Building Knowledge For Practice

Enrollment Jumps

Recruitment efforts were very successful this year for the School of Education. There are 120 new graduate students, consistent with previous academic years. At the undergraduate level, there are 155 new freshmen in the Elementary Teacher Education major. According to Undergraduate Admissions, the number of incoming students who selected that major jumped 18 percent since last year!

School of Education Alumna Named Delaware Teacher of the Year

Mary Pinkston, a University of Delaware alumna, has earned the top honor of Delaware's Teacher of the Year for 2010. She beat out 19 other district finalists throughout the state for the honor. Pinkston has 17 years of teaching experience, all in the Brandywine School District. She's not the only UD graduate who competed this year for the title of Delaware Teacher of the Year. Of all 20 of the district finalists, seven of the educators earned their master's degrees or took graduate coursework at UD, and three teachers earned their elementary teacher certification from the University's School of Education. For more on Pinkston's honor, follow this link to the UDaily story.

SOE to Participate in First College Expo

The University of Delaware College of Education and Public Policy will hold its first College Expo on Wednesday, November 18, providing undergraduate students, prospective graduate students and members of the community an opportunity to see the types of degrees the college has to offer in one location. The College Expo will take place from 1:30 to 4:30 PM in the Rodney Room of the Perkins Student Center on Academy Street. It will showcase 13 undergraduate majors and minors and more than 25 graduate programs available to students. To learn more about the College Expo, follow this link to the UDaily story.

Golinkoff and Colleague Take Home National Psychology Award

University of Delaware H. Rodney Sharp Professor Roberta Golinkoff and her long-time collaborator, Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek, a professor at Temple University, are joint recipients of the American Psychology Association (APA) Award for Distinguished Service to Psychological Science. The announcement came from the APA Board of Scientific Affairs in early October. The award was created to recognize individuals who’ve made outstanding contributions to psychological science through their commitment to a culture of service. The APA stated that both Golinkoff and Hirsh-Pastek have shown a commitment to disseminating and translating psychological research and making it accessible to policy-makers and the general public through publications, public lectures and advisory roles with child-related organizations. To read more about Golinkoff's award, follow this link to the UDaily story.

Book Presentation Honors Three Promoted Faculty in SOE

It's a tradition that began back in 2002. Every time professors who teach education majors receive promotions, they're also asked to choose a book that has had special meaning in their lives. Once those books are purchased in their honor, the professors present those books to the Education Resource Center and explain why the book means so much to them. Marika Ginsburg-Block, Nancy Lavigne and Chrystalla Mouza are the newest School of Education faculty to take part in this tradition. They were all promoted to Associate Professor back in the spring. To find out which books they chose, follow this link to the full story.

$2 Million NSF Grant Supports Research on Math Teacher Preparation at UD

Dawn Berk, assistant professor in the School of Education, is leading a group of University of Delaware researchers who will be evaluating the University’s mathematics teacher preparation programs over the next five years, thanks to a $2-million grant from the National Science Foundation’s REESE (Research and Evaluation on Education in Science and Engineering) program. Berk is the primary investigator of the group, which will be following two cohorts of graduates from math teacher preparation programs within the School of Education and the Department of Mathematical Sciences over the first three to four years of their teaching careers. To read more about this research, follow this link to the UDaily story.

Chrystalla Mouza Wins National Research Award

The Association of Teacher Educators has announced that Chrystalla Mouza, associate professor in the University of Delaware School of Education, is the recipient of the 2010 Distinguished Research in Teacher Education award. This yearly award is designed to honor the highest quality research in the field of education across the country. For more on Professor Mouza's award, follow this link to the UDaily story.

First School Psychology Program “Olympics” a Big Success

Graduate students in the school psychology program recently brought together about 40 current students, alumni, faculty, and significant others for a day of friendly and fairly unusual competition. Beginning with opening ceremonies, four teams competed in events like Human Block Design, So You Think You Can Dance and Scavenger Hunt. Each team created its own custom designed t-shirts, banner, cheer, and secret methods for bribing the judges. The event allowed new students to get to know more advanced students and generally created a sense of camaraderie among all who attended. To read more about this event, follow this link to the full story.

