Saturday, August 15, 2020
Time: 8:00 a.m., rain or shine
Gates Open: 6:30 a.m.
Location: Gerald J. Ford Stadium
5800 Ownby Drive
Dallas, TX 75205
On Saturday morning, the All-University Commencement Convocation will assemble graduates and candidates from all of SMU’s schools and professional programs. Commencement speakers will offer their congratulations to the newest class of graduates, an Honorary Degree will be bestowed on Mr. Max Glauben, and President Turner will re-confer your degrees. Graduates and candidates will cross the stage and have their names announced. Elements of the Baccalaureate Service will be included.
Reservations for August 15 Commencement Tickets is CLOSED.
(Entry to the commencement requires a ticket)
We hope you can watch the livestream on August 15. Graduates who do not obtain a ticket will be mailed a special graduation package including the August 2020 Commencement program, a souvenir print, and other items in recognition of your important accomplishment several weeks after August 15.
Assistant Professor Denisa Gándara, Department of Education Policy and Leadership, Simmons School
Assistant Professor Denisa Gándara’s research on funding incentives some states are using to improve student outcomes at public universities is cited in a recent Inside Higher Ed article.
The article explains how some states are making efforts to preserve access for historically underserved students by awarding additional funding (premiums) for enrolling certain groups of students (usually low-income and racial / ethnic minorities).
Colorado’s new funding model, which includes these types of premiums, receives particular attention.
Gándara’s study, co-written with Indiana University’s Amanda Rutherford, finds that the share of both low-income and Hispanic students increases in institutions with performance-funding incentives compared to institutions without such premiums.
Unexpectedly, the findings also reveal negative effects of funding bonuses on Black student enrollments. The findings suggest institutions may be prioritizing enrollment of non-Black students, even when states incorporate these incentives to diversify enrollments. The study was not able to explain this negative relationship between underrepresented student premiums and Black student enrollments.
In addition to the study cited in the article, Gándara’s recent research on performance-based funding models in higher education includes:
Gándara, D., & Rutherford, A. (2020). Completion at the Expense of Access? The Relationship Between Performance-Funding Policies and Access to Public 4-Year Universities. Educational Researcher, 0013189X20927386. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3102/0013189X20927386
To help policymakers, educators, parents and others respond to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, professors Alexandra Pavlakis, Meredith Richards, and post doctoral fellow, Kessa Roberts, contributed a policy brief on homeless students released by EdResearch for Recovery, a project initiated by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University and Results for America. The collaboration taps top researchers from across the country to develop evidence briefs to inform recovery strategies.
Simmons researchers are examining the effects of student displacement in the Houston Independent School District caused by Hurricane Harvey, and now COVID-19. As they note, student homelessness was increasing before the pandemic hit. In their brief, they suggest strategies for schools, such as prioritizing identification, establishing an environment that builds trust, and policy to support students’ rights.
Kathryn Hill and Zitsi Mirakhur with Research Alliance for New York City Schools also contributed to the brief.
Eight SMU students have been selected for Fulbright U.S. Student Program awards. Pablo Gonzales, Nadia Helmy, Frank Jackson, Liliana Mata, Brittany Rigg, Barrett Stout, Catherine Ticzon and Jennifer Trejo were awarded English Teaching Assistantships for the 2020-2021 academic year from the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.
These eight students are part of over 2,100 U.S. citizens who will study, conduct research, and teach abroad for the 2020-2021 academic year through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. Recipients of Fulbright awards are selected in an open, merit-based competition that considers leadership potential, academic and/or professional achievement, and record of service. As Fulbright alumni, their careers are enriched by joining a network of thousands of esteemed alumni, many of whom are leaders in their fields. Fulbright alumni include 60 Nobel Prize laureates, 88 Pulitzer Prize recipients, and 37 who have served as a head of state or government.
The largest number of recipients came from the Simmons School of Education, where many are completing Master in Education degrees. Pablo Gonzales, Nadia Helmy, Frank Jackson, Catherine Ticzon, and Jennifer Trejo were also Teach for America Corps members teaching in Dallas-Fort Worth public schools. Liliana Mata and Brittany Rigg completed both their undergraduate and graduate degrees at SMU. Barrett Stout, SMU’s only undergraduate to receive the award, double majored in History and Anthropology and interned at the Meadows Museum of Art. This cohort represents SMU’s largest and most diverse group of Fulbright awardees. They are scheduled to depart to Mexico, Spain, Colombia, Jordan, and Greece in January 2021.
“This has been a banner year for SMU in terms of Fulbright recipients and credit is due to both our outstanding student applicants and the faculty and staff who provided them support and guidance through the rigorous application process. The international experiences made available through Fulbright awards will provide our students a life-changing opportunity to be ‘world changers,’” said Provost Elizabeth Loboa.
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is administered at Southern Methodist University through the office of National Student Fellowships. “SMU has made great strides in the number of Fulbright applications, semi-finalists and awardees. I am excited to see the largest group of Fulbright awards in SMU’s history,” said Dr. Rachel Ball-Phillips, Director of National Student Fellowships and SMU’s Fulbright Program advisor.
Distinguished University Professor Jill Allor, Ed.D, Department of Teaching and Learning
Provost Elizabeth Loboa has named Teaching and Learning Professor Jill Allor a Distinguished University Professor for her excellence in teaching, researching, and community service. Allor is one of two SMU faculty members recognized this year for the highest levels of academic achievement.
