Latest Announcements

Three faculty members from the College of Education were named OpEd Project Public Voices Fellows by the Office of the Provost.

Rochelle Gutierrez, professor Curriculum & Instruction, Jon Hale, professor Education Policy, Organization & Leadership, and Mirelsie Velázquez associate professor Education Policy, Organization & Leadership, were all selected to be fellows.

The Public Voices Fellowship is a year-long program that provides a cohort of 20 thought leaders with extraordinary support, leadership skills, and knowledge to improve representation in the field, ensuring their ideas shape not only their fields but also the broader public conversations of our age.

Faculty members in this cohort will attend four sessions during the 2026-27 academic year and will be paired with a journalism mentor who provides one-on-one editing and coaching. Fellows will publish two or more op-ed pieces during the program.

P. David Pearson, eleventh Dean of the College of Education, passed away on August 30.

Pearson served as Dean from 1989-1995. During his tenure, he also served as Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Reading and Professor of Curriculum and Instruction from 1978-1995.

A prolific scholar of reading research, Pearson wrote and co-edited several books about research and practice, most notably the Handbook of Reading Research, now in its fourth volume. He served multiple terms as editor of 3 major research publications-Reading Research Quarterly, NRC Yearbook, and Review of Research in Education. His 300+ books, articles, and chapters, written with over 200 co-authors, appear in a range of outlets for a wide range of audiences—teachers, scholars, and policy makers.

He served as an advisor to the National Academy of Sciences, the Children’s Television Workshop (now Sesame Workshop), the National Assessment of Educational Progress, myriad school districts and state agencies, and many public and private educational institutions.

Pearson's honors include the 1989 Oscar Causey Award for outstanding contributions to reading research from the NRC and the 1990 William S.Gray Citation of Merit. He received the Alan Purves Award from the National Council of Teachers of English, and in 2005, the Albert J. Harris Award from the  International Reading Association for scholarship on reading difficulties. 

In 2003, he was elected to membership in the National Academy of Education, and in 2009, he was named an AERA Fellow. Earlier this year, Pearson was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. In 2010, he received the AERA Distinguished Contributions to Research in Education Award. The Literacy Research Association (formerly the NRC) created the P. David Pearson Scholarly Influence Award in 2012 to honor scholarship that impacts literacy practice.

In addition to Illinois, Pearson served on the faculty at the University of Minnesota, Michigan State University, and the University of California, Berkeley.

Aigul Rakisheva, a Ph.D. Candidate in Education Policy, Organization & Leadership, has earned the Strategic Data Project (SDP) Fellowship at Harvard University.

Rakisheva will join the Center for Education Policy Research (CEPR) as Manager of Impact Evaluation.

The SDP Fellowship is a two-year capacity-building program that places data strategists in education organizations to support evidence-based decision-making and improve student outcomes. The fellowship provides extensive training in measurement and analysis, leadership and change management, and education policy.

CEPR at Harvard University has developed a distinctive approach to fulfilling its mission to transform education through high-quality research and evidence.

• How artifacts and boundary objects support teacher learning in an online lesson study model centered on human-centered design
• How high school mathematics teachers designed culturally relevant geometry challenges through a lesson study and HCD framework
• Presented a geometry lesson where students designed lanterns using mathematical modeling, emphasizing empathy and belonging
• Introduced a method for tracing and assessing student mathematical and design learning during authentic design challenges

The research is part of the NSF-funded project "Engaging Teachers in Integrating Human-Centered Design for Geometry Problem-based Instruction," which began in 2023. The project supports teachers in designing and implementing lessons using a human-centered design approach. Geometry teachers will participate in lesson study for two years to plan problem-based geometry lessons and to observe student thinking during those lessons. The project investigates how teachers learn about and apply a human-centered framework for teaching geometry.

The College of Education is proud to announce that all currently enrolled Education students will have their registration fees waived for the 9th Annual CREA Conference.

To register, visit the CREA Conference page. Email Tim Leyhe at tleyhe@illinois.edu to receive a special code to redeem your free admission. Students are responsible for their own transportation, lodging, and meals not provided by the conference.

The conference will be held October 6-9 at the Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel in Chicago. This year’s conference theme, Future-Forward in Cultural Responsiveness: Opportunity, Equity, Evidence, and Innovation, invites us to explore how our work can both respond to and shape the evolving landscape of evaluation.

The Office of Marketing and Communications (MarCom) has a new tool to streamline adding digital signage to the College's network of displays.

