April 2019 Newsletter

Ready, Set, Give! Third Annual UC Davis Give Day, April 12-13

The Third Annual UC Davis Give Day, a 29-hour fundraising drive starting the afternoon before Picnic Day, offers Aggies everywhere an exciting array of opportunities to impact education. Held online and on campus, April 12-13, gifts to the School of Education on Give Day will benefit current and future students, the School’s innovative research centers, and other educational equity initiatives housed at the School.

We hope to reach 45 gifts on Give Day, and gifts of any size count toward our goal. Two challenge gifts have been set up by other donors to encourage your support. Here are the challenges you can help us unlock this year:

Support the Next Generation of STEM Teachers

Support future science, technology, engineering and math teachers by donating to the Next Generation STEM Teaching Award. Help us reach our goal of 25 gifts, and unlock a $5,000 donation that will provide scholarship support.

School of Education Board of Advisors Challenge

Support innovative education programs by donating to an area important to you in the School of Education. Help us reach our goal of 20 gifts to any fund in the School of Education to unlock a $10,000 donation that will provide seed funding for equity and inclusion initiatives benefiting students and faculty.

Give Day starts at noon on April 12, but you can make an impact starting right now. The Give Early button is live on the School of Education’s Give Day website, and you can give any amount to any area of your choosing at the School of Education. Early gifts will count towards our challenge goals once Give Day starts. (You can also help make Give Day a success by becoming a social media ambassador and following our Facebook and Twitter accounts on Give Day.) Your gift, no matter the size, will make a big difference to our faculty and students—thank you!

CANDEL Program Joins the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED) Consortium

The School of Education’s doctorate in educational leadership (CANDEL) program has been 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.

“Our CANDEL leadership team is especially excited about this opportunity as it will help support our process of continuous improvement,” said Professor Kevin Gee, co-director of CANDEL. “We’ll be leveraging the CPED network as we contemplate new and innovative ideas for our curricular structure and advising model. Looking ahead, our fundamental mission remains the same: training the next generation of transformational educational leaders who seek to be agents of change and champions of equity in an ever-changing educational landscape. What CPED offers us is the chance to build on that mission.”

New CANDEL Student Award Established in Honor of Dr. Paul Heckman

We are pleased to announce that the School of Education has received a $25,000 anonymous gift benefiting the future of education through the CANDEL program. Funds from the new “CANDEL Award Honoring Dr. Paul Heckman” will support students in the dissertation phase of their EdD program, providing assistance for expenses like tuition, fees and research costs.

This gift was inspired by the CANDEL program and Founding Co-Director of CANDEL Professor Paul Heckman’s commitment to preparing education leaders who value learning, promote equity and advocate for all students. “We are grateful to receive this support as a reflection of our excellent CANDEL faculty and program,” said Dean Lauren Lindstrom. “Philanthropic gifts like this new award allow us to continue providing the highest quality programs and to build upon the support we offer to our students. This gift will have an especially profound impact as our CANDEL program produces some of the nation’s top educational leaders.”

If you’re interested in supporting the CANDEL program and its students, visit the School of Education’s giving website to learn more about making a gift to the CANDEL program or to CANDEL student scholarships.

FACULTY NEWS

Professor Danny C. Martinez has earned tenure to become an Associate Professor in the School of Education. Martinez is an outstanding scholar and teacher who researches African American and Latinx youth language and literacy practices. His work has been recognized through several national awards, and he has also contributed to the School by playing a leadership role for the Emerging Scholars Panel and faculty writing retreats, and serving on several faculty search committees. Learn more about him on his faculty profile page on our website.

Congratulations to the School of Education researchers recognized last month at the Association for Education Finance and Policy (AEFP) Annual Conference!

• Professor Cassandra Hart was named a board of directors member at large.
• Co-authors Hart, School of Education postdoctoral researcher/alumna Elizabeth (Betsey) Friedmann and PhD candidate Michael Hill were awarded the Thomas A. Downes Award for their article “Online Course-taking and Student Outcomes in California Community Colleges.” The Downes Award is given to the best article of the year published in the association’s journal Education Finance and Policy.
• Professor Michal Kurlaender was also recognized at the conference for her service to the association.

EVENTS & PHOTOS

City Nature Challenge Comes to Sacramento Region

Starting April 26, the Sacramento area will participate in the City Nature Challenge for the first time! The School of Education’s Center for Community and Citizen Science is helping to lead this effort, competing against more than 160 other international cities in this nature-observation competition. Get involved and learn more here.

MA Symposium

Congratulations to our MA students, who presented their research at the School of Education MA symposium on March 9! We are excited to watch as these teachers make an impact in the lives of their current and future students. View photos from the research showcase on our website.

CANDEL Networking Event

On March 16, CANDEL alumni, current students and faculty joined together to visit, network and hear from Dean Lauren Lindstrom about her vision for the School of Education. Thank you to all who came out for this well-attended event! View photos from the day on our website.

RECENT RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS

• Professor Cynthia Carter Ching and alumnus George Sellu (MA ’05, PhD ’14) published “Bridging the Cultural Gap in the Global Workplace: A Sociocultural Perspective” in The Wiley Handbook of Global Workplace Learning.
• Professor Marcela Cuellar recently co-authored “Beyond the Baccalaureate: Factors Shaping Latina/o Graduate Degree Aspirations” in the Journal of Hispanic Higher Education.
• Professor Kevin Gee published the article “Leveraging the Public School System to Combat Adolescent Obesity: The Limits of Arkansas’s Statewide Policy Initiative” in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
• Professor Lee Martin co-authored the article “Learning to Rock: The Role of Prior Experience and Explicit Instruction on Learning and Transfer in a Music Videogame” in the journal Computers & Education.
• Professor Peter Mundy co-authored “Longitudinal Stability of Reading Profiles in Individuals with Higher Functioning Autism” in the journal Autism.
• Professor Megan Welsh authored the book chapter “Standards-Based Grading” in What We Know About Grading: What Works, What Doesn’t, and What’s Next.