Annual Report 2017-18 | School of Education

‌‌ 2017-18 School of Education Annual Report Header Image

Please expand the sections below to view the content of the report. When encountering charts and graphs, hover your mouse over (or tap on mobile) the graph elements and legend items for details.

Executive Summary

This annual report is organized around the three themes identified in the School of Education Strategic Plan: Excellence, Inclusivity/Diversity, and Collaboration. In addition to this report, a summary for public view is also being made available both online and in brochures.

The overall mission of the School of Education (SOE) remains to “prepare excellent teachers and educational leaders who engage in reflective practice and scholarly activity, and who are ethical decision makers and agents of social change.” We prepare teachers and educational leaders who will Teach the next generation of PreK-12 teachers who will take the Lead in schools, communities, and with children, so that they can Transform themselves into better people and their communities into better communities. Teach, Lead, Transform – it’s what we do in the School of Education.

In 2017-18, the SOE experienced transitions in two key leadership positions: the Associate Dean, Dr. Brian Sevier, accepted a position as dean of education at another university, and our Director of the Office of Clinical Experiences and Partnerships, Dr. Karen Lowenstein-Martinez, resigned citing personal reasons. Midway through the year we hired a new Associate Dean, Dr. Roberto Nava, and a new Director of Clinical Experiences and Partnerships, Dr. Megan Lawless. We also hired three new faculty members, fully transferred the Alternative Licensure Program (ALP) and Physical Education programs into the SOE and restructured some staff roles. Although it was a year of internal transitions, students were not affected, and we still advanced our mission and made progress in meeting the goals outlined in our Strategic Plan. We continued to streamline and digitize internal processes, faculty increased their writing of grants and publications, external funding to the SOE increased, and the first group of residents graduated. Overall, it was a very successful year.

Although it is difficult to determine if our efforts and new procedures (along with our faculty’s instruction and curriculum changes) affected enrollment and retention, it is clear that enrollment in early childhood education, some secondary areas, and elementary education increased. However, enrollment in special education continued to decline, mirroring national trends in special education. Retention in the SOE still remains the highest in the university at 74%, however the percentage decreased from 2016-17.

Faculty productivity also remained healthy in 2017-18 with a total of 31 publications (with others under review) and presentations at 91 conferences and seminars. Faculty presentations increased significantly in 2017-18, due to the culmination of various projects in which they have been working. In addition, 15 faculty members have been involved in grant writing, which resulted in 12 new grants, with two more under review or in process. The grants range from the internal grants of $2500 to the NSF 5-year grant of $1.5 million dollars.

Raising money for students and programs is a major goal of the School of Education. To that end, since 2014, when the School of Education was founded, donations and private funding to the SOE has increased 585%. Grants and funded projects expenditures totaled over $2 million, allowing for faculty and leadership to advance the SOE and University mission even further. The increase in private funding demonstrates the community’s desire to invest in the SOE, as well as having a unit devoted to education. In 2017-18, private giving for student scholarships and towards program enhancement totaled $312,000. Most notably, the first endowed fellowship was established in the SOE: the Cecelia A. Box Endowed Teaching Fellowship established by Ric Cooper. This Fellowship established a $50,000 Endowment and annual scholarship of $5,000 for two students ($10,000 total) who show remarkable potential in teaching as demonstrated through both their coursework and community engagement.

Collaboration across departments, the university, and the community is also major value in the School of Education. The Annual Summit helps advance our goals that fall under that value. The 2017 Summit brought together approximately 100 people from schools, non-profit organizations, state departments, and more to MSU Denver. Newly installed university president, Dr. Janine Davidson, spoke to the audience, and, in a new Summit format, attendees visited SOE classrooms and interacted with faculty and staff as they discussed major initiatives and activities in which they are engaged. For instance, Dr. Rosemarie Allen led a session on issues of equity, particularly implicit bias, involving children of color in preschools settings, and Dr. Janelle Johnson led a session concerning the challenges in STEM education and how we are addressing them. Responses from the community on our Summit evaluation were very positive. The Summit has become a major vehicle by which we “tell the SOE story,” while hearing from some of our partners and other community members.

