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Welcome to the newsletter of the UIC EdD program in Urban Education Leadership. If you have items to be considered for submission, please forward them to ckbarron@uic.edu
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December 2021
UIC LEADERS ON THE MOVE!
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In this issue...
In this issue you will read about a range of news, including:
- Current student and alumni appointments
- Current student and alumni awards
- Program announcements
- UIC Faculty
- Resources
- Superintendent Endorsement Information
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Leadership is Essential
Celebrating Dr. Gholnecsar (Gholdy) Muhammad
Among the nations 200 most influential education policy scholars
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Someone Whose Work School Leaders Should Know
A number of UIC-prepared principals have found the work of Dr. Gholdy Mohammed especially valuable in their efforts to lead schools to greater equity in student learning, particularly in culturally-responsive literacy instruction. What those principals might not know is that Dr. Mohammed graduated from UIC’s Ph.D. Program in Literacy, Language and Culture in 2013, after which she earned tenure at Georgia State University. Today she is back “home” as an Associate Professor at UIC and bringing her stellar national reputation to the College of Education. Her impact on the field has been immeasurable, and the UIC Ed.D. Program is just one of many beneficiaries of her work, which challenges all of us to do better. Read on!
Dr. Gholnecsar (Gholdy) Muhammad is an Associate Professor of Literacy, Language, and Culture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She studies Black historical excellence within educational communities with goals of reframing curriculum and instruction today. Dr. Muhammad’s scholarship has appeared in leading academic journals and books, including Research in the Teaching of English, Urban Education, Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Language Arts, and Written Communication. Some of her recognitions include the 2014 recipient of the National Council of Teachers of English, Promising New Researcher Award, the 2016 NCTE Janet Emig Award, the 2017 GSU Urban Education Research Award, the 2018 UIC College of Education Researcher of the Year, the 2020 American Educational Research Association (AERA), Division K Early Career Award and the 2021 NCTE Outstanding Elementary Educator in the English Language Arts. She has led a federal grant with the United States Department of Education to study culturally and historically responsive literacy in STEM classrooms.
Dr. Muhammad is the author of the best-selling book Cultivating Genius: An Equity Model for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy. Dr. Muhammad’s story of genius begins in Gary, Indiana, where she was born and raised. As a young child in a school with predominantly Black teachers, Gholdy experienced joy in education. Once she entered the world of higher education, Dr. Muhammad realized that for most people of color, their narratives often began with deficit narratives, rather than genius and joy. This led Dr. Muhammad on a transformative journey of cultivating genius and joy by researching the educational histories of Black communities. During this excavation, Dr. Muhammad began to examine African American literary societies of the nineteenth century. This historical research helped to frame her model for five pursuits of teaching and learning: Identity, Skills, Intellect, Criticality, and Joy. These five pursuits of education are called the HILL Model because they respond to students’ Histories, Identities, Literacies, and Liberation.
· Identity Development—Helps students to make sense of who they are and to learn about the (cultural) identities of others.
· Skill Development— Helps students to develop proficiencies and state standards across the content areas and disciplines.
· Intellectual Development— Helps students to gain new knowledge that is set into the context of the world.
· Criticality— Helps students to name, understand, question, and disrupt oppression or hurt, pain and harm in the world to build a better humanity for all.
· Joy— Helps students to learn about beauty, aesthetics, truth, solution to problems and personal space fulfillment within humanity.
This model is featured in Cultivating Genius as well as her forthcoming book, Unearthing Joy. This Culturally & Historically Responsive Education Model has been adopted across U.S. school districts.
She is also a leading scholar on Black girl literacies and each summer leads Black Girls WRITE literacy institutes with elementary and adolescent Black girls. Black Girls WRITE is a 5-week institute where girls learn to write to define self, resist social harms, and to write for social change and joy. Dr. Muhammad has scholarship published on literacies of Black girls and have developed the Black Girl Literacies Framework featured in her co-authored the book, Black girls’ literacies: An Edited Volume, published by Routledge.
