1. STUDENTS OF COHORT XII
Cor ad cor loquitur | Contemplare et contemplata aliis tradere January 2013
The Cohort XII K-12 group met on the staircase at Deming Way to pose for their
first photograph together. In this photo you will see from the top (left to right):
Anthony Bonds, Kathleen Onsrud, James Brewer, Marc Jimos, Marc Antholine,
Matt Spets, Camilo Gacharna, Scott Foster, Sara Bowman, Abbey Dall Lukowski,
Kelly Spors, Michael Immel, Terri Montgomery, Jarred Burke, Bob Christianson,
Susan Probst, Mike Kurtz, Mark Johnson, Becky Galvan, Bing Liang, Brian
Henning, Ben Henninger
The Higher Education group of Cohort XII also stood in the DemingWay staircase.
They come to us in the following order from the top (left to right): Scott Quinn,
Mark Rzeznik, Dan Dougherty, Rachel Fischer, Amie Dragoo, Chris Vandall,
Magdalena Maestri, Denise Martinez, Terri Lemirand, Denise Reimer, Vicky
Ansorge, Amal Alhefdhi, Adam Prescott, Jan Graunke, Andre Douglas, Maureen
Erickson, Susan Turgeson, Brian Hoefer, Tiffany Miner
Comments and Inquiries:
Please respond to:
Dr. Peter Burke
Edgewood College
School of Education Director, Doctoral Program
1000 Edgewood College Drive, Madison, WI 53711-1997
pburke@edgewood.edu • 608-663-2351
PUBLICATION NOTE: The Leading Edge is a publication
of the Educational Leadership Program within the School of
Education at Edgewood College, Madison, Wisconsin.
Spotlight on continued success!
Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership
the
leadingedge
The Edgewood College Doctoral Program in educational leadership (EdD) is proud to present Cohort XII. Cohort XII began their journey this past
summer. The cohort includes students in Higher Education and K-12. The term began this past August 2012. The students can look forward to
graduating in 2015.
Shawna Carter (Cohort VI) delivered a healthy baby girl on July 15, 2012. Lauren Marie greeted the world at 6 pounds, 1 oz. Lauren Marie measured
in at 20 inches long. Congratulations to both if you!
Daniel Keyser (Cohort VII) is Director of Curriculum and Instruction at the Monroe School District.
Amber Garbe (Cohort IX), Rebecca Droessler (Cohort IX), Amy Kox (Cohort IX), Beth John (Cohort IX) have published their dissertations.
More published authors to our credit. Congratulations!!!
The editors have encouraged some other graduate students to publish. Stay tuned for the news. Some more graduates will join the ranks of red covers….
soon!
Christopher Thompson (Cohort X) received the DPI School of Recognition award. Christopher is Principal of West Ridge Elementary School in
Racine. We are mighty proud, Chris.
Congratulations to our graduates
a n d H a p p y n e w y e a r t o a l l !

2. October 15th, 2012 two interns, from Minhang District Shanghai China, started
their three weeks internship at Edgewood College. Along with Dr. Peter’s schedule, I
experienced a lot with the two interns in these three weeks. We visited primary, middle,
high school and university and met the director of these schools. They gave us a very
good introduction regarding their teaching and managing system. According to these
three weeks internship, I have a deep thinking to the American educational system.
In the primary level, the most impressive part for me is there are not too many rules to
limit children’s behavior. Most of the knowledge they learned from the different types of
activities. In my opinion, American educational system pays much attention on happy
learning. Teachers prepare different activities for each class and encourage every child
to join in. In addition, with increasing of the obesity rate in the United States, schools
arrange specific class to help children learn how to eat healthy and how to develop
children’s habit to do some exercises in their spare time. Furthermore, teachers would
pay much attention to children’s talent. In one of the primary schools we visited, there
is a typical class where all the children have distinctive talents on reading, mathematics,
or other aspects. This typical class shocked me indeed. I think it is critical to find those
children’s talent and help them enhance their talent.
In the middle and high school, the most impressive part for me is the students are very
active in the class. They are not afraid of asking questions and express their opinions in
the class. However, in China, students are shy to ask questions or express their opinions
in the class. Because they are worried about other classmates will laugh at him or her
if he or she made mistakes. Meanwhile, the American students are more confident and
friendly comparing with Chinese students. In my opinion, American educational idea
focus on student center and Chinese educational idea focus on teacher center. Under
the American educational idea, group discussion, role play and other types of activities
are widely involved into the class. Students not only learned the knowledge from these
activities but also developed their comprehensive ability, like confidence, enthusiasm,
hospitality, etc.
In addition, American educational systems pay much attention to equality. No matter
in the primary, middle, high school or the university, disabled students would be treated
equally as other students. I think it is great to make disabled students comfortable and
warm. For instance, at Edgewood College, campus will offer work study for disabled
students to practice. I think it is a great bridge for them to connect their future work in
the society. Furthermore, as long as the students get a little success in the class, teachers
will give them a great encouragement. I think it is important and necessary to establish
students’ confidence. Furthermore, as long as the students get a little success in the
class, teachers will give them great encouragement. I appreciate this kind of teaching
model.
At the finished of this three weeks internship, I deeply realized the big gap between
American and Chinese educational system.
