Christ and Codding elected to the Society for the Study of School Psychology

August 31, 2015

Professor Theodore J. Christ and Associate Professor Robin Codding, in the Department of Educational Psychology’s school psychology program, were recently inducted into the Society for the Study of School Psychology (SSSP). According to the SSSP website, nominees are evaluated on several criteria, including: sustained contributions to the field of school psychology, awards and honors, originality of contributions, impact on training, impact on practice, impact on science, and depth and breadth of contributions. This is a significant honor as SSSP restricts membership to no more than 150 persons, and typically, admits only three to five new members each year.

Dr. Sandra Christensen, professor in the Department of Educational Psychology’s school psychology program, has been a member of the SSSP for 20 years, serving as SSSP president and secretary during that time.

“Ted and Robin’s election to membership in the SSSP continues a long tradition of University of Minnesota School Psychology Program faculty being members. Membership in SSSP represents commitment to advancing basic and applied scientific research in all aspects of school psychological services and dissemination of important research results to the general public, scientists, academicians, and practitioners to improve academic, social, behavioral, and emotional learning outcomes for students. Congratulations to my colleagues, Robin and Ted. Their induction in SSSP is illustrative of their outstanding research programs,” Dr. Christensen said.

Dr. Christ came to the Department of Educational Psychology in 2005 from the University of Southern Mississippi. His primary areas of research include: assessment and evaluation systems, tools and techniques that inform practice in schools – especially related to problem solving and multi-tiered systems of support (ie; response to intervention) – and innovation as it applies to cloud-based assessments and corresponding interventions. Dr. Christ is co-director of the Research Institute for Problem Solving and director of the Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement (CAREI) and the Formative Assessment System for Teachers Lab (FAST Lab).

Dr. Codding joined the Department of Educational Psychology this July from the University of Massachusetts-Boston. Her research interests include: the prevention and intervention of academic problems, data-based instructional decision making, the evaluation of the circumstances surrounding responsiveness to various levels of academic support, and the implementation of evidence-based practices in schools. Dr. Codding is currently an Associate Editor of the School Psychology Review and has previously served in the role of Associate Editor for the Journal of Behavioral Education and the Journal of School Psychology.

Chicago Tribune quotes Kane in two articles on women’s sports

August 31, 2015

Dr. Mary Jo Kane, director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport and professor in the School of Kinesiology, offers commentary in two Chicago Tribune articles on women’s sports: on salary disparities in “In women’s pro soccer league, a few haves and many have-nots,” and on the progression of social change in “2015 a big year for women in sports, but will it carry over?“

Kane quoted in Chicago Tribune on disparities in pro soccer

August 31, 2015

Dr. Mary Jo Kane, director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport and professor in the School of Kinesiology, comments on salary disparities in a Chicago Tribune article, “In women’s pro soccer league, a few haves and many have-nots.”

Lisa Quinn-Lee (Ph.D. ‘09)

August 26, 2015

Lisa Quinn-Lee (Ph.D. ‘09) was promoted to the rank of associate professor in the department of social work at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

Kinesiology researchers measure body awareness in children at the State Fair

August 25, 2015

The School of Kinesiology’s Human Sensorimotor Control Lab (HSCL) is heading to the Minnesota State Fair this year! Teaming up with the Driven to Discover project group, HSCL members will show how the HSCL Fair ability to sense the position of one’s body and limbs develops during childhood. Specifically, researchers will measure forearm position sense using a device in which the child will try to match the specific arm position of one arm with the other arm.

HSCL has developed a test that will tell the participants in less than 10 minutes how accurately they “know” their arms in space. The children will get to experience being involved in a research project and earn a brain-shaped eraser on a pencil as a reward.

HSCL will be at the State Fair August 27 and 29 and September 2, 4, and 7 in the U of M’s Driven to Discover building at 1367 Cosgrove Avenue. The site will host various research activities each day during the Fair. Check out the research projects at https://guidebook.com/guide/41977/ or download the U Minnesota app from the App Store on your smart phone or tablet and search for the guidebook, UMN@TheFair.

Rebroadcasts of Tucker Center’s “Concussions and Female Athletes” video

August 25, 2015

The Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport is proud to announce several rebroadcasts this September of its groundbreaking video, “Concussions and Female Athletes.”

tptMN Statewide Digital MN Channel
Sun 13 September @ 6:00 pm
Sun 20 September @ 12:00 am
Sun 20 September @ 6:00 am
Sun 20 September @ 12:00 pm

Through the personal stories and experiences of coaches, athletes and their families, as well as in-depth interviews with nationally recognized scholars and medical experts, this documentary examines the causes underlying concussion and offers practical solutions to help prevent and treat sports-related concussion injuries in female athletes.

To view the entire program online now, click here. For more information on upcoming broadcasts, click here.

