On a hot May afternoon, about 160 candidates walked in person, with their families and loved ones cheering from Edwards Parade. Following the graduates’ procession, Jane Bolgatz, Ph.D., associate dean for academic affairs and associate professor of curriculum and teaching at GSE, introduced Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, for an invocation, and GSE Interim Dean Akane Zusho, Ph.D., who addressed the graduates. Present in the crowd were Virginia Roach, Ed.D., former dean of GSE, and José Luis Alvarado, Ph.D., who will lead the school as dean beginning July 1.

“How we emerge from challenges helps to define who we are as human beings,” Zusho told the crowd, citing not only the COVID-19 pandemic but ongoing conversations around racial justice and education reform. “We need teachers, leaders, counselors, and psychologists who share in the fundamental belief that we can all learn and grow, and who can help their students, teachers, and clients live up to their fullest potential.

“Every student deserves to learn in an environment that encourages them to take risks, ask big questions, and make mistakes. Every student also deserves to know they are in a safe space where there is always a path to redemption through education, free of judgement. And that path begins with you.”

Students graduating across GSE’s degree and certificate programs echoed Zusho’s call for the need to change the world through education.

Brandon LaBella, who received a master’s degree in childhood education and is currently teaching fourth grade at Hillcrest Elementary School in Peekskill, New York, said that the M.S.T. program “made me feel so much more confident as a teacher. It’s incredible to be here surrounded by so many brilliant people, and I think everyone here is going to help make the world a better place.”

Speaking about what it’s been like to teach throughout the pandemic, LaBella added, “It’s been incredible to see the resilience of the students and all the teachers. It just gives me hope for the future that if we can take care of this, we can do anything.”

Darlyn Smith received her master’s in childhood special education through GSE’s online program and is currently teaching first grade at the Pingry School in Short Hills, New Jersey.

“I’ve always wanted to be a teacher, since I was very young,” said Smith. “It’s a great feeling to be here and get to see all the friends that I had online and get to interact and celebrate this wonderful occasion.”

Others reflected on the personal journeys of their years in graduate school. Teddy Reeves received his administration and supervision Ph.D. in GSE’s church and non-public school leadership program, and he said that the research process, while challenging at times, was an essential complement to his work as the curator and co-lead of religion at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.

“It has been an amazing, difficult season of writing and researching and finding self,” Reeves reflected. “It’s labor intensive, but it’s a labor of love. It’s been great to mirror the work that I do professionally with the work I got to do at Fordham.”

Magalie Exavier-Alexis, who completed her Ed.D. in educational leadership, administration, and policy while working as a school principal in Brooklyn’s District 13, also noted the challenges of balancing classwork and research with full-time work and a family, but she had no doubt that it was worth the effort.

“I’ve always known that my goal is to cross this finish line,” she said of receiving her doctorate. “I am elated! There are no words to describe my elation and my jubilation.” ­

Many graduates opted to attend GSE’s virtual ceremony, held on Monday, May 24. View the ceremony below and on YouTube.

“It’s not just me telling them to do squats,” said Robilotta, GSE ’20, who works at the Reece School, a special education elementary school in East Harlem. “It’s Captain America showing them how to do squats, jumping jacks, and jumping rope without a rope.”

Robilotta is among thousands of teachers across the city who have been forced to find new ways to engage students amid the COVID-19 pandemic. As of now, schools under the New York City Department of Education will open this fall with a blended learning model: on-site instruction for part of the week and remote instruction for the rest. In phone interviews, Robilotta and his fellow alumni and faculty from Fordham’s Graduate School of Education reflected on their recent experiences with remote instruction and described how educators can be better prepared to face the new school year this fall.

‘Where Does the Line Get Drawn’?

Robilotta said some students loved the theme-based YouTube exercise videos that he screenshared in their remote gym classes. But others missed playing basketball, football, and Gaga ball with their classmates. Many students didn’t show up to class at all. Robilotta, who expected up to 36 students per class, said he saw as many as 15 students and as little as zero. It’s disheartening, but he knows his students and their families are dealing with a lot at home, he said. 

