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1GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

spring 2013

Transforming the World of Education

Berkeley EducatorGRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

StudentS confuSed about ProPortionS? there’S an aPP for that!

nba hall of famer iSiah thomaS returnS to college

Struggling to read: how a comPuter game iS helPing kidS catch uP

tranSforming claSSroomS one teacher at a time

from the Dean

“Can you recall a teacher who particularly inspired or influenced you?” I have asked that question of many others, and others have asked it of me. I do indeed recall such teachers. Mrs. Pritchard in 4th grade, who helped us learn to write by asking us to write—a lot! Mrs. Battaglia in 8th grade, who got us out of our rows and into four-person teams and projects. My piano teacher Diane Hidy, who does not mind that I am talent-impaired and who takes genuine pleasure in helping me build skill and confidence at the piano.

When I have asked high school students and graduates that same question, they have responded with stories about teachers who have not only supported them in their academic endeavors, but who also have supported them personally, emotionally, and socially. Such stories compel attention, speaking to the power of the teacher-student connection.

How might we nurture those connections and multiply those stories of inspiration and influence? My own research, now spanning more than 30 years, suggests that one answer resides in the kind of professional relationships forged by teachers with one another and fostered by school leaders.

Some schools succeed in building a workplace culture that promotes deep and comprehensive support for students. In such schools, students have no difficulty pointing to the teachers who make a difference in their lives.

I consider it an important part of our mission at Berkeley that, through ground-breaking research and professional training, we prepare educators who have the vision to create and lead those schools.

And perhaps we could ask a new question: “Have you attended a school that inspired and supported you to learn?”

Here at the GSE, we imagine the day when all students respond with a resounding “Yes!”

JuDith Warren LittLeDean, GraDuate School of eDucationcarol liu ProfeSSor of eDucation [email protected]

con

tents

Features

16 Students confused about proportions? There’s an app for that!

By DA R A A k I kO TO m

10 NBA Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas returns to college

By DA R A A k IkO TO m

18 Struggling to read: How a computer game is helping kids catch up


22 Making math meaningful By DA R A A k I kO TO m

Faculty18 Aki Murata: Transforming

classrooms one teacher at a timeBy DA R A A k I kO TO m

19 Pat Cross establishes collaborative scholarshipBy DA R A A k I kO TO m

20 Norton Grubb on principals and public education


Students24 Gabriela Borge Janetti

By TER R I H A R D E S T y

25 Funie HsuBy DA R A A k I kO TO m

26 Postdoctoral scholar Camillia Matuk By DA R A A k I kO TO m

Alumni15 GSE alumnae earn Cal

Alumni Association honors

14 Jessica Rigby ‘12 By DA R A A k I kO TO m

27 Maisha T. Winn ’03 By TER R I H A R D E S T y

Beth Rubin ’01By TER R I H A R D E S T y

28 Luis A. Huerta ’02By TER R I H A R D E S T y

Angeline Spain ’11 By TER R I H A R D E S T y

29 Ariana Mangual Figueroa ’10By TER R I H A R D E S T y

Edward Bodine ’07By TER R I H A R D E S T y

4Berkeley Educator | SPRING 2013

DEANJudith Warren Little

ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR ACADEmIC AFFAIRSElliot Turiel

DIRECTOR FOR PROFESSIONAL PROGRAmSRichard Sterling

HEAD GRADUATE ADvISERAnne Cunningham

ASSISTANT DEAN FOR ADmINISTRATIONLisa kala

GSE ADvISORy BOARD

Al AdamsStacey Bellmolly BrockmeyerCarol kavanagh ClarkePat CrossShaquam EdwardsCatherine H. GordonChad Graffmiranda HellerEileen HuttoRob Lakekerri LubinJoyce NgLouise muhlfeld PattersonSuzanne SchutteGlenn A . ShannonAnthony m. SmithCarolyn SparksRichard SterlingIrvenia WatersLynn Wendellmike WoodHeather mcCracken Wu

Berkeley EducatorSpring 2013 – Vol. 7

Berkeley Educator is published annually by the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Education for alumni, friends and supporters of the School.

EDITORDara TomCommunications & Public [email protected]

DESIGNNina Zurier

CONTRIBUTING WRITERSTerri Hardesty

PHOTOGRAPHyGordon mah Ung

PRINTER

Perry Granger Print management

University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Education1501 Tolman HallBerkeley CA [email protected]

© 2013 by the Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.

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Liu received the Excellence in Achievement Award, which honors prominent alumni with records of exceptional career achievement. Past recipients represent a range of fields, including business, literature, energy conservation, filmmaking, politics, medicine, education, and community development.

“I am honored to receive the Cal Alumni Association Excellence in Education Award. Berkeley provided me with a quality education and the opportunity to explore, grow, and learn through study and practice,” Liu said.

“My passion for education and continued involvement with Berkeley has enhanced my quest to rethink, re-imagine, and reinvent our public school system so all students have equal access to a quality education. As I wrote in my Thanks to Berkeley campaign photo: ‘A brilliant place to invest. Go Bears!’”

GSE alumnae earn Cal Alumni Association honors

D’Amato will receive the Mark Bingham Award for Excellence in Achievement by a Young Alumnus/a. The award honors a younger alumnus/a with accomplishments of significant importance at an early stage of his/her career (1-15 years out of school). This award pays tribute to Mark Bingham ’93, who died September 11, 2001, defending the United States on United Airlines Flight 93.

“I am extremely honored. Most of us try to be half the person Mark Bingham was. When I think about what Mark Bingham did on that fateful morning and read more about how he led his life with such integrity and courage, it is as if the Heavens fated him to be in that time and place,” D’Amato said.

“What is distinct from fate is his conscious decision to call his Mom, say goodbye, and give his phenomenal life to the storybooks of heroes. Mark Bingham was larger than life. I am committed to fulfilling his legacy by always leading with integrity and not holding on to fears.” T

Graduate School of Education alumnae State Sen. carol liu ’63 and maj. nina d’amato ’08 have been selected to receive honors from the Cal Alumni Association. Liu, a former public school teacher from Southern California, and D’Amato, a former public school vice principal who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, were recognized at the CAA’s 2013 Charter Gala on Saturday, March 16, at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.


What happens when a teacher hands an iPad to a group of 9th graders to use for their mathematics lesson?

“The students pounced on it, started tapping all over it, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap,” said Professor Dor Abrahamson. “It was a clash of implicit expectations.”

The students were using Abrahamson’s mathematical imagery trainer (mit), a free app designed to help students grasp the mathematical concept of proportions even before they understand multiplicative relationships.

The MIT has four modes, each with a different way of exploring proportions. The app was designed with the expectation that students would progress through these four modes in a prescribed order that would lead them from simple hands-on actions and visual judgments through to measurement and finally to numerical symbols.

“We didn’t realize how dependent we were on sequencing,” Abrahamson said. “And the students had their culture of interaction with the iPad. Tap here, tap over there. What does this do? What does that do?

“So then we had to consider: Do we impose the sequence despite kids’ interaction norms or do we rethink the activity to assimilate existing interaction norms? We chose the latter. We turned the tables upside down and said to the kids, `OK, your rules – you can click on anything you want but you need to become experts in the hands-on problem. All the mathematical stuff is your tools for this.’ ”

stuDents confuseD about ProPortions? there’s an aPP for that. By DAR A AkIkO TOm


the PoWer of errors

The traditional proportion lesson is learning an algorithm. The lesson may start with numbers in a situation such as making lemonade. Students are given a recipe of one part lemon juice, three parts water and asked to make more lemonade but to keep the flavor the same.

“When rules are just given, students can’t have a meaningful learning experience because they don’t have the opportunity to apply their naïve knowledge and watch how it turns out to be inappropriate,” Abrahamson said.

MIT allows students to make mistakes, and learn from them. “Trial and error and being able to form a theory. That’s the natural way for people to learn,” he said.

It has also been the path of the MIT’s development.

And it was an undergraduate student in Abrahamson’s lab who championed the idea of an app for the third generation MIT, in part because her parents own app builder Terasoft, a.s.

Graduate students Rosa Lee and Andrea Negrete tested the MIT app with 9th grade algebra students (remember all the tapping?) and discovered the need to rewrite instructional methods as well as redesign the modes to be less interdependent. All the while keeping the same overarching single rule: keep it green.

As fingers slide across the iPad, two bars change colors and only remain green when the bars are in proportion to each other. The basic mode has two bars; Mode B adds a grid; Mode C offers numbers on the grid; and Mode D requires inputting numbers on a ratio table while keeping the geometric shapes green.

“With the MIT, you can understand mathematics in a meaningful way before you get into the complicated abstract symbols,” said Lee, who will graduate in May and plans to be a high school math teacher.

Negrete, who will also graduate in May and plans to be a middle school math teacher, recalls how impressed she was hearing the students talk about their findings after using the MIT app.

“Those discussions were really rich,” she said. “We never said `use math language,’ but there was so much math talk because of this mutual experience.” T

DoWnLoaD the mathematicaL imaGery trainer (mit) aPP for free at http://bit.ly/ZbtjL7.

from WooD to Wii to ios

In 2008, Mark Howison (now at Brown University) from Abrahamson’s Embodied Design Research Laboratory built a wooden MIT prototype: a pulley system operating at a 2:3 ratio. A student holds one rope in each hand while another student rotates the handle. Because the ropes are on different sized wheels, they advance at different rates.

