Monthly News | January 2025

Congratulations to Professor Peña on receiving the Distinguished Faculty Mentoring Award!

On March 5, the UC Irvine Academic Senate will celebrate Professor Peña and nine other esteemed faculty for their achievements at the 2024-2025 Distinguished Faculty Awards ceremony.

Learn more about Peña

School of Education receives $1.5M grant from the California Education Learning Lab

"Enhancing Academic Writing and Digital Literacy with an AI Coach" will leverage AI technology to support students in developing critical academic writing and digital literacy skills and is part of a cohort of five selected projects designed to impact teaching and learning experiences statewide. Distinguished Professor Mark Warschauer is PI of the project.

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Dean Frances Contreras serves as guest editor for new publication

Published December 2024, Latinos and Education in the Time of COVID-19 explores the profound impact of the pandemic on Latino/a/e/x students, families, and communities across the educational continuum to better understand the challenges they faced and inform future educational practices and policies.

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Huge growth in scholarships

Thanks to the incredible efforts of our development team and the generosity of our donors, the School of Education has made tremendous strides in increasing privately funded scholarships:

• 2016-2022: 7 scholarships established | 28 recipients | $41,300 awarded
• 2022-present: 30 scholarships established | 87 recipients | $525,000 awarded



This remarkable growth demonstrates our commitment to supporting students in achieving their academic and professional goals.

Professors Greg Duncan, Richard Arum recognized among top 100 influential education scholars nationwide

Duncan and Arum were named in this year's RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings for their contributions to public discussions of education.

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Newsweek Spotlight

The School of Education is honored to be featured in Newsweek’s American Education series, celebrating its leadership in advancing equity and innovation in education.

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Upcoming Events

• January 23 – Epistemology of Education Lecture: “Virtues of the Mind: On the Characterological Demands of Academic Inquiry”
• January 24-25 – Mapping New California Histories, presented in partnership with the UC Irvine History Project and UC Irvine Teacher Academy
• January 29 – UCI Science Project Computer Science Community of Practice
• February 13 – Navigating the California Literacy Roadmap: Strategies for Equitable and Effective Instruction, presented by the California Reading & Literature Project at UC Irvine
• February 22 – Book Club: Verified: How to Think Straight, Get Duped Less, and Make Better Decisions about What to Believe Online, presented by the UC Irvine Teacher Academy
• February 25-26 & March 6 – Learning How English Works Open Institute, presented by the California Reading & Literature Project at UC Irvine
• March 5 – Elevate Your Teaching: Equivalent Fractions and Fraction Addition, presented by the Irvine Math Project
• March 5 – Elevate Your Teaching: Grades 4-5 Fractions, presented by the Irvine Math Project
• March 8 – UCI Science Project Computer Science Community of Practice
• March 12 – Elevate Your Teaching: Systems of Equations, presented by the Irvine Math Project

Please visit the Teacher Academy website to view more upcoming workshops.

• Professor Young-Suk Kim led nine-member Reading Difficulties Risk Screener Selection Panel as part of state mandate that all young students be measured for potential reading challenges (EdSource)
• The Reading Difficulties Risk Screener Selection Panel, led by Professor Young-Suk Kim was tasked with creating an approved list of evidence-based, culturally, linguistically, and developmentally appropriate screening instruments to assess K-2 students for risk of reading difficulties (gov.ca.gov)

• Professor Drew Bailey: "Learning About Development from Interventions." In: Annual Review of Developmental Psychology
• Professor Andres Bustamante: “Strengths-Based Approaches to Investigating Early Math Development in Family and Community Context: A Conceptual Framework.” In: Sage Journals
• Professor Young-Suk Kim: “Advancing the Science of Teaching Reading: Introduction to the Special Issue.” In: Scientific Studies of Reading
• Doctoral Student Fuko Kiyama and Professor Sandra Simpkins: “Examining the Activity-Related Correlates of Latine Parent Support of Adolescents in Organized Afterschool Activities.” In: Journal of Youth Development
• Distinguished Professor Judith Kroll: “Management of mispredictions in English language users from a varied language community.” In: Journal of Cultural Cognitive Science
• Doctoral Student Victoria Nguyen and Professor Rossella Santagata: “Misrepresentation or inclusion: promises of generative artificial intelligence in climate change education.” In: Learning, Media, and Technology
• Professor Elizabeth Peña: “Changes in the home language environments of US Spanish–English bilinguals between the ages of 4 and 12.” In: Bilingualism: Language and Cognition
• Professor Stephanie Reich: "Introduction to the Section on Parenting in the Digital Age." In: Handbook of Children and Screens
• Professor Stephanie Reich: "Media and Parenting: Current Findings and Future Directions." In: Handbook of Children and Screens
• Professor Stephanie Reich: “Relational Principles for Enacting Social Justice Values in Educational Partnerships.” In: Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement
• Doctoral Student Tiffany Wu, Assistant Professor Adriana Villavicencio and Doctoral Student Verenisse Ponce Soria: ”Racial Attitudes Among Asian American Parents and Their Influence on School Choice.” In: Harvard Educational Review
• Postdoctoral Researcher Hongyang Zhao, Professor Lindsey Richland and Doctoral Student Joseph Wong: “Individual Differences in Attention to Analogical Relations.” In: Journal of Cognition and Development

Learn more about the UCI School of Education as seen on Viewpoint, hosted by Dennis Quaid