Jitendra keynotes Specific Learning Disabilities conference in India

December 6, 2016

Asha Jitendra

Asha Jitendra, Rodney Wallace Professor for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning in in the Department of Educational Psychology’s special education program, delivered a keynote speech at this year’s Specific Learning Disabilities Conference on December 2 at the Maliya Aditi International School in Bangalore, India.

Jitendra’s keynote, “Effective practices that accommodate diverse learners: Research to practice,” presented effective instructional strategies for enhancing the academic performance.

Prior to the conference, Jitendra led a workshop on “Helping teachers teach elementary students word problem solving using schema-based instruction.” The goal of the workshop was to equip elementary school teachers with effective instructional strategies for teaching mathematics to children with learning problems.

In addition to delivering the keynote and leading the pre-conference workshop, Jitendra also hosted two breakout sessions at the event. The first was “Big Ideas in Mathematics” and focused on developing big ideas in fractions and proportional reasoning to promote mathematical understanding. The second was called “Improving mathematical problem solving using strategy instruction.” In this session, Jitendra demonstrated how visual representations can help students focus on the relationship between quantities central to many mathematical problems.

This first-ever Specific Learning Disabilities Conference was a national event organized to address the need for greater awareness and understanding of Specific Learning Disabilities in India. The purpose of the conference was to: increase awareness of the nature of specific Learning Disabilities among middle and high school students; share subject specific classroom and home based strategies; discuss existing accommodations and accommodation pathways; examine existing policies and laws; and empower stakeholders to advocate for the rights of students with specific learning disabilities.

Learn more about Asha Jitendra’s research.

Andrew Zieffler: Making connections

December 6, 2016

Walking into Andrew Zieffler’s office, I can’t help but wonder about the signed Dawson’s Creek posters on his wall, “What’s the story behind those?” I ask. “Back when I was teaching high school math, talking about Dawson’s Creek was a way to connect with my students.” Zieffler explains. “And over time, I became a fan of the show.”

Zieffler didn’t always see teaching as his calling. “My dad was a high school math teacher,” he says. “It was the one thing I didn’t want to do.”

Starting out as an undergraduate, Zieffler planned to become an engineer but ended up changing his major seven times. “I was history major for awhile, a German major for awhile. I was going get a degree in math but got talked into also majoring in education,” he recalls.

After graduation, Zieffler taught AP statistics and various math courses in a high school for four years. “I enjoyed teaching high school a lot,” he says. “The teaching, coaching, and getting to know kids was great.”

Four years into teaching, Zieffler began looking for a new challenge. Initially, he wanted to study math history at Brown—that is until he met professor of educational psychology, Joan Garfield. On a whim, Zieffler drove down from St. Cloud to visit the College of Liberal Art’s Math Department. When he mentioned his interest in statistics education, they referred him to Garfield.

Garfield was the mastermind behind the statistics education track in the quantitative methods in education program, and her passion inspired Zieffler to choose another path. “Joan and I talked for what must have been three hours, and my back-up school suddenly became my first choice,” he says.

Zieffler graduated with his Ph.D. in educational psychology. Now a senior lecturer in the Department of Educational Psychology’s Quantitative Methods in Education program, he teaches graduate level courses in statistics. Zieffler also oversees a group of graduate students who teach an undergraduate Basic and Applied Statistics course. “I work with graduate students to teach and write curriculum based on what we know about how people learn statistics,” he says.

In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Zieffler conducts research and outreach in over a dozen area schools where he leads the College in the Schools (CIS) program for statistics. CIS is a nationally accredited program that brings U of M faculty together with high school teachers to offer University courses in high schools.

“Most mathematics teachers have only had one or two college courses in statistics, and they’ve never had classes in pedagogy,” Zieffler says. As part of the program, he and his students study teachers’ understanding of different concepts in statistics and how it affects student learning. From there, they make recommendations for teacher professional development.

Just as Dawson’s Creek grew on him, so did teaching. “The most exciting part about of what I do is working with students,” he says. “It’s fun to see them grow and make connections between different concepts to solve problems.”

