September 2020 Newsletter
School of Education featured on PBS Newshour
The "Next Generation Undergraduate Success Measurement Project" and the University of California, Irvine were featured as part of the PBS NewsHour series, "Rethinking College," with broadcast journalist Judy Woodruff. The project, led by Dean Richard Arum and supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, is following more than 1,000 UCI undergraduates over the course of two years in order to provide insight into the value of college, and to create tools that other universities can utilize to better understand their own students.
UCI School of Education Welcomes Two
Professors to its Faculty
Gustavo Carlo
Julie Washington
“Professor Carlo and Professor Washington are not only leading experts in their respective fields, but are also equity-focused academics who will carry forth our school’s mission of improving educational opportunities and outcomes for students of all backgrounds,” said Dean Richard Arum. Both professors are the recipients of Chancellor's Inclusive Excellence Awards, a pilot program at UCI aimed at attracting diverse ladder-rank faculty to recognize their deep scholarship on inclusive excellence and potential contributions at UCI.
Support for Educators

The UCI School of Education is the home to programs, research, and scholarship aimed at supporting K-12 educators, students, and families during remote instruction.
Teacher Academy Summer Workshop Series
The UCI Teacher Academy's 2020 Professional Development Summer Series supported the K-12 community in improving online learning and instruction.
"Back-to-Remote-School" Tips
Experts from the UCI Online Learning Research Center provide tips for parents as children return to school.
WRITE Center Fall 2020 Learning Series
The WRITE Center is hosting three presentations in its fall Webinar Learning Series – A Time for Action: Centering Equity through Responsive Transformative, Healing Literacy Instruction. The Center's webinars provide the latest information on hybrid and remote literacy instruction.
Distance Learning Support from the MAT Community
Review a compilation of videos and helpful guides from our MAT candidates, including resources in Spanish, to assist teachers, students, and families during remote instruction.
Teaching the Arts
Prof. Brouillete's book outlines strategies, projects, and curriculum that both educators and parents can use to teach arts both remotely and in home schooling.
MAT Colloquium for Classroom Inquiry highlights student teaching experiences with distance learning
The Zoom presentations featured MAT candidates’ experiences with distance learning, issues of equity, and newly acquired knowledge they will take with them in their teaching career.
Pods for the People!
Doctoral candidate Yenda Prado outlines how to structure pandemic learning pods to achieve the highest level of accessibility for all students and families.
Research
Prof. Peña to head study comparing online, face-to-face DLD testing for bilingual children
“Children who have exposure to more than one language have higher risk for
mis-identification as developmental language disorder,” said Elizabeth Peña, noting that the multilingual children may not have learned English yet.
Gates Foundation grant supports identification of experiences that develop youth’s occupational identity
Associate Professor June Ahn's grant will fund his research team’s work to understand the key experiences that shape youths’ interest in pursuing careers in technology, media, and related industries.
Assoc. Prof. Reich receives grant to study screen use during COVID-19
"This grant will help us better document the media diet of very young children and their families and relate that to their developmental trajectories before and during this pandemic."
NSF awards $2.57M grant to support STEM learning installations in public areas
"This project will offer a model for how cities can be re-designed to enhance learning ubiquitously across public spaces," said Assistant Professor Andres Bustamante.
Asst. Prof. Doroudi awarded $300K NSF EAGER grant to support research project
Shayan Doroudi's “Involving the Public in the Discovery of Undiscovered Public Knowledge" will study the potential role of non-researchers in advancing scientific research.
New grant to research ways for formerly incarcerated students to obtain a bachelor’s degree
LIFTED: Leveraging Inspiring Futures Through Educational Degrees, led by Asstistant Professor Brandy Gatlin-Nash and other UCI faculty, will be both a support network and an engine of discovery, uncovering components of student success.
Distinguished Professors part of work group on mixed methods research
Three distinguished professors were part of a work group that published a special report, “Mixed Methods for Studies That Address Broad and Enduring Issues in Education Research.” The report presents recommendations on how empirical researchers can address important and enduring educational problems using research concepts, theories, designs, and methods drawn from a wide range of disciplines, intellectual traditions, and research paradigms.
UCI scientist and School of Education alumna named PI on $1M NSF award to develop improved telepresence robots
“With COVID-19, the need for improved design of robots and environments to facilitate robot-mediated social inclusion and connectedness is even greater,” said Veronica Ahumada-Newhart.
Alum, postdoc receives NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship to research Latinx family influences on math motivation
“The most exciting part about this project for me is the opportunity to sit down and talk with local parents and learn more about how they see math as relevant in their kids’ everyday lives and the different ways that they support their kids’ math learning and motivation at home,” said Nestor Tulagan (Ph.D. '20).
Awards & Honors
Professors Awarded Faculty Mentorship Awards for Inclusive Excellence
Brandy Gatlin-Nash
Rossella Santagata
Prof. Kim named editor-in-chief of Scientific Studies of Reading
"My goal for the journal is to continue to solidify its leading impact and to contribute to the best science in the field of literacy, and to enhance dissemination to diverse audiences."
Prof. Simpkins selected as Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science
APS recognized Sandra Simpkins's “sustained outstanding contributions to the advancement of psychological science.”
Prof. Eccles part of study profiling highly successful female educational psychologists
The scholars revealed their trademark characteristics, the important people and places that influenced their careers, and their time- and research-management strategies.
Events & Videos
Dr. Roberto Gonzales presents "Lives in Limbo" to MAT community
Harvard professor and UCI alumni Roberto Gonzales presented his book, Lives in Limbo. The book is regularly read in the MAT program, and outlines Gonzales's study of undocumented young adults in Southern California.
GEAR UP concludes 6-week summer program
The UCI Gaining Early Awareness Readiness Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) Compton hosted a 6-week summer program for 350 students at seven school sites. The program provided academic support in Math and English Language Arts, and students had the opportunity of taking various electives thanks to community partners.
EAOP hosts Destination UC summer event
Destination UC brought together students from Early Academic Outreach Program partner schools and provided an opportunity to engage as part of the UC community.
SAGE Scholars, Class of 2020
Words of Gratitude
Liliana Vasquez became the first graduate in her family when she earned a B.A. in both education sciences and psychology & social behavior. She reads a letter thanking her mother for her support throughout her educational journey.
Kevin Mendez is the first person in his family to graduate from college. In this video he thanks his family for instilling in him a strong work ethic, persistence and determination.
Eliza Partika thanks her parents and twin sister for their unconditional love and support while pursing a double major in Literary Journalism and Global Middle East Studies.
UPCOMING EVENTS
  • September 17 - Building Students' Media Literacy for Civic Engagement