Demonstrating our scale and commitment to providing students with real-life experiences in schools, students in their semester prior to student teaching were placed in over 1100 classrooms and other educational settings in approximately 20 school districts, mostly Denver Public Schools and Jefferson County Public Schools. In addition to the field placements, we had over 310 student teaching placements. In short, we are big and our students are in schools across the Front Range.

In addition to our collaboration with PreK-12 schools and other facilities, the SOE took leading stances on legislation concerning teacher education in the state. The dean testified a number of times in favor of bills that will allow for the study of residency models, and to establish a statewide, uniform system for students and teachers to have background checks conducted. The SOE continues to gain a national reputation and take leading roles, which is furthering our overall goal of being a model urban school of education.

Excellence

The School of Education faculty, staff, and students are committed to excellence in teaching and educator preparation through data-driven decision making.

In 2017-18, the School of Education headcount remained constant in the number of enrolled Education program major/concentration/minor students as compared to the previous year.

Retention of education students is a high priority in the School of Education. Our faculty and academic advisors worked diligently in 2017-18 to help students navigate their education coursework and programs. As of September 6, 2018, ITS Data Warehouse retention reports show the School of Education leads the pack in Fall 2017-to-Fall 2018 retention rates of all colleges and schools at 74%.

Last year, the School of Education recommended over 260 students for their initial teacher education license. Of those reporting their new teaching jobs to us, the top three districts in which they were hired were Denver Public Schools, Jefferson County Schools, and Aurora Public Schools, followed closely by Douglas County School District and Cherry Creek Schools.

Understanding the need for more educators in targeted fields, particularly math and science, in 2017-18 faculty from the SOE and the College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences (LAS) continued their collaboration in implementing a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant of approximately $1.2 million that will increase the number of students from traditionally underrepresented groups who are preparing to teach in STEM fields. Faculty from both units also continued their collaboration in the creation of a new Culturally & Linguistically Diverse (CLD)/Bilingual endorsement, another very high need area. In addition, faculty from the SOE CLD program, Dr. Peter Vigil and Dr. Lorretta Chavez, were involved in statewide discussions in the development of a new state CLD requirement in teacher education.

School of Education faculty were busy in 2017-18 with professional development, grants, and other scholarly activities.

Departmental Updates:

