College News

Sarah Lubienski, professor of Curriculum and Instruction, and Joseph Robinson, assistant professor of Educational Psychology, taught the AERA Institute on Statistical Analysis for Education Policy May 20-23 in Washington, D.C., where Lubienski again served as director and Robinson repeated his role as faculty of the institute. This was their second year leading the institute, which addressed intersections of mathematics education and equity. According to Lubienski, the event provides a rare opportunity for scholars from mathematics education, statistics, and other fields to come together and learn about cutting-edge data sets and research methods. Read more...

May 2, 2013, GoldenApple.org, CHICAGO — Golden Apple, a leader in advancing the teaching profession in Illinois for 28 years, announced 2013 recipients of the Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching, including John Kretsos, '92 Sec. Ed. Read more...

Ed.D. candidate Un-Yeong Park is a recipient of the Counseling Center's 2013 Robert P. Larsen Human Development Award. Park is a doctoral student in Human Resource Development in the Department of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership (EPOL). He is also a career coach for international students and adults. Recipients were honored at a ceremony on May 8. Read more...

Our dear colleague and friend Professor Susan E. Noffke passed away on Saturday morning, June 1, at Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana from a respiratory infection and complications linked to her cancer. Read more...

College of Education graduates complete a grand chapter of their lives and celebrate academic milestones

The College of Education held its convocation ceremony on Sunday, May 12, 2013, to celebrate and mark the magnificent academic milestones of 496 graduates. Graduates of on-campus, online, and off-campus degree and certificate programs were recognized for their accomplishments before standing to shift their mortar board tassels from right to left, signifying the completion of their education. Read more...

Dr. Laura Taylor, Ed.D. '06 EPOL, assistant superintendent for achievement and student services at Champaign Unit 4 School District and adjunct instructor in EPOL, is being recognized by the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance as its Ally of the Year. The alliance will recognize Taylor at its launch event on June 9 in Champaign. Read more...

Two Illinois mathematicians travel to Haiti to share learning and teaching methods with math teachers in a rural school Read more...

The College of Education hosted a Distinguished Alumni Awards and James Scholar Honors recognition brunch on April 13. This is the first year the two events were combined, demonstrating that the College's best and brightest students of today go on to be the distinguished alumni of our future. Read more...

In its usual tradition, the College of Education had exceptional representation at the American Educational Research Association's 2013 Annual Meeting, held April 27 through May 1 in San Francisco. More than 130 faculty and students represented our College with superior papers and presentations. Read more...

Ruth Nicole Brown, assistant professor of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership (EPOL), was named the Faculty Woman of the Year by the Women’s Resources Center at an awards ceremony on March 29. Read more...

APRIL 18, 2013, UI NEWS BUREAU, CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Six academic professionals were honored with the 2013 Chancellor’s Academic Professional Excellence awards at a reception held in April. Read more...

Joseph Robinson, assistant professor of Educational Psychology, has been recognized for his paper, "Bullying explains only part of LGBTQ-Heterosexual disparities: Implications for policy and practice." He was selected as the co-winner of the inaugural Junior Faculty Best Paper Award by the Social and Behavioral Research Council. Read more...

The American Educational Research Association (AERA) will hold its 2013 Annual Meeting April 27 through May 1 in San Francisco. Once again the College of Education has a great representation with an impressive list of papers and presentations by more than 130 faculty and students. Read more...

Adrienne Dixson, associate professor of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership, and interim director of the Center for Education in Small Urban Communities, has co-edited a book titled “Handbook of Critical Race Theory and Education,” published this spring. Read more...

APRIL 18, 2013, UI NEWS BUREAU, CHAMPAIGN, Ill., Sharita Forrest — The presence of gangs in the vicinity of schools creates a pervasive climate of fear and victimization among students, teachers and administrators that escalates the level of aggression in bullying incidents and paralyzes prevention efforts, suggests a new study in the journal Psychology of Violence. Read more...

Rebecca Ginsburg, associate professor in the Department of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership and in Landscape Architecture, has been selected by the University YMCA to receive this year's J. Frederick Miller Award. Read more...

Barbara D. Bateman (Ph.D. '62 Educ. Admin.) has been named the recipient of the J.E. Wallace Wallin Special Education Lifetime Achievement Award from the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC). She was presented with the award at the Council's 2013 convention held earlier this month in in San Antonio. Read more...

Isa Adney (Ed.M.,'12, HRE) speaker, consultant, and author of Community College Success, recently made GOOD Magazine's 100 People Pushing the World Forward list. Read more...

The College of Education is pleased to announce the faculty, staff, and students who are recipients of the College's 2013 Faculty and Staff Awards. Recipients will be recognized at the spring faculty meeting, which will be held at 2:00 p.m. on May 2 in room 22 in the Education Building. Read more...

