School of Education & Social Policy

Faculty News


Grants
Louis Gomez Louis Gomez, Chicago Public Schools, "Clemente Small School Development Project" ($85,000).
Barton Hirsch Barton Hirsch, After School Matters, "Planning an Evaluation of After School Matters Apprenticeship Programs for Students in Chicago Public High Schools" ($95,000).
Kemi Jona Kemi Jona, Illinois Math and Science Academy, "Illinois Virtual High School Earth Science Semester 2 Course Development" ($10,000).
Paula Olszewski-Kubilius Paula Olszewski-Kubilius, Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, Jack Kent Cooke Young Scholars Civic Learning Week" ($54,792); McCormick Tribune Foundation, "Civic Education Project" ($30,000).


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Publications
Fay Lomax Cook Fay Lomax Cook, "Navigating Pension Policy in the United States," Tocqueville Review (2005).
Barton Hirsch Dan McAdams, R. Josselson and A. Lieblich (Eds.), Identity and Story: Creating Self in Narrative (2006).
Kemi Jona James P. Spillane, Distributed Leadership (2006); "Primary School Leadership Practice, School Leadership & Management (2005).
Paula Olszewski-Kubilius Lois Trautvetter, Lawrence Braskamp and Kelly Ward, Putting Students First: How Colleges Develop Students Purposefully (2005); "Putting Students First," Journal of College Character (2005).


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Honors
Doug Medin Douglas Medin was named the Louis W. Menk Professor in Psychology.
Kimberly Scott Kimberly Scott was invited to join the Board of Directors for Winning Workplaces, a national not-for-profit whose mission is to help organizations create better workplaces.


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Presentations
Fay Lomax Cook Fay Lomax Cook presented "Myth-Making versus Truth-Telling about Public Opinion on Social Security" at the Annual Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America at Orlando in November.
Regina Lopata Logan Regina Lopata Logan presented "Leaving a Legacy: The Role of Generativity in Adult Service Learning Projects" at DePaul University in October and "Grumpy Old Men: Are Childless Men Low in Generativity and at Risk?" to the Gerontological Society of America in November.
Lois Trautvetter Lois Trautvetter and Lawrence Braskamp presented "Promoting Holistic Student Development" to the Association for the Study of Higher Education in Philadelphia in November; "How Colleges Develop Students Purposefully" to the Association of American Colleges and Universities in Washington, D.C., in January; and "Ministry as a Partner in Developing Students with Purpose" to the National Association of College and University Chaplains in Chicago in February.


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Festschrift Honors Allan Collins Retirement
Allan Collins A festschrift was held on March 18 as a tribute to retired learning sciences professor Allan Collins, who became professor emeritus on September 1, 2005. The festschrift honored Collins' outstanding accomplishments as a scholar in the fields of psychology, artificial intelligence and education.

Twelve colleagues, former students, and mentees made presentations during a morning session on cognition and an afternoon session on education reform and technology. Others recalled the beginnings of cognitive science and the learning sciences and Collins' leadership in creating these fields.

A faculty member at the School of Education and Social Policy for 16 years, Collins is a member of the National Academy of Education, a fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, founding editor of the journal Cognitive Science and first chair of the Cognitive Science Society.

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Spillane Named to New Interdisciplinary Professorship
James P. Spillane, professor of human development and social policy and learning sciences, has been named the first Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Professor in Learning and Organizational Change. His investiture was November 3.

This newly endowed professorship was established by the Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Foundation with the goal of seeking new ideas and research collaborations in learning and organizations. The chair is unique in that it links business and education as a joint position for the School of Education and Social Policy and Kellogg School of Management.

Spillane's investiture lecture, entitled "School Reform American Style: The (Missed) Management of Instruction," substantiated the need for looking at schools as organizations. "The school organization is critical to understanding why efforts to reform education have failed," he explained. "It is crucial that schools think about the links between the organizational structure and the core work-teaching."

An expert in school leadership and the implementation of education policy, Spillane is a faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy Research as well as director of the Multidisciplinary Program in Education Sciences. His work includes leadership of the Distributed Leadership Study, a program of funded research investigating the practice of school leadership. Spillane, who joined the Northwestern faculty in 1996, is the author of two books, Standards Deviation: How Schools Misunderstand Education Policy and Distributed Leadership.

James P. Spillane, professor of human development and social policy and learning sciences, has been named the first Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Professor in Learning and Organizational Change
Photo Caption: Dean Penelope Peterson, Barbara Olin Taylor of the Olin Foundation, President Henry Bienen and Professor James Spillane at the investiture for the Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Professorship in Learning and Organizational Change.
Photo by Andrew Campbell

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McAdams Featured at A Day with Northwestern April 22
Human development and social policy professor Dan McAdams is slated as a speaker at the Alumni Association's A Day with Northwestern on April 22.

McAdams will speak on "The Redemptive Self: Stories Americans Live By," based on his research into the kinds of life stories that especially caring and productive American adults tell. Registration for A Day at Northwestern is through the Alumni Association web site.

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Hirsch, Duncan Win Social Policy Awards
A Place to Call Home: After-School Programs for Urban Youth The Society for Research on Adolescence recently awarded Barton J. Hirsch its 2006 Social Policy Award for best authored book for A Place to Call Home: After-School Programs for Urban Youth. The book, co-published by the American Psychological Association and Teachers College Press in 2005, highlights Hirsch's findings on the value of after-school programs.





Greg Duncan and graduate student E. Clark-Kauffman, along with co-authors L.A. Gennetian, V. Knox and W. Vargas, won the Society's 2006 Social Policy Award for best journal article for "How Welfare Policies Affect Adolescents' School Outcomes," published in Journal of Research on Adolescence.

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Duncan Describes Impact of Family Income on Young Children
Greg Duncan Family income early in life has the biggest impacts on young children's long-term school achievement, Greg Duncan, Edwina S. Tarry Professor of Education, noted in a Dublin address.

The former director of the Panel of Income Dynamics for the U.S. and a noted expert on child poverty, Duncan said that the impact of an additional $5,000 per year for a child under age six was associated with an added half-year of school time.

"This might not seem like a lot, but to a child it's a big difference in terms of their level of education and achievement. And it has the potential to make the difference between them being welfare-dependent or a taxpayer," he said. In addition, income increases "appear to matter more for low-income families than for higher-income families."

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