Ed Psych faculty, students call on lawmakers to approve special education funding

December 5, 2016

On December 2, Jennifer McComas, associate chair and professor in the Department of Educational Psychology’s special education program, led a calling party of roughly 20 faculty and students in the special education and school psychology programs. The group contacted federal lawmakers to encourage them to approve a Continuing Resolution for funding that includes funding at last year’s level for Personnel Preparation under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

“The House and Senate are expected to vote on a Continuing Resolution by December 9, before they recess for the remainder of the year. Federal funding for Personnel Preparation under IDEA is essential for institutions of higher education to support students in teacher preparation and leadership training programs. In just the past 5 years, more than a dozen Ph.D. students and countless licensure students in the Educational Psychology program have received federal grants and scholarships to support their education. A funding reduction would almost certainly mean a decrease in available fiscal support for students in our Special Education and School Psychology programs. And disabilities affect us regardless of political ideology or party affiliation, so it is one issue that is easy to talk about with lawmakers from both sides of the aisle.”

Project LEEP trains school psychology students for faculty careers

December 5, 2016

Robin Codding

The U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs recently awarded associate professors Robin Codding and Amanda Sullivan with a $1,192,606 leadership development grant (over five years from 2016-2021). The project, Leaders Enhancing Evidence-based Practices (Project LEEP), funds fellowships designed to prepare future faculty in school psychology with expertise in applying and sustaining evidence-based practices to schools. Five students in the Department of Educational Psychology’s school psychology program were awarded LEEP fellowships: Jordan Thayer, Alaa Houri, Aria Fiat, Kourtney McNallan, and Madeline Larson.

Project LEEP fellows are trained in: data-based decision making; development and evaluation of evidence-based practices; prevention and intervention using evidence-based practices, and consultation and translation of interventions; as well as leadership competencies in instruction and mentoring in higher education, and research and dissemination. Students receiving the award must complete a variety of experiences—coursework in research methods and statistics, research related to multi tier systems of support (MTSS), and apprenticeships with faculty with related research interests.

In addition, fellows attend monthly pro-seminars that provide professional development opportunities for pursuing a career as a faculty member. Past pro-seminar topics have included: finding your “fit” in a faculty position based on professional values and goals; types of faculty positions available in the field of school psychology; and what is tenure and how to successfully achieve it. Future Project LEEP pro-seminars will help fellows identify their professional goals and structure training plans to meet the benchmarks needed to obtain a faculty position upon graduation.

Learn more about the school psychology program.

Varma promotes positive math mindsets, parent involvement for minority and immigrant families

December 5, 2016

Keisha Varma, associate professor in the Department of Educational Psychology’s psychological foundations of education program, is working with Anne Sullivan Middle School, as part of the project GopherMath to design programs to increase parent involvement for minority and immigrant families. Her work is a collaboration with faculty from the Department of Educational Psychology, Institute of Child Development, and Department of Curriculum and Instruction and is funded by the University of Minnesota’s Office of the President and Generation Next.

Currently, Varma is designing programming promoting positive mathematical mindsets, including dealing with math anxiety and supporting math learning in 3rd – 6th grade students. Parents attend monthly meetings that include presentations and small group discussions. Next semester, her work is expanding to include text messaging to support interactions between parents and teachers and encourage curriculum-informed math activities at home.

Emerging educator awarded Pomegranate Prize, thanks Vukovic for support

December 1, 2016

Rose Vukovic

What teacher most impacted you? For recent Pomegranate Prize recipient Rachel Harari, it was Rose Vukovic. When Harari was an undergraduate English honors student at New York University, she approached Vukovic, an assistant professor at NYU at the time, hoping to learn about students with learning disabilities. Vukovic challenged Harari to stretch herself beyond simply learning about the topic and, instead, to find a way to contribute to it. As a result, the two worked together to publish a study on mathematics anxiety in young children. Vukovic says it’s this kind of collaboration that brought her to Minnesota to be the director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Educational Psychology.

Upon receiving their awards, Pomegranate Prize winners were encouraged to create a 20-second video thanking their most influential teacher. Harari, now the department chair and an English teacher at Magen David Yeshivah High School in Brooklyn, NY, thanked Vukovic in a video saying, “I wanted to thank Rose Vukovic, my professor at NYU, for showing me that it’s not enough to just have an idea. That you have to actually make it happen. Thanks for everything you’ve done for me, Rose.” Watch her video.

The Pomegranate Prize honors rising leaders who have been in the field of Jewish education for up to ten years. The award is given by the Covenant Foundation which honors outstanding Jewish educators and supports creative approaches to programming. The Foundation works to strengthen educational endeavors that perpetuate the identity, continuity and heritage of the Jewish people.