Four Doctoral Students Participate in Chinese Exchange Fellowship

SOE students Tim Snyder, Karen Girton-Snyder, Elizabeth Soslau, and Scott Richardson spent three weeks in China this summer as part of a cultural exchange called the “Fellowship for Enhancing Global Understanding.” They all had different objectives in mind. Soslau wanted to study educational reform in China. Richardson, who has studied in Asian countries before, had the goal of identifying differences between the American and Chinese education systems. Snyder and Girton-Snyder said they wanted to see the role technology played in both elementary classrooms and at the local universities. To hear more about their experience, follow this link to the UDaily story.

Popularity Grows for UD Autism Certification Program after Going State-wide

The Autism Certification Program has come a long way in the past few years at the University of Delaware. Formerly, teachers who wanted to become certified only had a few options. But just last year, the School of Education started offering courses at sites all over the state. To read more about how this program is growing, follow this link to the full story.

Sharon Walpole Creates Podcasts to Aid Teachers in Delaware Classrooms

Teachers in Delaware have new resources at their fingertips as a result of the School of Education teaming with the Delaware Department of Education (DDOE) to create instructional podcasts to help teachers implement the nation's Response to Intervention initiative in their classrooms. The overall goal of Response to Intervention hinges on helping students who are struggling with basic learning skills, like reading. The series of 11 podcasts includes lectures, readings, and activities, and are designed to be viewed by teams of teachers at the same grade level. The podcasts could potentially help strengthen a teacher's understanding of reading instruction and assessment for grades K-3. "This allows people to work in groups of four or five, with their grade-level colleagues," said Sharon Walpole, associate professor in UD's School of Education. "I think that, in and of itself, is a positive professional development venue." For more on Walpole's work on these podcasts, follow this link to the UDaily story.

Alumni Take Home 2008-2009 Commitment to Education Awards

Three University of Delaware alumni have received recognition for their dedication to the field of education. The Education Alumni Association honored the individuals at a dinner back in May at the Hilton Christiana. All of them are graduates of the School of Education within the College of Education and Public Policy.

Deborah Ziegler, BS ’75, M.Ed. ’77, Ed.D. ’88, received the "Outstanding Education Alumni" award. Ziegler has held many positions in the education field including teacher, adjunct assistant professor and director of the Delaware Early Childhood center. She is currently the Associate Executive Director for Policy and Advocacy Services at the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), the largest international professional organization in the field of special education.

Sharon Keller, BS '74 and Sarah Farr, BS '77, were both recipients of "Commitment to Education" awards. Keller (pictured on the right) has been in the field of education for 35 years and has recently served as the director of student services for the Colonial School District. Farr, a 32-year educator, currently oversees the special education programs including the three statewide programs housed in the Christiana School District. The programs include the Delaware Autism Program, the Delaware School for the Deaf and the Delaware Deaf-Blind Program.

Fall 2009 Colloquium Series

The School of Education's Fall 2009 colloquium series has been scheduled. All of the sessions occur at 1 PM on Wednesday afternoons in Willard 207. To see the lineup of speakers, follow this link to the Fall 2009 Colloqium Schedule.

Graduate Tuition Scholarships for Delaware Residents and Educators

The University of Delaware has eliminated residency qualifications for calculating graduate tuition rates. Beginning with Fall 2009, graduate tuition rates for Delaware residents and nonresidents will be the same. We remain committed to Delaware residents and educators pursuing graduate education at the University. Therefore, in addition to the graduate assistantships available to full-time students on a competitive basis, special scholarships have been implemented to ensure that Delaware residents and Delaware public educators will pay a reduced tuition rate of $475 per credit for the 2009-10 academic year. The special tuition scholarships are available to all School of Education graduate students who are Delaware residents or public educators in Delaware. For details, follow this link to the Graduate Scholarship Program for Delaware Residents and Employees of State and Local Government in Delaware.

