your undergraduate studies have shaped your current research interests in art education?” Two of the respondents to Stankiewicz’s presentation received doctorates in art education, from Syracuse University’s School of Education: Laura Reeder ’14 and David Rufo ’16.

Reeder is chair and associate professor of art education at Massachusetts College of Art & Design, where she supervises graduate and undergraduate artist teachers as they teach K-12 students in Greater Boston. Rufo is director of the Portal Learning Project, editorial assistant at Art Education Journal and an instructor in art education at Syracuse University. Alice Pennisi, chair and associate professor of art education at Buffalo State University, is the third respondent.

Saturday’s doctoral presentations include panels on “Visual Participatory Practices and Art as Critical Public Pedagogy,’’ “Like Narratives, Identity Development, and Arts-Based Communities of Practice” and “Re-presentation, Response-ability and the Social Movement of Ideas.” Presenting are doctoral students from Penn State, Ohio State and Teachers College.

Stankiewicz says she can trace the roots of her research interests to two Syracuse faculty members, one who taught freshman English and the other sophomore design.

“In their classes I verbally and visually explored relationships between two concepts: categories and experience,” she says. In graduate school at Ohio State, she compared theory and ideology to begin shaping a conceptual framework for a history of the first century of art education at SU. Her dissertation was titled “Art Teacher Preparation at Syracuse University, The First Century.”

Stankiewicz’s latest book, “Developing Visual Arts Education in the United States: Massachusetts Normal Art School and the Normalization of Creativity,” was published in June. A former president of the National Art Education Association, she was NAEA’s 2014 National Art Educator.

Dotger and Dotger Secure NSF Funding for Research on Elementary Science Simulations

Jennifer Russo — Thu, 29 Sep 2016 18:49:18 +0000

Benjamin Dotger, professor of teaching and leadership, and Sharon Dotger, associate professor of science education, both in the , have been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation to continue their STEM-focused research into teacher education. The three-year grant, titled “ELEM-SIM: Elementary Science Simulations to Advance Undergraduate Elementary Teacher Preparation,” is for $299,697.

Dotger and Dotger are using Simulated Interaction Models (SIMS), a teaching method first developed in medical schools, to evaluate how future elementary science teachers put their skills into practice.

“We are looking at the degree to which a student not only remembers content, but can effectively teach it to someone else,” says Professor Ben Dotger.

SIMS have not been designed or applied in elementary science, explains Professor Sharon Dotger. “Generally speaking, future elementary teachers get few opportunities to engage in science teaching during their preparation. Additionally, we know very little about how these future teachers apply what they learned in their elementary science methods courses in their later years of novice teaching,” she says.

“Thus, elementary science simulations are a vital mechanism to provide these future teachers with a common experience to learn, while also providing us, as teacher educators, the opportunity to evaluate the efficacy of our own science teaching practice.”

In the grant’s first year, the researchers will plan and develop six simulated interactions at the elementary level using the Next Generation Science Standards, a multi-state effort to provide American students with coherent, internationally benchmarked learning opportunities in science. The simulations will assess how student teachers enact in a clinical setting what they have learned in their undergraduate science methods classes. Years 2 and 3 will be dedicated to implementing the simulations in K-6 pre-service teacher preparation and collecting data.

“We will be providing students an opportunity to teach subject matter they may not otherwise experience, and to do so in a clinical setting where mistakes are of lesser consequence and there’s video data to later review,” Ben Dotger says.

Using standardized patients in clinical simulations is a staple of medical school education. Healthy people are trained to present medical symptoms to medical students, providing the future medical professional with opportunities to practice diagnosing and prescribing a regimen of treatment. Ben Dotger adapted this pedagogy for use in teacher and school leader education beginning in 2007. With past support from the Spencer Foundation, the Institute of Education Sciences, the National Science Foundation and the Arthur Vining Davis Foundation, he and colleagues have designed 45 simulated interactions that place future teachers and school leaders in live, one-to-one interactions with standardized parents, students, paraprofessionals and community members. In partnership with SUNY Upstate Medical University’s Clinical Skills Center, each simulation is captured on QuickTime video, allowing teachers and leaders to analyze their performance.

This new project will involve 100 Syracuse University undergraduate students in the simulations. Dotger and Dotger hope to see an increase in confidence in bringing science content into the elementary classroom, improvements in how scientific material is taught and advocacy for science teaching in the curriculum.

“The project will provide us with clear evidence of where our graduates are developing skill related to science teaching and where those skills need additional development,” says Sharon Dotger.

“The NSF review panel was enthusiastic about this study’s intellectual merit and its capacity to leverage insights from previously funded studies of clinical simulations by these investigators. Both our own students and the field at large stand to benefit, which is ideal in my view,” says Kelly Chandler-Olcott, associate dean for research at the School of Education.

This is the research team’s fifth nationally competitive grant for SIMS.

Taishoff Center Assistant Director Authors New Book

Jennifer Russo — Thu, 29 Sep 2016 18:23:18 +0000

Diana “Dee” Katovitch, coordinator of the Peer2Peer Project and assistant director of the Taishoff Center for Inclusive Higher Education, has authored a new book about disability history and education. Katovitch will present at a launch event for the new publication, “Beautiful Children: The Story of the Elm Hill School and Home for Feebleminded Children and Youth,” on Wednesday, Oct. 5, from 4-5:30 p.m. in Huntington Hall’s Jacquet Education Commons. The book is published through the Museum of disABILITY History and the presentation is part of its Dialogues on disABILITY Speaker Series.

The Elm Hill School was the first school for children with intellectual disabilities in the United States, founded in 1848 in Barre, Massachusetts. The school was known for its innovative methods and its long history of teaching students previously thought to be incapable of learning. During her discussion, Katovitch will review her research, the progressive nature of early special education and the importance of disability history. A question-and-answer session will also be held.

