Latest Announcements

Catherine Corr, associate professor Special Education, has been selected as a recipient of the 2026 Social & Behavioral Science Impact Award from the Center for Social & Behavioral Science (CSBS).

The Social and Behavioral Science Impact Award recognizes a faculty member whose social and behavioral science research has the potential to address a societal challenge. Recognizing that there are many forms of excellence, the research should demonstrate conceptual and methodological rigor.

Corr is one of three recipients of the award this year. She was selected by the committee for her strength of methodological approach and the societal impact of her research.

Nidia Ruedas-Gracia, assistant profesor Educational Psychology, has published an article in the School Community Journal.

The article reviews research conducted by Ruedas-Gracia on belonging among adolescent Native American students in tribal schools. It also examines an underexplored aspect of school belonging, investigating whether it varies over time, particularly among minorities.

Results suggest that future empirical work should account for potential longitudinal fluctuations in school belonging levels across student populations. 

Read the full article here.

Latina Voces was developed through a partnership between the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and community collaborators that centers youth voice, mentorship, and community-based learning. Curriculum and Instruction faculty Idalia Nuñez, Monica Gonzalez Ybarra, and Catherine Dornfeld Tissenbaum worked closely with students, alongside the Krannert Art Museum, to support artistic exploration and collaborative creation. 

The Student Art Exhibition is open in the Lower Level, Hood Classroom Gallery at Krannert Art Museum through March 21. Admission is free and open to the public.  An opening reception will take place on January 31 from 1–3 P.M.

This collaborative, community-engaged exhibition highlights the creative voices and lived experiences of Latina youth. Featuring immersive, student-created installations, the exhibition explores themes of identity, family, cultural traditions, and belonging through art rooted in personal and collective experience.

Created by high school Latina girls, the exhibition invites visitors into familiar and cultural spaces shaped by memory and storytelling through creative installations. These environments emphasize warmth, hospitality, and connection, offering a welcoming experience grounded in the message: mi casa es tu casa.

The exhibition offers visitors an opportunity to engage with student-centered art that reflects cultural knowledge, identity formation, and intergenerational storytelling. It underscores the value of university–community collaboration while celebrating inclusive, creative learning environments.

This project was supported by funding from the Racial Equity Spencer Foundation Grant.

For more information, visit: https://kam.illinois.edu/exhibition/latina-voces-student-art-exhibition

The Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE) has announced the naming of its prestigious research award in honor of Mary Lynn Boscardin, Ph.D. ’84 EPOL. The award will now be known as the Dr. Mary Lynn Boscardin Excellence in Special Education Research Award.

For more than 40 years, Boscardin has shaped the field of Special Education Administration and Leadership at the University of Massachusetts Amherst through her work as a professor. Her guidance has prepared leaders nationwide to meet the profession’s legal, instructional, and equity-focused demands. She has also directed multiple U.S. Department of Education (OSEP) initiatives supporting the development of highly qualified special education administrators. 

Boscardin’s service to CASE has been exceptional, including her presidency from 2014–2016 and more than 25 years as Editor of the Journal of Special Education Leadership. She also served as President of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) in 2018–2019 and is a member of the prestigious Elizabeth Farrell Society Honor Roll.

The College of Education is saddened to announce the death of Educational Psychology Professor Emeritus Thomas Schwandt.

Tom was a national and international leader in evaluation, helping establish the profession’s value in democratic societies. He focused on qualitative inquiry across disciplines and how moral and ethical values shape our understanding of these practices.

During his tenure at Illinois, he served as Chair of the Department of Educational Psychology. He was recognized for his teaching at both the university and college levels, earning the University Distinguished Teacher-Scholar in 2003, the campus award for Excellence in Graduate and Professional Teaching in 2006, and receiving the Distinguished Teaching Career Award from the College of Education in 2012.

Tom was named an American Education Research Association (AERA) Fellow in 2010. He also received the American Evaluation Association’s Paul F. Lazarsfeld Award for his contributions to evaluation theory. He is a past editor of the American Journal of Evaluation.

A celebration honoring Tom’s life and legacy will be held on Saturday, January 24, at 1:00 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church, 6th and Lincoln St., in Bloomington, Indiana. A reception will follow in the church fellowship hall, where everyone is invited to join the family in celebrating Tom’s life and honoring Tom’s love for food and conversation.

Education at Illinois is proud to announce it’s first ISBE-approved fully online microcredential for teachers on Canvas Catalog.

