Dr. Marius Boboc and Dr. R.D. Nordgren

Non-cognitive Variables at Bedford High School

Many factors inhibit the completion of college by African-American high school graduates who come from low Socio-economic backgrounds. Some factors are “cognitive” while others can be classified as “non-cognitive.” Variables in the latter classification are examined in this study to be conducted in fall 2009 at Bedford High School with an African-American student population five times the national average and in a city with a median income well below that of the nation. An instrument designed and validated to predict success of impoverished minority students in college will be administered to 60 students in a College Exploratory course at this school. The results may have implications for the curricular plans of the school and school district as well as possible generalizations to the larger population of African-American P-12 students from low-income families.

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Dr. Joanne E. Goodell

CSUTeach Noyce Scholarship Program

Cleveland State University in cooperation with the National Science Foundation is proud to announce the Robert Noyce D-STEM Scholarship program for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education majors. This program seeks to increase the number of basic education teachers with strong content knowledge in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Juniors and seniors who commit to becoming teachers in a high-need schools and are chosen as Noyce Scholars receive $10,000 per year and complete field experiences in local STEM high schools.

Free one-credit courses and paid summer internships provide early and continuing opportunities for STEM-area freshman and sophomores to learn about STEM teaching as a career. New teachers receive ongoing support through graduate coursework and professional development opportunities, visits from UTeach Master teachers, and a dedicated online community for ongoing discussions and networking.

For further details please see link

For additional information, please feel free to contact Dr. Joanne E. Goodell at (216) 687-5426 or j.goodell@csuohio.edu, Dr. Debbie Jackson at (216) 687-3753 or d.jackson1@csuohio.edu or Renee Overton at (216) 687-3709 or m.r.overton@csuohio.edu.

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Dr. Joanne E. Goodell

Choose Ohio First Scholarships D-STEM Teacher Initiative Program

Choose Ohio First Scholarships D-STEM Teacher Initiative will provide undergraduate and graduate scholarships up to $4,700 a year to students pursuing degrees and licensures in science and mathematics education.

The Choose Ohio First Program focuses on investing in quality education for K-12 STEM education teachers. Scholarship recipients will be engaged in teaching experiences and professional learning communities that will support their classroom experiences. Not only will the program recruit underrepresented minority and economically disadvantaged student populations to the STEM education field, it will also provide assistance in critical transition periods in the early years of the teaching profession by providing continuing education coursework and assistance.

The scholarships were made possible by a grant from Ohio Board of Regents.

For further details please see http://www.csuohio.edu/cehs/departments/te/ohiofirst/index.html.

For additional information, please feel free to contact Dr. Joanne E. Goodell at (216) 687-5426 or j.goodell@csuohio.edu or Renee Overton at (216) 687-3709 or m.r.overton@csuohio.edu.

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Dr. Maria Angelova

Project Reach

Dr. Maria Angelova received a federal professional development grant of $1,425 000 from the U.S. Department of Education to develop the Project Reach program in 2007. This 5-year grant pays the tuition for pre-service teachers, in-service teachers and paraprofessionals to take classes at CSU leading to a TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and Bilingual Education endorsement on a teaching certificate or licensure.

By the end of the grant period, 60 participants from the Cleveland Municipal School District, Lorain, Lakewood, Ashtabula, Parma, and Painesville City School Districts will receive a TESOL endorsement and 24 participants will receive a Bilingual Education endorsement. The grant also provides funding for professional development workshops for CSU students, faculty and content area teachers from Northeast Ohio. The goal of these workshops is to increase the interest and awareness of reaching ESL students in content courses and learn how to integrate successful strategies for ESL instruction into the classroom.

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Dr. Jeremy Genovese

Dr. Jeremy Genovese is an Associate Professor of Human Development and Educational Psychology in the Department of Curriculum and Foundations. His research interests include behavioral learning theory, behavior genetics, educational neuroscience, individual differences, and evolutionary evelopmental psychology. A recent example of his work is a study published in the Journal of Genetic Psychology, co-authored with Dr. Deborah Wallace, on the relation between reward and punishment sensitivity and adolescent substance use. The sample (N= 216; 130 girls, 85 boys) was drawn from high school and middle school students enrolled in a Midwestern suburban school district. Participants completed a substance use questionnaire and the Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire. For 13 of 15 types of substance abuse, students with high reward sensitivity and low punishment sensitivity showed the highest levels of use. This finding supports the hypothesis of an interaction effect between reward sensitivity and punishment sensitivity and suggests that adolescents who are high in reward sensitivity but low in sensitivity to punishment may be at a higher risk for substance abuse.

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Dr. Lih-Ching Chen Wang and Dr. R.D. Nordgren

Culturally Responsive Pedagogy in China : Serving the Needs of Ethnic Minorities in Yunnan and Guangxi Provinces and the City of Chongqing

Teachers in China and the United States strive to increase the achievements of ethnic minorities, enabling them to be better contributors to the economy and society. U.S. teachers of ethnic minorities often use “culturally responsive pedagogy” to make intellectual connections with their students. This is crucial as most U.S. teachers are white and from the middle class while an increasing proportion of the public school children are of ethnic minorities from impoverished families. The Confucius Institute at Cleveland State University, one of over 300 such institutes worldwide whose goal is to teach Mandarin language and Chinese culture, seeks to work with faculty and teachers in the collaboration of provinces and cities to create and implement an education plan to best meet these needs of ethnic minorities in that province based on culturally responsive pedagogy. By working together to further the education of minorities in both nations, citizens of the U.S. and China will gain a better understanding of each others cultures and educational challenges.

Collaborators include:

1. Confucius Institute, Cleveland State University , Ohio , USA
2. Yunnan Normal University , Kunming , Yunnan , China
3. Honghe University , Mengzi , Yunnan , China
4. Diqing Sports Bureau, Diqing , Yunnan , China
5. Lijiang Teachers Training College , Lijiang , Yunnan , China
6. Dali University , Dali , Yunnan , China
7. Department of Education of Yunnan Province , Kunming , Yunnan , China
8. Guangxi Normal University , Guilin , Guangxi , China
9. Guangxi Teacher Education University , Nanning , Guangxi , China
10. Guangxi Education College , Nanning , Guangxi , China
11. Southwest University , Chongqing , China