TED 1 – Elementary Education & Literacy

Two faculty in Elementary Education and Literacy were recognized for their teaching excellence through the Faculty Senate Teaching Excellence Award (TEA). Dr. Corey Sell received this honor in his role as a tenure-track faculty member with his teaching that focuses on Social Studies Methods and Assessment and Instruction. Ali O’Brien was recognized for her Category II position as our Elementary Education Residency Site Coordinator and her teaching of literacy courses for both elementary and secondary students.
As a commitment to excellence in teacher preparation, our department was enriched with the addition of Dr. Sue Ahrendt, who brings unique expertise in mathematics educators specifically for elementary educators. Dr. Ahrendt’s national presence in publications and presentation adds to our excellence.
As a department, we continued our regular data assessment meetings that had begun the year prior. We focused on two main areas: examining Praxis data trends and examining data from a new key task that was woven into three key junctures in our program in order to capture our students’ ability to meet a Teacher Quality Standard (TQS) that focused on teacher reflection. This critical incident task asked students to self-identify one rich, complex learning moment in their clinical field experience and reflect deeply with connections to theory. The task had been designed to address a need identified in a previous reauthorization visit to heighten our students’ connections between theory (methods courses) and practice (clinical fields). We began the fall examining Spring 2017 data trends, then met in January to examine trends across previous semesters, including Fall 2017. Through this process, we are keenly aware of the need to teach our students how to reflect deeply and we began conversation around how reflection is taught and modeled across our field classes, including opportunities for students to self-assess their ability to reflect as educators. In the area of Praxis, we continued a pilot begun in Spring 2017 to offer Praxis workshops once a semester for students around study strategies, Language Arts, and Mathematics. During Summer 2018, two faculty began work on creating mini-learning/review lessons that strategically connected course content to a brief practice test item and with connections to further review sources, such as mathematics content knowledge being developed through links to specific Kahn Academy lessons. The SOE assessment specialist, Bev Andes, joined us in these meetings to add insight and prompt our thinking in ways that might refine our data team. The rubric for this task was informed by key theories of teacher reflection that capture mechanical through critical teacher reflection.
Our first round of residents began piloting our Residency Summative Task (RST)—an assessment that our department has been developing collaboratively since Summer 2017. The task is a body of evidence, similar to the portfolios required for National Board Certification and by districts in assessing their teachers’ meeting of Teacher Quality Standards. The RST is supported by the Critical Incident Task that is structured throughout our program in order to build strong teacher reflection needed to demonstrate proficiency upon completion of our program. Data from this first year is being examined by our department data team in early Fall 2018, as a means of not only refining the assessment tool but also recognizing areas for growth in our program.
During the last semester of the two semester Residency, students were enrolled in a co-requisite course that focused on assessment and data teams for our preservice teachers relative to their residency sites. The instructor for the course, Dr. Kathleen Luttenegger, designed an assignment that required students to demonstrate their ability to plan a unit of study through backward design that considered the intended learning outcomes of their students.
In an effort to identify students in residency who needed intervention support, we piloted our new benchmark, rubric-based, self-assessments that are completed at three intervals in the program. The simple benchmarks serve the function of what is known in public education as Response to Intervention (RTI). The benchmarks demonstrate minimum expectations of performance that if a student is not meeting are an indicator of the need for support.
In Spring 2018, we met with math educators from the Department of Mathematics, who teach our students their Mathematics content knowledge courses, with one of our topics being the opportunity to share praxis score trends in mathematics. This meeting was facilitated by Drs. Deborah Horan, Ingrid Carter, and Robert Nava.
In Spring 2018, Dr. Horan collaborated with the chair, Dr. David Ruch, of the Science Department in ensuring offerings of Integrated Science in the summer for our students. This was based upon noting a slight decrease in our science Praxis scores following a decrease in offerings in the two integrated science courses. Although we have no evidence of correlation between the two, we greatly value the integrated science courses that were specifically designed for our students, so Dr. Horan supported Dr. Ruch by emailing a survey to all Elementary and Special Education students to inquire who might enroll in one of these courses if offered in the summer. The survey responses indicated strong interest to the degree that both courses were offered in the summer for our students.
During the Fall 2017-Spring 2018 academic year, two faculty from Elementary Education and Literacy served on the SOE Assessment Committee: Drs. Krista Griffin and Deborah Horan.
In order to support excellence in teaching within our new residency program, we utilized fulltime faculty as supervisors during our pilot year in order to ensure the establishment of high standards. Supervisors included Dr. Roland Schendel, Ms. Tammy Kerr, and Ms. Kathy Nelson in addition to Ms. Ali O’Brien (the latter three are Category II faculty). CLD specialist Dr. Peter Vigil from the Department of Special Education, Early Childhood, and Culturally & Linguistically Diverse Education served as a supplemental supervisor of our students who were seeking a CLD endorsement from the Colorado Department of Education. To further ensure that our students seeking this endorsement demonstrate their professional knowledge, Dr. Schendel designed an assignment in the co-requisite literacy course during Residency I to include a focus on each students’ concentration (CLD, Literacy, Mathematics, Psychology, or Chicano Studies). Students in the CLD concentration are required to demonstrate their professional knowledge required for the CLD endorsement in the Residency Summative Task.
As part of a national conversation, Dr. Rolly Schendel participated as a panelist during the AACTE Clinical Practice Commission’s presentation of findings on effective educator preparation.

