Penn State College of Education spring 2021 Alumni Magazine

Spring Two Thousand Twenty-one

Contents Dean

Kimberly A. Lawless

Editor

Annemarie Mountz

Writers

Jim Carlson, Stephanie Koons, Annemarie Mountz

Photographers

Jim Carlson, Stephanie Koons, Annemarie Mountz

Contact Us

247 Chambers Building University Park, PA 16802-3206 814-863-2216 www.ed.psu.edu • edrelations@psu.edu Published twice a year by the Penn State College of Education

College of Education Alumni Society Officers

President: Joe Clapper President-elect: Jonathan Klingeman Immediate past president: Pam Peter Secretary: Sherry Yontosh

Directors Nicole Birkbeck Tonnie DeVecchis-Kerr Kiley Foley Pamela Francis Kaela Fuentes-Packnick Shubha Kashyap Jonathan Lozano Allison Mackley

Amy Meisinger Ronald Musoleno John Rozzo Sharon Salter Cathy Tomon Jeannene Willow Douglas Womelsdorf

Student Members Allie Lukac Trang Pham Manar Salamah

Dean’s Message 1

Dean Kimberly A. Lawless provides a brief update

News & Notes 2

News & Notes

Features 3

Science 20/20 connects future teachers with language learners through STEM enrichment

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College of Education’s widespread response to COVID-19 monumental

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Actions speak louder than words: College makes progress on equity agenda

10 College of Education senior instructs peers on student mental health 12 Diversity committee continues to build community in a virtual environment 13 Where are they now?

Research 14 Associate professor takes part in multilingual miracle in France 15 Researchers examine challenges facing youth in transitional societies 16 Project redefines essential elements of Professional Development School 17 Education researchers seek to bridge gap between scholarship and policy

Impact 18 New technology helps people with disabilities navigate grocery shopping 19 Impact news in brief

Alumni 20 New alumni group to address social justice and equity issues in education The University is committed to equal access to programs, facilities, admission and employment for all persons. It is the policy of the University to maintain an environment free of harassment and free of discrimination against any person because of age, race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, creed, service in the uniformed services (as defined in state and federal law), veteran status, sex, sexual orientation, marital or family status, pregnancy, pregnancy-related conditions, physical or mental disability, gender, perceived gender, gender identity, genetic information or political ideas. Discriminatory conduct and harassment, as well as sexual misconduct and relationship violence, violates the dignity of individuals, impedes the realization of the University’s educational mission, and will not be tolerated. Direct all inquiries regarding the nondiscrimination policy to the Affirmative Action Office, The Pennsylvania State University, 328 Boucke Building, University Park, PA 16802-5901, Email: aao@psu.edu, Tel (814) 863-0471.

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21 Message from the Alumni Society Board president 21 Nominate outstanding alumni for excellence awards

On the cover: Pre-service teachers in the College of Education work virtually with emergent bilingual children in grades three to five in an after-school enrichment program focused on STEM education. The program facilitating this collaboration, Science 20/20: Bringing Language Learners into Focus, provides valuable learning experiences for both the College of Education students and the elementary school children participating in the program through the Hazleton One Community Center. (Photo provided)

Dean’s Message It’s hard to believe that we have gone beyond the one-year mark of the changes brought to education by the pandemic. As I write this, we are finishing up another semester of COVID-impacted teaching, learning and working, and we are preparing for both in-person and virtual commencement ceremonies.

I am so proud of our college community and how we all have worked together through these challenging times. You can read an update, including how we created spaces for our student teachers to teach remotely, starting on page 6.

Through it all, we have continued our tradition of training incredibly Dean Kimberly A. Lawless talented and effective education professionals who are preparing to go out in the world and make their mark as teachers, policymakers, rehabilitation specialists, counselors and workforce educators. Some of our graduates also may find themselves thriving in unexpected careers, such as two of our alumni featured on page 13.

We, as a college, are building upon our tradition of greatness, with a focus on ending persistent inequalities. We are looking at how we do what we do and striving to do it better. Part of that commitment includes hiring faculty who are as committed to “Changing education by educating for change” as we are.

In that light, I am so excited to welcome several new faculty members into our college for the next academic year who are focused on special education, the intersection of language and culture, trauma-based approaches to counseling, combatting addiction, and disparities in special education referrals and services.

Of course, the work our current faculty members are doing is having a positive impact as well. For example, Carla Zembal-Saul, professor of education (science education), is immersed in the work of a research partnership funded by the U.S. Department of Education. This project, “Science 20/20: Bringing Language Learners into Focus,” gives our pre-service teachers hands-on experience in teaching elementary students who are not native English speakers, and the students simultaneously engage in STEM enrichment projects and strengthen their English. It’s an amazing example of a true win-win, and you can read about it starting on page 3.

On page 14 you can read about other faculty research, including a revolutionary bilingual deaf program in France; improving education for rural youth; bridging the gap between research and policy; and redefining what it means to be a Professional Development School with an intentional focus on equity, antiracism and social justice; and research that has led to development of an app that can be used by people with disabilities to successfully navigate tasks such as grocery shopping.

This issue also includes an update on our diversity, equity and inclusion efforts here in the college. Read about the progress we have made on our equity agenda (page 8); how our faculty, staff and students are working together to build community through the Diversity and Community Enhancement Committee (page 12); and meet Jhan Doughty-Berry, the inaugural president of the Social Equity Alumni Network (page 20).

Our students and alumni also are pushing their limits. One young alumna is teaching in the northernmost city in the United States, Utqiagvik, Alaska (page 2), and one of our current students is teaching a for-credit course to her peers through the University’s Students Teaching Students initiative (page 10).

I continue to be amazed at the strength, resilience, dedication, determination and flexibility demonstrated by our students, faculty, staff and leadership team during this pandemic. It’s been their work that has helped us to thrive in these most challenging times, and it is because of this that it continues to be my pleasure to serve as your dean.

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News & Notes Teaching in Alaska an ‘amazing’ experience A secondary education social studies graduate with a minor in history, Anais Biesecker is spending her first year teaching in Utqiagvik, Alaska, nearly 3,500 miles away from her home in Adams County, Pennsylvania. Situated at the northern tip of Alaska, Utqiagvik is one of the northernmost cities and towns in the world and the northernmost in the United States.

“I read the listing and thought, why not. They probably weren’t going to contact me and at least I could say that I had tried. But they did, the next day, too,” Biesecker said. “I applied on a Friday and had the job by Sunday afternoon. It was surreal. I then had about 18 days to get everything together from the day I found out to the day I left for Alaska.”

Biesecker has had to make some adjustments while teaching and living in a town with a population of just under 4,500, where the polar night lasts from November to January every year.

“It has taken a bit to get used to but it really isn’t as bad as you think. As long as you take a good amount of Vitamin D supplements, you really don’t feel the effects too much. It mostly just makes getting out of bed a bit harder in the morning, as it feels like you are just waking up by accident in the middle of the night.”

Read more about her experiences, and why she recommends that others follow her northward, at https://bit.ly/Biesecker online.

Outstanding graduate earns Alumni Achievement Award Alumna Heather Bennett is one of 16 outstanding Penn Staters recognized by the Penn State Alumni Association with the Alumni Achievement Award.

The award recognizes alumni 35 years of age and younger for 2

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their extraordinary professional accomplishments. Winners are nominated by an academic college and invited by the president of the University to return to campus to share their expertise with students, faculty and administrators. They demonstrate to students that Penn State alumni succeed in exceptional fashion at an early age.

Bennett earned a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from the College of Education in 2017. She also earned her law degree from Penn State Law in 2013 and is a 2008 graduate of the College of the Liberal Arts.

Goodling Institute research guiding literacy initiative The William Penn Foundation is funding a family literacy initiative in Philadelphia and the Goodling Institute for Research in Family Literacy, in Penn State’s College of Education, has had a key, collaborative role in the multiprogram endeavor.

The Goodling Institute provides national leadership promoting the value of family literacy for adults and children, while also supporting program improvement through research and its application to practice and professional development.

The William Penn Foundation’s mission is helping to improve access to high-quality education for children from low-income families, ensuring a sustainable environment, fostering creative communities that enhance civic life and advancing philanthropy in the Greater Philadelphia region.

