May 2019 Newsletter
Third Annual Give Day Breaks School of Education Records
Thanks to an outpouring of support from alumni, staff, faculty and friends, Give Day 2019 was a huge success! Overall, UC Davis raised over $2 million from more than 4,400 gifts. The School of Education had a record-breaking year with over $23,000 raised from more than 70 gifts. Give Day gifts will provide scholarship support to our PhD, EdD and Teaching Credential/Master’s students, programmatic support for a number of community outreach programs, including the Center for Community and Citizen Science and the Transformative Justice in Education Center, as well as discretionary funds for the School’s most pressing needs. We are grateful for your support and investment in the School of Education and our students!
Forgot to make your gift? It’s not too late! Give Day may be over, but you can still be counted. Give on our website.
School of Education Researchers Attend AERA Annual Meeting in Toronto
Last month, nearly 50 faculty
members, graduate students and other researchers from the School
of Education attended the 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association
(AERA) in Toronto, Canada. The AERA Annual Meeting is the
world’s largest conference for education researchers and a
gathering place for groundbreaking, innovative studies in a
variety of research areas. (For instance, read about Professor Kevin Gee’s new
student absenteeism study he previewed at the AERA Annual Meeting
in this
Education Week blog.) We were excited to connect
with School of Education alumni and friends in Toronto, and we
can’t wait to see everyone next year!
New Wheelhouse Brief Highlights Forgone Community College Financial Aid
The Pell Grant is vital for almost
half a million low-income California community college students,
but one in five students who are eligible aren’t receiving the
much- needed funds they deserve.
“Why do Some Students Fail to Receive Pell Grants? Survey Evidence from California Community College Financial Aid Directors,” a new research brief from Wheelhouse: The Center for Community College Leadership and Research, outlines the obstacles students are facing and how to increase access. The brief reports that many community college students are not aware they are eligible for substantial financial aid, and that the Pell Grant “verification” process presents a significant barrier. Students are also sometimes counseled to decline their Pell Grants, and aid offices may be using ineffective means of communication. Read more about the issues these students are facing in the new brief.
FACULTY NEWS
We are excited to welcome Dr. Tony
Albano to the School of Education faculty as an Associate
Professor of Assessment and Measurement starting July 1, 2019.
Albano is currently an Associate Professor of Educational
Psychology at the University of Nebraska. His research
interests include three main areas within the field of
educational and psychological measurement: scaling, multilevel
modeling and assessment development. In addition to teaching
courses in advanced statistical methods, Albano has worked
extensively to educate students and practitioners in
educational measurement—writing an online textbook, creating
online training modules for educators in both K-12 and higher
education, and winning a teaching award at the University of
Nebraska. He has also been awarded an Institute of Education
Sciences (IES) grant as Co-PI and has published widely, including
with his students. We look forward to having Dr. Albano at the
School of Education!
Professor Darnel Degand,
alongside other researchers at UC Davis, CSU Sacramento and
American River
College, has been awarded a $500,000 grant to explore more
engaging ways to introduce students to engineering. A common
complaint is that the first two years of engineering education
are too abstract and students are unable to feel a connection
between what
they are learning and what a career in the discipline is like.
Disillusioned students leave early in the curriculum, and
underrepresented groups are disproportionately affected.
“Improving Retention in Engineering: E-Games for Active Training
in Engineering Design” proposes to provide scalable, meaningful
exposure to engineering design to lower division students by
creating online game modules. The grant is being awarded by the
California Education
Learning Lab, a program focused on increasing learning
outcomes and closing equity and achievement gaps in STEM. Learn
more about the project
here.
Congratulations to Professor Megan Welsh on
receiving this year’s Award for Excellence in Service to Graduate
Students. This campus-wide honor is conferred annually by
graduate students from the UC Davis Graduate Student Association.
Welsh was chosen to receive this award for her strong commitment
to graduate students’ academic achievement and personal
well-being. She was publicly recognized earlier this month at the
Graduate Student Association General Assembly meeting. We are
lucky to have such a supportive mentor at the School of
Education!
Faculty Spotlight: Marcela Cuellar
For Professor Marcela
Cuellar, examining the transformative power of education
has been a lifelong passion. “My parents moved to Oxnard, a
coastal California town, in the late 1970s to work in
the strawberry fields,” said Cuellar. “As the youngest of
six children, in addition to Spanish, I learned English
from my siblings and had a different trajectory because of
it.” Cuellar was accepted to multiple schools,
eventually choosing Stanford University. “Stanford was a
different world than Oxnard,” she said. “When I graduated
from college, I knew that I wanted to help other students,
especially students from my own community, have access to an
education in the way that I had.” She eventually went on to
earn her PhD in Education with a specialization in higher
education and organizational change from UCLA.
Cuellar has been an Assistant Professor at the School of Education since 2014. Her current research examines student experiences and outcomes at Hispanic Serving Institutions, which are institutions where at least 25 percent of undergraduates identify as Latinx. “For me, higher education was a transformative experience,” she said. “Grades matter and degrees matter, but there’s so much more to an education. I hope my research makes sure that we don’t lose sight of that.” Learn more about her in this new faculty spotlight.
BOARD OF ADVISORS NEWS
The School of Education Welcomes Hardeep Gulati to the Board of Advisors
We are pleased to welcome Hardeep Gulati, Chief Executive
Officer of PowerSchool
Group, LLC, as the newest member of the School of Education’s
Board of Advisors. Gulati is an innovative leader and executive
with more than two decades of experience leading
software businesses. His passion for education and proven
expertise in guiding companies through periods of growth have
been instrumental to PowerSchool’s success. PowerSchool is proud
to be the leading
provider of K-12 education application technology supporting over
45 million students in more than 70 countries. Under Gulati’s
leadership, PowerSchool has introduced award-winning, integrated
classroom solutions and made a lasting impact on the future of
K-12 education. He has been named Education Technology CEO of the
Year and one of the Top 100 Influencers in EdTech by EdTech
Digest. Learn more about Gulati and the Board of Advisors
on our website.
Board of Advisors Chair Davis
Campbell Publishes New Book on School Governance
Davis Campbell, chair of the School of Education’s Board of Advisors and former Executive Director of the California School Boards Association, recently co- authored a new book with educational researcher Michael Fullan focused on educational leadership and governance. The Governance Core provides strategies and tools for board members, superintendents and school leaders to unify and face the complex challenges of school governance together. Learn more about Campbell’s new publication here.
EVENTS & PHOTOS
Annual Emerging Scholars Panel Returns
The School of Education and the
Graduate Group in Education will host the annual Emerging
Scholars Panel on Tuesday, May 7, from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m., in
Meeting Room D, UC Davis Student Community Center. This special
panel will showcase critical, diverse disciplinary perspectives
in education from exceptional pre-tenure scholars across the
nation.
This year’s presenters are Tracey T. Flores, Assistant Professor, University of Texas at Austin; Jameson David Lopez, Assistant Professor, University of Arizona; and Tia Madkins, Assistant Professor, University of Texas at Austin. Learn more about the event on our website.
Students Present at Undergraduate Research Conference
On April 26, undergraduate
education minors and undergraduates working in School of
Education labs presented their research posters at the UC Davis
Undergraduate Research Conference. Congratulations to these
hard-working students! Check out photos from the event on
our website.