Message from the Dean Greetings! This summer I moved to the University of Kentucky to become the ninth dean of the College of Education since our founding in 1923. Upon my arrival, I was amazed by the research and scholarly accomplishments of the faculty. I discovered a rigorous academic climate energized by a dedication to creating brighter futures for all – both learners and educators. I found innovative programs, world-class research centers and institutes, and strong community partnerships. Additionally, I found researchers at the forefront of identifying and addressing the challenges facing the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the future of education around the world. I am delighted to share with you the research and scholarship of our faculty in the 2009 Research Briefs as we continue to produce significant discoveries and positive changes in education. New ground is broken in every article as faculty provide theories for the work that lies ahead, discuss complex issues and share glimpses of practice through the eyes of research. As we move toward a “greener” publication with fewer pages and shorter stories than in the past, we selected topics for this issue that squarely address important educational issues in P-12 schools and communities involving: (1) math interventions for learners with disabilities and those at-risk for school failure; (2) high school students’ sleep needs, school start times and automobile accident rates; (3) the impact of legislative initiatives on individuals in lesbian/gay/bisexual communities; (4) the improvement of firefighters’ fitness; (5) reading improvement efforts for middle school students; and (6) the improvement of the fitness of elementary students and their teachers. Overall themes involve process, substance and virtue in the educational, physical and emotional health of children, adolescents and adults. This edition of the research briefs will provide you with a snapshot of how cutting-edge research meets practical application. University of Kentucky faculty members continue to be successful in securing grants to support cutting-edge research, including the prestigious IES grant on innovative math interventions for students with learning disabilities that Brian Bottge received. In addition, our faculty continues to receive national and international awards for their exceptional contributions and scholarship such as Thomas Guskey’s recognition as a 2009 AERA Fellow. As I begin my new role as dean, I am excited to be joining a college that believes every student deserves a first-rate education and puts beliefs into action. Working together through engaged research directly improves the lives of Kentuckians and the broader global community. I hope you enjoy reading this issue of the 2009 Research Briefs!
Mary John O’Hair Dean
Table of Contents Brian Bottge Receives $2.3 Million IES Grant to Improve the Math Performance of Low-Performing Middle School Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fred Danner Finds that Later School Start Times May Contribute to Fewer Car Accidents Involving Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sherry Rostosky Looks at Effects of Anti-LGB Legislation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jennifer Grisham-Brown Gives Guatemalan Children Better Educational Opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tricia Browne-Ferrigno is Working Toward Better School Leader Preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mark Abel Studies Firefighter Fitness and Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . UK and Fayette County Schools Launch PAWS Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Striving Readers Program Showing Improvements in Reading Strategy Use and Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kristen Perry Seeks Better Opportunities for Refugees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Beth Goldstein Travels Abroad for Research, Developing Partnerships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Credits The 2009 University of Kentucky College of Education Research Briefs is published annually. Dean Mary John O’Hair Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies Deborah Bott Slaton Editor Brad Duncan Graphic Design Kim Troxall Printing Thoroughbred Printing, LLC Office of the Dean UK College of Education 103 Dickey Hall Lexington, KY 40506-0017
The Professional Education Unit at the University of Kentucky is accredited by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), 2010 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20036; phone (202) 466-7496. This accreditation covers initial teacher preparation programs and advanced educator preparation programs. NCATE is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation to accredit programs for the preparation of teachers and other professional school personnel. The University of Kentucky is committed to equal opportunity and nondiscrimination in all programs, events and services, regardless of economic or social status and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ethnic origin, national origin, creed, religion, political belief, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, age, veteran status, or physical or mental ability.
Thomas Guskey Named an AERA Fellow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ON THE COVE R: In 2009, the UK College of Education installed a sculpture to the area outside two of its buildings, Dickey Hall and Taylor Education Building. The work, “Exponential Symmetry,” was created by UK College of Fine Arts graduate Michael Martinez and was funded by the Donovan Trust Fund.
