A federal grant entitled, "Preparation of Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) Personnel in South Carolina" has been awarded to the USC College of Education. It was written by Drs. William H. Brown in Programs in Special Education of the Department of Educational Studies, Ana Lpez-De Fede in the Institute for Families in Society and Department of Pediatrics, and Herman T. Knopf in the Early Childhood Education Program of the Department of Instruction and Teacher Education. In addition, Dr. Kathleen Marshall, Susan Quinn, Kristie Musick, and Jackie Richard will serve as program faculty.

The staff and faculty of the USC School of Education have made great strides in their contributions to education and USC.

Drs. Ed Cox and Sandra Lindsay are the recipients of an $80,000 grant from the SC Department of Education for the S.C. DOE Assessment Program.

Dr. Sandra Lindsay received funding from the S.C. DOE for a second project entitled, "Using Report Card Information to Drive Instructional Decisions." The award amount for the project is $30,200.

Dr. Zach Kelehear is the recipient of a $78,000 grant from the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory to fund his one- year project, "SECC Leadership Development Initiative."

Dr. Richard Wertz received funding in the amount of $61,695, for graduate assistant assignments from Coker and Columbia Colleges.

Dr. Craig Kridel was awarded a $37,352 grant from the Spencer Foundation to fund his two- year project, "The Secondary S.c.hool Study."

The S.C. Department of Education awarded a $66,430 grant to Dr. Kathleen Marshall for a one- year continuation of her project, "Personnel Development Collaboration: Project CREATE."

The "South Carolina Reading First 2006-2007" project, submitted by Drs. Amy Donnelly , Diane DeFord , and Diane Stephens , in the amount of $133 ,491; and the "S.C.RI Phase 2, 3, and High School 2006- 2007" project, submitted by Drs. Heidi Mills , Susi Long , and Mary Styslinger , were both funded by the S.C. Department of Education for $20,000 each.

Dr. Rhonda Jeffries received a grant for $50,055 for "Increasing 2nd and 3rd grade Teachers' Mathematics Knowledge," from the S.C. Commission on Higher Education/USDE.

Dr. James Mensch was awarded an $80,000 grant from Richland County School District One; an $18,000 grant from the Ben Lippen School Athletic Department; and a $53,000 grant from the Newberry County School District, all for graduate assistant assignments.

Dr. Diane Monrad received a $100,000 research grant from the SC Department of Education for her project, "An Investigation of Technical Issues Related to the South Carolina Accountability System."

Dr. Steve Fisher received a grant from the S.C. Department of Education in the amount of $36,367 for his project, "Analysis of Survey Responses for the South Carolina Reading Initiative Phase 3, and South Carolina Reading Initiative/S.C. Reads."

Dr. Edward Cox , assistant professor, EDLP, will be presenting a paper, "What Assessment Center Data Says About Aspiring Principals," at the Mid South Education Research Association annual conference November 9.

Dr. Kevin J. Swick (Early Childhood) and Reginald Williams (doctoral student in early childhood) recently published an article in Early Childhood Educational Journal entitled "An analysis of Bronfenbrenner's bioecological perspective: Implications for working with families under stress."

Matthew Lemberger , August doctoral graduate in Counselor Education, and Dr. Colette Dollarhide , assistant professor of Counselor Education, have published an article in the summer issue of The Journal of Individual Psychology , "Encouraging the Supervisee's Style of Counseling: An Adlerian Model for Counseling Supervision."

Dr. Zach Kelehear , Associate Professor in Educational Administration, recently published "The Art of School- Based Leadership" in the peer- reviewed Connexions publication of the National Council of the Professors of Educational Administration (NCPEA).

Dr. Joshua Gold , Associate Professor of Counselor Education, published an article entitled "Rapport- building with resistant children: Re- conceptualizing relational dynamics" in the Journal of School Counseling and he also recently published "Profiling Marital Satisfaction among Graduate Students: An Analysis of the Perceptions of Masters and Doctoral-Students."

Dr. Doyle Stevick , EDLP, and Dr. Kara Brown , Foundations, were invited to Lenoir- Rhyne College in North Carolina on August 26th to present a talk: "The Role of Education in Estonian History, National Identity and Culture." Dr. Stevick and Dr. Brown, former Fulbright Fellows, are helping to arrange school visits and cultural exchanges for a large group of Lenoir- Rhyne students who will travel during the spring of 2007 to Estonia, where the USC professors have each conducted educational research.

At the fall conference for the South Carolina Association for Higher Continuing Education (SCAHCE), Bryan Burgin , director of Conferences, Public Relations, and Marketing for the College of Education, was elected president of the association. SCAHCE provides professional development opportunities, networking, and benchmarking for continuing education in higher education.

Susan Quinn , director of the Office of Instructional Support in the College of Education, received the first annual Excellence in Teaching award from the South Carolina Partnership for Distance Education.

Dr. Ed Dickey was recently appointed to the Board of Directors for TODOS.

Dr. Katherine Chaddock , of the Educational Leadership and Policies- -Higher Education Administration department, has been appointed to the National Advisory Board of the Monograph Series. She was also recently named as the recipient of the University of Indiana's Everett Helm Fellowship.

Wofford O'Sullivan is responsible for coordinating activities and delivering technical assistance supporting skills specific to high level, high skill careers to secondary school students across the state.