  • September 21 - When Life Gives You Watermelons: Writing Communities, Race, and Transformative Justice

  • September 28 - Words as Balm: Civic Writing and Healing in Precarious Times


  • Multiple Dates - Next Generation Science Standards Certification Program


For more information on upcoming professional development opportunities,
please visit the UCI Teacher Academy.
In the News
Distinguished Professor Greg Duncan (pictured, right) in New York Times: The risk that students could arrive at school with the coronavirus
 
Distinguished Professor Greg Duncan on Vox podcast: What it would take to end child poverty in America

Assistant Professor Constance Iloh in Diverse Issues in Higher Education: UC Irvine Funds 19 Projects to Advance Equity Amid COVID-19

Associate Professor Susanne Jaeggi in Best Health: Do Brain Games Actually Work?
Doctoral candidate Yenda Prado (pictured, right) in Wall Street Journal: Can You Form a School Pod Without Fueling Inequality?
 
 
Lindsey Farney (MAT '20) in Orange County Register's Instagram post
New Publications
Recent publications by our faculty and graduate students
Associate Professor June Ahn (pictured, left): "A mixed-methods analysis of mechanisms to support college enrollment among low-income high school students" in Translational Issues in Psychological Science 
 
Associate Professor June Ahn: "Negotiating Equity Priorities Within Systems Change: A Case Study of a District-Level Initiative to Implement K12 Computer Science Education in Computing in Science & Engineering
 
Alumna Veronica Ahumada-Newhart (Ph.D. ‘18), Distinguished Professor Jacquelynne Eccles: “A Theoretical and Qualitative Approach to Evaluating Children’s Robot-Mediated Levels of Presence” in Technology, Mind, and Behavior
 
Fourth-year doctoral student Ruby (Yucheng) Cao: “Integrating Educational Content into Game: An Encapsulation Method” (chapter) in Cognitive Cities

Professor Gustavo Carlo: "The relations of White parents’ implicit racial attitudes to their children’s differential empathic concern toward White and Black victims" in Journal of Experimental Psychology 
 

Fourth-year doctoral student Melissa Dahlin, postdoctoral researcher Guadalupe Diaz, Assistant Professor Jade M. Jenkins, Associate Professor Stephanie Reich: “Head Start Family Services: Family Characteristics as Predictors of Service Use by Latinx Families” in Children and Youth Services Review
Assistant Professor Shayan Doroudi (pictured, right): “Mastery Learning Heuristics and Their Hidden Models” in Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education

Assistant Professor Shayan Doroudi: “Probing Learning Scientists' Beliefs About Learning and Science” in International Conference of the Learning Sciences
Distinguished Professor Jacquelynne Eccles: “Do I Stay or Do I Leave? Factors Influencing Native American College Freshman Retention” in Future Review: International Journal of Transition, College, and Career Success
 
Fourth-year doctoral candidate Sharin Jacob, second-year doctoral student Leiny Garcia, Professor Mark Warschauer: “Engaging multilingual identities in computer science education” (chapter) in Technology and the Psychology of Second Language Learners and Users

Fourth-year doctoral candidate Sharin Jacob, third-year doctoral student Ha Nguyen, second-year doctoral student Leiny Garcia, Professor Emerita Debra Richardson (ICS), Professor Mark Warschauer: “Teaching Computational Thinking to Multilingual Students through Inquiry-based Learning” in RESPECT 2020

Associate Professor Susanne Jaeggi: “Working Memory Training Restores Aberrant Brain Activity in Adult Attention‐Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder” in Human Brain Mapping

