> Reaccreditation! The RMU Teacher EducationDepartment went through itsseven-year accreditation cyclelast spring 2013 and wasformally re-accreditated in fall2013 by the Teacher EducationAccreditation Council (TEAC),which became the Council forthe Accreditation of EducatorPreparation (CAEP) in 2014.

“Being a nationally accreditedCAEP institution displays thecommitment RMU has for itsstudents,” said newAccreditation and StateReporting StandardsCoordinatorProf. ShellyHaser. “Itrecognizesthat students graduating fromteacher education programshave completed rigorous anddemanding programs, and have the skills to be effectiveteachers.”

CAEP is dedicated to raising theperformance of candidates aspractitioners in the nation’s P-12 schools, as well as thestandards for the evidence used to supports claims ofquality. Robert Morris’sEducation Teacher Preparationprograms arepoised tomeet thesechallengingtwo goals byusing data tomake curriculum andprogrammatic decisions,continuing to strengthen RMU’steacher education programs.

> Award Ceremony Honors StudentsThe best and brightest SESS students were honored in Marchat the annual awards event. The ceremony recognized sixty-five Dean’s Scholars – students with a 3.5 GPA for three consecutive terms – as well as four students winningendowed scholarships, eleven winning Dean’s TeachingFellows, and eight receiving Distinguished Student Awardsin their various majors. The award for the top student in theschool, the SESS John Graham Founding Dean Award, wentto Early Childhood Education/Special Education Major EricaTierney. Erica had a GPA of 3.94 and an impressive record ofco-curricular activity, including being an active member ofKappa Delta Pi, the BEST Special Education Club, and theStudent Chapter of the Pennsylvania State EducationAssociation (S-PSEA), of which she served as president. Inher time at RMU Erica had shown herself to be “intelligent,creative, dedicated and hard working,” as professor DanShelley put it. “She takes pride in her academic assignmentsand projects and has a very professional approach to herclassroom teaching.” Additionally, Erica taught for twoweeks in Belmopan City, Belize, in 2012.

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> Partnership AwardSESS received the Junior Achievement EducationPartnership Award at the 74th Annual Meeting of Junior Achievement of Western Pennsylvania on Thursday, June 27, 2013. The awardrecognizes companies that adopt awhole school by providing fundingand volunteers to ensure that everystudent in the school receives JAprograms. SESS partnered with theMoon Area School District in 2012-13.

>> SESS JOHN GRAHAM FOUNDING DEAN AWARD WINNER ERICA TIERNEY AND EDUCATION PROFESSOR DAN SHELLEY

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> Doctoral Program Finds SuccessThe Instructional Management/Leadership Ph.D.program is entering its tenth year, and continuesto attract candidates from elementary and secondaryteaching, administration, higher education, healthservices, the military, and corporate training. This past year the George W. Semich Endowed ScholarshipFund was established by the graduating cohort to help raise money for future IML students.

> New Principals ProgramThe Education Department has a new program forexperienced educators to gain principal certification. The 15-credit RMU-LEAD Principal Certification Programengages teachers in collaborative coursework and school-based internships. Program coordinator Dr. BruceGolmic explains, “What’s unique about this program is that80% of their internship is in the schools, practicing andpreparing to be principals, and engaging in experiences thatwill benefit their schools and the students. In today’s ageit’s very challenging and difficult to be a principal, but also very rewarding, because of the instructional impact you have on student achievement.” With half of the internshipin an elementary school and half in a secondary school, each candidate will be certified as a K-12 principal.

> Professional Development for Education StudentsThis past semester, education students took part in aprofessional development workshop for the Project LearningTree program, a nationally recognized environmentaleducation program, at the Beechwood Farms Nature Reserve;the Early Childhood Science Methods students preparedhands-on inquiry science activities and presented to all thestudents at the Hopewell Elementary Science Fair; andstudents also helped facilitate MakeShop activities for 1st and 2nd grade students at Avonworth Elementary. MakeShopis a joint venture between the Pittsburgh Children's Museumand Avonworth School District.

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> RMURecommends! A new initiative from theDepartment of Education, RMU Recommends is acollection of excellent booksand reading applications forchildren and adolescents, as chosen by the faculty. This year, each faculty member picked theirvery favoritechildren’sbook, “bestbooks” forvarying agelevels, booksthat feature special needschildren, and the best readingApps appropriate to use inconjunction with qualityliterature. Each year at ourspring Education Conferencethe lists will be updated andexpanded. The RMURecommends book lists can befound at rmu.edu/booklist.

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> EducationHonorary Accepts AwardThe RMU chapter of the KappaDelta Pi education honorarywas recognized in October inDallas at the KDP BiennialConvocation, having won a2013 Rising Star Awardfor New Chapters,celebrating theirsuccess in attaining a high functioning statusin a short period of time.

>> RMU STUDENT VOLUNTEERS FOR PSYCH IN A BOX

> Psych in a BoxIn February twenty-six Psychology majors took part in“Psychology in a Box” for area high school students, thesecond year in a row for this event. Seventy students fromMoon, Avonworth, and Cornell high schools came to theRMU campus for a morning to learn from RMU studentsabout different areas of psychology, including social,cognitive, clinical, sensation and perception, sport andgender. The event got high ratings from the high schoolparticipants. Said student volunteer Samantha Beard, “Itwas a really great time for us to hopefully plant a little seedin their mind to be able to possibly go into psychology as amajor in college, or at least to start thinking about taking APpsychology in high school.”