Robilotta said he favors hybrid instruction—a blend of in-person and remote instruction—because it gives families the choice to send their children back to school this fall, especially essential workers and those without childcare. But that doesn’t solve every problem. How does a child safely commute to school on a crowded bus or subway? How will he teach physical education when it’s too cold or wet to play outdoors? And how do you keep everyone in the school building safe?

“What’s the difference between me remoting in from the gym or an office than me remoting in from home?” Robilotta said. “And where does the line get drawn for who comes into the building and who stays home?”

For veteran teachers like Robilotta, teaching in a pandemic was tough. But for many novice teachers like Maureen Dougherty, GSE ’20, dealing with COVID-19 was a new bombshell. 

This past school year, Dougherty co-taught 30 second graders at Success Academy in the Bronx. When remote instruction started, Dougherty and a colleague split their class into two cohorts on Google Classroom and delivered live instruction through BlueJeans, a video conferencing platform. In their last online session, they reunited the whole class and played a slideshow of student photos from the school year. 

“You could see them laughing and giggling and beaming over seeing themselves … It was emotional for me and my co-teacher who put this together,” Dougherty said. “It was emotional for the kids, too, because I know they missed being all together and seeing their friends.”

But Doughterty said she’s worried about getting to know her new set of students virtually in a few weeks. 

“I think what made remote learning work last year was I had already established these relationships with my students. I knew their strengths, I knew what they struggled with, I knew their families,” said Dougherty, who will start school remotely. “Despite all the uncertainty surrounding the fall, the summer has been a bit of a gift because now I have all this time to prepare for the fall—to have somewhat of a sense of what’s coming.” 

Diverse Strengths, Needs, and Perspectives

As autumn approaches, educators are preparing for another school year in a world where COVID-19 still exists. Su-Je Cho, Ph.D., professor of childhood special education and chair of the childhood special education division at GSE, said she recently gave advice to 50 GSE students who might be teaching students with disabilities in a hybrid classroom.

“They really need to think about how they’re going to set up their classrooms … How many students they can accommodate while social distancing, things they need to prepare—hand sanitizer, masks—what kinds of policies are going to take place in their classrooms,” Cho said. 

But special education teachers were already facing unique challenges with their students. Many children with disabilities have behavioral issues, and it’s difficult to keep them all focused in the same room—and even harder from behind a computer screen, said Cho. 

“Keeping them all online and teaching them together remotely [as a class]—that’s not even possible,” said Cho. “[Teachers need to] tutor each individual student twenty or thirty minutes at a time online.” 

All educators need to maximize the positives of both in-person and remote environments, said GSE interim dean Akane Zusho, Ph.D. In a physical classroom, it’s easier to promote interpersonal relationships, collaboration, and connection. There’s a “more palpable sense of belonging,” and you can feel the energy of people around you, said Zusho. Educators should take advantage of their one-on-one time with students in person, she said. 

Meanwhile, schools teaching remotely should take advantage of available technology. Zusho recalled when she taught statistics at Fordham and posted videos where she explained tough concepts. Her students appreciated having the ability to pause her lessons and learn at their own pace, she said. 

“Technology is awful when teachers and faculty don’t really think about those constraints and affordances and basically just lecture. You’re not really taking advantage of all the things that you could do. And by doing that, you’re leaving a lot of kids behind,” Zusho said. “Leverage the power of technology or the physical classroom to make learning effective for all students.” 

Elizabeth Leisy Stosich, Ed.D., assistant professor in the educational leadership, administration, and policy division, agreed that educators need to maximize their limited in-person time with students. One way to do that is to organize hands-on activities that connect students’ personal lives to what they’re learning in school, she said. For example, elementary school students can participate in circle time and connect their personal lives to what they’re learning in school. 