The second generation MIT was a computer-based Wii-type system in which the student holds a remote in each hand, pointing them at a monitor. The goal was to keep the screen green while raising and lowering the remotes.

The MIT caught the eye of a graduate student in Texas who used it as the basis of her dissertation and of Edutopia, an effort of the George Lucas Educational Foundation, which made a 4-minute video, How to Make Math Meaningful, featuring Abrahamson.

Graduate students Andrea Negrete (standing) and Rosa Lee show how the mIT prototype works.


Ask assistant Professor aki murata to name one of her grade school teachers who stands out as having made an impact on her, and she shrugs her shoulders.

“Interesting, eh? I don’t have any.”

But ask her why she has dedicated her career to preparing students to be that unforgettable elementary school teacher she never had, and the answer is simple: “Teaching, it’s a magical thing.”

Murata joined the GSE faculty this year after seven years as an Assistant Professor of Elementary Mathematics Education at Stanford University. Prior to Stanford, she was an AERA-IES Post-Doctoral Fellow/Research Associate at Mills College. She completed her undergraduate and master’s degrees at Ohio State University and her Ph.D. at Northwestern University.

Murata brings a wealth of experience and expertise to UC Berkeley’s Developmental Teacher Program (DTE), which is the GSE’s 15-month, full time program that leads to a master’s degree and Multiple Subject Credential.

Transforming classrooms one teacher at a time By DAR A AkIkO TOm

She discusses her wish-list for DTE: Re-establish close working relationships with the local partnership schools, in part to increase the mentorship of DTE graduates with pre-service teachers; develop the professional community where teachers collaborate and support one another; and increase DTE enrollment.

Murata’s research focuses on developing a better understanding of and improving teaching and learning of mathematics in elementary classrooms. She recently co-edited a book, Lesson Study Research and Practice in Mathematics Education: Learning Together, with Lynn C. Hart and Alice S. Alston. The book describes several aspects of the professional development method called lesson study, including an historical overview of the concept, issues related to learning and teaching mathematics, and the role of the teacher in the process.

She also brings something that doesn’t show up on a CV—an abundance of hope.

“I’m a cheerleader for the teachers. If I’m not hopeful, nobody will be. Teachers’ lives are filled with challenges. I help them believe in and not forget the reasons why they initially wanted to become teachers,” Murata says.

And she speaks from experience—from her early years as a teacher’s aide in a small elementary school in Ohio, where she was the only non-white staff member. Living in the closed and conservative small town, she says she developed a self-doubt


Professor emerita Pat cross has established a new scholarship aimed at encouraging collaboration among graduate students.

“I would like graduate students to have the opportunity to work with others and not hide in a library somewhere or go to a lab somewhere to work on a research project all by themselves. The emphasis is on working toward a common goal in concert with one another,” Cross said.

The Professor K. Patricia Cross Collaborative Scholarship will award $10,000 to a team of 3-5 students working on innovative research that improves classroom practice and strengthens teaching and learning.

“I think a lot of what is missing in academic institutions and what is really coming very fast is collaboration in education,” said Cross, who in 1988 held the first David Pierpoint Gardner Endowed

New collaborative

scholarship available for GSE

students

when no one seemed to share her ideas about teaching and learning.

“I thought my ideas were not good because they were different. And people around me seemed to be excited about educational issues I wasn’t. No one was hearing me. And I stopped listening to myself,” she says. Then she met a math educator at the Ohio State University, who became her advisor, provided her with her first research experience, but most importantly, listened.

It is an experience, Murata says, that parallels that of the textbook case of a student who is culturally disadvantaged and not considered intelligent. Just because they think differently, they are not given a chance.

“We don’t listen to the kids. But I see myself in them. They are the reason why I do what I do—kids like me who weren’t listened to. In order for them to learn better, I have to help teachers learn better,” Murata says.

One important lesson she has for teachers: smile big on the first day of school. It’s another one of her different ideas that bucks the traditional view that teachers shouldn’t smile until after Thanksgiving.

“On the first day of school, students come to you feeling hopeful that this will be the best school year ever,” Murata says. “Some students lose it in the first 5 minutes. Some hold on to it for the entire 180 days. The key is to keep that hope going as long as possible.” T

Chair in Higher Education at UC Berkeley. She retired from the GSE in 1995 and currently serves on the Dean’s Advisory Council.

“I come from the generation that touted and regarded independent research. And I think for the most part, graduate schools are still locked into that. There’s the old adage, two heads are better than one. It’s three to five heads, in this case,” she said.

Working together allows students to share ideas and specific skills, Cross said, noting that a tech-savvy freshman would be a perfect match to work with her on higher education. “I could talk about what needs to be done and she could talk about how to do it. It’s those kinds of collaborations that I would like to germinate,” Cross said.

Prospective recipients will be identified through a joint proposal competition and selected by the Dean. The first recipients will be named before fall semester 2013. T

10

nba haLL of famer isiah thomas returns to coLLeGe By DAR A AkIkO TOm

NBA Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas attends classes at UC Berkeley going virtually unnoticed.

After about 30 minutes of taking photos in front of Sather Gate, a transient walking by and shouts, “Isiah Thomas! I know that’s you. You look a little older, but I know it’s you!” The men shake hands, share a few laughs, and hug each other good-bye. Then the man leans in and whispers: “Can you help me out?”

Thomas doesn’t hesitate. He hands the man the only green back in his pocket; the denomination is much larger than the man would have ever expected. They part ways, both men smiling.

NBA Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas (center) talks with a student about pursuing a post-secondary education. Thomas will graduate in may with his master’s degree in Education from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Education.

Berkeley Educator | SPRING 2013


Thomas isn’t fazed by the inter-action because he himself grew up in extreme poverty on Chicago’s West Side. He recalls times of feeling hungry and having to sleep fully clothed in the winter because the family couldn’t always afford oil for the heater.

Basketball was his way out of poverty. In his 13-year NBA career, Thomas earned some of NBA’s highest accolades, including Rookie of the Year (1982), leading the Detroit Pistons to championships in 1989 and 1990, and MVP of the 1990 Finals. In 2000, he was inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame.

Thomas refuses to let his basketball career define him. At 51 years old, under “experience” on his resume, he can list business ventures, NBA management, coaching jobs and his Chicago-based foundation, Mary’s Court, that addresses poverty, gang violence and education issues. He is currently a commentator on NBA TV and a contributing writer to NBA.com.

After being drafted into the NBA after his sophomore year, he returned to Indiana University during the summers and took correspondence courses to earn a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice with a minor in sociology. In May of this year, he will be adding to

mORE F

his resume a master’s degree from UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education, with an emphasis in the Cultural Study of Sport and Education.

BE: You’ve accomplished so much in your career, why come back to school for a graduate degree?

IT: Education was always preached in my household. My mom and dad really believed education was the best way out of poverty. My mother was an activist. She worked with Fred Hampton and when Martin Luther King and Malcolm X came to Chicago, they all visited the West Side. My mother marched with them; she took us with her, we heard them speak. So growing up, the rock stars were Angela Davis, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, people who were well-educated and a had great command of the English language.

When I started playing basketball, I got good at it, but still the main focus was education and doing something with my education. For me, basketball became an outlet and a way to go to better schools. Once I got good enough I was able to go into the NBA. But my mom made me

sign a contract saying that I would graduate from college.

Fast forward to 2009, I’m coaching in college (at Florida International University) and (GSE Professors) Jabari Mahiri and Derek Van Rheenan wrote a book called Out of Bounds: When Scholarship Athletes Become Academic Scholars and I started reading the book. It hit me like a lightning bolt because it talked about athletes and scholars and athletes being scholars—and being looked at as scholars.

Just studying and critiquing sport, I had never thought about it or looked at it that way. Then Jabari and Derek came down to FIU; we started collaborating, trying to inspire the kids that I was coaching to look at athletes being scholars and how that can happen.

While all that was going on, I was the one who was getting inspired and started taking extension classes. And before you know it, here I am.

BE: Tell us about bringing a different kind of program to your FIU students.

IT: When I took the job, the school was on academic probation, and the basketball program wasn’t known for graduating athletes, particularly African Americans. What we wanted to do was to have success on and off the court, mainly off the court first because I was always taught you win with smart people.

So what we were trying to do was make sure that all kids understood the importance of education. During that period of time, we graduated 19 out of 21 African American students at FIU.… Not only did our kids feel great about themselves, when Jabari and Derek came to talk to our kids and inspire them, many of them had never really seen a black professor.

Thomas listens to a lecture in the upper division class in African American Studies, Black and male in American Life, which is taught by Quame Patton.


I have watched, over the years, athletes being pushed into classes that clearly kept them eligible to play basketball. I wanted to change that and put the emphasis on educating them and preparing them to graduate. Having these kids understand the difference between the two and then being able to advocate for themselves as opposed to having a parent or counselor advocate for them, was awesome.

BE: When you were taking photos near Sather Gate, why did you give that gentleman a $100 bill?

IT: Here’s why. That moment for him and for me, is a special memory. I didn’t know what he needed, but whatever I had, I felt it was his to have. ...I hope it helps him get to a better place or not have to do something that he doesn’t have to do. Again, being extremely poor, you understand that the only thing that you have when you’re poor, the last piece that you’re trying to hold on to, is your dignity.