The Goodling Institute was awarded a three-year grant worth nearly $500,000 to evaluate the project and provide professional development and technical assistance to the family literacy programs.

“We haven’t analyzed all of the data yet and we won’t until the entire study is over,” said Carol Clymer, co-director of the Goodling Institute for Research in Family

Literacy and the Institute for the Study of Adult Literacy. “The William Penn Foundation is very interested in the findings; they’re the ones who funded the programs in Philadelphia and they want to see if this does help families. This is the kind of research work that we do at the Goodling Institute.”

Read more about the project at http://bit.ly/Goodling_grant online.

Certificate helps teachers navigate online instruction Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, educators in kindergarten through 12th grade settings across the country have had to adapt their classrooms and curriculum for online instruction.

Educators said earning a credential through Penn State World Campus helped them prepare for this transition and become better online teachers.

The Postbaccalaureate Certificate in Teaching and Learning Online in K–12 Settings is offered online through Penn State World Campus and the Penn State College of Education. The 15-credit certificate can help teachers, supervisors and administrators expand their knowledge of the terminology, technology and methods that drive institutional decisions about online course design and delivery for a K–12 audience.

These skills have been especially relevant since teachers have had to continue teaching online and in person, or with a combination of instruction methods, in the months after the pandemic started.

Joshua Kirby, the program coordinator and assistant professor of education (learning, design, and technology), said the value of the certificate program is that skilled online educators create access and opportunities for students who otherwise wouldn’t have them.

Learn more about the program at http://bit.ly/k12_certificate online.

Features

Science 20/20 connects future teachers with language learners through STEM enrichment

I

By Jim Carlson

t can be said that ideal education partnerships bring together teachers and students to energize and advance each other’s work of learning and figuring out.

One example of such a partnership is Science 20/20: Bringing Language Learners into Focus, in which one aspect of the project is conducted in partnership between Penn State’s College of Education and the Hazleton One Community Center.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and to complete their 20hour practicum experience, 14 preservice teachers worked virtually last fall with 20 emergent bilingual children in grades three to five in an after-school enrichment program focused on STEM education. This semester, those numbers doubled as two cohorts of 14 pre-service teachers are working with up to 40 elementary students.

Pre-service teacher Samantha Garcia participated during the fall semester as part of the WLED 483 class and exercised the option she had to return to the project during the spring.

“It means the world to me,” she said. “Studying to be ESL-certified has empowered me to describe myself as an advocate for my future students; it is important for me to show them that their education does matter, and I want to put in the hard work and dedication for them. From getting to collaborate with peers and the mentors, I was introduced to different types of thinking and planning along with co-planning which stressed communication, flexibility and having an open mind.”

Science 20/20’s work with the Hazleton One Community Center is part of a larger community-

Photo: Provided by Science 20/20

Students involved in the Science 20/20 project in Hazleton work on a science experiement with their pre-service teacher from Penn State.

school-university partnership. As part of a five-year federally funded National Professional Development grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of English Language Acquisition, the Science 20/20 team collaborates with school district and community partners to provide unique opportunities for preservice and practicing teachers to engage students in meaningful and authentic science and language practices.

Science 20/20 had the opportunity to connect future teachers enrolled in WLED 483: Evaluating Schools Performances and Programs with English Language Learners (ELLs) to virtual placements. “This experience links the ESL Certification Program to English learners remotely in response to the needs of both the Hazleton community and the needs of student teachers to adapt to remote teaching in response to COVID,” said May Lee, instructor of education in the Department of

Curriculum and Instruction and the project coordinator.

Lee said one of the cornerstones of equity that runs across the project and throughout College of Education programs is questioning who gets access to these kinds of opportunities. “I think the students that we work with at the community center and as part of the project aren’t necessarily afforded opportunities for STEM education enrichment,” she said.

Agreeing with the focus on equitable access, Carla ZembalSaul, professor of education (science education) and project director, said, “Including opportunities to work with children who are from communities that experience unequal distribution of resources and power, or who are part of groups that have been historically marginalized in science, is important to future teachers’ development as effective, anti-racist educators.”

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Features The student teachers’ roles in the enrichment program were centered on three investigations using the engineering design process paired with block coding technology (Micro:bits) to build upon children’s natural curiosity and engagement in engineering design challenges while simultaneously providing highquality instruction for emergent bilinguals.

Megan Lynch, professional development associate and research assistant on the Science 20/20 Project, and doctoral candidate in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, explained that the project is an opportunity to offer support for English learners in an informal setting and ensure these elementary children gain access to highquality curricula and instruction in science that they may not experience in school.

materials to complete three engineering investigations while another cohort works on different and more challenging investigations. For example, future teachers guide children to build simple electronic circuits using conductive tape, LEDs, low-voltage coin cell batteries and other materials to create 3D interactive projects.

future teachers and community partners to re-think what is possible in the after-school context.

“Some of the future teachers who were enrolled in WLED 483 have returned to the internship this semester,” Lee said.

Eric Smith, an elementary education major with no prior experience with English learners, said his experience with the program was quite rewarding. “Many people don’t fully understand the complexity of the English language, as I’ve learned even more through my student teaching experience this year,” he said.

“I think the use of STEM education as an enrichment opportunity provides hands-on experiences for students to be able to really use science concepts and engineering practices to design applications that are interesting to them,” she said.

Lynch said the future teachers’ trepidation stems from the fact that some of the children do not speak English – something that dissipates with their very first interaction.

Central goals are to provide future “Our teachers with Photo: Provided by Science 20/20 undergraduates an internship in The Science 20/20 project virtually paired Penn State student teachers enrolled in WLED483 with don’t typically which they work English Language Learners from the Hazleton One Community Center. have a lot of with emergent experiences bilingual children with emergent in a new immigrant community; “They are mentors to the bilinguals and having this engage future teachers in the new teachers given their prior opportunity is really great for them. practice-based work of integrating experiences with the children, By the end they are recognizing the differentiated academic language curriculum and center context. multitude of linguistic repertoires practices with the content and that these children have and that Likewise, many children in Hazleton practices of STEM disciplines; and they’re really navigating this bi/ who participated in the Micro:bits support a local community center multilingual space,” Lynch said. curriculum in fall have returned that provides services for the city’s and are participating in the new growing Latinx population and “They get to see these students investigations and they’re doing emergent bilingual children. in Hazleton talk to someone at really exciting things with circuits.” Penn State in English and then The STEM content of the turn around and talk to a volunteer According to Lee, the internship is different for each in Hazleton in fluent Spanish. coronavirus pandemic and its cohort. One uses Micro:bits The Penn State future teachers technology and a variety of subsequent restrictions allowed 4

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Features recognize this as an asset. They’re like, ‘that’s incredible; I can’t believe you can do that. That’s amazing; I wish I could do that.’”

Lee said the perception that future teachers have of who English learners are and what emergent bilinguals can do is really turned on its head through these kinds of experiences.

“I think the unique opportunity of being in the community center highlights the linguistic repertoires of children, especially the fluid and dynamic uses of language. Moving seamlessly between Spanish and English might not occur in the context of school; it might not be supported in classrooms where there is an English dominant narrative,” Lee said.

Photo: Provided by Science 20/20

The use of STEM education as an enrichment opportunity enables students in the Science 20/20 project to be able to use science concepts and engineering practices to design applications.

Pre-service teacher Noah Schultz noted how his students came from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds than his own.

“Sadly, in the past we ‘hushed’ these voices in our classrooms as we only allowed English to be spoken,” Schultz said. “In this program I experienced the encouragement of a multilingual and multicultural classroom and saw how allowing everyone’s experiences to be shared allowed greater learning for all.

“The experience was definitely valuable in my professional growth and beneficial in the fact that it allowed me to actively practice many strategies that I had learned throughout my time in the ESL classes.”

Samantha Garcia

Alyssa Graziano

most important thing, however, was that both we and the students gained valuable experience each and every week,” Smith said.

Alyssa Graziano labeled her teaching experience with the Hazleton students as nothing short of phenomenal.

Smith noted that when meeting with the Hazleton Integration Project (HIP) students he can feel the excitement and willingness to learn radiating throughout the room. “Which is such a fantastic feeling,” he said.

