EDS Community

We are all about spotlighting the amazing work our students, alumni, faculty and friends do!

Do you have a story and want to share with us? Have you created a new lesson that works in your classroom? Did you receive an award or develop a new team and want more members? Are your colleagues doing great work to transform education? Whatever it is...

LET US KNOW ABOUT IT!

Email us with the subject line: EDS COMMUNITY

2018 Chrispeels Fellowship Awardees

Congratulations to our 2018 exceptional scholars and Chrispeels fellows, Belinda Zamacona, Francisco Solis, and Mary Taylor. Belinda, Francisco, and Mary were recognized for their outstanding experience in serving low income/under-served communities and their demonstrated commitment to addressing issues of social and educational inequities. They join a long line of Chrispeels Fellows who have been instrumental in transforming education in a diverse society.

Belinda Zamacona has served as the founding staff person for the Chancellor’s Associates Scholars Program (CASP) since 2014. Her responsibilities as the Program Manager for CASP include the creation, development, and implementation of a comprehensive retention program to support students who receive the Chancellor’s Associate Scholarship, which recognizes and supports talented students with financial need who have great potential and motivation to succeed at UC San Diego. Belinda is a proud first-generation, English-language learner student, born in México. Belinda has been part of UC San Diego since 2009. She is passionate about issues of access and equity in education. Her professional background includes working with parents and families, community relations, and access, yield and retention programs. Belinda is a proud member of the leadership team for NASPA’s Socioeconomic and Class Issues in Higher Educational Knowledge Community, and an Advocate in the Advocacy Group for NASPA’s Center for First Generation Student Success. She is also a member of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, and the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities.

Francisco M. Solís is a District Resource Teacher in the Chula Vista Elementary School District and an adjunct lecturer at California State University San Marcos. Mr. Solís has an earned Master of Arts degree in Education from CSU San Marcos and a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from UC San Diego. He has a Multiple Subjects Credential with a Bilingual Cross-Cultural and Academic Development emphasis obtained through CSU San Marcos’ School of Education, and is currently working towards his Preliminary Administrative Services Credential at the San Diego County Office of Education. Most recently, he will be commencing his doctoral studies at CSU San Marcos & UC San Diego’s Joint Doctoral Program as part of Cohort 14.

Mr. Solís was born in the border town of Mexicali, Mexico and came to the United States at the age of one. At age 18, he left the Imperial Valley for college and currently resides in Chula Vista. He has been married for 11 years to Martha López-Solís, currently a kindergarten teacher (who he met the first day of his student teaching). He has 2 children; Citlaly Alessandra (7) and Carlitos Alexander (4).

Mary Taylor was previously the Director of Reality Changers’ College Apps Academy offering college admissions support to students from a variety of backgrounds and is the owner of Taylor Educational Counseling. Mary holds a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from UCSD, a Master’s degree in Education from SDSU and a certificate in college admissions counseling from UCLA. Mary is a first-generation college graduate and is currently pursuing a Doctoral Degree in Educational Leadership at UCSD.

McDonnell Foundation Awards Professor Clarke $2.49 Million as part of the Understanding Teacher Change and Teachers as Learners in K-12 Classrooms Program

ClassInSight: Insight on Teacher Learning by Scaffolding Noticing and Reflection

Principal Investigators: Amy Ogan, Sherice Clarke

We examine how secondary science teachers learn classroom communication as they engage with scaffolded noticing and reflection, provided through a technology (ClassInSight) where teachers can engage with their own classroom data. A critical component of teacher learning is receiving formative feedback on one’s performance, which enables reflection and noticing of key features of problems of practice. There has been rising interest in technologies that can assist teachers in noticing core features of instruction as a means to drive teacher learning and instructional change. However, there is an urgent need to understand precisely how this noticing and reflection can be scaffolded to support teachers of learners in high need settings to raise the cognitive demand of instruction. Relatedly, uptake of evidence-based strategies for facilitating classroom discussion is likely to be strongly affected by teachers’ beliefs about classroom discussion and what works in their particular instructional context. Through a research-practice partnership between Vista Unified School District, UCSD, CMU, and the Distinguished Educator Network (DEAP), we investigate the cognitive and motivational factors that support deep engagement with teacher’s data and which drive change. By capturing extensive data in the classroom and using system logs of teacher interactions with scaffolded data, we use design-based research to investigate three outcomes:

(a) change in teachers’ beliefs regarding classroom discussion,

(b) change in teachers’ knowledge of effective strategies, and,

Birch Aquarium at Scripps - employment opportunities in STEM learning

At Birch Aquarium at Scripps, we’re building our organization, partnerships, programs, and physical spaces, to inspire and engage people to better understand and care for our planet.

