Department of Education Leadership Council Articles

Mission Statement

The mission of the Leadership Council is to promote reflection and exchange between the Department of Education and representatives from the community on the activities, role, and future direction of the department. Leadership Council members advise on opportunities for community engagement and service, participate in scholarly presentations delivered by faculty members, and comment upon the goals and accomplishments of the department. Leadership Council members support the department in its three-fold mission of research, teaching, and service and are encouraged to liaise with the community at large on behalf of the department.

Inaugural Meeting: May 28, 2008

For the inaugural meeting, the Department of Education Leadership Council brought together community members from business, government, education, and the civic sector to share perspectives and experiences on some of the issues impacting K-20 education in Southern California. DoE Chair Vandell introduced the meeting by notifying members that she was "putting them on the CASE," an acronym that she explained as follows:

“C” – for Conversation and Collaboration. The Council will nurture conversation among members, students, faculty and other groups concerned with education in Orange County. It is expected that members will leverage off one another to collaborate in thinking and actions that will make a significant difference to the community and to the university. Collaboration will include working with partnerships that already exist or which are in the formation stage.

“A” – for Advice and Ambassador. The Department and University are looking for advice from members on ways to improve and to increase visibility across the county and region. Council members are viewed as ambassadors to help the university and the work of the Council be better known. The desire is to communicate what the Department and University are accomplishing that is useful and important for the community.

“S” – for Substance. The focus of the Council will be on substance. Each member should leave a meeting knowing something he or she did not know before. Interests of members will be identified, priorities will be established, and information about cutting edge research presented.

 “E” – for Excellence and Expertise. Members are being asked to help improve the work of the Department of Education and to expect excellence. The Council is not a fund-raising endeavor. The Department is seeking to benefit from the expertise that members bring to the Council.

A Department of Education produced PowerPoint presentation entitled P-20: New Day, New Way, developed for the February Meeting of the Chancellors’ Round Table, expained the multiple ways in which the Department is fulfilling the University of California mission to produce research, provide education through teaching, and serve the surrounding communities.

Members agreed that they would meet twice a year at UC Irvine to consider research, education, and practice in topic areas selected by the membership as meriting discussion and attention. After School Programs was selected by the members for the Fall 2008 meeting, and Early Childhood/Pre-school Education was selected for the Spring 2009 meeting. 

 

October 22, 2008 Meeting: After-school Programs Theme

Chair Vandell welcomed new and returning members. For the research and education portions of the meeting, Associate Professor Joseph Mahoney and Lecturer Jeff Johnson presented “The Importance of After-school Programs for Educational Development.” Dr. Mahoney summarized research findings from national studies and from his work in Sweden and North Carolina and at Yale. Mr. Johnston explained DoE’s new Certificate in After-school Education (CASE), which is designed to integrate theory and practice (field placement at community after-school sites) for undergraduate students.

In discussing practice in after-school programs, Randy Barth, Founder and CEO of THINK Together, presented an overview of THINK Together’s evolution and accomplishments and shared the following insights and information:

1. Funding levels can present a challenge to delivering high quality after-school programs; where per student funding for school day instruction is $12,155 per student per year, after-school programs work with $1300 per student per year.
2. A system of support for staff people is very important, e.g., paid site supervisor positions, weekly meetings, and professional development opportunities.
3. THINK Together has employed a business approach to achieve program quality, seeking a variety of funding sources and broad-based support.
4. THINK Together aligns after-school academic activities with the school day and strives for balance in the three hour time block: one hour is academic (Crucial Standards), one hour is devoted to games and activities that support academics, one hour is for physical fitness.
5. California’s need for after-school programs is affected by California having the second shortest school day in the nation and the shortest school year.
6. THINK Together believes that the achievement gap is the civil rights issue of our day and that effective academically-focused after-school programs can be an important part of a strategy to close that gap.