“While covering content and meeting grade level expectations is very important, I think that it’s imperative for educators to make time for students to process their experiences,” Stosich said. “Children of all ages are grappling with not only the challenges presented by the pandemic and fears for their parents’ livelihoods, but also concerns about racial injustice. It’s important for educators to not sweep anything under the rug, but to really create an open space for dialogue.” 

It’s also important for school leaders to listen to everyone on their team, from teacher aides to the senior classroom teacher, said Shaundrika Langley-Grey, MC’95, GSS’96, principal of the Nassau BOCES Jerusalem Avenue Elementary School on Long Island. It’s been difficult for the whole team to adjust to online instruction and make it more engaging for students, she said, but together, they can make it work. 

“Everyone brings a different perspective and brings different solutions,” said Langley-Grey, a current Ed.D. student at GSE. “We all need to adapt and recognize that together, we can make [this school year]happen.” 

“I am so proud to have been a member of Fordham University for the past five years and of all that we in the Graduate School of Education have been able to accomplish,” said Roach. “While I am moving on to a new challenge, my fondest thoughts will always be with Fordham and the wonderful faculty, staff, and students who have dedicated their lives to making the world a better place.”

During her tenure, Dean Roach has helped the school grow in national standing and reputation. She helped launch all eight of the graduate school’s fully online degree programs. Roach also worked with faculty to rebuild the Hagin Assessment Center, which offers consultation and assessment services to support academic achievement for students. Her catalytic efforts to support faculty grant writing has led the Graduate School of Education to triple its sponsored research funding in just the past four years. In each of the last two years, U.S. News has ranked Fordham 39th among the nation’s top graduate schools of education nationwide, its highest ranking to date.

“Dean Roach is an extraordinary leader in every way,” said Dennis Jacobs, Ph.D., provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs at Fordham University. “In addition to strengthening the School’s degree programs and scholarly endeavors, she has worked tirelessly to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion and advance Fordham’s Jesuit mission. From creating pipelines for first-generation students exploring college, to recruiting increasingly diverse full-time faculty and students, Dean Roach has left an indelible mark on Fordham’s Graduate School of Education.”

Dr. Zusho previously served as the chair of the Division of Psychological and Educational Services and is an award-winning scholar at the intersection of culture, achievement motivation, and self-regulated learning. Fordham University will commence a national search this fall for the next dean of the Graduate School of Education.

If it does succeed, one of the reasons will be teachers’ abilities to simultaneously teach students of different levels of academic proficiency in the same classroom. Akane Zusho, Ph.D., a professor of educational psychology in Fordham’s Graduate School of Education, and author of Differentiated Instruction Made Practical (Routledge, 2018), says when students are properly motivated, it can be done.

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Full transcript below:

Akane Zusho: Everyone wants the best for their kids and when they’re concerned that that might not actually be the case, then people react in different ways, and I think that leads to some of the problems that we see in New York City public schools right now.

Patrick Verel: In education, few topics are more fraught with tension than school integration. Recent studies have confirmed that when students who are struggling academically are taught alongside those that are thriving, both groups do better in the long run. There is still fierce resistance though, and in New York City, a new plan being promoted in District 15 in Brooklyn that does away with admissions screenings processes for middle schools is being closely watched by experts and parents alike. If it does succeed, one of the reasons will be teachers abilities to simultaneously teach students of different levels of academic proficiency in the same classroom.

Akane Zusho, a professor of educational psychology in Fordham’s Graduate School of Education says that when students are properly motivated, it can be done. I’m Patrick Verel and this is Fordham News.

How do we know all students do better when their schools are socially and economically integrated?

Akane Zusho: From the social sciences and psychology in particular, there is evidence to suggest that when students are integrated, that they do learn from each other. Particularly when it comes to racial integrations, there is research that suggests that it does reduce prejudice. And not only that, it actually improves engagement among students. There is a particular theory called inner group contact theory. If we’re always friends with a particular type of person and then all of a sudden you get a different kind of friends and let’s say you had some preconceived notions about what that friend might represent ahead of time, the more you get to know this new friend, you’re more likely to appreciate them and value them and then that reduces prejudice.

