The USC Rossier School of Education continues to be ranked among the top 20 Graduate Schools of Education in the United States, according to US News & World Report 2014 rankings, released on March 12. The School was ranked at #17, among over 100 public and private graduate schools.

In the Higher Education Administration specialty field, USC Rossier rose to #6, its highest ranking to date.

“The expertise of the USC Rossier faculty and the caliber of the work being conducted in our research centers and programs are reflected again this year in our high rankings,” said Rossier Dean Karen Symms Gallagher. “As a graduate school committed to innovation and the improvement of learning in urban education, we are proud of this national recognition.”

USC Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Elizabeth Garrett & USC Rossier School of Education Dean Karen Symms Gallagher / Photo by: Steve Cohn

USC President C.L. Max Nikias awarded USC Rossier School of Education Dean Karen Symms Gallagher the inaugural Provost’s Prize for Innovation in Educational Practice at the Academic Honors Convocation on April 23.

Gallagher was honored for her visionary leadership and transformative contributions to education and to USC. She shares this designation with co-recipient Dean Marilyn Flynn from the USC School of Social Work.

The prize recognizes members of the USC community for their exceptional achievement that furthers the university’s mission and its role as a leader in higher education.

USC Rossier was well represented at the convocation, with several other members of the Rossier family receiving honors as well. USC Trustee Verna B. Dauterive MEd ’49, EdD ’66 was awarded the Presidential Medallion; Professor Emeritus Richard Clark received the Faculty Lifetime Achievement Award (can link to story); and PASA student Kenisha Strong was presented with the Rockwell Dennis Hunt Award by alumna Lorna Reed (can link to story). In the award letter, Nikias lauded the Dean’s leadership in the development and launch of Rossier’s online Master of Arts in Teaching degree in 2009, and noted the program has contributed to the university’s reputation as a pioneer in online education.

“Your entrepreneurial innovation and service as a catalyst of change have built USC’s global online graduate education enterprise,” Nikias stated in the letter. The Master of Arts in Teaching program, the first of its kind from a major research university. combines robust highly-interactive live online curricula with field work in a school in each student’s own community. The groundbreaking program now has more than 1,300 highly prepared graduates from nearly 50 states and 40 countries – a tenfold increase over the school’s on-campus program.

Gallagher also led the redesign of USC Rossier’s practitioner-focused EdD program in which doctoral candidates solve real problems of practice in the field through work in thematic dissertation groups. The EdD has become a model for doctor of education programs nationally and is the basis for USC Rossier’s Global Executive EdD, which enrolls students from around the world in a hybrid program of face-to-face and online coursework.

In September, Gallagher and her faculty opened USC Hybrid High School. The innovative learning environment provided at the Los Angeles charter school is designed to prepare students for college and fulfilling careers by way of individual and self-directed curricula, new technology tools to manage the students’ schedules and expanded school hours.

This year, she was named a Pahara-Aspen Education Fellow, the first school of education dean to be so honored. The highly selective recognition supports entrepreneurial leaders who are committed to transforming public education.

The USC Rossier School of Education is hosting an accreditation visit by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) on October 13, 14, 15, and 16 of 2013. Interested parties are invited to submit third-party comments to the visiting team. Please note that comments must address substantive matters related to the quality of professional education programs offered, and should specify the party’s relationship to the institution (i.e., graduate, present or former faculty member, employer of graduates).

We invite you to submit written testimony to:

Board of Examiners
NCATE
2010 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20036-1023

Or by e-mail to: callforcomments@ncate.org

Correspondence, which must be received by NCATE no later than three months prior to visit, will be submitted to the institution for response prior to the review. NCATE will not consider anonymous comments.

Dean Karen Symms Gallagher

The Chronicle of Higher Education includes Dean Karen Symms Gallagher in its list of 2013 Technology Innovator nominees. Dean Gallagher is credited with launching Rossier’s online master’s degree program, which has graduated nearly 1,200 teachers in every state and 40 countries.

The list also includes Chip Paucek, co-founder of 2U (formerly 2Tor), which provides the technology platform for Rossier’s online degree programs. Tracey Fullerton, who directs the USC Game Innovation Lab, is also on the list for “Creating games that make a measurable difference in attracting and retaining college students.” Among those games is “Mission Admission,” which she created with Zoe Corwin and others from Rossier’s Pullias Center for Higher Education as part of the Collegeology Games project. “Mission Admission” prepares underserved students for the college admission process by allowing them to virtually experience the demands of the college application process and empowering them with the skills and knowledge they need to apply, get into and pay for college.

> View the list.
> Learn more about Rossier’s online offerings.
> Learn more about “Mission Admission”

Lisa Mataczynski EdD ’13

Lisa Mataczynski EdD ’13 is the Doctoral Winner of the NACADA Student Research Award. Established in 1983, the NACADA Annual Awards Program for Academic Advising honors individuals and institutions making significant contributions to the improvement of academic advising. NACADA is a representative and advocate of academic advising and those providing that service to higher education.

Mataczynski’s dissertation is titled, “Advising and Acculturation Variables as Predictors of Satisfaction, Sense of Belonging, and Persistence among International Undergraduates.” Her dissertation chair was Ruth Chung, who encouraged her to pick a dissertation topic that she was knowledgeable and passionate about. Mataczynski had previously held a variety of academic advising positions, and particularly enjoyed working with international students. She was curious to know more about their experiences with advising because so much of the advising literature pertains primarily to the mainstream population. In addition to facing many of the same academic challenges as their American counterparts, international college students experience unique challenges such as language difficulties, social and cultural adjustment stressors, financial problems and the demands of adapting to a new educational system. In reading over initial literature in the field, Mataczynski became particularly interested in the cultural components of their adjustment, more specifically, the within- and between-group variables of acculturation and country of origin.

