September 2015 e-Newsletter
Summer in Review

Welcome back, Colleagues!

A new academic year has begun for the Michael D. Eisner College of Education and with it I want to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude to Beverly Cabello for stewarding our college through the last 6+ years of successful accreditation visits, program development, and general prosperity and growth--to the benefit of students, staff, and faculty. Beverly and I have worked together for close to 25 years here at the College and I have personally witnessed her tireless dedication to our collective mission in her role as Associate Dean. Although she is now heading up a new endeavor on campus, the Center for Assessment, Research, and Evaluation (CARE), we will be having a special reception to honor her later this fall.

As we look forward to the 2015-2016 academic year, I am confident that we will further demonstrate our commitment to a continued standard of excellence. This fall, we welcome two new faculty members to our college, joining the Departments of Deaf Studies, and Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, and we will graduate our sixth cohort of doctoral students in our educational leadership program in the spring. The College is at the forefront of implementing California's adoption of the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) through its efforts as a member of the Preparing a New Generation of Educators for California Initiative, and our Center for Teaching and Learning has scheduled another fine group of internationally renowned speakers to visit campus as part of the Education on the Edge Series.

I am also pleased to welcome two new staff members to our team: Matt Goodlaw, Coordinator of Assessment and Accreditation; and Brittany Swinson, our new Events Coordinator. Please come say "hello" to Matt and Brittany up in the Dean's Office when you get a chance.

Welcome back from what I hope was a summer filled with adventure and some modicum of relaxation!

Regards,
Michael

Lissa Stapleton, DFST

Dr. Lissa D. Stapleton was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio. Stapleton attended Wright State University (WSU) and graduated with a Bachelors degree in Social Work and a minor in African and African-American Studies [...]

Elyse Sullivan, ELPS

Dr. Elyse Sullivan joined the Michael D. Eisner College of Education as a full time tenure track professor this year. She has taught the past 10 years as an Adjunct Professor in the ELPS department, teaching curriculum, finance, law, personnel and ethical leadership [...]

Matthew Goodlaw, Assessment & Evaluation Coordinator

Matt is an interdisciplinary social researcher who is clearly focused on practical issues. This purpose has led him to the field of education [...]

Brittany Swinson, Events Coordinator

Hi Matadors!!!! My name is Brittany Swinson and I am the new Events Coordinator for the Michael D. Eisner College of Education. As a California State University Northridge Alumna, I love CSUN! [...]

CSUN​ and our partners at Northridge Academy High School launched "Math Camp" for the first time this year. "Math Camp" is a collaborative intervention partnership project between CSUN and Northridge Academy High School (NAHS), designed to increase the number of incoming NAHS freshmen passing Algebra 1 in the 2015-2016 school year, as well as to serve as an orientation to the NAHS culture. Selected students attended a four-week exploration of foundational math concepts at NAHS in the summer, planned and taught by NAHS math teachers and directed by CSUN faculty member Cat Gaspard. Both students and teachers will benefit from this project, in that students will have opportunities to reconstruct mathematical misconceptions and build fluency, while teachers will have opportunities to explore a variety of different instructional practices and activities using the framework from the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics (CCSSM).​

Stan Charnofsky was invited to represent CSUN at UCLA's Career Day over the summer. There were seventy psychology majors in the audience, and the guests made up a panel of five, from different universities in the area, including UCLA's own Ph.D program in Psychology. Stan was asked to pitch the requirements and procedures for our Master of Science Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. We get a number of UCLA psychology majors applying to our MFT program.

The CTL continues to go strong! The MDECOE Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) has been staying busy. After putting on the What Really Works conference in March and publishing two books (What Really Works in Elementary Education and What Really Works in Secondary Education), you’d think they would have earned a break. But no! The CTL is still sending out experts to local school for professional development. In May, we went to Hubbard Elementary, Immaculate Heart High School, and even out to Virginia for some long distance training. In addition, we brought in experts from CSU Long Beach, who specialize in Linked Learning, to do a workshop for teachers in Glendale and Burbank school districts. We hosted a Writing Workshop for faculty to help them hone their writing and publishing skills and offered assistance to the whole college through an APA clinic. We are also continuing to plan for the future. Keep an eye out to see whom we’ve selected for next year’s Education on the Edge series and when the next What Really Works books will come out!

Ellen Stohl (EPC) was selected for a 2014-15 "Exceptional Levels of Service to Students Award" in accordance with provision 20.37 of the CSU-CFA Faculty Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). Her award will be in the form of three (3) units of reassigned time, to be used during the 2015-16 academic year.

The State Board of Education appointed Kathleen Rowlands to serve as a reviewer to evaluate instructional materials for the 2015 English Language Arts/English Language Development (ELA/ELD) Adoption. This adoption will select instructional materials based upon the California Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts, the California English Language Development Standards, and the 2014 English Language Arts/English Language Development Framework. Kathy’s team is working with two sets of publisher materials submitted for Program 4, intervention curricula for students in grades 4-8 who are at least two years behind in reading.

The Cal State Northridge Writing Project began its annual Invitational Summer Institute on June 22nd. Eleven educators (k-university) joined them for four weeks (100 hours) of professional learning focused on writing and teaching writing. Because teachers are the most effective teachers of other teachers, each participant presented a demonstration lesson, sharing classroom-tested writing instruction with the group.