McConnell, LENA Start recognized by Mayor Hodges

November 30, 2016

Scott McConnell

The University of Minnesota and College of Education and Human Development, with leadership from Scott McConnell, professor in the Department of Educational Psychology’s special education program, were recognized recently by Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges and Kara Dukakis from Too Small to Fail for contributions to the launch and evaluation of LENA Start, a promising intervention to promote parent-child interaction and early language development—and, as a result, reduce disparities—for families of young children. Part of this work will help support Mayor Hodges’s Talking is Teaching campaign.

Closing Minnesota’s opportunity gap

November 23, 2016

Golos, Penny quoted in MN Daily article on visual literacy for Deaf students

November 21, 2016

Jonathan Penny

Debbie Golos, professor of Deaf Education in the Department of Educational Psychology’s special education program and coordinator for the Deaf/Hard of Hearing (DHH) teaching licensure and M.Ed. program and Jonathan Penny, coordinator for the American Sign Language (ASL) program were recently quoted in the Minnesota Daily article, “In blended families, Deaf literacy is vital for communication.”

The article discusses the value of early access to visual language for d/Deaf children—specifically those with hearing parents. After noticing a gap between the literacy skills of sixth grade deaf children who had been exposed to ASL from birth and those who had not, Golos developed a video series called Peter’s Picture to promote language and literacy development in DHH children. Increasing evidence shows that learning ASL can benefit all children—deaf, hard of hearing, hearing, and deaf children who use spoken language. ASL helps increase children’s spoken language skills because it provides a foundation for language. Penny, whose first language is ASL, says videos, like the Peter’s Picture series, are an extremely effective way to teach ASL. “Whether the parents are skilled or not skilled (in ASL), it’s important to give children a way to learn ASL because ASL is their natural language, period,” he told the Minnesota Daily. In the article, Golos discussed plans for future research—creating additional videos in the series and supplemental materials for teachers and deaf children but also adding voice over options for those who are not fluent in ASL. Finally, she’d like to conduct additional studies to see how these types of educational media can be used both in the classroom and at home.

Read the full article.

Michael Rodriguez: What you need to know about the GRE

November 14, 2016

Michael Rodriguez head shot — Michael Rodriguez

Many prospective students feel a twinge of anxiety when they think of taking the Graduate Record Examination, otherwise known as the GRE. That’s why the College or Education and Human Development asked QME professor Michael Rodriguez to provide some insight for people preparing to take the GRE and to answer the frequently asked questions about the test. Read more.

Codding publishes book on Effective Math Interventions

November 10, 2016

Robin Codding

Building foundational whole-number knowledge can help put K-5 students on the path to academic success and career readiness. For this reason, Robin S. Codding, associate professor in the Department of Educational Psychology school psychology program, and her colleagues, Robert J. Volpe and Brian C. Poncy, recently published a book, Effective Math Interventions. Filling a gap for school practitioners, the book presents step-by-step guidelines for designing and implementing class-wide, small-group, and individual interventions for mathematics difficulties. Effective procedures for screening, assessment, intervention selection, and progress monitoring are described and illustrated with detailed case vignettes. User-friendly features include 20 reproducible handouts and forms; the print book has a large-size format with lay-flat binding for easy photocopying. Purchasers also get access to a Web page where they can download and print the reproducible materials.

The book (which comes out February 2017) is available for pre-order now.

Dr. Codding’s research interests focus on the intersection of intervention and implementation by developing and exploring the effectiveness of school-based interventions, the factors that contribute to student responsiveness of those interventions, and strategies to support intervention implementation. Her work has emphasized academic interventions and associated assessment for data-based decision making, particularly in the area of mathematics. 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.

Autism expertise leads to earlier diagnosis

November 10, 2016

Jason Wolff, assistant professor in the Department of Educational Psychology’s special education program, and colleagues like Jed Elison, assistant professor in the Institute for Child Development, are trying to better understand the causes of autism spectrum disorder — to diagnose it at earlier stages when treatment is more effective and to anticipate needs for therapy and support in the larger community. Read more.