The free presentation is ideal for those with an interest in the history of special education, including parents, Syracuse University staff members, staff, K-12 teachers and university students. The softcover book will be for sale at the event for $9.95.

Katovitch is a graduate of Syracuse University (B.S., School of Education ’90; Certificate of Advanced Study in Disability Studies, ’14) and SUNY Cortland (M.S. in Reading ‘95). She worked for 21 years as a special education teacher in New York state public schools. What began as a personal research project on post-secondary education for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities resulted in her book “The Power to Spring Up: Postsecondary Education Opportunities for Students with Significant Disabilities” (Woodbine House, 2009).

RSVP’s are appreciated. Please respond online at or call the Museum of disABILITY History at 716.629.3626. The Commons is wheelchair accessible and has an accessible restroom. ASL interpreters will be present.

Established in 1998, the Museum of disABILITY History, located in Buffalo, N.Y., is the only one of its kind in the United States and is dedicated to advancing the understanding, acceptance and independence of people with disabilities. The museum’s exhibits, collections, publications, archives and educational programs create awareness and a platform for dialogue and discovery.

School of Education Faculty Member, Alumnus Share High Honor

Jennifer Russo — Wed, 28 Sep 2016 16:24:19 +0000

A professor of school counseling and a Ph.D. graduate of the are sharing the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision’s Publication in Counselor Education and Supervision Award this fall for their book “Group Counseling with LGBTQI Persons.”

Melissa Luke

Longtime friends and collaborators Melissa Luke, associate professor of counseling and human services and coordinator of school counseling at Syracuse University, and Kristopher Goodrich��G’09, program coordinator and assistant professor of counselor education at the University of New Mexico, will receive the award, which “honors a significant publishing effort by an ACES member focusing on the education and supervision of counselors within the last two years.”

The book, published in 2015, addresses the lack of literature and counselor training on group work with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and intersex (LGBTQI) clients.

Luke and Goodrich offer strengths-based, group counseling strategies to meet the needs of LGBTQI clients in a range of settings: child and adolescent; same-gender adult; intersex and transgender; coming out/disclosure; school, community outpatient and residential; couples and family; substance abuse; grief and loss; and advocacy.

“Not only is it probable that a group leader will work with LGBTQI group members, but the group leader is also likely to encounter a larger number of group members who live with and love LGBTQI persons,” Luke and Goodrich write in the book’s introduction.

“Thus, we approach this book with a belief that without more knowledge, awareness and skills in working with LGBTQI persons, group leaders are at risk of stereotyping and perpetuating societal misattributions, which both can be harmful to individuals and groups. [This] book is also predicated on the belief that with increased knowledge, awareness and skills, group leaders can utilize the unique properties and growth-promoting experiences for all group members, specifically LGBTQI members.”

Professor Nicole Hill, chair of the counseling and human services department, explains the importance of group work here: “The criticality of group work with the LGBTQI community cannot be overstated, especially in the current climate with systems-level marginalization and individual-level attacks that we see in our society. Group work becomes an important therapeutic intervention that builds resiliency, promotes feelings of universality and encourages empowerment.”

Kris Goodrich

Master’s students in programs accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs must have experience as a group member for a minimum of 10 hours and gain knowledge and skills in group counseling skills, group types, member roles, group dynamics and processes, and ethically and culturally relevant group strategies, Hill says.

“To meet the unique needs of the LGBTQI community, group counselors need ongoing opportunities to expand and deepen their counseling skills. Advanced group counseling skills that meet the needs of different cultural groups needs to be a continual area of professional interest and engagement for counselors conducting groups with their clients and students.”

The Department of Counseling and Human Services’ seven signatures include Socially Just Advocacy and Activism. “Dr. Luke’s leadership in this domain has practical applications that are informed by research. The practical implications are embedded in our curriculum and the professional identity we work to cultivate with our graduate students, says Hill, who won the same ACES honor in 2009.

School of Education, Say Yes to Education Offer Free SAT Prep Workshops

Jennifer Russo — Tue, 27 Sep 2016 19:17:46 +0000

The partnership between the and Say Yes to Education Syracuse continues with the start of a new year of SAT Prep classes for Syracuse City School District high school students. Three innovative sessions will run on Saturdays in October, February and April for an expected 200 students, focusing on character building, confidence building and life skills beyond the college preparatory test.

The School of Education and Say Yes to Education have partnered for SAT Prep classes for Syracuse City School District students.

Doctoral student Phillip Haddix coordinates the program that brings together high school students and SU students from across campus for four-and-a-half hour programs.

“My role is to continue the tradition of attracting a wide range of SU students in the areas of race/ethnicity, academic skill sets and a dynamic interpersonal approach to youth relations and rapport building,” says Haddix, a student in Cultural Foundations of Education who previously coordinated the Say Yes tutoring program at Fowler High School.

“We are creating themes for each of our five-week sessions, so parents and schools see a long-term commitment to our program is the advantage, not just a one-stop testing center,” he says.

Session 1, “The Age of the Apprentice,” focuses on rapport building and student engagement to foster a conducive learning environment. Session 2, “My Philosophy on the SAT,” will help students develop their unique approach to the SAT experience. Session 3, “H.O.M.E. (Here Our Mind Expands),” will help students understand achievement as a collective responsibility of family, school and community and empower them by acknowledging and affirming their successful yearlong commitment to the program as a major achievement.

SU students run the project’s administration and direct service, Haddix says.

Returning to the program are assistant coordinators Rachel James ’16, a graduate student in information studies, and Shantel Jones ’17, an education major. Each session will require four to eight instructors, depending on the number of city students enrolled. Haddix praises instructors like Jacqueline Martinez-Torres ’17, a civil engineering major, as “very accessible to students, just an all-around great role model, as Shantel and Rachel are.”