Dr. Muhammad brings expertise, having served as a middle school teacher, literacy specialist, school district administrator, and school board president. She is dedicated to working with teachers, leaders, parents, and youth across the United States and South Africa in best practices in culturally and historically responsive instruction.
In 2022 she was named with the top 1% Edu-Scholar Public Influencers which recognizes the 200 university-based scholars who had the biggest influence on educational practice and policy. Her scholarship has been featured on Good Morning America, Ed Week, Karen Hunter Sirius XM Radio Urban View, and multiple national podcasts. In addition to her forthcoming book on joy and supporting teachers internationally, she is currently writing her first picture book for children.
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Congratulations to Dr. Nate Pietrini
Appointment to Children and Family Services Council
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Dr. Nate Pietrini Ed.D (Cohort 9) was recently appointed by Governor Pritzker to a four year term as a member of the statewide Children and Family Services Council. This council advises DCFS with respect to programs and services for children and adults under its care. After his time as principal at Hawthorne Scholastic Academy, Nate has been the Executive Director of High Jump, a nonprofit focused on academic enrichment for students of limited economic means. While at High Jump Nate has expanded the enrollment of the program, established a partnership with Northwestern University, and increased the 6-year college graduate rates to 87%. Nate is a member of the Leadership Great Chicago Signature Fellows Program, the advisory board for the University of Chicago's To and Through Project, and was recently published in the Chicago Tribune. The title of Nate's Capstone was: "Leveraging Distributive Leadership Using Cycles of Inquiry for Improving Organizational Capacity."
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Congratulations to Dr. Peggie Burnett - Wise
Principal Contract
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Dr. Peggie Burnett - Wise (Cohort 6) was awarded a new contract from Morton School of Excellence. Dr. Burnett - Wise has been the principal of Morton since 2012. Prior to that, she was the assistant principal at John Hay Academy. Peggie believes that change is facilitated by a well-prepared and committed leader. Morton School of Excellence has gone from a turnaround school to the first Regional Gifted Center on the westside of Chicago during Dr. Burnett - Wise's tenure. This exciting new gifted program, titled the Pathfinders Program, begins this year with a cohort of kindergarten students and will add a grade each subsequent year. The RGC will allow students the opportunity to showcase their talents through fine arts, academics, and social justice activities and attention to social-emotional development. We have a program that will allow talented students the platform to share their creativity with other students that have similar interests in subjects such as English, Mathematics, Social Studies, Science and Physical Education, as well as in World Languages (French), ASL, STEAM, music, coding, gardening and social/emotional learning (SEL). It is expected that this program will assist gifted students at Morton who excel to navigate a path to Chicago’s most selective high school programs. The title of Dr. Burnett - Wise's capstone was "The Assistant Principal's Role in Transforming a High-Need School."
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Congratulations to Janelle Hatch-Miller
Principal of Senn High School
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Janelle Hatch Miller (Cohort 18) is the new Interim Principal of Senn High School. Mrs. Hatch-Miller recently served as assistant principal at Senn High School leading, supporting, and collaborating with various teams that include the Climate and Culture and DEI teams, Math and Major Studies Departments, Career Program, and 9th grade’s student success team. Prior to Senn High School, Mrs. Hatch-Miller started her teaching career as a Math teacher in Chicago Public schools, taught English for one year in Japan, and served as an Algebra 1/Algebra 2 teacher and Math Department Chair at the high school level for four years. Then, she transitioned to an academic dean position at Providence Englewood school for four years. As the academic dean, she engaged in curriculum alignment, coaching and co-teaching, schoolwide data compilation and analysis, and academic student support. During the 2020-21 school year, she served as the Resident Principal of Peirce Elementary School leading efforts in MTSS to support student engagement, collaborating with the Parent Advisory Council to help parents support their child’s academic success, working to increase student engagement in schoolwide decision-making, and refining and facilitating hiring practices. Mrs. Hatch-Miller looks forward to collaborating with all members of the Senn community and continuing to devote her effort, time, and energy to current initiatives that support the development of all students.
