COE Improving Futures Fund

This fall Dean Johnson and the College of Education implemented a brand new initiative to help improve the futures of our students and graduates and the populations they will serve.  The aptly named Improving Futures Fund will review COE faculty and staff submitted proposals and identify powerful projects that will improve the futures of our graduates and the children, youth and adults they will serves.  Proposals will be reviewed by the individuals and organizations that generously contribute to the Improving Futures Fund.

SWAG (Students With Academic Goals) awarded $5,000 from IECA Foundation

SWAG (Students With Academic Goals) is a program at Bell Middle School in San Diego that works to support and increase academic achievement in young men of color.  SWAG was founded by SDSU College of Education faculty member, Dr. Andre Branch, in 2010 and is supported by the University.

This semester SWAG was featured in Insights, the newsletter of the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA).  Not only was the program featured, but IECA also granted SWAG $5,000.00 for this academic year.  This grant money will help to forward the mission of SWAG by providing important academic materials and resources.

Read the full article in the Insights newsletter (Page 37).

Read more about SDSU’s SWAG program.

School Psychology Mentors Scholarly Work and Publications

School Psychology students and graduates frequently present at state and national conferences with faculty mentors. This year to date, three national peer-reviewed publications feature SDSU School Psychology students or graduates, mentored by faculty members.

SDSU Alum Dr. Marissa Vasquez Urias Wins Award for Dissertation

Congratulations to Dr. Marissa Vasquez Urias on being selected as the second place winner of the 2015 Outstanding Dissertation Competition sponsored by the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE) and Educational Testing Services (ETS)!  Dr. Vasquez Urias is a 2014 graduate of the San Diego State University independent Ed.D. Program in Community College/Post-Secondary Education.

SDSU Alum Dr. Oscar Jimenez-Castellanos Named NEFC Distinguished Fellow

Each year, the National Education Finance Conference (NEFC) grants ten awards to those individuals who have distinguished themselves in terms of current education finance research and/or practice.  This year the Distinguished Fellows Committee has selected SDSU College of Education 2008 alum, Dr. Oscar Jimenez-Castellanos as one of these recipients.

CFD Student Nikki Tverberg Receives Honors in SDSU International Photo Contest

Child and Family Development senior, Nikki Tverberg, has received Honorable Mention in the 8th Annual SDSU International Photo Contest!

Each year San Diego State University invites current students to share photos from their international study abroad experiences with a specific theme in mind.  The 2014 contest theme was The Significance of Food: Images that reflect the importance of food to your host culture, including food production, distribution, preparation, role in ceremony, and societal impacts.

COE Alum Tawnya Pringle Top Finalist for 2015 School Counselor of the Year Award

The College of Education congratulates Community Based Block and School Counseling Alum, Tawnya W. Pringle who has been selected as one of the five finalists for the 2015 American School Counselor Association (ASCA) School Counselor of the Year award.

School Psychology Student Awarded NASP-ERT Minority Scholarship

The College of Education is excited to share that current School Psychology candidate and third year trainee, David Martinez, M.A. has be awarded a 2015 National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) Scholarship!  This is a huge honor for David and the SDSU School Psychology Program, where David is preparing to become a bilingual/bicultural school psychologist.

Drs. Frey and Fisher Win Teachers’ Choice Award for New Book: Rigorous Reading

Congratulations are in order for COE faculty members, Dr. Douglas Fisher and Dr. Nancy Frey!  Drs. Frey and Fisher’s new book, Rigorous Reading: 5 Access Points for Comprehending Complex Texts, has won a 2015 Teachers’ Choice Award in the category of professional development.

Student Success Fee Funds a Number of COE Student Proposals

In November, the College of Education had eleven proposals selected for funding in the 2014-2015 Student Success Fee Academically Related Programs process.  There were so many high quality proposals submitted in this inaugural year that Academic Affairs contributed an additional $150,000 so additional high impact proposals could be funded. This increased the overall available budget to $450,000.

SDSU’s Literacy Center Makes a Difference

The San Diego State University Literacy Center is changing lives through the Community Reading Clinic. Hear fifth-grade Reading Clinic Student, Nicole Lackenbacher’s inspiring story and experience on YouTube.

Learn more about the SDSU Literacy Center Reading Clinic.

