Greetings!

Another productive academic year in the College is behind us. We share much pride and joy in sending 335 graduates into the world this year. We extend our congratulations to them on their achievements and wish them all ongoing success as they continue the College's mission to transform learning and leadership.

The energy of summer brings an excitement that can be felt at the college, propelling us forward into a very bright future. We continue to reimagine concepts of learning and teaching in this new century. The world itself has become a classroom, and our expanding selection of online programs demonstrates our leadership in this area. We have the opportunity to shape this new world of educational potential. We are reinventing what it means to be a teacher, to be a student, and to be a leader.

The College's position at the hub of a local and global network of collaborative relationships is inspiring researchers, practitioners, and colleagues to work together on shared initiatives that will reinvent education and serve the public good. It's about innovation, after all, and we're all working together toward the same goal.

Research & Scholarship Highlights

The College of Education research environment is thriving and productive. Proposal submissions for external funding for FY08 show a 106% increase from FY05 and 17% increase from FY07. Proposals awarded in FY08 through May 2008 show a 45% increase from FY07, with significant increased success in faculty projects supported by Federal funds. Since FY05, $25M or 65% of the multi-year value of external faculty funding has been awarded by the US Department of Education. Of this total, the multi-year value of Institute of Education Sciences (IES) awards is over $16M. For FY2008, the College of Education has achieved an IES funding success rate of 31%, compared to the 10-12% national average. A significant number of other recent awards and still-pending submissions rest with other federal, state, and private funders. This increase in funded grants is indicative of our mission to make a socially significant impact on critical issues in education across the lifespan.

Here are some highlights of our research activities:

Professor Jeanette McCollum received a $4.06 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to boost literacy skills and readiness for kindergarten of 4-5 year olds.  She will be assisted by four other faculty members in the Department of Special Education:  Tweety Felner, Susan Fowler, Michaelene Ostrosky and Amy Santos Gilbertz. This three-year, four million dollar Early Reading First (ERF) grant, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, is part of a national movement to immerse preschool programs in emerging literacy readiness. ERF's focus is to promote both teacher and child change in early childhood literacy.

Dr. Ruth Nicole Brown's innovative ethnographical research addresses the political landscape of an oft-marginalized group: Black girls. Her main objective is to document the meaning of politics from the perspective of girls of color, primarily focusing on how African-American girls negotiate decision making, the rhetoric of self-esteem, and public images in the context of their limited access to traditional modes of power and heightened social policing and surveillance of their bodies.

Congratulations to Associate Professors Christopher Lubienski and Sarah Lubienski and doctoral student Corinna Crane for the ongoing circulation of their work about the math score performance of students in public and private schools – this time in Bangkok and Tehran. We certainly all work in a global context.

These are just a few examples of the tremendous research activity of the past academic year. To learn more about research at the college, visit the Bureau of Educational Research web site.

Working Together: Diversity in Action

I continue to take pride in our college's respect for diversity of ideas and identities, and our leading efforts in ensuring that we provide the tools of learning for everyone. We value the vast range of perspectives of individuals of all backgrounds - whether students, faculty, staff or community friends - that come together in this College to inspire new discussions, leading us into new avenues of research and exploration toward an inclusive and just future.

We are actively working to create an environment in which all individuals feel safe, secure, and welcome, regardless of social identity and disability. The College's Diversity and Equity Working Group, guided by Helen Neville and Mildred Trent, has worked to identify how diversity is currently being defined within the college. In April, we held a retreat dedicated to promoting understanding of diversity and discussing ways in which we can all contribute to making the college a welcoming, supportive environment. A number of excellent recommendations surfaced at the retreat, many of which build on previous efforts as outlined in the 2006-2007 Diversity Task Force Report. To stay updated on our latest efforts to promote diversity in the college, visit the Diversity & Equity section of our web site.

Faculty and Alumni Honored

We are honored by a number of significant awards garnered by our faculty and alumni this year.

Our 2008-2009 Faculty Fellows were recognized for their contributions to the college's Strategic Initiatives: Brad Kose, David Richman, and David Brown. These awards are investments in our collective future and we are looking forward to their significant scholarly contributions.

Freeman A. Hrabowski (Ph.D. '75) was awarded the University of Illinois Alumni Association's Distinguished Alumni Award at this year's campuswide commencement ceremonies for his dedication to improving minority participation and performance in science and math education. As President of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, he has been sought as a consultant by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and universities and school systems nationally, and serves on the boards of such organizations as the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Betty Burch Mohlenbrock ('62, EDM '64) was honored with an Alumni Humanitarian Award for her mission of helping families achieve intimacy through books. In 1989, she established the Family Literacy Foundation, the forerunner of United Through Reading, an organization that arranges to record and send home DVDs of deployed military parents reading to their children.

