Joseph Rios, assistant professor in the Department of Educational Psychology’s quantitative methods in education program, is partnering with Jennifer Randall–an associate professor in Research, Educational Measurement, & Psychometrics (REMP) at University of Massachusetts Amherst’s College of Education–on a study that evaluates the recruitment and retention of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) students in measurement doctoral programs. The researchers are surveying and interviewing doctoral measurement programs about their current recruitment and retention strategies and plans for the future. They are also asking PhD students enrolled in these programs how they were recruited and what recommendations they have for measurement programs looking to improve their recruitment and retention strategies.
This Chan Zuckerberg Initiative grant was awarded to help diversify the field of measurement and is the second study the duo has worked on together. In their first project, Rios and Randall analyzed data on measurement students over the last two decades. They found, in any given year, a maximum of 10 Hispanic and 20 Black students graduate from measurement doctoral programs, while Asian and White students graduate a minimum of 44 and 73 students per year, respectively.
We acknowledge the pain of the Asian, Asian-American, and Pacific Islander members of our department and University community and express our support as a Diversity Committee and department.
The hate, racism, and xenophobia that Asian, Asian-American, and Pacific Islander communities have experienced throughout the COVID-19 global pandemic is unacceptable. The recent resurgence of violent attacks occurring in the San Francisco Bay area, New York, and across the country as well as recent research on the Racialization of Asian Americans during the Global Pandemic* have made it abundantly clear that, as a society, University, college, and department, we have a lot of work to do. Although this late recognition of the suffering of Asian, Asian-American, and Pacific Islander communities is not enough, we hope it is a first step toward action in the future.
As a department, our goal is to be a welcoming and affirming place where all students (and department members)—Asian, Asian-American, and Pacific Islander students, Black students, Indigenous students, students of color, LGBTQI*A+ students, international students, students with disabilities, students with intersecting identities, and other students representing diverse groups—feel supported to attain and exceed their expectations.
Admittedly, until today, the list of students included in this statement on our website’s Diversity and Inclusion page placed “Asian, Asian-American, and Pacific Islander” students in the “other students representing diverse groups” category. We are part of the problem. Continued silence about the suffering of our Asian, Asian-American, and Pacific Islander students fails to provide members of our own community the “adequate support to attain and exceed their expectations.” We will do better.
If you’re a student or faculty or staff member, and you’re struggling during this time, please reach out (confidentially) to any member of the Diversity Committee (listed at the bottom of this note) to share your experiences and let us know how we can help make the department a more welcoming and affirming place for you.
We also recognize that it’s not Asian, Asian-American, or Pacific Islander department members’ role to do the work. If you are experiencing discrimination or bias as a University community member (or you witness discrimination or bias), you may contact the University’s Bias Response and Referral Network as well as access a number of mental health resources available to you.
The Department of Educational Psychology Diversity Committee
Sherri Turner, Jessie Kember, Jeffrey Bye, Tai Do, Seungwon Chung, Annie Hansen-Burke, Brenna Rudolph, and Sarah Jergenson
*Li, Y. and Nicholson, H.L., Jr. (2021), When “model minorities” become “yellow peril”—Othering and the racialization of Asian Americans in the COVID‐19 pandemic. Sociology Compass, 15: e12849. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12849
Interested in taking the GRE for graduate school admission? Come take a practice GRE test! You will get feedback on areas for improvement and $12 for 60 minutes of your time.
We are currently recruiting people to participate in a new study investigating how well students perform on practice GRE quantitative reasoning skills. If you agree to participate, you will complete a number of short surveys and answer several math questions. This study requires about 60 uninterrupted minutes to complete. You will complete this on your own computer, so be sure that you are in a location where you are comfortable, free from distractions, and can stay for the duration of the study.
You will receive $12 for your participation.
To participate, you must meet the following requirements:
You must be an undergraduate student at a university in North America.
You must be 18 years old or older.
If you do not meet these requirements, then you cannot participate.
Counselor education/counseling and student personnel psychology student award winners (not pictured: Lois Cassell)
Lyuchen Ben, Lois Cassell, and Korrina Griffith were recognized with the Sunny Hansen BORN FREE award which is given to graduate students working in the field of career development through the counselor education/counseling and student personnel psychology program. Although Korrina Griffith earned well-deserved recognition via the Hansen scholarship, she was unable to accept the monetary award due to additional scholarship funding she received this semester.
Lillian LaPierre, Susan Phetsamone, and Ahna (Ahnalese) Rushmann each received $1,000 Kay Herting Wahl Memorial Fellowships which are given to graduate students studying counselor education/counseling and student personnel psychology who are planning to become licensed K-12 school counselors.