White House Conference Kicks Off at SDSU

More than 400 representatives from 32 states convened Monday at San Diego State University for a two-day White House conference aimed at helping high school counselors motivate more students to get college degrees.

Read more about the White House Convening at KPBS.org.

STE Chair, Dr. Nadine Bezuk, Appointed to NCTM Board of Directors

School of Teacher Education Director, Dr. Nadine Bezuk has been elected to serve on the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Board of Directors. Dr. Bezuk will begin her three-year term as NCTM board member in April 2015 and will continue her department director duties, as well.

SDSU to Host White House Conference

President Obama said he wanted to improve college affordability and decrease college debt. He continues that conversation next month right here in San Diego when SDSU hosts a two-day White House conference. Trish Hatch, Director of School Counseling, talks to KUSI about hosting the conference and the topic of helping high school counselors motivate kids to make the leap to higher education. Video courtesy of KUSI News.

New Online Masters in Technology Leadership is First of Its Kind

San Diego State University and the San Diego County Office of Education are excited to announce the launching of a collaborative Online Master of Arts in Educational Leadership program focusing on Technology Leadership.

This latest partnership between SDSU and SDCOE is the premiere program in educational technology and the first of its kind, marrying the strengths of two outstanding institutions and their specialties: San Diego County Office of Education, Integrated Technology Services, with the San Diego State University Department of Educational Leadership. Both are well known for their areas of expertise.

The next cohort of this 15-month program will begin in summer 2015, with courses beginning late May. The program application window runs from November 1, 2014-April 1, 2015. For more information, please visit the M.A. EDL in Technology website.

Online Master of Arts in Teaching at SDSU

An exciting and innovative program designed for those who are inspired to be responsive and innovative K-12 master teachers. This Masters program takes just one year and is completely online.

View the MAT video now on YouTube.

COE Welcomes Seven New Faculty Hires this Fall 2014

Mark Tucker, ARPE

Mark Tucker joins the College of Education full-time after spending several years with the Interwork Institute, where he also taught part-time in the ARPE department. Prior to joining the staff at the Interwork Institute, Mark worked as Program Coordinator for a Southern California-based non-profit agency providing case management, crisis counseling, and vocational planning services. His areas of research interest include examining the relationships between individual, contextual, or case-service factors and vocational rehabilitation outcomes of transition-age youth and adults with disabilities. Mark is a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor; he holds a Master of Science degree in Rehabilitation Counseling from San Diego State University, and a Ph.D. in Human Rehabilitation from the University of Northern Colorado.

Nellie Tran, CSP

Nellie Tran, Ph.D. (University of Illinois, Chicago 2010) Dr. Tran is a community psychologist specializing in the study of subtle forms of discrimination (i.e., microaggressions, racial color-blindness), especially pertaining to race and gender. She is particularly interested in understanding which biases exist in different contexts, how people adapt to them, and how best to change environments to reduce and buffer people from the impact of subtle biases. Her current projects explore the impact of subtle biases on women in the STEM disciplines, the effect of microaggressions on U.S.-born Asian Americans, how school/classroom norms influence the way students think about and understand race.

Laura Owen, CSP

Laura comes to SDSU from Johns Hopkins University. In addition to her role as an assistant professor in school counseling, she will serve as the Director of College and Career Readiness, a new division in the Center for Excellence in School Counseling and Leadership (CESCaL). Prior to moving to higher ed, Laura was a high school counselor, district school counseling supervisor, and a writer and co-principal investigator on two US Department of Education Elementary and Secondary School Counseling grants. Laura’s dissertation looked at the U.S. Department of Education’s FAFSA Completion Pilot Project and examined the influence of school counselor outreach on FAFSA completion and college enrollment. Since 2012, she has worked with several large urban school districts across the US to evaluate the impact of individualized school counselor outreach on students on time college matriculation. Her current research looks at interventions to address the summer melt and the influence of customized and personalized text messages on FAFSA completion and college enrollment. She was just awarded an IES grant to expand her research to a national sample.