The honor is based on recommendations from deans and endorsed by the Office of the Provost. The University Distinguished Professorships were created in 1982 by SMU’s Board of Trustees to celebrate outstanding faculty members, who receive cash awards of $10,000 per year and are appointed for a five-year rolling term.
Since arriving at SMU in 2004, Professor Allor has developed and maintained a highly productive research agenda across a broad range of topics within her field: structured literacy tutoring for elementary readers, alternative assessment models for students with intellectual disabilities and below average IQs, and approaches for promoting literacy among pre-school level readers. She is a former special education teacher whose research is school-based and focuses on reading acquisition for students with and without disabilities, including students with learning disabilities and intellectual disabilities.
She has published 31 peer-reviewed journal articles and seven book chapters. During her time at SMU she has received $7 million dollars in external research funding and has presented at 65 conferences.
Professor Allor has taught a broad range of courses, including literacy, assessment, quantitative methods, curriculum/instruction, and special education. She has also supervised Simmons’ doctoral students through dissertation.
Throughout her SMU career, Allor has maintained a strong commitment to service – to Simmons, SMU and the national community. In Simmons, for example, she served as chair of the Department of Teaching and Learning for nine years.
Allor received her Ed.D. in special education with an emphasis on reading and reading disabilities from Peabody College of Vanderbilt University. Prior to arriving at SMU in 2004, she held faculty appointments at Florida State University and Louisiana State University.
Dominique Baker, Ph.D., Education Policy and Leadership
The Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University and Results for America announced the new EdResearch for Recovery Project, which will provide rapid-turnaround evidence briefs from top researchers to help answer the most pressing education-related questions from policymakers, educators, parents and other advocates as they respond to and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
As part of the project launch, the Annenberg Institute and Results for America released the first three evidence briefs, one of which is co-authored by Simmons Assistant Professor Dominique Baker with Sade Bonilla (University of Massachusetts at Amherst) and Celeste K. Carruthers (University of Tennessee at Knoxville. The brief synthesizes ways to support and guide students moving into their post secondary education.
“This project responds to a direct ask from education decision makers to better synthesize research in ways that respond to the needs of the moment,” said Nate Schwartz, Professor of Practice at Brown University’s Annenberg Institute. “Starting with a series of crowdsourced questions from leaders at the state and district levels, we enlisted some of the nation’s leading researchers to develop rapid-response briefs that clearly lay out the evidence base to guide current decision making.”
The project is supported by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Simmons Professor Leanne Ketterlin Geller and co-principal investigators at the Lyle School, Associate Professor Eric Larson, and Assistant Professor Corey Clark, talk about the impetus behind their $1.5 million National Science Foundation grant allowing them to develop a videogame to teach computational thinking. Computational thinking should begin in Pre-K and followed through Grade 12, but as Ketterlin Geller notes getting students engaged in math and science is difficult.
In a recent article featured in Lyle Now, they discuss how their inspiration to use a Minecraft-based game for teaching came from the literacy game Simmons, Guildhall, and Literacy for Texas collaborated on for the Barbara Bush Foundation Adult Literacy X-Prize competition. The game won the grand prize, and Clark says, “We figured if educational gaming can help teach literacy concepts, why not use it to teach math, science and computational thinking by converting it into Minecraft?” Clark, also deputy director of research at SMU Guildhall, is an education gaming expert who constructed the X-Prize game.
SMU’s Simmons School of Education and Human Development Professor and Texas Instruments Endowed Chair in Education Leanne Ketterlin Geller
Ketterlin Geller says the research team is speaking to local school districts about potential collaborations. “Having student and teacher voices in the ultimate design and dissemination of the project will help with its implementation, longevity, and sustainability.”
Their feedback is essential because the team is striving for key education outcomes such as engaging in gameplay; changes in students’ interest, attitudes, beliefs and self-efficacy in STEM+C; involvement in collaborative, open-ended solutions; and achievement in related computing and mathematics concepts. Research for this project began last fall and continues through 2022.
You are invited to attend a virtual community meeting to discuss plans for the new West Dallas STEM School at Pinkston. The meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, June 8, 2020, online at www.dallasisd.org/Bond2015Meetings. Dallas Independent School District representatives will be in attendance to make a presentation and answer questions about the project. Spanish translation will be available. Dallas ISD’s planning for the school has been done in partnership with Toyota USA Foundation, SMU Simmons, and the West Dallas Community.
With the conclusion of the spring semester the Simmons School is happy to announce the following faculty promotions:
Congratulations to Michael Harris(Education Policy and Leadership) who was promoted to Full Professor, and to Sushmita Purkayastha(Applied Physiology and Wellness) and Meredith Richards (Education Policy and Leadership) who received tenure and were promoted to Associate Professors.
Clinical faculty promotions include four who moved from Clinical Assistant to Clinical Associate status: Roxanne Burleson (Education Policy and Leadership), Greta Davis (Dispute Resolution and Counseling), Amy Ferrell (Teaching and Learning), and Diane Gifford (Teaching and Learning). Three faculty were promoted from Clinical Associate to Clinical Full: Margaret Jacome(Dispute Resolution and Counseling), Misty Solt(Dispute Resolution and Counseling, and Ashley Tull(Education Policy and Leadership). Plaudits to them.
Associate Professor Doris Baker, Department of Teaching and Learning, is featured in a podcast, Empowering ConverzationZ with Mehran Sourourian, speaking about her own experience as an immigrant from Latin America.
Baker was born in Brazil and also lived in Colombia and Mexico before she migrated to the U.S. Her transitions from country to country impacted the way she sees the world and herself. These experiences shaped her interest in academia, including her research in bilingual education. Listen to her interview here.