NEW FILM FEATURES SUCCESSFUL
HOUSING MODEL FOR REDUCING POVERTY
Dr. Charles Taylor
The reflection regarding
the three weeks internship
Bing Liang
Nearly 200 VIP guests attended the world premiere of JOURNEY
OF HOPE: A new model for Urban Housing at Sundance Theater
on October 3, 2012. JOURNEY OF HOPE is a new 20-minute
documentary produced by Dr. Charles Taylor, Professor in Edgewood
College’sDoctoralProgram.Ithighlightsthetransformativeanti-poverty
work that Rev. Carmen Porco, Executive Director-Housing Ministries
of American Baptists in Wisconsin, is engaged in, in Wisconsin’s low
income housing communities in Madison and Milwaukee.
JOURNEY OF HOPE introduces a model for empowering the poor
that offers genuine hope and opportunity to residents living in low-
income housing units in Madison and Milwaukee This 2-minute movie
trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DncmIze33Og provides a
glimpse of the great work that is occurring in Wisconsin.
The model has succeeded in closing the achievement gap as well as
offering full time employment to many residents. Rev. Porco has
demonstrated when you give the poor a stake in their community you
can help them transform their lives. He has changed how cities all
across America look at poverty and how they view low income housing.
The housing complexes that Carmen oversees in Milwaukee and
Madison operate not as profit centers, but rather as neighborhoods
that support human growth and development. Profits from the rent are
reinvested into the community creating a full range of services focusing
on education and employment, and offering higher educational
scholarships. Perhaps, Carmen says this best in his own words. “We
want the poor to be able to design their own destiny. Through our
housing ministry we now have an institution that supplies the poor
with jobs and education and as a result is able to strengthen families
while reducing poverty.”
Reaction to the film was overwhelmingly positive with many people in
attendance saying the film should be distributed nationally and viewed
by those looking for a successful model to help the poor help themselves.
During the reception after the film, attendees had a chance to meet Rev.
Porco and commend Dr. Taylor on his excellent documentary.
Journey of Hope was produced by Dr. Taylor in Partnership with
Madison-based Studio 88
Communication can be described as a process
where information is exchanged between
individuals. This process requires school
personnel (although the process could easily
be applied to any type of organization) to
actively engage in the exchange and encourages
a rapport throughout the transmission that
is marked by harmony and accord. The
instructional and administrative rapport
signifies active two-way listening. Listening
and understanding both promote respect.
Likewise, respect provides the organization
multiple opportunities to self-reflect upon its
sense of community. The instructional staff
views their time with children as work for the
common good. This commonality depicts the
daily work at play at West Ridge Elementary
School in the Racine Unified School District.
West Ridge staff services 409 students of
which 63.8% receive free or reduced lunch.
Under most circumstances, that statistic alone
would significantly identify a school as at-risk.
However, the opposite is true as West Ridge
has been named a DPI School of Recognition
for 2010, 2011, and 2012.
The commonality shared by West Ridge
instructional staff goes by another name:
teamwork. West Ridge is a team-oriented
school where the instructional staff members
expect each other to exhibit consistent
personality and behavior toward others, serve
the organization beyond his or her daily job,
and maintain awareness of the mission to
serve others as a basis for all thoughts and
actions. These expectations positively impact
the school culture and serve the framework
that perpetuates scholastic growth. Above
all else, West Ridge’s sense of understanding
affirms that administrative and instructional
staff collaborate as partners in instructional
leadership.
The partnership sustains balance, not in the
sense of mental and emotional steadiness, but
in organizational stability. Stable classrooms
promote continuous learning. School-wide
stability demonstrates alignment of mission,
vision, and student learning. All-in-all, the
partnership’s success can be traced to its
humble beginnings that started with effective
two-way communication. A school where the
stakeholders are listening to each other has
a place to build a foundation of respect that
promotes student achievement. West Ridge
has found such balance and its students are
reaping the benefits of such collegiality.
Organizational Balance begins
with Effective Communication
Christopher Thompson, Principal of West Ridge Elementary School and student in Cohort XI
On December 17, 2012, the Edgewood
College doctoral program welcomed Dr.
Claire Thoreson as Assistant Director of
Research. Dr. Thoreson received her Ph.D.
from the Measurement, Evaluation, and
Statistical Analysis program in the Education
Department at the University of Chicago
where she subsequently completed a post-doc
appointment with the Sociology Department
and the National Opinion Research Center
at the University of Chicago. Her research
interests focus on trends over time in gender
and race/ethnic achievement gaps and the
social context factors that impact these
disparities. Dr. Thoreson has been with the
University of New Orleans since 2005 and
teaches the graduate quantitative methods
course sequence. As the Assistant Director of
Research, Dr. Thoreson will teach research
methods courses, advise students, serve on
dissertation committees, offer quantitative
data analysis workshops, and work one
on one with students to assist them with
quantitative research methodology, data
collection, and data analysis. We welcome
Claire as a valuable member of our faculty
and dissertation research team.
Education:
• Ph.D.- University of Chicago, 2003.
Department of Education
• Academic Focus: Measurement,
Evaluation, and Statistical Analysis
• M.S. - University of Wisconsin-
Milwaukee, 1995. Educational Psychology
• B.A., Northland College, 1985. History
• B.A. - University of Wisconsin-
Milwaukee, 1981. Economics