January 2025 Newsletter

Identifying the Root Causes of Absenteeism

Chronic absenteeism can have major impacts on a child’s learning, social skills, and self-confidence. While the education system is working to address these challenges, the reality is that an alarmingly high number of K-12 students are not coming to class.

A team of researchers, including Prof. Kevin Gee, have identified potential opportunities where schools, government agencies, and community members can collaborate to address chronic absenteeism together. Learn what efforts to address chronic absenteeism can look like in a new issue brief from Gee and his colleagues.

Alexis Patterson Williams Named 2024-25 Chancellor’s Fellow

Prof. Alexis Patterson Williams is one of 10 faculty members across UC Davis to be recognized as a 2024-25 Chancellor’s Fellow for her demonstrated excellence in research, teaching, and service. Patterson Williams, who serves as the School of Education Chair of Teacher Education, is a science education scholar who aims to increase the quality of learning experiences for diverse students. This work has implications at the intersections of language arts and science education by advancing transformative equity goals.

Remembering Two Invaluable Members of the School of Education Community

Professor Emeritus Thomas Timar passed away Dec. 31, 2024. During his 40-year career, Timar was a champion of schools and a visionary of policy, school district leadership, and student engagement at all levels of the education system. He founded and directed the Center for Applied Policy in Education and the California Institute for School Improvement, and directed the Education Abroad Program in Havana, Cuba. Timar mentored students throughout their careers, and was profoundly grateful to be a part of the UC Davis community.

Alumna Sandi Redenbach, ’72, Cred. ’73, passed away Jan. 5, 2025. Redenbach was a speech, drama, and English teacher in Yolo County for more than 35 years. She founded the Woodland Joint Unified Independent Learning Center, and served as the Director of Curriculum and Instruction for Dixon Unified School District. Along with her husband Ken Gelatt, Redenbach was a generous supporter of the School of Education, establishing four scholarships for teaching credential students and funding the full renovation and upgrade of a School of Education classroom.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Yianella Blanco to Present on Healing Narratives

How can testimonies from Central American educators and youth transform history classrooms into healing spaces? Prof. Yianella Blanco will present on this topic at the next Aoki Center and UC Davis Hispanic Serving Institution Speaker Series event on Feb. 11, 2025, from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. You can join the event in King Hall 1301 or watch it online. Read more about Yianella Blanco’s upcoming presentation.

Telling the Story of Race and Education: Join Us in Conversation with Scholar OiYan Poon

On Feb. 13, 2025, the Graduate Group in Education will host scholar, educator, and storyteller Dr. OiYan Poon for a discussion on her book Asian American is Not a Color: Conversations about Race, Affirmative Action, and Family.

The event will take place from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. in the School of Education Building, Room 174. Admission is free and all are welcome. Light refreshments will be served.

Explore the Power of Literature at Words Take Wing 2025

On Feb. 25, 2025, join the School of Education for Words Take Wing: Honoring Diversity in Children’s Literature. We will host Mitali Perkins, accomplished author and advocate, for two events:

• A matinee presentation at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. School matinee request form required.
• A public evening presentation at the Sacramento Public Library’s McKinley branch in Clunie Auditorium from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Watch a Day in the Life of a Credential Student

Kimmy Bajarias shares a day in her life as a multiple subject credential and Spanish bilingual authorization student. Visit us on YouTube or Instagram to watch more student stories.

ALUMNI IMPACT SPOTLIGHT

Raising the Bar: How Alumna Jenny Kwon Is Rethinking Law Student Assessments

CANDEL alumna Jenny Kwon, Ed.D. ’16, and her colleagues investigated the Nevada Bar to see if it accurately assesses a new lawyer’s minimum competency. Learn what Jenny Kwon and her co-researchers uncovered when they put the bar exam to the test.

STUDENT NEWS

Ed.D. student Rodrigo Bonilla co-published the book chapter “Emerging Hispanic-Serving Institution (eHSI) Prominence: A Retention Model for Servingness of Latinx Students.”

Ed.D. student Kayton Carter was selected by the University of California Black Administrator’s Council to receive the Youlonda Copeland-Morgan Transformative Leadership Award.

Ed.D. student Ariel Collatz will receive the NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising Region 9 Excellence in Advising—Advising Administrator Award at the upcoming NACADA Region 8/Region 9 Conference.

Ed.D. student Donelle Davis has accepted the position of UC Davis Interim Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Housing, Dining, and Divisional Operations, effective May 1, 2025.

FEATURED CONFERENCES

Justin Luu, Ph.D. ’24, presented his dissertation research at the International School Choice and Reform Conference. Luu collaborated with Dr. Sherrie Reed and Prof. Heather Rose to examine how traditional and charter schools affect students’ decisions to pursue higher education.

Other recent conference highlights include: Suzanne Abdelrahim, Tony Albano, Margarita Jimenez-Silva, Robin Martin, and Rachel Restani presented at the 23rd Annual Hawaii International Conference on Education. Visit our conference page for a complete roundup of recent SOE research presentations.

Show Off with School of Education Gear

Looking for a way to show off your School of Education pride? You’ll find shirts of all styles, as well as mugs, hats and more with the School of Education logo at the online UC Davis Store. Proceeds from all store sales benefit UC Davis Athletics.

PUBLICATIONS

Alzen, J. L., Buell, J. Y., Edwards, K., Reiser, B. J., Passmore, C., Penuel, W. R., Griesemer, C. D., and Zhang, Y. (2024). Characterizing variations in the figured worlds of teachers and students in science class. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 1–26.

Bullen, J.C.*, Birkeneder, S.L., Zajic, M.C.*, Lerro, L.S.*, McIntyre, N.*, Sparapani, N., and Mundy, P. (2024). Longitudinal stability and Autism Diagnostic Observation Scale-2 predictors of the Childhood Joint Attention Rating Scale. Autism, 0(0).

Gee, K., Cooc, N. (2024). We must dig deeper to see which students are most vulnerable to bullying. EdSource.

Goffney, I. M. and Wilkes, C. E. (2024). A Juneteenth moment for mathematics education: The role of rights of the learner and Afrofuturism. Theory Into Practice, 1–16.

Jadallah, C.C.* and Ballard, H.L. (2024), Learning and Distributed Expertise in Community-Based Science. Science Education.

Mustafaa, F.M., Guzman, L., Moua, C., Coleman, C.W., and Patterson Williams, A. (2024). On “nature” and “nurture”: Black Educators’ backgrounds, teacher education experiences, and race-related pedagogical beliefs. Teaching and Teacher Education, 154.

Rodriguez-Mojica, C., Briceño, A., Rutherford-Quach, S. and Stoehr, K.J. (2024). Translanguaging Formative Assessment Tools for Bilingual Teachers of Multilingual Students. TESOL, 16(1).

*School of Education alumni