“For communities often underrepresented, we are making a deliberate effort to make the campus and our staff accessible to all who desire this opportunity,” Haddix says.

All classes are held in the Hall of Languages. City students attend from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. The group 100 Black Men of Syracuse continues to provide lunch and breakfast for the students.

Session 1 runs Oct. 8, 15, 22 and 29.��Session 2 runs Feb. 4, 11, 18 and 25 and March 4, 2017.��Session 3 runs��April 1, 8, 15, 22, and 29.��Students can register online at

The SAT Prep workshops are one of many partnerships between the SOE and the Syracuse City School District. Among them are the Syracuse Urban Fellowship Teacher program; collaborative grant projects with SOE faculty members and SCSD teachers and leaders focused on research, curriculum and professional development; partnerships in preparing prospective teachers and leaders, including the Syracuse University Inclusive Teaching Residents; the Writing Our Lives project for middle and high school students; and the OnCampus program that brings city students who have developmental disabilities and who are between the ages of 18 and 21 to campus for academic, personal and social development.

University, SubCat Studios, High Schools Partner on Inclusive Music Recording Studio

Jennifer Russo — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 12:24:03 +0000

This month, area high school students will have the opportunity to record professional-quality tracks with nationally-known recording artists Sophistafunk. The free, two-week summer camp, hosted at Subcat studios in downtown Syracuse’s Armory Square brings youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) such as Down Syndrome and autism spectrum disorder together with music education graduate students to collaboratively operate a recording studio.

Music education students work with students who have intellectual disabilities to record music during the two-week Inclusive Music Recording Studio.

The Inclusive Music Recording Studio was developed by John Coggiola, dual associate professor music education in the and the and James Abbott, professor of practice in music and entertainment industries in the College of Visual and Performing Arts; and is made possible by a grant from the University’s Lawrence B. Taishoff Center for Inclusive Higher Education.

The Inclusive Music Recording Studio benefits both the graduate students and the campers. Music Education graduate students further their experiences working with students with IDD, gaining new perspectives on education and inclusion as well as hands-on training working with state-of-the-art sound recording equipment. The campers get the experience of working together to achieve project-oriented goals, learning new skills and engaging in a work environment that can prepare them for future employment.

Abbott, the parent of a child with a disability, says he witnessed his son’s exclusion from music classes in a public school and decided to create opportunities for students with IDD to have a successful experience with music and community. “The overarching goal of the program has always been to give our campers a space to be who they are and learn in a fun environment,” he says. “When [the students] realize that they can master professional recording equipment, run cables, place mics in a way that produces a great recording by a popular band … there’s nothing like it.”

The camp also provides unique learning opportunities and challenges for music education graduate students, says Coggiola. “My students are asked to create a curriculum for the camp—to recreate a process they are well versed in producing within traditional music classrooms, but now in a recording studio to teach kids all the aspects of working and performing commercial music.”

The Inclusive Music Recording Studio runs from Aug. 1-12 at Subcat studios and culminates with a recording session with Sophistafunk. In addition to music education students and high school students, the camp is open to post-graduate music teachers through University College.

SOE Faculty Appointed to Leadership Positions

Jennifer Russo — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 18:51:18 +0000

School of Education professors Marcelle Haddix and Linwood Vereen now hold key positions on prestigious boards. Haddix, dean’s associate professor and chair of the Reading and Language Arts Center (RLA), has been named to serve as vice president-elect on the Literacy Research Association (LRA) board for a five-year term. Vereen, associate professor in the department of counseling and human services, has been elected to serve as secretary on the Association for Counselor Education and Supervisor (ACES) executive board position during the 2017-2018 academic year.

Haddix and Vereen both have an impressive history of leadership, scholarship and service to their fields. Haddix is a core faculty member in the , an affiliated faculty member in department of women’s and gender studies, a member of the Core Team and holds a courtesy faculty appointment in the department. She also directs the project, a program geared toward supporting the writing practices of urban youth within and beyond school contexts. Additionally, Haddix was awarded the American Educational Research Association Division K Early Career Award; the National Council for Teachers of English Promising Researcher Award; and the Syracuse University Meredith Teaching Award, one of the University’s most prestigious teaching honors.

Marcelle Haddix

“Dr. Haddix’s position [on the LRA] was elected by the membership of the international organization of literacy researchers and professors. That they are excited to entrust her with leading us toward the organization’s future suggests the esteem with which her scholarship and service are held,” says Kathy Hinchman, associate dean of the School of Education and professor in the Reading and Language Arts Center. LRA is committed to ethical research that is rigorous, methodologically diverse and socially responsible. The organization promotes research that enriches the knowledge, understanding and development of lifespan literacies in a multicultural and multilingual world.

Vereen is the program coordinator for the clinical mental health program and directs the selected studies in education program at the undergraduate level.

“This national position is an honor, and I am certain that Linwood will contribute greatly to the profession while representing Syracuse University quite well,” says Nicole Hill, chair of counseling and human services. In his new role as secretary, Vereen will be responsible for maintaining all current records, and managing archive materials.

Linwood Vereen

“Being elected to the ACES executive board as the secretary allows an opportunity to help shape counselor education and supervision on a national scale and to help foster the growth of the profession,” says Vereen.

The primary purpose of ACES is to advance counselor education and supervision in order to improve the provision of counseling services in all settings. ACES members are counselors, supervisors, graduate students and faculty members who strive to improve the education and supervision of counselors in training and in practice.

CSTEP Students Participate in Annual Conference

Jennifer Russo — Wed, 13 Apr 2016 20:34:24 +0000

Eight scholars in the Collegiate Science & Technology Entry Program (CSTEP) presented their research at CSTEP’s 24^th Annual Statewide Student Conference. The conference theme this year was “Journeys Beyond Excellence,” and was aimed at embodying the nearly 30 years of CSTEP programs.