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Brian Bottge Receives $2.3 Million IES Grant to Improve the Math Performance of Low-Performing Middle School Students National assessments reveal that many students score at or below the basic level in math. However, thanks to a four-year, $2.3 million Cognition and Student Learning grant from the U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences (IES), University of Kentucky College of Education Professor Brian Bottge will test new ways of improving the computation and problem-solving skills of all students, especially those with learning disabilities (LD). Bottge, who is the William T. Bryan Endowed Chair in Special Education Technology, will help teachers use an instructional method called Enhanced Anchored Instruction (EAI), which has proved effective in his previous studies. Bottge and his colleagues developed the EAI methods from previous grants, including a $1 million IES development grant, while he was a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Although EAI methods were designed specifically for adolescents with LD, they also have been effective with students at all achievement levels. By the time low-performing students reach middle school, many dislike math and do not see the purpose in learning it. By carefully embedding math concepts and skills in contexts that interest them, students realize how math can help them in their daily lives. EAI gives students opportunities to build their problem-solving skills and computational fluency together, with one reinforcing the other. The EAI modules Bottge uses focus on fractions concepts and pre-algebraic concepts, which are two areas of mathematics students with and without LD find especially difficult to understand. The newest instructional module called Fractions at Work was developed for use with EAI to help students understand concepts (e.g., fraction equivalence) and develop their computation skills (e.g., adding and subtracting fractions). In the most recent study with EAI, the combination of explicit instruction with Fractions at Work and the problem-solving instruction with Fraction of the Cost boosted the skills of students with LD in both areas. This finding matches previous research in cognitive science and math that suggests computational skills and problem solving concepts proceed most naturally in an iterative fashion, with gains in one type of knowledge leading to improvements in the other. EAI differs from the way math is usually taught. Instead of teaching problem solving with word problems, students first solve a problem in a multimedia format and then apply what they learn in related hands-on problems (e.g., building skateboard ramps, designing and manufacturing hovercrafts). One important advantage of EAI is its ability to directly immerse students
Instead of teaching problem solving with word problems, students first solve a problem in a multimedia format and then apply what they learn in related hands-on problems. in problem contexts, thus helping to eliminate the reading comprehension difficulties students with low skills in math and reading often experience with typical word problems. In using EAI, students must first define and understand the problem, locate the relevant pieces of information for solving it and then integrate this information into a solution that makes sense. This is similar to the approach that adults use when solving problems in their home and work settings. Results of previous studies with EAI have shown that students improved their math skills and attitudes toward math. At the conclusion of a study, one student was particularly proud of his new skills. As Bottge approached the school entrance, the student shouted, “Hey Bottge, I solved your problem.” Another student who earned perfect scores on the post test and transfer task whispered to Bottge, “Don’t tell my parents about this. They will faint.” “These kinds of statements from students are common,” Bottge said. “We have known for a long time that some students need a different kind of instruction in math. What we haven’t done very well is develop instructional contexts to help students understand that math is a valuable tool in their lives. These contexts must be powerful to engage students in meaningful activity and carefully crafted to increase their math performance.”
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Bottge, along with co-principal investigators and fellow UK College of Education faculty members Jane Jensen, Xin Ma and Michael Toland, and colleague Allan Cohen at the University of Georgia, will conduct large-scale studies to test the efficacy of EAI in middle school special education and general education math classrooms. Bottge and colleagues will show teachers how to use EAI with their students and then measure its effects on math achievement and classroom engagement. Previous research with EAI has appeared in an array of peer-reviewed technology development, special education and math journals. For example, one of Bottge’s recent publications in a technology journal traced the navigations of students through the EAI software to identify which learning scaffolds students needed most and how long they made use of them. In the May 2009 issue of Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School published by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Bottge and his colleagues Ana C. Stephens and Enrique Rueda describe how teachers and students worked on one of the EAI problems through Fraction of the Cost. Another example of the importance of Bottge’s work is the inclusion of his instructional research in the U.S. Department of Education’s “Doing What Works” (DWW) Web site (http://dww.ed.gov), which was developed as a clearinghouse