BBC quotes Stoffregen in a story about an effective cure for motion sickness

August 25, 2015

The feature story, “The search for an effective cure for motion sickness,” from the BBC’s Future column looks into various theories on this subject, quoting School of Kinesiology professor, Thomas Stoffregen, Ph.D.

Stoffregen, who directs Affordance Perception- Action Laboratory, researches ”postural instability” theory, which states that people experience nausea in situations where they have not yet learned to maintain a stable posture. This theory contrasts with previous lines of research indicating that motion sickness occurs due to mixed messages between various human systems, i.e., the inner vestibular system (inner ears), the visual system, and the proprioceptive system(body awareness / sixth sense).

As for a cure? Stoffregen suggests that to control motion sickness you have to “learn new ways to control the body to cope with the fact that the ‘ground’ is moving underneath you.”

John Nee (B.S. ‘60)

August 21, 2015

John Nee (B.S. ‘60) retired from Lemoore High School in Lemoore, CA in 1998.

Kinesiology student featured on GopherSports.com

August 20, 2015

Justin Karstadt, an undergraduate student in the School of Kinesiology , was recently featured on Gophersports.com. Karstadt discusses why he chose gymnastics, why he chose the University of Minnesota and different aspects of being a part of the team.

“When I was weighing up my options for schools to attend, Minnesota caught my eye because of how much potential there was in gymnastics and how strong the team was academically. The team is young with a lot of freshmen/ sophomores, so I feel that there’s huge potential in the team.”

Konczak, HSCL student present at rehabilitation robotics meeting in Singapore

August 19, 2015

Juergen Konczak, Ph.D., director of the Human Sensorimotor Control Lab (HSCL), and an HSCL doctoral student, Anna Vera Cuppone, presented at the 2015 International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR) in Singapore.

Konczak, a member of ICORR’s Scientific Committee, was invited to speak on the use of robots to aid diagnosis and as therapeutic tools for improving body awareness and motor control in neurological patients. Konczak also chaired the session on Neuroscience and Brain Machine Interfaces.

Cuppone gave two poster presentations at ICORR on the collaborative work between HSCL and the Italian Institute of Technology on how wrist joint proprioception can be trained in humans. The work has implications for treating patients with proprioceptive deficits due to nervous system disease such as stroke or peripheral neuropathy.

$2.5 million grant supports assessment system for teachers of students with learning disabilities

August 19, 2015

On June 18, the U.S. Department of Education awarded a $2.5 million grant to the Department of Educational Psychology to help improve outcomes for students with learning disabilities in reading and mathematics.

Part of the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), the five-year educational technology grant will fund the distribution, refinement, and evaluation of the Formative Assessment System for Teachers (FAST). FAST integrates online training, administration, and reporting of assessments in reading and mathematics. The system, developed with funding from OSEP and the Institute for Education Sciences (IES), helps teachers make data-based decisions, using a teacher-scientist model.

“This project will establish FAST software with the necessary training and support to shape teacher knowledge, skills, and appreciation for the use of data to inform instruction,” said Theodore J. Christ, project director, founder of FAST, and professor in the Special Education program in the Department of Educational Psychology.

Prepare2Nspire2 awarded two-year College Ready grant to boost high school math instruction

August 18, 2015

The University of Minnesota was one of nine colleges and community-based organizations that received a 2015-17 College Ready grant from Great Lakes Higher Education Guaranty Corporation. Nearly $528,000 will fund two full years of rigorous mathematics tutoring/mentoring for a cohort of 100 Minneapolis area high school students who are entering their junior year.

“The lack of academic preparation among college freshmen is a persistent problem we are determined to address,” said Richard D. George, Great Lakes president and chief executive officer. “The goal of our new College Ready grant is to learn whether and how an additional year of support and instruction can move even more students closer to college readiness—before they arrive on campus.”

Prepare2Nspire2 is an innovative, cascading, multi-grade mathematics tutoring and mentoring opportunity that includes advanced algebra, pre-calculus, and calculus. As University undergraduate students are tutoring and mentoring eleventh-grade algebra 2 students in the program, the eleventh-grade cohort is tutoring and mentoring eighth-grade algebra students.

Dr. Lesa Covington Clarkson, associate professor of mathematics education in the University’s College of Education and Human Development, has a history of working with diverse populations at urban schools in the Twin Cities.

“Too often, underrepresented students aren’t served in our urban classrooms,” she said, “This program will provide additional time and tools to support students in their mathematics learning.”

Every student profits from this model, according to Clarkson. Undergraduate and eleventh-grade tutors are developing mathematics communication and reasoning skills as they explain content in which they are recently engaged, and at the same time they are developing roots in mathematics that are fundamental to their current study. High school and middle school participants are receiving individualized tutoring and mentoring services designed to meet their unique challenges in the mathematics content studied. Simultaneously, grade-level skills will be continually addressed through mini lessons at weekly meetings.

