October 2015 Newsletter

SCHOLARSHIP NEWS

Scholarship Recipients and Donors Connect at Dean’s Leadership Circle Luncheon

School of Education students and the generous donors who have supported them through scholarships met on October 12 at the annual Dean’s Leadership Circle luncheon to share stories and experiences. PhD candidate Jason Huang and teaching credential student Juan Avelar shared their personal stories. Juan told the audience, “Thank you to all the contributors to my education. You have made an investment not just in me, but also an investment for my future students, and in their education as well.” 

Apply Now: MA in Education with Educational Assessment and Measurement Focus

The School of Education’s one-year MA in Education will have a research focus in Educational Assessment and Measurement this year. Students will develop skills in quantitative research methods and in the interpretation, design, and evaluation of educational and psychological assessments. The application deadline is January 15, 2016.

RESEARCH NEWS

Dr. Michal Kurlaender Awarded Three Significant Research Grants

Congratulations to Dr. Kurlaender on securing three major grants recently:

$5 million U.S. Department of Education grant to find out how well the State of California prepares K-12 students for college and careers and to understand how efforts to improve both high school rigor and information about college and career readiness can impact schools and students;

$400,000 Department of Education funded researcher-practitioner partnership grant with the California Community College Chancellor’s Office to explore degree/certificate completion and economic returns to Career Technical Education (CTE) programs at California Community Colleges; and

$400,000 College Futures Foundation grant to test an intervention designed to increase faculty-student interactions with the intended goal of increasing persistence and degree completion at large broad-access universities. 

Dr. Megan Welsh and Campus Colleagues Secure Two Grants 

Thanks to the hard work of Drs. Welsh, Abedi and Levine in the School of Education and Dr. Emilio Ferrer in the Psychology Department, the School of Education and the Psychology Department recently secured a $590,000 Graduate Assistantships in Areas of National Need (GAANN) award. GAANN fellows will receive fellowship and assistantship for five years that will include a stipend of up to $34,000 per year, tuition and health benefits. Students will be trained in educational assessment, psychometrics, and quantitative research methods.

In addition, Dr. Welsh is part of a team of researchers from across campus that was awarded a National Science Foundation three-year grant of $500,000 to research educational practices that improve graduate students’ application of Data Science to a wide array of disciplines. The team will be led by Professor Deb Niemeier, who holds a joint appointment with the School of Education and the UC Davis Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Chancellor Emeritus Larry Vanderhoef

It was a sad day for higher education, for the campus, and for the School of Education when Chancellor Emeritus Larry Vanderhoef passed away on October 15. School of Education Dean Harold Levine expressed his sorrow to the staff and faculty, saying “Chancellor Vanderhoef was an extraordinary leader and an even more extraordinary human being. He helped shape the campus as we now know it and raised its stature and prominence among higher education institutions. It was also his vision, and ongoing support, that created and sustained the School of Education. Chancellor Vanderhoef was dedicated to the land-grant mission of UC Davis and knew that the real challenges in American society were fundamentally educational in nature. He wanted a School that addressed—through its research, teaching, and service—the pernicious inequities in our public schools and in the educational opportunities of all students. I know all of us in the School do our best, day-in and day-out, to fulfill the mission he so believed in.”

A celebration of the life of Chancellor Emeritus Vanderhoef will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, November 4, in Jackson Hall at the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. For those unable to attend, the service will be carried live on the Web.

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION EVENTS

Speaker Lecture Series: Maisha T. Winn
November 16, 2015 • 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
UC Davis Memorial Union

DistinguishedJoin us for this free lecture on Justice on Both Sides: Toward a Restorative Justice Discourse in Schools. Professor Winn is the Susan J. Cellmer Distinguished Chair in English Education and Professor of Language and Literacy in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Learn more.

SAVE THE DATE: Shop at Barnes & Noble after Thanksgiving and Support Words Take Wing!

From November 28–December 5th, if you shop at any Barnes & Noble store nationwide, a portion of the proceeds will be donated to support our Spring 2016 Words Take Wing event with author Sheila Hamanaka. Donations range from 10-20%—the larger your purchase, the larger the donation. Visit us on November 28 at the Arden Fair Mall to say hello and enter a free raffle to win Sacramento River Cats tickets! Stay tuned for voucher information for online purchases.