for research-based practices for K-12 classrooms. As part of the initiative, Bottge made contributions to one of the Web site’s practice guides that focused on organizing instruction and study to improve student learning. As in his previous research, Bottge uses simulations to assist students in understanding abstract concepts. For example, students will apply their understanding of math concepts to applied situations by designing, modeling and building hovercrafts. Students develop skills in interpreting two- and three-dimensional shapes, drawing schematic plans to scale, and working with units and measure. In the Hovercraft Challenge, students work in engineering teams to design and construct a “rollover cage” out of Professor Brian Bottge helps guide College of Education Department PVC pipe for a hovercraft they will ride the final day of the project. of Special Education and Rehabilitation Counseling student Laura The concrete, 3-D model helps students visualize, compare and Uber as she rides a hovercraft. Bottge used the device to show his instructional technology course students how to teach the transform geometric objects, which are key understandings in Hovercraft Challenge. middle school geometry. “The DWW helps teachers and administrators translate research-based practices into instructional practice in classrooms,” Bottge said. “Teachers and administrators will get a good idea of what the research suggests by watching the videos and slideshows that are incorporated into the DWW.” The first year of the project will be devoted to recruitment and staff development (teachers and research staff) for the first formal study to take place during Year 2 of the project in special education settings. The second study will take place the following year in math classrooms. Approximately 30 special education and 30 math teachers in urban and rural Central Kentucky will be involved. Two pretest-posttest cluster-randomized trials will test the efficacy of the instructional intervention on students’ ability to compute and problem solve. Qualitative methods will complement the experimental study to uncover relevant moderating and mediating variables (i.e., teacher and student activities) that may explain the relative effectiveness of the intervention. Bottge thinks the teacher role has been key in his work with EAI. No matter what the instructional method, its success depends on how well it is implemented. One of the most enjoyable aspects of his previous studies, Bottge says, is getting to work with talented, caring teachers. He is excited about getting to make new partnerships with Kentucky teachers. Screen captures from the Fractions The importance of this project certainly is not lost at Work instructional module highlight the ways in which it attempts on the IES, as it is one of only four grants awarded in to help students understand the the recent competition of the Cognition and Student concepts and help them with their Learning in Special Education program. It also is the computation skills. first IES grant received by a UK College of Education principal investigator.
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Fred Danner Finds that Later School Start Times May Contribute to Fewer Car Accidents Involving Students Moving from middle school to high school, students face changes in their social lives and biologic pressures that often can result in sleeping changes, namely students staying up longer as they move through high school. This change can lead to increased sleepiness during the day and may contribute to increased odds of these students being involved in automobile accidents. However, a study released in 2009 by Fred Danner, professor and chair of the Department of Educational, School and Counseling Psychology, and published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine indicates that this safety concern may be lessened through the institution of later starting times for high schools. “Our findings are consistent with everything we know from laboratory studies about the devastating effects of chronic sleep deprivation on daytime alertness,” Danner said. “They suggest that the typical pattern of moving school start times an hour earlier when kids move from middle to high school is not only bad for their performance in school but may also increase their chances for motor vehicle crashes.” Danner and co-investigator Barbara Phillips, a faculty member in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine in the UK College of Medicine, looked at the sleep habits of high school students in one Kentucky county prior to and following the move of high school start times to an hour later. They then compared the number of hours of sleep the year prior to the change to the number of hours of sleep during the year following the change. They found that by starting the school day an hour later, these high school students were reporting an increase in amount of sleep each night. In addition, Danner and Phillips then compared the number of motor vehicle crashes per 1000 drivers aged 17 and 18 years during the two years prior to and the two years following the change in school start time. They found that after the change, the average crash rate among this age group decreased in the subject county while the rate across the state (where high school start times did not change) increased over the same period. These findings support the conclusion that moving high school start times an hour later will increase students’ sleep time and suggests a correlation between that and a decrease in automobile accident rates among high school-aged drivers. Numerous media outlets across the country, including CNN and the Washington Post, have published stories on the results of this important study.