Sometimes you don’t have the proper clothes. You don’t have a comb to comb your hair. You don’t have a toothbrush to brush your teeth. But those guys that you see, they’re still trying to hold on to the last piece of dignity they have. I always want to let them keep that, as opposed to treating them like the circumstance or situation that they find themselves in.

BE: In a 1988 interview with the Los Angeles Times, you said, “As a person and as a human being, if the only thing I’m remembered for is playing a stupid game of basketball, then I haven’t done a very good job in my life. Basketball isn’t everything to me.” That was 25 years ago. Do you still feel that way today?

IT: Without a doubt. We’re here to make the world a better place. You can make the world a better place by entertaining people and playing a game. But what happened today with that gentleman out at Sather Gate is much more gratifying to me than scoring a basket in that arena.

And again particularly for an African American who has an education, it requires me or that individual to be an activist in this country, to speak out and to speak up. The sport is what I did and what I played, but that doesn’t define who I am as an individual.

BE: What have you been doing through the Peace Games and the Mary’s Court foundation?

IT: Father (Michael) Pfleger at St. Sabina Catholic school and I brought four rival gangs together that were shooting each other in Chicago. These gangs came together, shook hands, played basketball and in that four-block radius, there hasn’t been one shooting or one killing around that school since (the basketball tournament in September 2012).

Basketball is more than just the score. What happens at a game, what happens at a sporting event and what happens in sport and play – and this is where the master’s program really comes into play – now you’re looking at sport and play in a totally different way because what sport does is it reinforces the values of the family, it reinforces the values that the community has.

Educationally, when sport and play are taken out of the school, now only the athletes have sport, but it’s not connected to the whole student body. When they close the park district, now you don’t have play. You don’t have sport, therefore kids can’t interact, kids can’t get to know each other and then the gangs come in.


One of the ways that racism was conquered in this country is through sport and play. When we said if we can play together, live together, get to know each other, then you see I am no different than you. And this is the same thing we’re doing in the local community.

But that’s from this education at Berkeley that I’ve gotten now because I never would have looked at it that way before.

BE: How did you look at it before?

IT: Probably like everyone else is looking at it: Oh, these are gangs, they don’t like each other, these kids can’t play together, these kids are just shooting each other.

[UC Berkeley Professor] Michael Omi and [UC Santa Cruz Professor] Howard Winant wrote a book on race, and how race is fluid. I always thought of race—black man, white man. But after reading that book and understanding that race changes and moves, I start thinking the systems and the structures must be examined and changed. I’m thinking in a way I hadn’t before about policy and law and how that applies to communities.

BE: With education being so important in your life, who is your most memorable teacher?

IT: It would have to be the three [here at the GSE]. (Laughing.) No, really. The way I look at sports now and the way I looked at things five years ago is just different. I just didn’t see things this way. Jabari talking about using technology in the classroom and looking at text and literature in different ways; Na’ilah’s book where she wrote on stereotypes and the educational system, and Derek just looking at sports and critiquing it in a totally different way by talking about phi-losophy and sport, and religion and sport makes you look through

different lenses. So the ways that I look at sports through this program, these teachers, have had a tremen-dous impact on my adult life.

Now if I was to go back and break it down and say OK, high school or grade school? My high school teacher who had the biggest impact on me was my algebra teacher. She had a huge impact on me because when I finally understood algebra, it took me awhile, and when the light finally went on it was because of her taking the time to show me how the light could go on.

So having that base and then coming here, it’s been great. T

Thomas (right) jokes with students before class starts.


Pushed, prodded and guided by professors and peers at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Education, Jessica rigby ‘12, won the 2013 Division A Outstanding Dissertation Award from the American Educational Research Association (AERA).

“The award makes me remember that I wrote my dissertation not only to learn how to become and practice being a good scholar, but to find a way that research can impact what actually happens in urban schools,” said Rigby, who earned a Ph.D. in Policy, Organization, Measurement, and Evaluation. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Peabody College of Education and Human Development at Vanderbilt University.

Her dissertation, First-Year Principals’ Engagement with Instructional Leadership: The Presence, Pathway, and Power of Institutional Logics, explores how schools and districts work as organizations, and how they are situated in larger contexts and in the working lives of school and district employees.

Among her findings: principal preparation programs matter for what messages first year principals get about instructional leadership, how they make sense of those messages, and how they enact them. Rigby suggests that it is possible to trace how an individual’s beliefs are influenced by others in their informal social networks, expanding on the field’s current understanding of what is consider to be the content of interaction.

Jessica Rigby By DAR A AkIkO TOm

The dissertation would not have been possible without the support of GSE Professor Cynthia Coburn, who pushed her to think, write, and speak with more precision, linkages, and argumentation, Rigby said. Others who guided her were GSE Dean Judith Warren Little, who followed her through the six year research; Professor Dan Perlstein, who prepared her for her orals; Professor Bruce Fuller, who helped her hone her early writing skills; Professor Norton Grubb, who modeled how to bring together the fields of practice and academia in meaningful ways; and Lynda Tredway, who provided a model of intellectual rigor paired with deep conviction about doing what is right and just.

The Policy Implementation Research Group (PIRG) played a critical role in prodding her as she grew into a stronger scholar, facilitator, investigator and thinker.

“It feels like it took a village to raise me as a scholar, and it’s my responsibility to use what I’ve learned to create positive change in the village,” Rigby said. “Getting the AERA award reminds me that I have to work at getting better at that.” T

Editor’s Note: Jessica Rigby will receive her award at the annual AERA meeting on monday, April 29, in San Francisco. For details on GSE student and faculty presentations at the AERA meeting, see following page.

GSE Professor Cynthia Coburn (left) with Jessica Rigby ’12


ranDi enGLe memoriaLProf. Alan Schoenfeld and post-doctoral researcher Xenia meyer will conclude their structured poster session with a memorial to Prof. Randi Engle, who passed away Oct. 26, 2012, after a more than 2-year battle with cancer. The session, The Transfer Showcase: Exciting Contemporary Advances About an Educationally Central Phenomenon, will be held Sunday, april 28: 4:05p–6:05p at the Parc 55 Hotel (room: Cyril magnin I). Prof. Engle’s memorial will be in the same location at 6:05p.

recePtionsUniversity of California, Berkeley WISE/TELS Reunion ReceptionFriday, April 26: 7p–10p Grand Hyatt Hotel (room: Ballroom Level-Cypress)

University of California, Berkeley, Graduate School of Educationmonday, April 29: 7p–9p Westin St. Francis Hotel (room: Colonial)

symPosiaLatino Policy Priorities in Education: Impacting Group Based Inequalities and Structuring Real ChangeSunday, April 28: 8:15a -10:15a, Hilton Union Square, Ballroom Level-Continental 2Patricia Baquedano-López, Sera Hernandez

Authentic Observational Assessment of Young Children: Frameworks, Methods, Special Considerations, and Policy ImplicationsSunday, April 28: 8:15a–9:45a Parc 55 Hotel, Stockton mark Wilson

The Politics of AccountabilitySunday, April 28: 8:15a–10:15a Sir Francis Drake, Cypress/montereyTina m. Trujillo

Deconstructing Data Use in Education: Investigating How, Where, and by Whom Data Are Used for Instructional Decision MakingSunday, April 28: 10:35a–12:05p Hilton Union Square, Lobby Level–Golden Gate 7Caitlin Farrell, Cynthia E. Coburn

Building Learning Progressions for Science and Mathematics LearningSunday, April 28: 2:15p–3:45p Westin St. Francis Hotel, California Eastmark Wilson

Beyond the Home-School Dichotomy: Critical Examinations of Nondominant Communities’ Parental Involvement in the United Statesmonday, April 29: 10:35a–12:05p Westin St. Francis, Elizabethan CPatricia Baquedano-López, Ariana mangual Figueroa ‘10

Validating the Development and Assessment of Student Learning Progression Models in Sciencemonday, April 29: 10:35a–12:05p Parc 55 Hotel, Cyril magin IIImark Wilson

Approaches to Analyzing Qualitative Data in Mathematics Education: A Detailed Viewmonday, April 29: 2:45p–4:15p Hilton Union Square, Tower 3, van Ness RoomAlan Schoenfeld

A Learning Progression Emerges in a Trading Zone of Professional Community and Identitymonday, April 29: 2:45p–4:15p Westin St. Francis Hotel, Hampton mark Wilson

The Racial Complexities of Teach for America in High-Poverty SchoolsTuesday, April 30: 8a–9:30a Hilton Union Square, Tower 3 van Ness RoomTina m. Trujillo, Janelle T. Scott, marialena Rivera

Learning to Read by Learning to Play: Perspectives on Emergent Literacy and Digital GamesTuesday, April 30: 10:20a–11:50a Hilton Union Square, Tower 3 Union Square 23 and 24 Emily A. Hellmich, Glynda A. Hull, Amy k. Catterson, Jaran Shin, Jennifer Dizio, Jeeva Roche, P. David Pearson

The Moral Work of Teaching: Preparing and Supporting Practitioners (Part 2)Tuesday, April 30: 2p–3:30p Hilton Union Square, Tower 3, Union Square 15 and 16Larry Nucci, Deborah Powers

