Student Teacher Takes on Kenya

During her student teaching in Kenya, Kristi Winegarden (MAT ’05) woke to the sound of roosters outside of the mud hut she shared with two other teachers, showered only after pulling a bucket of water up from the well, and then walked 15 minutes to school through sugar cane fields.magine swimming, biking, and running long enough to watch the sun rise and then set.

She often heard the voices of young children calling out to her as she walked with another American teacher. “When they see us coming, they yell out to all of their friends, ‘Mzungu! Mzungu!’ which means white person in Swahili,” Winegarden wrote in an e-mail back to family and friends.

“Then they all come to us and say, ‘How are you?’ in these very high voices because they think that we have very high voices. Many times as we are walking we hear a ‘How are you?’ from the bushes and we are often followed to school by a group of giggling children.”

Winegarden, who was in Kenya for nine weeks this winter, taught ninth grade biology and chemistry at a private boarding school. She said there were many differences between teaching in the United States and teaching in Kenya.

“There was no electricity or running water in the classroom,” Winegarden said. “Only about one in five of the students owns the textbook, so they have to share, and you only have a chalk board, no technology.”

Winegarden said her students, who were used to lecture as their only educational format, were disciplined and dedicated since they had to pay tuition to attend high school.

Winegarden was the first University of Iowa College of Education student to choose Kenya as her overseas student teaching location. Most students choose countries like Australia or England, where language and living conditions are similar to those at home.

But Nancy Langguth (PhD ’96), who coordinates off-sight student teaching placements throughout the United States and abroad, said she was happy to help Winegarden arrange her trip to Kenya. She could see that Winegarden was just the right student to tackle the challenges of visiting that country.

“There couldn’t be a better representative of The University of Iowa, the College, or the United States,” Langguth said.

Approximately 10 to 15 teacher education students choose to participate in an overseas student teaching each semester, and most report that it’s a “career-enhancing, life-changing experience,” Langguth said.

Still, she’s quick to point out that teaching abroad, and especially in Africa, is not for everyone. “These students have to have that inner strength and a deep interest that is going to sustain them,” she said.

Going to Kenya meant Winegarden had to sign a special waiver that she understood the country could be dangerous. She had to get a list of inoculations and had to prepare herself for different living conditions.

But Winegarden said the preparations didn’t phase her enthusiasm. She’d always wanted to visit Africa—she loved the animals and was interested in experiencing a different way of life.

She said living in Kenya, where she was able to go on a safari as well as do some AIDS outreach and visit an AIDS clinic run by Indiana University, was a powerful, positive experience.

“I loved it. The scenery was so gorgeous—every night was another magnificent sunset,” Winegarden said. “And everyone was friendly and kind.” –by Heather Spangler

Activism through the Press

Associate Professor Emeritus John Wilson will be at the helm when Iowa’s only gay newspaper, ACCESSline, celebrates its 20-year anniversary.

Wilson, who for 31 years was an associate professor in Science Education before retiring in 2004, has served as the paper’s editor for the past 10 years. His duties include editing copy, researching, writing, designing pages, landing advertisers, and collaborating with some 20 volunteers and contributing writers.

Paul Danielsen, Wilson’s partner of 16 years, manages the paper’s finances, distribution, and mailing lists.

ACCESSline, which is an acronym for A Concerned Community for Education and Safer Sex, started in Waterloo in 1986 as a means to educate the gay community about AIDS.

“At that time there wasn’t anything about AIDS in the popular press,” Wilson said.

Now, in addition to providing information about AIDS, the paper has expanded to include news stories of interest to the gay community, book and movie reviews, comics, editorials, information about events, and resource guides.

“Our goal is to keep the gay community informed of various things—what’s happening on the gay scene, what kinds of laws are being pushed, how rights are expanding or contracting,” Wilson said. “It’s a way of reinforcing the community.”

Since its creation, the paper has grown from a pamphlet-style newsletter to a dozens-of-pages long, tabloid-sized newspaper.

ACCESSline prints 4,500 copies of each issue. Some 450 people subscribe. Others find the paper for free at bookstores, health clinics, and gay and lesbian resource centers all over the state.

Carolyn Mashek, who edited ACCESSline before Wilson took over, said she’s impressed with his commitment to the paper.

“John dedicates a lot of his time to the paper because he feels the same way I do, that it’s important,” Mashek said. “He practically lives for the paper.”

–by Heather Spangler

Dunbar Named Iowa Testing Programs Director
Measurement and Statistics Professor Steve Dunbar will face some tests of his own as he settles into his new position as director of the Iowa Testing Programs (ITP). Dunbar is only the fourth person in 58 years to head ITP, which coordinates a cooperative statewide testing program for Iowa schools, develops the widely used Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) and Iowa Tests of Educational Development (ITED) and is considered one of the UI’s “crown jewels” for its far-reaching influence and international reputation.

Maintaining the quality and expanding the reach of the ITBS and ITED—referred to collectively as the “Iowa Tests”—is job No. 1 for Dunbar. That job will be particularly challenging as schools across the country scramble to raise test scores in accordance with federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) laws.

“The Iowa tests are currenlty taken by students in all 50 states as well as several U.S. territories,” Dunbar said.

Dunbar says he looks forward to continuing his work with some of the best professional faculty and staff on campus by producing good, methodologically sound tests that are relevant across the country, regardless of the vagaries of legislative mandates and political agendas at the state level.

“Because the UI maintains the tests’ copyright, ITP has an advantage in that our tests tend to be less market-driven than the other major test batteries,” Dunbar said. “This allows us to control content and technical quality.”

New initiatives on the horizon are to provide comprehensive examinations online as more Iowa schools move in that direction, to expand assessment approaches with end-of-course testing at the high school level, and to develop new reporting systems so test results—from the individual level to the state level—can be tracked over time, rather than just as a moment in time. Dunbar also wants to see the program play an active and collaborative role with other departments in the College of Education, where assessment dovetails with curriculum studies or school policy.

Dunbar has co-directed ITP with colleagues Tim Ansley and Dave Frisbie since 2003, when former director, Robert Brennan, stepped down to become director of the Center for Advanced Studies in Measurement and Assessment.

“With the intense focus on testing in education today, it was time for a single individual to assume leadership of the Iowa Testing Programs,” said Dean Sandra Damico. “I am pleased Steve Dunbar has agreed to do so.”

Dunbar teaches educational measurement and statistics, has published numerous articles and book chapters on large-scale assessment and serves as director of and principal author of the ITBS.

–by Stephen Pradarelli