Sherry Rostosky Looks at Effects of Anti-LGB Legislation When marriage amendments are on the ballot, lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people experience acute psychological stress and downturns in general well-being; they also become more politically active. These findings, particularly pertinent in the wake of the passage of California's Proposition 8 are contained in two articles published by University of Kentucky researchers. Sherry Rostosky, associate professor in the Department of Educational, School and Counseling Psychology, and Ellen Riggle, associate professor in the Department of Political Science in the UK College of Arts and Sciences, along with Sharon Horne from the University of Memphis, used surveys to study the emotions of LGB adults following the 2006 general election, during which eight states had “marriage amendments” on the ballot. Following the November 2006 election, participants living in states that passed a marriage amendment (an amendment defining marriage to exclude same-sex couples from marriage rights) reported significantly more minority stress stemming from exposure to negative media messages and negative conversations, and more general distress, including more depressive symptoms, than did participants living in states that did not vote on a marriage amendment in 2006. “The mere fact of these amendments makes me sad, annoyed and outraged, and the inanities spewed in the public debates have alternately made me laugh, cry and scream,” said one survey respondent. These findings indicate that passage of marriage amendments creates an environment associated with negative psychological outcomes for LGB individuals. Their article “Marriage Amendments and Psychological Distress in Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual (LGB) Adults” appears in the January 2009 issue of the American Psychological Association Journal of Counseling Psychology. Riggle, Rostosky and Horne also published in the March 2009 issue of Sexuality Research and Social Policy their research indicating that negative messages targeted toward LGB individuals become more frequent during state elections involving marriage amendments. In the article “Marriage Amendments and Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Citizen in the 2006 Election,” the authors note that LGB persons report more frequent exposure to negative messages about lesbian and gay issues, along with associated higher levels of reported negative affect, stress and depressive symptoms. No previous research has empirically established LGB individuals’ perceptions of exposure to negative messages surrounding marriage amendment campaigns. The findings indicate that while LGB individuals experience stress and depressive symptoms when marriage amendments are on the ballot, resulting in an acute negative impact on the well-being of such persons, having a marriage amendment on the ballot also is associated with increased political participation and voting by LGB citizens. Allison Elliot, UK Public Relations, contributed to this story.
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Jennifer Grisham-Brown Gives Guatemalan Children Better Educational Opportunities Jennifer Grisham-Brown first encountered Adopt!inc. when she and her husband adopted their son in Guatemala in 1998. Seeing the conditions of orphanages in that country, the Adopt!inc. director and Grisham-Brown, professor in the Department of Special Education and Rehabilitation Counseling, saw a need for a better children’s home that would serve children who are less likely to be adopted. As a result, Hope for Tomorrow was born. In developing the pre-existing home with Adopt!inc. for the last six years, Grisham-Brown spent part of her sabbatical there in 2008, eventually taking over full operation of the home later that year. Her main role now is to support the education of the children, and during her sabbatical a team from UK traveled there to establish the educational system for the home. “When we took over the home, the children there had never gone to school,” Grisham-Brown said. “So we hired a teacher to work with them and we traveled down to complete developmental assessments on all the children. We designed a child development room so that they could learn to use materials. We took seven to eight boxes of toys and educational materials and books. We essentially created the child development room and the classroom in the home to enhance their education and to support the teacher.” The educational opportunities are what Grisham-Brown sees as very important for the children. For example, one 11year-old child had never had any education or stimulation before arriving at the home at age 7. After one year of working with the staff, who had been trained by Grisham-Brown’s team, that child had mastered content through the firstgrade level. However, instructional methThe UK team working at Hope for Tomorrow included (back row, L-R) Katie Gilkerson and Whitney ods must be tweaked for the environment. Stevenson, and (front row, L-R) Meagan Woolum, Professor Jennifer Grisham-Brown and Amy Foster. “What we are doing at this point is applying empirically based methods in a different country, setting and culture to see if they will work or not to enhance the lives of these children,” Grisham-Brown said. “The basic tenets are the same, but we are definitely having to modify it based on the country, culture, setting, language, etcetera. The language and interaction style may be different, but it’s the principle that is applicable anywhere. We have assessment data that shows we are making a difference.” And thanks to Grisham-Brown and her UK colleagues and students, children in Guatemala are reaping the benefits.