TED 2 – Special Education, Early Childhood and Culturally & Linguistically Diverse Education

Faculty in TED 2 regularly attend and present at conferences, study best practices, and conduct research in their areas of expertise.
Dr. Lisa Altemueller published an article with her colleague Cindy Lindquist entitled Flipped Classroom Instruction for Inclusive Learning in the British Journal of Special Education.
Dr. Rebecca Canges published an article with colleagues entitled Review of Single Subject Research Examining the Effectiveness of Interventions for At-Risk English Learners in the Journal Learning Disabilities Research & Practice.
Dr. Tina Herring published an article with her colleagues entitled Take a SIP of this: Peer-to-peer Promotion of Strong Instructional Practices in the International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.
Drs. Malinda Jones, Rosemarie Allen, and Dorothy Shapland received the Early Childhood Workforce Innovation Grant for $250,000.
Drs. Dorothy Shapland, Rosemarie Allen, Malinda Jones and Elizabeth Hinde received the Roadrunner Early Childhood Education Program grant for $200,000 from Daniels’ Fund.
Dr Tina Herring completed the ELITE Certification training program through the MSU Denver Education Technology Center.
Drs. Kara Halley and Pamela (Charlie) Buckley worked with CDE on a state improvement project that uses data and coaching to develop model sites for students with SSN.
Drs. Rebecca Canges, Kara Halley, and William Gustashaw presented their research entitled Voices from the classroom: Examining the perceptions of General Education teachers and their preparation for working with students with disabilities at the Council for Exceptional Children conference in Tampa, Florida.
Dr. Vicki Nilles presented at the Hawaii International Conference on Education with The Positive Impact of Free and Guided Socio-dramatic Play on Literacy Development in Early Childhood.

TED 3 – Secondary, K-12 & Educational Technology

TED 3 faculty actively participated in professional learning activities such as seminars/workshops/ conferences to gain skills and knowledge in their fields. In 2017-2018 academic year, faculty attended more than 60 learning events.
TED 3 faculty were also actively involved in presenting research and publishing journal articles. In the 2017-2018 academic year, faculty did more than 35 refereed/non-refereed presentations and published more than 10 refereed/non-refereed journal articles/book chapters.
In an effort to improve clinical experiences in the Secondary/K-12 program, faculty continued to implement, evaluate, and modify the lesson plan template required for teacher candidates during student teaching as part of the teacher work sample and formal observations with their university supervisor (except for math, art, & PE). TED 3 Faculty continued to offer support to university supervisors regarding lesson plan templates.
Drs. Hsin-Te Yeh and Miri Chung (Educational Technology) initiated a plan for an Instructional Technology certificate program and proposed the plan to the Board of Trustees (BOT). This new, completely online certificate program was approved by the BOT and is now in the process of curriculum design and development. This online program will go through the curriculum review process in Fall 2018.
Dr. Philip Bernhardt wrote and was funded with the Provost’s mini grants for both Fall 2017 (Integrating Undergraduate Research and Pre-Service Science Teacher STEM Experiences) and Spring 2018 (National Science Foundation (NSF) Master Teacher) Fellowships.
Dr. Janelle Johnson wrote and was funded with a Provost’s mini grant for Fall 2017 (STEM Ecosystems: A Longitudinal Study with Students and Families of Color).
Dr. Jan Perry Evenstad, director of the Western Educational Equity Assistance Center continued to work on the project funded by the Department of Education ($8,453,437) to provide technical assistance and training upon request, at no cost, covering the civil rights areas of Title IV, Title VI and Title IX.
Dr. Janelle Johnson is leading a team/project funded by the National Science Foundation ($ 1,449,970) on inclusive STEM teaching preparation at an urban commuter university (U-STEM). This is a 5-year project starting in Fall 2017.
Dr. Janelle Johnson continued to work on the ITEST project funded by the National Science Foundation to utilize a community-based approach to engage students and teachers in effective STEM education.
Drs. Nhu Nguyen and Sue Barnd reviewed and redesigned the K-12 Physical Education program to meet the current standards/requirements. The program change will be proposed for curriculum review in Fall 2018.
Dr. Janelle Johnson planned and organized a summer trip to Educator Academy in the Amazon. She selected 3 science students to participate. They will work together to submit a presentation proposal to a conference about this learning experience after they return.

