News and Events
Thanks in large part to an accomplished faculty and leading research on today’s high-profile educational issues, Regent University has a national presence and a growing influence in the world of education. The following is a small selection of the current news unfolding in the School of Education at Regent University. Click here for a listing of School of Education events.
Alumnus Increases Yearly Student Progress
Glynis Jordan; Regent graduate and appointed principal of Bladensburg High School in Prince George’s County, Maryland since June 2008; has faced a challenging situation as Bladensburg’s School Improvement and had not met the required Annual Yearly Progress since the inception of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. During her first year as Principal, Ms. Jordan focused on three areas: Instruction, school climate, and organizational structure. The school slogan became: "Excellence is a deliberate practice.” Staff, students, parents, and the community committed to the changes made, and by October 2008, the school had turned around. Ms. Jordan expected excellence from all for all each day.
By June 2009, the school had over a forty percent decrease in suspensions and had the largest graduating class in over ten years. In September 2009, the Maryland State Department of Education released the state assessment data for all schools. Bladensburg High School met all Annual Yearly Progress goals for the first time. Most recently, the Office of the First Lady of the United States selected four girls from Bladensburg High School to participate in the White House Mentoring Program. These students will meet with First Lady Michelle Obama and her staff monthly for one year. Ms. Jordan and the students visited the White House on November 2, 2009, and the students spent hours with the First Lady and her staff. Bladensburg High School's success has been featured in local newspapers and continues to be a topic of interest. Ms. Jordan contributes this great success to the collaborative leadership of her administrators and untiring effort of her staff, students, parents, and community.
Faculty Member & Career Switcher Mentor Co-author Lead Tidewater Teacher Article
Dr. Mervyn Wighting and Career Switcher Mentor Coordinator, Sarah McKown, co-authored the lead article in the September/October edition of Tidewater Teacher, a magazine that is widely distributed to every school, every school division and all teacher preparation organizations throughout Hampton Roads. The article's title is Recession proof teaching: Every cloud has a silver lining.
Faculty Members Receive Book Award
Faculty members; Dr. Fred Rovai, Dr. Mike Ponton, and Dr. Jason Baker; were recently awarded the Design and Development (D&D) Outstanding Book Award for 2009. They will be presented with a plaque at the D&D luncheon during the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) annual convention.
Faculty & Doctoral Fellow Published
Dr. Mervyn Wighting, Dr. Deanna Nisbet and (at the time of authorship) doctoral fellow Cindy Spaulding had their research manuscript "Relationships between sense of community and academic achievement: A comparison among high school students" published recently in The International Journal of Learning.
Norfolk/Regent Partnership Continues
For the third successive year the partnership between the School of Education's Career Switcher / Teach Now program and Norfolk Public Schools has been awarded a federal grant. Grant funds will be available for academic year 09/10 to help recruit, prepare and retain teachers of high-need subjects who will teach in Norfolk's middle and high schools.
Faculty Member Interviewed by Washington Times
Faculty member, Dr. Mark Mostert, was recently interviewed by the Washington times in regard to the Montana Supreme Court hearing appealing the judicial declaration last December that assisted suicide is legal in Montana.
Regent alum announced Virginia Teacher of the Year
School of Education alum, Roxie Godfrey, Ed.D. (2005), received the Virginia Association of Family and Consumer Sciences Teacher of the Year award (2008). She is Department Chair at Mount Vernon High School in Alexandria, Virginia.
Faculty member appointed as Reviewer for German Journal
Faculty member, Dr. Mark Mostert, has just been appointed the international English reviewer for Germany's Heilpädagogik Online, which is the first German online journal in the field of Special Education and Disability Studies - published quarterly.
Doctoral student and alumna present at International Mentoring Association
Doctoral alumna, Tera DeLane Simmons (’06), and Doctoral student, Dianne B. Steinbeck (‘09), recently presented portions of their dissertation research at the International Mentoring Association in Las Vegas, NV. Topics: Tera DeLane Simmons (’06) - Mentoring for Leadership Development in the University Online Environment, Dianne B. Steinbeck (‘09) - Developing K-12 Faculty through Mentoring: The Servant Leadership Effect.
Regent alumna joins Harvard Institute
Dr. Adrian Thomason ('06), principal of Dean Rusk Middle School in Canton, GA, just outside Atlanta, has been recently awarded acceptance into the Harvard University Principal Center's Summer Institute entitled on Improving Schools: The Art of Leadership.
Article to be published in Journal of Research on Christian Education
Faculty member, Dr. Mervyn Wighting, and student, Liu Jing, conducted research that investigated “Relationships between sense of community and religious commitment among students in Christian high school”. Their manuscript will be published shortly as the lead article in the Journal of Research on Christian Education.
