Carolina Education - Fall 2023

The UNC School of Education hosted the 2023 World Anti-Bullying Forum Oct. 25-27 in Raleigh, marking the first time the event was hosted outside of Europe. Faculty member Dorothy Espelage, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, Dean Fouad Abd-El-Khalick, and Her Royal Highness The Crown Princess of Denmark, pictured left to right, spoke at the event’s opening ceremony. Read more inside.

CAROLINA

Education SCHOOL OF EDUCATION THE UNIVERSIT Y OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL

FALL 2023

Fellow Tar Heels, Education is a collaborative endeavor. Indeed, collaboration forms one of the UNC School of Education’s guiding pillars – Collaborating for the Greater Good. This pillar recognizes that productive and meaningful partnerships across boundaries and with as many stakeholders as possible, especially in education, helps to ensure a well-educated, expertly-skilled, and empowered public — which is critical in addressing inequities, engaging with the future of work, and promoting the health and well-being of all. In short, collaboration is paramount for a prosperous society.

At nearly every turn this fall semester, I saw this pillar in action, and as I unfold this edition of Carolina Education, I am reminded of the collaborations happening within and beyond Peabody Hall that hold great potential for the people of North Carolina, the nation, and the world.

Undoubtedly, you have already glimpsed the cover of this issue. In October, the School hosted the World Anti-Bullying Forum in Raleigh, bringing together researchers, practitioners, educators, and more for three days of workshops, keynotes, and networking with the sole intention of preventing and ending bullying amongst the young people of our world. There are few, if any, events like this one, and this one marks the first time the Forum traveled outside of Europe. It is a testament to the impact faculty member Dorothy Espelage, Ph.D., has in this collective work, and the attendance of North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper and Her Royal Highness The Crown Princess of Denmark speaks to the pressing need to keep children safe.

Inside this Carolina Education, I cannot wait for you to read about Master of Arts in Teaching student Grace Landrum, one of our first Fellows for Inclusive Excellence.

I am hopeful this Fellows program — which removes barriers for our student teachers, school counselors-in-training, and recent graduates to serve rural schools — will serve as a beacon for forward-thinking education programs that benefit our state’s high-needs schools.

Martinette Horner, Ed.D., director of our Master of School Administration program, writes about our recent shift to a HyFlex format, which enables aspiring school leaders from across the state to join classes in Chapel Hill virtually and add new dimensions to our principal preparation efforts.

You will read about a new partnership between the School and the N.C. Department of Public Instruction that aims to find evidence-based solutions, in collaboration with 16 of our state districts, to solve those districts’ most immediate challenges. You will also meet our newest Distinguished Alumni Awards recipients, education professionals who have assembled high-performing teams to benefit educators and students.

As a recipient of this mailing, I am certain that your work takes a collaborative approach. Thank you for your work to advance education by leading and joining strong teams. Together, we Propel the World.

All my best,

Fouad Abd-El-Khalick Dean and Alumni Distinguished Professor

NEWS

Bolick collaborates on classroom lessons focused on contemporary Africa Faculty member Cheryl Mason Bolick, Ph.D., is part of a cross-campus team, led by the UNC African Studies Center, providing elementary school teachers with classroom materials that aim to increase students’ understanding of contemporary Africa. Bolick provided curriculum expertise for the project’s first lessons that focus on Senegal. Lessons on Ghana are forthcoming.

To access the free lessons, visit ed.unc.edu/teachingafrica.

Banks named Carolina’s 2023 Student Teacher of the Year Emily Banks (’22 B.A.Ed., ’23 M.A.T.), the UNC School of Education’s 2023 Student Teacher of the Year, has known since second grade that she wanted to pursue a career in teaching. That pursuit led her to Glenn Elementary in Durham, where she is teaching during the 2023-24 school year. In May, she graduated as a member of the first cohort of the DREAM — or Diverse and Resilient Educators Advised through Mentorship — residency program in which she completed the Master of Arts in Teaching program along with a year-long student-teaching internship and will teach for three years in Durham Public Schools.

Carolina Community Academy featured at University Day The University Day ceremony on Oct. 12, 2023, highlighted Carolina Community Academy, Carolina’s innovative K-2 school in Roxboro, N.C., launched in 2022 in collaboration with Person County Schools. “Carolina Community Academy is bridging theory and practice, helping to shorten the distance not only between Chapel Hill and Roxboro but also between research and implementation,” Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz said. “The school is providing robust wraparound services to students, which goes beyond the classroom and focuses on the whole child.”