Three of our faculty were honored with campus awards for their excellence in teaching and advising.

• Lisa Monda-Amaya - Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
• Andrea Ellinger - Award for Excellence in Off-Campus Teaching
• Michaelene Ostrosky - Excellence in Mentoring Graduate Students

Several of our faculty and staff were honored at the college's spring meeting in May.

Teaching Awards

• Michelle Birkett - Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award for Teaching Assistants
• Brad Thompson - Outstanding Teaching Award for Visiting Faculty
• Rosa Milagros Santos Gilbertz - Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award for Faculty
• Lisa Spanierman - Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award for Faculty
• Debra Bragg - Distinguished Teaching Career Award for Faculty

Service and Research Awards

• Violet Harris - Outstanding Faculty Award for Service
• Brendesha Tynes - Spitze/Mather Faculty Award for Excellence
• Adam Fein - Academic Professional Excellence Award
• Jana Lenz - Distinguished Staff Award
• Barb Geissler and Kim Nystrom - Dean’s Prize for Breakthrough Initiatives

Congratulations to all of our award recipients. Your accomplishments reflect admirably on the college.

Four New Online Master's Degree Programs

We are proud to announce four new, online master’s degree programs, developed in partnership with Academic Outreach, a division of the Office of Continuing Education.

• Ed. M.  with emphasis in Educational Leadership and Policy
• Ed. M.  with emphasis in Teaching Critical Thinking
• Ed. M.  with emphasis in Diversity and Equity Issues in Education
• Ed. M.  with emphasis in New Learning and New Literacies

National and international educators and policy analysts will find the
Ed. M. with emphasis in Educational Leadership and Policy program useful in understanding and addressing issues in the P-12 and higher education arenas. The program does not provide administrative licensure, but is unique in combining Higher Education and Educational Administration Leadership—two areas that have traditionally been offered separately—into one program. Participants may go through the program and branch off to specialize in either higher education or in P-12 leadership and policy.

The Ed.M. with an emphasis in Teaching Critical Thinking is the first of its kind offered by any University and fills a need for teacher-development programs in this area. Participants in the program will not only learn to teach critical thinking skills but will also examine the changing meaning of what critical thinking involves in today’s world. While the degree is aimed primarily at teachers returning for professional development and advanced degrees, the courses are open to other students as well.  Students in the program will consist of a truly blended group of on-campus and online students and classes have been developed in a variety of formats in order to take advantage of innovative technological and design approaches.

The Ed. M. with emphasis in Diversity and Equity Issues in Education targets a diverse audience of P-16 educators. Its goal is to enhance the ability of educators to craft inclusive learning environments and to address issues of diversity and equity across disciplines and learning environments. The program is the first of its kind at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is uniquely designed in a joint partnership across the all of College’s departments.

With the introduction of the Ed. M. with emphasis in New Learning and New Literacies, the College intends to help teachers explore the role and effect of new media in both learning and teaching and the ways in which they can employ transformative technologies to enhance and improve the learning and teaching experience. K-12 language arts teachers are specifically targeted in conjunction with teachers of any other subjects who are interested in using new media in their classrooms.

Our Alumni and Friends - Helping Us Make a Difference

The sense of loyalty and the commitment of financial resources to the College and the University by alumni and friends is truly astonishing and humbling.  

Two groups of alumni, one a long-established group and one fairly new, have had a significant impact on the College. The Education Alumni Association strengthens educational and social bonds to the College of Education, and promotes the importance of education in our society, through publications and by planning, organizing, and scheduling activities or events which attract alumni, and to recognize distinguished alumni of the College. The Board of Visitors was created in preparation for the Brilliant Futures Campaign.  The Board promotes public awareness and support for the mission, goals, and services of the College of Education, and provides the Dean with perspective and input so to ensure the continued prominence and broadened financial base of the College.

Regarding the campaign, it brought me great pleasure and pride to learn that the College of Education is the first campus unit to achieve and then exceed its campaign goal.  Since the public phase of the campaign was announced just over a year ago, the College has surpassed its initial goal of $17M. Please join me in congratulating Joan Tousey and the entire Advancement team on this wonderful achievement. This outcome reflects their focus and hard work, and brightens our Brilliant Future.

As you can imagine, the achievement of this goal does not translate into the slowing down of our efforts. We continue to look ahead to what we can accomplish in the remaining three years of the campaign.

We continue to find ways to raise the profile of the College through the accomplishments of many of you, and hope that you will share not just your financial resources with us, but your energy, enthusiasm, and insights.  Please know that I encourage all faculty, staff and students to be part of the public face of the College.

All the best,
Dean Mary Kalantzis