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Second Annual Butler Giving Circle Grant Awarded to College of Education for New Mentoring Program

By Jennifer Gunnels

The Butler Giving Circle has awarded its second annual community partnership grant to the College of Education (COE) to support the development of a new mentoring program in which experienced teachers of color from the Partnership for Inquiry Learning’s Leadership Group will mentor small groups of COE students in inclusive, culturally responsive, and anti-racist teaching. The COE’s proposal, entitled Mentoring Toward Social Justice and Equity in our Schools and Communities, was selected from among three finalists to receive the $12,065 grant at the Giving Circle’s annual shareholder meeting on June 4.

In the new mentoring program, five teacher-leaders of color from the Partnership for Inquiry Learning will meet with small groups of COE students at least once per month throughout the 2021-22 academic year to focus on relationship building, discussing and applying learnings from shared readings and coursework, and learning about successes in the mentor’s school community. Participants will then share what was learned through the program at local education conferences and with COE faculty, staff, and students, thereby expanding the program’s impact beyond its direct participants.

Dr. Susan Adamson, Director of the Partnership for Inquiry Learning and a COE faculty member, will lead the program in collaboration with COE Dean Brooke KandelCisco, who says she hopes to see the mentoring program become sustainable in the long term as one component of a comprehensive approach to preparing teachers toward social justice and educational equity.

“This generous funding will allow COE students to learn alongside an expert teacher mentor of color while also supporting and raising the profile of the teacher mentors of color as they share their expertise and refine their leadership competencies,” Kandel-Cisco says. “Our COE students will soon be educators, spread out across Indiana and beyond, and we are laser-focused on ensuring all our students are culturally and linguistically responsive educators with knowledge and experience working to advance social justice within schools and communities.”

The mentoring program aligns with the University’s Butler Beyond strategic priority of creating an intentionally diverse, inclusive, and equitable learning and working environment through the curriculum, co-curricular learning, scholarship, and community engagement. The program will also support the COE’s strategic efforts to develop pipelines for recruiting and retaining a diverse corps of teachers. According to recent state data, approximately 93 percent of Indiana teachers identify as white, a number not reflective of the Indiana K-12 student population.

“We know that teachers are the most influential in-school factor impacting K-12 student academic outcomes and that students benefit from teacher racial diversity,” Adamson says. “As a result of our highly experiential and communitybased teacher preparation approach, COE students will be able to immediately apply what they learn from this mentoring program for the benefit of local K-12 students.”

Giving Circle Shareholder Ted Argus ’08 said the COE’s proposal stood out from among the other finalists because of its potential for having a long-term compounding effect on some of the root issues in education.

“In many school settings, the teaching professionals do not always resemble the makeup of the students within the school. A student who sees someone like themselves as a teacher is more likely to look at education as a potential career path or just simply be more engaged in learning,” Argus says. “Supporting pre-service teachers with mentorships and giving leadership opportunities to teacher leader mentors of color will help to tackle some of the prevailing issues in education, including the development and retention of excellent teachers.”

The Butler Giving Circle was established in 2019 and is designed to connect alumni to their philanthropic areas of passion, focused on two mission-critical elements of the University’s Butler Beyond comprehensive fundraising campaign: student scholarships and Indianapolis community partnerships.

With an annual gift of $500, Butler alumni can become shareholders in the Butler Giving Circle. After shareholder funds are pooled, 40 percent of the funds are directed to the Butler Fund for Student Scholarship, 40 percent are granted to an Indianapolis community partner with an existing affiliation to Butler, and 20 percent are used to fund experiential learning opportunities such as student internships for Butler students with Project 44, the Giving Circle’s priority partner.

Current Butler students and faculty who are engaged with Indianapolis community partners were invited to apply for the partner funding earlier this year by submitting project ideas. After an initial review of six applicant projects by Butler leadership and the Butler Giving Circle Executive Committee, three finalists were chosen to present their ideas for use of the funds at the June 4 shareholder meeting.