This year’s awards hold special significance as we remember Professors Emeriti Kay Herting Wahl and Sunny Hansen who we lost in 2020 and 2021 respectively. Their impact on the field lives on through the work of these students.
Rebecca Edmunds, recent PhD alumni of the Department of Educational Psychology’s school psychology program, has been honored by the Behavioral School Psychology Interest Group (BSPIG) of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) with the Ron Edwards Recognition for Outstanding Dissertation. Dr. Edmunds successfully defended her dissertation, “The Differential Effects of Elaborated Task and Process Feedback on Multi-digit Multiplication,” on April 2, 2020. She will receive her award at the 2021 NASP Convention which is being held virtually, February 23-26.
BSPIG presents this annual dissertation recognition in honor of Ron Edwards whose professional and research contributions in behavioral psychology spanned more than three decades. The award is presented to a school psychology student who has completed an outstanding dissertation on a topic that is behavioral in orientation, which merits special recognition, and has the potential to contribute to the science and practice of behavioral school psychology.
Robin Codding, PhD, associate professor of school psychology at Northeastern University and Dr. Edmund’s thesis advisor, described her dissertation as a “sophisticated analysis and methodology that illustrated importance of key learning principles.” According to Dr. Codding, the findings of Dr. Edmunds dissertation are significant because they show “deliberate opportunities to practice are important and that students with higher fluency and accuracy [in multi-digit multiplication] are able to make better use of such opportunities as well as apply more efficient problem-solving strategies.”
Congratulations to Dr. Edmunds on this well-deserved honor!
The first article—which published in September, “Leveraging MTSS to advance, not suppress COVID-related equity issues,” provided guidance on how schools can center equity in their student support structures in the wake of COVID-19 and social unrest. The November article, “Leveraging MTSS to Advance, Not Suppress, COVID-Related Equity Issues: Tiers 2 and 3 Considerations,” expands on the first by focusing on Tiers 2 and 3 of the Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) model. Communiqué is the official newspaper of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) and is one of the most widely disseminated resources to school psychologists.
Thank you to our school psychology faculty and students for their continued leadership on equity issues!
Catherine Bohn-Gettler—’07 PhD alumni of the Department of Educational Psychology’s psychological foundations of education program—has been appointed the new co-editor of Discourse Processes. According to its website, the bimonthly, multidisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal aims to “provide a forum for cross-fertilization of ideas from diverse disciplines sharing a common interest in discourse—prose comprehension and recall, dialogue analysis, text grammar construction, computer simulation of natural language, cross-cultural comparisons of communicative competence, or related topics.”
In 2007, Bohn-Gettler’s thesis, “Event Indexing Across Development” explored the mental processes of middle schoolers while reading narratives, including comprehension of time, space, characters, goals, and causation—and paid special attention to how children’s minds monitor and organize events during reading. She was advised by Department of Educational Psychology Emeritus Professors Anthony Pelligrini and Steve Yussen.
Since graduation, Bohn-Gettler has continued to collaborate with many Department of Educational Psychology researchers. Today, she is a professor at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University where she studies interdisciplinary connections between cognition, emotion, and instructional contexts to improve student learning and holistic development. Bohn-Gettler has achieved national and international distinction in the field of cognitive psychology.
Congratulations and best of luck to Professor Bohn-Gettler in her new role!
Erica Lembke—alumni of the Department of Educational Psychology’s special education PhD program and now professor of special education at the University of Missouri (MU)—was named Interim Dean of the College of Education and MU on July 7, 2020.
Dean Lembke joined MU as special education faculty in 2003 and since has held several leadership roles. For the past five years, she served as chair of the Department of Special Education. Dean Lembke has also led MU’s College of Education’s policy committee and is a steering committee member of the Leadership Development Program at MU. Adding to her credentials, she graduated from the Harvard Management Development Program in 2019.
Dean Lembke’s research interests include data-based decision making for teachers through designing and implementing Curriculum-Based Measures in elementary and secondary grades. She has served as a Principal Investigator (PI) or Co-PI on nearly $10 million in federally funded projects.
Dean Lembke is a frequent research collaborator with faculty in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Minnesota and co-Principal Investigator on the Early Writing Project with Professor and Chair Kristen McMaster. She serves as a senior advisor for the National Center on Intensive Intervention, is past-president of the national board of the Division for Learning Disabilities, and is editor of the journal Assessment for Effective Intervention.