Director of Education

Manager of Public Engagement

Department of Education Studies Response on end of DACA program.

By EDS Faculty and Staff

The UC San Diego Department of Education Studies is committed to social justice and equitable and inclusive education for all students. We believe that student learning is strengthened through diverse points of view and learning opportunities.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program has provided opportunities for hundreds of thousands of talented students to pursue P-12 and higher education and to contribute to the growth and progress of this country. As educators, we believe it is our duty and responsibility to challenge policies that seek to remove our students’ rights, and we are committed to continuing to fight for equitable access to educational opportunities for all students.

We are deeply troubled by recent actions taken by President Donald Trump to rescind the DACA program. These actions run counter to our democratic ideals, are divisive and will have a negative impact on students who only know the United States as their home and who work tirelessly to make meaningful contributions to this nation.

To this end, we strongly endorse the positions of the University of California, the California State University, UC San Diego, CREATE, and numerous public education institutions. We will continue our commitment to protecting students’ rights to pursue an education, and to ensuring that we provide a safe and supportive learning environment for all our students.

State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Announces StepForward in Computer Science Education; Names Professor Beth Simon as Chair.

From Professor Carolyn Hofstetter, Department Chair

"Please join me in congratulating our wonderful EDS colleague, Beth Simon, who has been selected to the newly appointed Computer Sciences Standards Advisory Committee! This committee will craft the new (first-time) standards for CS for the State of CA, as well as improve and update computer science education for the state of California. This is a distinct honor to be selected and appointed by the State of California Public Schools Superintendent, Tom Torlakson, State Board of Education and the CA Department of Education. The official CA DOE news release is below.

Beth will be joined by another EDS/CREATE friend and colleague, Art Lopez of Sweetwater High School/Sweetwater Union High School District located in the South Bay of San Diego County, as well as Rich Kick of Newbury Park High School/Conejo Valley Unified School District located in Thousand Oaks of Los Angeles County. We are so pleased that they have received this honor and feel like the future of CS Educational standards in California are in good hands with our dear colleagues.

The committee has 21 members and will assist with developing and recommending to the State Board of Education Computer Science Content Standards for grades K-12. Dr. Beth Simon has also been selected as the co-chairperson for the committee; both Beth and Art have worked together for the past seven years on the new AP Computer Science Principles course and other Computer Science education endeavors as part of two UC San Diego-held NSF grants (COMPASS and CS-CaVE). Beth, Art, and Rich have worked with the NSF and The College Board on the development of the AP Computer Science Principles course for the past several years. Both Beth and Rich served as committee members/consultants/reviewers for the AP Computer Science Principles curriculum framework; both Art and Rich were pilot instructors for the AP CSP course, and Beth created a curriculum and piloted one of the first AP Computer Science Principles at UC-San Diego.

For further information on California’s Computer Science Education and Computer Science Content Standards Development team<http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/computerscicontentstds.asp>, please click on the link.

Augmenting, Piloting, and Scaling Computational Notebooks to Train New Graduate Researchers in Data-Centric Programming

Innovations in Graduate Education NSF Grant led by Jim Hollan; Co-PIs: Beth Simon, Brad Voytek, Phillip Guo, and Scott Klemmer.

Unprecedented scales of data, the rapid pace of its accumulation, and disappearing disciplinary boundaries bring transformative scientific and engineering opportunities but also challenge traditional graduate training. One singularly important challenge in the current era of big data is the growing need to train new graduate students in the programming and data analysis skills needed to be able to manage and exploit large-scale data. Virtually all graduate STEM training programs are currently confronting challenges to ensure their students have the computational skills required to function in increasingly data-intensive research domains and to be competitive in a rapidly evolving job market.

Across the biological, physical, and social sciences, one common approach to addressing these challenges is to create introductory bootcamps for new graduate students. We see an exciting opportunity to scale the bootcamp approach and simultaneously exploit the growing movement to computational notebooks by augmenting Jupyter Notebook, a widely-used computational notebook, with pedagogical facilities to scaffold and support data-centric programming training for graduate students in a wide range of STEM disciplines. Building on open-source Jupyter software and educational tools that we have previously developed to support tutoring, feedback, and discussion, we will augment Jupyter Notebook to assist in training new graduate students in data-centric programming, iteratively design, pilot, and evaluate the augmented notebooks and example companion curricula in bootcamps and ongoing classes to validate the approach, and make the resulting system available online to be used and extended in bootcamps, graduate classes, and MOOCs.

