News and Media

New Faculty Strengthen School’s Commitment to Equity and Justice

August 13, 2020
Faculty and Research

The five new faculty will teach and conduct research in the areas of decoloniality and indigeneity, research-practice partnerships, post-secondary education access, racism in schooling, and equity-oriented teacher certification programs.

EdD Students Create Scholarship to Pass on the Spirit of Equity and Justice

August 11, 2020
Student Spotlight

After the deaths of George Floyd and many other Black Americans, the School of Education's 2019 EdD cohort was moved to action and created the Equity and Justice Spirit Award endowment.

Pitt School of Education Welcomes New Alumni Society President

August 10, 2020
School News

Jerry Longo has been named the new president of the University of Pittsburgh School of Education Alumni Society. A retired educator and faculty member at the Pitt School of Education, Longo is also a two-time alumnus of the school.

PhD Student Wins Research Award for Examining Teacher Well-Being

August 5, 2020
Student Spotlight

PhD student Ashley Shafer's research poster, “Increasing Teachers’ Well-Being and Capacity to Implement through a Community of Practice” won the national prize at the Society for Prevention Research’s 2020 Early Career Preventionist Network (ECPN) Student Poster Contest. 

Professor Receives Early Career Award from American Educational Research Association

July 31, 2020
Faculty and Research

Lindsay Page, an associate professor in the University of Pittsburgh School of Education, received the 2020 Early Career Award from the American Educational Research Association (AERA). Page specializes in using quantitative methods to investigate the impact of educational policies and practices.

Falk School Creates Senior Position for Equity, Inclusion, and Justice

July 28, 2020
School News

Samantha Utley has been hired as the inaugural Coordinator of Equity, Inclusion, and Justice at the Fanny Edel Falk Laboratory School. The position will infuse educational equity across all area's of school operations.

Heinz Fellow Helps Students Cross Virtual Finish Line in the Pandemic

July 21, 2020
Student Spotlight

Erica Roberts, a Heinz Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh School of Education’s Center for Urban Education found a way to support the social and emotional growth of her third-grade female students at Weil Elementary in Pittsburgh’s Hill District neighborhood through the Girls on the Run (GOTR) Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC.

New PittEd Justice Collective Centers Equity and Justice in Education

July 6, 2020
School News

The PittEd Justice Collective is a new three-year working group that advocates for equity and justice in education. It is committed to pursuing anti-racist initiatives within the school, throughout Pitt, and beyond the university.

 

New Book Situates Improvement Science in EdD Programs

July 1, 2020
Faculty and Research

Jill Perry, an associate professor of practice at the University of Pittsburgh School of Education, has published a new book about improvement science that will serve as a guide for higher education faculty, students, and practitioners for implementing the methodology in their educational programs.

New Study Gives Guidance on STEAM Education Integration

June 30, 2020
Faculty and Research

New research by professor Cassie Quigley offers guidance on how the effectively design and implement STEAM education units in schools. It comes at a time as more schools are revamping their curriculum to integrate the arts and humanities into science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) programs.

Alum Enjoys Surprise Virtual Wedding with Cast of “The Office”

June 8, 2020
Alumni Feature

“Webster's dictionary defines ‘wedding’ as ‘the fusing of two metals with a hot torch.’”

While this definition given by Michael Scott on the popular television show “The Office” mixes up the words “wedding” and “welding,” University of Pittsburgh School of Education alumnus John Lush (MAT ’05) and his new bride, Susan Hedrick, proved that the traditional definition of a...

Three Vision Studies Students Receive Education Awards

May 18, 2020
Student Spotlight

Three vision studies students at the University of Pittsburgh School of Education were honored with 2020 scholarship awards from the Association for Education Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER), the nation’s leading professional organization for educators in blindness and visual impairment.

Alum Supports First-Generation and Lower-Income College Students

May 18, 2020
Alumni Feature

Hatef Alavi is the first in his family to attend college. He earned a doctorate in educational leadership and is an administrator at the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn First Plus program. His job allows him to support talented and resilient students who face significant barriers to a college education, like lower-income students and other first-generation students like him. 