CSPP students, faculty present at APA National Conference

November 9, 2016

apa_cspp — Left to right: Thomas Skovholt, Caroline Burke, Drew Benson, Opal Cook, Sarah Cronin, Meredith Martyr, and Thomas Allen

Counseling and student personnel psychology (CSPP) students, Sarah Cronin, Thomas Allen, Opal Cook, Drew Benson, and Meredith Martyr, presented alongside professor Thomas Skovholt, and instructor Caroline Burke at the American Psychological Association (APA) National Conference in August.

The conference focused on therapists’ self-care, and the presenters shared their research on what therapists do every day to manage their personal and professional boundaries. Topics included: therapist self-care development and the intentional decisions therapists make to avoid clients.

CSPP student, alumna present at MEA

November 9, 2016

20161021_112937-1 — Pictured left: Sarah Cronin, Right: Emily Colton

Sarah Cronin, counseling and student personnel psychology doctoral student presented with counseling and student personnel psychology alumnus, Emily Colton, at the Minnesota Education Association (MEA) Conference this October. In their presentation titled, “My students need more than I can give: Supporting student socio-emotional health,” Cronin and Colton shared practical ideas for Minnesota teachers to use in their classrooms. They also provided information on how teachers can advocate for school counseling in Minnesota by describing how school counselors can benefit the school community.

Debbie Golos: Improving Deaf Education Through Visual Learning

October 31, 2016

When I taught reading and writing to sixth grade students at the California School for the Deaf in Fremont, CA, I began to notice a pattern that supported research I had previously read. My students who had parents who were deaf or hearing parents who signed fluently in American Sign Language (ASL) typically read on or above grade level, while those whose families had not signed with them from birth typically lagged behind. This observation made me want to investigate how we might better improve literacy development in young deaf children. Both my research and classroom experience supports an increasing body of research that indicates we can improve outcomes in deaf education through a visual-learning based approach.

Amanda Sullivan: Getting to the Bottom of Special Education Disparities

October 31, 2016

Continued efforts to improve educational equity in our school systems has led to taking a careful and measured look at special education disparities. When I did fieldwork at a school in Phoenix – a place with fairly substantial achievement gaps and stereotypical educational disparities – I noticed that the special education classroom had a higher proportion of minority students. I began to wonder why this was the case, and attempting to answer that question has spurred me to research this issue further here at the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD).

Jitendra, colleagues publish article in Council for Exceptional Children’s Special Education Today

October 31, 2016

Asha Jitendra

Asha Jitendra, professor in the Department of Educational Psychology’s special education program, and four of her Ph.D. students, Gena Nelson, Alison Kiss, Sandra Pulles, and James Houseworth, recently were published in the Council for Exceptional Children’s Special Education Today publication. Their article, “Is mathematical representation of problems an evidence-based strategy for students with mathematics difficulties?” evaluates the quality of the research and evidence base for representation of problems (characters, images, or objects that symbolize an abstract idea) as a strategy to enhance the mathematical performance of students with learning disabilities and those at risk for math disabilities. Read the full article.

Codding to present at OSPA on multi-tiered systems of support for mathematics

October 27, 2016

Robin Codding

Robin Codding, associate professor in the school psychology program in the Department of Educational Psychology, is presenting on “Establishing a Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) for Mathematics” at the Ohio School Psychologists Association (OSPA) conference on November 11 in Columbus, Ohio.

U.S. students continue to underperform in mathematics compared to their international peers, and overall U.S. mathematics proficiency levels are low. Policy makers and researchers have focused increasing attention to addressing the gaps in mathematics learning in recent years and the MTSS framework holds promise for improving mathematics outcomes.

Codding’s presentation will provide attendees with the latest research-based support for the use of curricula, assessment, and interventions within a multi-tiered system of service delivery across primary (including early numeracy) and intermediate grades. Specific session objectives will include: providing an overview of mathematics difficulties as observed across grade levels, discussing appropriate assessment techniques for each tier, and describing treatment strategies.

Rodriguez featured in University’s Driven to Discover campaign

October 12, 2016

Opportunity gaps among children in our society are growing, and part of the problem is how we assess and educate them. Michael Rodriguez, Campbell Leadership Chair in Education and Human Development, co-director of the Educational Equity Resource Center, and professor in the Department of Educational Psychology’s quantitative methods in education program, is being featured in this year’s Driven to Discover campaign for his work to close these gaps by helping schools understand how to work with diverse students, families, and communities. View the campaign.

CEHD News Sarah Jergenson

CEHD News Sarah Jergenson