Inclusivity/Diversity

The School of Education is committed to being representative and reflective of the population that it serves.

The race/ethnicity breakdown for all teacher education students enrolled in 2017-18 showed 24% were of Hispanic origin, and all students of color accounted for 36% of the total.

In 2017-18, over 1480 placements were coordinated for education student field experiences (prior to student teaching) and student teaching activities. These placement experiences are intended to introduce students to classrooms and facilities in the Denver metropolitan area, and the populations they serve. Just over 380 of these placements (or 26%) were in schools where more than 60% of the Preschool through 12th grade students were eligible for Free and Reduced Lunch. For all placements, the average percentage of students eligible for Free and Reduced Lunch is 42.5% – adding very diverse perspectives and experiences to our students’ education careers.

In 2017-18, we hired three new faculty members, two faculty were promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure, and three were promoted to Full Professor. Two full time faculty members who served for many years also retired (Dr. Lupe Martinez and Dr. Mary Heuwinkel). Diversity of faculty members is a significant goal for us, so we hope to continue to hire faculty and staff who represent traditionally underrepresented groups in education.

Departmental Updates:

TED 1 – Elementary Education & Literacy

In Elementary Education and Literacy, we are committed to pursuing high quality hires who reflect the diversity of our student population. In Fall 2017, we were fortunate to have an exceptional graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder enrich our faculty through her professional expertise around diversity and second-hand trauma—the latter an expertise that is cutting edge in recent opportunities discussed with external collaborators around trauma-informed practices. Dr. Ofelia Schepers’ graduation speech at CU Boulder is a mere glimpse into the nuanced insights that she has already brought to our department and students around serving diverse university students.
Dr. Schepers is also one of three faculty who are building upon their unique professional knowledge to teach a new course: EDU 1111 Education within Diverse Communities. In Fall 2017, we submitted a new course proposal for a freshman level multicultural course that would replace our 3000-level course. Our strategic intentions included: offering a freshman level course to perhaps invite more students of color into our teacher education program and even as change agents and future collaborators if pursuing other majors. In addition, we had intended to offer this as a First Year Success Course in order to tie in support services. With the change in FYS, we nonetheless proceeded to find ways to utilize this as a recruitment opportunity as well as means to connect any students to services that support their overall success. In keeping with that, Ms. Colleen Toomy, Coordinator of First-Gen Initiatives at The Center for Equity and Student Achievement, began teaching our 3000-level Multicultural course in Spring 2017 and stepped into teaching the freshman level version when the course was approved to begin this fall. Another rationale for creating the freshman level course was that some of our students bring in lower division courses that could be equivalent to our Multicultural course. This is an effort to be more inclusive of our transfer students, which in our particular department trends above the average for the university.
The EDU 1111 course had been designed by Dr. Deborah Horan and Dr. Megan Lawless, who in Fall 2017 was tenure track faculty in our department. In Spring 2018, the SOE was fortunate to have Dr. Lawless assume the role of Interim Director of the Office of Clinical Experiences and Practices (OCEP), based upon her former professional experiences in a similar role at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Dr. Megan Lawless had been intentionally hired into our department along with Dr. Ofelia Schepers, as their combined expertise in diversity and inclusive practices allowed us to strengthen our Elementary major. During Fall 2017, Dr. Lawless collaborated with Dr. Corey Sell and others in infusing inclusive practices into key methods courses.
The expertise of Dr. Kathleen Luttenegger as a special educator continues to allow her to infuse inclusive practices into her courses and in threading differentiation into assignments for students in their culminating residency year.
Lastly, Dr. Horan convened with a small groups of university leaders last year as part of the Executive Council of Chairs and Directors (COCD) in order to address ACCESS Accommodations from the perspective of the COCD.

