College News

The Education Justice Project’s Language Partners program has been honored with the inaugural Arcus Prize for Collaborative Social Justice Leadership. To win the award, Language Partners competed with 188 other organizations from 23 countries. The competition was so rigorous that the judges decided to give the $30,000 prize (originally set at $25,000) to three organizations. Read more...

Joseph Robinson, assistant professor of Educational Psychology, has been named a 2013 National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow. The fellowship will provide him the opportunity to devote more time to researching how school districts and state education agencies can improve academic outcomes for English language learners. Read more...

MAY 6, 2013, UI NEWS BUREAU, CHAMPAIGN, Ill., Sharita Forrest — Middle school children who completed a social-emotional skills learning program at school were 42 percent less likely to engage in physical fighting a year later, according to a new study in the Journal of Adolescent Health. Read more...

MAY 1, 2013, USA TODAY, SAN FRANCISCO — Schools that want to do a better job fighting bullying ought to start with one key step, a group of researchers said Tuesday: Stop using the term "bullying." Read more...

Maya Israel, assistant professor of Special Education, has recently coauthored a new book titled “The Beginning Special Educator's Survival Guide.” According to the authors, the book provides what every Special Education teacher needs to know "to survive and thrive.” Read more...

Stacy Dymond, associate professor of Special Education, and Cris Mayo, professor of Educational Policy, Organization, and Leadership, have both received 2013 campus teaching awards. They were recognized at the Celebration of Teaching Excellence with other teaching award winners from across campus on April 23. Read more...

Rachel Storm, Ed.M. '12 EPS, has won the Illinois International Graduate Achievement Award from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Read more...

Laura Ketchum, business manager I in the Department of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership (EPOL), has been bestowed with the 2013 Chancellor's Distinguished Staff Award. In order to receive such an honor, an individual must be recommended by the selection committee and the award endorsed by Chancellor Phyllis M. Wise. Read more...

The College of Education will be well represented at this year's Campus Undergraduate Research Symposium, which will be held from 9 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. on April 18 in the Illini Union. The event gives undergraduate students the opportunity to present the fruits of their research as well as scholarly and other creative endeavors—especially those undertaken with mentorship from faculty. Read more...

For the past seven months, a group of international graduate students from the College of Education has coordinated a program titled "Understanding Educational Diversity Around the World" to showcase education systems in various countries. Read more...

APRIL 9, 2013, UI NEWS BUREAU, CHAMPAIGN, Ill., Sharita Forrest — The quality of the social relationships that newly hired people develop with other employees in their work groups is critical to newcomers’ job satisfaction, learning their responsibilities and their ability to fit in to the workplace culture, a new study suggests. Read more...

K. Peter Kuchinke, professor of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership, was featured in an April 2013 article in International Educator. The magazine interviewed him in the midst of his four-year FIPSE (Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education) grant. Read more...

Christie L. Gilson, Ph.D. '08 SpEd, assistant professor of Education at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pa., has been selected to receive the 2013 Alumni Humanitarian Award by the University of Illinois Alumni Association (UIAA). Read more...

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has announced that it will be home to a new Confucius Institute starting this spring, which will be physically located in the Education Building, although its implementation and day-to-day functions will be a coordinated effort from across campus. Read more...

The Education Justice Project (EJP) offers education programs to incarcerated students at the Danville Correctional Center. The EJP is directed by Rebecca Ginsburg, associate professor in the Department of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership and in Landscape Architecture. The project involves about 60 U of I grad students and faculty members in various roles, including instructors, tutors, and program evaluators. Illinois Alumni magazine featured an article about EJP recently, written by freelance writer Dave Evensen. Read more...

Timothy Reese Cain, assistant professor of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership, was featured on WILL's radio program Focus 580 on March 5. He was interviewed about the Ethnography of the University Initiative (EUI) and the importance of archiving campus research projects. He co-directs EUI with Nancy Ablemann, Gina Hunter, and Sharon Irish. In late February, he also presented on the project at the campus’ Faculty Retreat, “When Teaching and Learning Meet Undergraduate Research.” Read more...

On February 28, 2013, the University of Illinois held its fifth annual Public Engagement Symposium to celebrate innovation in various fields through programs and organizations on campus. Students, faculty, and members of the community presented posters that displayed their projects and respective engagement with the public. The symposium was sponsored by the Office of Public Engagement and Online and Continuing Education. Read more...

The International Reading Association (IRA) has created a task force to examine poverty's impact on literacy, and Eurydice Bouchereau Bauer, associate professor of Curriculum and Instruction, is one of seven members commissioned to examine the important topic. Read more...