To submit a digital sign for approval, please visit https://my.education.illinois.edu/digitalsigns/ (NetID login required). Please be sure to include the run dates for your sign. All images must be 1920 x 1080 pixels in .jpg format to be displayed. 

All digital signs for official College or university business that display the block I logo must comply with Illinois and College brand standards.

The MarCom team maintains screens for the Education Building public spaces, CRC Public Spaces, and the SAAO office. Unless otherwise specified in the comments section, we will add your sign to all networks. 

Messages posted on these screens must be relevant to a wide audience and limited to official university or community partner events. These screens are not for promoting personal projects, research studies, or non-official messaging.

Please contact the MarCom staff if you have any questions.

The Illinois Workforce and Education Research Collaborative (IWERC) and the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago have released two new reports on the science and mathematics teacher (SMT) workforce for grades 6-12 in rural Illinois. 

This mixed-methods research project, funded by the National Science Foundation Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, aims to help districts across the state and country better understand the factors and working conditions that encourage SMTs to stay in their schools 

To set the stage for the project, the IWERC team—Shereen Oca Beilstein, Stephanie Werner, Ph.D., Haeryun Kim, and Anna Barkley—conducted a descriptive landscape of the state’s rural and high-need rural districts as well as the characteristics of the SMT workforce and SMT retention in these districts. 
 
To explore SMT working conditions in rural districts, NORC conducted a survey to understand the primary reasons SMTs stay and the associations between these reasons and SMT backgrounds and teaching circumstances. 
 
To read the two reports now, visit https://lnkd.in/g-9cY8ew.

According to data published by the Illinois Department of Corrections earlier this month, access to college classes in prison is falling behind while demand for them increases.

Around 2,600 out of the approximately 30,000 people incarcerated in Illinois are enrolled in higher education, while another 3,700 are on a waitlist, according to IDOC. “That’s a pretty powerful indication that the challenge isn’t a lack of interest in education — it’s our capacity to meet that interest,” said Ashton Klekamp, policy and research director at the Education Justice Project, to OpenCampus and WBEZ Chicago.

Whether someone has access to higher education depends largely on geography, with some prisons offering limited access while a few offer none at all. “One of the things that jumps out immediately is how uneven access is across facilities,” Klekamp said. “It tells us that the experience of trying to access education can depend considerably on where someone is incarcerated.”

The state published data on who is studying in prison for only the second time, after a 2023 state law mandated IDOC release the stats. “For a long time … we didn’t have a sense of where that access existed and who didn’t have access,” Klekamp said. “The demographic data is something that is really important…People are telling us very clearly that they want an education. The question for Illinois is whether we’re willing to build the capacity to meet that demand.”

Currently, most bachelor’s degree programs in Illinois prisons come through private universities — Northwestern, Lewis, Adler, and Augustana all offer bachelor’s degrees. North Park Theological Seminary offers a master’s degree in restorative justice ministries.

The only four-year public institutions offering credit-bearing academic courses are the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, which offers college credit but not a full degree, and Eastern Illinois University. Both operate at Danville Correctional Center.

Read more at WBEZ Chicago.

Haeryun Kim is a Ph.D. candidate in Education Policy, Organization & Leadership, with a concentration in Educational Administration and Leadership.

She was recently awarded a Korean Honor Scholarship by the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in the United States.

The "scholarship is awarded to outstanding Korean heritage students to encourage high achievement of academic performance and the development of leadership qualities for their future professional careers."

Read the full announcement at the Republic of Korea's website... 

Alumna Marisol Jimenez, Ph.D. '26 EPOL, has been named an Illini Science Policy Program (ISPP) Scholar for 2027.

ISPP scholars spend a year doing immersive public service and policy leadership. Through placements with Illinois state agencies and legislative offices, members of the sixth cohort of ISPP scholars will apply their advanced training to address complex challenges in agriculture, digital equity, education, health equity, and environmental justice.

Jimenez will be working with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, Office of Broadband. “Selected scholars will focus on projects which address key barriers to broadband deployment, supporting Illinois in its mission to reach universal broadband access statewide, while gaining exposure to essential state government initiatives,” said Office of Broadband Director Devon Braunstein.

“The Illini Science Policy Program continues to thrive because of the strong partnerships that make this work possible,” ISPP Director Evangeline Pianfetti said. “By bringing together host agencies, Extension professionals, community organizations, and public leaders, we create opportunities for meaningful dialogue and collaborative action. These partnerships strengthen our ability to address complex challenges, elevate community voices, and prepare the next generation of public service and policy leaders to make a lasting impact across Illinois and beyond.”