Tricia Browne-Ferrigno is Working Toward Better School Leader Preparation One of the tenets of The Wallace Foundation’s philanthropy is strengthening education leadership to improve student achievement, and in 2000 the Foundation provided direct support to more than 20 states and selected urban school districts within those states in an effort to jumpstart the improvement of school leader preparation. Nine years later, those efforts are being assessed, and Associate Professor Tricia BrowneFerrigno, from the Department of Educational Leadership Studies (EDL), is part of the evaluation team. A senior researcher and principal investigator on a sub-grant of the project, Browne-Ferrigno served on a twoperson team that visited Wallace-funded projects outside Kentucky as part of the larger investigation. She and a colleague conducted a week-long visit at two sites where they interviewed district coordinators of the grant; district administrators, which included superintendents, human resource professionals and directors of professional development; and principals, interns and candidates in the programs. They also visited university campuses near those districts to interview professors involved in principal preparation and observed leadership development classes and field-based activities. Their findings showed a wide range of collaborations between the school districts and universities. “We discovered that collaboration ran from non-existent to true partnerships,” Browne-Ferrigno said. “On the non-existent end, principal candidates completed their preservice preparation through programs of their choice and then participated in a rigorous one-year internship program designed and conducted by a district before being considered for a principalship. True partnerships evidenced a university and district co-designing and co-delivering principal preparation.” Browne-Ferrigno says that two lessons learned from this experience are particularly relevant to preparation of school leaders at UK. First, the vision for the program must be communicated and acted upon. Second, “the sustainability of university-district partnerships can be very fragile but can be addressed through intentional succession planning by engaging multiple people in the design process and by assuring that there is a written partnership agreement that is widely accepted.” Kentucky has been a Wallace-funded state since 2000, and the latest round of funding has supported a statewide redesign initiative. EDL is actively engaged with local district representatives to design a post-master’s degree program that must be delivered through partnerships with districts and include selective admission of candidates, practice-embedded field experiences, and a range of opportunities in which candidates can observe, participate and lead. “My participating in this grant over the past year and a half has made me aware of the pitfalls and potentialities of working in partnership with districts,” Browne-Ferrigno said. “In fact, our program last year initiated co-teaching between professors and practitioners in our classes. We’ve increased the amount of field-based work in all of our courses. We are taking our time to create an innovative program through thoughtful, careful analysis of the research and our experiences.”
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Mark Abel Studies Firefighter Fitness and Performance Thanks to support from the Kentucky Fire Commission, College of Education Assistant Professor Mark Abel recently completed a six-month investigation into ways to improve the health and fireground performance of firefighters. Abel, a faculty member in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Promotion, believes the Healthy Firefighter Program is vitally important because research indicates that heart disease (i.e., heart attacks) causes 45 percent of on-duty deaths of firefighters in the United States. As such, participation in an exercise program may reduce the risk of heart disease while improving firefighter job performance. Each morning for a period of six months, Abel and his team traveled to Richmond, Ky., to train the local firefighters for one hour while on duty. With three 24-hour shifts for each firefighter, the schedule provided training two to three days each week for each of the 45 firefighters in the investigation. Fitness and fireground performance testing were conducted on three occasions. A baseline testing session was completed in December 2008 and similar testing sessions were held in April and June 2009. During those sessions, blood pressure, flexibility, strength and body composition were measured before each firefighter completed the standardized Candidate Physical Ability Test (CPAT). This performance evaluation guided them through a series of activities they could encounter during the course of their job. While wearing a 50-pound vest they were required to climb a stair machine for three minutes, drag a fire hose, use a sledgehammer to strike a target, drag a 165-pound mannequin, among other tasks. Each firefighter was timed with a goal of completing all tasks in 10 minutes and 20 seconds or less. “After six months of fitness training, the program has improved the pass rate on the standardized firefighter test from 57 percent to 93 percent,” Abel said. “Feedback from the firefighters has been very positive, and we are collaborating with the Kentucky Fire Commission to extend the program for another 12 months.” The project is serving as a pilot program to provide data to support federal grant submissions, and ultimately Abel would like to evaluate the effects of the program on the reduction in work-related injuries and workers’ compensation costs.
