Sonoma State University

Jennie Snyder, Superintendent of Piner Olivet Unified School District has been awarded a Circle of Excellence Award by the School of Education's Educational Leadership faculty. Jennie has served the district as Superintendent for two years. She is an alumna of the CANDEL Ed.D program, a joint doctoral program that Sonoma State offers in collaboration with UC Davis. Dr. Paul Porter, Co-Director of CANDEL describes Jennie as an outstanding educator and thoughtful leader who, since becoming Superintendent has "already begun to change and shape the culture of the district, stressing collaboration, team work, and highest standards."

At a recent visit to her office I had the opportunity to speak with Superintendent Snyder about her work and her experience in the CANDEL program. As a doctoral candidate, she appreciated the time and space for reflection, and the collaboration with a cohort of fellow students with a diverse set of experiences and backgrounds. In her role at Piner-Olivet she sees tremendous challenges ahead, yet is inspired by the opportunity to collaborate with teachers and administrators in an effort to find creative solutions for her schools and community. In the end she believes that each student in her district is entitled to an education that sparks their natural curiosity, builds on their capacity to learn, inspires their imagination and provides opportunities for them to express their ideas to their fullest. Jennie Snyder is receiving the Circle of Excellence Award because she is an accomplished scholar and gifted administrator. She is the kind of child-centered, collaborative, reflective and thoughtful leader that can make those goals come to fruition.

Congratulations to Windsor High School's Vineyard Academy and Oak Grove Elementary School's Primos programs for both receiving the 2012 Jack London Award for Educational Innovation.  Each year this award is granted to one or more programs for their exemplary and innovative contributions to education in a Sonoma County Public School Because of their originality, creativity, and their ability to engage children and the community, these exciting programs deserve public recognition.

This year the honor in the elementary school category goes to the Primos program at Oak Grove Elementary School in the Oak Grove School District in NW Santa Rosa.  Program coordinator Nancy Saylor designed it after a big brother mentorship model, to provide support for kids who are learning English.  The mentors provide a little extra help at school and and a lot of encouragement.  To find mentors, Saylor started out by extending an invitation to some Oak Grove alumni who were enrolled in nearby El Molino High School, Those kids took on the role of primos, our cousins to the younger students. Their time together is characterized as playful and fun, a mix of homework help, games, and social events, all with the goal of helping these kids acquire academic skills and foster a desire in them to succeed.

The award to a secondary level program goes to Vineyard Academy at Windsor High, an interdisciplinary career track program combining culinary arts training, English, math, science and history. Students at Vineyard Academy see and experience the real world relevancy of these subjects as experience coursework in business building, economics and applied arts. The program works with community collaborations, and is supported by local businesses and organization partnerships, who provide not only resources but mentors for these students. Graduates of Vineyard Academy have a good foundation for building a career path in local tourism, including hospitality, winery and food businesses. Marie Ganister is the culinary instructor coordinating this program, but the strong collaborations include many teachers across the curriculum.

The Jack London Award program is now in its 25th year at Sonoma State University. Recipients of the award this year received a framed award certificate, two hardcover books by Jack London for their school library and a gift certificate for Copperfield's Books to purchase more reading material for their programs.

The Jack London Awards are sponsored by the California Faculty Association, The Sonoma County Educators Council CTA/NEA, The Sonoma County Office of Education, and the Sonoma State University Educational Leadership Institute, which is supported by Lozano Smith Attorneys at Law.

The SSU Educational Leadership Program will host a series of Information Meetings in May for educators interested in earning Administrative Services Credentials, Preliminary and Clear Credentials and Master's Degree in Educational Leadership.