History of Education Annual Meeting October 22-25, 2009, Philadelphia

School of Education Professor Bob Hampel encourages you to attend the annual meeting of the History of Education Society at the Doubletree Hotel in Center City Philadelphia, October 22-25. The Society will waive registration fees for UD graduate education students. The major topics in the 40+ sessions are race and gender, school reform, and higher education. This year's keynote address is by Thomas Sugrue (University of Pennsylvania), on education and race in the postwar North. Other mid-atlantic participants include Michael Katz (the welfare state), Ron Granieri (Holocaust education), John Puckett (Philadelphia schools), James Gilbert (science education), Beth Bailey (culture wars), Ray Wolters (race and education), Bob Hampel (school reform in the 1940s), and David Farber (student protests). For the complete program, follow this link to www.historyofeducation.org/annual meeting. For more information, contact the Secretary-Treasurer, Professor Bob Hampel, at 302-831-1651 or hampel@udel.edu.

Tommi Barrett-Greenly Completes Her Second NASA Internship

Master of Education student Tommi Barrett-Greenly completed her second consecutive summer institute at the Langley Aerospace Research Summer Scholars (LARSS) internship program. Founded in 1917, Langley Research Center is the nation's first civilian aeronautical research facility and NASA's original field center. “In 2008, I interned as a technical writer in the Nondestructive Evaluation Sciences Branch,” Barrett-Greenly said. “I can't describe how excited I was. Every teaching day, I told my students to never give up, to go for their dreams. Now, I was able to do that myself. It was an incredible feeling.” In the summer of 2009, Barrett-Greenly worked on a project called S'COOL -- Student Cloud Observations On-Line -- which involves students studying the clouds and passing the data on to NASA Langley researchers. For more on Tommi Barrett-Greenly's summer at NASA, follow this link to the UDaily story.

Helene Delpeche and Elizabeth Soslau Complete Career Preparation Institute

School of Education doctoral students Helene Delpeche and Elizabeth Soslau completed a new career preparation program entitled Putting Your Ph.D. to Work: Academic Career Preparation Summer Institute. Sponsored by UD's Office of Graduate and Professional Education and the Center for Teaching Effectiveness and Career Services, this intensive one-week course was designed to introduce and hone the competencies that those who hold doctorates will need to succeed in today's competitive academic job market, as well as ease their transition from doctoral study to their first year of an academic appointment. For more on this new pilot program, follow this link to the UDaily story.

Carol Wong and Shuaib Meacham Work with Students in the ASPIRE Program

School of Education Professors Carol Wong and Shuaib Meacham are working with students in the Aspiring Teacher initiative, which is designed to encourage Delaware middle and high school students to join the UD campus community as well as to consider teacher education as a career pathway. The middle and high school students interact with peers who value academic achievement and with UD students who are involved in ASPIRE, which is a student organization that supports access for members of underrepresented groups to careers in education.  ASPIRE students serve as college student role models who provide information and a glimpse of college life. Wong and Meacham worked with ASPIRE's director Melva Ware to develop many of the activities. For more on the design of this important program, follow this link to the UDaily story.

Nancy Jordan Serves on National Academies Committee

Nancy C. Jordan served on the Committee on Early Childhood Mathematics of the National Academies, which produced a National Research Council report entitled Mathematics Learning in Early Childhood: Paths toward Excellence and Equity. Released in the Summer of 2009, the report calls for a national initiative to improve mathematics education for preschoolers. For more on this initiative, follow these links to the press release and the full text of the report.

Megan Pell Coordinates Junior Partners in Policymaking Program

In the summer of 2009, education doctoral student Megan Pell coordinated the Junior Partners in Policymaking program for 20 young adults, with and without disabilities, ages 15-22, who were living on the University of Delaware campus with classes in the day and entertainment and social programming in the evenings, from art therapy to karaoke. The program's goal is to encourage the participants to become advocates for those with disabilities and for themselves. The program links those who want increased social and political support for individuals with disabilities with those who make public policy. UD students who minor in disabilities studies, including Andrea English, Megan Moritz, Denise Jenkins, Greg Neal and Julie Mastrella, assisted Pell with the program. The Disabilities Studies minor program is coordinated by Laura Eisenman, associate professor in the School of Education. For more on Junior Partners in Policymaking, follow this link to the UDaily story.