The Microcredential in Trauma-Informed Education examines multiple dimensions of trauma-informed education, including the incidence and impact of trauma; trauma-informed strategies for children from pre-Kindergarten to age 18, including students with disabilities; and trauma’s connection to social-emotional learning, multi-lingual learners, culturally sustaining pedagogy, and parent involvement.

This professional development course comprises 10 asynchronous, self-paced modules that provide essential content, activities, and opportunities for reflection.  The course was developed by Lynn Burdick and Mia Chudzik of Curriculum & Instruction, in coordination with the Council on Teacher Education.

Interested educators can access the course here.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign announced its first-ever dual credit classes for Illinois high school students. One of the classes offered is housed in the College of Education.

SPED 117: The Culture of Disability will be one of four dual-credit classes. The class provides an introduction to disability culture across the lifespan. The impact of disabilities on individuals across the lifespan will be explored, and the unique culture created by disability will be addressed. The historical foundations of the disability movement and special education will be examined, including legislation and litigation that have significantly shaped the field.

This pilot opportunity marks a new approach for the university in offering its popular general education courses directly to high school students across Illinois in the form of dual credit — at no cost to those students.

“The dual-credit initiative reflects our university’s commitment to expanding access and opportunity for students and families across Illinois,” said Provost John Coleman. “Through the Learning Accelerator’s innovative learning model, we’re bringing transformative educational experiences to high school classrooms and preparing students throughout the state for success in college and beyond.”

Read more about this initiative from the Illinois News Bureau.

Mindy Chappell, assistant professor Curriculum & Instruction, is the first Illinois faculty member to be named to the Office of the Chief Information Officer's Boldly Accessible Wall of Fame.

Chappell was recognized for completing the steps to ensure that her Canvas course content for her Teaching a Diverse High School Student Population class is accessible to everyone.

The initiative answers the call of the Boldly 2030 Strategic Framework by embedding accessibility into the heart of our digital infrastructure, culture, and innovation. It is a part of our campuswide movement to ensure that digital environments are accessible by design, informed by lived experience, and sustained through collaboration and leadership.

All instructors are encouraged to accept the challenge. Learn more about the challenge here.

The College of Education Awards Committee is now accepting nominations for 2025-26 awards.

The committee is seeking faculty, specialized faculty, academic professionals, staff, and teaching assistants who have demonstrated excellence in teaching, research, or work over the past year. Applications for awards are due on Monday, February 16, 2026, by 4:30 p.m.

Available awards for 2025-26 are:

• Staff Excellence Award - $1,500 (awarded up to three recipients)
• David Zola Distinguished Career Teaching Award - $2,000
• Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award - $1,500
• Outstanding Faculty Award for Public Engagement - $1,500
• Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award - $1,500
• Spitze/Mather Faculty Award for Excellence - $2,500
• Outstanding Teaching Award for Teaching Assistants - $1,000 (awarded to two recipients)
• Excellence in Online Teaching Award - $1,500
• Outstanding Faculty Mentorship Award - $1,500
• Excellence in Guiding Undergraduate Research Award - $1,500

Information on all awards and links to nominate are available here.

Prince F. Robertson, Ph.D. ’23 EPOL, has been named Interim Vice President and Dean of Student Life at Eureka College in Eureka, IL.

Robertson joins from Illinois Wesleyan University, where he previously served as Dean of Students for Community Standards and Advocacy. With extensive experience in student affairs and higher education leadership, Robertson has dedicated his career to fostering student growth, engagement, and success.

In addition, he has been appointed by the City of Champaign to the Human Relations Commission and the Citizens Review Subcommittee, working to advance equity, inclusion, and community trust.

The 17th Annual College of Education Graduate Student Conference is accepting presentation submissions through December 8. 

This year’s conference theme, The Learning Community: Education as a Force for Change, focuses on fostering interdisciplinary innovation in education to address complex global challenges. This conference provides a collaborative space for graduate students to present their research, exchange ideas, and connect across institutions.

The conference will be held March 5-6 at the University of Illinois.

The top-rated presentations in the Poster, Roundtable, and Paper sessions will also receive an award of up to $300. Submit a Proposal Here. 

Questions or accessibility requests can be made to the conference committee at gsc@education.illinois.edu.

Idalia Nuñez, associate professor Curriculum & Instruction, has published a book that explores literacy practices and theories.

She is one of five editors of Theories, Models, and Practices of Literacy, the eighth edition of a foundational text in literacy research. This edition has been reworked to include diverse perspectives and updated to include more modern theories and scholarship.

