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Greetings from Jeff Elman, Dean
The early effects of the Division of Social Sciences' efforts to re-define ourselves are most evident in our work on K-12 education, particularly educational equity. Over the past 12 months, the Division of Social Sciences has begun a re-visioning process on campus designed to create an academic environment focused more on solving some of the significant, real-world problems we face today. For many of these problems — from health care reform to California's governability and many others — the social sciences play an essential role in the solution and the problems themselves hold practical and theoretical interest in which our expert faculty and students can help shed some light.
One such area is in the arena of public education. I am proud to have Amanda Datnow leading the education studies team in an effort to narrow the achievement gap between low- and middle-income students. Some of this work is addressed in research that discovers pathways for low-income youth to attend and succeed in higher education. This project is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and is described in Amanda's profile.
At UC San Diego, there are a number of important education-based initiatives you should know about, many of which are centered in the Division of Social Sciences: 1) Education Studies — a program that prepares the next generation of professional educators; 2) CREATE — a research center that analyzes the best practices of schools, such as the Preuss School (affiliated with UC San Diego), that prepare low-income students for college; and 3) the Center for Community Well-being — a center that enhances academic development for low-income children by addressing barriers such as after-school tutoring, neighborhood safety and health issues. Our projects are interdisciplinary in nature and involve departments such as cognitive science, communication, economics, ethnic studies, political science, psychology and sociology. The division is also a very proud participant in the campus's National Science Foundation Science of Learning Center, Temporal Dynamics of Learning, a multi-year, multi-million dollar research program that works to connect basic science in the area of learning with what goes on in the classroom.
Like many of our alumni who work in the field of education, Amanda Datnow learned from, and was inspired by, Hugh "Bud" Mehan, one of the driving forces behind our campus initiatives. Bud was a founder of the Teacher Education Program (which later became the Education Studies Program) and is founding director of CREATE. It is a testament to Bud's influence on education, both regionally and nationwide, to see his students excelling in the field today. Please enjoy reading about Amanda and our work to help young learners succeed in school.
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