TED 2 – Special Education, Early Childhood and Culturally & Linguistically Diverse Education

Drs. Carmen Sanjurjo and Jan Perry Evenstad served as panelists at the ICERI 2017 10th International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation Educational reforms and equity in the United States and its Territories in Seville, Spain.
Dr. Rosemarie Allen delivered a webinar entitled Implicit Bias: From Awareness to Positive Change for the Military Families Learning Network.
Dr. Dorothy Shapland presented at the Rocky Mountain Early Childhood conference with If All means All how do we reach each?
Dr. Rosemarie Allen presented at the Educators of Color Summit with Suspended for what? Ending suspension/expulsion of black boys in early childhood education.
Drs. Rebecca Canges, Kara Halley, Peggy Anderson and Tina Herring participated in the University Disability Awareness festival.
Dr. Rosemarie Allen delivered a keynote at the 14th annual After School Zone conference for the Early Childhood Council of Larimer County entitled Recognizing your Biases when addressing challenging behavior.
Dr. Lisa Altemueller serves on the ACCESS Center advisory board for the University.
Dr. Peter Vigil continues to serve as a committee member on the Diversity and Inclusion committee which develops and endorses initiatives, grounded in inclusive excellence, for the office of Diversity and Inclusion.
Dr. Tina Herring continues to serve as the Faculty Liaison for the Access Center (Fall 2013 - present) and provides academic testing to support the assessment of students with Learning Disabilities.
Drs. Lorretta Chavez and Peter Vigil continue to serve on the Latino Graduation Committee.
Dr. Dorothy Shapland supports students who are English Language Learners with writing (revision and editing support) during specific advising hours.
Dr. Carmen Sanjurjo serves as a committee member on the Faculty Senate Multicultural committee which reviews curriculum in terms of qualifying for the University multicultural designation.

TED 3 – Secondary, K-12 & Educational Technology

Dr. Kathryn Young continued to contribute to the field of multicultural education. She was the recipient of the MLK Peace Award in 2018.
Dr. Philip Bernhardt was actively involved in the Honors program, trying to bridge School of Education faculty/students and the Honors program. He will be one of the associate directors of the Honors program starting in Fall 2018.
Dr. Janelle Johnson’s NOYCE team continued to recruit student scholars to increase the number and diversity of math and science teachers serving high need schools.
Dr. Jan Perry Evenstad served the CO-National Association for Multicultural Educators as a board member and co-chair, promoting multicultural education.
The K-12 Physical Education program completed its first year in TED 3. This smooth and successful transition demonstrated inclusivity and increased the diversity of our faculty.
Educational Technology faculty are working on a completely online instructional technology certificate program. This program is designed for anybody from everywhere who is interested in the program. It attracts a diverse group of learners, not just teacher licensure students in our department.

Collaboration

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The School of Education is committed to fostering collaboration among internal and external stakeholders dedicated to excellence in teaching and educator preparation.

During the 2018 legislative session, the dean testified before three senate and house committees regarding two bills in teacher education and was asked to comment on many other legislative initiatives. Both bills passed into law. The dean continues to work with the external community at the state and national levels in advancing university-based teacher education for the overall improvement of PreK-12 schools. The dean also continued her participation in convenings of the Education Deans for Justice and Equity (EDJE), a national organization of deans of education from all types of IHEs focused on advancing policies and practices that ensure equity in schools and university teacher education programs. She also served as president and then past-president of the Teacher Education Council of State Colleges and Universities (TECSCU), another national level university teacher education organization.

In 2017-18, faculty worked with local school districts and facilities to provide the opportunity for education students to receive hands on experiences related to their programs prior to, and including, student teaching. Over 1100 placements for field experiences prior to student teaching were coordinated over the last year, with higher percentages of students going to Denver Public Schools and Jefferson County Schools.

In addition, over 310 student teaching placements were coordinated in surrounding districts, with higher percentages of students going to Denver Public Schools, Jefferson County Schools, Cherry Creek Schools, and Douglas County School District.

