Faculty Notes

Brian Brent, assistant professor, educational leadership, was cited in the chapter "On Becoming a Principal" in the new book by Roland S. Barth, Learning by Heart (Jossey-Bass 2001). Barth is the founder and former director of the Harvard School of Education's Principals Center. Brent summarized research on the efficacy of the training for aspiring principals and concluded that principals and other school leaders benefit significantly from practical experience after completing their education.

Randall Curren, associate professor, educational leadership, was a National Science Foundation-sponsored participant in the Ethics Across the Curriculum Workshop held in June 2001 in Chicago. In October, Curren participated in an interdisciplinary panel that discussed moral education and the meaning of equity as it relates to issues like the current high-stakes testing movement, at the annual meetings of the National Academy of Education in Berkeley, Calif. He ended a busy semester in Bled, Slovenia, where he was invited to deliver a lecture on "Citizenship, Education and Children's Rights" at an international conference sponsored by UNESCO, the Council of Europe, and the Slovene Ministry of Science and Education.

Dale Dannefer, professor, counseling and human development, with his colleague Gunhild Hagestad, Northwestern University, co-authored the opening chapter in the new Handbook of Aging and the Social Sciences (Academic Press, 2001). The handbook is part of a three-volume set that also covers the physiology and psychology of aging. In collaboration with Warner doctoral student Paul Stein, Dannefer also presented findings from his empirical research on nursing home reform at the national conference of the Nursing Home Pioneers held in Rochester last August.

At the invitation of the Singapore Ministry of Community Development and the Tsao Foundation, as Singapore's 2001 Expert on Aging, Dannefer delivered a series of lectures and met with policymakers, corporate leaders, academics, and health care professionals in Singapore in October 2001. Speaking on "Human Aging: Old Myths and New Possibilities," he debunked common myths about maturation resulting in reduced physical and mental capacity and rigidity of thought, and suggested that culturally reinforced age distinctions play a much greater role and can be modified. In a subsequent presentation to policymakers and corporate leaders titled "Rethinking the Aging for a Changing World: Education, Work and the Future of the life Course," Dannefer discredits the notion that it is the "work" of aging to disengage from society. Instead, he suggests it is the nature of human beings to retain the childhood ability to learn throughout all of life and to thrive from learning. The potential of the elders of a society, he contends, inevitably depends on the kinds of opportunities and experiences that they encountered earlier in their lives.

Judi Fonzi, director of the Center for Professional Development and Education Reform, has received a three-year supplement of $189,000 for her K-12 Mathematics Systemic Reform Project, bringing the total funding from the New York State Education Department's Dwight D. Eisenhower Professional Development Program to $654,000 for five years. The project aims to reform the entire K-12 mathematics programs within each of the four participating districts by using a systemic approach. Key to the project is the development of a cadre of lead teachers within each district and a five-year professional development program designed to respond to the needs of the participating districts. Teachers and administrators from across the districts participate in the on-going professional development program, which introduces them to the critical issues of school mathematics reform, the instructional strategies that support standards-based instruction, and new mathematics content. Professional development fosters collaborations between and among teachers, administrators, and mathematics education faculty within and across districts and universities.

Fonzi was also awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to study the initiation of mathematics lead teachers in districts engaged in systemic reform. In addition, because of her work in professional development and the development of professional development materials, Fonzi was invited to work with a national group of mathematics educators on an NSF-funded project to produce a videotape series focusing on effective mathematics professional development strategies.

David Hursh, associate professor, teaching and curriculum, and his collaborator E. Wayne Ross, associate professor of education at the State University of New York at Binghamton, received a 2001 Critics' Choice Award for their book, Democratic Social Education: Social Studies for Social Change (see Warner Educator, Spring 2001). The American Educational Studies Association makes the awards for volumes it regards as "outstanding books of interest to those in educational studies," to increase awareness of recent excellent scholarship. About 25 books receive the award each year, nationwide.

