Dr. Jane McCarthy Assumes Role as Interim Executive Associate Dean

Dr. Jane McCarthy

UNLV College of Education Dean Dr. Kim Metcalf recently announced Dr. Jane McCarthy, Professor in the Teaching & Learningdepartment, will serve as Interim Executive Associate Dean of the college for the upcoming academic year. The position was made available when former Executive Associate Dean Dr. Cyndi Giorgis stepped down to accept a Dean position at the University of Texas, El Paso.

Dr. McCarthy has worked in a similar capacity before, serving as Interim Dean of the College of Education from 2005-2007. In addition, Dr. McCarthy has been deeply involved with the college and university, serving in various roles such as Chair of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Chair of the UNLV Faculty Senate, and the College of Education’s Strategic Planning Task Force.

In addition to her service to the college and university communities, Dr. McCarthy is also active with K-12 school districts in Southern Nevada, national organizations such as the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the National Center for Accelerated Schools, the Association of Teacher Educators (ATE), and the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE). Dr. McCarthy’s research interests include Classroom Management, Cross-Cultural Studies, Indian Education, Rural Education, and School Reform.

Dean, College of Education Recognize Spring Doctoral Grads

The College of Education celebrated some prestigious accomplishments this past May at the 2014 Spring Commencement activities. Doctor of Philosophy degrees were awarded to five individuals from the Department of Educational Psychology & Higher Education and the Departmentof Teaching & Learning. Each successfully defended their dissertation study in the weeks preceding graduation.

Graduates from the Department of Educational Psychology & Higher Education included Jill Cohen, Joe Ervin, and Leslie Murdock (dual PhD/JD). Jill’s dissertation was titled Cognitive Differences Between High and Low Responders of Tier II Reading Intervention. Joe’s dissertation, Runnin’ with the Rebels: A Phenomenological Analysis of the Experiences of Highly Identified College Student Sports Fans, examined sports fandom here at UNLV. Leslie’s dissertation, titled Effects of the JCCS Curriculum on Juveniles' Legal Knowledge, Competency, and Anxiety, examined aspects of the juvenile court system in southern Nevada.

 Kyle Kaalberg and Cynthia Kimball represented the college’s Department of Teaching & Learning. Enhancing Teaching and Learning through iPad Integration in a Clinic-based Literacy Course was the title of Kyle’s dissertation and Cynthia’s was titled An Autoethnography of Heart-based Hope Leadership: A Matter of Life or Death.

All of the Spring 2014 College of Education doctoral graduates were recognized at a gathering of family members, friends, and faculty hosted by Dean Kim Metcalf prior to the commencement ceremony. 

College of Education's Strageic Planning Symposium a Glimpse into the Future

Dr. Kim Metcalf, Dean of the College of Education

A year’s worth of diligent, spirited, and collaborative work by College of Education faculty culminated this past May with the first ever Strategic Planning Symposium. The initiative set forth by Dean Kim Metcalf, engaged seven task forces working throughout the year to identify future directions and opportunities, culminating in recommendations related to the charge of each task force. 

On May 15^th, findings were presented as part of the College of Education Symposium in the Greenspun Auditorium. A number of key education stakeholders were in attendance, including Nevada State Superintendent of Public Instruction Dale Erquiaga.

The seven charges included:

•   Aligning promotion and tenure with merit criteria, including Tier 1 Goals and COE expectations;

•   Balancing differentiated staffing, equity and tier 1 productivity

• Expanding initial licensure programs

•  Ensuring support and engagement in research productivity

•  Growing doctoral programs

•  Expanding reach, visibility and impact of the college

• Quality assurance, accountability and SPA accreditation.

The goals of each task force were to align with the College of Education’s new vision, stated as: The College of Education will achieve prominence locally, nationally and internationally as a leading source of significant knowledge and innovative models to inform and impact policy, practice and research.

The core values driving this vision include leadership, innovation and impact. Development of a comprehensive plan to address the task force recommendations and achieve the vision is currently underway.

Teacher Pipeline: Quantity of Quality?