Watch Guskiewicz’s remarks and the work happening at Carolina Community Academy at ed.unc.edu/uday.

Schooled and sorted: Domina rethinks categorization Thurston “Thad” Domina, Ph.D., the Robert Wendell Eaves Sr. Distinguished Professor in Educational Leadership, co-authored “Schooled and Sorted: How Educational Categories Create Inequality,” which explores processes of educational categorization to explain the complex relationship between education and social inequality, and identifies strategies that can help build more just educational systems.

Preparing school leaders for every N.C. district In 2021, the School launched its Master of School Administration (MSA) program with in-person and virtual class options, enabling aspiring school leaders from across North Carolina to access classes and expert faculty members in Chapel Hill. Martinette Horner (’96 A.B.Ed., ’16 Ed.D.), MSA program director, reflects on the shift to HyFlex learning.

Our MSA program at the UNC School of Education has a long history of preparing working educators for schoolbased leadership roles. Each year, we graduate leaders who often become assistant principals and then eventually lead their own dynamic school leadership teams.

Our graduates enter schools with knowledge, skills, and dispositions that help to create conditions that result in positive student outcomes — learning outcomes and, in some ways more importantly, “whole child” outcomes.

We know children don’t come into schools as blank slates. They arrive with intervening variables, and this means our future principals must understand those variables and systems that prevent children from being their best self and student.

That’s just one signature of our program: To prepare folks who make sure that all children receive what they need in their school.

A strength of our MSA program is the cohort model.

Students create strong professional relationships from the very beginning of the program. Program faculty carefully craft experiences that strengthen student ties that extend beyond their time as students. We often hear from alumni that they create communication groups to stay in touch and they constantly lean on one another for support.

I always tell our students, “You will learn just as much from your classmates as you will from your instructors.”

So, it’s important to us to bring in a cohort of educators with diverse experiences and backgrounds.

Since launching in a HyFlex — or hybrid, flexible — modality, our cohorts have become even more diverse.

Students can attend classes face to face or virtually, and

our classrooms enable them to join multiple, concurrent breakout sessions, pairing in-person and virtual combinations of students.

HyFlex enriches our classrooms and broadens our students’ experiences, perspectives, and professional networks.

When I joined the School’s MSA program in 2016, we had gender diversity and growing racial and ethnic diversity.

But we didn’t have geographic diversity. Students drove to campus for in-person classes. We mostly prepared educators working full-time in the immediately surrounding counties. Having that tight geographic radius often means students bring similar experiences into our classrooms and come from similar backgrounds.

HyFlex helps us to achieve geographic diversity. With HyFlex and UNC LEADS, our North Carolina Principal Fellows program, we have welcomed future school leaders from Bertie, New Hanover, Wake, and Wayne counties. We hope to welcome aspiring principals from additional districts through this program.

So far, our students have had a positive response to HyFlex cohorts. In a survey, all of them agreed or strongly agreed they “feel like a member of a community” in the MSA program and that they “believe [their] classmates know [them] as an individual.”

As the flagship university, we have a duty to go beyond the geographic boundaries of the Research Triangle – in service to all of North Carolina’s school districts. HyFlex helps us to do that and to provide access to our highquality program to folks who are literally hours away.

My goal is to utilize the HyFlex modality to help us prepare school leaders for every North Carolina district.

Clockwise from top: A panel with teens from around the world focused on online safety; bullying researchers present at a poster session; Her Royal Highness The Crown Princess of Denmark addresses attendees; Dorothy Espelage welcomes attendees; Dean Fouad Abd-El-Khalick greets Gov. Roy Cooper. Photos by Jafar Fallahi

An international gathering to end bullying The UNC School of Education hosted the 2023 World AntiBullying Forum (WABF), advancing the worldwide fight against bullying, Oct. 25-27 in Raleigh. WABF 2023 marked the first time the biennial event was hosted outside of Europe.

Dorothy Espelage, Ph.D., the William C. Friday Distinguished Professor of Education and a world leader in bullying prevention research, organized and co-emceed the event.

Over two years, Espelage and a team of School staff, and graduate and undergraduate students developed the Forum’s programming and secured critical partnerships.

