Specializing in educational and psychological assessments, Jamal Abedi’s research focuses on testing for English language learners and issues concerning the technical characteristics and interpretations of these assessments. Abedi is the author of many publications in the assessment of and accommodations for English-language learners. He is on the advisory committees for several major assessment organizations and advises a number of states on testing for English learners and children with disabilities.
After teaching middle school math for ten years, I decided to pursue a PhD to get a fresh perspective on the issues I observed every day in my classroom and thought that maybe I could help develop remedies that would help other teachers, as well.
Rebekka’s research focuses on the diffusion of content management (CM) methodologies and technologies in information development teams and on strategies for building stronger connections between academia and industry. Her research on CM examines diffusion inhibitors and facilitators, with a particular focus on the shaping forces of collaboration, communication, and culture.
Graduate Group in Education FacultyEMPHASIS AREA: SOEP. Teacher compensation models, principal effectiveness, performance management systems, learning diagnostic systems, school management, charter schools, and quantitative analysis
Teacher compensation models, principal effectiveness, performance management systems, learning diagnostic systems, school management, charter schools, and quantitative analysis.
Faculty ProfileEMPHASIS AREA: LLC. Educational equity; English language arts education; Gay and lesbian issues in education; Minority/Underrepresented Students; Multicultural literature and literacy; Secondary Education; Teacher education research and policy
Steven Athanases is a Professor in the School of Education at UC Davis. He researches issues of cultural and linguistic diversity and educational equity in teaching, adolescent learning, and teacher education, with a focus on literacy and English language arts. As a high school English teacher in the Chicago area, he received several awards for outstanding teaching of English, with a focus on writing, and drew on his disciplinary roots in Performance Studies and Communications to stage annual performance showcases of original student compositions.
Heidi Ballard is the Founder and Faculty Director of the Center for Community and Citizen Science. You can find more information about her past and current projects, and sign up for occasional updates at the Center’s website.
Graduate Group in Education FacultyEMPHASIS AREA: LLC. Second language acquisition and development; language socialization and variation; language brokering in classrooms
Graduate Group in Education FacultyEMPHASIS AREA: LLC. Spanish second language acquisition and development; technology and language learning; foreign language policy
Graduate Group in Education FacultyEMPHASIS AREA: MTH. Technology in teaching and learning, engineering education, computing education, mathematics education, science education, information technology and robotics in math and science education, learning in informal settings
Technology in teaching and learning, engineering education, computing education, mathematics education, science education, information technology and robotics in math and science education, learning in informal settings, collaborative learning, learning through robotics competitions
Marcela Cuellar joined the School of Education in July 2014 as an assistant professor in higher education & leadership. She received her doctorate in Higher Education and Organizational Change at the UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies. Her research focuses on Latino student access and success in higher education, Hispanic-Serving Institutions, and the development of emerging HSIs.
Graduate Group in Education FacultyEMPHASIS AREA: SOEP. Health care access and finance issues that affect the Latino community as well as Border health issues.
Faculty ProfileEMPHASIS AREA: LLC. Academic language; Academic literacy; English learners; Language development and socialization; First- and second-language writing; Latino youth
I research the relationship between students’ everyday uses of language (English and Spanish) and their engagement in school-based uses of language and literacy. Some schools identify bilingual adolescents as “limited” in their English proficiency even though they use sophisticated literacy repertoires outside of school; other learners are deemed ”fluent” in English but still struggle with the language and literacy demands of their academic coursework.