Arianne Miller, CSP

Arianne E. Miller earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Adelphi University in 2008. She completed a pre-doctoral internship at the Center for Multicultural Training in Psychology at Boston University Medical School and a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Harvard Medical School/ Boston Children’s Hospital. Prior to coming to SDSU she held positions as a Lecturer in Psychology and Critical Gender Studies at UCSD; a Staff Psychologist at Fenway Health, a LGBT health center in Boston; and a Clinical Instructor at Harvard Medical School. Her areas of research include the use of race and gender in the phenomenon known as "Gaydar," the relationship between beliefs about gender roles and how people conceptualize sexual orientation, and the improvement of self-care practices among clinicians and underserved communities. Dr. Miller is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist with specialties in Multicultural and LGBTQ Psychology, Adolescence, and Eating Disorders. She is interested in the intersections of race, gender and sexuality wherever they may be found; food politics and obesity; and how to reduce stigma about mental illness and psychotherapy. As a native New Yorker, Dr. Miller never imagined moving to California, owning a boogie board or being well on her way to becoming “outdoorsy.”

Sarah Rieth, CFD

Sarah R. Rieth is joining the Child and Family Development department from the Psychiatry Department at UCSD. She received her PhD in developmental psychology from the Autism Intervention Research Program at UCSD in 2012, with a focus in adapting evidence-based practices for children with autism for community environments. Her current research areas include long-term influences of early intervention, active ingredients across treatment approaches for children with autism, and the promotion of social-emotional skills in early development. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, outdoor activities, and traveling.

Alyson Shapiro, CFD

Alyson Shapiro received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the University of Washington under the direction of Dr. John Gottman, and then received post-doctoral training in the area of Infant Mental Health under the direction of Dr. Susan Spieker at the Barnard Center for Infant mental Health and Development at the University of Washington. Alyson also hasseveral years of experience teaching, mentoring students, and conducting research in the T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics at Arizona State University. Alyson aims to promote the wellbeing of infants, children, couples, and families through: 1) conducting and disseminating high-quality, application-relevant research; 2) teaching in the university setting; and 3) translating research findings for practitioners, educators, students, and parents. Alyson fosters transdisciplinary collaborative relationships and utilize multiple methodological approaches to further this goal. The focus of Alyson’s research is on family dynamics around the transition to parenthood period, and includes a focus on both high and low risk families. This dual focus enables a more comprehensive understanding of issues that affect infant mental health, family dynamics, couple relationships, and human development.

Melissa Soto, STE

Dr. Melissa Soto joins the School of Teacher Education as a new mathematics educator. Dr. Soto earned her PhD in mathematics education at UC Davis, where she was advised by Dr. Rebecca Ambrose, a former STE faculty member. Melissa earned her BA in Elementary Education at the University of North Florida and MEd in Mathematics Education at the University of Central Florida. She holds Florida teaching credentials in elementary education (K-6) and mathematics education (grades 5-9), and is bilingual in English and Spanish. She has taught third and fifth grade in Florida. She also is an experienced professional development leader, conducting numerous sessions on Cognitively Guided Instruction for elementary teachers, and has participated in funded projects and served as a TA at UC Davis. Her research focuses on integrating mobile learning using screencasts as a formative assessment tool for mathematical explanations/reasoning. She has found that the use of screencasts has the potential to transform the learning environment by allowing teachers to gain more insight into their students’ mathematical thinking and encouraging students to reflect on their thinking. When Dr. Soto is not interviewing young math students or working with pre- and inservice teachers, she seeks out travel adventures. Her latest travel experience involved teaching Spanish to Arabic speakers in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Exciting COE Leadership Changes and Faculty & Staff Promotions

The College of Education is excited to start the Fall semester with these new faculty and staff changes and promotions:

•     Julie White, former COE Manager of Operations and Support Services has become the COE Manager of Budget and Analysis.
•     Dr. Nancy Farnan will become the Associate Dean of COE.
•     Dr. Audrey Hokoda will become the Department Chair of Child and Family Development.
•     Dr. Doug Fisher will become the Department Chair of Educational Leadership.
•     Dr. Nadine Bezuk will become the Director of the School of Teacher Education.
•     Dr. Ian Pumpian will become the Director of the SDSU Ed.D. (K-12) Program.
•     Dr. J. Luke Wood will become Director of the SDSU Ed.D. (Community College/Postsecondary Education) Program.