Nicole Beck, a junior in Special Education, will be presented with the Individual Student Social Justice Award from the McKinley Foundation on March 9. Throughout her college career, Beck has worked with children with disabilities, including assisting with the Buddy Walk for families with a Down syndrome member and spending time with children at the Little Angels facility in Elgin. Read more...

Biology teacher Lynn Wiedelman ('11 LAS, Biology major, Sec. Ed. minor), has been named a science-teaching fellow—an Astellas-NSTA Fellow in the National Science Teachers Association's New Science Teacher Academy to be exact. Wiedelman, who teaches biology at Centennial High School in Champaign, was featured in The News-Gazette for her fellow designation. Read more...

Jeri Hart, a senior in the College of Education, had a passion for theater that was too great to leave behind in high school. As an Elementary Education major, she has found a way to blend her interest with her major. Read more...

A study about gay teen victimization by Joseph P. Robinson, assistant professor of Educational Psychology, will be featured in the March 2013 issue of Pediatrics, the premier journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. The study, "Developmental Trends in Peer Victimization and Emotional Distress in LGB and Heterosexual Youth," was co-authored by Dorothy L. Espelage, professor of Educational Psychology, and Ian Rivers, a professor in the department of Sport and Education at Brunel University in the United Kingdom. Read more...

The National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA), founded in 2008, is based in the College of Education at the University of Illinois and at Indiana University. George Kuh and Stanley Ikenberry serve as co-principal investigators. In addition, NILOA works with several senior scholars including Jillian Kinzie, Pat Hutchings, Peter Ewell, and Timothy Reese Cain. Read more...

Linda Herrera, professor the Department of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership, recently led a small delegation from the University of Illinois to Egypt to meet with Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei and Egyptian youth. Read more...

JANUARY 14, 2013, CBS Chicago — It’s not quite the college experience. No dorms, no classrooms, no late-night parties. Read more...

If you didn't know much about Ben's Bells, you might think it's a simplistic pay-it-forward campaign in which willing participants can feel better about themselves by performing a fleeting good deed—a warm and fuzzy moment in time. Read more...

DECEMBER 18, 2012, THESOUTHERN.COM, CARBONDALE, ILL., Stephen Rickerl — BENTON — Surrounded by family, colleagues and friends he’d known for years but never met, Jim King (Ed.M. '12 HRE) held back tears as he studied the diploma he waited four decades to earn. Read more...

Students, faculty, and staff joined together to hear advice and reflections of College of Education teaching award recipients at the Bureau of Educational Research's fall seminar, held on December 6. After sharing a meal, attendees enjoyed hearing down-to-earth and practical teaching and advising insight from three panel members, all of whom won a 2011-12 outstanding graduate teaching award. Read more...

Rosa Milagros Santos, associate professor in Special Education, has been notified that she'll receive the Outstanding CEC Leadership award, an award that honors a Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) member who has made significant contributions to the council’s programs not only at the local and state/provincial level, but also on the national and international level, over an extended period of time. Award winners will be honored at CEC's annual convention that will be held next April in San Antonio, Texas. Read more...

Ryen Nagle and Gloria Shenoy, doctoral students in EPOL’s Higher Education program, were recently honored for their in-process dissertations relating to community colleges. Read more...

Michael Parrish, an undergraduate academic adviser in the College of Education, has recently been awarded the Larine Y. Cowan “Make a Difference” Award from the Office of Equal Opportunity and Access. Parrish, an active member in many organizations on campus, was given this award in the category of Advocacy for LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) Affairs. Read more...

College of Education alumna Liz Jackson Ph.D. '09 EPS was featured in a Star Tribune article about young Americans working overseas. Read more...

Alumni Michael McKelvey, Greg Johnson, and Stacy Bennett were recently announced winners of the "Forty under 40" award, given to "people in their 20s and 30s who have already accomplished great things on the job and in their communities." Read more...

Timothy Reese Cain, assistant professor in Education Policy, Organization and Leadership, is the author of a new book titled "Establishing Academic Freedom: Politics, Principles, and the Development of Core Values." Read more...

NOVEMBER 2, 2012, UI NEWS BUREAU, CHAMPAIGN, Ill., Sharita Forrest — Karen Erickson, a literacy expert, will give the annual Goldstick Family Lecture in the Study of Communication Disorders at the University of Illinois on Nov. 8. Erickson’s talk is titled “Conditions of Literacy Learning Success for Students With Significant Disabilities.” Read more...

Editors of the Early Childhood Research & Practice (ECRP) online journal are thrilled to report that they are in the early stages of an agreement to have selected articles translated into Russian. Read more...

by Allie Pitcher, writing intern Read more...