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David O. McKay School of Education: Research Brief
McKay School of Education Announces a New Doctoral Program The McKay School of Education’s new doctoral program, Educational Inquiry, Measurement, and Evaluation (EIME), prepares its graduates to enter the education field with a set of well-crafted research tools.
Purpose “We want to create a culture of inquiry for our students,” explains Richard Sudweeks, director of EIME. “The purpose of the program is to help students look broadly, think broadly, and choose a method that fits the question.” The EIME doctoral degree is an interdepartmental PhD program focused on research and designed to prepare graduates of the program to make significant contributions to solving persistent and challenging problems in education. Participants in the program are required to enroll as full-time resident students. Financial assistance is offered to students in the form of tuition stipends, paid research assistantships, and health benefits. Application requirements and materials can be found at education.byu.edu. Research Assistantships The EIME program is designed to provide students a balance of theory and practice. Each student in the program participates in a part-time research assistantship each semester. Students work closely with faculty mentors on research, applying the theory they have learned in the classroom. Because writing is such a fundamental component of research, students are expected to become proficient writers and are encouraged to publish or copublish their research before graduating from the program. Weekly Seminar Another aspect of the EIME program is a weekly seminar designed to engage MSE students and faculty in research discussions and open their minds to new research opportunities. Seminar presenters introduce students and faculty to issues related to research methods, research questions, and valid designs for collecting data. Prior presenters have included scholars from BYU and other universities as well as educators from local school districts. Career Opportunities Career opportunities for graduates of the EIME program include work as researchers, evaluators, measurement and assessment specialists, and policy analysts in a variety of educational settings.

David O. McKay School of Education: Research Brief

McKay School of Education Announces a New Doctoral Program

The McKay School of Education’s new doctoral program, Educational Inquiry, Measurement, and Evaluation (EIME), prepares its graduates to enter the education field with a set of well-crafted research tools.

Purpose

“We want to create a culture of inquiry for our students,” explains Richard Sudweeks, director of EIME. “The purpose of the program is to help students look broadly, think broadly, and choose a method that fits the question.” The EIME doctoral degree is an interdepartmental PhD program focused on research and designed to prepare graduates of the program to make significant contributions to solving persistent and challenging problems in education.
Participants in the program are required to enroll as full-time resident students. Financial assistance is offered to students in the form of tuition stipends, paid research assistantships, and health benefits. Application requirements and materials can be found at education.byu.edu.

Research Assistantships

The EIME program is designed to provide students a balance of theory and practice. Each student in the program participates in a part-time research assistantship each semester. Students work closely with faculty mentors on research, applying the theory they have learned in the classroom. Because writing is such a fundamental component of research, students are expected to become proficient writers and are encouraged to publish or copublish their research before graduating from the program.

Weekly Seminar

Another aspect of the EIME program is a weekly seminar designed to engage MSE students and faculty in research discussions and open their minds to new research opportunities. Seminar presenters introduce students and faculty to issues related to research methods, research questions, and valid designs for collecting data. Prior presenters have included scholars from BYU and other universities as well as educators from local school districts.

Career Opportunities

Career opportunities for graduates of the EIME program include work as researchers, evaluators, measurement and assessment specialists, and policy analysts in a variety of educational settings.

School Notes

McKay School faculty and students have recieved various honors and awards since the fall 2008 issue of McKay Today Magazine. A few of these are highlighted below.

Army Fellow
Dr. Charles Graham of the Department of Instructional Psychology and Technology was selected to be one of six senior research fellows for the United States Army Institute (ARI) for behavioral and social sciences. The army contacted Graham because of his research on learning environments that integrate face-to-face and technology-mediated instruction. Graham was one of three fellows asked to prepare a white paper describing his method for instructing soldiers on counterinsurgency skills.

Marlowe Froke
Outstanding Publication
A recent study by Dr. Scott Howell and his students Cary Johnson, Jonathan S. Spackman, Carrie Thompson, and Chandler Rudd was summarized in an article titled “Assessing Part-Time Faculty Job Satisfaction in Continuing Higher Education: Implications for the Profession.” The article, published in the Journal of Continuing Higher Education, was also honored as the 2008 Marlowe Froke Outstanding Publication at the 2008 annual conference of the Association of Continuing Higher Education.

NRC Outstanding
Student Research Award
Gary Moser, a former McKay School doctoral student, was awarded the prestigious Student Outstanding Research Award from the National Reading Conference. Dr. Tim Morrison was Moser’s dissertation chair. According to Morrison, the National Reading Conference is the premiere research organization for literacy in the nation.

Utah American Star of Education Award
McKay School alumnus Eric Kern received the 2008 Utah American Star of Education award from the U.S. Department of Education. The award is given to one teacher in every state who shows innovation and dedication to improving students and implementating the No Child Left Behind Act.

New Bilingual Minor Offered
The McKay School recently implemented a new bilingual minor that prepares teachers to instruct in a dual immersion environment. In dual immersion programs, a class consisting of both native English speakers and native Spanish speakers are taught in both languages—receiving instruction and responding in English for part of the school day and in Spanish for the rest. Research shows that K–12 students make significant progress learning to be bilingual in a dual immersion setting.

New Associate Chair
Dr. Janet Young was appointed to be a new associate chair in the Department of Teacher Education. She will continue in her teaching and scholarship roles, adding administrative responsibilities that include assuming leadership for the department travel committee, the appeals and grievance committee, new faculty support and induction, and preparation of the student handbook. She credits her past experience and the examples of colleagues for preparing her for this new position. Young explains, “Observing and learning from capable colleagues who have held leadership positions before me have shaped my own practices.”

