Upcoming Events

Save these dates! More details on each will be coming.

Friday, August 21 @ 9am-12noon & Monday, August 24: Curry School Orientation. Monday's orientation will conclude with the annual "Welcome Back" picnic at 4:00 pm.

Tuesday, August 25: Classes Begin

Friday, August 28: Faculty Retreat at Glenmore Country Club

News at Curry

Dream Come True: Stephanie Passman fulfills lifelong wish thanks to joint-degree program offered by the College and Curry School of Education.
“Teaching is what I always wanted to do,” said Stephanie Passman, 22, a fifth-year University of Virginia student who received two degrees in May: a bachelor’s degree in Spanish from the College of Arts & Sciences and a master’s in teaching, with a certification in elementary education, from the Curry School of Education. More.

Faculty from Curry School of Education Receive Academic Community Engagement Grants
June 25, 2009--The Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost announces the Curry School of Education faculty recipients of the 2009 Academic Community Engagement (ACE) grants. These grants are awarded to U.Va. faculty members who create a new course or revise an existing course to incorporate a community service or community-based research project. More.

Curry's Noah Egge Wins Prestigious Knowles Science Fellowship
June 22, 2009 — He hasn't always known it, but Noah Egge is a natural educator. The University of Virginia graduate education student loves learning, and he loves sharing what he has learned – be it in a classroom, a field lab, or a study-abroad course in Greece. He enjoys building relationships, and he believes that life's greatest rewards come from investing in people. Those qualities, combined with his mastery in science, have earned him one of this year's prestigious Knowles Science Teaching Fellowships, worth up to $150,000 over five years to exceptional early career teachers. More.

Education Leaders Experience the Paradox of Emerging India
By Andy Stamp
(Repost) April 14, 2009 — The two metal detectors and X-ray machine at the Taj Mahal Hotel entrance seemed like overkill, but it gave the visiting Americans a sense of security after their trip to Mumbai was postponed in the wake of what has been called India's "26-11." The Americans — part of the "India As A Global Partner Program" organized jointly by the University of Virginia School of Continuing and Professional Studies and the Virginia Association of School Superintendents, located at the Curry School of Education — were already mindful that in the original plans, they would have arrived at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai two days after scores of people were taken hostage and 31 were killed by two terrorists at the hotel. More.

Three items from the National Athletic Trainers' Association meeting recently held in San Antonio:
1) Patrick McKeon (PhD '07, kinesiology) and Jay Hertel (associate professor of kinesiology) received the Kenneth Knight Award for the Outstanding Research Manuscript in the 2008 volume of the Journal of Athletic Training. Their winning article was entitled "Systematic review of postural control and lateral ankle instability, part II: Is balance training clinically effective?".

2) Patrick McKeon (PhD '07, kinesiology) received the David H. Perrin Doctoral Dissertation Award from the NATA Research & Education Foundation. His dissertation, entitled "Effects of balance training on postural control, gait, and function in those with chronic ankle instability" has resulted in two peer-reviewed publications in high profile journals (Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, and Clinical Rehabilitation). Dr. McKeon is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Rehabiltation Sciences at the University of Kentucky. His dissertation advisor was Jay Hertel.

3) Three other Curry students: Noelle Selkow (current PhD student, advisor: Sue Saliba), Jon Naick (MEd '08, advisor: Jay Hertel), and Jihong Park (MEd '08, advisor: C. Ingersoll) were nominated as finalists for the Outstanding Free Communications Poster Presentation Award.

Book Series Launches with a Look at Early Childhood Education
June 19, 2009 — A national center at the University of Virginia's Curry School of Education has launched a book series focusing on the latest early childhood education research. The series is co-edited by Robert Pianta, dean of the Curry School and director of the National Center for Research on Early Childhood Education, which is housed at the Curry School's Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning; and by Carollee Howes, director of the Center for Improving Child Care Quality and professor of education at University of California-Los Angeles.

Curry Alum Named Virginia Superintendent of the Year
June 18, 2009 – Frederick S. Morton, IV, Superintendent of Henrico County Public Schools, was named Virginia’s Superintendent of the Year at the Virginia Association of School Superintendents (VASS) annual conference in Roanoke. The State Superintendent of Public Instruction and the officers of four Virginia education organizations selected him from among eight regional Superintendents of the Year. More.