Some other recent Writing Project events:

• The Write Stuff: Young Writer’s Camp June 29-July 17 for students entering grades 1-12 at Monroe High School
• Connecting with History: Making History Personal for Students June 23-25
• Teaching Writing Right: A Teacher’s Toolkit July 6-10
• Reading and Writing Strategies for CCCSS success July 15
• Unpacking the Smarter balanced Performance Tasks July 22
• Improving Student Academic Writing (ISAW) August 3-5
• Demystifying the New ELD Standards September 12

The JPL-CSUN STEM Education Institute took place between June 23-25, 2015. Participants were treated to informative tours of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory campus, engaging talks by notable scientists and project engineers, opportunities to dialog with CSUN-STEM faculty, and hands-on experiences in robotics and engineering activities that can be used to address the engineering standards of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

California State University Northridge partners with JPL to introduce science teachers to the scientific, engineering, and educational resources at this world-class institution. Participants received a $450 stipend and are eligible to participate in additional workshops offered during the school year.

This summer we conducted an intensive summer workshop to help science teachers master the teaching techniques of Computer Supported Collaborative Science. From July 6-10 and 13-17, Faculty in the CSUN Colleges of Education and Science & Mathematics ran the workshops for middle and high school science teachers to help prepare for the Next Generation Science Standards. $500 OR 2 units of CSUN graduate credit.

The Mitchell Family counseling Center is currently in a period of transition. We are saying goodbye to the 2013 cohort who are moving into their last semester and will be graduating at the end of the year. The 2014 cohort is involved in last minute training on clinic policies and procedures and are beginning to provide clinical services both onsite and at the Magnolia Science Academy schools. The process of selecting the members of the 2015 cohort who will become part of the Mitchell Family Counseling Clinic has also begun.

The Clinic is currently collaborating with the Department of Social Work to provide a communication and social skills group for individuals on the Autism Spectrum as well as investigating the possibility of working with the Educational Opportunity Program to provide a support group for CSUN students who were part of the foster care program. The Clinic will also be welcoming the Deans of Students of the Magnolia Science Academy who are coming to tour the center and learn about the services we offer on site as well as some of the services other members of the Teaching, Learning and Counseling Consortium provide.

The MFCC is excited about and looking forward to the upcoming year!

The annual Credential Reception of the Michael D. Eisner College of Education was held on May 11, 2015. The Credential Reception was attended by over 200 faculty, staff, candidates and guest who came to celebrate students completing credential programs in teaching, administration, school counseling, school psychology, and language speech pathology. This event was sponsored by the Deans Office and Credential Office.

The event started with inspirational words by three graduating credential candidates.

Dana Moore - A teacher candidate from the Secondary Education program

John Kim - A teacher candidate from the Elementary Education program

Mercy Macharia - A teacher candidate from the Special Education program

In total over 600 students completed credential programs.

Reading from a science textbook alone will not adequately prepare the next generation of citizenry with needed 21st century skills according to two California State University, Northridge professors. Thanks to being awarded part of a $3 million grant from the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, newer and more effective teaching methods can be tested out by education professors Brian Foley and John M. Reveles. Using technology as the foundation for their research model, Foley and Reveles anticipate showing how the use of technology tools in the classroom can make learning about science more engaging and educationally relevant.

Read the full article on CSUN Today

On July 31, California State University, Northridge hosted approximately 500 pre-K-12 teachers at the inaugural Better Together: California Teachers Summit. CSUN’s Valley Performing Arts Center was filled with teachers eager to learn and network with their fellow professionals through the exchange of educational best practices. Nearly 11,000 pre-K-12 California teachers throughout the state participated in the event.

Read the full article on CSUN Today

Adele Gottfried made numerous scholarly contributions.

Gottfried, A. W., Schlackman, J., Gottfried, A. E., & Martinez, A. S. (2015). Parental provision of early literacy environment as related to reading and educational outcomes across the academic life-span. Parenting: Science and Practice, 15, 24- 38.

Preston, K. S. J., Parral, S. N., Gottfried, A. W., Oliver, P. H., Gottfried, A. E., Ibrahim, S. M., & Delany, D. (2015). Applying the nominal response model within a longitudinal framework to construct the Positive Family Relationships Scale. Educational and Psychological Measurement. 1-30.

Gottfried, A. E.. (May, 2015). Positive Family Relationships and Academic Achievement as Mediated by Intellectual-Cultural Home Atmosphere. Presentation in Symposium at the annual conference of the Western Psychological Association, Las Vegas.

Yu, H., McCoach, D. B., Gottfried, A. W. & Gottfried, A. E. (April, 2015). Structural Equation Modeling Approaches to Studying the Development of Children's Intelligence and Gifted Identification. Presented at the annual conference of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago.

Arruda, E., Gottfried, A. E., & Gottfried, A. W. (March, 2015). Worrying about math from childhood through adolescence: An analysis of developmental trajectories. Presented at the biennial conference of the Society for Research in Child Development, Philadelphia.

Service to the Professional Field:

• Member of Editorial Board: Parenting: Science and Practice, and Gifted Child Quarterly.
• Program Review Committee for the following 2015 conferences: AERA, SRCD, WPA.
• Member of Award Committee for WPA.
• Co-chair of Fellows Selection Committee, Division 15 (Educational Psychology) of APA.

Diane Gehart was also active in her scholarship this summer.

Gehart, D. (2016). Theory and treatment planning in counseling and psychotherapy: A competency-based approach for applying theory in clinical practice (2nd ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.

Gehart, D. (2016). Case documentation in counseling and psychotherapy. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.

Gehart, D. (2015). Theory and treatment planning in family therapy: A competencies-based approach. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.