University of Michigan School of Education

Students, faculty, and staff are invited to gather for coffee, tea, pastries, and conversation in the South Hall, near the lounge and Tribute Room.

This is the first of a series of informal coffee hours cosponsored by the Office of Student Affairs and the Office of Development and Alumni Affairs.

For:  1st, 2nd, and 3rd year doctoral students in Educational Studies and Higher Education.  JPEE and CPEP students are welcome to attend.   

Learn about the School of Education policies and procedures for advancing to candidacy.  

Pizza and pop will be provided. 

For additional information, contact the Office of Student Affairs, Room 1225, 764-7563. 

SOE All Staff Meeting

Donald Freeman and members of the Ann Arbor Languages Partnership:  Dr. Todd Roberts, Superintendent, Ann Arbor Public Schools; LeeAnn Dickinson-Kelley, Deputy Superintendent for Elementary Education, Ann Arbor Public Schools; Dr. Deborah Loewenberg Ball, Dean, University of Michigan School of Education and Maria Coolican, Senior Lecturer in World Languages and Project Director on 'Integrating District Needs and Institutional Interests in a Design Ecology:  The Ann Arbor Languages Partnership.'

School of Education MTeach Information Session

While many would imagine that having a college major in mathematics would be a significant factor for success as a K-12 mathematics teacher, Deborah Ball would argue that, at least for elementary and middle school grades, other factors play larger roles.

Deborah Loewenberg Ball

In a November 25, 2009, article in Education Week, “Majoring in Math Not Always a Classroom Plus,” Dean Deborah Loewenberg Ball, William H. Payne Collegiate Professor in Education and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, speaks of her research identifying and assessing mathematical knowledge for teaching and the tenuous link between this knowledge and the credential of a math major. Teachers need to “know the subject matter well and how to teach it,” said Ball. “The problem is that the math major is not a good proxy for that.”

Ball also served on the National Mathematics Advisory Panel which released a report last year that reported there was no evidence of a link between teachers’ degree attainment in college and student academic gains in elementary and middle school. They did find a slightly stronger correlation between math majors and student performance in high school—Ball said this is probably attributable to a closer link between college content and high school lessons, as opposed to instruction in elementary or middle grades.

Stephen Best, project director, has been awarded a grant from the Dickinson Iron Menominee ISD, for a project entitled, “Greater Proficiency in Science – Investigate the State.”

This proposal is a supplement to the current Greater Proficiency in Science (GPS) grant within the Math/Science Partnership grant program from the Michigan Department of Education. The purpose of this supplement is to continue enhancement of the GPS professional development efforts for teachers based on team identified needs and strategies.

The Educational Studies program is seeking a graduate student with knowledge of mathematics for a .5 appointment to work in an National Science Foundation-funded project that looks at mathematics instruction at community colleges. Applicants should have a strong background in high school and college mathematics (up to calculus) and be proficient with qualitative data analyses. There is some data collection involved and therefore car availability is desirable, but not necessary.

Send vita with qualifications with some indication of why this is an interesting opportunity to Vilma Mesa, vmesa@umich.edu

We had a good discussion at a full faculty meeting yesterday, November 19, 2009, about a vision and set of goals to serve as a framework to which we will orient the strategic assessment that we are beginning. The assessment will provide an opportunity to clarify these goals in the coming year, to deliberate about our mission and specify the ways in which we, as professional school of education, can best contribute to the improvement of public education.  The assessment will provide an opportunity for us to examine our current practice and performance relative to those goals, and to design concrete strategy for the plans we make for our development. Underlying the ambition that the Executive Committee and I hold for the School of Education is the conviction that we are capable of demonstrating what is to be a school that breaks out of the historic isolation that schools of education have suffered. This isolation has left ed schools disconnected from the worlds of education policy and practice, on one hand, and the world of the academy––both the disciplines and other professions, on the other. The skepticism about ed schools is an important contemporary problem, but it is one that many colleges of education either ignore or regard as an attack that requires a defense. We believe that to do either is perilous. At U-M, we want to lead the way in taking on the challenge of showing the worth of schools of education. Through the focus of our programs and scholarship, we would contribute to redefining the role of a school of education, embracing our status as a professional school, and combining a focus on practice with the assets of being part of a great research university. There will be opportunities throughout the coming months to participate in discussions about the mission and about our programs and goals and I look forward to working with the School of Education faculty, as well as our students and staff, on this agenda.