Congratulations, Dean Lembke! We’re so proud to call you an Ed Psych alum!
We asked Seungwon Chung, assistant professor in the quantitative methods in education program and member of the Department of Educational Psychology’s Diversity Committee, to tell us a bit about how the work of the Diversity Committee connects to her research and what inspired her to get involved.
What made you decide to get involved in the Diversity Committee?
Being a foreigner, I was not very familiar with the racial issues in this country other than what I had learned through history books during my teenage years in another country. I have been wanting to learn more about the current racial struggles. My husband, went to college in St. Louis, a city rich with history of racial struggles, has talked to me a lot about racism in this country. When Professor delMas reached out to me about the possibility of serving on the diversity committee for 2020-2021, I thought this was the right opportunity for me to learn and possibly contribute at the same time. Only within two weeks of joining, George Floyd was murdered in this very city leading to nationwide and worldwide protests. Participating in the committee felt all the more imperative. I have been learning a lot and becoming more racially aware ever since.
How does the Diversity Committee work connect to the research you do?
As a quantitative researcher, my research theme is precise measurement of abilities and traits. Proper measurement tools are important for fair and equal opportunities to access quality education and, by extension, for promoting diversity whether in terms of race, socioeconomic status, or disability. For example, I am currently working to develop methods for fair scoring of students with disability who take different test forms from the general population. Without a fair method for linking different test forms, the abilities of special population can easily be underestimated, and by quite a large margin at that, sidelining their rightful place in education. These methods are broad enough to be generalized to other contexts and other types of special population that is underprivileged, in various ways. Underprivilegedness is closely tied with racial discrimination, so hopefully one day my research efforts can be extended to that arena as well.
What has the committee been working on since you joined?
The George Floyd killing, which happened in this very town immediately after I had joined, pushed the committee to take more urgent and tangible actions towards the anti-racism. The committee is implementing plans to infuse diversity more deeply into the various levels of the department structure in both short and long terms. Our goal going forward is to increase BIPOC and underrepresented people’s presence in the department to empower them in the long run, honestly monitor our progress.
What keeps you inspired to work on the Diversity Committee?
For one, I feel that I have a lot more to learn. How racism is woven into the fabric of this society and individuals’ mantra is so much more complex than I had imagined. It will be an ongoing struggle for a long time to come, and it requires an active fight for anti-racism. Ultimately, I think that overcoming, or at least relieving, racism and diversity issues will help make more society more healthy at a fundamental level. The dedication of our wonderful committee members inspires me to continue to do the work.
Due to the various impacts of the COVID-19 global pandemic, all MA and PhD degree programs in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Minnesota have waived the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) application requirement for all 2021-2022 applicants.
Over the past summer, faculty, students, and alumni from the Department of Educational Psychology’s school psychology program, partnered with school psychology practitioners in the field, as well as other faculty members in the Department of Educational Psychology, to publish a white paper. This white paper called upon educational and political leadership across the state to seek equity-centered statewide implementation of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS). MTSS is a data-driven, problem-solving framework to improve outcomes for all students that relies on a continuum of evidence-based practices matched to student needs.*
Read the white paper: Pursuing Educational Equity in Minnesota through a State-Wide Multi-Tiered System of Support.
The authors are part of the Minnesota Collective for Educational Equity (MnCEE), a grassroots collective of school psychology graduate students and interns, faculty members, and practitioners as well as school administrators, and researchers. The group has a common goal of influencing educational policy and legislation in Minnesota in order to create equitable outcomes for all students.
Now, MnCEE members have their sights set upon establishing meaningful relationships with other state-wide groups and organizations sharing a similar mission and reaching out to state policymakers to reach their goal of implementing equity-centered MTSS throughout the state of Minnesota.
School psychology faculty, students, and alumni who helped author the white paper and/or have participated in MnCEE include:
Educational Psychology Student Diversity Group meets via Zoom.
On September 18, students across all of the Department of Educational Psychology’s programs came together for the first Diversity Student Group meeting of the academic year. During the Zoom meeting students had the opportunity to get to know one another and got to work finding common ground for future efforts towards equity, social justice, and anti-racism.
A summary of their discussion is included below:
A few students support the idea of submitting necessary paperwork to the University for consideration as a formal student group.
There was a great discussion on the need for faculty accountability, and follow-through with actions. Many times, faculty might listen to student voices and needs; however, this does not mean that they take meaningful action afterwards.
The group agreed to seek to ensure that all voices are heard, including those who are often silenced or few in number.