Kassidy Lundy with her poster, “Exploring Kupffer’s Vesicle Through Self Propelled Particle Simulations.”

The conference was attended by over 550 participants, representing more than 40 colleges and universities across New York State, with nearly 200 students presenting their research via oral presentation or poster. The conference took place April 8-10�� in Lake George.

Kassidy Lundy (Physics, ’16), received an award for her research poster, “Exploring Kupffer’s Vesicle Through Self Propelled Particle Simulations.”

The eight scholars who participated in the conference were:

Ali Al Ali ’16
Topic: “Effects of varying concentrations of Cytochalasin B and amplitude output on the ultrasonic sensitivity of U937 and L1210 leukemia cells using low frequency ultrasound with 20kHz system”
Category: Biology

Patrina Bailey ’16
Topic: “Laser Ignition Systems: CFD Simulation of Laser Induced Shockwave”
Category: Technology

Stephen Benn (’17)
Topic: “Incorporation of Silver Nanoparticles in Electrospun Fiber Mats��to Increase Antimicrobial Activity”
Category: Natural Sciences

Francisco Caamano (’16)
Topic: “Laser Extinction Measurement of Soot in Diffusion Flames”
Category: Physical Sciences

Jerry Gomez (’17)
Topic: “The Role of Conformational Transitions in Proteins Related to Prion and Parkinson’s Disease”
Category: Engineering

JiaJin Lei (’17)
Topic: “The Effect of Axial Tethering on Healthy and Diseased Arteries”
Category: Engineering

Kassidy Lundy (’16)
Topic: “Exploring Kupffer’s Vesicle Through Self Propelled Particle Simulations”
Category: Physics
AWARD: Distinction (1^st Place)

Cindy Xu (’16)
Topic: “Modification of Hemicellulose Production in Poplar”
Category: Biology

Founded in 1986, CSTEP prepares students for successful careers in medicine, law, education, technology, engineering, healthcare, accounting and more. CSTEP is active in more than 50 colleges and universities across New York State, and supports students who are New York State residents and are among underrepresented populations in STEM and pre-licensure fields.

CSTEP is housed in the and is part of the Center for Graduate Preparation and Achievement. The annual conference is an opportunity for members of the CSTEP community to come together and share in the display of intellect, talent and creativity.

National Book Award-Winning Author Jacqueline Woodson to Speak April 5

Jennifer Russo — Thu, 31 Mar 2016 20:38:26 +0000

Jacqueline Woodson, National Book Award-winning author of “Brown Girl Dreaming,” will speak on Tuesday, April 5, at 5:30 p.m. in Gifford Auditorium.��Her talk, titled “Brown Girl Dreaming,” after her award winning memoir, is free and open to the public. Free parking will be available in the University Avenue Garage, and CART open captioning will be provided.

Jacqueline Woodson (Photo by Marty Umans)

The and the Humanities Center are co-sponsors of this event, and it is part of the School of Education’s Douglas Biklen Landscape on Urban Education Lecture Series.

“Brown Girl Dreaming” tells the moving story of her childhood in mesmerizing verse.��In this talk, she will guide the audience through the vivid poems from her book, sharing what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow, her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement and the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, despite the fact that she struggled with reading as a child.

Woodson is the author of more than two dozen books for young readers. She is a four-time Newbery Honor winner, a recipient of the NAACP Image Award, winner of the 2014 National Book Award, a three-time National Book Award finalist, a two-time Coretta Scott King Award winner and was recently named the Young People’s Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation. A selection of Woodson’s books will be available for purchase by credit card or check at the event.

For more information contact the School of Education at 315-443-4696 or visit��.

Hip-Hop Dance Class Performance Featured InclusiveU Students

Jennifer Russo — Wed, 30 Mar 2016 12:39:06 +0000

The Lawrence B. Taishoff Center for Inclusive Higher Education hosted a hip-hop dance performance on March 2 in Huntington Hall’s Sharon H. Jacquet Education Commons, featuring students in the “Introduction to Hip-Hop” class, including two InclusiveU students. The performance, titled “Be The Change,” incorporated elements from Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, demonstrating how far we have come as a society.

Students take part in a hip-hop dance performance hosted by the Lawrence B. Taishoff Center for Inclusive Higher Education.

“Hip-hop is about community, peace, love, respect and unity,” rapped Tehmekah MacPherson, dance technique studies instructor, during the performance.

About 25 of MacPherson’s students participated in the performance, each one connecting with the music at their own level. The dance piece promoted a message that celebrated difference and hope in action. It emphasized the idea that dance has the ability to share the message, and hip-hop stands for unity and power. The performance also included dialogue and interaction with the audience and the dancers. Some performers shared their experiences, while audience members contributed to the dialogue on dance and hip-hop culture.

“The best part was working together and feeling each other,” says Naomi Flores, one of the student performers.

“Each student played a unique and important role for the overall performance event,” said MacPherson after the show. “The performance was special because it was an opportunity for students to celebrate and affirm their commitment to each other while sharing their accomplishments with the larger campus community.”

The performance also included two InclusiveU students, Bobby and Asia. InclusiveU, an initiative of the Taishoff Center at Syracuse University, offers a comprehensive college experience for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including individualized coursework, person-centered planning, professional internships, and social and extracurricular activities.

“I have taught dance classes with mixed abilities in the past,” says MacPherson, “and one challenge that I had in the beginning was building community among students with��varied��abilities. I have since learned to better gauge and respond to relational dynamics and comfort levels,” she says.

Neuroscience Expert Shares Love for Dance with People with Parkinson’s Disease

Jennifer Russo — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 19:56:51 +0000

People with Parkinson’s disease, caregivers and others take part in a Moving Through Possibilities class.

When asked about her dance classes for people with Parkinson’s disease (PD), Tumay Tunur is clear, “It is a dance class, not dance therapy,” she says. She feels dance helps people with PD escape from their world of problems, medication and illness. Her program is called Moving Through Possibilities and is designed to help people with the condition find control and movement.