“The connections that were made with these students has been something I have been longing for in all of my teaching experiences,” she said. “Not only did these students help me feel more secure in my teaching practices, I felt like they were teaching me more than I even realize. The Science 20/20 project gave my classmates and me the opportunity to put all of our fundamentals of teaching to the test in situations that were both in and out of our comfort zones.

“Every week we would work to incorporate both science and language concepts into our curriculum with the HIP students.

Sometimes it would go as planned, and sometimes not, simply because that’s the nature of teaching. The

“As we see an increase in virtual learning platforms, having the opportunity to practice these new teaching strategies in real time really has prepared us to go into the field in an age where technology has never been more prevalent.

Eric Smith

Noah Schultz

From learning alongside these students, I have grown as a teacher and a learner.”

Graziano added that the key to assisting English learners is reaching out to all who wish to learn.

“As members of the College of Education and aspiring teachers, we do everything in our power to help others learn,” she said.

“Being an active teacher means helping educate all of those around us, regardless of language. I find that being a helpful teacher and advocate for English learners is of the utmost importance.”

Garcia said there are a variety of ways to deliver a message. “I grew to realize that teaching comes in various styles and forms and how all teachers have different experiences,” she said. “This allowed me to further appreciate collaboration and explore new and unique strategies I may have not been introduced to otherwise.”

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Features

College of Education’s widespread response to COVID-19 monumental

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he extent to which the College of Education had to react and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 was as vast as it was fast … as comprehensive as it was conscientious.

From facilitating a switch to online learning, to purchasing personal protective equipment, to being certain that students were meeting graduation requirements, to offering a virtual helping hand to the Pennsylvania Department of Education, the college quickly had to come together even though its personnel were forced by the pandemic to be apart.

By Jim Carlson much as possible — a new normal.

That included, but was not limited to, coordinating all necessary technology through the Carrera Education Technology Center as well as securing the talents of instructional designers from World Campus; ensuring that student teachers could meet graduation requirements if they were unable to continue teaching at their respective school districts; enabling Rehabilitation and Human Services students to complete

standards set by Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf; distributing massive amounts of personal protection equipment (PPE); and working in conjunction with University Health Services to administer COVID-19 tests to College of Education students who were entering area school districts as student teachers.

The college also hosted one of the first hybrid courses taught at the University, as Karen Eppley, assistant professor of education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, taught a pilot class in Chambers Building over the summer.

Greg Kelly, senior associate dean for research, produced “This is funny now, a website with but the first email I resources for remote sent was informing K-12 learning. Just a people to be ready to few of the available work remotely for the links included tips for next two weeks,” said supporting students Julian Morales, director socially and emotionally of operations for the during distance college. “Luckily, learning; resources people all had laptops for families to help and not desktop Photo: Jim Carlson children understand computers so going remote wasn’t as big of Student teacher Alex Karras conducts a classroom session at Mount Nittany Middle COVID-19; distance learning for special a lift as it was in some School from his Krause Studio office inside Chambers Building. education; and teaching other colleges. tolerance materials or receive credit for clinicals; “The second part was in that supplement the curriculum coordinating the college’s portion of to inform their practices and to conjunction with (Dean Kim a virtual commencement ceremony Lawless) and … just keeping up create civil and inclusive school for graduating seniors; and with the information because communities where children are communicating information about everything was evolving so respected, valued and welcome all of this to members of the college quickly.” participants. community.

That merely scratched the Rayne Sperling, associate dean As coronavirus cases subsided surface. The college’s leadership for graduate and undergraduate slightly and some in-residence team, along with program chairs studies, and Alicia McDyre, director and others participated in countless classes were planned for fall of curriculum and instruction semester, barriers to overcome meetings and calls on Zoom and field experience, navigated the included figuring out building Teams for more than a year in a constantly evolving challenges of coordinated effort to achieve — as size and classroom size to meet placing student teachers and pre6

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Features student teachers in school districts statewide during a pandemic.

education major from Chalfont, Pennsylvania, considered himself fortunate to have been in Krause while directing his eighth-grade class at Mount Nittany Middle School in Boalsburg.

“One of the biggest challenges faced by teacher education faculty and supervisors when we made the pivot from in-person to remote instruction was how to engage student teachers in meaningful field experiences,” said Carla Zembal-Saul, professor of education (science education) and head of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction.

“Professor McDyre and her staff moved mountains to negotiate and renegotiate with school-based partners to create opportunities to support Penn State student teachers in completing their requirements for graduation and certification,” said Zembal-Saul.

When it became clear in March 2020 that face-to-face classes would be moving online, assistant professor Will Diehl and World Campus instructional designer Rebecca Heiser, with feedback from Diehl’s colleagues among the Lifelong Learning and Adult Education faculty, created an online course template to ensure that students would have a consistent experience in their classes.

“We shared this template with College of Education faculty, conducted informational webinars and it was adopted and adapted by some faculty across the college,” said Diehl, director of The American Center for the Study of Distance Education and coordinator of online graduate programs in the Department of Learning and Performance Systems.

Diehl also teamed up with Peggy Schooling, professor of practice in educational leadership in the Department of Education Policy Studies and executive director of the Pennsylvania School Study Council, and they offered their assistance to the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) to assist PDE in developing its vision around distance education because it was putting supports in place for school districts statewide.

“I could not imagine teaching from my apartment. I do not think I could physically teach there because I have roommates, and I would feel bad taking up all the room. Being able to teach in this small, glass-enclosed room has been great, believe it or not,” Karras said. “It is like my mini office, and it helps me focus and get my work done.”

Photo: Provided by Kaitlyn McCoach

Kaitlyn McCoach also performed her elementary class student teaching duties from inside Krause Studio.

Schooling and Diehl also formed an association with PBS, which is beneficial because PBS is launching a datacasting initiative from which its television signal can be used to distribute additional content to students who are learning from home and might not have internet access.

Not being in the classroom was an immediate problem for student teachers last spring, and those issues continued into the 202021 academic year. While some school districts approved having in-person student teachers, others opted to have student teachers engage remotely. That had its own set of challenges, such as some College of Education students not having adequate internet access or not having secluded locations to perform remote student teaching duties properly.

Morales said the college accommodated some students’ needs by converting areas in Krause Studio into student teaching pods.

Some of those students were grateful for the opportunity the college arranged for them to have their private spaces to conduct their virtual in-class lessons.

Alex Karras, a middle level math

Kaitlyn McCoach is another student who calls Krause her classroom. From Reading, Pennsylvania, McCoach is a middle level math education major instructing fourth- and fifthgrade students at Pleasant Gap Elementary School in the Bellefonte Area School District.

“The first few days were definitely weird because of the room having a glass wall. I felt like people were staring at me while I was teaching my lessons, but now I have gotten used to the glass room.

Sometimes I even forget that people can see me,” McCoach said.

What people are starting to see is a sense of normalcy. After all of the task forces and the committees charged for the past year, an outside graduation at Beaver Stadium is being planned, and movement toward employees returning to campus and students returning to classrooms in the fall is underway.

An optimistic Morales likes to look ahead but he was quick to commend the college’s students when looking back. “They had to learn and adapt very quickly,” he said.

“I think a lot of credit is in order for students and how they’ve adapted to a lot of this and understanding that we’re going to try to make the best of the situation.”

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Features

Actions speak louder than words College makes progress on equity agenda

By Annemarie Mountz

Last summer, Penn State President Eric Barron confronted the reality of systemic discrimination and unjust racial disparities that plague our country.

In his message, he said, “As an institution of higher education, we have an obligation to fight ignorance and intolerance, model inclusivity and embrace the power that diversity represents.”

Barron also reaffirmed “Penn State’s commitment to disrupting hate, bias and racism whenever and wherever we encounter it, and to creating the most inclusive and diverse community that we possibly can – one that is free of discrimination; one that embraces differences; and one that respects all individuals.”

The College of Education has embraced that commitment, making its own strong declaration of the intention to combat and actively dismantle persistent, both cloaked and visible, systemic bias and discrimination.

In short, the college is committed to changing education by educating for change.