Graduate Group in Education FacultyEMPHASIS AREA: SOEP. Adolescent development and the built environment, design of educational environments, participatory action research
Graduate Group in Education FacultyEMPHASIS AREA: LMS. Adolescent development and the built environment, design of educational environments, participatory action research and qualitative methods (including youth-produced media)
Adolescent development and the built environment, design of educational environments, participatory action research and qualitative methods (including youth-produced media)
Faculty ProfileEMPHASIS AREA: LMS. Methods to analyze change and intra-individual variability, in particular latent growth analysis and linear and nonlinear dynamical systems
Graduate Group in Education FacultyEMPHASIS AREA: LLC. Second language writing, second language reading, response to student writing, second language teacher education, composition pedagogy
Faculty ProfileEMPHASIS AREA: SOEP. Education Policy and Governance; Educational Leadership; Graduate education issues; Hispanic culture; History of Latinos in the U.S.; History of higher education; History of the University of California; Minority leadership issues
Graduate Group in Education FacultyEMPHASIS AREA: LMS. Targeted treatments for neurodevelopmental disorders including fragile X syndrome, premutation involvement including the fragile X-associated tremor ataxia syndrome (FXTAS), and autism; newborn screening for fragile X syndrome
Targeted treatments for neurodevelopmental disorders including fragile X syndrome, premutation involvement including the fragile X-associated tremor ataxia syndrome (FXTAS), and autism; newborn screening for fragile X syndrome and aging studies in developmental disorders.
Faculty ProfileEMPHASIS AREA: SOEP. chool choice programs, school accountability policies, early childhood education policies, and effects on students of exposure to demographically similar teachers
Cassandra Hart is assistant professor of education policy. She evaluates the effects of school, state and national education programs, policies, and practices on overall student achievement, and on the equality of student outcomes. Hart’s recent work has focused on school choice programs, school accountability policies, early childhood education policies, and effects on students of exposure to demographically similar teachers. She is also interested in the effects of virtual schooling on student outcomes, both in K-12 and post-secondary settings.
Faculty ProfileEMPHASIS AREA: SOEP. Curriculum theory and change; Educational Ecology of communities; Educational Leadership; School, curriculum and community change; School restructuring: Organizational arrangements and structures; School culture: change and cognition
Graduate Group in Education FacultyEMPHASIS AREA: SOEP. Sociology of education; social stratification; immigration and education; disability; quantitative methods
Faculty ProfileEMPHASIS AREA: SOEP. Education Policy; Educational Program evaluation; Educational stratification and equity; Access and success and postsecondary schooling; Desegregation; Economics of education; Quantitative methods; Sociology of education
Michal Kurlaender investigates students’ educational pathways, in particular K-12 and postsecondary alignment, and access to and success in postsecondary schooling. She has expertise on alternative pathways to college and college readiness at both community colleges and four-year colleges and universities. In addition to working with national data, Kurlaender works closely with administrative data from all three of California’s public higher education sectors–the University of California, the California State University and the California Community College systems.
Faculty ProfileEMPHASIS AREA: LLC. Adolescent Language and Literacy; English Education; Linguistic Anthropology of Education; Sociocultural Approaches to Learning; Discourse Analysis; Black and Latina/o Youth Interactions; Ethnography
Faculty ProfileEMPHASIS AREA: SOEP. developmental education in colleges, the effects of grade retention, the returns to for-profit colleges, the impacts of school facility investments, and community college tuition subsidies
Francisco (Paco) Martorell joined the School as an assistant professor in July 2014. Martorell completed his PhD in economics at UC Berkeley. Prior to joining the School, he was an Economist at the RAND Corporation and was a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School since 2006. He has broad research interests in both higher education and K-12 policy. Current projects cover areas including developmental education in colleges, the effects of grade retention, the returns to for-profit colleges, the impacts of school facility investments, and community college tuition subsidies.
Graduate Group in Education FacultyEMPHASIS AREA: LLC. Relationships between second language instruction and the linguistic/cultural identities of teachers and learners; second language literacy development in specific social contexts, especially as it relates to first language literacies
Relationships between second language instruction and the linguistic/cultural identities of teachers and learners; second language literacy development in specific social contexts, especially as it relates to first language literacies, and to bilingual and bicultural family literacies; ethnographic and case study methodologies, including interviewing and classroom observation, and life-history narratives.