Tunur is a postdoctoral associate in the exercise science department at the . For her efforts in engaging the community and promoting healthy aging, Tunur will be honored with an Orange Circle Award on Tuesday, March 22. The Orange Circle Award honors individuals who go above and beyond in their daily lives and who possess a deep responsibility for extraordinary philanthropic acts. These are not limited to financial support, but also include volunteerism—those acts that better society through contributions of time and talent.

Tunur’s Moving Through Possibilities program is based on the Dance for PD® program started in 2001, a collaboration between the Brooklyn Parkinson Group (BPG) and the Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG), an internationally known dance company in Brooklyn. Tunur, who started dancing over a decade ago in her native Turkey, heard about Mark Morris and the Dance for PD® program while doing neuroscience research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). She became so interested in what they were doing, she traveled to New York to become a certified instructor in Dance for PD®. Tunur started teaching classes at UIUC before coming to Syracuse.

Tumay Tunur

“When I don’t make it to class, my body misses it,” says a senior citizen who drives to the Westcott Street area from across town to attend the PD dance class. She says it is beautiful to see everyone together, moving their hands and legs in synchrony. Tunur leads the class with the right mixture of playful enthusiasm and knowledgeable authority, playing relaxing or upbeat music to create the right mood. She tells stories to connect with the exercises to make the movements more fun and easier to remember. For example, she talks the class through a sequence by saying, “Reach like you are hugging someone but then you get punched in your stomach! Arc your spine back, and then reach out again to make up with the person who punched you.”

A common complication of Parkinson’s is the inability to stop and start movements. Someone with PD, for example, might freeze while walking and may not be able to continue moving. People with PD also lose fine motor skills, so routine tasks like buttoning a shirt or tying shoelaces can become challenging. Tremors also develop, further complicating fine motor function.

“There are also psychological effects,” says Tunur, “PD can affect mood, leading to frustration and anger.” These physical and psychological changes can cause people with PD to become isolated and disconnected from the world, Tunur says. “Moving through Possibilities provides a place to go and something fun to do that is not based on Parkinson’s or their medical requirement, but rather, based on beauty, art and aesthetics. Instead of seeing themselves as patients with PD,” Tunur says, “they see themselves as dancers.”

Beyond her experience as a dancer, Tunur has an impressive record as a scholar and researcher. In her position as a postdoctoral associate in neuroscience in the Department of Exercise Science, she teaches classes in dance, exercise and brain function and has authored numerous articles. She encourages her students to volunteer at the Moving through Possibilities classes, and many do become involved.

The School of Education has a long history of providing education, arts and community engagement opportunities to diverse communities. Aligned with School of Education principles, the class focuses on possibilities rather than disabilities; explores strength, balance and flexibility; and provides tools the dancers can use in their daily lives. Moving through Possibilities connects people to other resources they may need, including nutrition, communication and social opportunities. In addition to people with Parkinson’s, friends, caregivers, family members and health practitioners are invited to participate.

School of Education Doctoral Students Present at United Nations in Vienna

Jennifer Russo — Thu, 10 Mar 2016 18:06:01 +0000

Two special education doctoral students, Brent Elder and Michelle Damiani, presented at the 2016 Zero Project Conference, convened by the Essl Foundation, the World Future Council and the European Foundation Centre at the United Nations Office in Vienna. The conference was held from Feb. 10-12 and highlighted 98 innovative policies and practices concerning inclusive education from 500 contributors representing 70 countries around the world.

Brent Elder and Michelle Damiani at the 2016 Zero Project Conference in Vienna

Elder and Damiani have each earned a Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) in disability studies from the School of Education. As part of this interdisciplinary program, they took law courses from Arlene Kanter, director of the ’s��. Kanter introduced them to Judy Heumann, the special advisor for international��disability��rights for the U.S. Department of State, at a disability law symposium in Baltimore in 2013. Heumann encouraged them to pursue their interests in sustainable inclusive schools, and remained in touch.

It was Heumann who notified Elder about the Zero Project��Conference, asking him if he wanted to submit the work done by him and Damiani on inclusive��education��in Kenya in 2013. Elder consulted Damiani and their Kenyan colleague and co-author, Benson Oswago, who agreed. The group submitted their paper and they were invited to speak as experts on disability in Africa. The presentation was titled, “From Attitudes to Practice: Utilizing Inclusive Teaching Strategies in Kenyan Primary Schools.”

“For me,��aside from��just��being��in a building with such palpable history,��the most powerful moment of the conference was presenting our work in a room filled with so many��world leaders on disability,” says Elder.��“They included special��advisor Heumann, diplomats from all over the world, members of the Austrian parliament, a prince from Jordan, a princess from Saudi Arabia and directors of NGOs that shape international��disability��policy.”

Elder taught special education for eight years at a public elementary school in Goleta, Calif., before applying to the School of Education doctoral program. He worked in Bahrain, Thailand, Belize, Cuba and Kenya during his breaks from teaching, and realized he wanted to work on international projects. He is currently conducting his dissertation research on a Fulbright award in rural Kenya.

Damiani’s research agenda reflects a sustained commitment to inclusive teacher education practice and universal design for learning. She is a 2013 recipient of an outstanding university teaching assistant award.

Damiani feels the conference opened new opportunities, and she and her co-authors have been able to connect with individuals from around the world to discuss future collaborative partnerships. She also feels the conference helped her learn about the��implementation status of��policies and practices directly from representatives of countries and regions where the work is happening

“Presenting our work��at the United Nations��among so many world leaders, who share a global commitment to inclusive education and a barrier-free world was most impactful,” says Damiani.

