Department of Educational Leadership and Policy assistant professor of practice Michael A. Goodman published a new research article alongside two current students and two former students as a result of an assignment in one of his classes. The piece, titled Memorialization Snapshots: Honoring Place, Space, and Time Following Campus Crises and Emergencies, focuses on the ethic of care that has been developed by administrators and practitioners to humanize the people and communities impacted by environmental, facility, and human crises and emergencies.
Goodman’s research focuses on student governance and involvement. He also serves as associate editor of the Journal of Sorority and Fraternity Life Research and Practice. In 2023, Goodman was named Faculty Member of the Year by the Texas Association of College and University Student Personnel Administrators, and he has previously received the Gold Scholar Award from the National Association of Campus Activities to research how college student government leaders respond in moments of crisis.
Bobby Ott (Ed.D. ‘03) an alumnus of the Cooperative Superintendency Program in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy, was named as a “Champion of Hope” by the Holdsworth Center for his work in education. He is currently the superintendent of Temple ISD and said his goal as such is to “make a real difference for kids who need someone to believe in them.”
The Holdsworth Center hosts programs that aim to impact the quality of public education for students from Pre-K to the moment they graduate high school by supporting and developing educational leaders and has previously provided guidance to Temple ISD leadership. Ott was named Texas Superintendent of the Year in 2022. Previously, he was a middle school principal and worked in the Division of Curriculum and Professional Development and the Office of Statewide Initiatives at the Texas Education Agency during his time as a doctoral student at COE. He went on to lead COE’s Institute for Public Schools Initiatives. Currently, he also serves as a state-level member of the Texas Association of School Administrators Central Office Advisory Committee and was recently named to the TASA 2025 Task Force.
A commissioned paper by Department of Educational Leadership and Policy professor Sarah Woulfin was published this month by the National Academy of Education as part of the Addressing Educational Inequities in the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic project. Woulfin’s paper was co-authored by Megan Kuhfeld of the Northwest Evaluation Association and Andrew McEachin of the Educational Testing Service and is titled Implementing Programs to Align, Accelerate and Extend Student Learning. The project’s goal sought to identify and implement strategies that would support student learning, wellbeing, and family and community engagement following the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper addresses implementation issues and makes recommendations for policymakers and state and district administrators.
Woulfin’s research focuses on the relationship between educational policy and equitable instruction. She also examines challenges surrounding district and school improvement through the lens of organizational sociology and qualitative methods. Her work has previously been published in the American Journal of Education, Educational Administration Quarterly, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, and Teaching and Teacher Education. She also co-authored the book Making Coaching Matter.
Department of Kinesiology and Health Education assistant professor Owen Beck, in collaboration with Inseung Kang at Carnegie Mellon University, was awarded the R21 Trailblazer Award from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. The researchers will receive over half a million dollars to improve the controls of wearable robotic exoskeletons to accommodate real-world walking for users both young and older.
Beck is an affiliate faculty member at the Center on Aging and Population Sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and also an adjoint professor in the UT Health Translational Science program. His research focuses on improving human walking and running performance.
Department of Special Education professor Sarah Powell is among the investigators of SCALE-UP, a program led by Southern Methodist University professor Leanne Ketterlin-Geller which has received a $14 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The five-year project will nationally scale math intervention for fourth- and fifth-grade students in rural areas and out-of-school programs across the country to help students improve their fraction skills.
Powell also led a research article which responds to a previous publication from the Council for Exceptional Children and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. In the article titled The NCTM/CEC Position Statement on Teaching Mathematics to Students with Disabilities: What’s in It and What’s Not, she and other participating researchers presented seven actionable recommendations which are backed by research for teachers to use when teaching students with mathematics disability or difficulties.
Powell serves as associate director of the Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk. Her research focuses on math, particularly for students who experience math differently. Currently, she leads or co-leads research projects focused on math word problems, math vocabulary, and support for teachers of math.
Department of Special Education associate professor Jessica Toste has been selected as a member of the Academy of Distinguished Teachers at UT Austin. Members of the academy advise the University’s president and provost on UT’s instructional mission, as well as provide mentorship for new faculty and participate in events such as seminars and workshops. Since it was founded in 1995, college and school deans nominate new members annually, who are then selected through a rigorous evaluation process by a committee. Those selected are titled Distinguished Teaching Professor and remain members for the duration of their tenure.
Toste’s research focuses on intensifying intervention for students with reading disabilities and she holds research affiliations with the Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk and Texas Center for Equity Promotion. She is the principal investigator on research grants from the National Institutes of Health as well as the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences and the Office of Special Education Programs. She is the editor-in-chief of The Reading League Journal and an associate editor for the Journal of Learning Disabilities. Previously, Toste has been awarded the 2023 President’s Associates Graduate Teaching Excellence Award, 2022 Dean’s Distinguished Teaching Award, and was named one of the 2017 Texas 10.
Sharon Vaughn, a professor in the Department of Special Education and Executive Director of the Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk, has been selected to receive the 2025 President’s Research Impact Award. The award is presented by UT’s Office of the President and Vice President for Research, Scholarship and Creative Endeavors. Vaughn was presented with the award during an April 7 celebration of research event at the Hogg Auditorium.
Previously, Vaughn was the first woman to receive The University of Texas Distinguished Faculty Award. Her research focuses on the reading and social outcomes of students with learning difficulties and she has authored more than 35 books and 250 peer-reviewed research articles.