> Psychology Club OutreachThe RMU Psychology Club was highly involved with anumber of community service, professional development,and social activities. The club teamed up with “HopeGrows,” a non-profit providing support to caregivers ofthose with illnesses and disorders, serving as trail leadersfor the “Hike for Hope” fundraising event at Raccoon StatePark and participating in the Hope House Clean-Up Day. It hosted Holly Harmon, director of the RMU CounselingCenter, to speak about the center and her path in becominga licensed social worker, as well as the well-attendedPsychosocial, Psychology Trivia Night, and two movienights followed by discussions of their psychologicalthemes. Finally, the club conducted its first annualpracticum workshop designed to inform students of therequirements of the practicum, assist with the search forplacements, and connect younger students withupperclassmen in the program. During the workshopstudents spoke about their practicum experiences, andJohnna Haller, director of social services at Caring HeightsNursing Home and RMU alum, spoke about her experiencein transitioning from a practicum student to a full-timeemployee at her site.

> Civil War Study TourLed by History ProfessorDanBarr, the Civil War Study tourtook place May 12-18 andvisited several important CivilWar sites, including Harper'sFerry, Richmond (museum ofthe Confederacy, ConfederateWhite House, ConfederateCapitol Building), CharlestonS.C. (Fort Sumter, ConfederateMuseum, Boone HallPlantation), Antietam NationalBattlefield, andGettysburg. In terms of thedistance traveledand sites to be seen, itis the longest and largest CivilWar Study Tour to date.Fourteen students participatedin the tour this year.

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> New SociologyDegreeThe School of Education andSocial Sciences added a newmajor in Sociology, replacingthe Sociology concentrationwithin the Social Science majorwith a Bachelor of Arts degree.Students complete 36 credits ofSociology courses along with anumber of open electives,which provide flexibility forstudents to pursue course workin their various areas of interest.The challenging curriculumalso includes a practicum,research methods, and a seniorresearch project, ensuring thatgraduates develop the researchskills required for professionalsuccess and real-worldexperience. The major willprepare students for graduateschool and a variety of entry-level positions.

>> PSYCHOLOGY CLUB MEMBERS PARTICIPATE IN HOPE HOUSE CLEAN-UP DAY

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> Belize Field ProjectEducation Professor Dan Shelleyaccompanied five earlychildhood/middle school studentswho spent two weeks in Belize inMay teaching in an elementaryschool classroom. Along theteaching experiences, the studentsexplored Belize with trips to the Mayan Ruins, the Belize Zoo and other sites.

> RMU Faculty Publishes Bookon Pittsburgh History History Professor Dan Barr has published a new book, A Colony Sprung from Hell: Pittsburgh and the Struggle forAuthority on the Western Pennsylvania Frontier, 1744-1794, which traces the struggle for the earlysettlement of the region around Pittsburgh. The workhighlights the difficulties of creating and consolidatingauthority along the frontier, including how the fiercecompetition between Pennsylvania and Virginia toincorporate the region permeated many social andpolitical levels. This is Dr. Barr's third book. This past fall Dr. Barr co-taught a course on the history ofPittsburgh with History Professor John McCarthy.

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> Award-Winning FacultyEducation Professor Dan Shelley won the 2013-14Global Engagement Faculty Award, which highlightsthe contributions he has made toward promoting aglobal perspective and international education at RMUHistory Professor Soren Fanning received the Rufus Z.Smith prize for best paper of the biennium in theAmerican Review of Canadian Studies.

> Selected FacultyPublications William R. Beaver,“Environmental Concerns in theMarcellus Shale, “ Business andSociety Review, 119(1), 2014:125-146.

Bernadowski, C. (2014).Improving the reading attitudesof college students: Usingliterature discussion groups tolearn about content reading,i-manager’s Journal on EnglishTeaching, 3(3), 16-24.

Bernauer, J. & O’Dwyer, L.(2014). Quantitative research for the qualitative researcher. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE.

Donne, V., & Hansen, M. (2013).Business and technologyeducators: Practices forinclusion. International Journalof Information Communicationand Technology Education, 9(4),81-93.

Donne, V., & Lin, F. (2013).Special education teacherinduction: The wiki way. TheClearing House: A Journal ofEducational Strategies, Issues, & Ideas, 86(2), 1-5.

Hansen, M. A., Lyon, S., Heh, P.,& Zigmond, N. (2013).Comparing panelists’understanding of standardsetting across multiple levels ofan alternate science assessment.Applied Measurement inEducation, 26(4), 298-318.

Daniel J. Shelley and Linda Best,“Threaded Discussions in theOnline and Hybrid LearningFormat: An Examination of theirEffectiveness from the Students’Perspective,” InternationalJournal of Scientific Research inEducation, March 2014, Vol. 7(1),1-20.

Taylor, N. & Maguth, B. (2014)Bringing LGBTQ topics intothe social studies classroom. The Social Studies. 105(1), 23-28.

> New SESS FacultyNathan Taylor is Assistant Professor of Education, and his areas of research include multicultural education, social studies education, and gender and sexuality studies.

Lauren Rauscher is Assistant Professor of Sociology, coming to RMU from California State University, Long Beach, where she taught for seven years and won multiple teaching awards. Dr. Rauscher wasrecently selected as the faculty coordinator for the new Women’s Leadership & Mentorship Program.

Ying Zhang is Assistant Professor of Education, and has abackground in literacy education with a specific focus onEnglish Language Learners.