Patrick Verel: If the research backs it up, why is there such strong resistance to it?

Akane Zusho: From a parents’ perspective, I think there is often a concern that the quality of education may go down if the schools are integrated. Whether or not that’s true is a different story. But everyone wants the best for their kids and when they’re concerned that that might not actually be the case, then people react in different ways. And I think that leads to some of the problems that we see in New York City public schools right now.

Patrick Verel: What is differentiated instruction?

Akane Zusho: Differentiated instruction is basically this idea that you would adjust your instruction to meet the needs of the students in the class. And in a class of 30 and especially in New York City public schools, oftentimes we hear teachers complain that the students that are excelling are very different than the students that are really struggling in the class. And so this idea of differentiated instruction is how do you attend to everybody’s needs and stretch them too.

Patrick Verel: Is there a maximum number of students in a classroom that this technique can work for?

Akane Zusho: So to be honest, I don’t think it’s the number of students that is as critical. I mean, obviously, some of the strategies that we teach teachers require group work and there are some physical challenges sometimes when it comes to the setup of New York City classrooms that sometimes make it difficult. A lot of times I think it really depends on the teacher and the teachers’ comfort with using some of the strategies that we teach them.

So, for example, there’s a lot of group learning work and teachers vary in their comfort level with facilitating that kind of instructional strategy. There’s also I think it varies too on teachers content knowledge. We found that teachers sometimes … Well, we know that teachers vary in how much expertise they have in the content that they’re teaching and that impacts whether or not they can sort of see the big picture ideas that they want to get across to the students because that’s what you really need to differentiate on. In a racially integrated classroom, I think it also depends on teachers own self-awareness and their cultural knowledge of their students.

Patrick Verel: If the new plan in Brooklyn succeeds, teachers who are used to teaching only the “academically gifted students” will have to quickly learn how to teach those that are also struggling academically and visa verse. And I wonder, do you think they can benefit from Differentiated Instruction Made Practical, which you and your colleague Ronda Bondi published earlier this year?

Akane Zusho: Of course, I’m biased, but I definitely think that they could they could learn something. Because, like I said before, to differentiate instruction effectively, I think it’s not an easy task. A lot of what we’re really trying to promote is this idea of teachers finding time in their lesson to look and listen for diversity because I feel like teachers, if you’re a teacher and you’re lecturing all the time, what we find in that is that usually, there’s some students are going to get it and then there’s obviously a handful students that won’t get it. And unless you make the students thinking visible to them and to you, you won’t be able to sort of know that some of the kids are not getting it.

And then we also have a lot of, like I said previously, group learning routines because we feel like that allows teachers to listen to kids because they’ll be talking with each other. And then it becomes clear to the students and to the teacher if they are getting it. What our book is really focusing on is getting teachers to engage the extremes because if you engage the extremes, then most likely you’re engaging everybody.

For differentiation of instruction to work, you have to have a supportive learning environment, an environment where students perceive that they belong and that they are valued members of the classroom because a lot of what we ask teachers to do does require students to feel comfortable voicing their opinions especially when they’re struggling and not being embarrassed by that. And then most importantly, confidence is key to motivation. And in fact, I think it’s probably the most important aspect of feeling motivated. If you don’t feel like you are competent, the quality of your behavior usually suffers.

I teach statistics here at Fordham and I also face this all the time where some students get it and other students don’t. I often break up the class into groups at one point so that students who need more personalized attention can have me for five or 10 minutes so that they feel confident enough to go back to their groups and engage in there. But for that to work, they need to actually feel like they’re not embarrassed and that they can come to me.

Patrick Verel: So what advice would you give to people who want to see this new plan being put into action in Brooklyn actually succeed?