Curry Student Earns Record 4-Time All American Recognition
June 16, 2009--The 2009 season of UVa outdoor track and field has just come to its conclusion. With the conclusion of the season, Curry Ph.D. student, Billie-Jo Grant, studying Educational Research, became UVa's first-ever four-time All-American in a single track & field event. Grant competed in the discus. Congratulations, Billie-Jo! More.

Curry Foundation Names 2009 Alumni Award Recipients
June 15, 2009 — The Curry School of Education Foundation at the University of Virginia has announced the winners of its Outstanding Alumni Awards for 2009, which recognize exemplary contributions to the field of education. All winners will receive their awards at a dinner this fall. More.

Curry Honors Employees Celebrating Milestone Years of Service
June 10, 2009--The Curry School is pleased to honor nine of her employees celebrating milestone years of employment at the University of Virginia. More.

Two Curry Teams Awarded Jefferson Public Citizen Funding
May 22, 2009—Two teams of graduate and undergraduate students participating in the Young Women Leaders Program have received funding through the Jefferson Public Citizens program, each for their own project: The Sister to Sister Project and The Her Story Project. The Young Women Leaders Program is a mentoring program co-sponsored by the Curry School of Education and U.Va’s Women’s Center. More.

Did you know?

Dan Berch has been invted to serve on a standing panel of the Institutes of Education Sciences. He will serve as a principal member of the Mathematics and Science review panel. As described in the IES "Procedures for Peer Review of Grant Applications" (available on the IES web site, http://ies.ed.gov/director/sro/peer_review/application_review.asp), "Standing panels are scientific review panels to which panel members may be appointed for multiple, consecutive review sessions...To promote continuity in standards and procedures across review sessions, at least 50 percent and up to 100 percent of the members of a full panel are principal panel members..."

Martin Block, a Professor in the Kinesiology Program, presented an invited symosium at the International Symposium of Adapted Physical Activity (ISAPA) in Gavle, Sweden. The topic of his symposium was future directions in research on inclusion in physical education. Professor Block also was recently elected as President of the National Consortium of Physical Education and Recreation for Individuals with Disabilities. (NCPERID). NCPERID's mission is to promote research, professional preparation, service delivery, and advocacy of physical education and recreation for individuals with disabilities. Professor Luke Kelly also in the Kinesiology Program is a former president of NCPERID.

CASTL's Work on CLASS is referenced heavily in Sara Mead's article "Fixing Checker Finn's Preschool Bandwagon" posted on the New America Foundation's Early Ed Watch Blog.

Sandi Cohen has been named the new Chairperson of the Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC) Executive Board.

Jay Hertel was mentioned as an expert on ankles in the New York Times article "How to Fix Bad Ankles."

LaVae Hoffman's reception of the Editor's Award from the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research was featured in a UVa Today article and in a Newsleader.com article.

Marianne Lampert's band, The Company Store, competed in the old Time Band competition June 18-20 and won FIRST PLACE! At next year's festival they will serve as the old-time "host band" and will play all over the festival.

Filip Loncke has facilitated and confirmed an agreement for cooperation between UVa and the Universite Charles-De-Gualle Lille 3. This partnership will create opportunities for collaboration in teaching and research between the Curry School and Lille 3.

Andy Mashburn's work on preschool language skills was highlighted in the article "How Preschoolers Learn Language" on the Children's Health Channel. Other news outlets that featured Andy's work: Education Week, "Preschool Language Learning;" Telegraph "Sending your child to right school 'with classmates' helps results;"

Claire Ponitz's, an IES Postdoctoral Fellow at CASTL, assessment of a self-control game for kindergarteners was mentioned in a Science Daily article, "Self-regulation Game Predicts Kindergarten Achievement." She was also featured in the New York Times article, "Children: Self-Cotrol Presages Math Gains in Young."

Carol Anne Spreen and Environmental Science professor Bob Swap took students to South Africa and Mozambique from May 19-June 14 for their class People, Culture and Environment of Southern Africa.

Sarah Turner was awarded a nearly $400k grant to study the effect of the federal stimulus on science and engineering jobs. Read the article on Curry's website.

Announcements

Update Profiles
It is a HUGE help to Audrey as she's writing stories about the work at the Curry School to have faculty & staff profiles up to date. Each of you can log into your own profile and update your research interests and other information. Log onto the CurryNet and in the center of the page you will see a menu item "Curry General." When you click on that, 4 sub-menu items will open, the 4th of which is "Update Your Profile." PLEASE take time this month to update your information. If you have an updated VITA to post, feel free to email it to audreybreen@virginia.edu and she'll get it uploaded.