UK and Fayette County Schools Launch PAWS Program Thanks to a gift from University of Kentucky alumni Steve and Elaine Harris and funds from the George and Betty Blanda Endowed Professorship, the UK College of Education kicked off the Physical Activity and Wellness Schools (PAWS) Program in October 2008. PAWS will utilize resources and faculty from the College of Education’s Department of Kinesiology and Health Promotion (KHP) to help make students and staff at two Fayette County (Ky.) schools healthier. “The faculty in KHP are excited about this opportunity to work with students and staff at Clays Mill Elementary and Tates Creek High School to help improve the overall health and fitness in the schools,” said Melody Noland, KHP chair and the George and Betty Blanda Endowed Professor in Education. “This is a unique opportunity to combine service to the community and research to evaluate the types of programs that are effective.” KHP faculty and graduate assistants will work with the schools to implement programs and activities based on needs-assessment, ranging from blood pressure and cholesterol screenings for staff to nutrition education for students to planning wellness activities. The KHP department will conduct research and evaluation of the program with the hope that the program will be able to spread across the country, state and county. Projects now underway include a pedometer-based walking program and the implementation of a classroom video series. The walking program was set up as a competition for teachers and staff at the local schools where six-person teams logged their step counts over the course of the winter and spring 2009, with gift certificates going to the team with the most steps. The program included health screenings (measures of blood pressure, weight, cholesterol, etc.) before and after the program in an effort to improve physiological measures and reduce stress for the teachers. The video series introduced activities for children that they could do while standing at their desks, and it served to supplement the classroom-based activity cards from a previous program. In June 2009, the inaugural PAWS Institute was held to give more than 100 health and physical education teachers in grades K-12 a professional development opportunity by providing sessions focused on innovative games, health education, health promotion, dance, fitness, classroom physical activity and more. KHP Associate Professor Lucian Taylor (right) leads Clays Mill Elementary students in a wellness activity.
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Striving Readers Program Showing Improvements in Reading Strategy Use and Motivation The high number of adolescents who have difficulty reading is a problem seen at all levels of education throughout the country, including Kentucky. However, through a 2006 $17.3 million U.S. Department of Education grant, the Kentucky Content Literacy Consortium (KCLC) has been coordinating the Striving Readers program which is designed to improve adolescents’ literacy skills. As part of the project, the Collaborative Center for Literacy Development (CCLD), a collaboration between Kentucky’s eight state universities that is housed in the University of Kentucky College of Education, is using a $3.1 million five-year grant to study the impact of a reading intervention program and school-wide literacy model on students’ reading achievement, strategy use and motivation. The CCLD research team in charge of this study includes College of Education faculty Susan Cantrell, Janice Almasi, Janis Carter and Margaret Rintamaa. The team has analyzed two years of data from the two literacy components of the program: Adolescent Literacy Model (ALM) and Learning Strategies Curriculum (LSC). Their findings show that while it still is too early to come to complete conclusions, improvement in the students’ motivation to read is evident. “We know that strategy use and motivation are important elements in helping adolescents be successful in reading,” said Cantrell, project principal investigator. “The Kentucky Striving Readers study is promising because it shows that instruction The Striving Readers research team includes UK can have a positive impact on struggling students.” College of Education faculty members (L-R) The study is showing that the program is having an impact on teachers, as well. Susan Cantrell, Janis Carter, Janice Almasi and All content teachers at the participating schools completed surveys on their abilities Margaret Rintamaa. to affect changes in students’ reading. Results have indicated that the Striving Readers project has had a significant positive impact on teachers’ beliefs about their own abilities. The impact study for KCLC is available on the U.S. Department of Education’s Web site at http://ed.gov/programs/strivingreaders/performance.html, and the results also will be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Educational Psychology. The Striving Readers grant is scheduled to continue through the 2009-2010 school year, with the final evaluation report being completed by December 2010. As data are collected for each year of the evaluation, the power to detect significant differences among treatment and control groups will increase, and results may be helpful for other school districts that are making decisions about literacy programs.
Kristen Perry Seeks Better Opportunities for Refugees Refugees seeking asylum in the United States already are suffering turmoil in their lives, whether the reasons are political, religious, economic, or related to war or natural disaster. Yet, upon arrival in the U.S., these newcomers often will encounter struggles in adjusting to a new culture, language and community. Cities like New York, Los Angeles or Miami have extensive experience in working with these individuals and families; however, smaller cities like Lexington, Ky., are trying to accommodate this new influx of refugees who have very different language and education needs but are finding resources lacking. In reaction to this dilemma, Kristen Perry, assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, received a small grant from the Kentucky Reading Association to look at the educational provisions for refugees in Lexington. Her goal in this endeavor is to conduct a needs assessment to determine the city’s weaknesses and strengths. “What I am discovering is that there are a lot of different ESL [English as a Second Language] classes, but a lot of the people who work with refugees are volunteers so they don’t have any specific training or experience in teaching English or literacy,” Perry said. “There seems to be a gap, particularly for refugees who come without knowing any English at all or being able to read or write in any language. The ESL classes seem to assume they are already literate in another language and the adult basic literacy classes assume they can already speak English.” Perry’s study will last a year, and her hope is that it will serve as a pilot study for a more nationwide look at cities like Lexington that are not traditional gateways for immigrants and refugees and how those cities and their local organizations deal with the new influx of people, particularly in terms of language and literacy education. “I’m hoping the results will show some clear areas for improvement that these organizations can work on,” Perry said. “I want to give them feedback on what is working well and what can be improved in areas where needs are not being met. I think the basic first step will be making those changes that will make life better for everybody.”
