Dr. Jo Watts Williams School of Education

Dr. Stephen Byrd, program coordinator for special education, presented a paper on “Parent Perspectives of Disability, Special Education, and Disability” at the Council for Exceptional Children 2011 Convention and Expo in Nation Harbor, Md.

With their growing number of students who speak little or no English, American school systems have turned largely to one of two approaches for teaching such children. Elon University senior Lindsay Mann compared the models – “English as a Second Language” and “Spanish Dual Language” – and her work is the first to be featured in a series of E-net profiles on undergraduate research to be presented during CELEBRATE! 2011.

Five Elon University juniors studying elementary education recently accompanied 80 fifth grade students and their parents from R. Homer Andrews Elementary School to Washington D.C.

Congratulations to the following School of Education inductees of the Eta Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa: Victoria Elizabeth Hill, Megan Nicole Justice, Amanda Lee Ketner, Marissa Anne Messiano, Renee Dorothy Robinson, and Melissa Ruth Turowski.

Four new majors will be offered to Elon University students starting in the fall. Early childhood education is an addition to the School of Education’s programs; information science replaces the current computer information systems major in the Department of Computing Sciences; and public health studies, and arts administration, are both interdisciplinary majors within Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences.

A husband-and-wife research team discussed with an Elon University audience Wednesday night their work on a type of education reform that shows promise for elementary school students who need more help with reading and math concepts than is typically offered in the traditional classroom.

Janice Richardson, an associate professor of mathematics, served on the Campbell University Teaching Fellows Evaluation Team from April 6-8, 2011, in Buies Creek, N.C.

Rebecca Johnson Mastin '93, principal of Mulberry Elementary School in Wilkes County, N.C., received the county's principal of the year award on March 28. Mastin will now compete with principals of the year from more than 20 school systems in northwestern North Carolina for regional principal of the year.

Iris Versmissen '10 was recently awarded the North Carolina Science Teachers Association Outstanding Elementary School Student Teacher of the Year Award. Versmissen was an elementary education Teaching Fellow with a Spanish minor.