News and Media

Faculty Member Publishes Book about STEAM Education

March 24, 2020
Faculty and Research

In a classroom at Westside Elementary School in Wisconsin, three fifth-grade students are huddled around a piece of paper with a diagram of their school cafeteria drawn on it. “I think we have the right idea but the wrong design,” says one of the children. “If we make the tables close to each other, it will be too loud.”

The children were designing a solution to noise...

CGSE Honors Faculty and Staff with Extra Mile Award

March 23, 2020
School News

The Council of Graduate Students in Education (CGSE) at the University of Pittsburgh School of Education recently presented its 2020 Extra Mile Award to Center for Urban Education faculty member Lori Delale O’Connor and staff member Joshua O’Malley.

Based on student nominations, the CGSE Extra Mile Award honors a faculty member and a staff member who exemplify the mission of...

School-wide Read Supports Equity in Education

March 10, 2020
School News

Beginning in the 2019-2020 academic year, the School of Education at the University of Pittsburgh sponsored its first annual School-Wide Read. Students, staff, and faculty members received copies of a book that addressed pressing education topics and then came together to discuss it. 

Falk School Teacher named NAEA Teacher of the Year

February 26, 2020
School News

On a school day at Fanny Edel Falk Laboratory School, fourth graders stream into Pamela Armstrong’s art classroom—or studio, as she calls it. To begin the session, Armstrong brings out Felix, a komodo dragon puppet, to greet the children and explain the art project for the day.

The students create puppets of their own, with bodies molded from paper mache pulp and clothing made...

New Book Addresses Student Socialization in Higher Education

February 25, 2020
Faculty and Research

In graduate schools across the world, students studying higher education will soon be using a new book developed by faculty at the University of Pittsburgh School of Education. 

Associate Professor Linda DeAngelo and Emeritus Faculty John Weidman are editors of the new volume Socialization in Higher Education and the Early Career: Theory, Research and Application,...

Student Fellows Program Builds Community at Office of Child Development

February 19, 2020
School News

For Denise LaRosa, one of her most memorable experiences as an Office of Child Development Student Fellow was a Think Tank Tuesday meeting featuring guest speaker Kerry-Ann Escayg, a prominent anti-racism scholar.

LaRosa, an EdD student in Language, Literacy, and Culture, remembers the session as a turning point in her professional life. “It was transformative to the work I...

Professor Provides National Guidance on Braille Code Changes

January 22, 2020
Faculty and Research

The braille community in the United States is adjusting to major changes to the braille code — the most significant changes in more than 30 years, in fact. 

Up until 2016, braille materials were provided in two formats. Literary code was delivered through the English Braille American Edition (EBAE) and mathematics and science code was delivered through Nemeth code....

Professor Honored With National Literacy Research Award

January 22, 2020
Faculty and Research

Jon-Philip “Jay” Imbrenda, a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh School of Education, is the recipient of the 2019 Arthur Applebee Award for Excellence in Research on Literacy, one of the highest honors in the field of literacy education.

Language Policy the Focus of PhD Scholarship Recipient

January 17, 2020
Student Spotlight

Published 1/17/2020

Within the private, international primary and secondary schools of Indonesia, which are popular among expatriates and wealthy citizens, the official language of instruction has long been English. Starting in the early 2000s, English-mediated instruction was implemented in public schools across many provinces, reaching over 1,000 of the country’s top schools...

Scholarship Helps Future Childhood Education Teacher

January 17, 2020
Student Spotlight

Amanda Simm’s passion for teaching children began in middle school. It was then that she first volunteered at the Mayo Beach Adaptive Day Camp in Maryland for children with disabilities. She liked the camp so much that she returned for seven consecutive summers, rising from being a volunteer to the lead counselor.

Alumna Named to 2019 New Pittsburgh Courier Women of Excellence

January 15, 2020
Alumni Feature

Ruthie A. Rea, a two-time graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Education, was named a winner of the 2019 New Pittsburgh Courier Women of Excellence Award. The award is given each year to 50 African American women in the Greater Pittsburgh area who are making a considerable impact in the community.

Rea is a principal at Arsenal PreK-5, a Pittsburgh public school in heart...

Shifting Power Structures in Educational Research and Development

January 13, 2020
Faculty and Research

The University of Pittsburgh and Remake Learning have received a $1 million grant to develop an innovative network of Educators of Color and learning scientists who will work together to transform how research and development (R&D) are conducted in education.

This network, to be created in Western Pennsylvania with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is...