In keeping with the Butler Giving Circle’s funding priorities, $12,065 of this year’s shareholder funds will be directed to the Butler Fund for Student Scholarship and $6,032 will be used to fund student learning opportunities with Project 44. Participation in the Butler Giving Circle increased significantly in its second year, with 52 shareholders in 2021, up from 32 shareholders in 2020.

New shareholders can join the Butler Giving Circle at any time by making a gift at butler.edu/givingcircle or by contacting Associate Director of Butler Community Engagement Chelsea Hennessy ’12 at chennessy@ butler.edu.

Faculty and Staff Highlights

Nick Abel

› Wrote and submitted the school counseling program’s selfstudy and application for re-accreditation by CACREP.

› Co-presented with Dr. Oliver, Dr. Keller, and Lab School 55 counselor Aaron Munson at the Evidence-Based School

Counseling Conference in March.

Susan Adams

› I offered all of my students HyFlex class meeting options all year, but most opted to meet virtually on Zoom. Students credited the use of standing teams to provide ongoing academic, social, and emotional support across the entire semester in all of my courses. They also appreciated new opening moves rituals which provide focus and readiness for class activities.

› Co-edited a special issue of Theory Into Practice on

ELL family engagement featuring the work of nationally recognized scholars, including Katie Brooks and Cathy

Bhathena, COE. I presented an AERA Division B paper session on an extension of ongoing curriculum theorizing work with Dr. Jamie Buffington-Adams, IU East.

Susan Adamson

› As director of the Partnership for Inquiry Learning, received $70,000 in Phase I of a project with the Indiana Dept of Ed for standards-based support in the teaching of reading and mathematics for grades 2-5 in remote or classroom settings featuring Ryan Flessner, Courtney Flessner ’97, Matt Glover,

Kathy Collins, Donalyn Miller, Lester Laminack.

› Made my virtual debut, presenting three workshops for pre-K and K educators on teaching reading and writing to our littlest learners.

Katie Brooks

› Completed my 5th and final year of my $2 million US

Department of Education grant. 70 teachers earned an ENL license and an additional 17 teachers earned both a secondary content area and ENL license.

› Published articles in Theory into Practice and Multicultural

Education on the collaborative family engagement model that I have been developing in conjunction with immigrant communities.

Deborah Corpus ’74

› Worked as Associate Dean with COE students who required special accommodations because of Covid-19. classes with the 4th grade students and teachers at Central Elementary in MSD Pike Township.

Lori Desautels ’84

› Growing the online certification in applied educational neuroscience with over 80 graduate students from 16 states and two countries as a part of cohort 6.

› Connections Over Compliance Rewiring Our Perceptions of

Discipline is being read and studied by over 100 plus school districts across the country and Canada.

Kelli Esteves

› Co-authored an article with Dr. Shelly Furuness titled Social

Imagination Project: Fostering Empathy in Pre-Service

Teachers by Reading Children’s Books Featuring Characters

Who Have Disabilities. The article, published in the Journal of

Teacher Action Research, addresses case study research done while we co-taught in COE foundations courses.

› Served as the College of Education’s accreditation coordinator.

Fritz Ettl

› I saw our students do their best and adapt to many uncertainties, especially during PE 369, “Supervised

Coaching Experiences” during the fall semester. For this class, we met at the Shortridge High School track once a week, rain or shine, and with our own resistance training equipment in hand. Even though we were never certain whether SHS students would show up, but, we were always there and luckily the SHS students always showed up too--even on a couple of cold, rainy November evenings..

› I appreciated the collaborative work I’ve been able to do with Professor Cathy Hartman. Together we helped our undergraduates coaching Shortridge H.S. student-athletes create a smartphone coaching app by using Reggio-inspired documentation practices. We then wrote about that experience in a brief article that was featured in a recent

IACTE newsletter.

Lisa Farley

› Due to needing to stay on campus (Covid protocol), the PE 203

Golf and Pickleball class studied and learned Disc Golf. With equipment purchased from the Guyer Chair in Education award, we created a portable course on campus, leading to conversations about the sport as a recreational activity.

