2019: Strategic Plan, College Opportunity Programs, New Faculty

General School News

School of Education Announces 2019–2024 Strategic Plan: In 2019, the School of Education completed a 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.

College Opportunity Programs Move to School of Education: On January 2, 2019, the UC Davis College Opportunity Programs transferred from Student Affairs to the School of Education, administered by our Resourcing Excellence in Education (REEd) center. The College Opportunity Programs, including Educational Talent Search, GEAR UP and Upward Bound, provide academic preparation services to over 8,000 junior and senior high and college students and families each year, financed primarily by funding from the US Department of Education. Services span grades 7-16 and are offered both on the UC Davis campus and at middle and high school sites throughout Sacramento, Solano, Yolo, Shasta, Siskiyou, Modoc, Trinity and Tehama counties.

New Director of Research and Partnerships/Executive Director of REEd: Dr. Carlas McCauley joined the School of Education as Director of Research and Partnerships/Executive Director of REEd on November 18. McCauley comes to UC Davis from WestEd, where he had served as the Director of the Center on School Turnaround since 2014. In his role at WestEd, McCauley directed a large federally funded center that advises state and local education agencies on promoting equity and improving educational outcomes for students. From 2007 to 2014, he worked at the US Department of Education in Washington DC, providing him with a deep understanding of national trends in education, school improvement efforts and the inner workings of legislative policies influencing local school districts.

CANDEL Program Joins the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED) Consortium: The School of Education’s doctorate in educational leadership (CANDEL) program was selected to become a member of the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED) Consortium. CPED is a network of faculty, administrators and practitioners representing more than 100 EdD programs across the nation. The consortium is committed to working together in order to better understand the needs of PK-20 leadership and prioritize the development of EdD programs.

In other news:

• Hardeep Gulati, Dennis Mangers and Dr. Caroline S. Turner joined the School of Education Dean’s Board of Advisors
• PhD Candidate Vanessa Segundo was awarded the Ford Dissertation Fellowship
• Eloy Ortiz Oakley, Chancellor of the California Community Colleges, delivered the keynote address at our 2019 Graduation Celebration

Faculty News

New faculty:

• Dr. Nancy Erbstein joined the School of Education faculty in Spring 2019 as an Associate Professor in Residence, the first position of its kind in our School’s history. This new position is a collaboration with Global Affairs, and Erbstein also serves as the Associate Vice Provost of Global Education for All in Global Affairs.
• Dr. Tony Albano joined the School of Education faculty as an Associate Professor of Assessment and Measurement starting July 1, 2019.
• Dr. Faheemah N. Mustafaa joined the School of Education as an Assistant Professor on July 1, 2019.

Maisha Winn and Torry Winn Receive the Chancellor’s Achievement Award for Diversity and Community: Dr. Maisha T. Winn, UC Davis Chancellor’s Leadership Professor and Faculty Director of the School of Education’s Transformative Justice in Education Center (TJE), and Dr. Lawrence (Torry) Winn, TJE Executive Director, were honored with the Chancellor’s Achievement Award for Diversity and Community for 2018-2019 in the Special Recognition Category. This award recognizes the exemplary contributions they have made to enhancing campus inclusiveness and diversity through their leadership roles at TJE.

In Memoriam: Paul E. Heckman: Professor Paul E. Heckman, PhD passed away on January 22, 2019. He served as a Professor in the School of Education from 2004 to 2019, as well as serving as the Associate Dean for eight years and as the founding Co-Director of CANDEL. His research interests focused on educational change, leadership and structure. He designed projects to encourage and understand the conditions for educational renewal in schools in the greater Sacramento area and in an after-school program in the City of Los Angeles, LA’s BEST. Dr. Heckman made many important contributions during the formative years of the School of Education, and he was deeply dedicated to supporting his students, even in the final days of his life.

Grants

School of Education researchers were awarded a variety of funding awards in 2019. Here are just a few:

Center for Community and Citizen Science Awarded $2.3 Million NSF Grant for Nevada County Forest Health Project: In partnership with the Nevada County Superintendent of Schools and the Sierra
Streams Institute, the School of Education’s Center for Community and
Citizen Science (CCS) received a $2.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation to study youth learning through environmental science research related to forest health. CCS will train and support elementary school teachers as they work with their students, local environmental scientists and community organizations to study local forests and fire risk in Nevada County, California.

Kurlaender Awarded $1.25 Million Grant from UC Office of the President: Professor Michal Kurlaender, alongside colleagues from UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, UCLA and UCSF, was awarded a $1.25 million grant from the University of California’s Multicampus Research Programs and Initiatives. Their project, “California Policy Lab: Studying Inequality and Homelessness,” will combine faculty research expertise with data from state and local agencies to address two of California’s pressing problems: homelessness and workforce education. The team will also develop a UC-wide infrastructure to support research on these and other pressing problems.

CAP-Ed Principals’ Support Network Awarded New $600,000 Stuart Foundation Grant: The California Principals’ Support Network (CAPS Network), a program designed and administered by the School of Education’s Center for Applied Policy in Education (CAP-Ed), received a $600,000 grant from the Stuart Foundation to expand its current work and evaluate its statewide impact. The CAPS Network is designed to support K-12 principals in their leadership roles through an annual series of facilitated professional learning sessions with a cohort of peers.

Degand Awarded $500,000 Engineering Education Grant: Professor Darnel Degand, alongside other researchers at UC Davis, CSU Sacramento and American River College, was awarded a $500,000 grant to explore more engaging ways to introduce students to engineering. The grant was awarded by the California Education Learning Lab, a program focused on increasing learning outcomes and closing equity and achievement gaps in STEM.

Wheelhouse Awarded $400,000 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grant for Leadership Development: The School of Education’s Wheelhouse: The Center for Community College Leadership and Research received a two-year, $400,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to expand and enhance its Institute on Leadership, which educates and supports a new generation of community college leaders across California. Funds from this grant will also support the research arm of Wheelhouse to produce case studies on leadership innovation and research publications focused on student pathways to degree or transfer.