Faculty member appointed as Expert Panel Member to the Public Policy/Advocacy Committee of the LDA
Dr. Mark Mostert has been appointed as an Expert Panel Member to the Public Policy/Advocacy Committee of the Learning Disabilities Association of America (LDA). The committee of national experts in psychology, neuropsychology and special education will develop a white paper supporting LDA’s Specific Learning Disabilities Evaluation/Identification Criteria Partnership Project. The Project will provide input to the US congress ahead of the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
Faculty member publishes, is selected as Guest Editor for journal, and is interviewed by CNBC.com
Dr. Fred Rovai’s latest book, "The Internet and Higher Education: Achieving Global Reach," was recently published by Chandos Publishing, Oxford, UK. In addition, Dr. Rovai was recently notified by Elsevier Publishing that he was selected to be Guest Editor of a Special Theme Issue of The Internet and Higher Education journal, to be published in the Summer, 2010. The theme is Academic Globalization: Impact on E-Learning. On April 13, 2009, Dr. Rovai was interviewed by Mark Koba of CNBC.com regarding President Obama’s Education Plan and how it will impact universities and online education.
Faculty publication to be included in the Introduction to Educational Research (7th ed.)Dr. Fred Rovai and Dr. Hope Jordan co-wrote an article, "Blended learning and sense of community: A comparative analysis with traditional and fully online graduate courses" that was selected to be included in the Introduction to Educational Research (7th ed.), which is scheduled for publication by Pearson Allyn & Bacon/Merrill Publishing in 2010, as an exemplar of published research. The article is available online at http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/192/795
Educational Leadership Students achieve 100% pass rate on SLLA
Individuals seeking the Administration & Supervision endorsement are required to take and pass the School Leadership Licensure Assessment (SLLA) in order to become principals, assistant principals or central office employees. The School of Education is proud to announce that one hundred percent (100%) of the last group of Regent students to take the exam received a passing score or better. Virginia’s passing score is amongst the highest in the country. In fact, the Regent School of Education student average was approximately 20 points higher than the required passing score.
Faculty member interviewed by Investor’s Business Daily
Faculty member, Dr. Fred Rovai, was recently interviewed by Investor’s Business Daily where he offered insights about the growth of online higher education programs in teaching. Read more
Reading Specialist Master’s Student Recognized by US Department of Education
Reading Specialist (M.Ed.) student, Faith Giddens, will be recognized by the US Department of Education (DOE) for her teaching skills, specifically her use of best practices in reading with a focus in vocabulary strategies. Ms. Giddens, who is the Curriculum Planner at Pocomoke Middle School in Maryland, is scheduled to be interviewed by representatives from the DOE on February 3, 2009.
Faculty Member Consults for US Department of Education
School of Education faculty member, Dr. Helen Stiff-Williams, is the co-developer of the US Department of Education’s Character Education and Civic Engagement Technical Assistance Center (CETAC) website. Dr. Stiff-Williams, along with Dr. Ann Higgins-D’Alessandro of Fordham University, is responsible for conceptualizing, writing, and assembling the information on the CETAC website.
Career Switcher Named Rookie of the Year
Level II Career Switcher, Alfred Speller, was recently named Kings Fork Middle School’s Rookie of the Year (2008-2009). As a result of this recognition, he is now being considered for the Rookie of the Year award for the entire Suffolk County Public Schools System.
Level II Career Switcher named “Teacher of the Quarter”
Joseph Patton, a Level II Career Switcher, was named “Teacher of the Quarter” recently by Holmes Middle School. His colleagues had the following to say about his work. “This Teacher of the Quarter shows outstanding poise and leadership in the school environment. He is well-liked by his students and but most importantly strives to make sure all students do their best in his classroom. In addition, he consistently shows an extra interest in the special education students that he teaches and always looks for ways to reach their academic goals. Frequently, students hurry to buy their lunches and then rush back to this teacher’s classroom because they just want to spend a little extra time with this individual. After school, this teacher mentors, coaches in the Holmes football and basketball leagues, and runs a club in the after-school program.”
Norfolk Schools / Regent Grant
Through its Transition to Teaching program, the U.S. Department of Education has awarded a $248,000 grant to Regent University to recruit and train teacher candidates from outside the field of education.
Nationally acclaimed website: Useless Eaters
This award-winning site, developed from the article by Dr. Mark Mostert, describes the historical context of attitudes toward people with disabilities in Germany and how this context produced mass murder of people with disabilities prior to and during the early years of World War II.
Sarah Palin: Standing up to the Pressure
Dr. Mark Mostert from the School of Education hit several home runs this week with an op-ed on Republican vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, and her child with Down syndrome. His letter has appeared in the today's USA Today, and the Chicago Tribune, and is slated to run in Saturday's Virginian-Pilot as the featured letter to the editor. Additionally, Dr. Mostert was interviewed last night by a reporter from the Los Angeles Times on what has become a front-burner issue.