• Sonoma Valley Unified School District
  El Verano Elementary School Library
  18606 Riverside Drive - Sonoma CA, 95476
  Wednesday, May 2, 4:30 p.m.
• Napa Valley Unified School District
  Napa Valley Adult Education, Room #15
  Monday, May 14, 2012, 4:30 p.m.
• Solano County Office of Education
  Wednesday May 16th 4:00 pm

The meetings will provide Information on how SSU's Master's Degree in Educational Leadership and/or Preliminary or Clear Administrative Services Credential Programs will prepares candidates for a position of leadership in K-12 educational settings. Public, private and charter educators welcome. Prospective candidates will receive information on the following topics:

The ASC Preliminary and Clear Credentials and Master's Program

Information about the Administrative Intern Credential

Requirements for admission and how and when to apply

Now accepting applications for Fall, 2012 admission.
Application Deadline: May 30, 2012

For more information visit the Educational Leadership Programs webpage, or contact Dr. Rod Buchignani at buchignr@sonoma.edu or Dr. Viki Montera at montera@sonoma.edu

On April 25, 2012 the School of Education made a public presentation to 2011's Elliott Scholars: Christina Towner, Linsey Gannon, and Chris Berg. The presentation was part of the annual School of Education Recognition and Awards Ceremony. Recipients were selected for their scholarship and success in the classroom.


The F. George Elliott Scholarship Fund is an endowment of over $250,000 to the Sonoma State University School of Education. The endowment each year awards two scholarships for graduate study at Sonoma State University; one for an outstanding student teacher, and the other for a Santa Rosa City School District middle school, junior high, or high school teacher. Recipients of these scholarships will be known as Elliott Scholars.


Christina Towner is a student who came to the Special Education Credential Program at Sonoma State University in the Fall 2009 term, and she completed her Education Specialist Credential from Sonoma State in 2011. She is an outstanding student, praised for maintaining her strong academic record at Sonoma State while also holding a full-time teaching position as a Special Education Intern. Currently, Christina teaches a Special Day Class comprised of students who have mild to moderate disabilities at Altamira Middle School in Sonoma, CA. According to her University Support Provider, Barbara (Bobbie) Russell, Christina has created an exemplary positive learning environment for all of her students. As an Intern, Christina quickly adopted many of the core practices necessary to become an effective special educator. With recommendations from faculty, her dedication, preparation and passion make Christina Towner the perfect recipient of the Elliott Exemplary Student Teaching Scholarship this year.


Professor George Elliott taught Education at Sonoma State University from 1968-1992.  He worked for many years supervising student teachers in middle schools and junior and senior high schools in the Santa Rosa City School District. He was dedicated to quality teacher education, and worked closely with many master teachers and school administrators in Santa Rosa schools to achieve that end. This scholarship is his legacy to the middle level, junior high, and senior high teachers of the Santa Rosa City School District.


The Elliott Fellowship for Professional Renewal is an award open to all Santa Rosa City School District middle school, junior high, and senior high teachers who have completed from three to nine years teaching in the Santa Rosa City School District. It provides the recipient a two-semester scholarship in the amount of part- or full-time enrollment fees plus an additional twenty percent toward fees for books and supplies. For the award year 2011, two recipients were chosen to receive the Elliott Fellowship for Professional Renewal. The first award goes to Chris Berg, a physics teacher at Montgomery High School. And the second recipient for The Elliott Fellowship for Professional Renewal is Linsey Gannon, Assistant Principal at Lawrence Cook Middle School. Linsey is also now enrolled in the Master's Degree program of Educational Leadership at the Sonoma State University School of Education.

This week, Mary Gail Stablein received the 2012 Circle of Excellence Award in the category "Friend of the Program", having been selected by the Single Subject Credential Program faculty for this honor.  The annual award recognizes the contributions of a local educator for their contributions to and in support of the Single Subject Program which prepares beginning teachers to teach in a California public high school.

Stablein is an alumna of the Educational Leadership program at SSU, and many of the teachers on her faculty at Elsie Allen are graduates of the SSU Single Subject Program. The school continues to be a training ground for many candidates during their field experience semester.  In the award ceremony, SSU lecturer and retired Elsie Allen teacher Kirsten Searby noted that many single subject candidates appreciate how helpful Principal Stablein has been to them as they prepare for their first teaching job, offering concrete advice about job interviews as well as a candid introduction to the realities of the impact of standardized testing data, NCLB legislation, and how that legislation relates to their classroom teaching. 