Joanna Masingila, dean of the School of Education, invited Elder and Damiani to travel to Kenya 2013 to conduct a series of workshops focusing on inclusive teaching strategies for a group of teachers in rural Kenya, the basis for their paper and presentation. She says that the School of Education is extremely proud, and encourages other interested students to pursue doctoral studies in the area of special education. The School of Education has been consistently ranked in the top 15 nationally for its special education graduate programs.

Elder and Damiani are invited to a meeting of disability experts at the World Bank in April. Elder believes that these opportunities will help him develop transnational projects in the future, to encourage inclusive education for students with disabilities around the world; while Damiani feels that she learned about other areas of need in her work, for example innovative practices around inclusive education in emergency and refugee situations.

The article they submitted to the UN has recently been published in the International Journal for Inclusive Education:

Landscape of Urban Education Series Presents Lecture in Memory of Beloved SOE Professor

Jennifer Russo — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 16:26:53 +0000

The will welcome Michelle Fine, distinguished professor at the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center to give a public lecture on Thursday, Feb. 18, at 4 p.m. in Watson Hall Theater. Her presentation, titled “Prec(ar)ious Knowledge: Adolescent Wisdom Borne in Neoliberal Blues: An Essay Written While Dancing On Sari’s Generous Shoulders,” is being given in memory of School of Education professor emerita Sari Knopp Biklen. The event is free and open to the public.

Watson Hall Theater is located on the Syracuse University Campus at 316 Waverly Avenue (next to Light Works Gallery). Parking is free and available in the University Avenue Garage. CART open captioning will be provided.

Michelle Fine

Fine is a distinguished professor of critical psychology, women’s studies, American studies and urban education. She is a university teacher, educational activist and researcher who works on social justice projects with youth, women and men in prison, educators and social movements on the ground. Her recent publications include: “The Changing Landscape of Public Education” (2013), with Michael Fabricant; “Charter Schools and the Corporate Makeover of Public Education” (2012), with Fabricant; “Revolutionizing Education: Youth Participatory Action Research in Motion” (2008), with Julio Cammarota; and “Muslim-American Youth” (2008), with Selcuk Sirin.

“I am honored to speak about the legacy and the challenge that we inherit from the gifted intellect and generous soul of Sari Biklen,” says Fine.

Biklen passed away in September 2014 at the age of 68.��In May 2014, she retired from the University after 38 years of service, where she was the Laura and Douglas Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence in Cultural Foundations of Education. She was a specialist in popular culture, qualitative research methods and youth culture. She was a dedicated teacher and scholar, earning numerous prestigious awards. She tirelessly served the university in various capacities, and was a beloved mentor and friend to many students and faculty. She is remembered as an indomitable organizer, feminist and social justice activist. Above all, she is remembered for her warmth, her passion for hosting friends and family, and her enthusiasm for life.

Sari Biklen

The lecture event is part of the School of Education’s renowned Douglas P. Biklen Landscape of Urban Education Lecture Series. The school has hosted the series since 2005, and has committed each event to the presentation of current ideas and strategies for navigating urban education terrain in the United States. Sari Biklen chaired the lecture series in its inaugural years, and it was named for Dean Emeritus Douglas Biklen on the occasion of his retirement in 2014.

Support for this lecture was also made possible by the Harry S. and Elva K. Ganders Memorial Fund. For nearly two decades, the Ganders Lecture Series has celebrated the legacy of Harry S. Ganders, the first dean of the School of Education. Gander’s tenure as dean (1930-1952) is characterized as one of transition, growth and innovation and saw the creation of an all-University structure for the School of Education.��The lecture series was established by the Ganders’ daughters in memory of their parents, and is generously supported by alumni and other contributions.

School of Education Hosts Student Group from Japan’s Kobe University

Jennifer Russo — Tue, 16 Feb 2016 17:15:03 +0000

A group of students from Kobe University in Japan visited the University during the first week of February. The seven students, both undergraduate and graduate, and their faculty mentor spent a week with faculty and local school sites to see various educational structures and learn about disability studies and inclusive education from elementary grades through higher education. Also, several days were spent on lesson study activities.

Japanese students who visited Syracuse University recently, with School of Education Dean Joanna Masingila, center

Jugyō kenkyū, or lesson study, is a form of long-term professional development in which teachers conduct collaborative classroom research to study their lesson instructions in order to determine how students understand best. Its origins can be traced back to Japanese elementary education. Lesson study is considered to be a powerful transformation tool for students, because it concentrates on improving teaching methods to suit student learning.

During their visit, the Japanese students celebrated Setsubun, a Japanese festival, on Feb. 3. It is also called the bean-throwing festival because it is believed that wandering spirits come close to the physical world around that time and the Japanese people throw beans to drive them away.

The Japanese visitors were also in Syracuse to visit Kazushige Akagi, associate professor at Kobe University. Akagi has been in Syracuse since March 2015 to study the style adopted by Americans in lesson study. He has been working with Sharon Dotger, associate professor in teaching and leadership in the School of Education and chair of the department of Science Teaching in the , who focuses on how learning is related to teaching. She collaborates with elementary teachers to conduct research and study about how students think about science, and has open research classes on campus every year. Dotger and Akagi make collaborative visits to local elementary schools as part of their study.

“I came here to learn about lesson study and inclusive education,” says Akagi. “I am surprised to see that Americans concentrate on a child’s learning ability, while in Japan we study the same with concentration on a teacher’s instruction and teaching ability.” Akagi feels another difference has been teachers’ participation in lesson study. He feels while all teachers participate in lesson study in Japan as a weekly exercise, it is not so in the United States.

The Japanese students had a hectic schedule over the one-week period. They attended seminars and events on lesson study, and met many groups of Syracuse faculty and staff. They visited elementary schools in Syracuse to see how children with disabilities are included in regular classes.

“We wanted to explore the American education system with respect to disability studies,” says Yuki Shinohara, a graduate student studying psychology, at Kobe University.