Students expressed that future student diversity committee events should be clearly publicized for their intended purpose (i.e., social event v. a formal student group meeting with a specific agenda/purpose).
The group has interest in creating or publicizing resources for students to know where to go when they have a need or concern, and that we discussed conceptualizing diversity to be inclusive of various facets of diversity, including racial, gender, sexual orientation, and disability status.
Students want protected time to address many of the complex social issues experienced within and outside of the department; and that they want their programs to support them in this.
Students want to normalize calling out as a way to be an ally and to provide feedback as well as be receptive of feedback—considering both for students and faculty as important.
The next meeting is scheduled for November 4 from 12:15 to 1:45 p.m., Central time.
Educational Psychology students who would like more information on how to get involved may contact Tai Do (doxxx078@umn.edu).
We asked Sherri Turner, professor in the counselor education program and chair of the Department of Educational Psychology’s Diversity Committee, to tell us a bit about the work of the committee and what inspires her to make a difference.
How has the Diversity Committee evolved since you started as chair?
I am so honored to be the chair of the Diversity Committee and to work with a group of people who are dedicated to diversity and inclusion. We have moved from an ad hoc committee to an official, standing committees in the department recognized in the 7.12 (the department’s official policies and procedures concerning faculty review, promotion, and tenure).
What does the Diversity Committee do?
Our work is focused on increasing and supporting diversity, equity, inclusion, social justice, and anti-racism across the department, and by extension across the college and university. Our committee is comprised of energetic, talented members who are involved in diversity work through other venues as well. Our committee exerts true leadership around these issues.
How do you support this work as chair of the committee?
My work as chair, as I see it, is to try to facilitate the work of committee members and keep us moving in the same direction. I also serve as liaison to the department chair and other leadership to ascertain how our committee efforts can support the goals and direction of the department concerning diversity, equity, anti-racism, and inclusion. Because we have a large and vibrant committee, our members focus on various projects in smaller teams (sub-committees), and then we meet together every month to see how our efforts are aligned with each other and with department as we together move the work of diversity forward. We focus on supporting students’ diversity initiatives, on climate issues, on pipeline issues, and on faculty professional development, among other initiatives.
What inspired you to do this work?
My own commitment to diversity came from moving out of my community where Native American values and mores were honored, Native American history was taught, and individuals and families seemed to have relatively stable and prosperous lives, and moving to other communities where that was not the case. In my master’s in counseling program, I took several classes that taught us about how inequities and a lack of social justice effected people’s lives, and the negative impact it had on us all. In my PhD program, I also studied multicultural counseling, and multicultural counseling psychology. I have focused many of my research efforts on multicultural and social justice issues. The rest is happenstance. When I heard that the department chair wanted to grow the Diversity Committee to support the work of diversity, I volunteered. I have found working with this committee has been incredibly and personally enriching, and I am grateful to learn from them and from our department community as I try to do my part to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion.
What challenges have you encountered along the way?
The only real challenges I have encountered along the way are that there is more diversity work than we could possibly do, and I am so appreciative that the entire department is working hard to increase diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism. As our department chair has said, this is the work of the entire department, of all individuals, committees, and programs.
What keeps you motivated?
What keeps me motivated to continue is that this is my passion. This is how I see that we can make a difference in the world. When people are respected enough to be treated as equals in pay, opportunities, influence, and representation, and to be included equally in every way in all aspects of life, the types of injustice that has led to brutality, violence, poverty, and whole classes of people being dispossessed will be greatly diminished. My experience with the people in this department is that the work of diversity is a shared vision. We may not always agree on how to get there, but I truly believe, after spending 20 years in this department, that our faculty, staff, and students are committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, social justice, and anti-racism in all of its forms.
About the Educational Psychology Diversity Committee
We interviewed school psychology PhD student Alexandria Robers about her research interests and her journey to the Department of Educational Psychology.
What are your research interests?
My research interests involve improving equitable discipline practices in schools. This includes identifying effective methods for supporting the behavioral health of culturally and linguistically diverse students to minimize the occurrence of classroom exclusionary discipline practices. Currently, I am focused on how we can leverage classroom behavior management interventions to reduce the occurrence of teacher-delivered exclusionary discipline practices.
How did your path lead to the Department of Educational Psychology and your particular major?
I discovered the field of school psychology during my last year of undergraduate study. At the beginning of November of that year, I found out about the school psychology program at the U. A week later, I took the GRE. Then, by the middle of November, I had to submit my final application materials and thankfully everything was received on time. After my first year of graduate school, I learned about applied behavior analysis and decided to pursue a degree in that program as well. So, I’m currently enrolled in both the school psychology and applied behavior analysis programs.
