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Washington State University
College of Education

Leslie Hall

Getting hooded in the Cougar ‘hood

When at long last you’re about to get that doctoral degree and your adviser moves to another university, whatcha gonna do?  For Danny Breidenbach, the answer was easy:  Follow him.

Brian French, left, with Danny Breidenbach
Brian French, left, with Danny Breidenbach

Danny actually left Purdue University in 2008, having completed all but his dissertation, just as Brian French was leaving to accept an associate professorship at our college.  Finishing up at Purdue would have meant having only a nominal adviser at the Indiana school, so Danny decided to graduate at WSU, where Brian could be his advocate.  He’s happy he traveled to Pullman in May to receive his doctoral hood. “Brian has gone over and above the call of duty for me at times, and his efforts inspire me to do my best work. He has a real knack for not merely pushing me in the right direction, but lighting up the path to help me get started,” Danny explained. “Attending that ceremony was also my ‘thank you’ to him — because I know it gave him a sense of accomplishment to ‘hood’ me. ”

Danny works for Applied Measurement Professionals Inc., in Lenexa, Kansas.  (He and Brian are psychometricians, a job description with a hint of sorcery about it, don’t you think?)

A cure for bored kids
WSU Vancouver’s At Home At School program is among sponsors of a Web site that helps children and their parents find summer activities. Read about it in this Vancouver Columbian article.   …. By the way, At Home At School and its recent donation from the Legacy Health Fund are featured in the spring newsletter of the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth.

Moving north
 Clinical Assistant Professor Leslie Hall is excited about the new challenges that will come with her transfer to the Spokane campus.  She will be taking on many of the responsibilities of Lenore Schmidt, who retired in May.  Leslie will teach, coordinate the masters in teaching program, and work with Ed.M. and Ed.D. students.

Reading matter
For Teenagers, Hello Means ‘How About a Hug?’ The greeting is so common, the New York Times reports, that some students complain of peer pressure to hug, and some schools have banned hugging.
Education Secretary Duncan Should Come to Washington State.  A Seattle Times editorial.

Up the academic ladder

Congrats!
Come August, Cathyrn Claussen, Joy Egbert, Michael Pavel and Kelly Ward will be full professors; Jason Margolis, Lali McCubbin and Judith Morrison will be associate professors; and Leslie Hall will be a clinical associate professor. Click here for the WSU list of faculty promotions.

kucer-bookHow do you know that you’re a successful textbook writer? When your publisher puts out a third edition. That’s what happened for WSU Vancouver faculty member Stephen Kucer with Dimensions of Literacy: A Contextual Base for Teaching Reading and Writing in School Settings. The dimensions in question are linguistic (the nature of language, oral-written language relationships, language variation), cognitive (constructive nature of perception, the reading process, understanding written discourse, the writing process), sociocultural (literacy as social practices, authority of written discourse) and developmental (constructing the written language system).

Cyberbullying: Hot topic of the week
This Thursday’s Education Research Forum and Community Dialogue on Cyberbullying couldn’t be more timely. Listen to this NPR report on the subject, which discusses proposed legislation to prosecute offenders. It begins: “For years, kids who were the victims of bullying and teasing at school or on the playground could find refuge at home. But in the age of new technology, bullying has become a 24-hour problem, with harassers able to taunt and tease their peers through e-mail, text messages and social networks.”

Notable quote (from an ’02 Ph.D. Cougar)
From the April 2 Spokesman-Review:  Raphael Guillory, EWU Faculty Organization vice president, said legislators must recognize that if the state has any hope of pulling out of the current economic slump, it must make an investment in the future. “What you see here today,” Guillory said of the crowd of enthusiastic students in Cheney, “is the return on that investment.”

Reading matter
Stimulus Providing Big Funding Boost for Early Childhood. While other education officials are weighing the risks of starting new programs with federal money that may dry up in two years, early-childhood programs are ramping up for expansion after years of being underfunded, their supporters say.
Education Secretary Says Aid Hinges on New Data. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan tells the nation’s governors that in exchange for billions of dollars in federal education aid provided under the economic stimulus law, he wants new information about the performance of their public schools, much of which could be embarrassing.