News

Dr. Jason E. Lane has been named dean of the University at Albany’s School of Education (SOE). 

The School of Education is proud to announce the Bangert-Drowns Endowment for Diversity in Teaching and Educational Leadership which will support African American students in pursuit of a career in P-12 teaching. Earlier this year, the School of Education received a special gift from Dean Emeritus Robert Bangert-Drowns and his wife Diana Bangert-Drowns, Esq. The couple created the Bangert-Drowns Endowment for Diversity in Teaching and Educational Leadership with the intent to support the presence of African Americans in educational leadership, primarily leadership in the teaching profession, but secondarily, leadership in educational supervision, administration, research, and policy.

The final session of the Touhey Family Fellows Program on May 1, 2020 included inspiring and heartfelt reflection on the program and the network of relationships created. The connection within the group resonated even over Zoom. The gathering involved School of Education faculty, including Program Director Tammy Ellis-Robinson and Associate Dean Cheryl Dozier, and graduate and undergraduate students in the School of Education community engaged with the Touhey Fellows Program. The graduate mentors shared highlights and accomplishments of each fellow.  The featured speaker, Shenendehowa School Superintendent and University at Albany Alumnus Dr. L. Oliver Robinson, shared words of inspiration and commendation to aspiring future education and mental health professionals.

This past fall, the School of Education Dean’s Student Leadership Council developed a new set of awards – the Dean’s Excellence Awards – available to undergraduate and graduate students in the School to recognize outstanding achievements in research, leadership & service, teaching & mentoring, and social justice & advocacy. Students were invited to apply and awardees were determined by a selection committee comprised of students, faculty, and staff. There are six recipients in this inaugural year. Leadership & Service

The celebration was virtual but the numbers were real for 82 students in the School of Education who received scholarships last month — a record number of scholarships totaling $90,000, providing support from covering the costs of tuition to attendance at conferences, and supporting professional development to dissertation research.

Dear Colleagues, Over the past year, the School of Education faculty, staff, students, and other stakeholders have collectively discussed the need for our community to be more purposeful and committed to creating an inclusive and supportive community for all and addressing issues of systemic racism embedded in our own culture, policies, and practices.  Given recent events in our nation, the need for such work has become even more critical and apparent.

The School of Education, in order to support a greater need for remote learning in K-12 education, launched the website Remote Education Resource Center, or RemoteEd. The site, which has immediate critical value in the current coronavirus crises, will not only help teachers incorporate remote learning tools into their classes, but also foster a community of practice in the Capital Region.

As part of the School of Education’s Equity and Inclusion initiative, a book club has been created to stimulate further discussion on culturally informed instructional strategies designed to foster a greater awareness of oppressive social structures that impede student success. As such, over the past two months a small group of SOE faculty and staff have been reading Bettina Love's 2019 volume entitled "We Want to do More than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom." In her book, Love demands that educators adopt an "Abolitionist" approach to their teaching, abolishing systems of oppression that result in the erasure of Black, Brown and other marginalized students within our schools.