Great Lakes’ two-year College Ready grants, totaling $4.2 million, were awarded to nine colleges and community-based organizations in Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin through 2017. Their established programs will expand to help more than 800 high school students reach college readiness benchmarks on the ACT or ACCUPLACER tests.

Four Ed Psych faculty members recognized with endowed professorships

August 18, 2015

Recently, four faculty members in the Department of Educational Psychology were recognized for their professional achievements and the impact of their work on the department, College of Education and Human Development, and the field of educational psychology.

Each professor will receive his or her award over a period of three years. Please join us in congratulating these faculty members for their excellent contributions!

Theodore J. Christ, professor in the school psychology program, and Mark L. Davison, program coordinator and professor in the quantitative methods in education program, were both awarded the Yackel Professorship in Educational Assessment and Measurement.

Jennifer McComas, program coordinator for the Emotional Behavioral Disorders licensure/M.Ed. and professor in the special education program, received the Rodney S. Wallace Professor for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning.

Frank Symons, associate dean for research and policy and professor in the special education program, was awarded the Birkmaier Educational Leadership Professorship.

Vavrus facilitates professional development workshops in Tanzania

August 17, 2015

Frances Vavrus (professor), and Kristeen Chachage (Ph.D. student) from the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development (OLPD), and Matthew Thomas (2013 OLPD alum and assistant professor at the University of Sydney), spent several weeks in Tanzania in July facilitating two professional development workshops for faculty on the integration of learner-centered teaching methods in science, math, and language classes. This is part of Vavrus and Thomas’ ongoing work with Mwenge Catholic University to conduct Teaching in Action, an award-winning teacher education program that is now being incorporated into the national in-service curriculum for secondary school teachers. In addition, Vavrus gave a talk about her research on teacher education in Tanzania at Twaweza, an organization that conducts the largest citizen-led assessments of children’s learning in Africa.

Diane Dettmann (B.S. ‘69)

August 17, 2015

Diane Dettmann (B.S. ‘69) published her first work of historical fiction, Courageous Footsteps: A WWII Novel. The story centers around two Japanese American teenagers, imprisoned in an internment camp. Surrounded by barbwire fences and armed guards they struggle to overcome the daily hardships. The confinement and harsh conditions force them to make choices that will change their lives forever. More information is available at http://www.outskirtspress.com/footsteps.

Siobhan Smith (B.S. ‘15)

August 17, 2015

Siobhan Smith (B.S. ‘15) is a supported employment instructor with CHOICE, Inc., a day program for adults with disabilities. CHOICE, Inc. works to support inclusion and community engagement as well as employment and enrichment programs.

The Mash features commentary by Kinesiology/Tucker Center’s LaVoi

August 17, 2015

The Mash, a teen-focused publication and website, has published an article including commentary from School of Kinesiology facultymember and Tucker Center associate director Dr. Nicole M. LaVoi. In the article, “How Women in Sport are Changing the Game,” LaVoi talks about the increase in participation and the need for media coverage of women’s sports.

Carlson joins community partners that provide high-quality early childcare resources to all families

August 14, 2015

Ann Ruhl Carlson, Coordinator of Early Childhood Education Programs at the Institute of Child Development, has recently joined two community groups that focus on making high-quality childcare and early childhood education available to all families.

Carlson has joined the Caring for Kids Initiative Advisory Council, a public/private collaborative scholarship for low-income families that ensures access to quality early education opportunities for children prior to entry in kindergarten. The Caring for Kids Initiative includes parent education and family supports which focus on family stability and serves west suburban Hennepin County areas.

Carlson is also serving on the Strategic Planning Committee for the Bloom Early Learning Center & Child Care in Plymouth. Bloom is a non-profit early learning center with a “special mission to make the highest quality childcare, programs and curriculum (and fun!) accessible to the entire community.” Bloom and the Caring for Kids Initiative describe their overall goal similarly as working to ensure that all children enter school in kindergarten ready to succeed.

MCRR hosts annual literacy workshop

August 14, 2015

The Minnesota Center for Reading Research hosted its annual summer literacy workshop Wednesday, August 12 at the University of Minnesota Continuing Education & Conference Center. Bold Solutions: Research to Support Transformational Literacy Practices featured keynote speakers Vichet Chhuon, Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, and Ahmed Amin, Social Studies teacher at Minneapolis Roosevelt High School. Afternoon breakout sessions were led by CEHD faculty and staff.

Beth Janetski (Ph.D. ‘07)

August 14, 2015

Beth Janetski (Ph.D. ‘07) is the policy and planning analyst for the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

CEHD News Month: August 2015

CEHD News Month: August 2015