Incentives for Good Schools: Charting the Course of Design IterationsSaturday, April 27: 2:15p–3:45p Hilton Union Square, Fourth Level, Tower 3 Union Square 9Rick mintrop, Xiaoxia Newton, miguel Ordenes, Laura Hernandez, Arturo Cortez, Seenae Chong

PaPer sessionsAssessing Teacher Practice in Teacher EducationSaturday, April 27: Noon–1:30p Hilton Union Square, Golden Gate 6mark Wilson

Reflections and Visions: Teacher Training and Degree Effects on Student AchievementSaturday, April 27: 2:15p–3:45p Hotel Nikko, Carmel Imark Wilson

Mapping Opportunity: Space, Place, and the Education of Oakland’s English LearnersSunday, April 28: 12:25p–1:55p Hilton Union Square, Tower 3, Union Square 21.Lisa García Bedolla

Developing, Validating, and Reporting Performance StandardsSunday, April 28: 4:05p–5:35p Hilton Union Square, Tower 3, Union Square 13mark Wilson

At the Crossroads of Technology Integration, Students’ Scaffolding, and Online EducationTuesday, April 30: 12:10p–1:40pParc 55 Hotel, HaightCamillia matuk, marcia Winn

Poster sessionExploring the Validity of Assessments of Teaching Practice in Teacher Education: A Mixed Methods StudySunday, April 28: 12:25p–1:55p Parc 55 Hotel, Cyril magnin Foyermark Wilson

rounDtabLe sessionsExploring Adolescents’ Worldsmonday, April 29: 8:15a–9:45a Hilton Union Square, Imperial Ballroom Amark Wilson

Estimating and Extending Growth and Growth Mixture ModelsWednesday, may 1: 8:15a–9:45a Sir Francis Drake, Empiremark Wilson

other GatherinGsCLASS Advisory Board Meeting, WISE Research Group (Day 1)Friday, April 26: 8a–7p Grand Hyatt, Second Level, Belvederemarcia Winn

Gse @ the american eDucationaL research association (aera) annuaL meetinG

april 27 – may 1 in San francisco

for a complete list of presentations, visit the aera website at www.aera.net

T h e C A M P A I G N f o r B E R K E L E Yu n i v e r s i t y o f c a l i f o r n i a , b e r k e l e y

Berkeley is the engine of social mobility. We educate as many low-income students as all the Ivies combined.

At Cal what you do matters more than who you are. Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education is breaking down socioeconomic barriers so that every K-12 student has an equal opportunity to succeed and to attend college.

Students come here with the drive to excel and the ambition to give back and change the world for the better. And they leave Berkeley with a multicultural experience unlike any other. It’s the kind of experience that sparks innovative thinking and encourages a global perspective.

It’s the kind of education that the world needs today.

Private funding is vital to meeting the school’s most urgent needs such as academic and teacher preparation programs, research and collaborative projects, and scholarships and other programs.

Show your support for Berkeley’s aspiring educators by making a gift at givetocal.berkeley.edu/education.

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BROWN • COLUMBIA CORNELL • DARTMOUTHHARVARD • PRINCETONPENNSYLVANIA • YALE

BERKELEY =


Για τα παιδιά που δυσκολεύονται στην ανάγνωση, αυτή η φράση θα μπορούσε να είναι και στα ελληνικά. (Translation: For children who are struggling to read, this sentence might as well be in Greek.)

Becoming a confident reader in an elementary school classroom with one teacher and 24 students who have varying degrees of reading skills is as much a challenge for students as it is for teachers. Combine with that dwindling education budgets and pressure to improve test scores and it is a perfect set up for failure. Enter Smartyants.

The animated computer-based literacy program that uses games to teach reading is showing promise in improving literacy skills as well as boosting students’ confidence as readers, according to preliminary research conducted by a group of UC Berkeley Graduate School of Education (GSE) students.

In their investigation into the efficacy of SmartyAnts at a school in Oakland and one in Richmond, researchers found that after two months, students who used SmartyAnts gained approximately 10 points between the pre- and post-phonics tests. Students in the control group, who did not use SmartyAnts, gained approximately 1 point.

struGGLinG to reaD: hoW a comPuter Game is heLPinG KiDs catch uP By DAR A AkIkO TOm


“This kind of program is not a panacea, of course, but it is promising for some kids,” said GSE student Jennifer Dizio, a member of the research team that was directed by Professor Glynda Hull.

Hull, Dizio and team members Jaran Shin, Emily Hellmich, Amy Koehler, Jeeva Roche and José Lizárraga will present their findings at the American Educational Research Association’s annual conference April 27-May 1 in San Francisco.

SmartyAnts was created by Mike Wood, who started the popular LeapFrog educational games, and developed with GSE Professor and former Dean P. David Pearson; Mia Callahan, Ph.D. ’11; and Robert Calfee, former Dean at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education.

Designed for K-2 students, SmartyAnts allows students to choose a backpack, a dog and an ant character that they name and for which they choose clothing. By making the ant a character and not an avatar, mistakes are less personally demoralizing and give students a sense of leadership by

allowing them to teach the ant how to read. Students learn everything from letter sounds to writing their own stories. As students progress, SmartyAnts rewards them with virtual coins carried in the backpack.

“They are smart little kids. They are dying to be successful,” Wood said. “To succeed, they need access to something that is engaging enough and effective enough that they can catch up early enough and stay on course so that when they get to second grade or third grade and they’re done learning to read, they can read to learn.”

For English Language Learners (ELLs), SmartyAnts provided support for specific needs and the learning environment increased their motivation, engagement and confidence, the researchers found.

“Anchored in real school contexts, these findings suggest that the use of new technologies in ELL literacy education could have wide-spread impact in increasing academic performance for ELLs, thereby reducing long-term economic as well as social marginalization,”

Dizio said.

The researchers witnessed this in Brian, a kindergartner from a non-English speaking household, who was falling behind in literacy. In his classroom he was instructed to color the “a” sounds on a worksheet. He avoided the task by taking his time finding a crayon, fiddling with other items around the room and eventually colored randomly on the worksheet. At one point, Brian cradled his face in hands in defeat.

Not so with SmartyAnts. The 5-year-old was engaged in the reading games, excitedly showed off his progress to classmates and craved to learn more.

“I love SmartyAnts because it makes me feel really smart,” Brian said.

While some educators question the role of technology in the classroom, Professor Hull points out how the field of literacy and learning isn’t static.

“There is an evolution of reading tools for literacy. Books will be around a long, long time. But we had the manuscript age, then the book age, now the screen age,” Hull said.

Electronics can’t replace human teachers, but used in thoughtful ways, can be critical tools for learning, she said.

“We live at an exciting time when new technologies are reshaping how we communicate, create, and learn. For many reasons schools haven’t kept pace with such change,” Hull said. “But programs like SmartyAnts represent a new and hopeful technology wave. Based in research, tested in classrooms, and then revised, they can help to close, or better yet, prevent achievement gaps, giving kids and teachers a much needed leg-up.” T


The very place where many secondary students have traditionally shuddered at the thought of going is exactly where Professor Norton Grubb goes to find great opportunity for change—the Principal’s Office.

“A very powerful way to move a lot of schools in reform is through working with principals,” Grubb said. “The best principals lead by positive example and by working through teachers to improve school climate, in which positive relations with students rather than threats are the main motivators.”

Grubb, the faculty coordinator of the Graduate School of Education’s Principal Leadership Institute who is retiring this year, has spent 28 years at UC Berkeley researching, writing and teaching about school finance, community colleges, school/work issues (community colleges, vocational education and linked learning), and higher education, among other issues.

The author of numerous articles and books, his work and expertise have

Professor Norton Grubb on principals

and public education

By DAR A AkIkO TOm

not gone unnoticed. Grubb, who is also the David Pierpont Gardner Professor In Higher Education, received the 2012 Chancellor’s Award for Advancing Institutional Excellence.

He has also participated in a number of policy-oriented efforts, including the California Master Plan Commission and a National Research Council Committee on high school motivation. He was also on a panel of experts for the class action lawsuit Williams v. California, which resulted in $138 million in additional funding for low performing schools.

AN ExCEPTIONAL EDUCATOR

Grubb works the way he hopes principals will work with teachers.

“I’ve always appreciated the extent to which Norton values my opinion and takes my ideas seriously. Despite his extensive experience and expertise, Norton always asks me for my opinions and insights and listens closely to what I have to say,” said Katherine Frankel, a Ph.D. candidate in Language, Literacy and Culture who worked with Grubb on his recent study of basic skills instruction in California community colleges.

Huriya Jabbar, a Ph.D. candidate in education policy who had Grubb as an academic advisor, learned valuable tips for writing and oral presentations.

“What makes Norton an exceptional educator is how he goes out of his

way to give students necessary advice and mentorship beyond the course content,” Jabbar said. “My work is more careful and rigorous because of Norton’s direct and honest feedback. He always pairs his incisive analysis of your work with enough support and encouragement to make all the effort worth doing.”

WORkING ON A BIG SOCIAL ENDEAvOR

Grubb studied economics as an undergraduate at Harvard University, where his senior thesis was published. He went on to earn his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard. Influenced by economist Samuel Bowles in the 1960s, Grubb came to realize that meaningful change would only come, albeit slowly, by working with schools.