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Congratulations to Dr. Paul Karafiol
Principal Contract Renewal
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Dr. Paul Karafiol's (Cohort 12) contract renewal at Lake View High School was recently approved by the Board, extending his tenure there until June 2025 (at least!). At Lake View, Karafiol's work has focused on reshaping academic departments as professional learning teams while integrating social-emotional supports for all students in all classrooms. The investment in teacher communities has paid off, with an astonishing four math department members receiving state or national recognition for their teaching in the last four years, and a renewed enthusiasm from all staff for learning and implementing new ideas. Outside Lake View, Karafiol has been an advocate for trans and gender nonconforming students. Karafiol was part of a team that consulted with the ASPEN implementation to include support for students to be identified with names and genders other than those on their legal documents, co-developed a presentation for school leaders on supporting trans students that was eventually adapted into the district-wide training received by all staff, and, most recently, sponsored the successful passage of an IHSA by-law clarifying that students can compete under any name they "commonly use in school or social situations," not just a name that appears on legal documents. Karafiol was a member of Cohort 12 and graduated in May of 2019 with the capstone, "Stagnation to Germination: Creating Structures for Embedded Professional Learning".
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Congratulations to Dr. Jennifer Hester Schalk
Superintendent Endorsement
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Dr. Jennifer Hester Schalk, the Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Professional Development at Homewood-Flossmoor School District 233, recently completed her Illinois Superintendent Endorsement through UIC. Jen has also received her master's and doctoral degrees from UIC. Jen is an equity-centered, instructional leader with more than 20 years of experience leading educational change and innovation in diverse learning environments. She served in Chicago Public Schools where she taught at Manley Career Academy and led the citywide high school Chicago Reading Initiative. Jen also served in St. Charles Community School District 303 and Naperville Community Unit School District 203 as a district-level administrator where she led curricular and instructional programming and initiatives. Jen believes that students learn in a safe and inclusive environment as parents and staff collaborate for their shared success. In leading a collaborative vision for district- and school-level improvement, Jen has built the capacity of teacher and administrative teams to increase overall and student performance and growth. She values the dignity and humanity of all students and staff and has successfully designed educational programs that cultivate students’ cultural and academic identities.
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Congratulations to Dr. Anthony Rodriguez
Superintendent Endorsement
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Dr. Anthony Rodriguez (Cohort 7) is in his fifth year and on his second contract as the principal of Schurz High School. During his tenure as principal, the school has realized notable gains in college enrollment, early college credit attainment, on-track rates, and positive student behaviors. He has led the successful implementation of the Reading Apprenticeship and Conscious Discipline programs, with the latter resulting in a 50% year-over year decrease in significant discipline infractions. In his relentless pursuit of ensuring equitable outcomes for all students, he is currently leading the expansion of the IB Middle Years Programme and bringing the IB approach to teaching and learning to every 9th and 10th grade student at the school. He began his career at Benito Juarez Community Academy in 2002 and went on to serve as an instructional coach with Kaplan, resident principal at Lafayette Elementary School, and assistant principal at Schurz. Rodriguez recently completed the Superintendent Endorsement process through UIC and found that it supported his continuous learning and equitable leadership practices. Dr. Rodriguez's Capstone was titled, "An Exploration and Analysis of Organization Change at a Large Urban Neighborhood High School." When not at the school, he enjoys spending time with his family, fishing, weightlifting, and writing.
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Thank You W. Clement & Jessie V. Stone Fellowships in Early Childhood Leadership Development
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Due to generous support of the W. Clement & Jessie V. Stone Foundation the UIC Urban Education Leadership Program has made great strides in sharing practices among our Early Childhood Leaders. Additionally, our Early Childhood Scholarship Fellows support influencing and sharing practice with our aspiring school leaders during their residency phase of the EdD program.