Dissertation abstract:

Guided by the work of Hurtado and Carter (1997) as an alternative to Tinto’s theory of student departure (1993), the purpose of this quantitative study was to explore the relationship of institutional and cultural factors to satisfaction with academic advising, sense of belonging to campus and retention among international undergraduate students in the United States. Participants included 301 undergraduate international students who completed an online survey that examined the advising relationship, advisor-advisee activities, country of citizenship, acculturation, advising satisfaction, sense of belonging, and intent to persist. Measurement tools utilized included the Academic Advising Inventory (Winston & Sandor, 1984), Stephenson Multigroup Acculturation Scale (Stephenson, 2000), and Sense of Belonging to Campus questionnaire (Hurtado & Carter, 1997; Hurtado & Ponjuan, 2005). Findings indicated that the advising relationship and acculturation were significant predictors of international students’ satisfaction with academic advising, and acculturation and advising satisfaction were important influences on sense of belonging. Additionally, advisor-advisee activities, advising satisfaction, and sense of belonging were important variables in predicting intent to persist to graduation. The results of this study provide direction for higher education administrators and researchers in their efforts to gain a better understanding of factors leading to international student success.

Mataczynski works for the Information Technology Program (ITP) at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. She manages academic programs and is responsible for student advisement, curriculum development and faculty support. She is currently developing and implementing a cycle of assessment for ITP. Mataczynski is passionate about the overlapping fields of intercultural communication and diversity/inclusion. She is also currently assisting Santa Monica College in the development, implementation, and assessment of a strategic initiative aimed at examining students’ non-cognitive skills and how they might play a role in promoting student success.

Dr. Amina Humphrey

Amina Humphrey’s research has been accepted at the following conferences:

“Beyoncé and Racial Ambiguity: Beauty Norms and Profit…The Lies of Lace-Front Wigs, Blonde Hair, and Skin-Lightening”

• The International Popular Culture Association Conference scheduled for July 22, 2013 through July 26, 2013 in Warsaw, Poland.

“Reading Race, Reading Gender: African American Mothers’ and Daughters’ Readings of Their Lives and Picture Books about Skin Color and Hair Texture”

• The Frederick Douglass Institute Collaborative – Ghana, Africa Interdisciplinary Conference Diversity and Multiculturalism in the Global Community, May 19-27
• The Association of Black Psychologists (ABPsi), July 23-27, New Orleans, Louisiana

Humphrey serves as an adjunct faculty member in Rossier’s EdD program, where she teaches qualitative research in a course titled, “Inquiry II.” Many of her students are teachers and administrators in public schools and community colleges. Humphrey also serves on four EdD dissertation committees.

Dr. Michael Jackson

Los Angeles Sentinel featured Rossier professor and USC Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Services Michael L. Jackson’s lifetime induction into the USC Trojan Marching Band in a story titled, “Michael L. Jackson Retires from USC.” Jackson has been with USC for 16 years and said he would take a year off to read, write and travel. “Then I’ll come back and do some fundraising and teach in the school of education,” Jackson said.

EdD student and Director of the USC Center for Black Cultural Affairs Corliss Bennett-McBride said she’s “sad and excited” for Jackson. “He is responsible for bringing me out of Enrollment Services and transferring me here to Student Affairs 14 years ago. Because of him I have grown as a professional within student affairs that I have run with [Jackson’s] direction. He is just a great and powerful man.”

> Read the article.

Liz Jordan ME-PASA ’08 EdD ’11

Asia Pacific Rim International Study Experience (APRISE) Program Specialist Liz Jordan ME-PASA ’08 EdD ’11 recently appeared on the grand finale of Conrad’s Corner, USC’s only news radio talk show. Jordan spoke about her involvement in the “Be the Match” National Donor Program, and how her bone marrow donation saved the life of a woman in Austin, TX. She also spoke about Rossier’s APRISE travel-study program for EdD students, and how the program helps expand Rossier’s international reach. Show host Conrad Wilton called Jordan “Miss Sunny Day” and said that it was a pleasure to have her on the show for the fifth time.

Liz Jordan ME-PASA ’08 EdD ’11

Asia Pacific Rim International Study Experience (APRISE) Program Specialist Liz Jordan ME-PASA ’08 EdD ’11 recently appeared on the grand finale of Conrad’s Corner, USC’s only news radio talk show. Jordan spoke about her involvement in the “Be the Match” National Donor Program, and how her bone marrow donation saved the life of a woman in Austin, TX. She also spoke about Rossier’s APRISE travel-study program for EdD students, and how the program helps expand Rossier’s international reach. Show host Conrad Wilton called Jordan “Miss Sunny Day” and said that it was a pleasure to have her on the show for the fifth time.

Dr. Henry Jenkins

Mark Glaser of PBS News’ “MediaShift” interviewed Henry Jenkins and Andrew Lih of the USC Annenberg School about the ways that media spreads. The interview, which is part of the Mediatwits series, is titled, “Mediatwits #79: FBI Reads Emails Without Warrants; Henry Jenkins on ‘Spreadable Media’”. Glaser asked his guests to comment on whether the FBI and the Department of Justice should be able to read private emails and Facebook and Twitter messages without a warrant, and whether journalists should do interviews in public. Jenkins also explained why he prefers the term “spreadable” over “viral” when referring to how media spreads online. He also spoke about how publishers and journalists should measure their online impact.

• Read the article.
• Spreadable Media website
• Q&A: Henry Jenkins: Spreadable Media Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture (A World That Just Might Work)
• Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture (NY Journal of Books)
• Review: Spreadable Media (Art of Wonderment blog)
• Henry Jenkins on Spreadable Media (Deep Media Online)