“Working on education is always a big social endeavor. It’s not like rocket science or physics where you make great individual breakthroughs,” Grubb says. “It’s not even like entrepreneurship where you can have somebody like [Facebook founder] Mark Zuckerberg who emerged from this group of nerds and put together a company that changes the world by itself.


Basic Skills Education in Community Colleges: Inside and Outside of Classrooms. New york and London: Routledge, 2012.

Leadership Challenges in High Schools: Multiple Pathways to Success. Boulder CO: Paradigm Press, 2010.

Leading From the Inside Out: Expanded Roles For Teachers in Collaborative Schools. Boulder CO: Paradigm Press, 2010. With Lynda Tredway. vol. 4 of Brad Olsen, ed., The Teacher’s Toolkit.

The Money Myth: School Resources, Outcomes, and Equity. New york: Russell Sage Foundation, 2009.

The Education Gospel: The Economic Power of Schooling. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, Fall 2004 (with marvin Lazerson). Paperback Edition 2007.

The Roles of Evaluation for Education and Training: Plain Talk on the Field of Dreams. London: kogan Paul and Geneva: International Labour Office (with Paul Ryan), 1999.

Honored But Invisible: An Inside Look at Teaching in Community Colleges. New york and London: Routledge, 1999 (with seven Associates).

Working in the Middle: Strengthening Education and Training for the Mid-Skilled Labor Force. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1996.

Learning to Work: The Case for Re-integrating Job Training and Education. New york: Russell Sage Publications, 1996.

Education Through Occupations in American High Schools (edited). Vol. I: Approaches to Integrating Academic and Vocational Education. Vol. II: The Challenges of Implementing Curriculum Integration. New york: Teachers College Press, 1995.

Broken Promises: How Americans Fail Their Children. New york: Basic Books, 1982 (with marvin Lazerson). Reissued in paperback with Postscript, “Let Them Eat ketchup: The Plight of Children in the 1980s.” University of Chicago Press, 1988. Published in korean by Wonmisa Press, Seoul, 2004.

American Education and Vocationalism: A Documentary History 1870-1970. New york: Teachers College Press, 1974 (with marvin Lazerson). Paperback version issued 1987.

States and Schools: The Political Economy of Public School Finance. Lexington, mass.: Lexington Books, 1974 (with Stephan michelson).

BOOkS WRITTEN OR EDITED BY NORTON GRUBB

“Things are not like that in schools. So you’ve got to be willing to accept that if you’re going to work on a schools agenda, be patient and realize that it takes a lot of common effort with a lot of other people to change things.”

Besides school leadership, a significant amount of Grubb’s research and work, including seven of his 13 books, has focused on reframing the discussion on school/work issues through reform of vocational high schools and community colleges.

He helped establish the National Center for Research in Vocational Education and was the director of the Center’s Community College Cooperative.

He points to High Tech High School in San Diego and other high schools divided into small schools with themes such as environment or engineering that link learning with real world issues and sometimes community service, which allows for a more enriched learning experience outside the classroom.

He applies that to his own research and teaching, as well. He can often be found providing assistance and workshops in high schools and community colleges as he works to integrate vocational and academic education.

“I’ve been pleased with my ability to continue going into schools and learning from what school people do,” Grubb said, “rather than just being an academic who sits in his office at Berkeley.” T


His work in both theory and practice has earned him numerous awards, including the 2011 Felix Klein Medal for Lifetime Achievement from the International Commission on Mathematics Instruction, the highest international distinction in math education.

Schoenfeld’s early theoretical work in understanding problem solving and how teachers think created the foundation for his more recent applied work, aimed at helping teachers help their students become effective mathematical thinkers and problem solvers.

“I love theory, but I care just as much about the applied side too,” he said. “We’re now at a point where we can have real systemic impact—and if more kids get to experience math in the right ways, that’s a big win.”

Schoenfeld spoke with Berkeley Educator about figuring out what counts in math education, Common Core Standards, California’s involvement with the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, and most importantly, what now?

BE: How do you measure what makes a good math class?

AS: The big challenge is, can we identify the attributes of mathematically rich classrooms that produce kids who are powerful mathematical thinkers? As far as I

can tell, the answer consists of these five key questions:

Was there honest-to-goodness math in what the students and teacher did? If it’s rote, that means the math is disconnected from the underlying concepts.

Did students engage in ‘productive struggle,’ or was the math dumbed down to the point where they didn’t? Masterful teachers hear kids’ confusion, then ask questions that set the students on the right path but doesn’t do the work for them. You don’t want students at sea, but you also don’t want them being told what to do. You want that productive middle ground.

Who had the opportunity to engage? Did the teacher always call on the three favorites who can give the answer, or were all the students given the opportunity to engage in reasonable and powerful mathematics? There are ways to do that.

Did students get to say things, to develop ownership of their ideas? If they do, then they get to develop a sense of mathematical authorship. Then their identity becomes more of ‘I am and can be a mathematical thinker’ as opposed to ‘I am a receiver of mathematics from others.’

Did the instruction find out what students know, and build on it?

maKinG math meaninGfuLBy DAR A AkIkO TOm

Patience10 x 1 math eDucatorimPact = DecaDes of theory anD Practice

From witnessing the days of drill and kill to helping schools prepare to meet the Common Core Standards, Professor Alan Schoenfeld has been driven by the desire to share his love of mathematics with as many teachers and students as possible.

Paving the road of mathematics reform hasn’t been simple. It’s taken nearly 40 years to get to the Common Core Standards, so what’s another 10-15 years to develop the model mathematics classroom?

“If I had wanted to work on straightforward problems, I would have stayed in mathematics,” Schoenfeld said.


“If I had wanted to work on straightforward problems, I would have stayed in mathematics.” Professor aLan schoenfeLD

Put those five questions together, and you have a tool for reflecting on what’s happening in a mathematics classroom, and thinking about how to make it better. If you can give teachers space to work together using this kind of perspective as a lens on their own teaching, then you have have a mechanism for ongoing improvement grounded in the teacher community. That’s where the action is.

BE: And what of the Common Core Standards and California’s 2014-2015 Smarter Balanced Assessment?

AS: Smarter Balanced Assessment represents a revolutionary change. Up until now, what you got back from a standardized test was a single number. So, you’re told you got a 65, or an 83. That’s totally uninformative—it’s useless except for percentile rankings. Smarter Balanced is going to give four

numbers back: a score for concepts and procedures; for problem solving; for producing and critiquing extended chains of reasoning; and for using mathematics to model real world situations. That kind of feedback reveals strengths and weaknesses.

The world of accountability is going to change because instead of focusing on facts and procedures we’re going to be focusing on all four of the things I just mentioned. Mathematics instruction will have to focus on them because the Common Core standards and the assessments demand it.

BE: So what can a district do to use your five key questions as measures and have their teachers and students ready for these new standards?

AS: Our goal is to have the high stakes assessments, ongoing district assessments, professional

development, and classroom observational tools that we will use, all be in synch. The challenge then is to undertake actions so that the varied communities at all levels of the system (including teachers and administrators) are oriented to the same goals, with enough knowledge and resources to be supportive.

BE: That sounds like it could take awhile.

AS: Given the complexity of our system the first thing you have to learn is patience. Over the past 30-40 years, we’ve made significant progress. But, it’s going to take time before you see current ideas having comparable impact. Real, lasting change doesn’t happen overnight.

Yes I am of retirement age but I don’t plan on retiring for 20 years – and we’ll still be working on making things better 20 years from now. T

Patience10 x 1 math eDucator DecaDes of theory anD Practice


For gabriela borge Janetti, it was not an easy road to get to UC Berkeley. She was working as a bilingual teacher in her hometown of Playa Del Carmen on the southeast tip of Mexico when she first began her quest to enroll in the Graduate School of Education. To her delight, not only was she accepted, but was awarded the prestigious five-year UC MEXUS-CONACYT fellowship. She is the second GSE student to earn this highly sought-after fellowship.

“I was crying and so happy. I couldn’t believe it after one year of applying for the award and applying to Berkeley, it all came together,” said Borge Janetti, a first year doctoral student in the Language, Literacy and Culture (LLC) program.

LLC is opening and expanding her mind to new ways of seeing and approaching education. “I believe the program offers the necessary tools and perspectives from its interdisciplinary approach to undertake a

Gabriela Borge

JanettiBy TERRI HARDE S T y

research project about the recent effort in intercultural education in Mexico.”

While Borge Janetti feels at home in Berkeley, surrounded by classmates and professors who inspire and challenge her, she does plan to bring her experience and knowledge back to Mexico to teach at a Mexican University.

“I believe intercultural education provides a chance to promote opportunities to the indigenous populations in Mexico and to fight against issues of systemic and structural exclusion, social injustice and racism among Mexicans,” she said. T


A combination of not wanting to take chemistry at 8 a.m., enrolling in her first Asian American Studies class and teaching elementary school has led doctoral student funie hsu to Berkeley, where she is researching the effects of English language instruction during colonization of the Philippines.

Hsu’s dissertation, Colonial Articulations: English Instruction in the Philippines and the ‘Benevolence’ of U.S. Overseas Expansion, 1898-1916, has earned her a 2013-2014 University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Her dissertation not only tells the history of the policy of English instruction in the Philippines, but also examines how American society has come to forget its colonial past.