Two faculty members from the College of Education were selected to participate in the Emerging Research Leaders Academy (ERLA) from the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute.

Amber Ray from Special Education and Miray Tekkumru-Kisa from Curriculum & Instruction are part of the 16-member cohort for 2026-27.

Candidates for ERLA are nominated by a dean, director, or department head in one of their affiliated units. When submitting nominations, these administrative leaders expressed a desire to invest in and amplify the nominees’ efforts to scale their work, expand their impact, build strategic partnerships, and lead the future of research at Illinois.

Robb Lindgren, associate dean for research, nominated Tekkumru-Kisa and Ray, anticipating the same encouragement, knowledge, and access to resources that he experienced as part of the program.  

“When I participated in ERLA, I learned a lot about campuswide resources for things such as research communication and team management that have been invaluable to me in my current role, and I think Professors Tekkumru-Kisa and Ray will really benefit from these experiences. I’ve stayed in contact with many in my ERLA cohort, and it is my hope that these faculty members will have the chance to build community with their cohort as well,” Lindgren said. 

Royel M. Johnson, '10 LAS, '11 Ed.M. EPOL, has been appointed editor of The Review of Higher Education, the flagship journal of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE). 

“The Review of Higher Education has been a space where rigorous scholarship meets real questions about who has access to higher education and why,” said Johnson. “I look forward to stewarding that legacy while pushing the field to grapple with the systems that form a student’s academic trajectory leading up to a college campus.”

The appointment follows an open, national search conducted by the ASHE Board of Directors. Johnson assumes the role as the journal approaches its 50th anniversary, marking five decades as one of the field’s leading venues for scholarship on higher education. His five-year term begins November 2026. 

Johnson is Associate Professor of Higher Education and Social Work at the University of Southern California. He serves as Co-Director of the Pullias Center for Higher Education.

Johnson’s research examines access, equity, and belonging in higher education, with attention to how youth-serving systems, including child welfare and the criminal legal system, shape students’ pathways into and through College and how institutions can evolve to better support them. He brings editorial leadership to his new role, having recently served as co-editor of Educational Research (2023–2026) with the American Educational Research Association (AERA).

Thomas McGreal, Ph.D. '68 ED and former professor of Education Policy, Organization & Leadership, died at the age of 86 on August 16. His full obituary is available to view here.

A native of Rantoul, IL, Tom was a star athlete at Southern Illinois University, playing football and basketball. He taught math at Proviso East High School near Chicago before enrolling at the University of Illinois as a doctoral student. After earning his degree, he joined the faculty and remained at Illinois until his retirement in 2002.

McGreal was a well-known researcher in the fields of educational administration and teacher evaluation, publishing several prominent papers on these subjects. McGreal also served as a member and chair of the University of Illinois Athletic Board. The McGreal Scholarship fund was established in honor of his many years of service. This fund supports the recruitment and education of outstanding full-time doctoral students in Education Policy, Organization & Leadership.

A Celebration of Life will be held from 3:00-5:00 p.m. on September 19, in the garden at Pekadill’s, 503 South Mears Avenue, Whitehall, MI 49461. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Thomas McGreal Academic Award through the College of Education, or to your local humane society.

The College of Education is proud to announce a new Microcredential in Climate Change Education (CCE).

This Microcredential was developed to meet the new state mandate requiring CCE in all K-12 classrooms, beginning in Fall 2026. This asynchronous, online course equips educators to teach climate change thoughtfully and in ways that foster meaningful engagement and action. 

In this self-paced program, teachers will:

• Build a strong understanding of the fundamentals of climate change, including how it disproportionately impacts people globally
• Learn strategies for teaching climate topics while making space for students’ emotions, questions, and agency.
• Explore how climate education can inspire meaningful hope-in-action across disciplines
• Develop standards-aligned resources for your classroom
• Bring holistic climate action to your school

To enroll or for more information: https://illinois.catalog.instructure.com/browse/college-of-education/epol/courses/climate-change-education-for-classroom-teachers

Education Policy, Organization & Leadership professors Bill Cope and Mary Kalantzis were awarded honorary doctorates from the University of Patras in Greece in July.

