I am delighted to welcome back Lori Helvey who has been on maternity leave since the birth of her third child, a daughter, Skylar, on March 22. Although Lori has been working part-time from home, it is great to have her back 100% altogether and in person two days a week through the summer. I appreciated all the more everything that she does when we had to get things done without her skills and knowledge. I am also grateful for all she so smoothly managed to do even while away. Welcome back, Lori! We missed you.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Fran Houchard, whose workload intensified in Lori’s absence and who played a crucial role in our managing these last three months, especially in the challenging fiscal environment. Thanks so much, Fran!
I am pleased to announce that Professor Ed Silver has been selected as a fellow in the Academic Leadership Program sponsored by the Council of Interinstitutional Cooperation (CIC). The goal of the program is to develop future academic leaders on CIC campuses. (The CIC is an organization that supports connections across many fields among its 12 member institutions––the Big Ten universities plus the University of Illinois-Chicago and the University of Chicago.) Each year’s program involves a series of three seminars hosted by CIC institutions on a rotating basis. Up to five University of Michigan faculty are selected for this special program each year.
On Monday, the IDEA Institute kicked off its two-week Summer Science Camp. At this camp, local high school students learn about advanced science techniques that usually are taught in college science courses. For example, in chemistry camp, students learn how to use thin layer chromatography and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to identify various substances. They also experience the lives of university students by living in the dorms, meeting faculty, and challenging themselves to solve problems. They hear personal stories of scientists who are in the laboratory, making new scientific discoveries.
The Instructional Development and Educational Assessment (IDEA) Institute is a collaborative effort between the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA) and the School of Education. The IDEA Institute brings LSA and SOE faculty and students together, at all levels, to improve and advance, through research and practice: undergraduate teaching and learning, pre-college teaching and learning, preparation of future faculty, and development of new pathways for identifying and recruiting pre-college teachers.
If you have any questions about the Summer Science Camp or the IDEA Institute, please contact Joe Krajcik.
From Monday, July 27, to Friday, August 7, the School of Education will be the site of the Elementary Mathematics Laboratory (EML) for the third consecutive year. At the heart of the laboratory is a mathematics class for fifth graders, most of whom come from the Ypsilanti Public Schools. I teach the class and facilitate daily pre- and post-class briefing sessions. Each day, the class is observed by a variety of professionals and students—including teachers, researchers from all backgrounds, teacher educators, student teachers, and mathematicians—who collectively plan for and study the laboratory class. We meet together every morning and afternoon before and after class to discuss observations and plan for the next day’s instruction. Several participants are members of research projects that use the laboratory as a data collection site. Other observers take part in daily professional development opportunities that are part of the laboratory.
The EML offers an unusual opportunity for researchers, teachers, and other observers to unpack and study the often “invisible” elements of teachers’ work and to collaborate in tackling the challenge of improving mathematics instruction. It is affiliated with the Teacher Education Initiative, which aims to redesign how teachers are prepared for practice here at U-M, and to build knowledge and tools that will inform the field of teacher education more broadly.
All members of the SOE community are welcome to participate in the EML, including the daily pre-class and post-class discussions, and to watch the class itself, either from an observational gallery located in the classroom or from an adjacent room with live video feed.
I am in South Africa through next week. I will be giving the keynote address at the annual meeting of the Association of Mathematics Educators of South Africa (AMESA), the national organization of K-12 and higher education mathematics educators, and am also meeting with many educators, both in higher education institutions and in K-12 schools, learning more about the training of teachers, and the problems and challenges faced by educators and policymakers in South Africa. I am in Johannesburg now, at the University of Witswatersrand, and will be traveling to Bloemfontein, capital of the Free State, on Sunday. Among my several meetings, I will be seeing Jonathan Jansen, who, as you may recall, visited us here for a week in November 2007. Professor Jansen assumes the post of rector and vice-chancellor of the University of the Free State on July 1.
A new project was recently founded at the school: Developing Teaching Expertise @ Mathematics (Dev-TE@M).
The Dev-TE@M project is a partnership with Cisco Learning Institute (CLI), a non-profit organization that works to change the way teachers teach and students learn through technology. The goals of the project are to build practice-focused professional development modules. These modules are designed for elementary teachers who teach mathematics and may play leadership roles in mathematics education. Dev-TE@M is developing a prototype module that will integrate four elements of content: mathematics geared to the demands of teaching, instructional practices for diverse classrooms and contexts, students’ ideas and ways of thinking about mathematics, and approaches to systematically learn from and improve teaching. The Dev-TE@M project’s overall aim is to use innovative technologies to build interactive modules that will provide high-quality learning experiences and assessments that are accessible, coherent, and usable at scale. Over the next two years of the project, Dev-TE@M will lead a group of mathematics teacher educators from across the country in developing a coherent set of professional learning modules which will serve as the foundation for CLI’s national K-5 Mathematics Specialist Academy and their vision for an Elementary Mathematics Specialist (EMS) endorsement program.
The project leads are Tim Boerst, clinical associate professor, Kara Suzuka, assistant research scientist, Deborah Loewenberg Ball, dean of the U-M School of Education and William H. Payne Collegiate Professor and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, and Hyman Bass, Samuel Eilenberg Distinguished University Professor of Mathematics & Mathematics Education.
Dev-TE@M has a website. If you have any questions or would like to learn more about the Dev-TE@M project, please contact the group by email at dev-team@umich.edu or by phone at 734-647-7449.
Susan Neuman, professor of educational studies and former U.S. assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education (2001-2003), is co-chair of a committee that has just released a new report that suggests an enhanced, comprehensive view of accountability for U.S. K-12 education.
Susan Neuman
“We must employ multiple measures to effectively assess the quality of public education we offer,” said Neuman. “Otherwise, we can’t ensure that all children are gaining all the knowledge and skills they need to succeed.”
In this report, the authors recommend that:
The federal government should collect state-level data – mostly from an expanded National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) – on how students of different backgrounds perform in a broad range of academic subjects, as well as in the arts, physical health and fitness, citizenship habits, and other necessary knowledge and skills;
State accountability systems should supplement higher quality standardized tests with qualitative evaluation of districts and schools to ensure the presence of a supportive school climate, high-quality classroom instruction and other resources and practices needed for student success.
The report is issued by the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education Campaign’s Accountability Committee. Neuman is one of four co-chairs, three of whom are former assistant secretaries of education.
The committee is part of the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education Campaign, which was formed in June 2008 to urge that school improvement be combined with the social, economic, family, and community supports that prepare children to benefit from high-quality instruction in schools.
Karmen Tamika Kizzie will defend her dissertation, The effect of special education on the psychological needs of African American middle school students with disabilities, on Thursday, July 2, 2009, at 10:30 a.m. in the Brownlee Room (2327). An information reception will follow the defense in room 1413 (CPEP).
The university’s campus NetWare environment will be disabled on Tuesday, June 30. Please contact Tech Services at edu.net@umich.edu if you still have client software that needs to be removed.
The SOE building hours prior to the 4th of July holiday weekend are: Thursday, July 2: 7:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.; Friday, July 3, through Sunday, July 5: building closed; Monday, July 6: regular building hours resume – 7:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.