“Probably the most important action we have taken college-wide is to examine the environment in which we are teaching, learning and working,” said Dean Kimberly A. Lawless. “We want to make sure that everyone who enters our spaces – our buildings, our offices and our classrooms – knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are welcomed, valued and appreciated.”

Lawless said that diversity in the population of the college brings diversity of thought, diversity of ideas and an overall richer experience for everyone. The college community has made a commitment to foster this diversity to enable the college to grow and flourish.

“Absolutely every action we are taking in this regard is built upon an overarching desire to foster a diverse, welcoming environment, and to empower our students to do the same both when they are here and also when they graduate and go out into the world,” Lawless said.

With that in mind, the college is examining the policies and operating procedures that guide practice, looking at them through an equity-minded lens and based on equity principles.

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Photo: Annemarie Mountz

Members of the College of Education Student Council model T-shirts that were handed out during a grab-n-go cookies and cocoa event last fall.

Successful organizations tend to keep doing what they did to become successful. Colleges and universities are no different in that regard.

“The status-quo is comfortable, and change is hard,” said María Schmidt, assistant dean in the Office of Education and Social Equity. “However, the statusquo disadvantages minoritized groups and individuals.

It’s time for us to look at everything we do and figure out how to do it better, to help the college and everyone in it succeed.”

In that same vein, the college established an equity-minded curriculum task force, a collaboration between members of the college’s Equity Team and the Curricular Affairs Committee. This group was charged with providing resources to support and encourage equity-minded perspectives, content and pedagogical practices in courses in the college.

As part of their ongoing work, members of the task force are working to create a course syllabus template and guide that centers equity-minded, antiracist teaching and learning. The template also will include less typical syllabus components that communicate novel ways for instructors to bring equity perspectives into practice with their students.

Their work also is informed by key literature on the topic, including some written by faculty in the college, and also by Penn State policies and resources.

Features Last fall, the college developed equity modules and piloted them in several First Year Seminar (FYS) classes last fall. The team, led by Efraín Marimón, assistant professor of education, also launched a research project exploring those efforts.

“What I remember from Professor Marimón’s visit to our class last semester was the intense discussion surrounding social justice in different areas of our community,” said firstyear student Valarie Hibbard. “I think the biggest takeaway I got was that we as a society shouldn’t have the same expectations and reactions Photo: Annemarie Mountz for every person. Each individual The Penn State College of Education strives to be a community free from discrimination, that comes with different experiences and embraces differences, and welcomes and values everyone. perspectives and we shouldn’t try program areas of the college. to box people into the expectations we have created, “Projects seeking this funding should address a but rather understand that the world can be a little bit need or gap in the college as it relates to diversity, gray.” equity and inclusion and should extend equity-based The college also is: outcomes beyond traditional expectations of service to • Reviewing and revising curriculum, paying the college community,” said Schmidt. attention to issues of equity in undergraduate Schmidt said projects should lead to substantive and graduate courses. Where needed, the college impact on curriculum, programs (existing or proposed), will provide support for instructors’ use of, and professional development, or policies and processes. teaching about, equity-minded and asset-based pedagogies.

Alumni also have demonstrated a strong commitment to the cause. In addition to equity • Creating processes and structures to increase scholarship raised over this past year, a group of our faculty governance and activity on issues of underrepresented alumni reconnected and, supported diversity, equity and inclusion. by our college’s Alumni Office, re-ignited and revamped • Drawing college committees’ attention to implicit an alumni interest group.

Now known as the College of bias in faculty promotion reviews.

Education Social Equity Alumni Network, the group has • Encouraging holistic review of applications to been recognized by the University as a formal Affiliate college graduate programs.

Program Group (APG).

• Developing a process for reporting biases or Alumni can connect with the Social Equity Alumni discrimination experienced by minoritized faculty, Network on Twitter at @psucoe_sea; Instagram at staff and students. @psucoe_sea; Facebook at Penn State College of • Reaching out to faculty within the college Education Social Equity Alumni (SEA) Network; and whose research, teaching and service show a LinkedIn at Penn State College of Education Social clear history of experience in identifying and Equity Alumni (SEA) Network. dismantling systemic discrimination, to strategize with the dean about ways to integrate practices There are many other activities taking place in the into the college that combat systems inequity college as well, and much faculty research includes that are inherent and endemic in colleges and an aspect of diversity, social justice, equity and academic institutions. belongingness in education.

• Creating an advisory council composed of faculty, “Most of what we are doing is, and will continue staff and students of color and equity allies to to be, a work in progress,” said Schmidt. “Meaningful serve as an advisory body to college leadership to work is soaring throughout the college and we are support justice-oriented impact. making strides. Still, there is much work ahead to fulfill “We are using the expertise and resources within our goals toward transforming education. The results our college to create an equity-minded, inclusive will not be immediately apparent in all areas. The teaching and learning environment,” Schmidt said. important thing to note is that we as a college – the leadership, faculty, staff, students and alumni – have Most recently, the college created an equity fund joined together with a strong commitment to make to support innovative and collaborative curriculum or programming across and within departments and these changes. And that is worth celebrating.”

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Features

College of Education senior instructs peers on student mental health

By Stephanie Koons

As an aspiring teacher and soon-to-be graduate of the College of Education, SaraGrace Kimball understands that mental health awareness is an important issue for all educators as they play an influential role in their students’ lives.

During the spring 2021 semester, she taught a course on how teachers can support students’ mental health as part of an initiative at Penn State to give undergraduate students at University Park an opportunity to design and teach their own credit-bearing courses.

Kimball, a senior secondary math education major with a minor in English, taught EDUC197: Supporting Students’ Mental Health for the first eight weeks of the spring semester through synchronous Zoom. While teaching the one-credit class, Kimball challenged her students to take an in-depth look at the literature surrounding how teachers can support students’ mental health. She said her goal was for her students to not only think theoretically but also to take away concrete methods to support their students’ emotional, psychological and social well-being.

“We’re really just brushing the surface on trauma-informed education and how students can support mental health, but I think it’s a really important start for the college to see the positive outcomes that can come from a course like this,” said Kimball.

Kimball developed and taught 10

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“As a future teacher, it is important that I know how to help my students in the best way possible.”

— Makayla Clemons

the EDUC197 course through Students Teaching Students (STS), an organization at Penn State launched in spring 2020 that equips and enables undergraduate students to teach an official course under the supervision of a faculty member. STS partners with both the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence and the Student Engagement Network.

Kimball’s faculty sponsor for her course was Fran Arbaugh, professor of education (mathematics education) in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, who was present at each Zoom class but muted and video turned off.

“SaraGrace had the whole class planned out before the semester even started,” Arbaugh said. “She was so thoughtful in how she constructed the sessions and in choosing the readings she asked the students to do.”

According to Arbaugh, one of the benefits for a teacher in the STS program is “being able to engage other Penn State students in discussions they’re really interested in having.” For the students, having a peer as an instructor encourages them to express themselves more candidly.

“I think having these kinds of discussions about K-12 students’ mental health with another preservice teacher freed them up to talk about the things they really wanted to talk about,” she said.

Kimball said one of her main

goals for the class was to create a collaborative environment in which the students would feel comfortable bouncing ideas off each other.

“It wasn’t supposed to be ‘I’m just talking at you for two hours,’ it was supposed to be a ‘we’re going to discover this together’ environment,” she said. “But it was hard to know how successful that was going to be in a virtual setting. And so I tried really hard early on to build connections and relationships.”

To accomplish that goal, Kimball practiced patience while taking a creative approach to teaching.

She dedicated a class and a half to letting students get to know each other. She also used Zoom breakout rooms to divide the class into small groups, and students answered icebreaker questions and played games. Kimball also established discussion boards on Canvas.

“It’s all about variation for your students so that they’re not getting bored and they’re staying involved in the class,” she said.

Valarie Hibbard, a freshman majoring in elementary and early childhood education who took the Supporting Students’ Mental Health class, said she felt like she could be more up-front about her opinions in class with a teacher close to her age.

