Monthly News | May 2024

International partnerships expand research, learning opportunities

Pictured: Professor Rossella Santagata with doctoral students in Tübingen, Germany. Courtesy photo.

Dean Contreras delivers welcome address at CAP Forum

Representing and inspiring the AANHPI community through her work

The founder of emotional intelligence card game company Mind Brain Emotion Jenny Woo, Ph.D. '22, is on a mission to create accessible, affordable and culturally-responsive resources to level the playing field and empower all to fully express their potential. Learn more

Dr. Keith Curry, Ed.D. ’11 named the 2024 Commencement Speaker

The alumnus, president of Compton College and CEO of the Compton Community College District (CCCD), will give his keynote speech at the UC Irvine School of Education ceremony on June 14. Learn more

Climate change education activist Kelley Lê develops programs centered on social justice

The executive director of the Environmental Climate Change Literacy Project discusses her work in climate justice, creating the first part of a framework for 21st-century climate change education, and offers advice for young Asian Americans aspiring to make a difference in environmental science and educational leadership. Learn more

National academy professor video series

Distinguished Professor Jacquelynne Eccles lends insight into childhood development research, including her groundbreaking research on girls' interest in mathematics, the challenges faced by youth in underserved communities and the transformative potential of education in shaping their futures. Learn more

Dr. Samuel Bersola keynote speaker at AANHPI event

From left: Dr. Samuel Bersola, Frances Chong (City of Sacramento staff employee), Ryan Pham (City of Sacramento staff employee), Jimmie Yee (former Mayor of Sacramento), Cassy Vaioleti (City of Sacramento staff employee)

On May 16, Dr. Samuel Bersola, executive director of strategic initiatives at the School of Education, was the keynote speaker at the City of Sacramento's AAPI Cultural Celebration & Luncheon, where he delivered his talk “Diversity, Equity

and Inclusion for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians & Pacific Islanders:

Moving beyond Food, Festivals and Faces.”

Video series: Building Community in the Ph.D. Journey

Isabella Seccia shares how building strong and meaningful connections within one's cohort is essential as a first-year Ph.D. student at the UC Irvine School of Education.

Learn more

Follow the School of Education on Instagram and Facebook to keep up-to-date with Isabella's vlog series on her journey through the Ph.D. program.

Upcoming Events

• May 22 – "Embracing Diversity in Reading Development: Insights from Asian Writing Systems" Distinguished Lecture by Professor Young-Suk Kim

• May 23 – National Hispanic Business Women Association Annual Awards and Scholarship Luncheon, "Cultivating our Legacy," to honor Dean Frances Contreras as a Woman of the Year

• May 28 – Teaching Climate Change workshop, presented by UCI Science Project, UCI CalTeach and UCI Teacher Academy

• June 14 – School of Education commencement ceremony, including keynote speaker Keith Curry, Ed.D. '11

• June 25 – "Culturally Sustaining Writing Practices" Summer Learning Series webinar presented by the WRITE Center

• July 9 – "Teaching Argument Writing in the ELA Classroom: Diversity as Resource" Summer Learning Series webinar presented by the WRITE Center

• July 16 – "Leveraging Generative AI to Improve Secondary Writing Instruction" Summer Learning Series webinar presented by the WRITE Center

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

Going Varsity in Mariachi

On April 26, the UC Irvine School of Education, in collaboration with the School of Humanities’ Department of Spanish and Portuguese, hosted a special screening of the documentary "Going Varsity in Mariachi." View the photo gallery

• ​​Professors Drew Bailey, Greg Duncan and Jade Jenkins part of research team that found that the impact of publicly funded preschool on student performance varied beyond early childhood (Futurity)

• Distinguished Professor and chair of the National Academies committee which authored report on reducing intergenerational poverty Greg Duncan served as report discussion panelist (C-Span)

• Associate Professor Jade Jenkins offers parents advice on assessing if a TK classroom is developmentally appropriate (Los Angeles Times)

• Associate Professor Emily Penner discusses how categorization in school creates inequality (The Intentional Clinician)

• Interview with Jenny Woo Ph.D. '22 on mental health, "52 Essential" card games (NBC Bay Area)

• Lecturer Jenny Woo Ph.D. '22 offers conversation starter tips (Time)

• Professor June Ahn, Doctoral Student Seth van Doren and Postdoctoral Scholar Fernando Rodriguez: “The Utility of Designing Data Science Education Programs from a Framework of Identity.” In: Improving Equity in Data Science

• Professor Drew H. Bailey: “Assessing the association between parents’ math talk and children’s math performance: A preregistered meta-analysis.” In: Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

• Postdoctoral Scholar Yucheng Cao, Professor Young-Suk Kim, Doctoral Student Joongwon Lee, Project Scientist Tamara Tate, Associate Professor Penelope Collins, Doctoral Student Minkyung Cho, Doctoral Student Youngsun Moon, Director of Research, UCI Writing Project Huy Quoc Chung and Professor Emerita Carol Booth Olson: “Effective writing instruction for students in grades 6 to 12: a best evidence meta-analysis.” In: Reading and Writing 

• Professor Gustavo Carlo and Doctoral Student Roushanac Partovi: “Change in Prosocial Development Following Adversity Exposure Among U.S. Mexican Youth.” In: Developmental Psychology

• Distinguished Professor Emeritus George Farkas: “Executive Functions, Oral Vocabularies, and Literacy Skills Mediate Socio-demographic Gaps in Mathematics and Science Achievement during Elementary School.” In: Learning and Individual Differences

• Associate Professor Jade Jenkins, Professor Drew Bailey and Distinguished Professor Greg Duncan: “Unsettled science on longer-run effects of early education.” In: Science

• Professor Young-Suk Kim: “Crosslinguistic influence on spelling in written compositions: Evidence from English-Spanish dual language learners in primary grades.” In: Reading and Writing

• Professor Young-Suk Kim: “Reading and Writing Relations Are Not Uniform: They Differ by the Linguistic Grain Size, Developmental Phase, and Measurement.” In: Review of Educational Research

• Professor Young-Suk Kim: “Writing fluency: Its relations with language, cognitive, and transcription skills, and writing quality using longitudinal data from kindergarten to grade 2.” In: Journal of Educational Psychology

• Doctoral Student Jiali Wang, Professor Young-Suk Kim, and Doctoral Student Minkyung Cho: “Linguistic features in narrative and opinion genres and their relations to writing quality in fourth grade writing.” In: Journal of Research in Reading

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