August 2019 Newsletter

School of Education Announces 2019–2024 Strategic Plan

Dean Lauren Lindstrom is proud to share that the School of Education has completed its five-year strategic planning process. This new plan represents the School of Education’s collective wisdom and provides an overarching framework to promote excellence across all sectors of the School. We adopted four broad aspirational goals from the UC Davis Strategic Plan to serve as guideposts for our major activities—student experiences, innovative research, equity and inclusion, and visibility and partnerships. Then we partnered with faculty, staff, our Board of Advisors, students and other School community members to develop subgoals and strategies specific to the School of Education.

“We reviewed our existing plan, gathered data to check progress on our goals and met with key stakeholders to hear their vision of the School’s future,” said Lindstrom. “This process was an inspirational one for me, and I’m grateful for everyone’s thoughtful participation, which has resulted in a strategic plan that is faithful to our mission while expanding our vision of the future.” Download the strategic plan here. 

New Issue of Catalyst Magazine

The new Spring 2019 issue of Catalyst magazine is now available online. This issue explores the barriers keeping students from finishing a college degree and the systemic changes needed to improve graduation rates. We also look at the contributions being made by undergraduate researchers, welcome the addition of the College Opportunity Programs to the School of Education, consider the life-changing impact of student scholarships, hear from two CANDEL leaders who have joined forces professionally and personally, and much more.

Download a copy or drop us an email if you’d like to receive a copy in the mail or give us feedback about an article.

Center for Community and Citizen Science Secures USDA Grant for Teacher Training

With the newly implemented Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) requirements for elementary science education comes the need for new teacher training. Teachers also need engaging ways to help prepare students for STEM careers in food and agriculture. Involving young students directly in science is one promising approach. In order to further explore this topic, the School of Education’s Center for Community and Citizen Science (CCS) has been awarded a $150,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture. 

CCS Executive Director Dr. Ryan Meyer and Prof. Heidi Ballard, CCS Founder and Faculty Director, received this grant for a project titled “Citizen Science on the Farm: Training Teachers to Provide Locally Relevant, Authentic Food and Agriculture Science Experiences for Students.” They will work in partnership with the UC Davis Student Farm, Yolo Farm to Fork, the Yolo County Office of Education and the Woodland Joint Unified School District to prepare elementary school teachers to implement youth-focused community and citizen science in school gardens. Participating teachers will attend an immersive, hands-on summer workshop, receive follow-up instructional support at their schools and participate in class field trips to the Student Farm.

“This is a great opportunity to link science learning, citizen science and school gardens,” said Meyer. “We’re excited to work with this wonderful team of partners and put our research into practice with this new project.” Stay up to date with CCS by following the CCS blog and signing up for the CCS e-newsletter.

FACULTY NEWS

We are excited to welcome our newest Assistant Professor, Dr. Faheemah N. Mustafaa, to the School of Education. Mustafaa received her Ph.D. in Education and Psychology in 2016 from the University of Michigan and comes to UC Davis from a postdoctoral researcher position in the UC Berkeley Department of Psychology. In that role, she worked with multiple school districts and conducted applied social-psychological research to intervene on racial disparities in K-12 students’ academic and behavioral outcomes. Her research focuses on teacher identity, beliefs and perceptions, teacher–student relationships, and equity in K-12 and higher education. Mustafaa joined the School’s faculty on July 1st.

Congratulations to Prof. Cati de los Ríos on being appointed to serve as a member of the National Council of Teachers of English Standing Committee on Research. With 25,000 members worldwide, the National Council of Teachers of English is the nation’s oldest literacy organization. During her three-year term, de los Ríos will help advance English language arts research through various advocacy efforts, including exploring ways to increase support for literacy research and highlighting under-researched areas. She will serve in this position through November 2022.

New Associate Director of Development

Quentin Graeber joined the School of Education as Associate Director of Development in June 2019. Alongside the rest of the Development team, he will help generate philanthropic support for the strategic priorities of the School. Graeber comes to UC Davis from the University of the Pacific, where he most recently served as the Assistant Director for Annual and Reunion Giving. His previous roles there also included coordination of major and alumni events and working with the student disability services center. “I’m excited to be joining the School of Education just as we kick off the new Strategic Plan,” Graeber said. “I invite you to reach out to discuss how we can work together to support our School.” Contact him at qgraeber@ucdavis.edu or (530) 752-8053.

EVENTS

Welcome, Teaching Credential Candidates!

Last week, School of Education faculty and staff welcomed more than 130 new single subject and multiple subject teaching credential students to campus. The orientation day included a celebratory lunch, raffle prizes and a heated rock–paper–scissors tournament. Check out photos from the day on our website.

Save the Date: Fall Welcome 

Our annual Fall Welcome event will take place Monday, September 23, 2019, from 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m., at the School of Education Building, UC Davis. Join us for food and fun as we kick off the academic year and welcome our new students! All alumni, students, faculty, staff and family members are welcome to attend this free event. The evening includes a casual dinner, lawn games for the kids and a raffle. Further details will be announced soon. 

RECENT RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS

Prof. Jamal Abedi co-authored “Psychometric Validation and Reorganization of the Desired Results Developmental Profile,” an article in the Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment.

Prof. Cynthia Carter Ching and PhD student Danielle Hagood published their article “Activity Monitor Gaming and the Next Generation Science Standards: Students Engaging with Data, Measurement Limitations, and Personal Relevance” in the Journal of Science Education and Technology.

Prof. Kevin Gee and PhD candidate Minahil Asim co-authored an article titled “Parenting While Food Insecure: Links Between Adult Food Insecurity, Parenting Aggravation, and Children’s Behaviors” in the Journal of Family Issues.

Prof. Alexis Patterson published her article “Equity in Groupwork: The Social Process of Creating Justice in a Science Classroom” in Cultural Studies of Science Education. 

Prof. Cati de los Ríos published an article, “Los Músicos”: Mexican Corridos, the Aural Border, and the Evocative Musical Renderings of Transnational Youth,” in the most recent issue of Harvard Educational Review. 

Prof. Yuuko Uchikoshi co-authored the article “Spoken Language Proficiency Predicts Print-Speech Convergence in Beginning Readers” in NeuroImage.

Prof. Maisha Winn co-authored the book Restorative Justice in the English Language Arts Classroom, available from the National Council of Teachers of English.