Stablein is a dynamic and creative leader, qualities that serve her in her role as Principal of Elsie Allen High School.  Elsie Allen serves a highly diverse population of 1150 students in the southwest part of Santa Rosa. Instead of viewing the diversity of the student body as an obstacle, the school embraces the diverse population as something to be celebrated and a opportunity for learning.  The school's foyer is adorned with flags of fifty nations, each representing a home country of students at the school.  When she is hiring teachers, Principal Stablein carefully selects candidates that are skillful in teaching populations of English Learners, and teachers who are passionate in their role to help every child achieve and have a positive high school experience, equipped with the skills necessary to succeed in college and careers.

High school students who excel in academics have an opportunity to participate in the University Center, which is a collaboration between SSU and Elsie Allen, upholding rigorous academic standards and an opportunity to take classes at the college level while still in high school.  After graduating from the University Center program, students are guaranteed admission to SSU, although some go to colleges far away from home, including Harvard, University of Chicago, and the University of California. 

One of the other special programs and career tracks at Elsie Allen include classes in Agricultural Sciences.  The week I visited the campus, and took the photos for this article was the first time teachers were able to use a newly refurbished Ag Building, equipped with science labs and a forklift, welding station and other specialized equipment for students to learn skills for careers in farming and agriculture. 

Offering programs and opportunities for kids to succeed and learn are essential to the program at Elsie Allen.  Mary Gail Stablein exemplifies good administrative leadership because she knows that to be a good principal, she needs to be in touch with and care about the kids, stay in communication and be a support for her teaching staff, and collaborate  effectively with community partners. Kristen Searby commented, "she has been instrumental in promoting the Single Subject program and assisting student teacher candidates to be informative, confident and successful.  She values the work we do here in the school and is a great model for these beginning educators."

This week The School of Education celebrates alumni and local educators with annual Circle of Excellence Awards, and this year's recipient in the field of Early Childhood Education is Master's Degree Program Alumna Margaret Clark. Faculty in the Early Childhood program selected her for her exemplary scholarship.

Associate Professor Chiara Bacigalupa remarked that Clark's rigor and intellectual curiosity was evident from the start.  She noted that "in her very first class in the program, she completed an excellent action research study on children's ideas about peace and then continued to build on that research as she continued her studies." During her time in the program, Clark also served as a research assistant for Dr. Bagigalupa. Clark's Master's thesis, entitled, Making Peace: A Creative Thesis Project defined the ways children are natural at making peace, and explored literature and projects that build on their inclinations to be peace makers, peace builders and peace keepers. As part of the project, Clark wrote a children's book, Making Peace, which she hopes to publish.

Her thesis and the research behind it garnered national attention this year when it was selected as the first place winner of the American Montessori Society's Outstanding Master's Thesis Award, one of two such awards given annually to exemplary graduate studies research in the field of Montessori methods and theory. Clark is now at UC Santa Cruz where she continues her research in peace education in the doctoral program there.

The School of Education Recognition and Awards Ceremony will be held on Wednesday, April 25, 5:00-6:30 pm. in the Cooperage at Sonoma State University and is a free event, open to the public. The Circle of Excellence Awards are generously sponsored by the Alumni Association of Sonoma State University. Click to view the invitation flyer.

The School of Education at Sonoma State University successfully completed its national and state accreditation review with a stellar performance that the university president described as "hitting a home run with the bases loaded." The School of Education prepares teachers and principals for the North Bay Region.

"These are a remarkable group of faculty and students," said Gerry Giordano, a professor in education management at the University of North Florida who was the head of the 13 member review panel which said the School had exceeded both state and national standards.

This includes all of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing Program Standards for all of its programs and all six National Council of Accreditation for Teacher Education (NCATE) Standards.

Giordano said that the School stood out because of "the extraordinary faculty and students that it had recruited," "highly imaginative community-based programs," and a "culture in which candidates and faculty members interacted outside as well as inside university classrooms."

