News and Events

View the dissertations for all students in the Department of Administrative and Policy Studies from 2004 to 2007....

Pitt is honoring four senior faculty members as Distinguished Professors: Ellen Frank has been named Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, effective June 1; Randy Juhl, Distinguished Service Professor of Pharmacy, effective July 1; and, effective Sept. 1, George Reid Andrews, Distinguished Professor of History, and Naomi P. Zigmond , Distinguished Professor of Education . Pitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg made the appointments based on the recommendation of Pitt Provost and Senior Vice Chance...

The April edition of the Tapestry newsletter is now available online. For more issues, click here....

The Applied Developmental Psychology program and the Office of Child Development are collaborating to offer a Professional Development Academy (PDA). The program begins Fall 2008; applications will be accepted beginning Spring 2008. The PDA is a unique educational opportunity for students who want to learn while being continuously engaged in mentored professional practice. This is a two-year, full-time course of study resulting in a Master of Science degree in Applied Developmental Psychology, with a specialization in Program Design and Leadership....

Michelle Pierce, a 1993 MAT graduate recently received one of the academic world's most prestigious honors, the Fulbright scholarship grant for international educational exchange. She will work on an ESL initiative called English Opens Doors in Arica, Chile which focuses in the training of future teachers in foreign language and English as a second language....

During the annual CGSE Student Research Conference, all presenters will be given a reusable water bottle instead of an individual use bottle.  At each meeting, everyone can refill their water bottle.  In addition, various recycling bins will be set-up in the area for dispoal of recyclable material.  Everyone is encouraged to become a role-model in the recycling effort.  ...

The mission of the School of Education, one of the best urban, public research universities, is to: advance knowledge, policy, and the practice of education regionally, nationally and globally and prepare the next generation of professional educators and scholarly researchers. To do this, we must maintain a community of learning and teaching practice that mutually engages university faculty, students, and education professionals in advancing the understanding and practice of education. We seek t...

A recent email from a prospective student asked why we had discouraged her from pursuing preparation to teach a certain foreign language. She made a good case that it would be good for schools to teach the language she had mastered and asked why we hadn't encouraged her to pursue a teaching credential with us. This got me to thinking about an important aspect of the advice we provide to prospective students. Usually, our advice consists of help in achieving a goal, especially when we offer a pro...

Listen to the radio interview online....

Part 1 – Preparing Teachers As I read public discussions of schools of education, I often wonder what people think we do. Some of that is obvious – our core business is preparing future teachers. We're constantly looking for better ways to do that. However, we have broader responsibilities. In this blog, and perhaps in another one or two to follow, I would like to explore what we're doing here at Pitt and why. And, I welcome your own follow-up comments – we're always trying to...

Ethan Hull, PhD student, and Deborah Aaron, associate professor in HPA and principal investigator, analyzed data from Aaron’s 17 year longitudinal study to conclude that when children enter the picture, physical activity time dwindles....

CEAC Presentation View PowerPoint Presentation Click an image below for a larger view Affiliates of Collaborative for Evaluation and Assessment Capacity (CEAC) work together to merge technical, evaluative, research design, statistical, and theoretical expertise to best address practical evaluation and assessment issues. Current areas of interest and expertise include evaluation of preK-16+ educational programs and services, formal and informal educational experiences, classroom to...

Recently, two occasions helped to remind me that each of us in education matters and can make a difference in the world. First, I was asked by a reporter to comment on the importance of having good teachers. After some reflection, I told the reporter that every successful person I know can point to at least one teacher who really made a difference in his or her life. Ask a few people you admire, and you can be pretty sure that they will have some stories to tell of how a teacher caused them to h...

Heather Bachman Watch a Live Recording of the Presentation : Early Experiences and School Success Heather Bachman is an assistant professor in the Applied Developmental Psychology Program in Psychology in Education . She obtained her degree in developmental psychology at Loyola University and completed postdoctoral training at Northwestern University's Institute for Policy Research, where she held an adjunct faculty position. Bachman's research interests focus on cognitive and social comp...

Louise Kaczmarek Watch a Live Recording of the Presentation : Our New 5-Year Bachelor/Master's Program Leading to Multiple Certifications Louise Kaczmarek , an associate professor in Special Education in Instruction and Learning , specializes in early intervention. She recently received a training grant to establish a specialization in autism within the early intervention program. Kaczmarek , along with Meryl Lazar in elementary education and Carl Johnson in Applied Developmental Psycholo...

Jennifer Carrier Watch a Live Recording of the Presentation : Working with Arts and Sciences to Enhance Elementary Science Teaching Jennifer Cartier , an assistant professor in Science Education in Instruction and Learning , has a PhD in education and a master's degree in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Williams. After completing her graduate work in 1999, she joined the National Center for Improving Student Learning and Achi...

Maureen McClure Watch a Live Recording of the Presentation : The Indonesia Project as an Example of our International Effort Maureen McClure , associate professor and chair, in Administrative and Policy Studies . She has a PhD in education from the University of Rochester and three masters' degrees (an MS in educational administration, an MBA in applied economics and an MA in secondary education). McClure works mainly with large scale education systems in crisis, often with the UN. She ha...

Rose Swenson and Jerry Longo Watch a Live Recording of the Presentation : The Educational Leadership Initiative Rose Swensen and Jerry Longo are the Co-Directors for Organizational Development and Institutional Relations for the Western Pennsylvania Educational Leadership Initiative (ELI). Swensen is an experienced management consultant skilled in organizational development, human resources management models and strategies, and program design, delivery and management for educational institu...

Sponsored Project Funding During the 2005-2006 school year, the School of Education was awarded $15.4 million in research, training and public service grants and contracts from external sponsors including the Federal Government, Commonwealth of PA, local and national foundations and other sources. The largest portion of our funding was received from the Federal Government. NIH funding was over $2.6 million and NSF funding totaled $515,700. Instructional Program Highlights Started new grad...

Many disciplines contribute to education, and not all are empirical scientific disciplines. Important contributions come from historical analysis, from moral philosophy, and a number of areas of social and literary theory. However, in education as in many other areas of human endeavor, there also is much to be gained through rigorous empirical work. In this note, I consider some of the contributions of educational research methods to science in general and to education more specifically and...

Experience shows that teachers with an undergraduate degree in a related content area are better prepared and more confident in the classroom. Click below to read more about our one-year elementary, secondary special education, and early childhood Masters and Instructional I Teacher Certification programs....

Having spent part of my career working in artificial intelligence, I often think about what computers can do and about what the unique roles for people will be in the future. Of late, it has occurred to me that almost all of the assessments prevalent in education measure capabilities that machines often have as well. It is not unusual, for example, for a school system to have as its math goals teaching the younger child to emulate a $5 calculator and the older child to emulate a $100 graphing ca...