EDS Undergraduates Present Research at Annual Conference

Erick Ramírez, Angélica Gutiérrez, Oslín Licea-Chávez, Nima Keyvan, Kevin Johnson, Ben Alemu, Austin German presented their thoughful research projects on issues in education ranging from language and linguistic identity, to equity in access to college mentorship and college-going pathways, to programs that build partnerships between undergraduates and local high schools.

Professor Luz Chung and EDS is super proud of our students presenting at the Undergraduate Research Conference!

Preparing Tomorrow's Faculty to Address Challenges in Teaching Computer Science By Professor Beth Simon

"The new challenges [of increasing numbers of majors] compound existing teaching-related challenges for the field. We still need to broaden participation in our field, with the lowest percentage of women majors in all of STEM. The economic rewards of a computing career make it even more important to bridge the digital divide. If there are more students than faculty can teach effectively, they may be inclined to lean on a pessimistic belief that success is dependent on "brilliance" and innate ability where only a subset of students can succeed. If CS faculty feel there is little they can do to change students' outcomes in their individual classrooms, it will be true. Research shows that more CS faculty hold this mistaken and unproductive view of students than faculty in other STEM disciplines."

UCSD hosts summer workshops for new computer science faculty to prepare them to teach more effectively.

Melissa Han inducted into the Bouchet Graduate Honor Society

Congratulations to Melissa Han, a current doctoral student in the Educational Leadership Program in Education Studies who has recently been selected to be a member of the UC San Diego Chapter of the Bouchet Graduate Honor Society. The Edward Alexander Bouchet Graduate Honor Society (Bouchet Society) recognizes outstanding scholarly achievement and promotes diversity and excellence in doctoral education and the professoriate. The Bouchet Society seeks to develop a network of preeminent scholars who exemplify academic and personal excellence, foster environments of support and serve as examples of scholarship, leadership, character, service and advocacy for students who have been traditionally underrepresented in the academy.

Melissa Galang Han is the daughter of Filipino immigrants who realized her parents’ dream rested on how she made her own dreams a reality. Growing up as a first generation Filipina contained its own struggles in trying to embrace her culture while discovering her own identity. It wasn’t until high school that she realized she needed to transform her shame into pride and fear into courage if she were to honor her parents’ sacrifices. While in high school, she observed and mimicked friends who knew how to stay on top of college application deadlines, which high school AP courses to take, and which college information meetings her parents needed to attend. During this time, she learned how to function beyond a survivor. She thrived. She discovered how to harness the courage her parents had in moving to a foreign land and used it to propel her into what she dreamed for her own life.

Melissa completed her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of California San Diego, went on to receive her teaching credential at San Diego State University, is currently finishing her Ed.D in Educational Leadership and wrote Listen! Using Student Voice to Guide a Democratic Classroom as part of her Master of Education degree in Teacher Leadership from the High Tech High Graduate School of Education. She currently teaches elementary students who come from immigrant families, where they too carry the obligation of fulfilling the dreams that their families have for them as hers did. She is committed to deepening her own work in education so that she can be an instrument in enabling her students to achieve dreams that don’t merely help them survive, but shape them into thriving contributors of society.

Shawntanet Jara & Drew Schwartz named 2017 Chrispeels Fellows

Two Joint Doctoral Program students in Educational Leadership, in conjunction with UC San Diego and California State University, San Marcos (CSUSM), were recognized for their outstanding experience in serving low income/underserved communities and their demonstrated desire and leadership skills to address issues of social and educational inequities.

This Fellowship is in recognition of Professor Emeritus of Education Studies at UC San Diego and founding Director of our Joint Doctoral Program, Janet Chrispeels and her husband Maarten Chrispeels, Professor Emeritus of Biology at UC San Diego.

Shawntanet Jara has been a TK-2nd grade classroom teacher since 1997, having worked in Los Angeles and Orange County. She joined the Solana Beach School District in 2005 and now works as a Teacher on Special Assignment for CA State Standards Implementation. She aims to improve student achievement by supporting staff members in the successful implementation of the CA State Standards through modeling effective research based instructional strategies, developing curriculum and assessments, and conducting professional development.

Shawntanet has an M.A. is Developmental Psychology and earned National Board Certification in 2005. In her current role, she focuses on building strong authentic relationships within the school cultures, coordinating and facilitating opportunities for modeled lessons, co-planning and co-teaching with teachers, researching best practices and options for professional learning and collaborating with TOSAs, teachers, administrators, and staff. She is also a mother of two daughters, ages 7 & 10 who have introduced another wonderful realm of living called Motherhood. Shawntanet is so proud that her daughters will be able to witness the further transformation of their mother, as she engages in this rich Ed.D program.

