The Academy for Educational Studies, which is housed in Reading Foundations and Technology, announces the launching of its peer-reviewed online professional journal, “Critical Questions in Education.” A description of the journal and manuscript submission instructions can be found by clicking on the link below.

 <http://education.missouristate.edu/AcadEd/75532.htm>

Aside from the launching of the professional journal, this year The Academy for Educational Studies held its fifth annual “Critical Questions in Education” conference in St. Louis, October 19-20, 2009. Over seventy speakers from around the country gathered to address the conference’s two theme questions: Has higher education lost its soul? What ideas in education are worth keeping, and which ones ought to be thrown out?

Recognitions:

-Dr. Steven Jones and Dr. Eric Sheffield published a book, an edited collection, entitled The Role of Religion in 21st-Century Public Schools. The book is published by Peter Lang (New York).

Up and coming events at Greenwood Laboratory School includes: Grandparent’s Day, the Bluejay Soiree, and the Athletic and Debate Booster Club Banquet.

 Grandparents Day is a Greenwood tradition that is celebrated every other year. Grandparents are invited to the school to visit classrooms and to watch their grandchildren put on a performance headed by the choir director, Kathie Weir. Grandparent’s day at Greenwood will be March 31, 2010.

 The Athletic and Debate Booster Club Banquet as well as the Bluejay Soiree are both upcoming events to raise funds for the athletic and debate teams at Greenwood. The Bluejay Soiree is a new event held at Highland Springs Country Club on May 1, 2010 at 7pm. There will be a silent and live auction with appetizers and a cash bar. Tickets are $35 per person and need to be bought before April 1^st. The Athletic and Debate Booster Club Banquet will be held at the Doubletree on Monday, April 19, 2010 at 6pm. These tickets are $20 and need to be purchased before April 12^th. Greenwood is currently collecting silent and live auction items for the Booster Club Banquet.

Something that Greenwood has been consistently working towards is the Science Scholars’ Project. This project is a $2.5 million dollar campaign that once completed the Greenwood science courses will include learning opportunities involving hands-on learning in a state of the art laboratory. Faculty and others are aiming for enhancement of the program where students will be able to earn a Science Scholars’ Endorsement on their diploma. Not yet defined specifically, this will require specific credit hours in science plus participation in a number of other science events and academies. Science academies with guest lecturers and science “gurus” are envisioned as summer activities that can become statewide, if not nationally, recognized educational opportunities.  Greenwood alumni have raised $1.2 million dollars so far and the design committee is directing its attention to the fixtures, furniture, and equipment the will go into the labs. Recently the committee for design visited two sites: Glendale High School science classes and the Jordan Valley Innovation Center. Both sites have given members ideas about what Greenwood’s science rooms should and should not include.

The Ozarks Educational Research Initiative (OERI) is a partnership of 11 area school districts and the Institute for School Improvement that was formed to create a collaborative network of educational researchers and educators in southwest Missouri.  Member districts contribute annual membership fees of $1 per student in the district.  OERI is currently involved in a two-year project focused on the continuous improvement of special education (SPED) student development and learning.  More specifically, this project aims to improve the academic outcomes (particularly in communication arts) of middle grade (6-8) students with learning disabilities.  Toward this aim, among other actions OERI is investigating effective practices for differentiated instruction and the co-teaching of general and special education teachers.  The project is a collaborative effort between the Institute for School Improvement, MSU faculty, the Southwest Regional Professional Development Center (SWRPDC), school district superintendents, and special education representatives from each district.  OERI is also actively involving middle grade principals to assure that the needs of individual schools are being addressed in the project along with the implementation of effective practices.