Our learnings from previous grants underscore the need to embed social and emotional learning into the fabric of schools, building parent/community partnerships, and better diagnosing systemic inequity. As a result of the Stone Foundation's generous support, we have been able to fund approximately eight to ten early childhood leaders to share their most transformative practices, and in turn, share their collective thinking with the UIC EdD program.
This year, due to the increased number of applicants, the interview and selection committee awarded scholarships to twelve recipients. The W. Clement & Jessie V. Stone Foundation makes it possible to continue to strengthen early childhood leadership practices in our aspiring leaders during the residency phase of the program that influences entry planning for leaders entering a new leadership position in a school with early childhood programs.
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2021-2022 EARLY CHILDHOOD FELLOWS
Elva Bahena, Assistant Principal, West Park Academy of Fine Arts
Tai Basurto, EdD, Principal, John C Dore Elementary School
Jessica Chen, Assistant Principal, Deneen School of Excellence
Romian Crockett, EdD, Principal, Chalmers School of Excellence
Turan Crockett, Assistant Principal, Cesar Chavez Elementary School
Ashley Hegwood, Principal, Ashburn Community Academy
Maura Kelly, Assistant Principal, Ogden International Elementary School
Michael Kosko, EdD. Assistant Principal, Alexander Graham Bell Elementary School
Theresa Ann Lee, Assistant Director of Teaching and Learning, Evanston/Skokie District 65
Elaine McFarlane, Assistant Principal, OA Thorp Scholastic Academy
Shannon Puckett, EdD, Assistant Principal, Canty Elementary School
LaVerne Coke-Wright, Principal, Bond Elementary School
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Unlocking the Full Potential of Youth Councils
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UIC understands and promotes the full development of youth voice. Here is a resource that teachers and school leaders will find very useful.
Youth Councils are one of the most powerful tools for including youth voice in community and school decision making. Many municipalities, schools and organizations have authorized youth councils in order to make policy decisions more inclusive of young people and more equitable in their impacts. When working well, youth councils provide a host of benefits, including:
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Improved public policies regarding young people
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Improved design of educational systems and after school programs
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Increased trust between youth and adults
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Creative and fresh thinking around important local challenges
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Youth leadership development
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A diverse pipeline of youth who pursue public service careers
However, many youth councils around the country do not reach their full potential and struggle to accomplish their mission. These youth councils suffer from weak design, lack of adult support of youth members, and a shortage of resources to maximize impact and equity of the council’s work. These problems occur despite the best of intentions and effort from youth council members and their adult allies. The roots of youth council challenges lay in a rushed design process that ignores best practices in this field.
Brian Brady has worked with youth councils for almost 20 years; helping them perform at a high level and contribute valuable insights to their communities. Pulling from this experience, Brian has published an online workshop series – videos and discussion guides – that can help you build an effective youth council.
The workshop series is titled, Youth Council Best Practices - Do’s and Don’ts for Designing an Effective Youth Council. In it, Brady details the core elements strong youth councils share and how to design a dynamic youth council. These strategies include:
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Designing a youth council with inclusion, diversity and equity in mind
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Creating safe, social, and engaging spaces for all youth council members
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Right sizing and scoping a youth council to avoid the “Goldilocks problem” – councils that run too hot or too cold
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High quality outreach to youth that represent marginalized populations and finding student leaders who are not the “usual suspects”
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Paying for dedicated staff support of youth councils, and providing student stipends, transportation, and food.
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Building effective youth adult partnerships and being real about power in the design of the youth council.
Over the years, Brady has witnessed youth leaders provide amazing solutions to challenging community problems such as student safety, mental health, homelessness, criminal justice, and housing. Young people experience so many of society’s challenges first-hand, and their insights and solutions regarding these issues can improve our communities in tangible ways. Brady encourages you to consider maximizing the youth council model by providing smart design, support, and training of youth council members and adult allies.