On April 17th, Dean Metcalf was interviewed by Las Vegas' Channel 8 News about the national decline of enrollment in Teacher Education Programs.  Clark County School District plans to hire over 2,000 new teachers in the 2014-2015 school year in order to meet the increase of expected student enrollments.  Dean Metcalf has been involved in several meetings as of late to discuss the increase in CCSD teachers, and how both traditional and alternative Teacher Education Programs can aid CCSD in the recruitment, preparation, and retainment of the projected amount of teachers needed.

As of this past year, UNLV College of Education graduated around 300 new teachers. Currently, just over 98% of our graduating teachers acquire positions in CCSD. In an e-mail to COE faculty, Dean Metcalf related his response to the reporter's request for justification at the relatively low number of teachers coming through UNLV's "teacher pipeline."

"My answer noted that the teachers who graduated from our programs last year (2012-13) would have entered the program from one to up to almost three years earlier.  At that time, school budgets were horrible, education was enforcing higher entry standards and more rigorous exit tests and assessments for licensure, and teachers and schools were continually subjected to negative critiques from nearly all quarters. In parallel to this, university budgets were reduced across the board, but in many places--UNLV included--these were focused most severely on colleges of education. As a result, the capacity of teacher education institutions to prepare educators for licensure was greatly reduced (in our own case by just less that 40%).  In this context, it isn't really surprising that the total number of teachers produced, either by our College or across the country, generally declined."

--Dean Metcalf

Despite the challenges that the country has faced in regards to preparing the next generation of educators, UNLV College of Education has remained steadfast in making sure students receive the quality of education that will produce the caring teachers CCSD needs.   While Dean Metcalf is becoming increasingly involved in the discussion on the teacher pipeline, he is adamant that the UNLV College of Education will continue to produce quality over quantity, in order to further help CCSD improve the education of young Nevadans.

Major Issue in Nevada Education Funding--Co-Sponsored by UNLV COE and Boyd School of Law

Is School Funding Fair in Nevada?

This is the question that is facing all constituents in the state of Nevada, and the question that legislators, educators, administrators, lawyers, and citizens of Nevada came together to try and answer.

On March 6, the UNLV College of Education co-sponsored an event hosted by the Boyd School of Law to address this issue identified by Dean Daniel Hamilton as the "most important issue in our state." 

The panelists for the program were as follows:

• David Sciarra, executive director, Education Law Center
• Teresa Jordan, emerita dean and professor, UNLV College of Education
• Staci Pratt, legal director, ACLU of Nevada
• Lucy Flores, assemblywoman, co-chair interim finance committee, Nevada Legislature
• Sylvia Lazos, Justice Myron Leavitt professor of law, William S. Boyd School of Law

Education Law Centers Executive Director, David Sciarra spoke about their National Report Card which rates Nevada's school financing system the least fair in the country.  He went on to speak on the Nevada's funding formula for education, which he claimed is equitable, but not at all fair. Sciarra encouraged Nevada to rethink their funding formula, and to look at states such as Minnesota, Massachusetts, and New Jersey as examples of funding formulas Nevada may follow. 

Dr.Randy Boone, Associate Dean of Research, spoke on behalf of the UNLV COE, specifically referencing Dean's Metcalf's recent Opinion piece in the Las Vegas Sun which addressed the national study conducted by Education Week titled "Quality Counts" listing Nevada as 51st in the nation,  reporting that Nevada schools rate worst in the nation for likelihood of success based on education. 

COE Alum Ruben Murillo, President of the NevadaState Education Association discussed how the Nevada Plan (created in 1967 by the state legislature) is not fair for Nevada's children, and was followed by Senator Mo Denis, currently chairing the Task Force on K-12 Public Education Funding, which was formed to study and review the Nevada Plan prior to the next legislative session. 

Staci Pratt, Legal Director of the ACLU of Nevada spoke to the legal obligations and basic constitutional right the state of Nevada has to provide education for its citizenry. As stated by COE Alum Ruben Murillo, there has to be a sense of urgency in addressing this issue in Nevada. Over the last three legislative sessions a cut of over $800 million previously provided for education in Nevada, with $500 million of the cut impacting southern Nevada alone, was reiterated as evidence of a need for more attention to the issue among all stakeholders.    

