Greetings!

Once again, we are concluding another academic year. To our students who will be graduating in just a few days, we offer congratulations. Your time at Illinois has prepared you for the upcoming joys and challenges you may encounter, and has created a strong intellectual foundation that will last throughout your career.

U.S. News and World Report has released its annual rankings for colleges and universities. The results demonstrate the positive impact of our Strategic Planning initiatives, and underscore our preeminence in the field. I am proud to report that we have four departments ranked in the top ten, and two departments ranked in the top twenty, nationally. Overall, the college moved up in the national rankings as well. Thank you to all of our faculty and staff whose exemplary scholarship and talents make these achievements possible.

Planning for the Future: Budget Update
While there are many accomplishments to celebrate, our efforts to plan for the future of the college continue. The current economic turmoil has caused the college to redouble its efforts to appropriately manage resources while maintaining forward momentum. In spite of tough economic times, the college is committed to finding and providing resources to our students to ensure their continued opportunities and success. College leadership has created a specific action plan which maps strategies for growth, redeployment and targeted cost cutting in each department and unit. We have already seen a positive change from these efforts as the college is predicted to end the year well within its annual operating budget. This is no small accomplishment given a likely cash rescision. While much uncertainty exists for the coming year, the college is well positioned to emerge from this crisis a stronger, more vibrant and committed community.

New Learning: A Charter for Change in Education
The college is pleased to announce a new endeavour: New Learning: A Charter for Change in Education. Initiated by experts from all departments in our college, this Charter outlines a ten point plan for transforming education. The document is both idealistic and pragmatic. For each of our ten points, we suggest ways in which the transformations needed are practicable and achievable. If you are interested in contributing your ideas for the future of education to this living document, visit our New Learning Charter Web site. Interactive components will be added this summer to enable visitors to submit their own action items, supporting evidence, and comments.
 

Awards and Achievements

One of the hallmarks of the College of Education is the overall quality of our faculty, staff, and students. Each year we recognize the stellar accomplishments of those in our college through a variety of awards. This year we recognized several faculty for their long and distinguished service to the profession through our Distinguished Scholar, Distinguished Senior Scholar, Outstanding Academic Professional, and Distinguished Staff awards. In addition to the college awards, many of our faculty and students were recognized for their contributions to their specific field. We also invest in the future of our faculty through a variety of Faculty Fellow awards that support innovative research and development activities.

View a listing of our recent college award winners and their achievements
 

Research Highlights

Once again our faculty have increased their efforts to attract external funding to support their research agendas. Our grant proposal submissions increased again this year and our "hit rate" for successful grants also increased. Success in attracting external funding is critical for both individual faculty and for the university. Although the competition for external funding is as great as ever, so are the opportunities available to us through the Federal economic stimulus funding bill. We expect to announce many more successful grants in the near future.

View some of our most recent research awards and projects for Spring 2009
 

Events

Our college continues to reach out to our local community as well as our constituents on campus through a variety of creative and engaging events. These events range from summer enrichment programs for local schools to recruitment fairs for attracting a more diverse population of students into science, technology, engineering, and math programs (STEM). The number of educational and scholarly events held within the college each year is also impressive.

For a multimedia view of the events in the college, you can now watch videos of recent faculty presentations as well as the invited speakers for the Ubiquitous Learning/STEM Guest Speaker series on our newly-created iTunes U at Illinois site (requires iTunes software from apple.com.)

Read about some of the recent events in the college on our Web site.
 

Advancement Updates

Fourth-Annual Goldstick Lecture in Communication Disorders Addresses Childrens’ Vocabulary Skills
Dr. Howard Goldstein presented the fourth annual Goldstick Lecture in Communication Disorders, hosted by the College of Education’s Department of Special Eduation. Goldstein, the research director of the Schoenbaum Family Center and Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at The Ohio State University sought audience participation from the more than 100 in attendance.

Goldstein’s visit at the University of Illinois resulted from the generosity of Phillip and Beverly Goldstick, who drove down from Chicago to attend the event. Although neither Phillip nor Beverly hold a degree from the College of Education, their investment in the Department of Special Education hits close to home: their granddaughter, Marissa, was diagnosed with Rett Syndrome – a condition similar to autism that makes traditional communication nearly impossible for a child. As a result, the Goldsticks not only recognized the importance of supporting neurological research, but also fostering awareness. Visit our web site for the complete story.

Stafford Hood Invested as Inaugural Sheila M. Miller Professor of Education

On April 28th, Dean Kalantzis, Chancellor Richard Herman, and numerous faculty, students, and friends of the College of Education celebrated the investiture of Dr. Stafford Hood as the inaugural Sheila M. Miller Professor of Education. Hood, who joined the faculty in the fall of 2008 as head of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, is widely recognized as a change agent in the field of education.

“We are honored to have Stafford Hood join our college as Head of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction,” said Mary Kalantzis, Dean of the College of Education. “His commitment to both first-rate research and policy activism are perfectly in line with our vision for the College. Our students and faculty will benefit greatly from his considerable experience and leadership in assessment policy and practice.”

Read more about the investiture on our web site.