Promoted to Full Professor for Fall 2014

•     Dr. Audrey Hokoda
•     Dr. Lisa Lamb

Promoted to Associate Professor for Fall 2014

•     Dr. J. Luke Wood
•     Dr. Meredith Houle Vaughn

Young Aztecs Celebrate Dr. Seuss and Reading with CFD

Story contributed by: Shelby Smith

In Spring 2014, in honor of National Read Across America Day, preschoolers from the San Diego State Children’s Center enjoyed a morning of listening to their favorite books being read by their teachers, parents, and other volunteers. The day is held annually to celebrate the birthday of Dr. Seuss, the renowned children’s book author.

Three and four year old preschoolers walked across the SDSU campus to the lawn in front of the iconic Hepner Hall for a special reading of classics like The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, and The Lorax. The goal of the event was to promote literacy and highlight the significance of reading early in children’s development.

Last spring marked the second annual event hosted by the Child and Family Development Department as part of its ongoing Children’s Library Project, and was organized by CFD seniors, Cyrene Prudente and Shelby Smith. In 2011, the CFD Department helped revitalize the children’s library at the on-campus Children’s Center, which was unorganized and rarely used by children and families. The receipt of a President’s Leadership Grant also assisted with the purchase of a computer database, furniture, and books for the revitalization project.

CFD students continue to support the library project through an ongoing action research project coordinated by faculty member Dr. Sarah Garrity. CFD graduate student, Chun-Ju Chen, is currently creating an online module linked to the Children’s Center website that will inform parents of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers of the benefits of shared book reading. The module will also provide information about high quality children’s literature and as useful instructions and strategies to help them read to their children more effectively.

Aztec Science Camp Makes Science Fun!

This summer San Diego State University offered its first ever science camp for children ages 6 to 11. The three-week camp not only offered hands-on learning for kids, but gave the SDSU science and engineering majors who led the camp the opportunity to try out teaching science.

Trish Hatch and Lauren Owen Represent SDSU at White House Event

Story adapted from article at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

On Monday, July 28, 2014 the Harvard Graduate School of Education, in partnership with the White House’s College Opportunity Agenda, convened leaders in education to discuss strategies to increase access to college for Americans. SDSU Counseling and School Psychology faculty members, Dr. Trish Hatch and Dr. Laura Owen were among the leaders and decision makers who attended the event to discuss how improvements in school counseling and college advising can bring about greater postsecondary opportunities for Americans.

Dr. Jo Boaler Discusses Using 'Mindset' to Move Students' Careers Forward

On June 2, 2014, Dr. Jo Boaler presented "The Mindset Revolution: Teaching mathematics for a growth mindset," at San Diego State University.

Dr. Boaler’s presentation was part of San Diego State University’s Center for Research in Mathematics and Science Education (CRMSE) Distinguished Lecturer Series. Over 300 people attended the CRMSE Series, which included a roundtable discussion with math education leaders. Stanford Professor Boaler, shared her insight in the areas of mindset, mathematics, and the promotion of equity to motivate students to take their careers forward in these fields.

Boaler is a professor in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University. Her research focuses on the most effective learning environments for students learning mathematics and has won awards in both England and the United States. Her studies have shown that students, who engage actively in their mathematics learning rather than simply practicing procedures, achieve at higher level.

CRMSE is dedicated to advancing mathematics and science education at local, state, and national levels. Made up of an interdisciplinary community of scholars in the College of Sciences and the College of Education at San Diego State University, the center is engaged in research, curriculum development and dissemination, publications, presentations, and leadership roles in the community and across the nation.

Read more about this program at the CRMSE website.

New Minor Inspires Social Change

In a society stricken with inequalities and apathy, the ability to be culturally aware and empathetic is not only a marketable skill, but also necessary for societal progress. The counseling and social change minor at San Diego State provides students the skills to be knowledgeable, thoughtful agents of change,

Read more at The Daily Aztec

Dr. Cristina Alfaro Awarded San Diego County Bea Gonzales Leadership in Biliteracy Award

We are proud to announce that Dr. Cristina Alfaro, Department Chair of Dual Language & English Learner Education, was honored with the 2014 Bea Gonzales Leadership In Biliteracy Award. Dr. Alfaro was awarded at the 16th Annual Biliteracy Symposium on May 8, 2014 at the Marriott Hotel in La Jolla, California.

The Bea Gonzales Leadership in Biliteracy Award is given to one person or institution in San Diego County in special recognition of their efforts for and commitment to promoting biliteracy and academic achievement for English Learners. Award nominees can be teachers, parents, administrators, board members, and/or support staff.