What surprised you along the way?
The overall camaraderie of my programs and the resultant friendships that I have acquired throughout my time in graduate school is something I did not expect to experience along the way of pursuing my graduate degrees.
What is something you’ve most enjoyed about your experience?
During my graduate experience, I’ve most enjoyed connecting with faculty who are truly experts in their fields. Whether attending national conferences or contributing to academic Twitter, I can tell that the knowledge and experiences that I’m gaining are cutting-edge in the field of school psychology.
What is most exciting about your work?
The most exciting aspect of my work is being prepared to solve problems that get in the way of children’s learning and overall functioning in and out of school.
How would you describe the student experience, and what does that mean to you?
The student experience means that you are in a unique position to ask as many questions as you want and seek out as many opportunities as you need to learn and grow as a scholar. What this means to me is that I am able to learn and grow without having all of the responsibility associated with someone who has a bunch of initials after their name (i.e., PhD, LP, NCSP, BCBA).
What has been most challenging?
The most challenging aspect of this experience for me has been knowing how to prioritize which opportunities to take advantage of. As a student, there are various opportunities offered to you and it can feel overwhelming at times deciding which to pursue and which to decline.
How have your professors helped you along the way?
My professors have provided me with the time and space to discuss my future career and professionals goals. As someone who struggled with the decision to pursue a job in academia versus practice, these conversations with my professors were essential in helping me clarify and finalize my future goals.
What would you like prospective students to know?
Be prepared to work hard and do your best but know that everyone here wants you to succeed.
How has your cohort helped you along the way?
I’m sure a lot of people share this sentiment, but I truly believe that I have the best cohort in the world. The social support I’ve received from this group of young women is unparalleled to anything I’ve ever experienced before. I truly do not think I would have made it this far without them.
What are you looking forward to with graduation?
Getting hooded by my advisor and having the ‘Dr.’ salutation on my credit card.
How do you plan to use what you are learning/your degree?
I plan to go into academia and continue to push both of my fields forward with the ultimate goal to begin merging the fields of school psychology and applied behavior analysis.
Why did you choose the school psychology program at the University of Minnesota?
I chose the school psychology program at the University of Minnesota because I wanted to work with faculty who were productive in moving the field forward and developing alumni who were movers and shakers in the field.
Yu-Chi Wang is agender and uses no gender pronouns.
Yu-Chi Wang, a PhD student in the psychological foundations of education program in the Department of Educational Psychology, has been awarded the Leadership in Equity, Inclusion and Diversity (LEID) Fellowship. The LEID Fellowship rewards PhD candidates who have demonstrated a commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and/or social justice through scholarly activity and/or climate enhancing initiatives. PhD candidates who receive the award have an opportunity to devote full-time effort to write and finalize a dissertation during the fellowship year. Yu-Chi is one of only 15 PhD candidates across the University to receive this prestigious award.
Yu-Chi first began pursuing LEIDership as a co-chair for CEHD’s Gender Equity Symposium in 2017. Through this experience, Yu-Chi was able to help increase awareness and understanding of non-binary gender identities within CEHD, and Yu-Chi also became aware of just how necessary these pursuits were.
Since then, Yu-Chi has primarily focused on increasing awareness and understanding of trans identities and marginalized queer identities within Yu-Chi’s graduate program through informal initiatives. For instance, Yu-Chi has pushed faculty to identify and alter gendered and binary language in course material and continues to engage other students in conversations highlighting issues that trans and queer folx face both societally and within the university context.
Through these efforts, Yu-Chi hopes that fellow students, faculty, and staff will continue to educate themselves and work harder to create a better experience for marginalized folx.
Yu-Chi will continue to work to pursue leadership this year as a volunteer with Trans Lifeline and through Yu-Chi’s dissertation on “Effects of Intergroup Contact with Non-Binary Individuals through Board Games.”
Faculty in the Department of Educational Psychology’s school psychology program—Jessie Kember, lecturer; Annie Hansen-Burke, senior lecturer; and Faith Miller, associate professor—have developed a Google Calendar with weekly anti-racism activities for the full calendar year. We asked the group a few questions about how this work started, how it’s grown, and how they hope it will help its users take anti-racist actions, one week at a time.
Q: What inspired you to create the calendar?