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Beth Goldstein Travels Abroad for Research, Developing Partnerships One thing that distinguishes many UK College of Education faculty members is the work they do internationally, and Beth Goldstein is no exception. Over the course of the last year, Goldstein, an associate professor in the Department of Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation, has traveled to Ireland, Indonesia and China to build new partnerships opportunities and to conduct research. Goldstein’s visit to Ireland focused partly on her research regarding adult literacy programs, both on professional development for adult educators and trying to understand who participates as students in adult education. Her goal was to learn more about the adult education dynamic in Ireland. At University College Cork (UCC), where Goldstein was based in Ireland, she also team taught a research methodology course for their new Ph.D. cohort in education. Out of that work, she hopes to link the UK College of Education’s Kentucky Community and Technical College System Ed.D. program to UCC’s Ph.D. cohort to undertake collaborative research on the nature of doctoral education. In addition, Goldstein worked with UCC and Irish schools to develop more opportunities for UK to send student teachers to Counties Cork and Kerry. These students not only would gain valuable experience teaching in a foreign country, but they also would have UCC Education faculty support. Goldstein’s travels to Indonesia were part of a U.S. Agency for International Development-funded project based at UK. At the University of Lampung, she worked with the teacher preparation faculty on methods for developing outcomes-oriented curriculum, and at Brawijaya University, she worked with faculty and administrators across the university on questions of assessment and evaluation tied into curriculum development. In Shanghai, China, Goldstein, along with colleagues from several of UK’s colleges and its Office of International Affairs, continued efforts to expand student and faculty exchange programs with partner universities in China. This initiative, funded through the U.S. Department of Education and the Freeman Foundation, has resulted in a new partnership with Shanghai University that will enhance UK’s capacity to teach Chinese language, cultural studies and fine arts both on campus and in the community, to certify teachers to teach Chinese in Kentucky’s schools, and to send UK students to China as part of their degree programs. The work will further support the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia seminars run by UK to provide professional development on East Asia for area teachers. “What we’re working on now is to try to find more exchange opportunities for these teachers with teachers in China,” Goldstein said. “We also want to begin to incorporate some of that into our own teacher preparation programs so that this type of study and exchange is available at earlier stages of teacher development.” These activities are not the limit of Goldstein’s international work, and they are indicative of the expansive nature of the UK College of Education’s global collaborations and partnerships.
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Thomas Guskey Named an AERA Fellow In April 2009 the American Education Research Association (AERA) named Thomas Guskey to its second class of Fellows, one of the highest honors an educational researcher can receive in AERA. The program seeks to honor accomplished education researchers and show new scholars the importance of sustained research contributions. “While being named a Fellow is truly a great honor, it also implies a great responsibility,” said Guskey, professor in the Department of Educational, School and Counseling Psychology. “Fellows are expected to mentor other developing scholars and promising students, to engage with them in high-quality research and to share with them the excitement that thoughtfully designed research can bring. But it is that responsibility that I have always enjoyed most and look forward to most.” Guskey’s current research focuses on how teachers assess, evaluate, grade and report on their students’ learning progress. He says that while there is a great amount of research that shows what works with regard to assessment and grading, very little of it is being practiced. To assist teachers with incorporating this research, Guskey has edited three books and co-authored a fourth in the past year: The Teacher as Assessment Leader, The Principal as Assessment Leader, Practical Solutions for Serious Problems in Standards-Based Grading and Developing Standards-Based Report Cards. “Teachers throughout the United States are more bound by tradition in their assessment and grading practices than teachers in most other developed countries around the world,” Guskey said. “They do things not because they have thought deeply about them or considered the consequences, but rather because that is what was done to them. In my work, I have been trying to help teachers and school leaders at all levels to understand the research base better and then to use it both efficiently and effectively.” The AERA states that the Fellows Program is to honor education researchers with substantial research accomplishments, to convey the Association’s commitment to excellence in research, and to enable the next generation of emerging scholars to appreciate the value of sustained achievements in research and the breadth of scholarship worthy of recognition. The Program is intended to recognize excellence in research and be inclusive of the scholarship that constitutes and enriches education research as an interdisciplinary field. Fellows are nominated by peers, selected and recommended by the Fellows Program Committee, and approved by the elected Council governing AERA. In 2009, 44 fellows were named from an organization of more than 26,000 members.