Kathleen Murphy Receives HR Liaison Award

Kathleen Murphy, senior administrative assistant in the School of Education, has been named the HR Liaison of the first quarter of 2009, an honor for exemplary members of UD's human resources team. "I am very honored to receive the award. You don't realize how what you do affects others until something like this happens," she said. Murphy has been at the University of Delaware for 25 years in different jobs and has served as HR liaison for approximately six years. For more on her award, follow this link to the UDaily story.

Bob Hampel Receives Outstanding Advising and Mentoring Award

At the Doctoral Hooding Ceremony held at UD on Friday, May 29, 2009, Assistant Provost Mary Martin presented the Outstanding Doctoral Graduate Student Advising and Mentoring Award to Dr. Robert L. Hampel, Professor in the School of Education. The award recognizes a faculty member who has made significant contributions to the quality of life and professional development of graduate students at UD, Martin said. Hampel has been an adviser to 42 doctoral students and received accolades from those who nominated him. For more on the hooding ceremony, follow this link to the UDaily Story.

Samanta Lopez Receives Genevieve Gore Young Woman's Leadership Award

In recognition of her work with students and the community at large, Doctor of Education student Samanta Lopez has been selected to receive the Genevieve Gore Young Woman's Leadership Award from the YWCA. Lopez is being honored for her demonstrated commitment to social justice, leadership in her community, and active pursuit of opportunities to empower women and eliminate racism. For more on Lopez's award, follow this link to the UDaily story.

Stanford University Memorializes Work of Richard L. Venezky

School of Education Professor Richard L. Venezky (1938-2004) was a leading expert in the history of literacy and reading. Stanford University has memorialzed his work by creating an online exhibit of American Primers and Readers Featuring the Words and Collection of Richard L. Venezky. This is but a small portion of the resources that the Venezky family gave to Stanford University's Special Collections. To visit the exhibit online, follow this link to venezky.stanford.edu.

Elizabeth Nash Farley-Ripple Receives Outstanding Dissertation Award

Elizabeth Nash Farley-Ripple, assistant professor of educational leadership, has been selected to receive the 2009 AERA District SIG Outstanding Dissertation Award. The award ceremony took place in San Diego on April 14, 2009, during the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). Entitled "Accountability, Evidence, and School District Decision-Making," Farley-Ripple's dissertation has also received the University of Pennsylvania's Phi Delta Kappan outstanding dissertation award.

Amanda Jansen Receives AERA's SIG-RME Early Career Publication Award

Amanda Jansen, assistant professor of mathematics education, has received the American Educational Research Association (AERA) 2009 Special Interest Group for Research in Mathematics Education (SIG-RME) Early Career Publication Award. This award recognizes outstanding mathematics education research published within five years of the author's earning the doctoral degree. Dr. Jansen received her doctorate in 2004, and she is receiving this award for an article titled "An investigation of relationships between seventh grade students' beliefs and their participation during mathematics discussions in two classrooms," which was published in 2008 in Mathematical Thinking and Learning (v. 10, pp. 68-100). The award ceremony took place in Washington, D.C., on April 20, 2009, during the research pre-session of the annual meeting of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM).

Kathleen Minke Named President-Elect of NASP

Kathleen Minke, professor and acting director of the School of Education, has been voted president-elect of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP). She will assume her duties as president of the organization July 1, 2010, after serving a year as president-elect. For more on Minke's election, follow this link to the CHEP story.

Nancy Jordan Receives NICHD Grant for Mathematics Intervention

Nancy C. Jordan, professor of education, has received a five-year, $1.1 million grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to address the development of number sense in children at risk for mathematics learning difficulties. For more about Jordan's latest grant, follow this link to the UDaily story.

Jordan has been fine-tuning a test that screens elementary school children for math disabilities known as dyscalculia. Jordan believes that early intervention is a key factor for instilling the solid number sense that's critical for higher math skills, and, ultimately, for future workforce competence. Follow this link for more on Jordan's discoveries.

Linda Gottfredson Wins APA Award for Outstanding Journal Article

Linda Gottfredson, professor of education and affiliated faculty in UD's undergraduate honors program, has received the 2008 George A. Miller Award for outstanding journal article in general psychology across specialty areas from the Society for General Psychology, a divison of the American Psychological Association. Gottfredson's article, "Intelligence: Is it the epidemiologists' elusive 'fundamental cause' of social class inequities in health?" was published in 2004 in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (v. 86, pp. 174-199). The article seeks to identify the root cause of a phenomenon observed in all modern societies: the generally poorer health of citizens of lower socioeconomic status regardless of time, place, disease or type of health system. For more about the article and Gottfredson's prestigious award, follow this link to the UDaily story.