The Las Vegas Sun reports that "If Mo Denis' task force doesn't deliver on a new funding formula, groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund are considering litigation to force the issue."

Dean Metcalf Writes Article for the Las Vegas Sun

Dean Kim Metcalf of UNLV COE

Recently,  Dr. Kim Metcalf, Dean of the College of Education, wrote an editorial for the  Las Vegas Sun newspaper entitled  "Who is Really the 'Worst' in Education?"  The article was published on February 9th, 2014 in response to the "Quality Counts" national study released by Education Week.  According to this study, Nevada comes in dead last as a quality place to raise a child in the United States.  Dean Metcalf responds with a different perspective on the report. 

In response to the results of this national study, Dean Metalf declares:

"To that final and most fundamental question, my response is twofold and straightforward.
One, the report is a damning indictment of the extent of Nevada’s commitment to its children and of the level of support we provide them to achieve adult success.

Two, and despite the headline of the article, the results of the report present a comparatively and surprisingly positive picture of the quality and impact of public education and educators in the state." ( Las Vegas Sun)

Dean Metcalf goes on to analyze the results of the study and report on what those results really mean.  He determines that, while we may be ranked 51st, that is not a clear representation of all of the data reported.  Nevada ranks above average in the school production of student achievement growth, on establishing standards for assessing accountability and quality of teaching, for having processes for allocating incentives for educator effectiveness, and we rank highly in the equality of educational funding.  

Unfortunately, Dean Metcalf uncovers a disturbing problem about that last point:

"Among our highest ratings, Nevada is sixth in terms of equality of educational funding. Unfortunately, this high ranking indicates that per pupil funding ($8,454) in Nevada is distributed in ways that are virtually unrelated to students’ educational needs or community characteristics...We don’t invest very much in educating our children, and what we do invest is spent with no distinction among students, schools or communities of greater or lesser need."  ( Las Vegas Sun)

Dean Metcalf summarizes his findings by concluding:

"We are among the very worst performing states in addressing nonschool factors that are highly related to student achievement and adult success, and we provide little support to schools and to educators compared with most states. In contrast, we have comparatively highly ranked accountability and incentive measures in place for our schools and teachers, and the student achievement growth that our schools produce is in the top 10... we may actually be getting a surprisingly high (though far less than “top level”) rate of return given the size of our investment."  ( Las Vegas Sun)

COE Alumni Association Chapter Welcomes New President and Officers

COE AAC President Dr. Gutierrez

Antonio Gutierrez, Ph.D., was recently elected as the UNLV College of Ed.'s Alumni Association Chapter President. 

Dr. Gutierrez is a Rebel to the core, receiving all three of his degrees from UNLV. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Sociology in 2004, his Master of Science degree in Educational Psychology in 2008, and his Doctor of Philosophy degree in Educational Psychology in 2012. Dr. Gutierrez has a firm belief in a transparent decisions-making process.  He knows the importance of being open with those he serves.  His agenda includes furthering the goals and mission of the COE Alumni Association Chapter by increasing outreach efforts, improving communication with COE alumni, increasing COE alumni membership and participation in events.  Dr. Gutierrez understands that in order to accomplish the goals he and his team have set for themselves, the importance and value of collaboration, consensus, and teamwork will become key players in decision making for the COE alumni. 

Dr. Gutierrez is open to the suggestions and opinions of all alumni in making the UNLV College of Education a top-notch college for the future of the university, as well as the alumni who belong to it.  Thus, if you would like to suggest possible events or activities, please feel free to contact Antonio at antonio.gutierrez@unlv.edu or 702-895-3556. 

In addition to the appointment of Dr. Gutierrez as President, the newly elected incoming COE Alumni Association Chapter Officers are:

President-Elect: Kenneth Browder
Vice President: Steve Barnson
Treasurer: Katie Dockweiler
Secretary: Olivia Grant

The COE Alumni Board has tentatively planned for these events in the spring:

(1) Resources and Supplies Drive for CCSD Teachers
(2) A COE Alumni Mixer (open to all COE Alumni)
(3) A Membership Rush to educate members about membership dues and benefits

The specifics of these events (e.g., date, time, and venue) will be available on the COE Facebook page.