“I work in disability service in a nonprofit organization,” says Ikumi Fukagawa, another graduate student, “and I am curious to see how such students are being taught in the United States.”

The Japanese students were excited about an exchange program with Syracuse University in the future, or even a short summer course. They felt the experience would give them an opportunity to explore a different place and culture, while learning about children with disability and understanding inclusive education, a subject they care about the most.

Syracuse University Fit Families Program to Include Children with Autism

Jennifer Russo — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 19:38:26 +0000

The Fit Families Program for Children with Autism, a research-based physical activity program for families with children with autism ages 5 to 10, is currently accepting applications for its five-session workshop beginning in March.

A child and instructor participate in a previous SU Fit Families program.

Luis Columna, associate professor of exercise science in the School of Education, along with a team of professors, students, and experts from in and around Central New York, will begin working with children with autism and their families to promote physical activity and research the correlating effects of an active lifestyle. It was made possible with the support of the John Hussman Foundation and the Jim and Juli Boeheim Foundation.

The Fit Families program for children with autism, an offshoot of the SU Fit Families Program for children with visual impairments, was developed by Columna two years ago and was supported by the J. Henry & Martha E. DeBoer Fund at the Central New York Community Foundation and the Boeheim Foundation. The overwhelming support and success of this program is what prompted Columna to include other disabilities, this time focusing on children with autism.

The program for children with visual impairments was innovative, providing exceptional opportunities to the children as well as their parents. Using a holistic approach (developing different levels of the whole person) SU Fit Families parents attended theme-specific workshops (i.e., orientation and mobility, physical activity and motor development, aquatics, and sports) while physical activity skills were taught to the children. The parents and children then worked together with professionals, to practice their new skills. Through this symbiotic collaboration, the children became physically active and the families were provided with the tools and skills needed to feel confident working with their child in this setting, thus promoting physical activity for the entire family.

“The Fit Families Program is ultimately about giving hope and confidence,” says Columna. “This new edition of the program for children with autism works under the same premise.”

Implementing such an ambitious expansion plan is no easy task, but Columna has a vision and a team of experts to make it happen. The team of professionals providing expertise and services for children with autism and their families includes Natalie Russo, assistant professor of psychology, who is an expert diagnostician for children with autism and in the use of visual strategies for treatment. Kevin Heffernan, assistant professor and director of the Human Performance Laboratory; Tiago Barreria assistant professor and expert in objective measurement of physical activity; and Michael Norris assistant professor and expert in aquatics and teaching strategies for children, are all from the exercise science department.

Christy Ashby, associate professor and director of the Institute on Communication and Inclusion (ICI); and Beth Myers, research assistant professor and director of the Taishoff Center for Inclusive Higher Education, are among the team of School of Education colleagues participating in the SU Fit Families program.

Columna has also enlisted the aid of physical activity experts from around the United States, along with students in the School of Education’s physical education and exercise science programs to support the families and collect data throughout the program.

Forty families with children between the ages of 5 and 10 with autism will take part in the SU Fit Families program during the next two years. This is a significant expansion from the visual impairment model, which included 12 families over two years. Each family will participate in a series of five theme-specific workshops, including sensory integration and behavior management, physical activity, aquatics and sports.

Columna has long been an advocate for social justice and diversity issues. His scholarly work and service activity have focused on improving physical activity opportunities for children with disabilities and their families. In addition to running the program in Syracuse, Columna is replicating the SU Fit Families programs for visual impairments and autism in India and Puerto Rico and is working on starting such programs in China and other countries.

The SU Fit Families Program for children with autism starts this spring with sessions continuing into fall 2016, and is currently accepting applications. Families with children with autism between the ages of 5 and 10 who may be interested in participating should contact Columna at lcolumna@syr.edu

Education Professor Contributes to Global Study on Childhood Obesity

Jennifer Russo — Fri, 29 Jan 2016 17:16:57 +0000

The International Study of Childhood Obesity, Lifestyle and the Environment found a direct correlation between level of activity and childhood obesity.

Tiago Barreira, assistant professor in the ’s department of exercise science, is part of a team of researchers who collaborated on The International Study of Childhood Obesity, Lifestyle, and the Environment (ISCOLE). The study, which took five years to complete, collected data from over 7,000 children (ages 9 to 11 years of age), from 12 different countries.

Professor Barreira says what makes this study significant is that all 12 countries used the same methodology to collect data, thus producing more accurate results. The primary aim of ISCOLE was to determine the relationships between lifestyle behaviors and obesity in a multi-national study of children, and to investigate the influence of higher-order characteristics such as behavioral settings and the physical, social and policy environments, on the relationships observed within and between countries.

Researchers collected data from several sources. Movement was measured by attaching an accelerometer to each child’s hip. This device, similar to a pedometer or activity tracker, allowed the researchers to track each child’s physical activity, sedentary time and sleep level. Obesity was measured using a bioelectrical impedance scale that measured body fat and weight. Additionally, each child filled out a questionnaire on nutrition and physical activity habits along with parents and school principals, who also filled out surveys on physical activity, nutrition and the environment around their homes and the school. Researchers looked at the school environment (the amount, quality and accessibility of equipment encouraging physical activity at each school) and what types of food were offered in the cafeteria and in vending machines.

Factors reviewed in the findings included activity levels, sleep patterns, television viewing time and diet. After collecting and analyzing the data, the study found a direct linear relationship between moderate to vigorous activity and childhood obesity. In other words, the children who were more active were less likely to be obese, and vice versa.

Additionally, while the focus of this study was to look at the correlation between exercise and obesity, other interactions emerged. A paradoxical relationship appeared between gender and childhood obesity. According to Barreira, while this study showed boys having a higher level of activity, it ironically showed the boys to be more obese than the girls. It is still unknown why this is the case, but he says that this may be due, in part, to differences in diet and/or physiology between boys and girls.