Assistant Professor Jade Jenkins: “Do Immigration Raids Deter Head Start Enrollment?” in American Economic Association Papers and Proceedings
 
Second-year doctoral student Yiwen Lin, fourth-year doctoral student Renzhe Yu, Assistant Professor Nia Dowell: “LIWCs the Same, Not the Same: Gendered Linguistic Signals of Performance and Experience in Online STEM Courses” in Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education

Second-year doctoral student Jonathan Montoya: “Opportunity Gap and Women in the Energy Infrastructure Workforce” in 8th International Research Symposium on PBL (IRSPBL)
Third-year doctoral student Ha Nguyen (pictured, left), Associate Professor June Ahn: “Where's the Learning in Education Crowdsourcing?” in Proceedings of the Seventh (2020) Annual ACM Conference on Learning@ Scale
 
Third-year doctoral student Ha Nguyen, second-year doctoral student Leiny Garcia, fourth-year doctoral student Sharin Jacob, Professor Emerita Debra Richardson (ICS), Professor Mark Warschauer: “Reflection as Formative Assessment of Computational Thinking in Elementary Grades” in International Conference of the Learning Sciences
 
Third-year doctoral student Ha Nguyen, Professor Mark Warschauer: "’I Thought We Said’: Perceived Peer Support, Discourse Cohesion, and Regulation in Engineering Design” in International Conference of the Learning Sciences

Doctoral candidate Remy Pages, Associate Professor Drew H. Bailey, Distinguished Professor Greg Duncan: “Elusive Longer-Run Impacts of Head Start: Replications Within and Across Cohorts” in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis

Alumna Wendy Ochoa (Ph.D. ‘19), Associate Professor Stephanie M. Reich, Distinguished Professor George Farkas: “The Observed Quality of Caregiver-Child Interactions with and without a Mobile Screen Device” in Academic Pediatrics

Project scientist Anja Pahor, Associate Professor Susanne Jaeggi: “Application of Machine Learning Models for Tracking Participant Skills in Cognitive Training” in Frontiers in Psychology

Project scientist Anja Pahor: “There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for training your brain” in BOLD

Professor Elizabeth Peña: “Beyond Scores: Using Converging Evidence to Determine Speech and Language Services Eligibility for Dual Language Learners” in American Journal of Speech and Language Pathology

Professor Elizabeth Peña: “Insights into Category Sorting Flexibility in Bilingual Children: Results of a Cognitive Lab Study” in American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology

Fifth-year doctoral student Stephanie Soto-Lara, Professor Sandra Simpkins: “Parent support of Mexican-descent high school adolescents’ science education: A culturally-grounded framework” in Journal of Adolescent Research

Alumna Nancy Tsai (Ph.D. ‘18), Associate Professor Susanne Jaeggi, Distinguished Professor Jacquelynne Eccles: “Predicting Late Adolescent Anxiety from Early Adolescent Environmental Stress Exposure: Cognitive Control as Mediator” in Frontiers in Psychology

Alumnus Osman Umarji (Ph.D. ‘19), Associate Project Scientist Stephanie Day, fifth-year doctoral student Ying Xu, fifth-year doctoral student Elham Zargar, fourth-year doctoral student Renzhe Yu, Chancellor’s Professor Carol Connor: “Opening the black box: user-log analyses of children’s e-Book reading and associations with word knowledge” in Reading and Writing

Fifth-year doctoral student Taffeta Wood: “The Effect of Peer-Assisted Mathematics Learning Opportunities in First Grade Classrooms: What Works for Whom?” in Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness

Fourth-year doctoral student Dandan Yang, fifth-year doctoral student Elham Zargar, postdoctoral scholar Ashley Marie Adams, associate project scientist Stephanie Day, Chancellor’s Professor Carol Connor: “Using Interactive E-Book User Log Variables to Track Reading Processes and Predict Digital Learning Outcomes” in Assessment for Effective Intervention
Postdoctoral research fellow Mark Vincent B. Yu (pictured, right): “Supporting Youth Purpose in Adolescence: Youth-Adult Relationships as Ecological Assets” in The Ecology of Purposeful Living Across the Lifespan

Postdoctoral research fellow Mark Vincent B. Yu, doctoral candidate Yangyang Liu, fifth-year doctoral student Ta-yang (Diane) Hsieh, third-year doctoral student Glona Lee, Professor Sandra Simpkins, Associate Professor of Teaching Alessandra Pantano: “’Working together as a team really gets them fired up’: Afterschool program mentoring strategies to promote collaborative learning among adolescent participants” in Applied Developmental Science

Fourth-year doctoral student Renzhe Yu: “Interpretable Models Do Not Compromise Accuracy or Fairness in Predicting College Success” in Proceedings of the Seventh ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale

Fourth-year doctoral student Renzhe Yu, Alumna Qiujie Li, Assistant Professor Shayan Doroudi, Associate Professor Di Xu: “Towards Accurate and Fair Prediction of College Success: Evaluating Different Sources of Student Data” in Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Educational Data Mining (EDM ’20)
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