“We’ve likely shared experiences recently which helps to create this connection that a student may not experience with a professor 30

Features

Zoom screen capture

During the spring 2021 semester, SaraGrace Kimball taught a course on how teachers can support students’ mental health as part of a Penn State initiative to give undergraduate students an opportunity to design and teach their own courses. Class participants, from top left, are Fran Arbaugh, professor of education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Kimball, Valarie Hibbard, Emma Jacobson, Julia Rostcheck, Makayla Clemons, Madison Maney and Kevin Seipt.

years their senior,” Hibbard said.

“Being in a class taught by another student is also encouraging to me personally because it shows me that I have the opportunity to be a part of something bigger than myself and help other students my age if I choose to work in the STS program in the future.”

While mental health awareness has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, Kimball said education researchers have only recently begun to devote more attention to that area.

“Of course, you see (mental health classes) in counselor education, but a guidance counselor and a teacher have a very different role in a student’s mental health,” she said. “And I think often educators are afraid to get involved in mental health because they don’t know the definitions of their role in a student’s life.”

Rather than simply lecturing her students about mental health, Kimball said she strived to “practice what I’m preaching.”

Each week, she started class with a proven practice that can support positive mental health, such as yoga, guided meditation or journaling. She also had representatives from Penn State Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) give a presentation to the class on ways to support students’ mental health.

“I think the more teachers understand what their role is, the more comfortable they are engaging in it,” said Kimball.

Makayla Clemons, a senior majoring in secondary social studies education with minors in history and sociology, said that Kimball’s class was helpful in “shaping how we will one day interact with students of our own.”

“I believe this class came to me at a perfect time,” said Clemons.

“With the pandemic, we have seen mental health decline in many students who have switched to online learning. As a future teacher, it is important that I know how to help my students in the best way possible.”

A highlight of Kimball’s teaching experience, she said, was when one of her students asked her if she could adapt her course materials for an elective she wants to teach through a Penn State summer program.

“What makes me happiest about this course is hearing what my students are doing with it,” said Kimball. “The fact that people are taking this information and passing it on, that really means a lot to me and it makes me feel that the work I’m doing is important.”

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Features

Diversity committee continues to build community in a virtual environment

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By Stephanie Koons

romoting diversity, fostering dialogue and creating a climate that encourages a sense of community and belonging all are major objectives of the College of Education’s Diversity and Community Enhancement Committee (DCEC). In the past year, with the COVID-19 pandemic disrupting normal campus life and the Black Lives Matter movement putting an increased focus on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) issues, the DCEC has continued to drive community engagement through virtual events.

“What (DCEC) became during this past summer and during this really, really difficult year, is a place where anyone, regardless of where they are in their DEI journey, can drop in, connect, find out what’s going on in the college regarding DEI and also potentially get involved in something that’s going on,” said DCEC chair Seria Chatters, adjunct associate professor of education in the Department of Educational Psychology, Counseling, and Special Education (EPCSE) and director of equity and inclusivity for the State College Area School District.

María Schmidt, assistant dean of the Office of Education and Social Equity (OESE), said that while the College of Education went through iterations of diversity committees and task forces in the past, the DCEC was established in 2002 as a standing college committee. DCEC organizes events and activities that provide opportunities for faculty, staff and students in the college to engage in community conversations on anti-racism and social justice.

“Over the course of the years, we’ve had a number of different types of events and initiatives to

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“Teaching, Learning and Social Justice.”

“DCEC was efficient at quickly adapting to meet the challenge of working amid a pandemic,” said Schmidt. “Using virtual environments and meaningful communications, DCEC seized the challenge with continued community conversations that addressed current needs and circumstances and promoted a sense of belonging and connection.

Their work has helped not only in surviving this crisis but making us stronger as a community.”

Seria Chatters

promote diversity and improve the climate of the college,” said J.T. Taylor, associate professor of education (special education) in EPCSE. During the pandemic, DCEC has shifted its programming to a virtual format. Since spring 2020, Michelle Knotts, assistant professor of education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction (C&I), and Holly Klock, a doctoral candidate in C&I, have been coordinating “Community in Conversation: Equity and Education in These Times,” a monthly reading and discussion series of a shared text.

The Diversity in Education Conference, a free event designed as a forum for discussion and learning about working with diverse populations of students, was also transferred to Zoom.

The 2021 Conference, which was held Feb. 6, included discussions around the topics of “LGBTQ+ Issues in Education,” “Working with Students with Cultural and Exceptional Differences” and

With the racial trauma that has gripped the nation, the DCEC has promoted discourse around those issues.

“We’re slowly evolving in that sense and trying to incorporate the current climate into events,” said Rhea Banerjee, a fourth-year doctoral candidate in the Counselor Education program and graduate assistant for DCEC. OESE, the Equity Team and DCEC co-hosted a college-wide discussion via Zoom following a talk to the Penn State community by Ibram X. Kendi, author of “How to Be an Antiracist.”

“Those kinds of events are bringing us together as a community to provide an opportunity to ‘talk back,’” said Chatters.

According to Klock, the DCEC is building community in the College of Education incrementally by bringing interconnected groups of people together.

“The spaces that DCEC is setting up are normalizing getting multiple people from different backgrounds together to have these conversations,” she said.

Features A College of Education degree is more versatile than some people may imagine. Many of our graduates go into fields that are directly related to their degrees. But many others use the knowledge gained during their time as students to succeed in other fields. Take, for example, attorney Macy Laster and data analyst Jared Minetola, both of whom earned undergraduate degrees from the College of Education. Both have shared their stories, and the paths they took to get where they are today.

Macy Laster, Class of 2015

Jared Minetola, Class of 2008

Education: B.S. in education and public policy (EPP) with minors in sociology and women’s studies.

Education: B.S in secondary mathematics education.

Current position: associate attorney in the School Law department at Wisler Pearlstine in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. I represent public school districts, charter schools and other educational entities, with a focus on special education law.

I always dreamed of becoming an attorney, however, my love for education took over when it was time to pick a major in college. I initially planned to obtain a degree that would enable me to be a classroom teacher, until I met with an EPP graduate assistant who helped me to see that switching to EPP would enable me to combine both of the things I was interested in, policy/law and education. I took Dr. Mitra’s and Dr. Gamson’s (many) courses and they opened my eyes to the wide-ranging issues and areas encompassed within the “educational field.” I took the LSAT during my senior year and immediately entered law school at Syracuse University School of Law. During law school I worked for one year at the Disability Rights Clinic, with a focus on disability-related educational issues, helping indigent clients.

My EPP degree helped me to build the foundation of knowledge needed to work in the Disability Rights Clinic and, ultimately, to obtain my current position.

My coursework (and professors) taught me the art of learning, understanding and also formulating and applying policies and laws to real-life situations. This analytical approach helped prepare me for law school and provided me the insight necessary to hit the ground running in a career in educational law.

Advice to current students: Be open to the possibilities and various avenues, some less obvious, available to you and forge relationships with EPP staff to help to guide you. In my opinion, it is the lessons (in and out of the classroom) that I received from my EPP professors that helped me to become successful in life and to, ultimately, work toward achieving my dreams.

Current position: data analyst at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).

I really loved teaching and being a mentor for my students, but after four years I realized that I wanted to DO the problem-solving and APPLY the mathematical thinking I was teaching my students. I went back to school and got my M.S. in actuarial science from Temple.

I held a few actuarial positions and became an Associate of the Society of Actuaries. But, I realized that I enjoyed data analytics more than traditional actuarial work, and that led me to my current job as data analyst at CHOP. Some may look at my resume and say, ‘this guy’s all over the place!’ But, I needed each of the individual steps along the way to get where I am right now. I remember being worried my education degree would be a deterrent to the companies I was applying to for actuarial jobs, but it turned out to be a selling point.

Not only did the “Penn State” label add a few bonus points, but recruiters actually loved that I was a former teacher. In the actuarial/data world, an essential skill is being able to clearly and concisely explain conclusions – from complicated concepts and code – to executives/clinicians who don’t need to know “how the sausage was made.” In the data world, having strong communication/teaching skills in addition to a solid math background puts you miles ahead of the competition. I am incredibly grateful to Penn State for helping me foster both skills.

Advice for current students: Don’t lose sight of what you’re passionate about OUTSIDE of teaching.