› Taught most of my classes for the whole year as HyFlex classes where half the class is in the classroom and half is on

Zoom. This new instructional strategy was part of overloads for both semesters and appeared to work well based on student comments.

Karen FarrelL MS ’91

› Completed EPP Annual Report, TITLE II Reports, IPRC

Report.

› Attended CAEPcon in Spring 2021 for accreditation updates.

Ryan Flessner ’97

› Along with Courtney Flessner ’97, created 25 videos for teachers addressing mathematics standards in grades 2-5 for the Indiana Department of Education. Videos can be accessed at: https://www.doe.in.gov/standards/partnershipinquiry-learning

› Continued serving on the Board of Directors for the

Indiana Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Chaired the Professional Development Committee and served as a member of the Equity and Social Justice Committee - two groups that collaborated to host a series of webinars throughout the year.

Shelly Furuness MS ’05

› In collaboration with seven Middle-Secondary Program alumni, we launched a fully Virtual PLC called “Teacher Led,

Teacher Ed” to provide content specific methods support for pre-service and in-service teachers of English, math, science, social studies, world language and ENL.

› Earned promotion to the rank of full professor.

Erin Garriott

› Participated in weekly Zoom “Walk and Talks” with friends from Washington Township Special Olympics and in a virtual

ALPs with Special Olympic athletes from across the state.

› Wrapped up my fourth semester of grad work at the

University of Dayton. In a couple more years, I will have my doctorate degree in Organizational Leadership through

Diversity and Inclusion. A shout out to Dr. Ettl for being part of my dissertation committee as I research and evaluate data collected from the PWB inclusion classes on campus.

Cathy Hartman ’97

› Wrote a proposal with Mr. Ron Smith, principal at Lab School #60, to host the Reggio Emilia traveling exhibit, called the

Mosaic of Marks, Words, Materials Exhibit & Atelier. The proposal was accepted and will be housed in our College of

Education at South Campus.

› Earned promotion to the rank of senior lecturer.

Arthur Hochman

› Worked with alum Meredith Schaar, senior Angela Kotsonis, and current students to create an identity curriculum for 5th graders.

› Worked with alum Ashley Pistello and current students to create advocacy videos for SafeUT crisis intervention.

Tom Keller

› Taught classes using Flipped Classroom method. Student comments were very positive.

› Co-presented with Drs. Abel, Oliver, and Lab School 55 counselor Aaron Munson at the Evidence-Based School

Counseling Conference in March.

Susan Kleinman and Flo Barnes

› Successfully ran the first full-year cohort of LMHC (Licensed Mental Health Counseling) fully online program with 36 students. Transition to online was planned and not due to COVID.

› In order to maximize quality of the student experience, piloted the use of a team approach to building quality online programming. Team comprised of: Curriculum Designer,

Program Manager and Content Expert (Course Instructor).

Deb Lecklider MS ’89 EPPSP

› EPPSP (Experiential Program for Preparing School

Principals) formed a Graduates of Color alumni group focusing on improving our educational leadership program in the areas of equity and inclusion. Approximately 20-30 regular attendees meet monthly working on action plans to continuously improve our program.

› EPPSP’s goal this year was to be more community focused, and we created a Dr. Nygaard Series and EPPSP Podcasts for educators, alumni, and community members on the topic of equity. Summer 2020, EPPSP created the EPPSP Blueprint 2020, a 388-page guidebook for school leaders as they transitioned back to school in the fall.

Angela Mager (Lupton) ’92 MS ’01

› Saw the culmination of many years of work result in the first

Articulation Agreement between Butler and Ivy Tech. This will allow students who complete their associate’s degree in elementary education to finish their bachelor’s degree at Butler.

› Began co-leading with Andy White, Associate Director of

Admissions, the Butler Strategic Direction Multicultural

Workgroup to increase full-time undergraduate representation to align with the University mission and provide greater cultural and socioeconomic diversity.