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Event Recap: A Conversation on Education Reform: Standing at the Intersection of Science and Policy On March 24, 2010, SPSSI hosted a briefing to explore several pivotal issue areas pertaining to the future of American education reform. The conversation was initiated in response to President Obama's stated goal of tackling the reauthorization of the controversial No Child Left Behind legislation, which has been on the books since the Bush Administration. The discussion was designed to highlight current projects and new scientific research being conducted by the invited panelists, in an effort to inform policymakers and reformers about this work. SPSSI members Oliver Moles (affiliation), Carl Kallgren (affiliation) and Julie Carvalho (affiliation) all brought their unique expertise to the conversation, as did guests from the education policy community Gary Ratner (affiliation), Betty Demarest (author of “book title” and/or affiliation) and Mary Jo Greil (affiliation). This event was facilitated by SPSSI Policy Coordinator Chris Woodside and SPSSI James Marshall Scholar Jutta Tobias. SPSSI plans to host a follow-up event of this nature in the near future. To access speaker biographies, event photos and materials please click here. Featured Speaker Biographies: • Oliver Moles – Research Analyst, formerly of the U.S. Department of Education “Studies of Federal Education Programs and Families: 2000-2008” Click here to view Oliver Moles' presentation materials Oliver Moles earned his Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Michigan and had a long federal research career. He is a Fellow of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. He retired in 2002 from the Office of Educational Research and Improvement in the U.S. Department of Education. At OERI, Dr. Moles monitored national R&D centers on inner city education, students placed at risk of failure, and effective secondary schools. His last major assignment was to manage the development of large comprehensive school reform models for secondary schools. He has conducted studies and written on parent involvement in education, youth development, student conduct, and school crime. He has designed several national program evaluations using a variety of research methods and study designs. He has written research reports and syntheses, and edited research journal issues and two books. At OERI, he co-edited a set of workshops for urban educators on school-family partnerships. Dr. Moles has analyzed K-12 programs of the U.S. Department of Education regarding the involvement of parents and written three related reviews over the last ten years. The most recent review covers the years 2000-2008. These reviews have emphasized the nature and scope of parent provisions in the legislation and broad evaluations of parent roles in the programs. Oliver Moles is a consultant now in social research and educational issues. He has taught at the graduate level and sits on several professional advisory boards. He is a member of the Social Science Research Group, LLC that conducts studies of educational programs. He has been an Adjunct Faculty and Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University. As a visiting fellow, he has been a member of the steering committee and evaluator for annual peer mediation conferences co-sponsored by ICAR and the Fairfax County Public schools. • Betty Demarest – Senior Research Associate, National Education Association “Why Capacity-Building Should Be a Top Priority of Federal Education Policy” Click here to view Betty Demarest's presentation materials Betty Demarest is a senior associate in the Research Department at the National Education Association where she focuses on projects designed to translate education research into policy and practice. Previously, she was at the U.S. Department of Education (ED) where she served in a variety of senior civil service positions with responsibilities related to research, policy, and program management. She served as Director of the Blue Ribbon Schools Program where she updated the school quality criteria. She served as Director of Policy and Planning for the Office of Educational Research and Improvement. Also, she monitored research centers at Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania. She began her career in New York City where she taught middle school social studies. • Julie Carvalho – Adjunct Professor of Psychology, NOVA “Education Values and Educational Choices” Click here to view Julie Carvalho's presentation materials Julie Carvalho has worked on research, development, and evaluation in eight federal agencies, for government contractors, in non-profit and advocacy organizations, and for educational institutions. She currently teaches social science in colleges, edits master's theses and books, prepares students for SAT and other tests, and evaluates proposals for federal agencies. As a single working parent, she raised and supported five children and was named to “Who's Who in America.” She has produced some 300 professional and popular publications and has taught in 20 secondary and post-secondary institutions over the last 25 years." According to the speaker, values are the GPS for personal and group life. Coherence between prosocial values and decision making, by individuals or institutions, is healthy for self and society. Values related to education are frequently proclaimed by families but are not followed in their decision making. Julie Carvalho’s study determines reasons for discrepancies and recommends ways for reducing them. This information is useful for federal, state, and local educational agencies and for other policy makers. • Mary Jo Greil – Co-founder, Imagine Memphis “Practitioner experience in school reform at a Memphis high school using positive psychology and appreciative inquiry”