 Enhancing Children’s Health Opportunities (ECHO). The ECHO project aims to enhance student achievement while reducing disruptive behaviors in high-poverty elementary schools. The participating schools, each with approximately 90% students who qualify for free or reduced price lunch, are Campbell Elementary and Robberson Elementary. The project is currently in its fourth year of a five-year grant awarded by the Community Foundation of the Ozarks. The four project partners and key areas of focus are: Springfield Public Schools (full-time counseling, practicum experiences, student teaching and internship experiences); Burrell Behavioral Health (school-based clinician services); Community Partnership of the Ozarks (parent education and community support); and Missouri State University (pre-service teacher development, student tutoring, project management, and project evaluation). The project is exploring the placement of Missouri State University students interested in high-poverty schools from art education, counseling, educational leadership, and physical education/health programs to provide school-based experiences. The Institute for School Improvement also is currently working with the principals of the two elementary schools involved in the ECHO project to create additional experiential learning activities for their students in an effort to increase student engagement and motivation to learn.

•  “I Read, You Read, We All Read: Celebrating Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, and Fun Tales for All”

Students enrolled in the Family Involvement course taught by Dr. Sabrina A. Brinson will facilitate interactive read-aloud stories that are accentuated with arts & crafts activities for children and their families at the Missouri Hotel on February 21, 2010.  It is an activity of the 21st Annual National African American Read-In Chain.  Proudly Sponsored by the NAACP Springfield MO Branch, Missouri State University, Springfield-Greene County Library District, Drury University, Springfield Public Schools, and Boys Booked on Barbershops/Girls Booked on Beauty Shops 

This event provides multifaceted opportunities for Missouri State University students to apply learning via community-based practice, collaborate with parents and other community partners, and enhance children’s literacy development through services tailored to their current home setting. 

•  Dr. Sabrina A. Brinson and Dr. Jeffrey M. Hawkins (Oklahoma State University) will present a paper entitled, “Chasing Away the Isms-Racism, Sexism, Classism, and Ageism with Multicultural Literature,” at the Annual Conference for the International Society for the Social Studies (February, 2010).

The Counseling Leadership and Special Education department has continued a busy semester. Some noteworthy events that happened in the month of February include:

•  Drs. Paris DePaepe and Linda Garrison-Kane, Special Education Professors, accompanied five special education students to the Midwest Symposium for Leadership in Behavior Disorders in Kansas City, Missouri, February 24-27. These students presented poster sessions on research conducted in their undergraduate and graduate courses during the 2009-10 academic year. Students that presented poster sessions at MSLBD include Alexandra Beckman, Lachelle Clemons, Emily Eckert, and Erin Wilson (undergraduate students), as well as Candace Lane (graduate student).
•  Braille Challenge 2010 was developed and organized by Julie Anderson-Ituarte and Aundrayah Shermer for the second year and was held on the Missouri State University campus February 6^th. This program involves area K-12 students engaging in a Braille competition event in which the winner has the opportunity to move on to compete at the state and national level. Dr. Paul Ajuwon, Assistant Professor, served as a judge for this event. Student Council for Exceptional Children members assisted with the event.
•  International Special Olympics Interns (Summer 2009), including Alexandra Beckman (Special Education major), Sarah Scherer (Exercise Science major), Lindsay Coats (Dietetics major) and Lindsey Jurgensmeyer (Dietetics major) conducted an invited presentation at the Special Olympics Latin American Games in San Juan Puerto Rico on February 19, 2010. These four interns demonstrated their Fitness Improvement Training protocol to approximately 150 Ministers of Sport, Ministers of Education, and International Special Olympics personnel. They were accompanied by Dr. Tamara Arthaud, CLSE Acting Department Head.