“I argue that it is specifically through English language instruction in the Philippines that American society learned to forget its history of colonization. The colonial education policy of English allowed for the construction and instruction of a benevolent narrative of why we were in the Philippines, why the U.S. was occupying foreign land and killing both the so called insurgents and civilians,” Hsu said. “English instruction was an important pedagogical and political tool for U.S. colonialism. It provided a method to portray the U.S. as a global savior.”

The narrative continues to be played out today in education policy and procedures for English Language Learners (ELLs), she said.“There are real effects that stem from the subtle and yet devastating discriminations embedded in particular language classification policies. Often these

aWarDsUniversity of California President’s Postdoctoral FellowshipUniversity of California Dissertation year FellowshipDean’s Normative Time FellowshipBancroft Library Study AwardAERA minority Dissertation FellowshipCharles Toto Award

PubLisheDBook chapter, “Colonial Lessons: Racial Politics of Comparison and the Development of American Education Policy in the Philippines” in the book, The “Other” Students: Filipino Americans, Education and Power (2012, Information Age).

current WorKResearching Japanese colonial education in Taiwan with Taiwanese Aborigines as compared with U.S. Colonial Education in the Philippines at the turn of the 20th century. Funded by the Shung ye museum of Formosan Aborigines Endowment Fund. Organizing Decolonizing Knowledge, a community event celebrating the 35th anniversary of the DataCenter in Oakland and the second edition of Prof. Linda Tuhiwai Smith’s book, Decolonizing Methodologies. Friday, April 26, 6p – 8:30p, First Congregational Church in Oakland. www.datacenter.org/whats-new/decolonizingknowledge/

policies are built around ideas of institutional efficiency, and often they are intended to provide (ELLs) resources and address the needs of these diverse learners.

“However, these policies can carry huge consequences that lead to ELL misclassification and educational tracking. If contemporary educational policies aren’t informed by the historical function and legacy of race in America – a dimension of our society that goes hand in hand with the development of our nation – they will actually maintain inequality in schools.”

She points to her experience as an elementary school teacher in Carson, Calif., where Filipino American students were too often identified as ELL even though English was their primary language. Witnessing the polices and processes for ELLs and recalling her Asian American Studies education, Hsu wanted to explore the issue deeper.

And since then, she hasn’t regretted for a minute her decision to drop early morning science classes needed for veterinary school. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Asian American Studies at UC Davis and her master’s degree in education policy and management from Harvard University.

Hsu credits her research in part to the financial support she has received through fellowships and alumni support.“It’s hard enough being a graduate student and struggling with your intellectual scholarship, let alone having to deal with financial worries. I am really just so thankful for the funding opportunities that I’ve been honored with in my graduate career at Berkeley.” T

Funie HsuBy DAR A AkIkO TOm



camillia matuk’s new web-based science tool for middle school students is gaining the attention of not only teachers and students, but also of the American Educational Research Association’s Design & Technology SIG (Special Interest Group).

Matuk will receive the Outstanding Research Presentation Award from the Design & Technology SIG on April 27. Matuk will be presenting her paper, Technology Integration to Scaffold and Assess Students’ Use of Visual Evidence In Science Inquiry, at the 2013 AERA meeting in San Francisco, where she will discuss the development of two online tools that help students explore the biological process mitosis.

Through her work with the Graduate School of Education’s WISE (Web-based Inquiry Science Environment), Matuk designed the Image Annotator, which allows students to attach annotations to different parts of an image, and in the case of mitosis, usually an onion cell.

Postdoctoral scholar

Camillia Matuk By DAR A AkIkO TOm

“The WISE Mitosis unit has been popular among middle school teachers for a number of years. I wanted to update it to emphasize the rich visual imagery possible with modern microscopic techniques, and that can also be a hook for students to get interested in cell biology,” Matuk said.

Observing a microscopic image of onion cells, students use the Image Annotator to distinguish different stages of cell division. Concurrently, they use WISE’s Idea Manager, which helps them organize ideas that they will use to eventually explain what parts of the cell cycle a medicine should affect to treat cancer.

Students use the Annotator to label images or looping animations specified by the curriculum author. Pictured here is a microscopic image of onion cells, which students use as visual evidence to reconstruct the key events in cell division.

“So altogether, the integration of these new tools supports students’ ongoing reflection; gives students multiple ways to demonstrate their understanding; and also provides teachers, researchers, and designers with richer records of the learning process,” Matuk said, who earned her Ph.D. in the Learning Sciences at Northwestern University.

“Ultimately, we hope this will facilitate making evidence-based decisions in designing instruction and educational technologies.” T

about wiSe. Web-based Inquiry Science Environment is a research-based digital learning plat-form that fosters exploration and science inquiry. Students observe, analyze experi-ment, and reflect as they navigate WISE projects. Teachers guide and evaluate the process using a suite of classroom-based and online tools. The principal investiga-tor is GSE Professor marcia Winn.The mitosis unit, the Idea manager, and Idea Annotator are available in WISE’s public library of curriculum units at http://wise.berkeley.edu.

Preview the tools in context at http://bit.ly/y5ntL9


maisha t. winn ’03 (formerly Maisha Fisher) has a philosophy on education that has permeated her entire academic career.

“Our research means nothing if we can’t make a tangible impact on the communities we work with,” said Winn, who earned her Ph.D. in Language, Literacy and Culture. “I knew Berkeley was the ideal university for me when I learned that scholars worked side-by-side with the community. I viewed the GSE as a model for activism.”

Winn, a former public elementary and high school teacher, worked extensively with youth in urban schools and in out-of-school contexts.

As an English teacher in Sacramento, she was driven to increase students’ literacy through direct experience by bringing poets and authors to the classroom. “I

wanted my students to connect with the words coming from living, breathing artists, rather than just the pages of a book.”

Winn’s early teaching experience, combined with the intellectual growth and development at Berkeley, prepared her for her current job as the Susan J. Cellmer Chair in English Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition, Winn continues her work on youth performing literacy, specifically through restorative justice communities.

Living with her husband and 2-year-old son, Winn feels at home at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, considered the UC Berkeley of the Midwest. “Everything I ever wanted to do, I’m doing.” T

Fulbright Scholar and Associate Professor of Education at Rutgers University, beth rubin ’01 is in Guatemala this year researching how young people, amid high rates of illiteracy, poverty and malnutrition, are experiencing their local governments and communities.

“I’ve heard some really difficult stories from the kids I’ve spoken with, and also a strong desire to be part of transformative change in their communities,” she said of the interviews she has conducted at a variety of Guatemalan schools. Rubin hopes her research will lead to the education of civic identity and development in countries such as Guatemala that have been through years of political unrest.

She also teaches qualitative research methods to graduate students at the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala. “I am learning as much from my students as they are from me. They

are passionate, engaged thinkers, and are committed to improving their own practice and education in general.”

Both Guatemala and the United States benefit from this type of international collaboration, she says. “My deepest learning experiences have been both during my work as a teacher and the times I have lived and traveled abroad.”

Rubin attributes her success to UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education, where she received her doctorate in Social and Cultural studies. She focused on issues of identity and inequality. “It was a stimulating environment where I was able to prepare myself intellectually while receiving excellent training that inspired me to take my passion out into the real world.”

Rubin lives in in Montclair, NJ, with her husband and two children. T

Maisha T. Winn

By TERRI HARDE S T y

Beth Rubin By TERRI HARDE S T y


As an Associate Professor of education and public policy at Teachers College at Columbia University, luis huerta ’02 instills in his students the same kind of multidisciplinary training he received at UC Berkeley. “Learning different disciplines together with opportunities to conduct research with faculty was pivotal in my development in academia.”

Huerta earned his Ph.D. in Policy, Organizations, Measurement and Evaluation with a focus on school finance and equity issues.

For the past 16 years, he has been researching charter schools and whether their decentralization and new freedoms have resulted in new schooling models. “I found that this is not the case. The new schools, over time, adopted traditional organizational structures.”

Huerta is the author of numerous articles and has been interviewed dozens of times by news media, including the Wall Street Journal where he remarked that home-schooled students perform about the same academically as public and private school students.

For Huerta, New York City is the ideal place to live with its hotbed of research on school reform, not to mention the endless supply of new restaurants he loves to explore with his wife and teenage daughter. T

Luis Huerta By TERRI HARDE S T y

As a high school student in California, angeline Spain ’11 realized she had a passion for public education policy. “I wanted to understand the consequences for people on the ground of ballot propositions like Proposition 209 and Proposition 227, two initiatives passed by the voters that had significant impacts on education in California in the 1990’s.”

This curiosity paved the way for her undergraduate and graduate degrees at Berkeley. “I was interested in exploring the issues K-12 educators face in implementing policies intended to improve children’s academic and social outcomes. The professors at the GSE challenged my assumptions about the way education policy gets designed and gets carried out.”

Her dissertation, Keeping Cuts Away from Kids? Deregulation in a Time of Ongoing Budget Cutbacks, examined how two California school districts grappled with crucial resource decisions in the context of the state’s budget crisis. “I felt it was important to better understand how stakeholders make the difficult decisions they do about cutting educational programs and services for children.”