It’s important for those of us who don’t make careers out of our passions to make sure we keep them in our lives. For me this has always been music – I played open mics after school and released songs on Spotify. I incorporated music into my classroom. (My ‘Properties of Exponents’ song was always a hit with my students, and on YouTube too!) Music kept me sane on those especially stressful days, and still does today.

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Research

Associate professor takes part in multilingual miracle in France

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By Jim Carlson

ong-term research by a College of Education associate professor is revealing new insights into multilingual deaf students’ language practices that opens a window to make visible our broader understandings of deaf and hearing multilingual learners’ creativity in putting to use multi-modal and multisensorial communicative practices in their everyday lives.

mode of communication, as opposed to speech-only, which is the dominant approach around the world, said Valente, who himself is deaf.

Valente said these follow-up interviews gave him insight into how the students developed close relationships from kindergarten to junior high. “Which is unusual because most kids, like myself … I never knew a deaf person until I was an adult, and 96% of deaf kids were born to hearing parents, so opportunities to meet another deaf person are rare,” he said.

Joseph Valente, professor-incharge for early childhood education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction (C&I) and director of the “This school has deaf teachers who Center for Disability Studies, researches are the first deaf teachers to get certified young, deaf children, their language in France and their curriculum is based Joseph Valente and school socialization. He is working on collaborations between linguists with the first bilingual deaf program in at the University of Paris VIII and deaf educators; France to be recognized by the Ministry of National it’s a very innovative program that is fast becoming Education after a 200-year ban on sign language and recognized worldwide as an exemplary model for deaf deaf bilingual education in that country. bilingual education.”

Valente first filmed kindergartners in Ramonville, Valente said many of the Toulouse students attend a suburb in the Toulouse area of France, about eight years ago when the program was still considered college, which goes against the norm. “Academic, experimental. Now, this bilingual deaf education mental health and employment outcomes for deaf program is one of two formally recognized by the students in France are abysmal; 50% of deaf students United Nations as an exemplary model of inclusive achieve a high school education; 30% of deaf adults are mainstream schooling for deaf students. This deaf unemployed. Only about 20% of deaf kids go to college bilingual education program is unique because it is and only between 20% and 43% of them graduate. The embedded in a hearing, local elementary school. average deaf kid who graduates in the United States graduates with a fourth-grade reading level … fifthIn early 2020, Valente was awarded a Research grade math,” Valente said.

Initiation Grant from C&I to return to France to reinterview those same students, now in junior high school, while also sharing films from their kindergarten classroom almost a decade ago.

Valente’s sociolinguistic video ethnographic research investigates how deaf multilingual children make use of communicative and community practices as resources for navigating the multiple, fluid and everemergent deaf-deaf and deaf-hearing spaces of their classroom and deaf and hearing school community. He also investigated how deaf children, as well as their parents and teachers, think about their own and other children’s multilingual and inclusive communicative and community practices.

This was the first cross-national study of deaf bilingual kindergartners in a classroom with a deaf teacher and using sign language/writing as the primary 14

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“Nearly 40% of deaf people require hospitalization and outpatient therapy. In short, the outcomes for the deaf are atrocious; they’re actually the worst outcomes of any language minoritized student. This school is nothing short of a miracle and I’ve been trying to do everything I can to document its rise and do a longitudinal study on them. I’m trying to get (grant) money to just keep following these kids.”

Valente said research outcomes are showing that the deaf students in the study are scoring average or above the average of what is expected for a hearing student and they are ascending to secondary education. “In terms of their literacy outcomes and things like that, they’re doing significantly better than the kids that don’t have these advantages,” Valente said.

Research

Researchers examine challenges facing youth in transitional societies

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By Stephanie Koons

ollege of Education researchers, bolstered by support from Penn State Global Programs, have collaborated with an international group of scholars and academics to study the challenges and contexts facing youth from rural communities in countries with legacies of socialism undergoing social, political and economic transition.

for Penn State Global Programs, who earned a doctorate in education theory and policy with a dual title in comparative and international education from the College of Education in 2017; and Annie Maselli, a doctoral candidate in EPS. “Youth face many uncertainties among these ‘crossroads’ as they journey toward adulthood, encountering the effects of political transitions, COVID-19, climate change, the rise of populism and right-wing nationalism,” said Maselli.

“One of the challenges with these transitions in general is how they create new kinds of spatial inequalities between “While all of these factors influence urban and rural places,” said Kai Schafft, youth transitions, they’re not felt equally director of the Center on Rural Education across the rural-urban continuum — with Kai Schafft and Communities and professor of compounding costs for rural people, education and rural sociology in the schools and their communities.”

Department of Education Policy Studies (EPS). “What Working on the project brought Horvatek back to does this mean for young people, and especially in the his roots. Having originally come to Penn State from context of divergent opportunity structures and rural Croatia in 2010 on a Humphrey Fellowship, she said depopulation?” the book didn’t provide much evidence that conditions The research project took root several years ago in rural areas had substantially improved in the past shortly after Schafft returned from Central European decade.

University’s Institute for Advanced Studies in Budapest, Hungary, when he was a visiting Fulbright She referred to a “bipolar development of Croatia” fellow. Returning to Penn State, he learned about an in which urban areas are prospering economically while institutional arrangement between Penn State and the the “hinterlands are left behind.” She said hundreds of University of Split in Croatia. schools have been under threat of closure in rural areas in recent years, as they failed to enroll new students, With funding for a pilot project from Penn State leading to community disintegration.

Global Connections, Schafft and Sanja Stanic, professor of sociology at the University of Split, surveyed about 500 high school students in three different rural spaces in Central Croatia. Eventually, the project was expanded into a book deal, and the co-editors identified contributors who wrote chapters on a range of national contexts including Serbia, Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Russia and Vietnam.

“I definitely hope that our policy-makers in education are really starting to think about what is the role of rural schools in not only development of rural areas in Croatia but Croatia in general,” Horvatek said.

“During the work on the project, we expanded our collaboration to include colleagues from universities from other countries,” said Stanic. “In this way, we have created a network of scientists who share research interests and who, with their contributions, have significantly contributed to the issues discussed in our book, which is already being praised in Croatia.”

The researchers said they are energized by the opportunities that have resulted from the book. In February, Schafft and Maselli were asked by one of the book’s Russian contributors to present their work at an invited plenary presentation at a conference held at the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences.

Schafft is in talks about continuing this line of research in Romania and would like to continue the collaboration with the University of Split.

Schafft’s co-editors on the book, “Rural Youth at the Crossroads: Transitional Societies in Central Europe and Beyond," are Stanic; Renata Horvatek, international internships and research abroad adviser

“It was an incredible privilege for us to be exposed to these scholars and these issues in different parts of the world,” said Schafft. “Hopefully, this is just the beginning of these collaborations.”

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Research

Project redefines essential elements of Professional Development School

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College of Education associate professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction who has been involved in a two-year endeavor that will include a series of publications redefining and describing what it means to be a professional development school (PDS) says that project is about to launch.

Bernard Badiali says the nine essentials that were developed in 2007 determined whether a schooluniversity partnership really was a professional development school.

“The rewriting of the essentials is an update that reflects their evolution; they have evolved from being definitional in nature to aspirational in nature. The new edition includes moral imperatives missing in the original,” he said.

Sponsored by the National Association for Professional Development Schools (NAPDS), the principles expand upon concepts such as anti-racist pedagogy; equity and reciprocity between partners; foundational pillars of partnership; clinical preparation of new teachers; shared governance; leadership; boundary spanning roles; and resource allocation.

Badiali added that this is a more elaborate rolling out of what it means to be a PDS. “The nine essentials, as a sort of a trademark, are still in place. But the way they’re defined and explained now act as guides for any universityschool partnership that really wants to become a professional development school,” he said.

“This is new because it attends to the most critical social issues of our time. The first essential defines a PDS that is a learning community 16

Penn State Education

By Jim Carlson

The 9 essentials of a PDS 1. A Comprehensive Mission: A PDS is a learning community guided by a comprehensive, articulated mission that is broader than the goals of any single partner, and that aims to advance equity, antiracism and social justice within and among schools, colleges/universities and their respective community and professional partners.

2. Clinical Preparation: A PDS embraces the preparation of educators through clinical practice.

3. Professional Learning and Leading: A PDS is a context for continuous professional learning and leading for all participants, guided by need and a spirit and practice of inquiry.