Bruce A. Kimball, professor, educational leadership, presented the annual Henry Crimmel Lecture on Liberal Education sponsored by St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, in October 2001. His topic was "The Disputed Origins of Liberal Education and the Origin of Recent Disputes." Kimball was also invited to introduce his forthcoming documentary history of liberal education at the International Conference on the Past, Present, and Future of Liberal Education, sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation and the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Foundation on May 5-6, 2002, in Washington, D.C. Representatives from 15 different countries are expected to attend.

Howard Kirschenbaum, chair, Counseling and Human Development Program, and Frontier Professor of School, Family & Community Relations, was interviewed at length in a special four-page insert to the Newsletter for Educational Psychologists (Volume 24, Number 3, July 2001) published by the American Psychological Association. Kirschenbaum discussed the influence of values clarification theory and the theories of Carl Rogers on Kirschenbaum's own work, and shared his opinions about the theoretical and philosophical principles that will most influence future research and educational innovation. Kirschenbaum is one of the leading authorities on Carl Rogers. He wrote the first Rogers biography and co-edited The Carl Rogers Reader and Carl Rogers: Dialogues. This year, which is the 100th anniversary of Rogers' birth, Kirschenbaum delivers keynote presentations on Rogers at several major conferences including the American Counseling Association in March and the Third World Congress on Psychotherapy in Vienna in July.

An article he co-authored with Christine Reagan, "University and Urban School Partnerships: An Analysis of 57 Collaborations Between a University and a City School District," was published in the September 2001 issue of Urban Education (Volume 36, Number 4). From their study of 57 local university-school collaborations, Kirschenbaum and Reagan found that such partnerships were no longer experimental, but had become institutionalized. “Although urban school systems may still be perceived as large bureaucracies that resist change, it is clear that school boundaries have become enormously permeable as city schools willingly collaborate with a wide variety of community partners to improve education," the authors concluded.

Howard Kirschenbaum and Dale Dannefer, both Warner School faculty members, are two of 10 University of Rochester faculty members whose work is being published in 2002 in the International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Published by Elsevier Science, the 26-volume work, the largest of its type, is an attempt to create a complete map of the social and behavioral sciences. When completed, the encyclopedia will contain 4,000 signed articles from authors around the world on subjects ranging from sociology to law and history. It is expected to be available in a printed version and a fully-searchable Internet format.

Joanne Larson, associate professor and chair of the teaching and curriculum department, has received a three-year, $114,000 extension of her literacy collaborative project. The project is supported by the New York State Education Department's Dwight D. Eisenhower Professional Development Program. The project enables Warner School faculty to collaborate regularly with faculty and administrators from Rochester City School District Schools 28 and 33, and from Greece Central School District's West Ridge Elementary School, to share challenges and discuss new ideas. Partners attend a summer institute and a daylong conference each year, supplemented by monthly meetings to review student work, share research findings, and discuss teaching techniques and student outcomes. The grant extension allows the Warner School to provide funding for the purchase of multiple copies of children's literature for literature studies and to buy instructional supplies. Recent education budget deficits have reduced instructional supplies funds--especially in the city--although Greece is experiencing reductions as well. Larson is especially proud to support teachers directly in their classrooms.

Her work involvement with literacy initiatives extends well beyond this series of grants. She has recently been appointed to the standing committee on research of the National Council of Teachers of English and chairs the Promising Researcher Award committee.

Helen E. (Bettie) Lindley, coordinator of teacher education, was instrumental in founding the Rochester Area Colleges Field Experience Consortium. This group of placement counselors from local colleges--including SUNY Brockport, SUNY Geneseo, Keuka College, Roberts Wesleyan College, St. John Fisher College, Nazareth College of Rochester, and the University of Rochester--meets periodically to discuss various aspects of student teaching placement and to coordinate activities.

Michael Wischnowski, assistant professor, educational leadership, published his article "Of Roger Maris, Casey Martin, and Test Modifications" in Exceptional Individuals (Volume 27, Issue 1-2, Winter 2002), the journal of the New York State Federation of Chapters of the Council for Exceptional Children. The article uses a baseball metaphor to discuss testing modifications in the context of student assessment and the resulting implications for students with disabilities. Wischnowski suggests, "[I]f you only pay attention to the scores, you might miss the game--what it takes and how it's played--entirely."