Language assessment and acquisition in bilinguals; Bilingual and second language education; Classroom discourse; Elementary education; English learners; Latina/o education issues; Literacy development through science; Teacher action research; Teacher development & performance assessment
Education
Ph.D., Education and Linguistics – Stanford University, Stanford – 1976
Graduate Group in Education FacultyEMPHASIS AREA: LMS. Cognition and learning in adulthood; Changes in cognitive abilities in later life; Language comprehension and memory; Self-efficacy and control beliefs related to cognitive processes; Lifelong learning
Cognition and learning in adulthood; Changes in cognitive abilities in later life; Language comprehension and memory; Self-efficacy and control beliefs related to cognitive processes; Lifelong learning
Developing evaluation techniques for technology use in formal and informal educational settings, research on learning in free-choice environments especially as related to understanding of research, how students engage with and use technology in a free-choice setting with a focus on social interactions, using technology to assess student understanding.
Faculty ProfileEMPHASIS AREA: LMS. Child Development; Counseling; Early Childhood Education; Mental health consultation; Mental health promotion in schools; Special education
There are seven million exceptional children with special needs in our American school system, such as children with autism spectrum development. They have the right to appropriate and comparable educational opportunities. Truly meeting the needs of these children requires a commitment to integrating advances in educational science, neuroscience, and social policy.
Graduate Group in Education FacultyEMPHASIS AREA: SCI/AG. Transportation-air quality modeling; energy consumption and land use interactions; sustainability; urban environments and climate change; poverty and transportation, environmental justice and transportation
Graduate Group in Education FacultyEMPHASIS AREA: LMS. Adolescent mental health, peer relations, ethnicity/contextual moderators, school-based preventions and interventions, mental health and physical symptoms, and methodological issues.
Adolescent mental health, peer relations, ethnicity/contextual moderators, school-based preventions and interventions, mental health and physical symptoms, and methodological issues.
Graduate Group in Education FacultyEMPHASIS AREA: SOEP. Economic returns to education; Human capital; School choice and neighborhood effects; Class size reduction
Faculty ProfileEMPHASIS AREA: SCI/AG. Science education; Groupwork; Race and schooling; social emotional intelligence; social justice education; literary in science; argumentation and dialogic instruction
Alexis Patterson, Ph.D., joined the School of Education in July 2015 as an Assistant Professor in science education. She is currently a CAMPOS Faculty Scholar and is excited to work with her cohort to develop a research center that focuses on increasing the participation of women of color in STEM related fields.
Graduate Group in Education FacultyEMPHASIS AREA: SCI/AG. Physics/physical science learning at all levels, constructivist approaches to curriculum design and classroom practice; teacher preparation and professional development.
Physics/physical science learning at all levels, constructivist approaches to curriculum design and classroom practice; teacher preparation and professional development.
Faculty ProfileEMPHASIS AREA: SOEP. Latina/o and Native American identity formations in P-20 systems; Transition to college for students of color in K-12, Access; Retention and Educational equity in P-20 systems
Office hours: Fall Quarter 2016 — By Appointment Only
Gloria M. Rodriguez’s current research explores notions of educational investment that reflect efforts to build upon community strengths in order to address community needs within and beyond educational settings. Dr. Rodriguez also engages in research that focuses on the political economic conditions and educational trajectories of Chicana/o-Latina/o communities, other communities of color, and low-income populations in the U.S.
Faculty ProfileEMPHASIS AREA: LLC. Second language acquisition; textbook analysis; frequency effects in vocabulary learning; derivational morphology in second language teaching
Graduate Group in Education FacultyEMPHASIS AREA: LMS. The identification and treatment of attention-deficit/ hyperactivity (ADHD) and related disorders in children and adults
The identification and treatment of attention-deficit/ hyperactivity (ADHD) and related disorders in children and adults using behavioral/neuropsychological and functional neuroimaging methods; Self-control in ADHD; Alterations in reward and learning in psychopathology; Applied behavior analysis
Graduate Group in Education FacultyEMPHASIS AREA: SOEP. Gender inequalities in careers & earnings; Women in science fields from high school through occupations
Faculty ProfileEMPHASIS AREA: LMS, LLC. Language and literacy development in both Spanish-speaking English learners and students considered at-risk for reading failure.
Emily J. Solari is associate professor of education. Her research focuses on language and literacy development in both Spanish-speaking English learners and students considered at-risk for reading failure.
Education
Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara, 2007. Education.