Upcoming events and recognitions include:

•  Student Council for Exceptional Children will be attending Missouri CEC Annual Convention in Lake Ozark, MO, from March 12-14. Four members of the organization plan to attend, with one member nominated for the MO-SCEC Dabney Award. The recipient of this award receives a $1000 scholarship provided by Missouri CEC. Currently, four Missouri universities are eligible to nominate students for this award.
• Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education awarded CLSE $100,000!  This is a tuition reimbursement grant to fund up to 16 graduate students in the Vision Impairment Program and the Orientation and Mobility Program for the Fiscal Year 2011. This tuition award was made possible through an initiative proposed by DESE representatives and the efforts of Julie Anderson-Ituarte, who developed the proposal and budget for this project.
•  Center City Counseling Clinic is both a classroom and a counseling agency in a unique blend of academic-experiential learning while at the same time providing a needed and valuable community service.  Each semester, three to five practicum classes practice counseling with adults and children in individual, couples and family therapy sessions, under the supervision of a licensed University Counseling professor.   In 2009, the clinic provided 2,394 sessions (1,804 adult and 590 children) to the community.  At a conservative estimate of $75-$95 per session, that figures to $179,550 – $227,430 which Missouri State University has given back to the citizens of this area.
• Dr. Kristi Perryman, Assistant Professor, is a co-author of a recently published book, School Based Play Therapy, as well as an article published in the most recent edition of Journal of Creativity in Mental Health. 

Teacher Education Alliance (TEA) –

TEA hosted a performance of Catalyst by Brooke Haycock, Artist-in-Residence from the Education Trust at the February student teacher Forum. The presentation, a hard hitting drama dealing with student engagement and transformation, was well received by student teachers from Missouri State, Drury and Evangel Universities. The performance was followed by an open discussion led by LeAnn McNay with guest Springfield Public School Principals, Jason Steingraber (ELE), Debbie Grega (MS) and Assistant Principal Kirk Slater (SEC).

Missouri State University Office of Corporate Relations and Athletic Development provided free Bears Basketball tickets to 320 Title I students and their parents from College of Education’s TEA partner schools for the February 6^th men’s basketball game at Hammons Arena.

Laubach Reading Program in SPE –

The Missouri State University Literacy Center has partnered with four rural school districts, Ava R-I, Nixa R-II, Republic R-III and West Plains R-VII, along with New Readers Press, Ozarks Literacy Council and the Family Literacy Center of Springfield to provide instruction for middle and secondary school students that read at basic skill levels. These students are incapable of reading material targeted at their age group and many times find materials they can read of little interest and socially stigmatizing. Laubach Way to Reading has proven to be successful in helping increase the reading level of many of these students.

During Spring Semester 2010, special education practicum students, trained in the use of Laubach through the Literacy Center and Family Literacy of Springfield Inc., are assisting classroom teachers and their students in the Nixa School District with Laubach Reading.

In the Ava R-I School District the Laubach program began in the Summer Semester of 2009. Remedial reading through Laubach was offered to district students on a voluntary basis and has been so successful that school administration is planning to include it in course offerings in the Fall Semester of 2010. The success of the program has become known in the community. The Literacy Center is currently working with administrators and teachers from Ava R-I to develop a community literacy initiative through the school to offer adult literacy classes/tutoring. Another focus of the initiative will be to train volunteers from the community to assist in district classes using Laubach.

On February 7^th Cheryl Burnett hosted representatives from the Ava School District and a potential donor to the program from the Ava community at a Lady Bears Basketball Game in the Presidential Suite at Hammons Arena.

A webinar from New Readers Press is scheduled in April for teachers using Laubach from the four districts.

The Hispanic Initiative began in 2003. It is comprised of a series of projects and programs geared towards the emerging Latino community in southwest Missouri.  The Initiative has several partnerships including: a partnership with the Monett and Verona public schools in cooperation with Mr. Juan Meraz, Coordinator of Diversity Outreach and Recruitment, the Office of the Provost, the annual STEP (Student Transition Education Program) Conference and the summer STEP UP Institute, as well as two partnerships with universities in Mexico.  One is with the Universidad Regiomontana and the other is the Instituto Técnico de Monterrey.  With Universidad Regiomontana there is a study away program during the summer intersession and ITV conferences where students in both countries discuss topics related to education.  In cooperation with the Instituto Técnico de Monterrey, The Hispanic Initiative is working on the implementation of Community Learning Centers at several sites throughout southwest Missouri. Some other projects that the Hispanic Initiative participate in is the planning of the Hispanic Heritage Month which takes place from mid-September to mid October every year,  teaching a GED class in Verona, and this semester Dr. Rosa María Mejía is teaching a “Survival Spanish” class. The class is a six week long course that is free to all COE faculty and staff. It is on Tuesday’s between 12pm and 1pm and participants are encouraged to bring their lunch. Actual dates of the class are: February 23^rd, March 2^nd, 16^th, and 30^th, and April 6^th.

