College of Education news briefs

		January news briefs

College of Education:

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation approved a three-year, half-million dollar grant to the UK Research Foundation to support the Great Schools Initiative. The goal of the Initiative is to improve teacher quality and student performance at Booker T. Washington Academy in Lexington. Deans James G. Cibulka and Lori Gonzalez, of the College of Education and the College of Health Sciences, respectively, are co-principal investigators of the project. Vivian Neal, Community Liaison Program Officer for the Knight Foundation, in her recommendation to award the grant, commented that the Initiative had “great potential for a national impact.”

James and Diane Stuckert of Louisville presented UK a $250,000 gift to create and endow the James and Diane Stuckert Service Learning Professorship in the College of Education. Mr. Stuckert is chair of UK’s Capital Campaign Steering Committee. He has a bachelor’s degree from the UK College of Engineering and a master’s degree from the Gatton College of Business and Economics. Diane Stuckert has a degree from the UK College of Education.

The College of Education is hosting a reception to honor its distinguished alumna, Sharon Porter Robinson, BA ’66, MA ’76, Ed.D.’79 at the annual national conference of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) in San Diego. Robinson, a national leader and scholar in the field of education, was named President and CEO of the AACTE in January 2005. She has held numerous leadership positions over the course of her career, including terms as executive vice president of the Educational Testing Service (ETS) and assistant secretary of the US Department of Education’s Office of Educational Research and Improvement.

The UK College of Education formally re-installed Kappa Delta Pi International Honor Society in Education, a national organization dedicated to scholarship and excellence in education, last December. Thirty-three undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in the College of Education became the chapter’s newest members. The honor society’s chapter representative presented Dean James Cibulka with a copy of the new charter for the college.

Faculty:

Malachy Bishop, associate professor in the Rehabilitation Counseling Program, and Warren Rule, professor emeritus of Virginia Commonwealth University, co-authored the book Adlerian Lifestyle Counseling: Practice and Research. Routledge Publishing is the book’s publishers. Bishop also received a one-year, $40,000 research grant from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society to study psychosocial adaptation among persons recently diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

An interview with Professor Thomas R. Guskey, Department of Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation, was recently published in Evaluation Exchange, a publication of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The interview highlighted his work in linking professional development for educators to specific improvements in student learning. Articles by Dr. Guskey also appeared this fall in Educational Leadership and Evaluation Comment.

The Association for Career and Technical Education presented Doug Smith, associate professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, the Award of Distinction. It is the highest recognition given for Business Education, at their annual conference in December. The award recognizes excellence in research, leadership in professional associations, and professional stature.

John Thelin, Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation, presented a paper, "Trouble in Paradise: Research on Problems in Sports at Small Colleges" at the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) national conference held in Philadelphia in November 2005. He also authored a book review of Robert Birnbaum's Speaking of Higher Education: The Academics' Book of Quotations. The review was published in The Review of Higher Education.

Students:

College of Education graduate student Maria Almario-Rosenbaum, chaired a major health fair event in early December for Hispanics in central Kentucky. The event, called “Dia de la Mujer Latina” – The Day of the Latin Woman – honored women through leadership awards and provided free health care services. In edition to being a student, Almario-Rosenbaum is an immigrant outreach specialist with the Bluegrass Rape Crisis Center.

Doctoral student Deborah Burton was only one of two researchers from the United States to present her work, Enhanced Pharmacy Training for Counter-Terrorism and Disaster Response, to the Royal Society of Medicine at the TeleMedicine and EHealth Conference in London last November.

The Organization for Autism Research awarded a $2,000 grant to Rachel K. Hammond, a doctoral student with the Educational and Counseling Psychology Department. The grant supports doctoral students under the Graduate Research Grants Program. Ms. Hammond’s Project ASIST (Asperger Syndrome and Internalizing Symptoms for Future Treatment) will investigate significant mental health issues facing adolescents with Asperger Syndrome through evaluating and analyzing current assessment for anxiety and depressive symptoms.

Buck Ryan, a UK assistant professor and a graduate student in the Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation Department, taught a Discovery Seminar Program course, "Citizen Kentucky: Journalism and Democracy." In this course, twenty-three UK freshmen worked with Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson as part of his "Civic Literacy" team in the fall of 2005. At the conclusion of the course, Grayson filed a report containing their recommendations on increasing civic literacy in the Commonwealth. The students helped to organize a community forum, "Civic Literacy: The People, The Press & Public Policy," which attracted 200 participants and onlookers on the Student Center Patio as part of UK's two-day celebration of the U.S. Constitution.

Alumni:

Janell Turner, M.S.Edu,’98, was named Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor of the Year from the Kentucky Office of the Blind. The agency presented the award at a conference at General Butler State Park in Carrollton, Kentucky. The award recognizes the counselor who helps the most clients obtain employment. Turner helped 38 visually impaired people find jobs during 2004-05.