Pamela Lottero-Perdue Teaches Science Outside the Classroom

UD alumna Pamela Lottero-Perdue teaches science outside the classroom as part of the elementary education/special education dual major program, a collaboration among Towson University, Harford Community College and the Higher Education and Applied Technology Center. Under Lottero-Perdue's supervision, Towson interns are teaching the outdoor program using five stations connected to the third-grade curriculum unit called "The Changing Earth," in which 125 elementary school children gathered at Harford Glen Environmental Education Center got a first-hand look at how the earth is formed. For more on the program and a description of the earth science stations, follow this link to the story in the Baltimore Sun.

ETE Graduate Dana Luff Pioneers Special Ed Inclusion Kindergarten

In a Delaware Online feature story, ETE graduate Dana Luff teams to teach at Townsend Early Chilchood Center the first kindergarten class that fully integrates special education students. For more on Luff's pioneering work at Townsend, follow this link to the Delaware Online story.

Leslie Cooksy Elected President of the American Evaluation Association

Leslie Cooksy, associate professor in the School of Education and the Delaware Education Research and Development Center in the University of Delaware's College of Education and Public Policy, has been elected incoming president of the American Evaluation Association (AEA). The AEA is an international professional association of more than 5,000 members who are involved in assessing the strengths and weaknesses of programs, policies, personnel, products and organizations to improve their effectiveness. For more on Cooksy's election as AEA President, follow this link to the UDaily story.

School of Education Fall 2009 Colloquium Series

The School of Education's Fall 2009 colloquium series takes place at 1 PM on Wednesday afternoons in Willard 207. To see the lineup of speakers, follow this link to the Fall 2009 Colloqium Schedule.

Recordings Available Online

For the benefit of those who cannot attend in person, the colloqium series is being audio recorded. Some of the recordings include video as well. To play the recordings, follow this link to the UD Capture site.

Colloquium Podcast

To be notified automatically when new recordings are available, you can subscribe to the School of Education Colloquium Podcast.

How to Get Here

The School of Education is located in the Willard Hall Education Building at 16 West Main Street in Newark, Delaware. Our GPS coordinates are 39.683444, -75.755239. Driving instructions are printed below.

From the North

Take I-95 South to Delaware Exit 1-B — Route 896 North, which becomes South College Avenue at the intersection of Route 4. Continue straight on South College Avenue for about two miles, past such landmarks as the Bob Carpenter/Sports Convocation Center, Delaware Stadium, and the Delaware Field House. Continue going straight through the intersection of South College Avenue and Park Place. Keep going until you come to a dead end on Main Street. Turn left on Main Street and park in the large parking garage that will be on your left. The School of Education is in Willard on Main Street right across from the parking garage.

From the West

Take the Pennsylvania Turnpike East to Route 283 South. Continue on Route 283 South, which becomes Route 30 East outside of Lancaster, to Route 896 South. As you reach campus and cross the railroad tracks, immediately turn left onto Delaware Avenue and left (at the second traffic light) onto South College Avenue, which will dead-end after one block into Main Street. Turn left on Main Street and park in the large parking garage that will be on your left. The School of Education is in Willard on Main Street right across from the parking garage.

From the South

Take I-95 North to Delaware Exit 1 — Route 896 North, which becomes South College Avenue at the intersection of Route 4. Continue straight on South College Avenue for about two miles, past such landmarks as the Bob Carpenter/Sports Convocation Center, Delaware Stadium, and the Delaware Field House. Continue going straight through the intersection of South College Avenue and Park Place. Keep going until you come to a dead end on Main Street. Turn left on Main Street and park in the large parking garage that will be on your left. The School of Education is in Willard on Main Street right across from the parking garage.

How to Apply

Follow the links below for instructions on how to apply to our undergraduate, master's, or doctoral programs in the School of Education at the University of Delaware.