A delegation of Chinese educators visited Vanderbilt University in October and November to learn the latest in U.S. education policy and experience American classrooms and techniques firsthand. This marked the seventh consecutive year that the Education Leadership Learning Exchange (ELLE) has convened leaders from  Peabody, South China Normal University and Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools [...]

On Monday, Sept. 26, when First Lady Michelle Obama hosted an event at the White House to announce a new program designed to make life easier for women in research careers, Peabody Dean Camilla Benbow was in the audience. Benbow had been invited in her capacity as a member of the National Science Board. The [...]

Mark Lipsey was awarded the Earl Sutherland Prize for Achievement in Research at the fall faculty assembly for his contributions to education studies and the design of evaluation studies. “Mark’s work is having a transformative effect on the quality of education in Tennessee,” said Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos. “He has produced seminal social science and [...]

August marked the arrival of the 2011–12 Hubert H. Humphrey Fellows in Nashville, where they will engage in a year of professional and leadership development at Vanderbilt and Peabody. The Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program, part of the Fulbright Exchange Program, is administered by the Institute of International Education and sponsored primarily by the U.S. [...]

The Peabody Roundtable Donor Society convened for dinner on September 15 in the Wyatt Center rotunda. The Roundtable is comprised of donors of $1,000 or more annually to Peabody. Brian A. Griffith, assistant clinical professor of human and organizational development; Rob McFadden, headmaster at Benton Hall Academy, Franklin, Tenn.; Tatiana Peredo, BS’07, MEd’10, educational consultant [...]

Improving mental health services is the aim of a $3.8 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to Peabody’s Center for Evaluation and Program Improvement and the Indiana University Center for Adolescent and Family Studies (CAFS). The five-year project will examine how to improve mental health services for youth and families in community mental health [...]

Helping at-risk youth improve their reading skills is the aim of three Vanderbilt students who have helped mobilize a rotating group of 60 fellow student volunteers to meet with North Nashville youth every Tuesday and Thursday evening. Samantha Pomplon, Megan Goetsch and Samara Orkin, all seniors at Peabody, are co-coordinators of The After School Program, [...]

Peabody College was named the No. 1 graduate education school in the United States for the third consecutive year by U.S. News & World Report in the rankings released March 15. The U.S. News & World Report rankings are based on statistical analysis of programs, student and faculty surveys along with expert opinions. The data [...]

Student achievement improved and teacher turnover declined in schools participating in the Texas state-funded District Awards for Teacher Excellence (D.A.T.E.) program, the National Center on Performance Incentives (NCPI) at Peabody has found. “Our findings suggest that, more often than not, participants in the D.A.T.E. program had a positive experience and that student achievement gains and [...]

Children who attended state-funded prekindergarten classes gained an average of 82 percent more on early literacy and math skills than comparable children who did not attend, researchers from the Peabody Research Institute have found. The initial results are from the first rigorous longitudinal study that has been conducted on the effects of public prekindergarten attendance [...]

Elisabeth Dykens, professor of psychology and human development and director of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, was appointed to the board of directors of Special Olympics International. Donna Ford, professor of special education, received the 2011 Vanderbilt Black Student Alliance Distinguished Faculty Award. Steve Graham, Currey-Ingram Professor of Special Education, will serve on the advisory board [...]

Bruce Compas, holder of the Patricia and Rodes Hart Chair of Psychology and Human Development and professor of psychology, won the Joe B. Wyatt Distinguished Professor Award this spring. The award, created to honor Chancellor Joe B. Wyatt upon his retirement in 2000, is given to a full-time faculty member for the development of significant [...]

Helping foster children’s learning and readiness for school through the federal Head Start program is the goal of a new National Center on Quality Teaching and Learning, created this fall with a $40 million grant from the Office of Head Start. Peabody is one of seven institutions that will compose the center, which began work [...]

Brain scans of adolescents with dyslexia can be used to predict the future improvement of their reading skills with an accuracy rate of up to 90 percent, new research indicates. Advanced analyses of the brain activity images are significantly more accurate in driving predictions than standardized reading tests or any other measures of children’s behavior. [...]

Fizzy’s Lunch Lab—an interactive Web series with cartoon characters acting out funny stories to emphasize the importance of good nutrition, a balanced diet and physical activity—was nominated for a Daytime Entertainment Emmy Award. And there’s a Peabody connection. Sharon Shields, professor of the practice of human and organizational development; Heather Smith, assistant professor of the [...]

New research based on preliminary data in a pilot study has found no significant difference in achievement gains on standardized math tests between students in charter schools and those in traditional public schools. The findings have spurred the collection of additional data for continued analysis. Ellen Goldring, Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor of Education Policy [...]

On Tuesday, October 12, Peabody and Owen Graduate School of Management joined with Tennessee’s First Lady, Andrea Conte, to welcome actor and education activist Richard Dreyfuss for a conversation with esteemed journalist John Seigenthaler on the importance of civics education. The First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt also was a sponsor. The event took place in [...]

Identifying and developing a process for transferring key elements that make some high schools in large urban districts more effective at improving outcomes for low-income and minority students as well as English language learners is the focus of a new national center at Peabody.

Improving math instruction for elementary and middle school children experiencing problems with fractions is the focus of a $10 million grant from the Institute of Education Sciences, a research branch of the U.S. Department of Education. Among the collaborators in the new Center on Improving Mathematics Instruction for Students with Mathematics Difficulties, to be administered [...]

Peabody College’s expertise in special education dates back to at least 1937, when it established its Child Study Center to examine reading disabilities. Speech therapy was added in 1944 and a training program for teachers of the blind in 1953. But it was the groundbreaking work of Peabody-based special education and psychology researchers such as [...]

Peabody College welcomed 13 Humphrey Fellows from 11 countries in August 2010: Layla Al Yusuf, Bahrain; Baikita Yankal, Chad; Ya Rachel Valery Kouame, Cote d’Ivoire; Zalak Kavi, India; David Kabita, Kenya; Khin Latt, Myanmar; Ram Hari Lamichhane, Nepal; Fati Bagna Seyni, Niger; Nadia Ashraf, Zaheer Iqbal and Lubna Mohyuddin, Pakistan; Amal Abu Hejleh, Palestinian National [...]