Project Smart

Under a $900,000-plus grant from the California Postsecondary Education Commission, Project SMART represents a four-year commitment to integrate science, mathematics, reading and technology, while improving overall student achievement in K-2 classrooms, in collaboration with Southern California's Anaheim City School District. The project brings together College of Educational Studies faculty, science and mathematics faculty from Chapman, the Orange County Department of Education, and additional science education agencies for this critical mission. Chapman professors Dr. Miller, Dr. Kimberly White-Smith and Dr. Margie Sauceda Curwen serve as College of Education participants.

Characterizing Bone Health in Orange County Residents
Because the integrity of one's bones is an important feature to health and longevity, the Science Teaching and Research (STAR) Institute at Chapman University has initiated part one of a three part study that evaluates bone health and develop specific dietary and pharmaceutical interventions for persons at risk for osteoporosis, osteopenia and other bone-loss pathologies.

A Study of Successful Approaches to Minority Faculty Retention in U.S. Schools of Education
This is a nationwide study of how schools of education might better recruit, develop and support their U.S. faculty of color and shield them, in particular, from intentional or unintentional racism. The purpose of this preliminary study is to ask the deans of 70 schools of education across the U.S. to describe cases where their U.S. minority faculty have successfully navigated the tenure process and to communicate the factors they feel should be included in a larger study to follow. While the larger follow-up study would lead to a model or models demonstrating how schools of education might better recruit and develop U.S. faculty of color, and in particular protect them from racism, input from deans will only be sought in this initial phase of the research as a kind of feasibility study and first cut at giving the deans an opportunity to provide direct input into the potential parameters of that larger study. Research team members include: Dr. Greg Tanaka (UCLA and Pacific Oaks College ), Kris Gutierrez (UCLA), Adrienne Ann Mullen ( East Los Angeles College ), Beverly Cross ( Memphis State University ), Suzanne SooHoo ( Chapman University ), Cindy Cruz ( Cornell University ), ReGena Booze ( Pacific Oaks College ), Olga Winbush ( Pacific Oaks College ), and Tim Sundeen ( Pacific Oaks College ).

A Study of Graduates’ Perceptions of Themselves as Multicultural Educators
Very little research has been conducted on the value of multicultural education for future teachers. It is seldom asked how well programs are doing (Shulman, L.). What is the connection between what one learns in his/her pre-service program and what one does as a teacher? This study surveyed over 200 students who graduated from Chapman University Teacher Preparation Program between 1995-2003. Initial research questions included: 
          a)       What are the CU graduates’ self perceptions of their role as a multicultural
                    educator?
          b)       Are our graduates using multicultural educational practices? 
          c)       Are the multicultural practices attributed to their Chapman University training?
          d)       To what extent are the schools that employ these graduates supportive 
                    of multicultural education?
          e)       Did course content withstand time and currency to today’s diverse classroom?

Research team members include Dr. John Brady, Dr. Anaida Colon-Muniz and Dr. Don Cardinal.

A National and International Perspective of Social Justice
National:
The College of Educational Studies is committed to the development of critical scholarship and skillful leadership that inspires and respects individuals, serves communities, enriches diversity, and ensures a socially just society. Social justice is central to the mission of the College of Educational Studies because education is a powerful tool in understanding and responding to social inequities.  Chapman’s teacher education, masters in education and doctoral program have a commitment to a vision of social justice.

Faculty members are interested in how a select number of schools define their socially just mission, how the mission is implemented, and what areas of scholarship distinguish their programs. After canvassing the programs at recent meetings of the American Education Research Association (AERA) Social Justice SIGs, it has been found that about a dozen universities refer to social justice education in their mission statements. From this, the field has been narrowed down to 2-3 programs that are highly regarded for their support of well-known, highly visible scholars and faculty publications that are widely used in the field.

The faculty plans to visit each of these three campuses for a period of not less than a week to interview faculty and observe classroom and fieldwork. The results of these interviews will be synthesized into a publication that will inform the new doctoral course syllabus on social justice.

International:
The College of Educational Studies (CES) has recently entered into a partnership with a premier research institution, University of Waikato in New Zealand . Faculty have had the opportunity to meet and interact with some faculty members and two deans on two occasions. They have been enthusiastic about a future relationship and have encouraged both faculties to identify mutual research interests.

CES Faculty member Suzanne Soohoo’s intention is to develop a mutual collaborative research agenda with our New Zealand partners. Her previous work has established her reputation in the area of participatory/action research. A review of the literature reveals a significant amount of action research conducted by New Zealanders. Outside of Britain and Australia , New Zealand is the land of action research!

Special Interest Sites

Quality Education as a Civil Right
The goal of the Quality Education as a Civil Right (QECR) movement is to create a national dialogue about the enormous inequities in educational opportunities for the children and youth of our nation and, if possible, to create a groundswell of public opinion in support of a constitutional amendment guaranteeing a high-quality school experience to every American child.

Global Education Yellow Pages
This electronic directory of global education resources for K-12 teachers contains nearly 1,000 entries (many of which link to additional sources). These resources are organized into categories shown in the Table of Contents.  Information about the resources was obtained from a questionnaire distributed to educational service providers and from a search of the Internet.