Each semester, School of Education affiliate and full-time faculty are spending as much as 450 hours in schools and other facilities that provide educational services to children throughout Colorado, particularly around metropolitan Denver. Faculty service activities, including and in addition to, their time in local schools and facilities during 2017-18 were extensive.

Students in education programs will have spent between 800 and 1260 hours in these same schools and facilities during their academic careers at MSU Denver. In 2017-18 the SOE continued collaborations with Denver Public Schools and Jefferson County Schools for a yearlong residency model for the 2017-18 school year. The new residency model was many years in the making and the first group of residents successfully completed the year with this new model. During the 2017-18 year, anticipating growth in the residency model, we also established partnerships with Aurora Public Schools and School District 27j in addition to DPS and Jeffco.

In 2017-18, School of Education faculty collaborated with peers in their fields to conduct presentations at national and international education venues (see Professional Development chart in Excellence section). In addition to collaborating with colleagues in schools and nationally, faculty from the School of Education frequently collaborated with colleagues across the university on publications, grants, and other initiatives, as previously mentioned in Departmental Updates.

Departmental Updates:

TED 1 – Elementary Education & Literacy

On a department-wide level, the Fall 2017-Spring 2018 year launched our extended residency partnerships with school districts. In Fall 2017, our first cohort of residents began in two major school districts: Denver Public Schools (DPS) and Jefferson County Public Schools (Jeffco). Within DPS, we collaborated with two school sites that identified with district leadership: McGlone Elementary and Holm Elementary. Within Jeffco, we collaborated with two schools identified: Wilmore Davis and South Lakewood Elementary.
Our first Elementary Residency Site Coordinator, Ms. Ali O’Brien in collaboration with Dr. Megan Lawless, initiated professional development which brought together mentor teachers and residents in three meetings during the academic year.
In Spring 2018, we added a third partner district, School District 27J, and began conversations with a fourth district, Aurora Public Schools, to begin in Fall 2018. Collaborative efforts in 27j and Aurora were enhanced by the relationships previously formed by faculty, in particular Drs. Rolly Schendel and Corey Sell.
In Spring 2018, several faculty joined together to present on our residency model at the American Association of the Council of Educators (AACTE): Drs. Corey Sell, Kathleen Luttenegger, Krista Griffin, Rolly Schendel, and Deborah Horan.
In Summer 2018, Dr. Krista Griffin began a collaborative literacy tutoring course that included students in our Elementary Major, Literacy Concentration, tutoring children at the Boys and Girls Club.
In Fall 2017, the SOE piloted an approach to the goal setting for our Annual Assessment report that was collaborative in nature. Within our department, we focused on goals that we established based upon our yearlong collaborative efforts around assessing our new Elementary major.
Drs. Ingrid Carter and Sue Ahrendt collaborated with two part-time Category II specialist in mathematics education, Ms. Cody Jorgensen (ABD) and Dr. Dennis DeBay, in piloting a STEM team approach to teaching and supervising across the science and math methods courses and clinical experiences. Dr. Carter’s expertise in science education for elementary students continues to be demonstrated in her national publications and presentations.

TED2 – Special Education, Early Childhood and Culturally & Linguistically Diverse Education

