Mary Cashen

Ph.D. Student
Department of Education

Email: mcashen@uci.edu

Biography

Mary Cashen is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Education at the University of California, Irvine specializing in Educational Policy and Social Context. She holds a bachelor's degree in Liberal Studies with a concentration in Studio Arts and a master’s degree in Child and Adolescent Literacy, both with honors from Loyola Marymount University.

Mary was a member of Loyola Marymount’s Partners in Los Angeles Catholic Education (PLACE) program, where she taught second grade in a high need school. After her two years in PLACE, Mary became involved in the Los Angeles charter school movement. She helped develop and implement a college preparatory charter school high school program in a neighborhood where few pathways to college previously existed. She taught fifth grade and high school mathematics during her tenure there.

At UCI, Mary enjoys teaching undergraduates in the Department of Education. She has served as a teaching assistant for multiple courses and the teaching associate for Eduction 50: Origins, Purposes, and Central Issues in K-12 Education.

In her research at UCI, Mary is most interested in the effects of vocational education and charter schools, particularly during the high school years, on post-secondary enrollment and preparation for the workforce.

Presentations

van Es, E., Cashen, M., & Auger, A. “Using Video to Scaffold Pre-Service Teachers to Learn to Notice Student Thinking”. Presented at the American Educational Research Association in New Orleans, LA. April 2011.