Washington State University

Our guests weren’t quite ready to get up and dance, as the students in this picture urged, but they were all smiles.

The Golden and Diamond Graduates reunion under way on the Pullman campus included a Wednesday visit by alumni to the College of Education.   The annual spring celebration here has grown to include dance performances by students in the teacher preparation program’s arts integration class, plus presentation of the Inga Kromann Medal Awards for students who create children’s books.  To see more pictures, visit the College of Education’s Shutterfly site.

And here’s news about some prominent alumni-to-be:

Both Xyanthe Neider and Paul Mencke plan to be college professors. Both will be among the graduates whose accomplishments are highlighted at Pullman’s May 8 commencement.  But as you can find out by reading about Xyan’s background and Paul’s background, they have taken very different journeys on their way to getting those doctoral hoods.

Except for the fact that the change would mess up a fun acronym, it might make sense to rename the Education Graduate Organization the “Education Graduate Connection.”

Incoming EGO President Jennifer LeBeau has a list of impressive goals for the upcoming year, including:  re-establishing contacts with faculty, administrators, and students; increasing connections with the Spokane, Tri-Cities, and Vancouver campuses; and making connections with other units throughout the university, as well as within the college. Jenny and her fellow officers are especially excited by the idea of engaging students, faculty, and staff in a college-wide community service project.  Read more about them and their ideas on the EGO page.

Arizona Coug kids update
A batch of thank-you letters arrived at the College of Education from those fifth graders at Palomino Elementary in Phoenix who’ve adopted WSU, inspired by some gifts from Pullman–including T-shirts that are the envy of other classes.  The notes are sweet. Here’s one from Silvia Ramirez, who has one sister, two brothers, and likes going to school:

“Thank you for the cool gifts. One of my favorite gifts is the shirt. I use the highlighter when Ms. Cook tells me to highlight key words. I haven’t used the sticky notes. We got more things than the other classes. We are learning the fight song. When we learn it, we are going to send you a video. Go Cougs!”

We’re doubly honored
Education doctoral student joan.Osa Oviawe and alum John Doty (Ph.D. ’08) are among winners of this year’s Civic Engagement Awards. The Center for Civic Engagement honored joan for her service with the YWCA of WSU, where she serves as board president, as well as her efforts to aid the education of poor Nigerian students through the Grace Foundation, which she founded.  Doty is the founder and director of READ for LIFE, a program he started as research toward his doctoral degree. The nonprofit provides free tutoring for kids in kindergarten through sixth grade.  On top of his volunteer work, John has a day job coordinating the Academic Enrichment Center/Computer Lab in WSU’s Office of Multicultural Student Services.

Associate Professor Jennifer Beller‘s passion for undergraduate research has been recognized by the Honors College, which presented her with its Thesis Advisor Award for her above-and-beyond efforts to assist Emily Cox.

Emily, a senior from Seabeck, Washington, is studying exercise physiology and metabolism at WSU Spokane. Her thesis, “An analysis of running gait in elementary aged students 5-12,” is one of the first studies ever conducted on children with normal motor development.

“Dr. Beller once told me to `Think of this as a team project. Think of us as partners,’ ” Emily recalled. And that’s just the way things turned out.

Offered congratulations on the award, Jennifer deflected the attention to Emily.

“Working with Emily has been a great joy,” Jennifer said, noting that the two of them presented the study at WSU’s Academic Showcase in Pullman and at the Northwest Health Symposium in Spokane.  “Now we are working on a manuscript for Research Quarterly and have plans to conduct a follow-up study to several different elementary schools this fall.”

The researchers have already collected data on more than 300 elementary students. Their eventual goal is to establish normal ranges for children’s running stride characteristics.

It’s an enormous project, said Emily, with implications for athletic training and clinical practice in exercise physiology and orthopedics.  It all started when Jennifer agreed to be her advisor, then suggested she narrow her research focus, then agreed to be principal investigator, then helped her secure approval for working with minors, then secured equipment, then help build relationships with schools … and much more.

In her letter of nomination for the Outstanding Advisor Award, Emily wrote:  “Thanks to her commitment, professional integrity, academic guidance, and multidisciplinary proficiency in research, this project has inspired me to continue graduate education in anticipation of a career in medical research.”

Today’s cloudy skies did nothing to dampen enthusiasm at the  annual science day at Klemgard Park, organized by Assistant Professor Blakely Tsurusaki.  Nor did a bit of Mother Nature’s bluster keep WSU videographer Matt Haugen from recording the energy of some of the 275 youngsters who were on hand.  Matt’s video, which is already posted online, features WSU students Amy Romero, Dave Marshall and Adrian Espindola.

More award winners
Assistant Professor Pauline Sameshima will receive the 2010 Critical Issues in Curriculum and Cultural Studies Early Career Award at the American Educational Research Association annual meeting this spring.  Pauline, who is known for her interdisciplinary approach to teaching and research, has written three books and is a regular contributor to curriculum journals.  She has co-chaired the WSU Globalization, Diversity & Education Conference and administers a curriculum theory social network.

