College of Education News

Archives for June 2024

COE’s inaugural Scholarship Banquet recognizes students, donors and alumni

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The College of Education (COE) gathered on campus on April 4 to celebrate the accomplishments and successes of the college and its members.  

Its inaugural Scholarship Banquet recognized scholarship winners, donors and faculty support.  

Fifty-three guests attended the banquet. Among them were Missouri State University President Clif Smart and his wife, Gail, Provost Dr. John Jasinski, Vice President for University Advancement Brent Dunn and Board of Governors student representative Bradley Cooper. 

During the event, COE Dean Dr. Barri Tinkler presented the college’s first Outstanding Alumni award to longtime educator Dr. Michael Fulton.  

Fulton’s impact on education 

Fulton received the award for his impact on schools in Missouri.  

Fulton attended Springfield Public Schools and graduated in 1982 from (then) Southwest Missouri State University with his bachelor’s degree in elementary education.

Fulton also has a master’s degree in educational leadership from Illinois State University and a doctorate in education from St. Louis University.  

He taught in both the Bloomington Public Schools District (Illinois) and Clayton School District (Missouri). He then served as an administrator in the Pattonville School District (Missouri) for 23 years, working as superintendent for the last 11 years. 

During his tenure, the school system gained recognition at state and national levels for academic achievement. For his leadership, Fulton was named Missouri Superintendent of the Year in 2016. 

In 2018, he took on the superintendent role at the Shawnee Mission School District (Kansas), where he served for three years until his retirement. 

But Fulton never stopped working toward a better future for education. After retiring, he led a statewide effort to create a network supporting Missouri public schools in using a competency-based mindset to personalize learning, ensuring every student is prepared for high school, college, career and the workplace. 

Along with a team of collaborators that included the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Fulton created the statewide Success-Ready Students Network (SSRN).  

The network now comprises 95 school districts and 25 educational agencies and universities. 

Tinkler acknowledged Fulton as a worthy recipient of the college’s first Outstanding Alumni award and the bright future of the SSRN. 

“Dr. Fulton has started a movement in K-12 education in the state. I believe this work will continue to grow and it’ll have a significant impact,” Tinkler said. 

For more information or to support SSRN in its goals, visit its website. 

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CODERS project expands opportunities for rural students

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In 2020, Missouri State University received an Education, Innovation and Research Early Phase grant from the U.S. Department of Education. 

Worth $4 million, the grant’s purpose was to implement the Computer-Science Opportunities, Development and Education in Rural Schools (CODERS) project over five years.  

CODERS is a collaborative project among faculty members from the College of Education (COE), College of Natural and Applied Sciences and Reynolds College of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities.  

Led by project director Dr. Keri Franklin, professor of English and director of the Center for Writing in College, Career and Community, CODERS assists rural teachers in engaging their students in computer science, computational thinking, physics and writing in elementary and middle grades. 

Since CODERS began, it has worked with 54 rural teachers, over 3,000 students and 17 rural school districts. According to Franklin, data show that CODERS is having a significant impact on student scores.  

“Students from those districts who have participated in CODERS increase science scores by 46% and 10% in mathematics,” Franklin said.  

These results came from 850 students before and after collecting CODERS data. Test scores were taken before CODERS was implemented.

Seminars on campus

The CODERS project team offers seminars on campus every summer and four times during the school year. To date, teachers from 19 rural communities have participated.

The teachers receive hands-on training on how to teach computer science, coding and other STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics)-related subjects to students in fun and engaging ways. 

A group of teachers was on campus June 4-6 for the summer seminar. Helping with the seminar was Dr. Tammi Davis, a faculty member in COE’s School of Teaching, Learning and Development Sciences. 

Tammi R. Davis
Dr. Tammi Davis

Davis works closely with the teachers to support them as they teach lessons in the classroom and monitors the submission of their teaching reflections. She also works with the group’s teaching leaders who led much of the professional development this summer. 

According to Davis, one of her favorite parts of the project is helping teachers choose how to use their designated grant funding to expand their classrooms. 

“One teacher built a computer lab STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) room based on supplies she got from our grant,” Davis said.  

Davis grew up going to a rural school in southern Indiana. 

“If you turn left at the stoplight, you pass driver’s ed, so that tells you how small my community was,” Davis said. 

She notes the CODERS project gives opportunities to students that she wished she had as a student. 

“I wish I was exposed to computer science in elementary/middle school, which is the age group we work with on this grant,” Davis said. “The first time I really did any type of computer coding was in college and I think that’s too late.” 

Career education 

The CODERS project also aims to help teachers by providing them with resources for their classroom to promote STEM-based career fields to students.  

Examples of these resources include the IF/THEN Collection and Educator Hub, which highlight real photographs of women in their STEM-related field. 

“Computer science is one of many jobs students could be eligible for, so we teach that career component as well,” Davis said. 

Find out more about CODERS