We did not create the activities in this anti-racism calendar. Credit goes to Michelle Panchuk’s resource entitled “A Year of Anti-Racism Work.” When this resource circulated following the murder of George Floyd, we realized it wasn’t enough to bookmark on google chrome, and maybe come back to it weeks or months later (or maybe never again). As white faculty members, we wanted to hold ourselves accountable to not return to our lives months later without a constant awareness of racism that we have the privilege to learn and read about, rather than live and experience. It’s not enough to only become overwhelmed, and filled with shame, grief, guilt, rage, awe, or disgust in this moment. It’s not enough for ourselves, for our colleagues, for our students, or anyone for that matter. We (white people) have to do better. Not just when we have time, when it’s convenient, when it makes us uncomfortable, when others are watching, when someone tells us what to do, and when we feel like showing up. We have to do something every single day to combat racism. Even when we don’t know what to do, we can look at this calendar and have a concrete action.
Q: How have you been working with other faculty to build it out?
We are finding opportunities to share the calendar with other scholars. We have formed an anti-racism accountability group with nearly 40 faculty members across the U.S. in the field of school psychology. We meet monthly to share ideas about how to combat racism in higher education, in our training programs, and beyond. We have also shared the calendar with students, friends, family members, and other faculty members at the University of Minnesota.
Q: How has it helped you personally?
It has helped us grow (even just if one very small piece at a time). It has helped us to simply ask questions, reflect, and most importantly, take action. It has helped us grow as educators. And for us, growing as educators means we are growing personally. The calendar is one piece of a process in this growth. It is not meant as a check-box to complete, but as a consistent reminder and resource to promote sustained commitment to anti-racist action.
Q: What have you heard from others who are using it?
As many of us seek ways to take concrete action, users have shared that they appreciate the development and dissemination of this resource. But mostly, we just hope others are holding themselves accountable, and using the calendar diligently, and taking action.
Q: What has been the most fulfilling part of building and using the calendar?
Listening, learning, and working towards a better understanding of the oppressive systems in which we need to actively disrupt (rather than participate).
Q: How can department members and friends access the calendar?
Carlos Chavez, a PhD student in the Department of Educational Psychology’s quantitative methods in education (QME) program, came highly recommended. We caught up with Carlos to learn more about the work he’s been doing to support students in the department, University, and broader community.
Q: What service/mentorship activities have you been leading/participating in?
With respect to service to the field, for the last two years, I have participated as a panelist in bias and sensitivity for the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs). I try to use my social and academic backgrounds as a panelist to flag or discuss test questions that could unfairly affect a students’ score for reasons beyond the content for which they are being tested.
The last couple of years I have also participated with the Diversity in Psychology program for undergraduate students who may be interested in attending graduate school at the University of Minnesota. I do my best to provide some mentorship on applying to graduate school and talking about what it is like to be a student here when there is not a diverse body of students.
Another activity I enjoy participating in is the student led QME Bag Lunch. It was started by another person in my cohort to bring in diverse thoughts from the department to talk about quantitative methods. However, it has also evolved into a sort of professional development support group where we can help each other write our CVs and talk about how to effectively carry out literature searches. I hope that we can keep doing that this year because I think it is a great way to build community across cohorts within our QME program and throughout the department.
Lastly, pre-COVID-19 I really enjoyed making a pot of coffee in the first-floor kitchen that anyone was welcome to take from. I hope to continue doing that when we can all return to the office safely.
Q: What inspired you to lead in this way?
Growing up, my experience with tests has always been, well, bad. It felt like some questions were unnecessarily complicated or were portrayed in contexts that I, or my friends, have never experienced. It is in part why I am curious about educational measurement, but also why I choose to devote a full day of my time doing bias and sensitivity review for tests. I am inspired to provide as unbiased of an assessment as possible while being mindful of diverse experiences and contexts.
Also, I am in part inspired by my own experiences as an undergraduate student and now as a graduate student. I think applying to higher education can be intimidating especially when you do not have family that understands the system, so I try to be someone who can provide a, hopefully, relevant perspective on getting through higher education. Additionally, when you do get into higher education, finding and establishing a strong community can be an immensely powerful asset to have.
Q: What are you most proud of?
I struggle with math and test anxiety, and getting a PhD in Quantitative Methods in Education and focusing on education measurement is a proud step forward in confronting those fears.
Q: How do you hope to apply these skills to your work/life in the future?
Well first, I hope I can use these skills to help develop fair and equitable assessments and help others understand the role of social contexts in assessment.
Second, I would like to be a professor after graduation, so I hope I can use these experiences to develop a strong community and help be a good advisor and mentor.
Q: Anything else you’d like to say to your fellow students and department members?
