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Plata-Potter focusing on Latinos’ early literacy

Sandra Plata-Potter wants to help first-generation Latino parents give their preschoolers a head start on literacy – and the resources to keep pace with their peers.

The CYFS doctoral student affiliate is collaborating with Faculty Affiliates Lisa Knoche and Helen Raikes to determine whether Latino parents’ engagement in a Head Start project encourages them to become more involved in literacy-related activities with their children. The researchers are also examining whether these home-based activities bolster children’s “emergent literacy” – the knowledge and skills that serve as foundations for reading and writing. Full Article

Student affiliate Koziol receives thesis award

Natalie Koziol

Natalie Koziol, a CYFS graduate student affiliate in educational psychology, recently received the 2010-2011 Folsom Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award. The award recognizes distinguished scholarship and research at the master’s level.

Koziol’s thesis is titled “Evaluating Measurement Invariance with Censored Ordinal Data: A Monte Carlo Comparison of Alternative Model Estimators and Scales of Measurement.” In it, Koziol addresses the statistical testing of measurement invariance, which assumes that a scale measures the same construct when used across time or groups. She specifically evaluates how several factors, including sample size and the non-normality of data, influence the validity of statistical conclusions. She also examines how the effects of these factors vary according to measurement models and estimators. Full Article

Eccarius receives $1.2M grant to train educators of deaf

Malinda Eccarius

CYFS faculty affiliate Malinda Eccarius recently received a four-year, $1.2 million U.S. Department of Education grant aimed at helping 25 K-12 instructors earn teaching endorsements in deaf education.

Eccarius’ “Mountain Prairie Upgrade Partnership-Itinerant” (MPUP-I) project will prepare instructors in regular and special education to become itinerant teachers – those qualified to assist students who are deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH) but take classes with their hearing peers. Full Article

CYFS hosts meeting of prominent family-school minds

The great irony of research on family-school partnerships is that its scholars have yet to fully tap the potential of collaboration.

With this in mind, CYFS recently spearheaded a movement to forge ties and unify research among leaders in the field.

The Center catalyzed these efforts by hosting more than 20 family-school partnership researchers at a national meeting held September 19-21 in Omaha, Neb. Full Article

CYFS sponsors middle and high school engineering retreats

It takes years to develop the knowledge and expertise necessary to practice engineering. As Nebraska’s science and math teachers recently showed, however, it takes only a day to sow seeds of interest in the field.

The 2010 UNL Excellence in Engineering Education Institute, coordinated by CYFS and UNL’s Nebraska Transportation Center, gave dozens of Nebraska’s middle and high school students the chance to learn about the foundations and numerous applications of engineering. The mid-July retreats – held in Lincoln, Omaha, Lexington and Hastings, Neb. – were led by nearly 30 teachers who developed lesson plans during UNL’s Professional Development Math and Science Summer Technology Institute in June. Full Article