Two doctoral students from the Department of Teaching and Learning were among those recognized by the Association for Faculty Women as outstanding women in graduate studies.  Finalists for the Harriett B. Rigas Award included Cara Preuss, who took third place,  and Janine Darragh, who received honorable mention.

Curious about the three candidates for the College of Education dean position? Keep an eye on our Web calendar for opportunities to meet with them, starting next week, and learn about their visions for our future.

The trio of accomplished educators are Glenn E. Good, associate dean for Research, Graduate and International Studies, and Technology in the College of Education and professor of educational, school, and counseling psychology at the University of Missouri; Anthony G. (A.G.) Rud, head of the Department of Educational Studies and associate professor of Educational Studies, College of Education at Purdue University; and Jayne E. Fleener, dean of the College of Education at Louisiana State University.

New faculty highlights on WSU site

Research Professor Bruce Becker stars in an excellent video interview, “New Frontiers in Aquatic Therapy,” now linked from the WSU home page. It’s also posted on YouTube.

Assistant Professor Tom Salsbury is pictured on a future students page, where he’s quoted about the College of Education’s links to a global community of educators.

WSU Today and the WSU News pages both feature stories highlighting the research of Associate Professor Lali McCubbin, who explores the resilience that a multicultural heritage can bring; and Assistant Professor Matt Marino, who wants middle school students to explore the wonders of science using video games.

Middle-school boys work through their social and academic problems, and then mentor younger boys;  fifth-grade math whizzes jump ahead to middle school classes; literacy teachers systematically set higher expectations for their students. Those are among the successful projects documented by the first participants in WSU Vancouver’s  Administrative Professional Certification Program.

Throughout the state, school districts and universities collaborate to offer certification for school administrators.  WSU Vancouver’s certification program, the first to be offered in southwestern Washington, is integrated into the work life of the administrators. They have five years to complete it. Four ambitious school leaders  zipped through the WSU pilot program in 14 months.  As a finale, each gave presentations that focused on student achievement at their schools.

Three of the four were from Evergreen Public Schools: Robert Ford, assistant principal at Frontier Middle School; Angela Freeman, assistant principal at Harmony Elementary, and Traci Haddad, principal at Marrion Elementary. The fourth was Herman “Stoney” Myers, assistant principal at Hudson’s Bay High School in Vancouver. They were recently honored by their school boards for earning their certificates last fall.

Becky Fleming, the retired Evergreen administrator who supervises the WSU program, snapped a picture, above, when she reunited the foursome to celebrate their achievement.

Graduate student honors

Connie Beecher was selected by the Graduate and Professional Students Association as a 2009-2010 award winner for excellence demonstrated in the role of teaching assistant.  Connie, who was nominated by Assistant Professor Matt Marino, is working toward a Ph.D. in special education. She’s shown here dressed to the nines with fellow Pullman grad student (and fellow veteran classroom teacher) Janine Darragh at the GPSA’s March 27 celebration.

Another doctoral candidate, Cara Preuss, will be among students honored by the Association for Faculty Women at an April 6 reception.  Cara, who was nominated by Professor Joy Egbert, will receive the third place Harriet B. Rigas Award.  Cara’s expertise is language and literacy education; her award was named in honor of  a former WSU faculty member and engineer renowned for her computer research.

From age regression to athlete concussions, from mathematics tests to hip-hop pedagogy — the education research topics at WSU Pullman’s annual Academic Showcase on Friday were as varied as the spring weather outside.  There were 20 posters representing the work of College of Education faculty and students in the vast expanse of research presentations in the Bohler gym.

For more pictures from the event, see the 2010 Showcase album on the college Shutterfly site.

For a searchable list of research abstracts from the occasion, see the WSU Academic Showcase site. Similar information is available online for the WSU Vancouver Showcase, which takes place April 15.

Transfer days
Another campus rite of spring is Transfer Registration Days, a two-day orientation and registration program designed to prepare admitted students for their transition to WSU.  The first day, Sunday, found College of Education advisers Brooke Wolf, above, and Judy Schultz, below, answering questions for students who were cruising the information stations at Pullman’s  Lighty Hall.

For the third year in a row, a College of Education graduate student has been named a Washington State University Woman of Distinction. Bernadette Mencke was honored today in Pullman, along with payroll services staff member Alice Smethurst and psychology faculty member Rebecca Craft.

Bernadette, who expects to receive her Ph.D. in higher education administration in December, is also associate director of the WSU Office of Student Conduct. Her many activities have included serving as a student regent, as chairperson for the Coalition for Women Students, and as executive cabinet member for the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators.