The team specifically commended School programs where social justice permeated every aspect of every program as evidenced by eloquent and inspiring testimonials that local teacher candidates provided.

The re-accreditation was extensive, said Carlos Ayala, interim Dean of the School of Education.

Since the fall of 2011, the expert panel had reviewed the School's website, an exhaustive repository of documentation for all of the teacher, counseling, school administrator and masters programs, sifting through evidence from the last three years of program implementation.

In order to verify the electronic reports and evidence, the expert team then visited campus. While at Sonoma State, they interviewed nearly 473 teachers, faculty, staff, students, mentor teachers, counselors, school principals, superintendents and community members; sifted through budgets, meeting minutes and assessment results; and visited Roseland Elementary School where School of Education prepared teachers, counselors and principals work.

Signficantly, the review panel did not find any "areas of concern" nor did they identify any "areas for improvement" in any of the programs and are proposing that the maximum accreditation period of seven years be awarded.

The panel specifically gave the School of Education four commendations in the following areas: teacher candidates completing programs learn to develop highly creative learning activities, learn to assess student learning, exhibit professional dispositions, and employ pedagogy aligned with state standards.

The review panel will present its findings to their respective governing boards for those boards to take final action in April for state and in October for the national review.

Article written by Jean Wasp, University Affairs

What does the President of the California State Board of Education think about the current state of the educational system? Dr. Michael W. Kirst delivers his overarching vision for California to emerge once again as a national leader in education from 7-8:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 22 in the Cooperage as a part of the Andrea Neves and Barton Evans Social Justice Lecture Series.

His talk - "California K-12 Education: Challenges And Solutions" - addresses the current state of affairs of a state public school system stretched to the limit but aspiring to greatnesss once again.

Kirst is serving his second term as President of the State Board of Education and is also Professor Emeritus of Education at Stanford University.

Kirst's aims to rebuild and re-imagine the public education system through a set of policies that include stabilizing education funding and increase local flexibility,implementing the Common Core Standards, strengthening the teacher workforce, building district and school leadership capacity, supporting innovation, but ensure accountability, facilitating the best uses of technology and ensuring that all students are included.

"Our goal is to dramatically improve the academic achievement and attainment of all students, regardless of proficiency, but with targeted attention to raising achievement and opportunities low income and minority students," he says.

A prolific writer, he has authored ten books. As a policy generalist, he has published articles on school finance politics, curriculum politics, intergovernmental relations, as well as education reform policies.

While his early work focused primarily on k-12 policy and politics, much of his recent work has focused on college preparation and college success at broad access postsecondary institutions that are open enrollment, or accept all qualified applicants.

The disconnections between k-12 and postsecondary education cause much of the low college completion rates, he says. Kirst's research demonstrates that only K-12 and postsecondary education working together to improve preparation and college readiness will increase college completion.

Before joining the Stanford faculty in 1969, Kirst held several positions with the federal government, including Staff Director of the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Manpower,
Employment and Poverty, and Director of Program Planning for Elementary and Secondary Education at the U.S. Office of Education.

He received his Ph.D. in political economy and government from Harvard. His latest books are "From High School to College" with Andrea Venezia (2004) and "Political Dynamics of American Education" (2009).

Kirst was appointed in 2011 as the President of the California State Board of Education for the second time. He also was President from 1977 to 1981. He received his bachelor's degree in economics from Dartmouth College, his M.P.A. in government and economics from Harvard University, and his Ph.D. in political economy and government from Harvard.


For further information about the event, contact Pam Van Halsema, School of Education, (707) 664-2132, pamela.vanhalsema@sonoma.edu

Sonoma State Associated Students Productions welcomes political analyst and intellectual Dr. Marc Lamont Hill to Sonoma State University on Wednesday, February 8, 2012. He will be presenting a free workshop at 3PM in the Multi-Purpose Room in the Student Union and will lecture at 7:30PM in the Cooperage.

