Division H: School Evaluation and Program Development (Steve Henry, Vice President)

I need to begin by thanking Mary Yakimowski, our prior VP, for doing a great job of preparing me to assume leadership of the division.  Kudos to all the other prior VPs, secretaries, committee chairs and members who helped over the years to develop the operating routines and structures that provide a kind of template for running our busy division.

In the spring of 2007, Division H became the first division to have fully adopted By-Laws, a process that took about two years to complete.  Our Division Secretary, Judy Arter, began a process of updating and streamlining the Division Handbook which contains operating procedures for each committee. We also began an extensive process of reflection concerning the name of our division: School Evaluation and Program Development.  Many members have expressed concern that the name does not effectively communicate the focus of the division effectively.  Plans are to intensify the name study process in the fall of 2007 and, if consensus on a new name can be reached, bring a proposal for the name change to AERA Council in January of 2008 and to the Division for adoption at the 2008 spring Business Meeting.

The Affirmative Action Committee was chaired by Zollie Stevenson.  He participated in Affirmative Action and SAGE committee meetings at the Annual Meeting in San Francisco, reported on Affirmative Action priorities for Division H at the Annual Breakfast Meeting in San Francisco, participated in the Combined Committee Meeting of AERA in Washington, DC during the fall of 2006, and attended the AERA Annual Brown v. Board of Education Symposium in Washington, DC during the fall of 2006

The Breakfast Business Meeting Committee was chaired by Gail Flanagan.  The committee secured sponsorship for the 2007 breakfast, reserved a room and coordinated tickets with AERA staff, organized door prizes, ensured the breakfast was in the program, and sold 209 breakfast tickets on line through pre-registration.

The Exhibits Booth Committee was chaired by Jim Wohlleb.  He coordinated the shipment and display of materials for successful exhibit booth operations during the annual meeting in Chicago, promoted professional practice through display of past year’s and this year’s winners of competition, and promoted Division H through distributing materials and networking at the exhibit booth.

The Graduate Student Committee was chaired by Colleen Paeplow.  She attended the 2006 Coordinated Committee Meeting in Washington and planned the Graduate Students Fireside Chat and Reception.

The International Relations Committee was reconstituted and a chair and assistant chair with international roots were appointed.  Zsuzanna Szabo served as chair and her committee identified AERA overall International Relations activities and structures, established linkages with International Relations committees for AERA and other divisions and created two paper sessions on International Research topics.

The Membership Committee was chaired by Mike Herrick.  He made renewal contacts with Division H members whose division membership was about to expire or had expired.  He reported that the division membership is over 1500 which is about the same as 2006 but up by about 200 from 2005.

The Mentoring for Early Careers and Graduating Students Committee was chaired by Geogette Yetter.  They updated the Division H Mentorship announcement, adjusted the timeline to better match the new AERA calendar year budget, included articles for 2006 mentorships in the newsletter, reviewed applications and selected four mentees for 2007, and brokered mentor/mentee partnerships.

The Reality Test Newsletter editor was Winona Burt.  The division took steps to assure the VP, Newsletter Editor, and Secretary all have Publisher 2007, produced Winter and Spring Newsletters, and planned to scale up to the full complement of three newsletters for next year.

Nominations Committee was chaired by Mary Yakimowski, the Division H  immediate past vice president.  The committee placed "call for nominations" for division secretary on the listserv, received over 20 nominations for secretary, which was the most in recent memory, held discussions with committee members regarding nominees, determined the potential slate and obtained their interest in the position, and coordinated the collection of biographical sketches for the final slate.

The Outstanding Publications Committee was chaired Rebecca Hagerty.  Her committee revised the competition to limit a given entity to five submissions, handled review processing almost exclusively with electronic documents, coordinated the review of over 100 submissions, and, for the second year, produced a CD of the submissions which was distributed to members at the annual breakfast/business meeting.

The Outstanding Presentations/Discussants Committee was chaired by Gunapala Edirisooriya.  That committee determined the winners of the 2006 competition, presented at the 2007 breakfast meeting, developed revised and improved rating forms for all categories, and expanded the 2007 competition to include interactive symposia.

The Program Committee was chaired by Mike Flicek.  They coordinated proposal submissions in four sections using 281 Division H and 120 other AERA members to review.  They accepted 44 of 57 (77%) session proposals and 51% of the 223 individual paper proposals.

The Social Reception Committee was chaired by Pete Prowda.  He reserved the Harry Caray’s restaurant, secured sponsorship for the event, hired musicians, advertised the 2007 social reception and linked and coordinated the Graduate Student Reception with the Division H Reception.

The Web Site Committee was chaired by Joe McCrary.  He obtained training from AERA staff on new website application, provided basic web site updates and new postings, analyzed the web site structure and identified priorities for revision.