Ergonomics Tips for Working at Home

May 14, 2020
Faculty and Research

Millions of Americans are working from home in the ongoing public health effort to halt the spread of coronavirus. But many don’t have the benefit of home offices. They are creating makeshift workspaces from their dining room tables, kitchen counters, living room couches, or folding tables and chairs.

Pitt Education Nationally Ranked in U.S. News & World Report

May 13, 2020
School News

The University of Pittsburgh School of Education is ranked No. 39 in the country in the 2021 “Best Education Schools” ranking of U.S. News & World Report. Additionally, the school is again ranked as the No. 1 graduate school of education in Western Pennsylvania.

Professor Honored for Literacy Work with Refugee Youth

May 5, 2020
Faculty and Research

To be an immigrant or refugee in the United States is to constantly face challenges with employment, transportation, healthcare, education, and everyday errands. “Their path to the United States was not easy. They have an enormous amount of strength and courage,” says Pitt Education faculty member Amanda Godley.

Health and Physical Activity EdD Student Wins Research Award

April 24, 2020
Student Spotlight

Trisha Cousins, an EdD student in Health and Physical Activity at the University of Pittsburgh School of Education, won the Best Research Methods Award at the virtual 2020 Pennsylvania Academy for Nutrition and Dietetics Annual Meeting and Exhibition Session in April. 

School Maintains Sense of Community Amid Pandemic

April 6, 2020
School News

When the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the United States, higher education institutions across the country were forced to quickly respond with proactive measures, including moving courses to remote learning and directing faculty and staff to work from home.

The University of Pittsburgh School of Education has practiced resilience in the face of the challenges that arise from entirely...

New Book Focuses on Equity and Justice in Literacy Education

March 2, 2020
Faculty and Research

Valerie Kinoch, the Renée and Richard Goldman Dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Education, has released a new co-edited book titled, Race, Justice, and Activism in Literacy Instruction. It advocates for social change by encouraging educators to engage in equity and justice-centered literacy work.

Tutoring for Positive Change in the Community

February 24, 2020
School News

On a Saturday morning in Homewood, children are excitedly gathered around Pitt Education student Ciara Bailey. They play a version of Candyland but with a reading education twist. A student draws a colorful card from the stack, reads the passage on it, and moves her piece. 

Institute for International Studies in Education Nominated for Diversity Recognition Award

February 17, 2020
School News

When PhD student Dao Nguyen received an email about the University of Pittsburgh’s Employer Diversity Recognition Awards (EDRA), she immediately knew she wanted to nominate her workplace: the Institute for International Studies in Education (IISE) at the School of Education. 

Led by faculty member Maureen Mcclure, IISE “strives to be the most dynamic and productive institute...

Laying Roots to Become a National Center for Rural Education

December 18, 2019
Faculty and Research

In small towns across America, public schools are a community lifeline. When they struggle, their community struggles. And many rural schools are feeling the pain. Enrollment is declining, costs are rising, public health is worsening, and there is a shortage of qualified personnel. 

“Rural education is important. A lot of people don’t understand how important it is and take it...

New Partnership Opens National Conversation on Youth and Science of Learning and Development

December 10, 2019
Events

Associate Dean and professor Kevin Crowley works with other members of Pitt Education at the meeting.

The University of Pittsburgh School of Education and the Forum for Youth Investment partnered to host a meeting this past November for nearly 100 representatives from local organizations, national groups such as the Urban League, the Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality,...

Alumna Receives Award for Top Research Paper in Thailand

November 7, 2019
Alumni Feature

Jirada Wudthayagorn credits her professional success in Thailand to her PhD program in foreign language education at the School of Education at the University of Pittsburgh. She says that her doctoral studies at Pitt prepared her to work as an innovator in education in her country in the twenty-first century.