Welcome to the School of Education's newsletter, Sigma. You can access Sigma online at http://www.soe.umich.edu/sigma/index.html. If you have any comments or suggestions, please send them to . Deadline for submissions is noon on Wednesday. The next Sigma will be Friday, December 6, 2002. Sigma will not be issued on Friday, November 29 due to Thanksgiving.
Sigma Vol. XXXI, No. 37, November 22, 2002
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HOLIDAYS
This time of the year brings a sense of togetherness and celebration for many peoples around the world. As a microcosm of larger communities, our School also represents many cultures, religions, and holiday traditions. In recognition of this, we ask everyone to use discretion in decorating public areas within the School. Decorations in public areas should either reflect a multitude of traditions or be limited to non-religious items such as greenery, snow scenes, Poinsettias, etc. Personal decorations within our private workspaces (desks and offices) are one way we can celebrate our diverse society. Thank you, and let us all have a peaceful and joyous season.
CALENDAR: NOVEMBER 24 - DECEMBER 7
Graduate Student Advisory Session
"Social Justice and Educational Equity
Facilitators: Stella Raudenbush and Steve Raudenbush
Date: Thursday, December 6
Time: 11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Location: Whitney Auditorium
"Studying the Causal Effect of Instruction"
By: Stephen W. Raudenbush and Guanglei Hong
Date: Wednesday, December 4
Time: 12:15 - 1:00 p.m.
Location: 2346 SEB
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Index
1. NEW GRANT
2. PETERSON HONORED BY ASHE
3. RICHARDSON PRESENTS INAUGURAL LECTURE
4. SONGER DELIVERS KEYNOTE
5. UPCOMING ORAL DEFENSE
6. WELCOME NEW EMPLOYEE
7. ATTENTION GRADUATE STUDENTS: YOUR INPUT IS NEEDED
8. IRIS THANKSGIVING HOURS
9. CPEP BROWN BAG
10. SPAAN FELLOWSHIPS AVAILABLE
11. MICHIGAN LEADERSHIP AWARDS NOMINATIONS
12. HRAA NEWS: NOVEMBER 21
13. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MINUTES
14. CAMPUS EVENTS OF INTEREST
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1. NEW GRANT
==Profs. Deborah Ball, Hyman Bass, Ed Silver and Magdalene Lampert have received an award from the NSF/University of Georgia for a project entitled, "Center for Proficiency in Teaching Mathematics." The first year award amount for the five-year project is $641,152.
2. PETERSON HONORED BY ASHE
Prof. Marvin Peterson received the Howard R. Bowen Distinguished Career Award in higher education at the annual meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE). The award is "presented to an individual whose professional life has been devoted in substantial part to the study of higher education and whose career has significantly advanced the field through extraordinary scholarship, leadership and service."
3. RICHARDSON PRESENTS INAUGURAL LECTURE
Prof. Virginia Richardson presented the inaugural lecture for the Joan Irvine Lecture Series on Teacher Education at the University of Manitoba, November 14.
4. SONGER DELIVERS KEYNOTE
Professor Nancy Songer will be giving the keynote address for the National Science Digital Libraries (NSCL) annual meeting on December 3. Her talk is titled, "From Digital Library to Cognitive Tool: Steps and Potholes along the Transformative Road."
5. UPCOMING ORAL DEFENSE
Candidate: Mark James Hager
Date: Monday, November 25
Time: 3:00 p.m.
Location: Brownlee Room, 2327 SEB
Chair: Prof. John Hagen
Dissertation Title: "Mentoring Relationships in Doctoral Education: Doctoral Students' Socialization into Communities of Practice"
6. WELCOME NEW EMPLOYEE
Kara Suzuka started Monday, November 4 as a research associate. She can be reached at 615-7657, ksuzuka at umich.edu, or in 1600D SEB.
7. ATTENTION GRADUATE STUDENTS: YOUR INPUT IS NEEDED
You are invited to a Graduate Student Advisory Working Session related to issues of Social Justice and Educational Equity facilitated by Stella Raudenbush and Steve Raudenbush on Thursday, December 5, 11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. (lunch provided), in the Whitney Auditorium. The School of Education is progressing in its efforts to make more visible its intellectual thrust around issues of equity and social justice in education. Student input is imperative in this process. This session will involve processing issues related to: "What does the School mean by social justice and educational equity?" "What is the School already doing towards these goals?" "What will it look like to link SOE research and teaching explicitly to these issues?" "What are recommendations for continued action within the SOE Community?" Please RSVP Becki Spangler at spangler at umich.edu by Wednesday, November 27.
8. IRIS THANKSGIVING HOURS
Iris will be closed for the Thanksgiving Holiday starting at noon on Wednesday, November 27. It will reopen with regular Fall hours on Monday, December 2. If you are teaching an afternoon class on Wednesday, November 27 and will need equipment please speak to one of the IRIS full-time staff as soon as possible.