I hope you all are healthy and safe. The coronavirus pandemic has been difficult to weather, but I hope to see you all again for a cup of coffee at in the Education Sciences Building soon.
Pictured: McNair Scholar Chloe Hendrix (L) and her advisor Keisha Varma (R)
Chloe Hendrix is an undergraduate studying developmental psychology at the Institute of Child Development. This summer, Hendrix is conducting research through the McNair Scholars program—a federally funded, graduate school preparation and research program for students who are of low income, first generation college, and underrepresented backgrounds. Hendrix’s McNair Scholar program advisor is Keisha Varma, Associate Vice Provost for Equity and Diversity at the University of Minnesota and an associate professor in the Department of Educational Psychology’s psychological foundations of education program. Varma met virtually with Hendrix to ask about her experience as a McNair Scholar and working on Varma’s Project ESPRIT, an NSF-funded project that looks at ways to use a social media learning environment to help mediate the achievement gap by increasing minority and immigrant parent involvement in middle school science education.
Dr. Varma: Why did you decide to apply to the McNair Scholars fellowship program?
Chloe: I chose to apply for various reasons. I was initially introduced to it by Professor Chris Uggen, who I work with as an RA in the Sociology Department. He mentioned it to me because he has participated in the program multiple times, and I knew some of the scholars who had worked with him in the past. I thought, “Oh this is really helpful because I’m considering going to grad school and eventually getting a PhD.” When I looked into it more, I saw they provide a lot of mentorship and research experience and other things that would be helpful for me. That’s how I got introduced to it.
Dr. Varma: When did we first meet, and what made you decide to work together in the history project on the three projects?
Chloe: Finding a mentor was one of the most stressful parts because I was thinking so hard about it. I thought, “I need to find someone that aligns closely with what I do.” In the past and currently I’ve worked a lot within the Sociology Department, but I’ve really been trying to branch out. I am a developmental psychology major, and I wanted to work with someone in the Department of Educational Psychology to get the in-depth experiences I’m interested in. Then, the McNair program shared a document listing all of the faculty who were interested in working with seniors. I saw your [Dr. Keisha Varma’s] interests—related to the achievement gap and race, racial and ethnic differences, and education—are really closely aligned with mine. Those were kind of struggles that I faced and, I know, a lot of other people faced. I thought, “I need to work with her,” and now I do!
Dr. Varma: What, if anything, has surprised you about your work with McNair Scholars and on the project?
Chloe: I knew the program [McNair Scholars] was very in-depth, but I guess I was a little bit shocked at how many different areas the program covers. I was under the impression that it would be mostly focused on research. However, mentorship is a huge focus—and not just working with a professor or working with faculty—but really getting to know them on a personal level. Like when they [the McNair Scholars program] had us interview our mentors and learn more about their experiences. I think a lot of people don’t recognize how valuable it is to listen to someone who’s been through this and learn from their mistakes and their successes. You [to Dr. Varma] have been a perfect example of how you [students from underrepresented backgrounds] can do that yourself. So, the mentorship was surprising to me. Also, they have had us explore grad schools. I’m writing a CV and personal statement, updating my resume and LinkedIn. It [the McNair program] has really covered a lot of things, and I think that’s rare, especially for a short program. It’s a little bit stressful because it’s only a few weeks. It is helpful, however, that they force you to start thinking about your future.
Dr. Varma: Can you tell me a little bit more about the topic of your research project, and how you decided on it?
Chloe: My research is surrounding racial and ethnic differences, self efficacy, learning, and success. I think it’s pretty clear now that certain fields, especially STEM, lack a lot of diversity. When we typically think of all STEM fields, it’s a very white, male dominated field. There’s a lot of focus on adding more females to the field. However, that leads some people to ignore the lack of racial diversity in the area [STEM] too. There are systems and programs in place that act as barriers for underrepresented students. I think programs, like the McNair program, can help. Start with children when they’re really young and realize what is preventing minority students from succeeding in these fields. It’s not that they’re not interested. It’s not that they are not capable. It’s usually because of certain barriers and the lack of peer and teacher representation around them. It’s really complicated. And I think it’s something that we need to explore if we want to actually diversify that field.
Dr. Varma: What has been the most challenging about your research experience?