From Routledge: “This volume addresses theories across ten sections, including early, youth, and community literacies; teaching literacy and literacy teacher education; dis/abilities and disciplinary literacy theories; digital and multimodal literacies; and the disruption of colonial boundaries in language and global literacies. The chapters in this volume are curated to inspire the interrogation of literacy theory and foster its evolution.”

On-campus Ph.D. student Cecilia Vaughn-Guy and online student Ed. D. Bryant Ramirez had never crossed paths until the 24th Asian AHRD conference in Bangkok, Thailand from November 11-15. Cecilia traveled from Washington, DC, while Bryant had recently relocated to Thailand.  A chance meeting led to a great Illini photo-op. 

(Picture available upon request)

Asif Wilson, assistant professor Curriculum & Instruction, has published a new article in the journal Professional Development in Education.

His publication, co-written with former Education faculty member Rachel McMillian, is titled “Justice-centered praxis is work in perpetuity: critical professional learning as unfinishedness.” 

The study explores the experiences of P-20 social studies teachers who were part of a series of professional development sessions on the school-prison nexus and justice-centered praxes.

Sourabh Garg, a Ph.D. student in Curriculum & Instruction, presented a paper co-authored with Gloriana Gonzalez, professor of C&I, and Saadeddine Shahab, Ph.D. '19 C&I, at the Psychology of Mathematics Education Conference.

The paper, titled "Geometry teachers’ reflections-in-action for noticing students’ design thinking during lesson study," investigates teacher learning in asynchronous sessions during lesson study. Using reflection-in-action and the mathematical knowledge for teaching framework, it examines how teachers drew on different types of knowledge to plan a research lesson, anticipate students’ ideas, and consider lesson modifications. 

It is part of an NSF-funded project, "Engaging teachers in integrating human-centered design for geometry problem-based instruction."

College of Education faculty and students have published an article in the American Journal of Evaluation on designing culturally responsive and values-engaged evaluations for school-based equity programs. 

The article, “A Mixed-Methods Evaluation Design for a Secondary School Equity Program: Utilizing Culturally Responsive and Values-Engaged Approaches” features lead author Melissa Goodnight, assistant professor in the Department of Educational Psychology, Anthony Sullers, Jr., postdoctoral scholar for the Center for Culturally Responsive Evaluation and Assessment (CREA), three doctoral candidates and students, Mostafa Hanafy, Molly Galloway, and Jasmine Johnson, and Valerie O’Brien, a teaching associate at the University of Illinois Laboratory High School.

The article details the design of a mixed-methods evaluation for a new equity program serving underrepresented and racially minoritized students at a selective-admissions, gifted public secondary school in America.

Chang-kyu Kwon, assistant professor EPOL, will deliver a keynote address at an international Human Resource Development conference.

He will speak at the 2025 Taipei International Forum on Employment for Persons with Disabilities × International Conference on Human Resource Development, which will be held November 5-6 in Taiwan.

His keynote, “From Fitting In to Being Me: Leading Disability Inclusion with a Whole Self Culture,” will focus on rethinking inclusion from policy and representation to creating safe spaces where people can show up fully and thrive. It emphasizes recognizing people with disabilities not as passive recipients of accommodation but as co-creators of adaptive and inclusive systems—a vital reframing in organizational education.

Linda Herrera, professor Education Policy, Organization & Leadership, will host a book talk about her upcoming book, "Education 2.0, Chronicles of Technological and Cultural Change in Egypt."

The talk will be held on November 12 from 4 to 5:15 p.m. in Gregory Hall, room 223.

Hererra will discuss the book and larger issues about how to research and document a national education reform in Egypt, oriented towards digital transformation and curriculum change.  The research is based on oral historical research from the 'top down' and 'bottom up' with figures from the state, international organizations, the private sector, and members of local school communities.

Amber Ray, associate professor Special Education, was recently honored by Loras College. Ray received the Young Alumni Award which honors notable graduates of the last 15 years.

Ray is a 2011 graduate of Loras College with a bachelor's degree in Special Education.

She was honored at the school's Homecoming celebration on October 3.

Join leaders from the Illinois State Board of Education to give input on the first draft of the Illinois Comprehensive Numeracy Plan, a statewide initiative to strengthen math learning and outcomes for all students. 

Share your expertise to guide and support educators, schools, and districts in aligning efforts and advancing student success in mathematics. Teachers, instructional coaches, administrators, counselors, parents/families, community advocates, and other education leaders and practitioners are welcome to provide feedback and inform the final plan.

The event is on Wednesday, November 5, 2025, from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Alice Campbell Alumni Center, 601 S. Lincoln Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801.  Register for this free event on Eventbrite.