H.J. Heinz Fellow Brings Swahili Language and Culture to Pittsburgh

January 10, 2020
Student Spotlight

Mercy Jematia grew up in Mossoriot, a rural town in the North Rift of Kenya. Now, she is studying Social and Comparative Analysis of Education (SCAE) at the University of Pittsburgh School of Education as an H.J. Heinz Fellow. The Global Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh awards the fellowship to students from developing countries who wish to pursue a master’s degree and have...

Higher Education Professor Selected for National Leadership Academy

January 9, 2020
Faculty and Research

Max Schuster, a faculty member in the higher education management program at the University of Pittsburgh School of Education, was recently selected for the 2019-20 NASPA Emerging Faculty Leader Academy.

The academy is a one-year program designed for early-career faculty in student affairs and higher education graduate programs. Highly selective in nature, the academy only...

Professor Receives National Research Award for Improving Literacy of the Visually Impaired

December 20, 2019
Faculty and Research

Tessa McCarthy, a faculty member in the Vision Studies program at the University of Pittsburgh School of Education, was recently awarded the prestigious 2019 Alan J. Koenig Research in Literacy Award.

Professor Wins Award for Leadership in World Languages and Cultures

December 19, 2019
Faculty and Research

“Kreng jai.”

This Thai phrase, which means “awe of the heart’,” is one of the most difficult Thai expressions to grasp, according to Richard Donato, a foreign language education professor of the University of Pittsburgh School of Education.

Donato explains that the phrase is often said when a person does not want to burden another or be inconsiderate of another’s time or...

Healthy Lifestyle Institute Summit Promotes Health and Lifestyle Research

December 19, 2019
Events

Keynote speaker Dr. Timothy Church presents his talk titled, "Academia to Industry: Changing Behaviors in the Real World... And I Thought I Knew What I was Doing."

The University of Pittsburgh’s second annual Healthy Lifestyle Institute (HLI) Summit focused on emerging research that is examining health and lifestyle conditions across the whole human lifespan and in...

Professor’s New Book on Hispanic-Serving Institutions Receives National Attention

December 17, 2019
Faculty and Research

There are over 435 Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) in the United States—and the number is growing every year.

Gina Garcia, a University of Pittsburgh School of Education faculty member, is widely recognized as an expert in the field. After over a decade of institutional research and about 20 published articles, she published her book, Becoming Hispanic Serving...

Professor Receives Provost’s Award for Diversity in the Curriculum

December 17, 2019
Faculty and Research

Each year, the University of Pittsburgh Provost’s Award for Diversity in the Curriculum recognizes five faculty members across the university for their active work to integrate equity and social justice work into their classroom instruction.

Lori Delale-O’Connor, an assistant professor in the Center for Urban Education (CUE) in the School of Education, was recognized for her design of...

Falk School Teacher Wins Major Pittsburgh Award for His Poetry

December 13, 2019
School News

As a poet and an educator, Cameron Barnett believes that our stories are what bind us together.

He takes a story-telling approach as a teacher at the Fanny Edel Falk Laboratory School, a K-8 school affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh School of Education, where he teaches both sixth-grade social studies and seventh-grade language arts. Years ago, he...

Alumnus Receives Sheth International Award for Founding Uganda School

December 6, 2019
Alumni Feature

At the small school run by Silver Francis Oonyu in rural Opucet, Uganda, the sound of bells jingling accompany the shouts and laughter of children playing spirited games of soccer in the dirt field. 

The bells are attached to the ball and help the students, who are blind, to find the ball. Sighted helpers run beside the students to help guide them. The activity is fun. It’s also...

Grants Office Update: December 2019

November 25, 2019

Principal Investigator: Rachel Robertson Department: Instruction and Learning Project Title: The LEND Center at the University of Pittsburgh Agency Name: US Department of Health & Human Services Award Dates: 7/1/19 – 6/30/20  Amount: $15,182

The LEND (Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities) Center at the University of Pittsburgh is a leadership...

Student Teacher Receives Dick Thornburgh Disability Service Award

November 22, 2019
Student Spotlight

As a young boy, Timothy Grebeck, who is autistic, was picked on by his classmates.

“I used to get bullied because my peers saw that I was different, but they didn’t know why,” recalls Grebeck.

Grebeck could have gotten angry with them. He could have become withdrawn. Instead, he did what comes naturally to him. He began to educate his classmates on what it means to be...

Student Team Earns Top 10 Finish at Sports Medicine Conference

November 21, 2019
Student Spotlight

Get your buzzer ready for a Jeopardy question about the University of Pittsburgh School of Education.

These students finished in the top 10 of the Mid-Atlantic American College of Sports Medicine Conference (MARC-ASCM) College Knowledge Bowl. 

If you answered, “Who are Pitt Education Health and Physical Activity Students,” then you are correct.

This November,...