Drew Schwartz holds a Bachelors degree from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia and a Masters degree from the IDC Herzilya in Israel. Following tragic events in Ferguson, MO, Drew founded the Gateway2Change program to empower students to dialogue about race and create change agent projects in the St. Louis community. With his leadership, the program is now spreading to Rochester, NY and other communities nationally. Drew currently serves as a consultant and presenter, creating programs and workshops to uplift schools. He is excited to begin his doctoral studies at UC San Diego, working together with staff and colleagues to promote equity and strengths-based experiences for all.

Remembering Ramón “Chunky” Sánchez

By Luz Chung

It’s time to shine the light

On the young souls of the earth

Let it shine and illuminate

The beauty of their world

We gotta educate

Not incarcerate

Souls of humanity will shine

(Excerpts from “Rising Souls” by Chunky Sánchez)

La comunidad de San Diego está de luto. Ramón “Chunky” Sánchez falleció el viernes 28 de octubre, y su ausencia se siente en todo San Diego. En vida, Chunky Sánchez nos deleitó con su música, su buen humor, sus historias, y sus enseñanzas. Pero sobretodo, Chunky fue, y sigue siendo, un símbolo de la justicia social, a través de su trabajo como maestro, mentor, y compañero en la lucha por los derechos humanos. Chunky trabajó incansablemente por los derechos civiles de comunidades oprimidas. Con sus canciones, Chunky nos narró historias de emancipación y esperanza, y nos dio la inspiración para seguir luchando para que las comunidades más marginalizadas obtengan la igualdad que se les ha negado por tanto tiempo. Por su trabajo, Chunky recibió varios reconocimientos, incluyendo el premio National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellowship. Por varios años Chunky visitó nuestro departamento y compartió sus canciones y sus enseñanzas con nuestros estudiantes. Después de cada visita, Chunky dejó una huella muy profunda, y nos impulsó a que siguiéramos adelante en nuestro trabajo como maestr@s y activistas. Recordamos a Chunky con mucho cariño y extrañaremos su presencia en nuestras vidas. ¡Que viva Chunky Sánchez!

San Diego is in mourning. Ramón “Chunky” Sánchez passed away on Friday, October 28, and his absence can be felt all over San Diego. Chunky Sánchez is remembered for his music, his sense of humor, his storytelling, and his teachings. But more importantly, Chunky was, and continues to be, a social justice icon through his work as a teacher, mentor, and partner in the struggle for human rights. Chunky worked tirelessly in the struggle for the civil rights of oppressed communities. Through his songs, Chunky told us stories of liberation and hope, and inspired us to continue to fight so that our most marginalized communities can attain the rights that they have been denied for so long. Chunky received many honors and awards including a National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellowship. For many years, Chunky visited our department and shared his songs and his teachings with our students. Chunky made a profound impact on our students as he pushed us to not give up on our work as teachers and activists. We remember Chunky with much love and we will miss his presence in our lives. ¡Que viva Chunky Sánchez!

Department of Education Studies Response to Second Chalking Incident

On October 28, 2016, the UC San Diego campus experienced a "chalking" incident targeted at the Latino/x, undocumented student community, the second incident in 2016. In EDS, we strive to engage educators and students in productive dialogue where diverse perspectives may be shared openly and respectfully. Anonymously chalking hostile and intimidating anti- Mexican/Latino/Undocumented messages by targeting key buildings on campus that many students utilize to build community, threatens the campus climate and is disrespectful to those spaces we have collectively worked hard to create and support. First generation, underrepresented and undocumented students also have the right to feel welcome on a campus they too have earned the right to attend.

Furthermore, we are deeply disturbed by such efforts to intimidate peers and colleagues on our campus. Efforts towards the persecution of students of color matriculating through UC San Diego make the faculty in EDS that much more dedicated to increasing access and equity across the spectrum of education. Please know that these actions serve as continued incentives, not deterrents, for our work in building equitable learning spaces. In solidarity with the current UC San Diego administration, campus programming, student services, and departments across campus we are actively moving forward with quality policies, programs, and relationships that will generate a more diverse campus and foster an inclusive and supportive campus environment where all students are treated with the respect they deserve. We will not bow to those seeking to persecute students on this campus; rather, we will dedicate ourselves, once again, to eradicating racist and other oppressive acts that negatively affect the educational experiences of all of our UC San Diego students.

In Solidarity,

Department of Education Studies Faculty and Staff

10/31/2016