Dr. Rebecca Canges serves as Task Force Chair for the University’s initiative, One Team of Leaders Transformation Sustainability, which focuses on developing and implementing Inclusive Leadership across the university.
Dr. Rosemarie Allen served as a panelist at the Council for Exceptional Children conference for How do we engage in collaborative consultative services: An inter-disciplinary deep dive discussion in Portland, Oregon.
Drs. Malinda Jones, Dorothy Shapland, and Rosemarie Allen work collaboratively with the city of Denver, the United Way, and several nonprofit service agencies to plan and organize child care for Project Homeless Connect (PHC).
Dr. Lorretta Chavez has worked collaboratively with the Department of Chicano studies and the Department of Modern Languages, serving as the committee chair to develop a Bilingual Education Specialist Certificate program.
Dr. William Gustashaw currently serves as a committee member on the University Program Review Committee which works with programs across the university to assess the needs of each program in order to make recommendations for improvement.
Dr. Kara Halley has served since 2006 as a member of the Significant Support Needs Advisory Committee, which serves to advise the Colorado Department of Education regarding students with significant support needs; they created “Quality Indicators for Assessing Individualized Services for Students with Significant Support Needs” to collect data for the state.
Dr. Malinda Jones collaborated with Community Colleges to streamline Early Childhood Education transfer courses for students coming to MSU Denver.
Dr. Peter Vigil continues to serve on the Partnership committee which is charged with refining the procedures for selecting and implementing effective partnerships with k-12 public schools.
Collaborating on an ongoing study, Drs. Carmen Sanjurjo, Peter Vigil, Jan Perry Evanstad, and Myron Anderson collaborated on, "How Do Pre-Service Teachers' Understandings of Cultural Diversity Evolve During their Participation in a Licensure Program: A Comparative Analysis of Teacher Preparation Programs in the United States and Puerto Rico". This is collaboration between MSU Denver and the University of Puerto Rico faculty.

TED3 – Secondary, K-12 & Educational Technology

Dr. Philip Bernhardt worked with faculty from the Environmental Science program on building research and integrating diversity in Geoscience education at an urban emerging Hispanic serving institution and submitted a National Science Foundation grant proposal.
Dr. Kathryn Young continued to develop a partnership with South High School, where her classroom management class and 2nd field experience were held.
Dr. Todd Reimer continued to establish a relationship with Pomona High School at Jeffco as a field placement site for students enrolled in EDS 3130/3140, the program’s introductory field experience course.
Dr. Janelle Johnson continued to work with her grant team composed of faculty from different departments to establish relationships with schools that would place our students in STEM environments for field experience and student teaching. Those schools include Englewood Middle/High Schools, Northglenn High School, Vista Peak P-16, Goddard Middle School, Denver Green School and STEM Launch.
Drs. Hsin-Te Yeh and Miri Chung collaborated with MSU Denver instructional designers on the design and development of Instructional Technology certificate program.
Drs. Nhu Nguyen and Sue Barnd collaborated with K-12 physical educators on the Advisory Board to improve our K-12 Physical Education program and help our students connect with the field.

Fundraising

The 2017-18 year brought increased funding to the School of Education. Grant and sponsored project expenditures totaled over $2 million. Private giving through the University Advancement office totaled over $312,000. Since 2014, dollar amount donations to the SOE have increased 585%. The number of unique donors (that is, donors who are new to donating to the SOE) have increased from 16 in 2014 to 164 in 2017. While most of the donations are for scholarships, some have funded the general SOE fund and specific programs. Here is a snapshot of how private giving to the SOE has increased over the past several years:

In addition, almost $186,000 was awarded this last year in scholarships to support 70 teacher education students. Some of these awards included early childhood Race to the Top funds granted by the Colorado Department of Education, with the remaining awards produced by scholarship and retention funds through previous gifts.

Recognizing that endowments are essential in the sustainability of scholarships, in addition to the scholarships and endowments awarded in previous years from which students continue to benefit, two School of Education donors, Cece Box and Ric Cooper, established the first School of Education Fellowship and Endowment: the Cecilia A. Box Endowed Teaching Fellowship. This fellowship is awarded to one student per semester who demonstrates outstanding academic ability as well as service to the community. The criteria are more rigorous than other scholarships and the awardee is considered a Box Fellow. One student was awarded the Box Fellowship last year, and two more will be awarded each year. Also, another School of Education donors, Peggy Moody, who had previously established the Michael A. Bentley Annual Scholarship in honor of her late husband, revamped her scholarship and added more funding, establishing it as an endowment. Now it is the Michael A. Bentley Memorial Endowed Scholarship. Students and the university will benefit from these new endowments for years to come.

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