Katherine Bihr, Executive Director of the Tiger Woods Learning Center (TWLC), discussed the goals and activities of her center.

1. TWLC serves junior and senior high students.
2. Foci are career exploration, college preparatory activities, and helping students make meaning out of what they are learning in school.
3. A typical day includes 2:00-3:30 Power Hour Plus, and 3:30-5:30 Program Time. The Power Hour emphasizes resiliency skills and self-confidence building. The two-hour program time block is divided into seven week sessions, e.g., digital story telling.
4. TWLC hosts a family night since the program considers the family vitally important for student success.
5. TWLC offers professional development for elementary teachers.
6. TWLC has introduced a one-week program for 5th graders in forensic or marine science. The programs runs from 8:00-2:00 with breakfast provided.
7. Since January 2006, 20,000 children have enrolled in TWLC programs.

In closing, Mr. Barth and Dr. Bihr identified challenges facing after-school operations: financing, turnover of staff, training of staff, maintaining quality while expanding the model, building the mext generation of leadership, and, for TWLC, transportation (center-provided) and the "Tiger Factor," a perception that Tiger Woods willl meet the Center's financial needs.

 

May 26, 2009 Meeting: Early Childhood and Pre-school Education

Chair Vandell welcomed new and returning members and shared that the Department had completed its five-year external review and received excellent comments from the reviewing team. Grant funding had reached an all time high of $ 13,000,000.  The Department experienced a 76% acceptance rate from 21  Ph.D. applicants offered admission (out of a 2009 applicant pool of 100). Admission to the teacher education programs has reached an all time high in spite of the current economic difficulties, and the undergraduate programs recorded their largest ever number of credit hours (students enrolled in courses) this past year.

For the research-focused portion of the meeting, Distinguished Professor Greg Duncan discussed one of his research projects: What is School Readiness?, funded by NSF, conducted in conjunction with the Center for the Analysis of Pathways from Childhood to Adulthood, University of Michigan. He explained that national, longitudinal data sets were analyzed to address the question: What school-entry academic, attention, and behavioral skills relate to later success in school and beyond? Findings are indicating that early math and reading skills matter most for primary school achievement while early behavior problems are not predictive of achievement. Anti-social behavior is predictive of high school dropout and, especially, early adult crime. Non-clinical attention problems are predictive of early but not later outcomes. He suggested that more experimentation is needed with preschool math curricula since modest predictiveness of later outcomes implies a big potential role for K-12 schools and parenting.

For the education portion of the meeting, Associate Professor Penny Collins discussed DoE offerings in the field of early education. She explained that two themes guide DoE early childhood coursework: developmentally appropriate practices and socially appropriate skills, and that coursework is both theory-driven and practice-based.

For the practice portion of the meeting, Cheryll Ruszat, Executive Director, Program Coordinator, and Instructor for University Montessori and the UCI Montessori Teacher Training Program, presented a history of her engagement with Montessori Schools of Irvine and an explanation of the components of the schooling methods originally developed by Maria Montessori.

Michael Ruane, Executive Director of Children and Families Commission of Orange County, discussed the goals and accomplishments of the Commission’s Early Literacy Program. The Early Literacy Program’s mission is to ensure that every child has access to books in his or her home, provide literacy information to parents, and link families and community resources. The Commission recruits and trains volunteers to read to children at pediatric clinics (part of the nationally-based Reach Out and Read Program) and to organize book drives, “cleaning and screening” of donated books, and fundraisers. Last year, the Commission recorded donations of 37,798 new and 11,643 used books, 80,093 children read to, 107 community events supported with books and literacy information, and training of 32 readers.

 

October, 2009 Meeting: Science and Technology

Chair Vandell welcomed new a

 

May 19, 2010 Meeting: Math

Chair Vandell welcomed new a

 

Future Leadership Council Meeting Themes

Fall 2009 - Science and Math Education

Spring 2010 - Technology Education

Fall 2010 - Community College and Higher Education