When asked by a Daily Evergreen reporter for her thoughts on the award, she responded with gratitude to her adviser, Professor Michael Pavel, who nominated her. He told the awards committee:  “Bernadette impresses me with both her determination to learn about and nurture the climate here at WSU … (She) is a wonderful woman who has the courage and motivation to take on the challenges of working in a world afflicted by inequality.”

Education grad students Joan O’viawe (2009 Woman of the Year) and Xyanthe Neider (2008 Woman of Distinction) were honored at the last two Women’s Recognition Luncheons. (For a full list of winners since 1998, see the Women’s Resource Center pages.)

Opinionators
Michael Pavel was in the news himself last week, commenting on Washington schools’ efforts to reclassify families by ethnicity as part of new state guidelines.  The professor, who with his WSU colleagues wrote a report on the Native American educational achievement gap in Washington, hopes the move establishes meaningful relationships between tribal families and their schools and teachers. Read the articles at seattlepi.com and The Olympian.

Rural Education Center director Jim Kowalkowski, who was featured last week in the EduCoug, got his own byline in the Seattle Times with his article Rural schools are effective and don’t need consolidation.  The March 19 opinion piece took issue with the newspaper’s editorial on the subject.

Back in the day of one-room country schoolhouses, each administered by a local board, Washington state had about 2,000 school districts.  There are now 295.  Preserving the remaining small districts, where schools are the heart and soul of often remote communities, is a mission for Jim Kowalkowski, who directs the Rural Education Center.

The center is based in the Davenport School District, where Jim is superintendent. It was created in 1987, the result of collaboration between the Small Schools Committee of the Washington Association of School Administrators (WASA) and the WSU College of Education. At first, the center focused on gathering and sharing research that would help district superintendents and principals. Research topics included dropout rates, in-service instruction for teachers and the ever-popular “Cooperation vs. Consolidation.”

The center increasingly has became a voice for rural schools.  Jim has been director for six years. Like his predecessors, he often finds himself speaking with legislators and other state policy-makers.  He comes to the conversation armed with statistics. For example, the dropout rate — or lack thereof — at rural schools.

“The highest on-time graduate rates in our state are in rural schools,” he says. “Compare Spokane’s 60 percent rate to places like Harrington, with 100 percent.”

The college-center collaboration is still going strong, as evidenced by this week’s WASA Small Schools Conference in Yakima. Among the presentations: “Making Innovative Connections With Your Land Grant Institution.”  Jim was a presenter, as were two WSU education faculty members, Matt Marino and Hal Jackson.  To the best of anyone’s recollection, they were the first university researchers to speak at the annual rural schools conference. Matt explained his work  developing video games to teach middle school science, and interested 13 school districts in helping with the project.  Hal discussed plans for a forum that will unite schools, communities and university experts in helping students at risk of social and academic problems.

Such partnerships are a priority of two other conference speakers. Jake Dingman,  superintendent of the Oakesdale School District and chair of the Whitman County School Superintendents, spoke about a recent professional development day in Colfax. Arlene Hett, director of the College of Education’s School & Community Collaboration Center, facilitated the “Innovative Connections” discussion.

The WSU delegation in Yakima included Collaboration Center staffer Ashley Herridge, who provides support services for the Rural Education Center — helping continue a connection between the university and small-town Washington that’s now in its 23rd year.

Other faculty news
Jennifer Beller was in Tacoma last week to address the Pacific Lutheran University Wang Center International Symposium on Understanding the world Through Sport and Recreation. Her topic: doping in sport.
Tariq Akmal has been elected as a council member for the Middle Level Research Education special interest group of the American Education Research Association.

Career motivations don’t get much more poignant than the one offered to a WSU audience this week by Enrique G. Murillo Jr.: “I wanted to be the teacher I never had.”

In addition to teacher, Murillo’s job descriptions have included counselor, social-service worker, community organizer, consultant, lecturer, academic journal editor, researcher, and university instructor.   Paula Groves Price — his friend and former student and the WSU faculty member who introduced his Pullman lecture — noted that Murillo is also an historian.  While a graduate student, he conducted interviews of Latino immigrants in North Carolina that became the documentary film Cruceros y Caminos.

Araceli Frias adds another descriptor of Murillo: role model. She was among the students who met with him in Pullman, snagging his autograph for her copy of the Handbook of Latinos and Education, which he edited.  His scholarly work was the first she’d read that came from an indigenous/Chicano point of view.  Araceli is grateful for the breakfast discussion hosted by the Education Graduate Organization.

“The breakfast provided an intimate setting to talk to Dr. Murillo and engage in those scholarly conversations that are hard to come by, especially for Latina/o doctoral students,” says Araceli. “His advice was very helpful and personally meaningful to me because our similar backgrounds are what motivate our line of research.”

Araceli is pursuing a Ph.D. in cultural studies and social thought. She hopes to become a university vice provost for diversity.  Murillo, an associate professor  at California State University-San Bernardino, also met with undergraduates. Along with classroom tips, he offered them encouragement:  “Being a teacher is, I think, the most noble thing you can be in our society.”