Spain earned her Ph.D. in Policy, Organization, Measurement and Evaluation, which she says opened the door to her landing a coveted spot as an assistant professor at the University of Michigan’s School of Education. As an instructor and a researcher, she draws on the tools and knowledge she learned at Berkeley. “I am constantly pushing my students to think more critically about connections between policy, education organizations, and practice.”

Spain says at times she misses Berkeley but enjoys working with her new colleagues and students. Sometimes she even gets away with wearing her blue and gold by calling it “maize.” It’s a new beginning in her personal life as well. Spain is getting married in June. “I’m excited for the adventures ahead.” T

Angeline SpainBy TERRI HARDE S T y


Ariana Mangual FigueroaBy TERRI HARDE S T y

ariana mangual figueroa ’10 had never lived on the West Coast before she came to Berkeley in 2005. She had been teaching English as a Second Language in a New York City public high school and was excited about expanding her knowledge at the GSE. Thanks to a four-year fellowship, she says “I was able to focus and immerse myself in stimulating research that set the tone for my life’s work.”

Inspired by her professor’s research project, Mangual Figueroa quickly found that she loved working with immigrant families in their homes. She wanted to find out how Mexican parents were socializing their American born kids. She was particularly interested in the ways in which an individual’s linguistic and cultural development was shaped by citizenship status and how that played out in their daily, routine and interactions.

“What I liked most about the Language, Literacy and Culture program is I could combine my passion in the field with my training in the classroom, both were crucial to the development of my academic career,” she said.

After earning a Ph.D. in LLC, Mangual Figueroa is back on the East Coast working as an assistant professor in the GSE at Rutgers University. With a husband and a baby due in April, she feels as though she has come full circle. “It’s amazing to be back home giving back to my students all the purpose and possibilities I gained through studying at Berkeley.” T

It was Berkeley’s extraordinary research talents and resources in the study of language and learning that inspired edward bodine ’07 to want to come to UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education. “I was very attracted to the opportunity of studying with some great researchers and teachers who could expand my knowledge.”

So, Bodine packed up his car and made the 3,000-mile trek from New York City to Berkeley.

While at the GSE, his fascination with language evolved into a new area of interest in education policy as it relates to school reform. “Through the classes of education policy at Berkeley, I developed a strong set of analytical and intellectual tools for framing and understanding key policy issues and dilemmas.”

His continued interest in education in Eastern Europe led him to Poland where he conducted his dissertation research on community schools after the fall of the Iron Curtain. He was able to complete his work with the support of a Fullbright fellowship. “I felt it was important to look at models of education reform in other countries. It allows for an exchange of ideas.”

He earned his Ph.D. in Language, Literacy and Culture and is an education policy expert at the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in Washington, D.C. “I was able to land this job because of the strong writing and researching skills I developed at the GSE.”

Bodine is the co-author of numerous reports on education that have helped shape national policy. “I’m in a unique position to examine and recommend improvements to programs and services that impact millions of Americans and in some cases people who are vulnerable and disadvantaged. It’s one of the things that gets me up in the mornings.” T

Edward Bodine By TERRI HARDE S T y

annuaL funD Donors$1,000 - $4,999Molly & Neal BrockmeyerAllan P. GoldMary Jane HolmesKarla & Edward KnappAlison & Gerald OgdenMr. & Mrs. Allan TappePatricia & Jeffrey WilliamsJonathan & Heather Wu

$500 - $999Richard & Kathleen DavisMr. & Mrs. Alan HillColette & Donald KelseyDorothy C. KonradKaren L. MendoncaRichard & Catherine NicollShell Oil Company Foundation Gary & Billie ValdezLinda C. Wing

$250 - $499Helen L. BersieEnrique H. FloresProfessor Barbara FoormanChristopher P. HadleyJohn & Marcia HarterJesse Cortes & Kristin HullJean & Robert HustonJohn & Mary LeeJustin LeiberCheryl & Mark LieblingJames E. RichmondHugh & Aletha SilcoxClorox Company FoundationSchwab Fund for Charitable Giving

$100 - $249David & Sandra AndersonVerna J. ArnestAmarjit & Tejinder BalMarilyn F. BeachPatricia & Richard BennerAllen Black & Jayne OshiroAnna L. BlackmanLucia L. BlakesleeMark & Josefina BoltonKristen M. BottemaJoan Cashel & Daniel PyneJohn M. Chavez, Ph.D.Alva & Paul ChengRobert Cheng & Jinny WongBernadette S. ChiIris & Roger ChristesonHerbert & Alicia ChuChristine & Davis ConleyPatricia A. DeflaunRobert & Laura DevinneyAlison E. EganDonald & Roslyn SutherlandCharles A. ElsterTom Finn, Ph.D.Robert & Linda WeidenhamerShannon J. GrayConstance Hafner-EdwardsYukiyo R. HayashiJennifer C. HofmannDelphine E. HwangCraig W. IshidaProverb Jacobs & Mimi Johnson-JacobsHarriett G. Jenkins

Rita H. JonesHeidi S. LemonKristine L. KimuraJack T. KohnJohn Latting & Caroline FohlinLinda & S. P. LazzareschiCynthia M. Le BlancStephen Lee & Diana FongAnne & David ManchesterWilliam & Maria McCormackBarbara M. MeansEmily A. MintzArnethia W. OkeloHelen & E. Gene OliverPhelana W. PangHyun-Sook Park & Stanley YoungDouglas & Linda PenfieldLinda & Oscar PlatasLaura & Ron PostMr. & Mrs. Austin L. PrindleCharles & Dorothy RatliffRonald & Cynthia RavenEllis & Norma Rice BishopSusan & Steven RichardsonVaden W. RiggsCarol J. RowleyHelen E. SchlichtmannKeith & Anne SchroderJohn P. Smith, IIIDoris S. SmithRichard & Jane Spencer MillsEthan A. StantonDouglas & Linda SuganoPatricia & Richard TanimotoItsuko TeradaToni N. TorresSandra T. VieraSusan & Kevin WaescoPaula & Richard WalkerJoseph A. WalshKristin I. WarrinerWhitney N. WhiteDiane J. WickstromAnn C. WoodardLarry Wornian & Mary LanierIvy Yee-Sakamoto & David Sakamoto

$1 - $99Dhameera C. AhmadSrijati Ananda & Stanley RabinowitzKathryn L. AndersonDorothy & Clifford BachandEllen & Uri Bar-ZemerElizabeth P. BartheAbigail BenedettoCatharine V. BenediktsonProfessor Susan Bennett & Patrick HurleyNancy W. BlumBeverlee T. BoltonGerald & Barbara BrunettiPriscilla & Michael BullSusan T. CallenSo Mui Chang & Peter PanHelen & Paul ChapmanShana R. CohenWendi L. CraigCarl H. Daugherty, Jr.John M. DoaneEdward EasonRichard J. EdelsteinShaquam K. Edwards

Aaron T. FafarmanElizabeth & Timothy FentonJack & Rosalie GiffordKaren H. GilletteRenee Golanty-Koel & Bertram KoelCathlin B. GouldingSheila & George GurneeCynthia & Dean GuyerThomas & Wanda HaasLaurie R. HarrisonJohn & Claire HawleyGrete & Otto HeinzRuth M. HelgesonDrew N. HerbertKenneth J. HolbertPatricia & Howard HouckNischala N. HowethVictor & Joan HuangWilliam & Sharon JagerLanette V. JimersonAnne E. JustRichard & Carole KellerJudith S. KlingerKarl & Martha KnoblerRichard & Barbara La RueCristina L. LashShirley E. LewisMoraima MachadoDavid & Susan MadrigalJane & Robert MaldonadoMary Lee H. MaloneyMarilyn J. Morrison TrustDasil & Kathleen MathewsJanet D. McCowin, Ed.D.Billiejean McElroy-DurstLilian K. McGlothlenJames F. MensingNicholas D. MetropoulosDouglas J. MoodyGail Merilyn MorganMarilyn & David MorrisonAnn M. MurrayDavid A. NeumannJanuary A. NiceShelley L. NielsenKevin M. O’ConnorElizabeth I. OzolArlene & Ralph ReedMary & Ronald Rettig-ZucchiMargie & Morris RichmanPeter & Mary RosenfieldWilliam & Leslie RupleySharon & Richard SacksKatherine & Timothy SalterBeth L. Samuelson, Ph.D.Jack & Diane SchusterLisa SengMarilou & John ShankelLisa Sidhu & Steven PearsonCynthia A. SpeedVirginia & Marcus SpiveyConstance & Charles SquiresMimi & Erich SteadmanAndrew D. SteckelRichard N. StevensMichael & Patricia SullivanCarol D. SwiftDavid & Carolyn SwingleJeanette & Marvin TrippSusan & John TullisErica O. TurnerDaniel & Patricia UstickAmanda R. VillarLisa M. Warren

LeaDershiP Donors anD research funDers$1,000,000 or moreFamily of William and Mary Jane Brinton P. Delia Brinton Geraldine & William Brinton Katherine Crawford Lauren Dengate Ashley D. Parsons

$100,000 - $499,000Mr. & Mrs. Kenneth E. BehringMary Corson & Jonathan SacklerHeising-Simons FoundationUniversity of IllinoisKaling Lim

$50,000 - $99,000AnonymousEast Bay Community FoundationGoogle Inc.Miranda HellerKoret Foundation

$5,000 - $49,999S. D. Bechtel Jr. FoundationMara W. Breech FoundationJune & Stephen ChaudetMr. & Mrs. Frank M. HeffernanClarence E. Heller Charitable FoundationJames Irvine FoundationProfessor P. David Pearson & Mary Alyce PearsonKaren & Michael TraynorMelissa & Tobin White

the Gse Dean’s funD for innoVationAditya AdiredjaAnonymousChamberlin Family FoundationSusan & Stephen ChamberlinCarole & David HarrisMark & Cathleen NewsomCarol & David OlsonRuth S. OmatsuDavid ShaDavid Tjen & Lynna Tsou

JULy 1, 2011, THROUGH JUNE 30, 2012

The Graduate School of Education gratefully acknowledges the following individuals, institutions and foundations that supported our efforts to advance education and provide opportunity for all.