Ben's Bells, a service learning project in the Department of Special Education, was recently featured in postmarks, a publication for parents and friends at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, published by the UI News Bureau. Read more...

Jason Taylor, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership, was one of three graduate student interns selected by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) to study dual credit state policies related to quality assurance. The three interns have been working with Professor Victor Borden at Indiana University since January 2012—you could say they ate, breathed, and slept dual credit for the better part of 2012. Read more...

Liv Thorstensson Dávila, clinical assistant professor of Curriculum and Instruction, recently spoke with Sharita Forrest of the UI News Bureau about high schools’ placement policies and teachers’ biases about immigrant students’ abilities, which can be detrimental to students’ academic success, according to Dávila's research. Read more...

Kelley Sullivan, an Elementary Education student from Wonder Lake, Ill., won a $2,000 Isabelle Purnell Education Award for 2013-14 from the Illinois Club. She was honored at an awards brunch on March 2. Read more...

To say 2012-13 has been a banner year for Rosa Milagros Santos might just be an understatement. Read more...

New teacher induction and mentoring is the focus of a statewide conference wrapping up today in Springfield, Ill. This event was the eighth annual conference organized by the Illinois New Teacher Collaborative (INTC), and it is Illinois' only annual statewide conference devoted to new teacher mentoring and induction. Read more...

Kathy Ryan, assistant dean for Academic Affairs, has always wished for the students in the College of Education to have a study abroad experience. This fall, Ryan discovered that Lucinda Morgan was working on just what she had hoped for. Read more...

New teacher induction and mentoring is the focus of a statewide conference that will be held February 26 and 27 in Springfield, Ill. This event is the eighth annual conference organized by the Illinois New Teacher Collaborative (INTC), and it is Illinois' only annual statewide conference devoted to new teacher mentoring and induction. Read more...

FEBRUARY 4, 2013, WCIA NEWS, ILLINOIS HOMEPAGE.NET, CHAMPAIGN — A UI student, Michelle Bonati, is teaching people in the community to pay it forward. Her friend's son died suddenly in 2002. Now she, and people around the country, are Taking Action to honor his memory. Read more...

JANUARY 22, 2013, AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES, AAPD.COM, WASHINGTON, DC — The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) is pleased to announce that Anjali Forber-Pratt (Ph.D. '12 HRE) is one of two winners of the prestigious 2013 Paul G. Hearne Leadership Award. Read more...

Jennifer Delaney, assistant professor of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership, has been named a consulting editor of the journal "Research in Higher Education." Read more...

The University Primary School (UPS) held its "Culminating Event: The Water Project" in January to show off an entire semester's study of all things water. On the evening of January 11, about 250 parents, siblings, extended family, and friends viewed the water displays, and on January 14, the event was open to visitors from the University of Illinois and the community. Read more...

Dorothy Espelage, professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Illinois, is the lead author of an article published in the APA's American Psychologist. The article makes recommendations for a national research, practice, and policy agenda to better understand and prevent violence directed against teachers. She was chair of APA’s Task Force on Classroom Violence Directed Against Teachers, which issued a report in 2011. Read more...

Anjali Forber-Pratt Ph.D. '12 HRE has made the "Greatest Persons of the Year" list by Huffington magazine, part of the Huffington Post. Each week, Huffington profiled a person "who has made a difference in his or her community, from the 10-year-old Cub Scout who started a charity to the single dad who traveled around the world volunteering with his family. Now, we look back at some of the greatest people we knew this year." The magazine had this to say about Forber-Pratt: Read more...

Dorothy Espelage, professor of Educational Psychology, is part of a national violence-prevention research group that is calling for a renewed nationwide effort to address mass shootings. The statement from the Interdisciplinary Group on Preventing School and Community Violence, made up of researchers from across the country, including Espelage, addresses the need for more mental health services and improved threat assessment. Read more...

Professor Adam Poetzel and his EDUC 102 honors students hosted a poster session on December 13, 2012, at the College of Education. Faculty, staff, and peers interacted with the James Scholar Education students as they shared their research findings and answered questions related to student academic achievement, poverty, race, disability, native language, teacher quality, and school reform. Read more...

Anne Haas Dyson, professor in Education Policy, Organization and Leadership, has received the Early Literacy Educator of the Year Award from the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). NCTE seeks to recognize distinguished contributions to the language and literacy education of young children. Read more...

Alumna Mary Lynn Boscardin Ph.D. '84 EOL, a department chair and professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has recently published a new book titled “Handbook of Leadership and Administration for Special Education.” Read more...

William Trent, professor of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership, was recently interviewed for an article by SentinelSource.com about the safety of women on campuses in Massachusetts, specifically commenting on a Voices of Diversity study. Read more...