March Focus:

During March, the Hispanic Initiative is focusing on the Census.  Some Latinos in the community may not be inclined to answer the census because they are afraid it may have consequences in terms of their status in the United States, and some will not answer it because they do not know why it is important.  The Hispanic Initiative has organized a group of faculty and students to help the Latino community dispel their fears about answering the census and help them to understand its importance. This group will be focusing on teaching Latino families how answering and not answering the census will affect their lives, their children’s lives, and those of the whole community for the next ten years.

Specifically, The Hispanic Initiative along with some other university organizations (The Hispanic American Leadership Organization –HALO, Leading in Education to Approach Latinos – LEAL, Spanish majors, and students in ELE 410) will help promote the census among the Hispanic communities in Verona and Aurora.  The group will be making posters in Spanish explaining to people why the census is important and then display them in different places around the community.  There will also be workshops addressing the census.  These workshops are set up for March 20^th and March 27^th.  On these dates approximately fifteen students and two faculty members, Drs. Mejía and Swearingen, will be helping. Some will babysit for children, others will welcome the parents and help with snacks and raffles, and others will help parents fill out the census forms. These efforts are supported by a partnership with the Catholic Church in Verona as they assist with outreach to the families in the community; the Verona Catholic Church also has a partnership with the Census Bureau.

The Census Bureau has provided us with literature to better prepare our students, goodies to give away for all those involved in this project, as well as the entertainment for the children.

In preparation for the fall 2011 onsite visit, the NCATE/MoSTEP review process continues at full speed this semester.

In late February, most of the departments in the College of Education (COE) and the Professional Education Unit (PEU) submitted their MoSTEP departmental report to an online database. It is now being reviewed by a support team regarding the information submitted prior to sending the documents on to the Associate/Assistant Deans for internal review and then to external reviewers this summer.

Some departments have also been working diligently on their Specialty Program Area Reports (SPA’s) because they are due to NCATE on March 15, 2010. The participating programs include, for example: Foreign and Classical Language, History, Math, Elementary Education, Early Childhood Education, and Reading. These reports will be reviewed this spring by their respective accreditation associations. This will give us one year to make any changes recommended by the accreditation associations before the on-site NCATE and MoSTEP review teams arrive in November 2011.

Aside from working on MoSTEP and NCATE the support team is developing a Missouri State University graduate survey. These surveys will be completed by all COE and PEU graduates who have received their initial certification as well as graduates who have received their Masters or Specialist Degrees. A third survey is also being developed that will be sent to the employer of the graduates. The input from graduates will assist the PEU to consistently make improvements in the various education programs. The online survey will be completed this March with the Institutional Review Board’s approval. Analysis of this data will follow-up in late March and be forwarded to each Program Coordinator and Department Head.

The Institutional Report (IR) process begins this month with the writing teams (one for each of the six NCATE “Standards”). This report with electronic exhibits is due September 30, 2010. Another effort is with the NCATE Transformation Initiative proposal that is being developed jointly with Baptist Bible College, Drury University, Evangel University, and Missouri State University representatives. This proposal is due March 31, 2010. Finally, a review in March of all the electronic management systems (STEPS, E-Portfolio, E-Stars, Banner, etc.) available to the PEU will guide us to a vision of utilizing one portal to access to data on, for example, assessments and transition points for education candidates.