Latest News

Stephen Jacobson, UB Distinguished Professor from the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy, has been all over the world teaching courses and participating in many different research projects. “Everyone wants to go visit a country that is excelling in education, but there is more to learn by going to places that are still evolving,” says Jacobson, who was brought to Albania to discuss education from an American perspective, and is involved with a large international research project in India to reduce gender-based violence with the use of prosocial computer games.

There are a number of schools in Western New York and throughout the state that are struggling to meet state education standards. To help address this concern, Corrie Stone-Johnson, associate professor from the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy, along with department colleagues Thomas Ramming, Melinda Lemke and Aliza Husain, are developing a university-based micro-credentials program for principals seeking the skills to improve these schools.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded Say Yes Buffalo and its partner institutions — including UB — a 22 month, $2.9 million grant to increase college completion rates for Buffalo Public School (BPS) graduates. Say Yes Buffalo, launched in 2012, is a community collaboration dedicated to increasing high school and postsecondary graduation rates. Say Yes Buffalo is also a college scholarship program for BPS students.

Michelle Layer Rahal (EdM ’93, Elementary Education) wrote and published “Straining Forward” in 2018, which depicts the story of Minh Phuong, a Vietnamese girl who endured abuse, prison and torture during the Vietnam War to become the third Asian woman in America to be ordained a Presbyterian pastor. “I didn’t set out to write Minh Phuong’s story,” says Rahal. “I felt called to it, and sometimes we need to follow our gut.”

Alexandra Schindel, associate professor from the Department of Learning and Instruction (LAI), is partnering with Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper to support their youth-centered education programs. High school students from Buffalo Public Schools are recruited to participate in these programs. This collaborative project, which includes LAI faculty members Ryan Rish and Sameer Honwad and UB Department of Geology faculty member Christopher Lowry, is part of the UB Graduate School of Education Faculty in Residence Program.

When she was a sophomore at UB, Joanna Saintil was fired from the College Success Center in Buffalo Public Schools' Bennett High School by Nathan Daun-Barnett, associate professor from the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy, who hired the work study students for the center through a GEAR UP grant. Saintil, currently a master’s student from the Department of Counseling, School and Educational Psychology (CSEP), often challenged her supervisors to do more to help Bennett students. As her temper became shorter, she began to hurt her relationships in Bennett.

Amy VanScoy, associate professor from the Department of Information Science, was collecting data in the United States when she decided to turn her research on librarians into an international study. “Personally, I find it ethnocentric if I only conduct studies in the United States,” said VanScoy. “I want to do research in other countries because there has to be some differences that we can learn from.” She is leading a global project across Slovenia, South Africa and the United States examining different librarian approaches to reference and information services (RIS).