Click here and here to view Mary Jo Greil's presentation materials Dr. Mary Jo Greil is president of the Carson Greil Group, LLC, which provides executive coaching, leadership development, and organizational effectiveness consulting across multiple industries. Drawing upon over 20 years of business management and leadership development, Dr. Greil’s work includes a start-up business, midcap, and a Fortune 50 company in a diverse set of industries spanning manufacturing, healthcare, and forest products. She has facilitated large-scale business change efforts across corporate divisions throughout the North America, Canada, and Europe. Dr. Greil previously taught at the high school level for seven years, primarily in low socio-economic urban areas. She also instructed at the university level for three years at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and University of Memphis. She is the Founder of PEP (People Experiencing People) at North High School, Des Moines, IA, where she rallied the students and teachers to keep the high school from closing in the mid-70s. She has been involved in a number of other high school and collegiate level educational advocacy activities which have taken place at Kingsbury High School in Memphis and at the University of Memphis. She has been chosen to provide leadership development for the local KIPP Academy for 2010-2011. Dr. Greil has received two national recognitions for her work. She has been an international speaker at multiple management conferences and was selected to provide a poster presentation at the 2009 International Positive Psychology Association World Congress. Using a strengths-based approach in her organizational change consulting has resulted in a reputation for effectively engaging large groups through creative activities. For several years she has been designing and facilitating summits for groups between 60 – 250 people. Through launching Imagine Memphis, a community initiative, youth and adults come together and experience appreciation of each other and the strengths of Memphis as a catalyst for expanding community imagination and hope for a more vital future. Mary Jo Greil holds an educational doctoral degree and has two masters. In addition, she has completed certificate programs from the masters of Peter Senge (Systems Thinking), David Cooperrider (Appreciative Inquiry), Robert Kegan (Immunity to Change), Frederic Hudson (Executive Coaching), and Richard Strozzi Heckler (Embodied Leadership). She was one of the initial capacity development consultants in the Program for Non-Profit Excellence sponsored by the Alliance for Non-Profit Excellence. Dr. Greil has been recognized as one of the “Top 50 Women Who Make a Difference” by the Women’s News of the Mid South. Her client base includes financial, manufacturing, consumer products, healthcare, non-profits, and service industries. • Carl Kallgren – Associate Professor of Psychology, Penn State Erie, The Behrend College “A Paradigm Shift: Drop Out and Truancy Prevention” Click here to view Carl Kallgren's presentation materials (Dr. Kallgren also recently presented his work at SPSSI's 8th Biennial Conference in New Orleans) Carl A. Kallgren, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychology, Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, and Founder and Director of Penn State Erie’s Susan Hirt Hagen Center for Organizational Research & Evaluation (CORE), received his Master’s in Science (M.S.) degree in social psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and his Doctorate (Ph.D.) in basic and applied social psychology from Arizona State University (1987). Upon graduation twenty-three years ago, he moved to Erie, Pennsylvania, and joined the psychology faculty at Penn State Behrend. Dr. Kallgren’s research interests have covered basic social psychological topics (persuasion, attitude-behavior relations, and norms) and applied topics (the impact of parental death on children, adolescent pregnancy prevention, healthy youth development, and developing a new model of social intervention). He founded CORE in 1998 to address the high rate of teen pregnancy and foster healthy youth development by providing quality research services to local service providers. In 2008, CORE was awarded a multi-million dollar endowment, and is now known as the Susan Hirt Hagen Center for Organizational Research and Evaluation (CORE). Through this work with CORE, Dr. Kallgren has developed the CORE Model of Social Intervention. Carl Kallgren has 20 scientific publications, 90 presentations, more than 60 reports, and over 70 funded research and outreach projects. He received the Unsung Hero’s award from Penn State Behrend in 1993, the Behrend College Council of Fellows Excellence in Outreach and Service Award in 2001, and the Pennsylvania Psychological Association’s 2005 Public Service Award. In 2006, CORE received the prestigious Community Matters Collaborator Award from the United Way of Erie County. You can e-mail Dr. Kallgren at kqx@psu.edu. • Gary Ratner – Founder and Executive Director, Citizens for Effective Schools “What's Required: A Paradigm Shift in School Reform, from 'Tests and Sanctions' to 'Helping Schools Improve” Click here to view Gary Ratner's presentation materials Gary Ratner, Esq. is the Executive Director and Founder of Citizens for Effective Schools, a national citizens school reform advocacy organization (www.citizenseffectiveschools.org), and Chair, Capacity-building Committee, Forum on Educational Accountability, an alliance of national organizations calling for overhauling ESEA (www.edaccountability.org). Since the early 1970s, he has been an author and advocate seeking to transform public schools to effectively educate poor and minority students, including collaborating with Ron Edmonds in what later became the “effective schools” movement. Mr. Ratner is the author of the seminal 1985 Texas Law Review article seeking to hold urban public schools legally accountable for effectively educating their students in basic skills, a principal author of most of the Forum’s major advocacy documents, and the author of the path-breaking 2007 article, “Why the No Child Left Behind Act Needs to be Restructured to Accomplish Its Goals and How to do It.” He is a former Deputy Executive Secretary for the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare and a graduate of Williams College and Harvard Law School. |
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