• ROTARY DAY AT MU WRESTLING: The MU Athletic Department is offering reduced-price tickets ($2 apiece) to Rotarians for "Rotary Day at MU Wrestling" at 2 p.m., Sunday, December 11 when the 14th-ranked Mizzou Tiger wrestlers will take on Ohio State. For more information, contact John Houser at 882-0710 or houserj@missouri.edu.
  
  
• Thanks to everyone who attended A Christmas Carol last Thursday evening.  It was almost a full house!  David Clithero announced that we achieved a net profit of over $2,300 which will be given to the Salvation Army and Stephens College.  Special thanks to David Clithero, David Atkins & Jim Ollar…and to the volunteers helping that evening.  VERO even got into the act and helped Dan Brown and Bob Buckley at the registration table!
  

• VOLUNTARY ACTION CENTER CONTRIBUTIONS: Last week we "passed the hat" for contributions to the Voluntary Action Center's annual Christmas Basket Program. According to our own Cindy Mustard, VAC's Executive Director, we collected a total of $509 for the program.
  

• SALVATION ARMY BELL RINGING: Marty Walker made an appeal for bell ringers.  A few spots are still available at the Schnuck’s location and several are available at the other location.  Contact Marty Walker at walkermw@missouri.edu to sign up for a time to volunteer.  December is Family Month!  Take this opportunity to involve your family members in the Christmas Carol and Salvation Army Bell Ringing.  You can find out which spot you had signed up for, or see what spots are still available by checking out the schedule.

• DECEMBER IS FAMILY MONTH—please involve your family members when you ring the bells for Salvation Army.  Also at board meeting this morning it was recommended we invite spouses or family member to our final Club meeting on 12/29.  There isn’t a program that day, but great opportunity to mix and mingle with everyone.  We will include information about this in upcoming meeting announcements. 
  

• CLUB DIRECTORY: The 2005-06 Club Directory has been distributed at the last couple of club meetings and will continue to be available there for club members who have not already received a copy. Club members unable to attend who want a directory should contact Steve Scott.
  

Carolyn Herrington, MU's new Dean of Education, was introduced by Jim Thompson, Dean of Engineering.

Herrington comes to MU from Florida State University, where she was a professor and chair of the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, as well as associate dean of the College of Education. Herrington, who received her doctorate in languages and literature from the University of Florida in 1977, focuses her research on educational policy, leadership and reform. Herrington has co-written and edited three books and contributed to eight more and has published articles in numerous professional journals on these topics. She received the Distinguished Service Award from the American Education Finance Association in 1998, and she currently serves on the governing board of the American Educational Research Association.

Originally founded in 1868, the MU College of Education today has around
2000 students enrolled in a wide variety of graduate and undergraduate programs under the College's five academic units. It houses the oldest teacher preparation program west of the Mississippi River and has graduated more than 50,000 alumni. 

The College of Education has strong collaborations with school districts across the state, especially St. Louis and Kansas City because urban education is a major challenge. Learning is the bedrock of the New Economy. The US standing in the world is dependant upon the education of our youth.

Collaborations on campus across disciplines are also very important and were one of the attractions for Dr. Herrington to accept the position at MU. She liked seeing the ingrained culture of interdisciplinary problem solving. For example, faculty the cognitive sciences are studying the effects on learning and how teaching could be improved.

Learning has been basically flat in this country for about 30 years, with some improvement over the last 5. Education is not getting worse but our society is making it more important, so there is increased criticism. That means that people are not satisfied to let some kids get by with little or no education like used to be accepted. The No Child Left Behind act is 4 years old and is up for renewal next year. This act is an attempt to force school districts to focus on all kids to make sure everyone gets a basic education.

Differences in student achievement are highly correlated with the quality of instruction, meaning that good teachers do matter. An anecdotal example of the linked nature of changes to school systems was the constitutional amendment in California to reduce class sizes. They had to hire 20% more teachers in order to comply. The wealthier schools were able to respond faster and hired the better teachers away from the poorer districts, causing a big shift in the quality of instruction to the wealthier districts.

The quality of higher education is linked to K-12 educational quality. It strengthens the public school system when teachers get a strong education.

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If interested, please e-mail Tony St Romaine, or see Kristen Smarr, Jane Phillips or Paige Scott for additional details.
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 Web Editor:  Tony St Romaine

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