Workshop and Guide Time: 30 - 45 minutes per chapter (10 chapters). The workshop series is designed for groups of youth and adult allies. Individuals can also benefit from the workshop and guide.
Workshop Series Pricing
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Individual Subscription: $475
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School, Government, or Institutional Subscription: $475 for lead staff and $125 for additional adult and youth cohort members (i.e. a group of 6 would cost $1,100. $475 for the Lead and $625 for additional 5 in cohort)
Virtual and in person consulting and training (hourly and full and half day) available with Brian Brady –> email brian.brady411@gmail.com for details on support and pricing.
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Illinois Administrator Licensure Information
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Is your Illinois Professional Educator License due for renewal in June 2022?
The answer to this question is at your fingertips. Please go to your Educator Licensure Information System (ELIS) account to review your records (https://sec3.isbe.net/IWASNET/login.aspx). If your records show a license expiration date of "06/30/2022," then this coming school year is your renewal year.
Please check your professional development records. Make sure you have entered your required amount of "Continuing Professional Development Hours," and be sure you have completed your required number of Illinois Administrator Academy courses.
If you need additional IAA courses, don’t delay. Register for the courses you need. You can find courses in a variety of places. Visit the IPA link www.iaachicago.com for more information.
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Upcoming EdD Information Sessions
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The strength of our program lies in its diversity, and if we are going to achieve our goals, we must strive to ensure our leadership reflects the diversity of the students we serve. 1 in every 10 CPS schools is led by a UIC principal, and 1 in 7 CPS schools is led by a UIC principal or assistant principal. School leaders’ race and ethnicity influences student outcomes (Grissom, 2021). Of all current UIC principals, APs, and system-level leaders, 94 (54%) are leaders of color--and among current UIC principals, 50 of 79 (63%) are leaders of color.
The EdD in Urban Education Leadership is a nationally-recognized program designed to prepare and develop principals who are able to lead and significantly improve teaching and learning in urban schools. We seek applicants who are outstanding teachers and assistant principals who want to transition to school leadership positions, as well as principals desiring to take their schools to the next level.
We are ready to begin our search for the next Ed.D. Urban Education Leadership cohort. In efforts to recruit candidates with potential in becoming strong leaders, we look to you for assistance. Please contact Dr. Sharon Spears @ slspears@uic.edu and copy Dr. Barron @ckbarron@uic.edu with information on “leaders to watch” and those you believe would be a good fit for our program. Please also share with potential candidates details on our upcoming 21-22 information sessions
Our deadline for applying to the EdD Program in Urban Education Leadership will be July 15, 2022. Information session dates and the registration link is below. Interested candidates are encouraged to register for an information session and/or reach out to Dr. Cynthia Barron at ckbarron@uic.edu for an individual one-on-one.
2021-2022 Information Sessions:
January 22, 2022; 9:00-10:30 a.m.
February 15, 2022; 3:30-4:30 p.m.
March 12, 2022; 9:00-10:30 a.m.
April 2, 2022; 9:00-10:30 a.m.
May 3, 2022; 3:30-4:30 p.m.
May 28, 2022; 9:00-10:30 a.m.
June 18, 2022; 9:00-10:30 a.m.
Here is the the link for participant registration
For general program inquiries you may contact Dr. Cynthia Barron (ckbarron@uic.edu). If you have any questions about the application process, please contact Elise Wilson (elise@uic.edu).
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We are now accepting applications for the newly revamped superintendent program. If you are interested in learning whether the new UIC Superintendent program is the right match for you, we encourage you to fill out an interest form. At the end of the interest form, you will see a prompt to submit your resume to Superintendent Program Coordinator, Dr. Cynthia Barron (ckbarron@uic.edu). Shortly after your submission, she will contact you to set up a phone call to learn more about your background. For any questions about the program, do not hesitate to reach out to Dr. Barron.
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