Along with the major relationships, several subsequent correlations emerged and findings were published in a special issue of the International Journal of Obesity Supplements (December 2015). This issue was devoted to the ISCOLE global study, along with 17 articles. Each of article, a sub-set of the global study, included such topics as the reliability of the accelerometer, associations between body mass index and body fat, birth weight, active transportation (the way the child traveled to and from school), lifestyle and dietary patterns (i.e., home and school food environments and the frequency of eating breakfast) and childhood obesity, along with sleep patterns and childhood obesity.

Each of the articles included a number of methodological approaches, which, Barreira says will be helpful for other researchers applying similar methods in their research. Professor Barreira also notes that the study could lead to changes in school policy and implementation of programs to encourage physical activity and healthier eating.

Barreira was one of more than 200 researchers involved in this study; he was responsible for the physical activity portion. He got involved while doing his post-doctoral fellowship at Pennington Biomendical Research Center at Louisiana State University. Barreira is an expert in objective measurement of physical activity (the use of pedometers and accelerometers), and his research focuses on the design and development of physical activity tools, physical activity patterns, motivation to promote physical activity, and the relationship between physical activity and cardiovascular disease.

More information about the global study and the subsequent articles can be found at .

Taishoff Center Receives $2 Million to Create Model InclusiveU Program

Jennifer Russo — Fri, 29 Jan 2016 16:30:34 +0000

The Lawrence B. Taishoff Center for Inclusive Higher Education in the has received $2 million in federal funds to develop programs and conduct research for national use through the InclusiveU initiative, which supports individualized and inclusive options for students with intellectual disabilities at the University. The funding comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s TPSID program (Transition and Postsecondary Programs for Students with Intellectual Disabilities), which provides grants to institutions of higher education to enable them to create or expand high quality, model comprehensive transition and postsecondary programs for students with intellectual disabilities. This grant comes on the heels of a $3 million gift from the Taishoff Family Foundation last fall.

Taishoff Center Director Beth Myers welcomes students and families to Syracuse University.

InclusiveU at Syracuse offers a comprehensive college experience for students with intellectual disabilities. InclusiveU programming includes individualized coursework, person-centered planning, professional internships, and social and extracurricular activities. Students can select classes based on their interests and, in their final year of enrollment, can participate in Project SEARCH, a national employment preparation program that places students in on-campus internships to provide them with marketable, transferable job skills.

To facilitate a truly inclusive college experience for InclusiveU students, Syracuse University students from all majors and disciplines will have the opportunity to work with the students as peer mentors through the Peer-to-Peer Project, partnering together for social events, academics and other campus activities.

Beth A. Myers, director of the Taishoff Center, research assistant professor at the School of Education and principal investigator on the TPSID grant, says there is a critical need for universities to create pathways like InclusiveU. “The intention is not for Syracuse University to become the only place for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” she says, “but rather to support the growth and capacity within all institutes of higher education so students can attend the college or university of their choice.”

The number of students with disabilities who may be eligible for postsecondary education is near 3 million, and only 86 four-year universities welcome students with intellectual disabilities. Of those 86, fewer than 15 offer a fully inclusive learning experience.

The Taishoff Center is dedicated to providing full and equitable participation of students with disabilities in higher education, especially students who have traditionally been excluded from post-secondary education. The center was established in 2009 by the Taishoff family and has been operating InclusiveU at Syracuse University since 2013. Since its inception, the Taishoff Center has made significant impact in supporting students with disabilities in higher education and within society at large. The center has hosted two national conferences and its staff have secured more than $6.2 million in grants from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), Taishoff Family Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education, and presented at conferences nationwide. More information can be found at .

School of Education Administrator, Educator Receives Prestigious Award

Jennifer Russo — Thu, 17 Dec 2015 18:59:07 +0000

Kathy Hinchman, associate dean for academic affairs in the and professor in the Reading and Language Arts Center, received the Albert J. Kingston Service Award given by the (LRA). Formerly the National Reading Conference, the LRA honors individuals with the Kingston Award based upon their distinguished contributions and service to the organization.

Kathy Hinchman, center, receives the Albert J. Kingston Service Award. With her are David Reinking of Clemson University and Jill Castek, chairperson of the awards committee.

“We were honored to award Professor Hinchman the 2015 Albert J. Kingston award for outstanding service to the organization,” says Jill Castek, chairperson of the awards committee. “Nominated by her peers, Dr. Hinchman’s contributions and commitment to the LRA have gone above and beyond, and her esteemed work has inspired, motivated and encouraged many.” Hinchman received the honor at the LRA conference on Dec. 5 in Carlsbad, Calif.

Hinchman, an accomplished leader and scholar, has been devoted to the LRA for 30 years. She has served the organization in such roles as: conference proposal reviewer; conference area chair; field counsel representative; reviewer and co-editor for the annual LRA Yearbook (a yearly publication of conference papers) and the Journal of Literacy Research (formerly known as the Journal of Reading Behavior). She also expanded the reach and impact of literacy research by presenting cutting-edge work at LRA conferences and served as area program coordinator with the late Professor Peter Mosenthal. Hinchman also served on the LRA Board of Directors from 2003-2005, eventually serving as vice president in 2008, and president in 2009. During her presidential term, she was instrumental in establishing (with board of directors support) the Scholars of Color Transitioning into Academic Research Institutions (STAR) mentoring program. Hinchman continues to serve the LRA as a committee member, reviewer and mentor for STAR.

“Kathy’s receipt of this prestigious award speaks to her stature within the LRA organization,” says Kelly Chandler-Olcott, School of Education Associate Dean for Research and professor of Reading and Language Arts. Chandler-Olcott says she considers herself fortunate to have worked as Hinchman’s colleague and collaborator for over 20 years. Chandler-Olcott, along with Reading and Language Arts faculty, students and School of Education alumni, attended the LRA conference.

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