Quoting the Faculty “We have known for a long time that some students need a different kind of instruction in math. What we haven’t done very well is develop instructional contexts to help students understand that math is a valuable tool in their lives. These contexts must be powerful to engage students in meaningful activity and carefully crafted to increase their math performance.” Brian Bottge, Professor Department of Special Education and Rehabilitation Counseling
“Our findings are consistent with everything we know from laboratory studies about the devastating effects of chronic sleep deprivation on daytime alertness. They suggest that the typical pattern of moving school start times an hour earlier when kids move from middle to high school is not only bad for their performance in school but may also increase their chances for motor vehicle crashes.” Fred Danner, Professor Department of Educational, School and Counseling Psychology
“Following the November 2006 election, participants living in states that passed a marriage amendment (an amendment defining marriage to exclude same-sex couples from marriage rights) reported significantly more minority stress stemming from exposure to negative media messages and negative conversations, and more general distress, including more depressive symptoms, than did participants living in states that did not vote on a marriage amendment in 2006.” Sherry Rostosky, Professor Department of Educational, School and Counseling Psychology
“I think the basic tenets that we are talking about concerning assessing young children in their natural environment still apply even if the environment changes. Interacting and developing relationships with children, talking to them, and nurturing them in order to increase their language, and therefore their literacy development, are educational practices that apply in any culture. The language and interaction style may be different, but it’s the principle that is applicable anywhere.” Jennifer Grisham-Brown, Professor Department of Special Education and Rehabilitation Counseling
“My participating in this grant over the past year and a half has made me aware of the pitfalls and potentialities of working in partnership with districts. In fact, our program last year initiated co-teaching between professors and practitioners in our classes. We’ve increased the amount of field-based work in all of our courses. We are taking our time to create an innovative program through thoughtful, careful analysis of the research and our experiences.” Tricia Browne-Ferrigno, Associate Professor Department of Educational Leadership Studies
“After six months of fitness training, the program has improved the pass rate on the standardized firefighter test from 57 percent to 93 percent. Feedback from the firefighters has been very positive, and we are collaborating with the Kentucky Fire Commission to extend the program for another 12 months.” Mark Abel, Assistant Professor Department of Kinesiology and Health Promotion “The faculty in KHP are excited about this opportunity to work with students and staff at Clays Mill Elementary and Tates Creek High School to help improve the overall health and fitness in the schools. This is a unique opportunity to combine service to the community and research to evaluate the types of programs that are effective.” Melody Noland, Professor Department of Kinesiology and Health Promotion “We know that strategy use and motivation are important elements in helping adolescents be successful in reading. The Kentucky Striving Readers study is promising because it shows that instruction can have a positive impact on struggling students.” Susan Cantrell, Assistant Professor Department of Curriculum and Instruction “I’m hoping the results will show some clear areas for improvement that these organizations can work on. I want to give them feedback on what is working well and what can be improved in areas where needs are not being met. I think the basic first step will be making those changes that will make life better for everybody.” Kristen Perry, Assistant Professor Department of Curriculum and Instruction “What we’re working on now is to try to find more exchange opportunities for these teachers with teachers in China. We also want to begin to incorporate some of that into our own teacher preparation programs so that this type of study and exchange is available at earlier stages of teacher development. In addition, we are expecting to begin certifying teachers for Chinese and Japanese language teaching through UK within the next year.” Beth Goldstein, Associate Professor Department of Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation “Teachers throughout the United States are more bound by tradition in their assessment and grading practices than teachers in most other developed countries around the world. They do things not because they have thought deeply about them or considered the consequences, but rather because that is what was done to them. In my work, I have been trying to help teachers and school leaders at all levels to understand the research base better and then to use it both efficiently and effectively.” Thomas Guskey, Professor Department of Educational, School and Counseling Psychology
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