Superstar in Education
Nancy Livingston is an educator with more than 50 years of service in classrooms and administrative systems benefiting students of all ages. At the 2008 Utah Education Association’s Superstars in Education banquet, Livingston received the Charles Bennett Award for her work in advocating for literacy for all children and closing the achievement gaps through early intervention.

H. Kenton Reavis
Special Educator Award
The Utah chapter of the Council for Children with Behavior Disorders (CCBD) recently honored MSE alumnus Geovanni Guzman with the H. Kenton Reavis Special Educator Award for 2008. Guzman credits BYU for teaching him how to maintain positive interactions with his students and how to foster a safe classroom environment based on respect and accountability.

Nancy Peery Marriott Award
The McKay School presented two 2008 Nancy Peery Marriott awards. The first was given to Lane Fischer, a professor in the Department of Counseling Psychology and Special Education, to recognize his outstanding teaching. Christopher Dromey was the recipient of the second Nancy Peery Marriott award, given for outstanding scholarship. Dromey is a professor in the Department of Communication Disorders.

Educational Leadership
in the 21st Century
The David O. McKay School of Education and the Brigham Young University–Public Partnership held their fifth biannual conference, titled Educational Leadership in the 21st Century, last April in Salt Lake City. More than 1,200 educators gathered in the Salt Palace Convention Center to hear speakers such as Erik Weihenmayer, Jennifer James, and Ruby Payne.

Leadership Development Program
Lee Robinson, director of the BYU Speech and Language Clinic, was selected to participate in the prestigious American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Leadership Development Program. ASHA implements this six-month program of leadership training in order to increase the number of individuals who are qualified to lead. Each year only 20 participants are selected from a national base.

BYU–Public School Partnership
Celebrates 25 Years
Administrators from the McKay School and the Center for the Improvement of Teaching and Schooling as well as leadership from each of the five Partnership Districts gathered for a luncheon in early May to remember the BYU–Public School Partnership’s 25-year history and to celebrate its many successes.

National Program Recognition
The Department of Counseling Psychology and Special Education (CPSE) was recently awarded approval status from the National Association of School Psychologists for its psychology program. This recognition validates the department’s work of embracing a collaborative, evidence-based approach to serving diverse individuals. CPSE graduates who successfully pass the Praxis exam for school psychology can now become nationally certified school psychologists, which makes it easier for them to become credentialed or licensed psychologists in several states.

Mentored Research Conference
On April 7, MSE student research assistants shared their inquiries and findings at the 2009 McKay School Mentored Research Conference in the Garden Court of the Wilkinson Student Center. Through poster presentations, participants showcased their work. Projects were from elementary and secondary programs and developed by both students and faculty members. The conference is presented annually to encourage mentoring and collaborative research.

Announcements

You Are Invited!
BYU’s 2009 Homecoming events will be held October 20 through 24. The McKay School will sponsor its own alumni gathering that week as well. Please watch the BYU and McKay School alumni Web sites for details on specific activities.

ESL Symposium
The David O. McKay School of Education, the College of Humanities, and the Wheatley Institution are sponsoring the first annual ELL Symposium on June 12, 2009. The purpose of the symposium is to build capacity in the English language learners populations of Utah. The symposium will also focus on the central role of institutions such as churches, schools, and universities in building this capacity. If you would like to attend, please contact Debra Stewart at 801-422-4542 or debra_stewart@byu.edu.

“A Righteous and Strong Motive”

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf was ordained a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in October 2004. He is the first apostle in more than 50 years who was not born in the United States and the first ever from Germany. He was called as second counselor to President Thomas S. Monson in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in February 2008.
President Uchtdorf was born in Czechoslovakia during World War II. For a time the family lived in East Germany. When the war ended, they had to relocate because of his father’s vocal opposition to Communism. The family resettled in Frankfurt, West Germany.
Because of his circumstances, President Uchtdorf had to learn several languages. Here is how he described his struggles:

After the turmoil of the Second World War, my family ended up in Russian-occupied East Germany. When I attended fourth grade I had to learn Russian as my first foreign language in school. I found this quite difficult because of the Cyrillic alphabet, but as time went on I seemed to do all right.
When I turned 11 we had to leave East Germany overnight because of the political orientation of my father. Now I was going to school in West Germany, which was American-occupied at that time. There in school all children were required to learn English and not Russian. To learn Russian had been difficult, but English was impossible for me. I thought my mouth was not made for speaking English. My teachers struggled. My parents suffered. And I knew English was definitely not my language.
But then something changed in my young life. Almost daily I rode my bicycle to the airport and watched airplanes take off and land. I read, studied, and learned everything I could find about aviation. It was my greatest desire to become a pilot. I could already picture myself in the cockpit of an airliner or in a military fighter plane. I felt deep in my heart this was my thing!
Then I learned that to become a pilot I needed to speak English. Overnight, to the total surprise of everybody, it appeared as if my mouth had changed. I was able to learn English. It still took a lot of work, persistence, and patience, but I was able to learn English!
Why? Because of a righteous and strong motive!
[Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “The Power of a Personal Testimony,” Ensign, November 2006, 37]

President Uchtdorf joined the German air force in 1959 and earned his pilot wings. In 1965 he joined Lufthansa
German Airlines, flying different types of aircraft, including the Boeing 747. He also held several executive positions within the company. At the time he was called as a member of the Seventy, he was senior vice president and chief pilot at Lufthansa.