Dr. Marc Lamont Hill is one of the leading hip-hop generation intellectuals in the country. His work, which covers topics such as hip-hop culture, politics, sexuality, education and religion, has appeared in numerous journals, magazines, books, and anthologies. Dr. Hill has lectured widely and provides regular commentary for media outlets like NPR, Washington Post, Essence Magazine, and New York Times and has been a regular guest on CNN, MSNBC, and Larry King Live. He has recently become the host of the nationally syndicated show Our World with Black Enterprise.

In Fall 2009, he joined the faculty of Columbia University as Associate Professor of Education at Teachers College. He also holds an affiliated faculty appointment in African American Studies at the Institute for Research in African American Studies at Columbia University.

His workshop, "Why Black Fraternities and Sororities Still Matter," will take place at 3PM in the Multi-Purpose Room in the Student Union. As we enter the 21st century, many people question the role, purpose, and function of Black Greek Letter Organizations (BGLOs). In this lecture, Marc Lamont Hill (a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc.) argues that Black fraternities and sororities still play a critical role in the Black community. He takes on some of the key issues and challenges faced by BGLOs such as hazing, political engagement, and institution building. Rather than merely spotlighting problems, Dr. Hill also offers concrete solutions and shares his vision for building and sustaining strong 21st-century Black fraternities and sororities. FREE

In his lecture, "1st Class Jails, 2nd Class Schools," Dr. Hill will be speaking about the how much financial focus is given to our jail system while our education system is continually on the chopping block.   He will acknowledge the large number of poor and /or minority people currently incarcerated, which he attributes in large part to a War on Drugs going on since 1984.  Dr. Hill believes that democracy needs people to ask tough critical questions in terms of how to get American society on track to educationally balanced country.

This lecture will take place at 7:30PM in Cooperage. Tickets are free for SSU students and faculty and $10 for general admission. Pick up yours today in the Student Union or order by phone at 664-2382.

Mary Collins School, one of the CORE collaboration school sites for the Multiple Subject Credential Program is hosting their annual Symposium for educators this month, and invites the local education community to participate on Saturday, January 28, from 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. SSU student teachers, faculty and alumni will attend the event, which provides a setting for collaboration about big ideas in teaching and learning.

This year's speakers for the Symposium are Dr. Jo Boaler and  Dr. Peggy Albers. Dr. Boaler will be talking about, "Beautiful Math: How successful school approaches change students' lives" and Dr. Albers will be speaking about,  "Working Critically in the Arts". This is a fabulous opportunity to hear both Peggy Albers and Jo Boaler, dialogue in small groups with other educators around the county and be able to ask them questions.

For more information and to sign up to attend, download the registration form.

About the Symposium

Now in its 10th year, the Symposium typically highlights teaching and learning in literacy and mathematics, typically featuring a presenter in each subject.  To prepare for the Symposium, Mary Collins faculty engages in professional book clubs, reading books and articles of the featured presenters.  The Symposium itself kicks off with a Parent Night, in which featured presenters share important educational research, providing a glimpse of the big ideas their children's teachers will be studying in the Symposium. The teachers spend the following day engaging with the presenters, thinking about and leveraging theory into practice.

The third day in the Symposium their doors to the community to continue the conversation with colleagues from around the greater Bay Area.  Featured presenters start off the morning by introducing the group to another aspect of their work, simultaneously building on the previous days and integrating new teachers into the conversation. Throughout the Symposium Mary Collins teachers take the lead, facilitating collegial dialogues that consider the application of research and theory site-based and in the district and expanded to the broader community.

About Mary Collins School at Cherry Valley

Mary Collins School has been a collaboration site for the Multiple Subject Credential Program for over a decade.  Mary Collins School at Cherry Valley "converted" to a charter to preserve their constructivist and child-centered approaches to teaching and learning when they saw it being slowly eroded by district pressures. With a tradition of learning through the arts and engaging the whole child and the world in which  (s)he lives, they established tenets and a mission to help us maintain our school's focus and our identity.  A big part of their mission is that teachers maintain their lifelong learning stance and to that end make every effort to stay current and engaged in educational scholarship.