4. Reflection and Innovation: A PDS makes a shared commitment to reflective practice, responsive innovation and generative knowledge.

5. Research and Results: A PDS is a community that engages in collaborative research and participates in the public sharing of results in a variety of outlets.

6. Articulated Agreements: A PDS requires intentionally evolving written articulated agreement(s) that delineate the commitments, expectations, roles and responsibilities of all involved.

7. Shared Governance Structures: A PDS is built upon shared, sustainable governance structures that promote collaboration, foster reflection and honor and value all participants’ voices.

8. Boundary-Spanning Roles: A PDS creates space for, advocates for, and supports college/university and P-12 faculty to operate in well-defined, boundary-spanning roles that transcend institutional settings.

9. Resources and Recognition: A PDS provides dedicated and shared resources and establishes traditions to recognize, enhance, celebrate and sustain the work of partners and the partnership. guided by a comprehensive articulated mission that’s broader than the goals of any single partner that aims to advance equity, antiracism, social justice within schools, colleges and universities in their respective communities and professional partners,” Badiali said.

“This is much more of an aspirational document that advises school partnerships that if they want to be a professional development school, this is a principle they must stand on. So, this idea of being an advocate for

equity, anti-racism and social justice certainly was not in the first set of essentials. But because of the way our profession has evolved, we think it’s necessary if you’re going to have this kind of a partnership to make that one foundational idea.”

Badiali said today’s leading-edge teacher preparation schools are re-emphasizing the importance of clinical experiences. He has been involved with Penn State’s program since 2004. The Penn State/State College Area School District PDS currently is on hiatus, he said.

Research

Education researchers seek to bridge gap between scholarship and policy

By Stephanie Koons

A group of researchers in the Penn State College of Education has been awarded a $50,000 grant from the Spencer Foundation, which they will use to help scholars who study educational equity issues to bridge the gap between research and policy.

In collaboration with Penn State’s Research to Policy Collaboration (RPC), the faculty members will invite a group of 10 scholars whose research addresses urgent issues in education inequity to participate in a conference that will be held in fall 2021 in Washington, D.C. RPC, which provides a scientific home for the study of translating scientific evidence for decisionmakers, will furnish participating scholars with evidence-based formal training and experiential learning around policy engagement that improves policymakers’ application of research evidence.

“The biggest push for us from the very beginning is that it’s very rare to see policy specific to education be implemented in ways that is actually informed by research evidence,” said Francesca López, Waterbury Chair in Equity Pedagogy in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, who is principal investigator for the project.

“It’s always assumed that whatever we’re researching has policy implications. There’s rarely, if ever, explicit training on how to make research relevant to policymakers.”

López, along with co-principal investigators Royel Johnson, assistant professor of education (higher education) and research associate in the Center for the Study of Higher Education (CSHE);

important and timely,” said Patterson. “Across the country at the federal, state and local levels of policy and educational policy in particular, critical race theory is under attack.”

Francesca López

Royel Johnson

Ashley Patterson

LaWanda Ward

LaWanda Ward, assistant professor of education and research associate in the CSHE; and Ashley Patterson, assistant professor of education (language, culture and society), were awarded funding by the Spencer Foundation for their project, “Translating Critical Race Research for Evidenced-Based Policymaking.”

The foundation’s Conference Grant Program provides support to scholars to organize small research conferences, focused symposia or other forms of convenings around important issues in education research.

López said that an overarching theme of the conference is the need to harness the power and potential of Critical Race Theory (CRT) across methodological and disciplinary divides.

CRT is an academic movement made up of civil-rights scholars and activists in the United States who seek to critically examine the law as it intersects with issues of race, and to challenge mainstream liberal approaches to racial justice.

“This work is incredibly

In addition to the $50,000 grant from the Spencer Foundation, the faculty members received resources from the College of Education through a Research Initiation Grant that will “allow us to study the experiences of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) scholars who participated in the training and what was their experience interacting with policymakers,” Johnson said.

Additionally, the team has a proposal under review with the Spencer Foundation to do followup research on the BIPOC scholars who attend the conference.

“For the convening, participants will develop research fact sheets and briefs. We are now seeking funding to test effective strategies for communicating and disseminating their work to legislative offices,” Johnson said.

In addition to helping researchers communicate more effectively with legislators, he added, the convening will address racial inequity in the education field in the sense that “BIPOC scholars have inequitable opportunities to have our work seen, used and taken up by policymakers.”

López added, “If you look at gatekeeping mechanisms in research and whose voice gets used, it doesn’t often come from researchers from marginalized communities. You don’t see Indigenous, Black, Latinx populations typically at the table and there’s a lot of mechanisms that create this.”

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Impact

New technology helps people with disabilities navigate grocery shopping

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By Stephanie Koons

rocery shopping is a life skill that many people take for granted, but it is an essential part of living independently in the community.

A group of researchers in the Penn State College of Education are exploring how different types of technology can help individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) improve their shopping skills in community-based settings.

Technological supports for participation and communication in everyday life have been investigated at Penn State through the work of the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Augmentative and Alternative Communication (RERC on AAC).

The RERC on AAC is a national center of researchers and engineers who conceptualize, develop and research new technologies to support communication.

An RERC on AAC team led

by David McNaughton, professor of education in the Department of Educational Psychology, Counseling, and Special Education (EPCSE) and Janice Light, the Hintz Family Endowed Chair on Children’s Communicative Competence at Penn State, researched a new approach to supporting communication, called Video Visual Scene Displays (VSDs).

In this approach, a video is made of the target skills including picking out items and paying for purchases.

Then, using a special Video VSD app, communication supports can be embedded in the video at key junctures. The Video VSD approach is available as part of commercially available AAC apps and can be used on a variety of

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Photo: Provided by David McNaughton

An individual uses a Video Visual Scene Displays app developed by the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Augmentative and Alternative Communication to aid him while grocery shopping.

tablet technologies such as iPads and Samsung tablets.

is a crucial part of ensuring a positive shopping experience.

“Video VSDs are an exciting new tool to increase participation and communication in communitybased settings for individuals with disabilities,” McNaughton said. “In the coming years we will investigate how to further develop and support widespread use of these powerful assistive technologies.”

Sojung Jung and Ciara Ousley, doctoral candidates in EPCSE, recently completed a study related to this work that examined the use of the Video VSD app by an adult with Down syndrome while shopping in a grocery store. Jung and McNaughton said they are excited about the results they have seen in the grocery store and other settings.

In the context of grocery shopping, the Video VSD intervention works by walking the individual through the shopping process using a clear video demonstration of the needed skills. The technology is especially attuned to supporting communication while grocery shopping, McNaughton said, which

“I’m interested in how assistive technology can support participation and communication in community activities for individuals with disabilities,” said Jung. “And grocery shopping is a critically important life skill for our selfsufficiency, nutrition and health.”

Impact Cooking Classic participants helped stock Lions Pantries Penn State’s inaugural Cooking Classic served up fun for participants and much needed funds for campus food pantries.

A total of 522 people took part in the series, which featured four weekly webinars hosted by various Penn State colleges and campuses.

Penn State alumni and friends learned about recipes for pierogies and wing sauces, healthy foods, specialty chocolate, and wine and food pairings.

In addition to connecting the Penn State community, the program helped raise awareness of food insecurity experienced by Penn State students. Attendees were able to assist Lions Pantries at campuses across the commonwealth. A total of 117 donors gave more than $4,300 to support the pantries.

The Cooking Classic was organized by Alumni Relations staff in the Colleges of Agricultural Sciences, Education, Information Sciences and Technology, and the Schreyer Honors College; and campuses at Abington, Altoona, Erie (The Behrend College), Harrisburg, Schuylkill and the World Campus.

Alumna addresses students’ needs in and out of classroom When Stephanie Metzger (2016, Spanish, world languages education) spent two years developing a curriculum for her school district’s first middle schoollevel bilingual Spanish program, she didn’t expect the program to debut during a pandemic.

Despite having to make several adjustments along the way, Metzger is taking everything in stride and focuses on providing as much support as possible to her students and their families.