9. CPEP BROWN BAG
"Studying the Causal Effect of Instruction"
By: Stephen W. Raudenbush and Guanglei Hong
Date: Wednesday, December 4
Time: 12:15 - 1:00 p.m.
Location: 2346 SEB
Clarifying the causal effects of alternative approaches to instruction is central to research in education and cognitive development. This is a difficult task for three reasons: a) the nature of the instructional "treatment" and therefore its effects will depend on the teacher implementing it; b) the effect on any given child may depend on which other children are assigned to that child's classroom; and c) instruction, broadly conceived, is a time-varying treatment endogenous to a student's history of earlier treatments and outcomes. A modeling framework will be presented to account for these difficulties and illustrate its application using data on mathematics instruction in elementary school.
10. SPAAN FELLOWSHIPS AVAILABLE
The English Language Institute has initiated the Spaan Fellowship Fund to provide financial support for those wishing to carry out research projects related to second or foreign language assessment and evaluation. The Fellowship will fund up to six annual awards ranging from $2,000 to $4,000 each. These fellowships are offered to cover the cost of data collection and analyses, or to defray living and/or travel expenses for those who would like to make use of the English Language Institute's resources, which include the ELI Testing and Certification Division's extensive archival test data (ECCE, ECPE, MELAB) and the Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English (MICASE) (see http://www.lsa.umich.edu/eli). Application deadline is Friday, December 6; information is available from the ELI at Spaanfellow at umich.edu.
11. MICHIGAN LEADERSHIP AWARDS NOMINATIONS
The Michigan Leadership Awards honor outstanding students and groups for their accomplishments over and above their academic achievements. The awards have been tailored to recognize the true spirit of leadership at U-M. Nomination forms are available in OSS or on the web at http://uuis.umich.edu/sal. Submission deadline is January 10, 2003.
12. HRAA NEWS: NOVEMBER 21
It is especially important this year that the University has your current home address so you can receive your new AdvancePCS ID cards and your medical insurance plan ID cards in December. If your home or office address has changed, make sure you update your address with the University. You can:
* Email your change of address to address.change at umich.edu
* Call the HR/Payroll Service Center at 615-2000 or 1-866-647-7657 (toll free)
* View and update your Current Home Address at http://wolverineaccess.umich.edu Click on Human Resources and log in using your uniqname and Kerberos password. Then click Personal Information, Address and Phone Number.
13. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MINUTES
Full minutes are available from Becki Spangler in the Dean's Office.
==October 22, 2002 Meeting
*Faculty Retreat Debriefing
Dean Wixson described retreat activities including the panels' focus on research-oriented graduate degrees, outreach and continuing education, and undergraduate programs and initiatives and explained that the groups considered how we might mobilize to work on these within our programs. Comments on the significant impact of the retreat and their sense of an impetus for change were made, and the importance of sustaining these discussions among the faculty was noted. Dean Wixson will take this advice to her meeting with Gary Fenstermacher and Ed Silver who helped plan and coordinate the retreat as they discuss next steps.
*Continuing Budget Discussions
Dean Wixson emphasized that the process is ongoing, involving accounting and management changes as well as involvement of SOE personnel (faculty, staff, etc.). The soon to be released first quarter (FY 2003) data will help in analyzing and planning units' budgets. Associate Dean Dey distributed handouts reflecting our enrollment statistics and salary costs from general funds.
Budget issues need further discussion and input from faculty before integrating them with program planning and other issues raised at the retreat. It was suggested that faculty need to see more financial data to give informed opinions on the budget issues. Dean Dey will continue developing informative data for review, and he will begin meeting with programs about reducing expenditures and/or programmatic alternatives.
*School-Wide Postdoctoral Program
The recent focus of the postdoctoral fellowship program has been on recruiting scholars of color. Elizabeth Moje reviewed the proposal that was developed with a planning grant from the Spencer Foundation, but failed to receive full funding and distributed a draft of a revised proposal, noting that we would like to continue this initiative. The Committee discussed several issues agreeing that the effort will be difficult to pursue without external funding.
*Campaign Discussions
Dean Wixson briefly discussed the draft case statement and necessary feasibility studies. The conversation will continue at the next meeting and include attention to the process that should be used for garnering input from the faculty.
14. CAMPUS EVENTS OF INTEREST
"The Leadership Edge: Don't be left Behind"
By: Kim Cameron, UMBS & CSHPE professor, and author Daniel Goleman
Date: Friday, December 6
Time: 3:00 p.m.
Location: Hale Auditorium
Drs. Goleman and Cameron will present their most compelling conclusions about leadership best practices and will end the session with an informal question and answer.
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Sigma is a weekly publication of the University of Michigan School of Education (bi-weekly during the summer). To subscribe to Sigma, please send an email to . SUBSCRIBE should be the subject. Deadline for submissions is noon on Wednesday. Please send items to . The next issue of Sigma will be Friday, December 6, 2002.