Year: 2008

Watch video of Donna Ford, professor of special education at Vanderbilt's Peabody College of Education and Human Development, discussing her research with gifted minority youth and what is needed to close the achievement gap. Read More

Watch video of an Oct. 15 forum on pediatric obesity, "Developing Unique Partnerships to Halt the Epidemic." Read More

When biologist Ken Catania heard about the peculiar practice of worm grunting practiced in the Apalachicola National Forest in the Florida Panhandle, one of his first thoughts was an observation made by Charles Darwin. Read More

Celebrated independent film director Charles Burnett will host a conversation on Friday, Oct. 17, from 4-5 p.m. in the auditorium of the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center at Vanderbilt University. Read More

Former United States Senate Majority Leader and transplant surgeon Bill Frist, M.D., is returning to Vanderbilt to lead a first-of-its-kind academic experience at the Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management. Read More

Listen to an Oct. 9 podcast by Carole Boston Weatherford. Read More

In answering Gwen Ifill\'s question about vice presidential powers at last week\'s debate, Joe Biden redirected attention to the still not very well known concept of the "unitary executive." Biden charged that Dick Cheney had become "the most dangerous vice president we\'ve had probably in American history" because of his attempts to create a super-powerful unitary executive. Read More

Roy Blount Jr., acclaimed author, humorist and Vanderbilt alumnus (B.A. 1963) will present this year's Harry C. Howard Jr. lecture at 4:10 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 30, in Flynn Auditorium at Vanderbilt University Law School. Read More

It\'s that time again. With the mud flying in the presidential race, pundits, journalists and political observers of all stripes are denouncing the campaign\'s new, strikingly negative tone. Listening to them, you\'d think that the very fabric of our democracy were being ripped apart every time a candidate aired a tough attack ad, threw an elbow or issued a sharply worded statement. Read More

Vanderbilt University has attained the rank of 20th in the nation in the total value of federal science and engineering research grants awarded to campus researchers, according to an annual report compiled by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Read More

Peabody first-year student Natalie Wills shows off her new wheels as she prepares to say goodbye to mom, dad and sister during move-in weekend in August. Read More

Department of Human and Organizational Development Sandra Barnes, professor of human and organizational development and sociology of religion (Ph.D., 1999, Georgia State University; M.S., 1995, Interdenominational Theological Center; M.S., 1989, Georgia Institute of Technology; B.A., 1986, Fisk University) Torin Monahan, associate professor… Read More

Camilla P. Benbow received the 2008 Distinguished Alumna Award from The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Past recipients have included Nobel Prize winner Peter Agre, acclaimed writer Russell Baker, actor John Astin, and world-renowned cardiologist Ben Carson. Dean Benbow earned her Doctorate of Education (Ed.D.) from Johns Hopkins in 1981 and… Read More

Remember when it cost just $38 for seven hours of coursework? No one here remembers that either, but we have newfound evidence that it was so, as this 1940 receipt indicates. Found in a book donation to the Goodlettsville Public Library, the receipt was sent to the Peabody… Read More

Calculators are useful tools in elementary mathematics classes, if students already have some basic skills, new research has found. The findings shed light on the debate about whether and when calculators should be used in the classroom.  “These findings suggest that it is important children first learn how to calculate… Read More

This summer Peabody’s Peggy Westlake, assistant to the director of the Center for Evaluation and Program Improvement, along with her husband, Mark, and daughter, Carolyn, traveled from Nashville to Key West, Fla., to Madawaska, Maine, to San Ysidro, California, to Blaine, Wash., and back to Nashville on motorcycle to… Read More

Standardized testing is an inescapable part of modern education; however, these tests often fail to meet the needs of students with learning disabilities. Vanderbilt Learning Sciences Institute researchers Stephen N. Elliott, Peter A. Beddow and Ryan J. Kettler have developed a decision-making instrument called the Test Accessibility… Read More

The new Peabody Research Institute (PRI) has been created to conduct research on children and families using a permanent staff of researchers and a high level of methodological expertise. Staff will collaborate with and support faculty on grants, including education research. The new center will be initially staffed with researchers… Read More

One of the things Peabody graduate Amy Cate, BS’03, likes best about teaching is the unpredictability. “It’s different every day,” she says. “You go in with a plan, but you never know what’s going to happen.” As a Spanish teacher at J.T. Moore Middle School, a public school in Nashville, Cate often tells her students, “Así es la vida”—“such is life”—presumably in order to help them deal with perennial travails such as homework or quizzes. Read More

Jeff Balser, M.D., Ph.D., associate vice chancellor for Research for Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has been named dean of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Balser, who has served as interim dean since July 2008, becomes only the 11th dean of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine since its founding in 1875. In addition to his responsibilities as dean, Balser will be associate vice chancellor for Health Affairs, with continued oversight for medical center research. Read More