Metzger, a Spanish language arts teacher for Alexandria (Virginia) City Public Schools, has

also tried to keep her students engaged as best she can.

Beyond the classroom, she is focused on helping families in need.

When her classes initially went remote, Metzger quickly realized that most of her students didn’t have notebooks. Since she wasn’t physically with them, she couldn’t just hand them school supplies like she normally would at school; so, she asked her church for help.

Those efforts allowed every single student in her class to have the school supplies — and in some instances, food and other supplies — they would have not had otherwise.

Read the full story at http://bit. ly/Stephanie_Metzger online.

Practicum addresses mental health needs in schools Mental health is a critical component of K-12 students’ academic performance and overall well-being, and the COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the need for services that address those needs. A partnership that began in 2016 between the Penn State College of Education and the State College Area School District (SCASD) has expanded and is creating opportunities for graduate students to gain counseling experience in educational settings while removing some of the stigma and barriers to access surrounding mental health treatment.

The program is administered through the Dr. Edwin L. Herr Clinic, which is staffed by master’s and doctoral students in the Counselor Education program.

“The overall mission of this partnership is to remove barriers and provide equitable access to students, families, faculty and staff seeking mental health supports,” said Katie Kostohryz, associate teaching professor in the College of Education’s Department of Educational Psychology, Counseling, and Special Education (EPCSE).

When COVID-19 caused SCASD to close its schools and switch to remote learning in March 2020, the Herr Clinic quickly transitioned to a telehealth model in which healthrelated services and information are distributed via electronic information and telecommunication technologies.

Seria Chatters, director of equity and inclusivity for SCASD and adjunct associate professor in EPCSE, said mental health clinics offering telehealth services could be considered a silver lining of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“For teens, getting therapy through their computer and/or cellphone is awesome,” Chatters said. “The in-person component I don’t think is ever going to go away, but I think telehealth is something that is here to stay.”

Read the full story at http://bit. ly/SCASD_telehealth online.

Faculty research leads to in-home HIV test kits in PA Two College of Education faculty members, with help from the HIV Prevention & Care Project at the University of Pittsburgh and the Pennsylvania Department of Health, have started a website that offers HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) home self-test kits to anyone in Pennsylvania. The intention of this initiative is to offer testing to people who are unaware of their status and do not have access to clinical testing.

“This is really a way to serve a particular need and not to replace in any way the better option of getting a test in a clinic,” said Liza Conyers, professor of education (rehabilitation and human services).

This initiative comes directly out of her research.

“It’s important to get diagnosed as early as possible, engage in treatment, seek out social support and continue to pursue life’s dreams and goals,” she said.

Read the full story at http://bit. ly/HIV_hometest online.

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Alumni

New alumni group to address social justice and equity issues in education

By Stephanie Koons

College of Education alumni who benefited from the services of the Office of Education and Social Equity (OESE) while they were students now have the opportunity to continue to help advance educational equity and social justice in the college community.

The Social Equity Alumni (SEA) Network has been formed as an official alumni Affiliate Program Group (APG) in the College of Education.

An APG consists of alumni or friends of Penn State who have a common interest in a particular academic, professional or extracurricular activity that is related to a specific college or campus program.

“A vibrant BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) alumni network will foster meaningful relationships that support underrepresented engagement in all our college endeavors and advocacy for institutional change,” said María Schmidt, assistant dean for education and social equity.

“It intentionally empowers and strengthens relationships between current students and BIPOC alumni through networking, mentorship, professional development and community-building.”

The OESE, formerly the Office of Multicultural Programs, works to foster equity and inclusion by creating educational opportunities and experiences, raising awareness and developing strategies and tools 20

Penn State Education

“As dedicated, thoughtful and engaged alumni who are committed to education and Penn State, we are looking forward to sharing our time and talents to supporting both the College of Education and the students at Penn State.”

— Jhan Doughty-Berry

to enhance intercultural, racial/ ethnic competence.

Through various types of educational programming, partnerships, outreach and professional development, the office helps students to develop the skills that will enable them to become better educators and leaders.

SEA Network membership is open to any graduate or former student of the college, said Stefanie Tomlinson, assistant director of alumni relations in the College of Education.

The two main initiatives to kickstart the network are the Programming Committee, which will plan educational and social events; and the Mentoring Committee, which will serve as an informal informational resource for students who are part of OESE. “We’re looking forward to the great things the SEA Network is going to do to connect alumni and to help the OESE further its goals,” said Tomlinson.

Jhan Doughty-Berry, senior program adviser for Research and Development-National Assessment of Educational Progress at ETS

(Educational Testing Service), who received her master’s and doctorate from the Department of Educational Psychology, Counseling, and Special Education, is the inaugural president of the SEA Network.

She said she is excited about the network’s potential to make meaningful change at the student and alumni level.

“We are at such a critical inflection point in our history where matters of social justice, education and a global pandemic have all combined and magnified the need now more than ever for issues related to race, equity and justice to be given the attention and importance needed to move our nation and Penn State forward,” said Doughty-Berry.

“As dedicated, thoughtful and engaged alumni who are committed to education and Penn State, we are looking forward to sharing our time and talents to supporting both the College of Education and the students at Penn State.”

Anyone who is interested in joining the SEA Network can contact Tomlinson at skt2@psu.edu.

Alumni Message from the Alumni Society Board President Greetings to all of you from the Penn State College of Education Alumni Society Board! In spite of the coronavirus pandemic, we continue to engage with our College of Education Alumni and Students.

Five board committees have been involved in a variety of activities this year. Here is a snapshot of the outstanding work each committee has been undertaking.

with the Emeri-TIES newsletter.

The committee creates various opportunities for alumni to connect.

Great fun was had by all during the Virtual Pet Show!

The Constitution and Policy Committee has spent considerable time updating and revising the Alumni Society’s bylaws with a special emphasis on increasing cultural and racial awareness.

The Academic and Career Enrichment Committee always congratulates recent graduates and has created a very informational program titled “Penn State Proud: Teachers Helping Teachers.”

Finally, the Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee (J.E.D.I.) has been established.

The overarching goal of this newly formed committee is to be explicit and intentional in promoting the goals of social justice and equity as a part of the College of Education Strategic Plan. As a part of this committee work, the Alumni Society Board of Directors annually will recognize an alum who has demonstrated exemplary engagement and commitment in promoting J.E.D.I.

The Outreach and Engagement Committee communicates to former and current board members

We are delighted to serve the Penn State College of Education students and alumni. For more

The Alumni-Student Teacher Network Committee provided virtual supplemental activities related to teacher certification and job searches to student teachers.

Mock interviews have been conducted and a virtual celebration was held in late April.

information about the Alumni Society Board check out our page at https://ed.psu.edu/alumni-giving/ alumni-society-board on the College of Education website.

For the Glory,

Joseph H. Clapper ’92 D.Ed. Curriculum & Instruction

Nominate outstanding alumni for annual excellence awards College of Education alumni are honored with awards from the college’s Alumni Society as well as from the Penn State Alumni Association.

The College of Education Alumni Society supports awards in several categories, presented each year to graduates and student teachers who have distinguished themselves in their profession.

Award categories are: • Alumni Excellence. This is the highest honor bestowed upon alumni of the College of Education. It is awarded to recognize careerlong, sustained excellence of contribution and achievement in the nominee’s chosen profession.

• Outstanding Teaching. This award recognizes an exemplary individual in a full-time teaching capacity in the education profession.

• Leadership and Service. This award recognizes those alumni who have distinguished themselves in their chosen profession, in or out of the field of education.

• Outstanding New Graduate. This award recognizes recent graduates who have distinguished themselves in their new careers.

• Service to Penn State. This award recognizes those alumni and friends who have made significant contributions of time and talent to the college and/or the University.

• Outstanding Student Teaching. This award recognizes up to four outstanding student teachers every academic year. (Note: Nominations for this award are solicited through the College of Education’s Office of Curriculum & Instruction Field Experiences.)

• J.E.D.I. (Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion).

This award recognizes alumni who showcase exemplary insight and fortitude in workplace and/ or community diversity.

Nominations are accepted throughout the year, with recipients chosen each spring. For information, and to submit a nomination, visit https://ed.psu.edu/alumnigiving/alumni-society-awards online.

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