During the upcoming holiday season, when thoughts often turn to helping those in need, our SOE community will be supporting our own faculty and staff who are facing particularly challenging times. The School of Education Staff Development Committee is coordinating two main initiatives and is seeking your help and contributions.

The first initiative will support family members of our faculty and staff who are serving in the military. The committee will be collecting gifts (or monetary donations toward the purchase of those gifts) to send in care packages to these enlisted men and women. We have already identified two SOE staff members who have loved ones serving overseas and will be sending packages to their platoons. Please contact Gretchen Ewart if you have or know of other SOE community members who have family members serving in the military.

The second initiative will support members of SOE staff and faculty who are in special need this year due to particularly difficult circumstances.  We will be collecting donations to provide a range of items to these individuals.  We have identified three possible families in need, but again, if you know of other SOE community members who are in need, please contact Gretchen Ewart with details.

If you would like to participate, please see Gretchen Ewart in the Dean’s Office (suite 1110) to receive the list of needed items for the family members. You may also make a cash donation and members of the Staff Development Committee will purchase items on the list. All purchased items and cash donations need to be dropped off to Gretchen Ewart or Jeanie Laubenthal (room 2014) no later than Monday, November 30th, 2009. The Staff Development Committee will  package all items for the military during the first week of December and ship them by the military mail’s established dates of December 1 and 4.

I am so impressed with the different ways in which our community is generous with others. I do appreciate that SOE members also have pressures on them in these difficult economic times and I trust that you will choose ways to contribute that make the best sense for you.

Staff Development Committee members:

Gretchen Ewart
Alfreda Fleming
Nancy Fleming
Lori Helvey
Jeanie Laubenthal
Terri Ridenour
Kathryn Taylor

Dean-made baked goods are back!  I hope that you can take a break from your studies or work and join your colleagues, classmates, and friends for a coffee break on Monday, November 30, 2009, from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. in the south hallway (outside of Whitney—room 1309). This is the third in a series of informal coffee hours cosponsored by the Office of Student Affairs and the Office of Development and Alumni Relations. Feel free to drop by for a quick snack or linger for a longer conversation. Of course coffee and a dean-made baked treat will be provided. I hope to see you there.

Have a safe and restful Thanksgiving break. I am grateful to this community for your support, hard work, commitment, and caring.  We have had our challenges and sad times and losses over the last year, but I am continually moved and impressed by the care and concern that people in our community show to one another.  Thank you.

Thanksgiving break arrives on Thursday, November 26, 2009. These are the SOE building hours:

• Wednesday, November 25, the building will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
• Thursday, November 26, through Sunday, November 29, the building is closed.
• Monday, November 30,  normal building hours of 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. resume.

Facilities Manager Mike Napolitan said “Please remember to close and lock your office doors, both interior and exterior. Please close and lock any windows, secure laptops and personal items, turn off lights, coffee pots, printers, and water plants if needed.”

Brian Jacob

Brian Jacob, Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Education Policy, professor of education, professor of public policy, and professor of economics, has co-authored a thorough evaluation of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, The Impact of No Child Left Behind on Student Achievement. With co-author Thomas Dee of Swarthmore College, Jacob’s research finds that NCLB reforms generated statistically significant increases in the average math performance of 4th graders as well as improvements at the lower and top achievement percentiles. There was also evidence of improvements in 8th grade math achievement, particularly among traditionally low-achieving groups and at the lower percentiles. However, the authors find no evidence that NCLB increased reading achievement in either 4th or 8th grade.

Jacob and Dee also looked at NCLB’s effects by race, gender, and free-lunch eligibility and found only modest impacts among disadvantaged subgroups in math, therefore making minimal progress towards closing achievement gaps.

“The prior evidence on the achievement effects is quite limited. Earlier studies have either focused on single districts or states, relied on state developed assessments that are subject to ’score inflation’, or used weak research designs that confound the impact of NCLB with other social, educational and economic factors, “said  Jacob. “We believe this new research sheds much-needed light on the results of what was arguably the most far-reaching education policy initiative of the last forty years.”

The reearch is published as a National Bureau of Economics Working Paper. The U-M Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy issued a press release and Education Week posted an article on its website.

A family is looking for a part time nanny to visit their South Lyon home and care for two children – a girl age 8 (3rd grade) and a boy age 6 (kindergarten).  The schedule for which they need care is:

Monday & Thursday after school only 3:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Tuesday & Friday all day for the boy  and after school for both kids 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Wednesday morning 8:00 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. for the boy, then after school for both kids 3:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.

Please email or call (248-330-6368) if you are interested in this position.