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Alan P. WeisbergJanet G. WestbrookMalana P. WillisJane & Dennis WoodJoan L. WoodsJames C. WyattSuzanne M. Yee

schoLarshiP funD Donors$1,000 - $4,999A. Jan Behrsin & Pamela HeiseyBI Norwegian Business SchoolRobert BreuerMr. & Mrs. David DanskyMr. & Mrs. Homer L. DawsonProfessor Jack A. GravesSara Hopkins-PowellDaniel W. KeeCathleen & Kenneth KennedyMargaret E. KiddJeffrey R. LambertProfessor Judith Warren LittleKerri & Mark LubinTeresa & Michael McGuireMPR Associates Joyce E. NgPhi Delta KappaRuth H. RentzMargaret G. SaulsberryMarilyn & William SelbyChi-Kwan A. SheaCharles Toto, Jr.UC Chinese Alumni FoundationRaynor & Michael VoorhiesLynn & Peter WendellDaniel J. Zimmerlin

$500 - $999Belinda M. ByrneSuzanne & Fouad DarweeshElyse & David FlemingProfessors Geoffrey Saxe & Maryl GearhartProfessor Richard Sterling & Christine CzikoMr. & Mrs. Gary TietzGary & Billie ValdezIrvenia Waters & Jose AllenPatricia H. Wheeler, Ph.D.

$250 - $499Allan P. GoldSumner & Hermine MarshallPacific Gas & Electric CompanyNancy & Glenn RankinLalit M. Roy, Ph.D.Professors Geoffrey Saxe & Maryl GearhartMary L. SoltisMarc & Suzanne SteinSiv & Anthony Wheeler

$100 - $249Lawrence & Jan AndersonWilliam D. BethellDorothy L. Brose

Alice & Rudolph RicoNorma Jo Ann & Gerald CoxCrail-Johnson FoundationLeslie W. CrawfordJoan S. CurryGerald L. DunbarAndrew Elby & Diana Perry-ElbyJordan B. EmmartMaria T. EnriqueDonna J. FeciProfessor Sarah FreedmanProfessor Jesus GarciaDaniel & Katy GreenspanBernadette Homen & Robert SchoenfeldLoren Kaplan & Scott PackerAgnes G. KlebeDiane & John KopchikSusan J. KraemerMelvin & Dorothy LembergerRonald & Lois LeonardJanet A. MartinVictoria & Walter MuiMarie Luise OttoKathleen & John PetersonRoyce L. PetersonPamela A. RouthJennifer & David RussellLyn ScottProfessor David Stern & Jane SternKaren Sullivan & Mark ProvdaYi-Xin & Wei Xia WangWillie & Gudrun WestMaisha & Lawrence WinnOtis & Teresa WongLibby Wyatt-Ortiz & William OrtizRebecca J. Zwick

$1 - $99Norma M. AhernMaria D. AlmanzoJasmine M. AlvarezRobert L. AmparanElaine J. AndersonWard R. AndersonGraziella W. AwabdyJudith V. BebelaarLinda R. BeckstoneElva D. ByrneMarlynne CarreraStacie C. CheaEdward ChuHoward & Mary CohenCaroline D. CooperLeo & Pina CroceCarolyn J. DaoustEdith W. DonJeffrey & Emilene FearnKenneth S. FisherNina L. FloroFrancisco M. Garcia, Jr.Amanda J. GodleyMary & Timothy GraneyMark A. HolmanRobert Houghteling & Elizabeth FishelGary & Ilene Sakheim KatzDonald L. KesterKim F. KitaJohn A. Lee

Helen ManiatesM. R. McKinney De Royston & Reginold RoystonJulia & Peter Menard-WarwickJoyce & Steven MillnerKathryn J. MoellerElizabeth I. OzolJesse & Maxine PerryMr. & Mrs. Michael PrenterRichard & Patricia RankinLaurie & Preston RobertsSusan & David RoundsDr. & Mrs. Philip D. SchildNorman & Betty SmithCary Sneider & Elizabeth CarterAndrew D. SteckelDanielle C. TinsleySusan & John TullisMaximino R. VelezJonathan M. WrightLesley Young

PrinciPaL LeaDershiP institute schoLarshiP funDMatin Abdel-QawiLisa S. AllphinAudrey J. AmosArizona Public Service CompanySusan M. AudapAmy M. BoyleMelanie A. BuckGeorge C. BullisAmy E. BushMaria D. CarriedoAlysse B. CastroEleanor E. CastroRebecca & Caleb CheungGabriel ChilcottMargaret A. ClarkDiane Colborn & Jim GleichMary L. & James P. CrannaKristen M. De AndreisJessica Quindel & Cesar Del PeralVirginia L. DoldPamela L. DuszynskiDebra D. Eslava-BurtonProfessor Joseph J. FlessaAndrew FurcoShawna L. GalloGlendaly GascotCarin D. GeathersCarolyn C. GramstorffLouis J. Grice, Jr.Judith Guilkey-Amado & Gary AmadoMonica M. GuzmanLaura M. HackelMatthew P. HartfordKaren A. HaynesAlicia R. HeneghanMark N. HerreraClifford R. HongThomas R. Hughes, IIIMatthew P. HuxleyRobert R. InghamKyla R. JohnsonMs. J Carlisle KimDori & Maurice KingGregory T. Ko

Paul J. KohMarilyn Zoller Koral & Joshua KoralCheryl A. LanaSangyeon & Wheeseong LeeVirginia Leung & Francis RojasBonnie W. LoAna G. LunardiDeborah K. MarRuth MathisSarah B. McLaughlinMarie Melodia & Fred BrillIrma T. MunozHo Nguyen & Phuong DoanKarrie A. PassalacquaRobert S. PatrickProfessor P. David Pearson & Mary Alyce PearsonJessica Quindel & Cesar Del PeralMichael & Cynthia RafeldLinda A. RardenMichael P. RayLaurie A. RobertsCarole C. RobiePriscilla W. RobinsonLihi L. RosenthalVincent J. RuizGregory S. SantiagoMarisa SantoyoTara Seekins & Gregory JonesIris E. SegalMorgan SeraDylan J. SmithErin Smith & Sterling FairholmMichelle Sousa & Ari AkersteinMichael & Victoria SragoProfessor David S. & Jane P. SternBessie L. StewartJonathan J. StewartMegan & Page TompkinsLynda L. TredwayLena Van Haren & Paul CifkaPamela C. Van de KampChristina Velasco & Regina FrancaBarbara & Mark WalkerMichael P. WalkerWendolynn & Bendad WardaAaron C. WatsonJill Weiler & Steve BresciaSolomon and Rebecca WheatMark and Laurie WiesingerCatherine Siemens & Professor Evan WilliamsPeter D. Wilson

Gse ProGram suPPortJoseph A. BaiettiJeffrey & Jill BradenLatieshia M. FlowersRobert & Marjorie GoodinNewton & Carol HartMarguerite A. JudsonMeri & Jeff LaneMary J. LowryJessica L. NCarol S. OsborneBrian & Katherine Rogers

Robert & Joan SmithGary & Billie ValdezProfessors Geoffrey Saxe & Maryl GearhartAmata Small

acaDemic taLent DeVeLoPment ProGramTracy Cummings & Charles PattersonKaren & Brent DraneyHongli ChenNaheed Islam & Raihan ZamilJulie JeungLisa JonesSang Y. Lee & Yasaman NazmiZarija LukicMatthew MatsuokaAnn E. McDermottStella J. NgaiMargaret NiverRonald E. NiverLori SchackMelinda & L. G. Soderbergh Heidi & Jon TaylorLashone R. WilliamsProfessor Frank C. Worrell

Gifts in honor anD in memoryin memory of charles S. bensonSara Hopkins-PowellMPR AssociatesPatricia H. Wheeler, Ph.D.in honor of Professor lily wong fillmoreJudith V. Bebelaarin memory of robert fooUC Chinese Alumni Foundationin honor of lucretia goldsmithAnonymousin memory of wilson w. kee & mildred keeDaniel W. Keein memory of nadine lambertJeffrey R. LambertPatricia H. Wheeler, Ph.D.in memory of leonard marascuiloWilliam D. Bethellin memory of alex mcleodAnonymousin memory of herb SimonsRobert & Joan Smithin honor of Professor James c. StoneTom Finn, Ph.D.in memory of robert forest whitlowBernadette Homen & Robert Schoenfeld

Michael’s Cal DayCelebration of Children’s Literature with Kristi YamaguchiBugs Galore!Controlling Robots with the Mind

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