Special Education, Disabilities and Risk Studies Emphasis
Interdisciplinary Cognitive Science and Human Development Emphasis
M.A., University of California, Santa Barbara, 2003. Education.
Special Education, Disabilities & Risk Studies Emphasis
Nicole Sparapani is an assistant professor in the School of Education, and she also holds a faculty appointment at the UC Davis MIND Institute. Her research interests center around the development and evaluation of effective educational practices for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Sparapani practiced as a certified speech-language pathologist on an interdisciplinary team serving preschool children with ASD for several years before pursuing her Ph.D. in Communication Science and Disorders at Florida State University and postdoctoral training at Arizona State University.
Graduate Group in Education FacultyEMPHASIS AREA: LLC. Teaching of writing; writing in disciplines and professions; writing across the curriculum; writing program design and administration; reading-writing connections.
Teaching of writing; writing in disciplines and professions; writing across the curriculum; writing program design and administration; reading-writing connections.
Graduate Group in Education FacultyEMPHASIS AREA: LMS. Parent-child relationships, early emotional development and emotion regulation, development of prosocial motivation, applications of developmental science to public policy
Parent-child relationships, early emotional development and emotion regulation, development of prosocial motivation, applications of developmental science to public policy
To paraphrase Dostoevsky, the quality of a society should be measured by the quality of its schools, particularly the quality of its schools educating the most disadvantaged children.
Thomas Timar’s areas of expertise include education finance, policy, and governance. In addition to his faculty responsibilities, he is also director of the UC Davis Center for Applied Policy in Education (CAP-Ed) and a member of the steering committee for Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE).
Agricultural Education; Agri-food system literacy; Service-learning; Secondary Education; Science Education; Technology in Science; Technology in teaching and learning
Faculty ProfileEMPHASIS AREA: LLC. Early Literacy; English Learners; Bilingualism and Bilingual Education; Educational Television and Multimedia; Language Acquisition; Literacy development; Quantitative methods; Sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics.
Early Literacy; English Learners; Bilingualism and Bilingual Education; Educational Television and Multimedia; Language Acquisition; Literacy development; Quantitative methods; Sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics.
Faculty ProfileEMPHASIS AREA: LLC. Anthropology of consciousness; Bilingual Education; Child Development; Classroom discourse; Classroom research; Community and rural development
Anthropology of consciousness; Bilingual Education; Child Development; Classroom discourse; Classroom research; Community and rural development; Critical discourse analysis; Cultural studies; Education in Developing Countries; Ethnography and Ethnographic research; Feminist theory; Geographical areas of Hawai’i and Solomon Islands; Indigenous epistemology; Language Acquisition; Language development and socialization; Language socialization theory; Linguistic anthropology; Literacy and Language policy; Organizational structure/effectiveness; Pidgin/creole langu
Faculty ProfileEMPHASIS AREA: LMS. Test validity analysis, the use of assessment as an educational reform lever, grading, and evaluation of educational programs.
Megan Welsh joined the School in July 2014 as an assistant professor in educational assessment and measurement. Since 2008, she was an assistant professor at the University of Connecticut. Her primary areas of research include test validity analysis, the use of assessment as an educational reform lever, grading, and evaluation of educational programs.
Faculty ProfileEMPHASIS AREA: LMS, MTH. Collaborative learning; Learning and Cognition; Mathematics Education; Technology in Mathematics; Technology in Science; Technology in Teaching and Learning
Tobin White studies the use of technology in teaching and learning mathematics. He has a particular interest in using mobile computing to support novel approaches to engaging learners with STEM content and practices. Using a design-based research approach, he develops collaborative problem-solving tools and activities in order to investigate intersections between conceptual and social dimensions of learning. A former high school mathematics teacher himself, he has also worked for more than a decade in teacher preparation.
Graduate Group in Education FacultyEMPHASIS AREA: LLC. The impact of information technologies on literacy; Writing in the disciplines and professions (science writing), and writing assessment.
Maisha T. Winn’s research spans a wide variety of understudied settings including her earlier work on the literate practices extant in bookstores and community organizations in the African American community to her most recent work in settings where adolescent girls are incarcerated.