Akane Zusho: You need to shift the culture of the schools to one that is embracing of all students. And so what that might require is changing policies so that there’s not so much a focus on awards, let’s say and certain groups excelling. Because usually, when you do that, when you heighten awareness about one group excelling, you’re implicitly giving a message that the other kids can’t, or they’re not at that level. They could get rid of screeners but if they’re still tracking students into different like classes, that’s problematic.

Two, I think professional development is probably going to be key where teachers are going to need to become better versed in differentiated instruction or personalized instruction. I think the teachers need to … and the kids too, they need to see that they can learn from each other. It’s not going to be easy. The problem is that I don’t think there’s one specific thing that will ensure that this will be a success, but the fact that they’re willing to do this I think is a positive move in the right direction.

Akane Zusho, PhD, associate professor of school psychology in the Graduate School of Education (GSE), said that such diversity is something to be appreciated, not overcome.

“How do you get teachers to not teach to the middle? To differentiate their instruction so that they’re not boring the kids at the top and leaving all the kids at the bottom behind? It’s not easy,” she said.

To help teachers work with students of varying academic abilities, Zusho has partnered with Rhonda Bondie, PhD, assistant professor of curriculum and teaching at the GSE to create All-Ed (All Learners Learning Every Day), a network of instructional routines pulled from research on learning and motivation.

Motivation has long been a focus of Zusho’s research. In order to determine what motivates a student, said Zusho, a teacher needs to get to know their students’ strengths and interests and to help students understand how they think about a particular topic. But many teachers never delve deep enough.

Teachers, she said, “just assume students know something when they come in because they taught it yesterday …  they don’t reconfirm their students’ knowledge.”

“When they start a lesson, for example, do they actually get a sense of what students already know? Because from the psychological perspective, we know that makes a huge impact on how kids learn.”

One of the strategies that Zusho and Bondie recommend is continual formative assessment. Zusho said football is a good analogy, because the goal of the game is very clear—move the ball at least 10 yards at a time until you get a touchdown. Classroom instruction tends not to be as clear.

“One of the challenges is to make instruction as clear as it is on a sports playing field, so that students know exactly where they’re going,” she said.

The assessment need not be time-consuming or tedious; in one study conducted at a grammar school in Brazil, Zusho said they saw reading achievement gains after instituting a simple three-question, once-a-week reflection diary. The questions asked of the students were, ‘what did you do during an activity,’ ‘why was this your favorite activity, and ‘why did you think the teacher chose that activity for you to work on.’

Assessing performance is also easier if students take ownership of their own learning, because teachers aren’t wasting time trying to come up with individualized curriculum for every single student.

“We think in the end, [individualized curriculum]does a disservice to students. You’re not actually getting them aware of what they need to do themselves to get to that goal. Part of it all is trying to get teachers to promote self-regulated, or self-directed, learning through goal setting,” she said.

Their recommendations are informed by four pillars of motivation: Students should feel autonomous, that they belong to a group, that they feel confident, and that what they’re learning feels meaningful. These pillars, she said, are relevant to all students, regardless of their cultural background.

“I would argue no matter who you are, whether you are born and bred in the United States or even grew up in Japan, that there are elements where you want to feel like you are autonomous from others, but at the same time you also want to feel like you belong,” she said.

“When I look at All Ed, we do both individualistic things and collectivistic things. I fundamentally believe that learning is social, but I also feel that … you have to demonstrate that you’re learning at the individual level.”

Zusho said that their work has been well received by some teachers, and has failed miserably with others. Not every teacher is confident in their ability to successfully implement their recommended strategies.

Zusho and Bondie are trying to understand why there is this disconnect, and are redesigning their website and are publishing a book next year on the topic, try different techniques.

“We’ll say ‘Let’s see if you plan things differently, and do some more self-regulation,’ or have them do more goal setting, or engage them in a weekly reflection every week, because that’s not too hard to do,” she said.

“As much as what we’re asking teachers to do is big, it’s a lot of small tweaks to things they’re already doing. That, hopefully, builds competence and confidence among the teachers who want to try some of our techniques.”