Chloe: I think this is really common in academica. You always feel like you’re not doing enough, and everyone’s one step ahead of you—even when that’s not true. It’s easy to compare yourself to other people, even though everyone in McNair Scholars is doing something completely different. I think, “Oh, am I behind? Are they doing it faster than me? Am I getting enough data out of this?” There’s this pressure when you’re doing research to find out mind blowing results that no one’s ever heard about before, but it’s rare. A lot of researchers are just repeating things and looking for new answers. However, there’s always this pressure to discover something amazing. I have realized that things aren’t perfect. I think what’s important in research is that you’re always questioning things, and I’ve learned to be okay with not having clear results and data. So that’s probably been the hardest part, dealing with ambiguity—especially with everything going on right now in the world. So I think this program—especially during this time—has made me realize it’s okay to not know everything, and it’s a good thing to just continue having questions.
Dr. Varma: How do you think you’ve gotten to a place where you can say, “It’s okay not to know everything?”
Chloe: I don’t know. I think for me, it’s been helpful talking with other McNair Scholars because we would share things like, “I feel like I don’t know what’s going on. There’s all of this data, and I don’t know what to focus on.” You have one question, and it leads you to, like, 10 other questions when you just want one answer—which is usually not realistic. There are so many answers and so many different perspectives. It’s hard to be surrounded by people who are really successful—people who have PhDs, people who are really high up in their field. You’re always comparing yourself to them. I do that sometimes too, but I try to remind myself, “I’m just an undergrad. It’s okay. I know you feel like you’re kind of behind or you feel like you’re inferior, but everyone started in some place.” I think I talked to you [Dr. Varma] about how I get nervous to ask questions sometimes. I say, “This is probably a weird question,” or, “I should know this already.” But you won’t know until you ask, and it’s better than just being scared and then having to deal with it later because it all comes piling on.
Dr. Varma: How do you plan to use what you’ve learned from being on the ESPRIT project?
Chloe: I think it’s just another research experience that’s helpful for me. It’s always nice to connect with new people. I’ve had a good amount of research experience, but it’s nice to see how different research teams work. I’m learning different skills. I know that some people [undergraduate researchers] in different groups are doing transcription. I have done qualitative coding in the past, but there are other research methods I haven’t experienced yet. I think—in general with this team but also in next year—I have to be more independent with research. I’ve always been part of some group doing a smaller portion of a project. Now, I will be the main researcher thinking about what am I trying to focus on and how am I going to do that. I’ll be conducting independent research—not simply just following someone else’s directions all the time.
Dr. Varma: So, what would you like other undergraduates, especially undergraduates from underrepresented populations, to know about participating in research?
Chloe: I think it’s really scary, and that’s normal—especially if you go to a place like the University of Minnesota or places that are predominantly white. You walk into a room or a space and you instantly feel like you’re not qualified. It doesn’t really matter how experienced other people are. Sometimes if you just don’t see someone who looks like you, you just somehow feel like you’re inferior. So, I would say don’t be afraid to try things. That was something that was hard for me because I was just always afraid. I thought “If I apply to be in this research group, they’re not gonna think I’m qualified.” But you have to start somewhere. So, I recommend trying to join as many things as possible, getting involved in as much research as possible. When you start getting involved with research, that’ll open up new opportunities to be in more research. It goes back to me saying “everyone starts somewhere.” You have to get past the feeling that you don’t know what you’re doing and just do it. Just put yourself out there and ask a lot of questions. It’s a big concern when you’re an underrepresented student. You think, “Okay, they’re going to perceive me a certain way because of my race or because of my gender or whatever it is.” Put those worries aside and just focus on doing what’s best for you. I think a lot of success has to do with the opportunities and connections that you have, so getting to know people is important.
The award will fund DeLiema’s work, “Longitudinal Research on Collaborative Approaches to Failure in Youth Computer Science Workshops,” to investigate how learning communities support students when they encounter failure in the learning process. Focused on computer programming—a discipline in which debugging broken code is essential, extremely common, often challenging, and shaped by numerous tools—this study will address how debugging teaching and learning take place in moment-to-moment interactions between talk, action, gesture, and materials in case studies that stretch over several years. This work takes place in a learning community designed to nuance, distribute, and valorize the process of storytelling about failure to break down oversimplified accounts. The analysis aims to document how pedagogy foregrounds, backgrounds, and blends multiple valuable facets of failure: fixing bugs, avoiding past bugs, handling new bugs, engaging with authority, and calibrating confidence.
According to NAEd, DeLiema was selected for the award for his “potential contribution to the knowledge, understanding, and improvement of education.” One of only 30 researchers across the country to receive the award, DeLiema will be granted $70,000 to provide release time from teaching and administrative duties and funding for his research.
DeLiema’s research focuses on how students and teachers collaboratively navigate moments of failure when learning computer science, mathematics, and science. Learn more about his work.