“The work of Mary Kalantzis and Bill Cope is genuinely interdisciplinary,” said Professor Nektarios Stellakis. “It brings together insights from education, linguistics, communication studies, and learning technologies in ways that have profoundly enriched each of these fields.”

Longtime collaborator professor Eugenia Arvanitis said of Cope and Kalantzis “Concepts such as Multiliteracies, Learning by Design, New Learning, Ubiquitous Learning, and productive diversity have become part of the international vocabulary of educational research. They have shaped scholarly debate, inspired educational policy, and influenced generations of researchers, teachers, and educational leaders across the world.”

Kalantzis also has honorary degrees from the University of Athens and the University of the Aegean in Greece.

Viktoria Loidl, a Ph.D. candidate in Education Policy, Organization & Leadership, has been selected to receive the 2026 Graduate Student Leadership Award from the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education.

Loidl was selected based on her versatile leadership work serving undergraduate and graduate students on- and off-campus at Illinois.

The Commission for Graduate Students of Adult Education (CGS) confers a Graduate Student Leadership Award that recognizes a graduate student who has engaged in outstanding leadership in the areas of research, teaching/practice, and/or service in adult and continuing education or related fields. The Graduate Student Leadership Award is intended to recognize exceptional achievement in adult learning graduate studies.

She will receive her award at the AAACE conference in September.

Applications are now open for the inaugural cohort of The Alma Project Senior Faculty Fellows.

The project seeks experienced community-engaged learning instructors to serve as Senior Faculty Fellows. Three fellows will be selected for the September 2026-June 2027 term. Each fellow receives $8,000 in project funding. 

The goal of the Alma Project is to create, support, and sustain a culture of neighborliness at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign through community-engaged learning courses. To learn more, view the project summary.

Applications for the fellowship are due by August 21 at 5:00 p.m.

Full-time tenure system or specialized faculty at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign across any discipline or College are eligible to apply.

Anjali Forber-Pratt, Ph.D. '12 EPOL, has been named the head of the Department of Disability and Human Development in the College of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Illinois Chicago.

Forber-Pratt comes to UIC with 20 years of high-level experience in research, sport and organizational leadership. She previously served as the presidentially appointed director of the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research, and she has held academic appointments at Vanderbilt University and the University of Kansas. 

In 2023, Forber-Pratt was named the College of Education’s Emerging Leader Alumni Award.

Forber-Pratt was a member of Team USA at the 2008 and 2012 Paralympic Games, where she medaled and became an American record holder in wheelchair racing.

The author of more than 65 peer-reviewed articles and numerous chapters, she focuses her research primarily on disability identity development. And as a wheelchair-user herself for more than 40 years, her lived experience informs her work.

Riley Parks, LAS ’26, Secondary Education, was one of seven University of Illinois students selected to receive a Fulbright Grant as part of the U.S. Student Program.

She will use her Fulbright award to teach English in Taiwan — another step in her journey to become an interculturally skilled teacher. Parks previously studied in Asia as a Gilman International Scholarship recipient, teaching K-6 students at an urban school in Thailand. Working with these students cemented her desire to become a teacher and to pursue more extensive teaching experience through the Fulbright program. 

Parks has received a graduate fellowship from the University of Washington to study early childhood education administration and policy upon her return from Taiwan. She plans to incorporate Taiwanese teaching methods into American public school classrooms and create a pen pal or extracurricular program that will facilitate cross-cultural communication between her current U.S. students and her former students in Taiwan.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program builds international relationships to help solve global challenges. This flagship international educational exchange program of the U.S. government awards grants to students based on their academic and professional achievement as well as their ambassadorial skills and leadership potential. The Fulbright student program will fund more than 2,000 U.S. citizens to live abroad for the 2026-27 academic year.

Osly Flores, assistant professor of Education Policy, Organization & Leadership, has been named a recipient of the Jozef and Huguette Cohen Innovation Award from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation.

Flores’ interdisciplinary collaboration will investigate heritage sites of slavery in Ghana and South Africa as sources for reparative educational practice and collective memory. The team will co-develop conceptual frameworks, methodologies, and partnerships that will underpin larger external proposals focused on educational equity, historical repair, and community-engaged scholarship.

The Cohen Innovation Awards program is intended to help faculty pursue ambitious ideas that may be difficult to support through traditional funding mechanisms. The awards support activities such as building new research collaborations, developing emerging areas of inquiry, acquiring specialized skills, engaging with archives and field sites, and creating new pathways for recognition and influence in their fields.