The Forum drew nearly 600 attendees – researchers, practitioners, policymakers, educators, youth, and more representing more than 30 countries – who presented at or engaged in more than 70 events, including keynotes, workshops, and more. Educators from 13 North Carolina school districts and Carolina Community Academy were in attendance. Several of those educators, many of whom work in districts that partner with the School, attended with funding provided by the UNC School of Education.

Championing inclusion, implementing support for rural students In February 2023, the UNC School of Education announced a unique fellowship program to help ensure highly effective educators serve students in rural, highneeds North Carolina communities. With a $3 million commitment over four years, the Fellows for Inclusive Excellence program supports current School students — student teachers and school counselors-in-training — and recent graduates to serve those schools.

Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) student Grace Landrum (’23 B.A.Ed.) is one of 14 students — in the MAT and School Counseling programs — in the inaugural cohort of the program.

“Through the MAT and Fellows programs, I am gaining a better understanding of how to support my students,” said Landrum, who is student teaching at Carolina Community Academy in Roxboro.

“Each student is unique, and I want to learn how to appropriately address their specific needs and become the supportive figure they require.”

The Fellows program provides tuition and travel funding to support Carolina students as they intern and learn from experienced, effective educators in Chatham and Person counties. Once graduated, Fellows have the opportunity to apply to return to their districts as new professionals, receiving a graduated bonus over three years, if they opt to stay.

“The Fellows program not only helps my academic journey but allows me to bring quality education to areas where it is needed the most,” she said.

At Carolina Community Academy, Landrum is learning and helping implement crucial support systems for underrepresented students.

“My time so far has been unique and, most importantly, fulfilling.”

Collaborating for the Greater Good

At the UNC School of Education, we value and foster productive and meaningful partnerships across disciplinary and institutional boundaries, working with stakeholders within and beyond formal institutions of education. A well-educated, diverse, and empowered public is critical to addressing social inequities and injustices, promoting and supporting the health and well-being of all, and ensuring the competitiveness and prosperity of our state and nation.

Four honored at 2023 Distinguished Alumni Awards ceremony Brown

Colbert

Feller

Watlington

The UNC School of Education honored four alumni at its 21st annual Distinguished Alumni Awards ceremony held Sept. 30 at the George Watts Hill Alumni Center on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus.

Seth Brown (’97 A.B.Ed.) and Tom Feller (’20 Ed.D.), who lead innovative professional development and educator retention efforts in Pitt County Schools, each received the Alumni Achievement Award. Elizabeth “Eliz” Colbert (’86 A.B.Ed., ’94 M.Ed.), who recently retired as the executive director of the North Carolina Virtual Public School, and Tony B. Watlington Sr. (‘00 M.S.A., ‘08 Ed.D.), superintendent of the School District of Philadelphia, each received the Distinguished Leadership Award.

Empowering N.C. school districts through research and collaboration Faculty members Lauren Sartain, Ph.D., and Matthew Springer, Ph.D., are leading an effort to connect groups in the education sector that can sometimes seem siloed: K-12 and higher education leaders and educators, universitybased faculty and researchers, and state policymakers.

The North Carolina Practitioner Network is a new partnership between the UNC School of Education and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) with funding from NCDPI and the North Carolina Collaboratory. The network brings together 16 school districts with university faculty members from across the state to work together on evidence-based solutions to the most pressing problems districts face right now.

“Academic research traditionally relies on university faculty as the experts who decide what problems are important to investigate,” said Sartain. “This network is different because it will connect district and school folks with researchers in a way that makes them equal and committed partners with the same goal.”

Interactive workshops will guide district and school leaders

on how to identify problems of practice and provide research-based strategies for addressing those problems.

District leaders will also delve into research methodologies, tools, and techniques and how to apply them in K-12 settings.

Each participating district will be matched with faculty fellows from North Carolina universities who can be thought partners and provide technical support.

The network will also engage leaders at the state, local, and institutional levels. Springer noted the promise of bringing together researchers and practitioners to build districts’ capacity to address issues through an evidencebased lens, while also ensuring researchers are focused on the most pressing problems districts face.

“The Practitioner Network is a unique initiative that brings together researchers and educators to identify solutions to persistent problems like teacher recruitment and retention or post-secondary pathways for students while also building district capacity to identify and evaluate evidencebased solutions into the future,” Springer said.

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