Peabody College Of Education And Human Development

Vanderbilt University welcomed regional policymakers, researchers and community leaders to campus on September 11 for Policy Innovation Days, designed to connect universities with state and local governments and highlight effective public policies based on research.   Read More

By Jennifer Kiilerich and Krystal Schmidt If you are an educator—or work with educators—then it’s likely you have encountered Section 504 plans. These plans support more than 1.3 million students with disabilities across the country, but they differ from Individualized Education Plans, or IEPs.  In the… Read More

Vanderbilt Peabody’s Emily Pendergrass has been named to the new global cohort “Empowering Teachers: 21st Century Skills.” The University of Jordan, in Amman, recently assembled the research team, which aims to boost teachers’ professional development in an age of evolving technologies and rapidly… Read More

By Jenna Somers Whether a young child lives in Guatemala or the Netherlands, whether they attend school in a mudbrick building with dirt floors or a state-of-the-art facility, is it possible to develop common measures to understand their health and development? How does child development differ across cultural contexts, and… Read More

By Jenna Somers After a hard day of work, a parent reading a bedtime story to their child might feel too tired and stressed to think of questions that could spark insightful conversations about the story with their child. But these conversations—which scholars call dialogic reading—are critical to literacy development. Read More

By Jenna Somers The Great Recession of 2008 led to a pronounced decline in birthrates, and the impact has caught up with colleges and universities. Children born at the start of the recession are now 18 years old, but there are fewer of them compared to the prior decade,… Read More

By Jennifer Kiilerich This July 6 – 23, rising high school seniors in the Cooke Young Scholars Program immersed themselves in life and learning at Vanderbilt University. During the initiative’s annual Senior Summit, 57 students stayed on campus, studied in advanced courses and participated in engaging residential experiences.  … Read More

by Jenna Somers Karen Legrand Karen Legrand returned to Guatemala with “new eyes” after her experience in the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program at Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development in 2020-2021. In the highlands of Guatemala, she created a violence prevention program, followed by a… Read More

By Jenna Somers and Krystal Schmidt   This summer, around 30 middle-school students from the Tennessee Nature Academy explored upstream and downstream Mill Creek, which flows 28 miles from Nolensville to the Cumberland River in Tennessee. Some students moved as quickly as algae-covered rocks would allow, while others took… Read More

By Jenna Somers Richard Welsh Suspended FuturesTransforming Racial Inequities in School Disciplineby Richard O. Welsh   Racial disparities in school discipline can arise based on how educators perceive and respond to student behaviors, according to research by Richard Welsh, associate professor of education and public policy at… Read More

By Jennifer Kiilerich Marissa Tessier, Melanie Hundley and Elizabeth Seeker. Photo: Krystal Schmidt Convincing tweens and teens to read books can be an uphill battle. But a collaboration between two Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development students, their professor, and best-selling Disney Books author Jen Calonita is… Read More

by Jenna Somers Jessika Boles After consulting with the palliative care team, Jessika Boles, MEd’08, found herself speaking with a mother about honoring her daughter’s legacy. “One of the ways we can do that is through handprint art, since handprints and fingerprints are unique to each person. Would you… Read More

By Jennifer Kiilerich When top special education researchers, a cutting-edge dyslexia academy and research center, and influential school leaders converge at Vanderbilt University, big ideas are bound to emerge. That is exactly what happened at the Tennessee Association of Independent Schools Neurodivergence-Informed Schools conference, hosted by the Roberts Academy… Read More

By Jennifer Kiilerich The Roberts Academy at Vanderbilt University welcomed its inaugural class of third and fourth graders in August 2024. Since then, the school has celebrated many more firsts, from a groundbreaking ceremony to festivities and innovative collaborations. Established in 2023 with an unprecedented gift from Hal and… Read More

By Jenna Somers Where can professionals from K-12 and higher education institutions, non-profits, private industry, and federal and local governments collaborate to learn from and with one another on how to strengthen their leadership within their respective organizations? The answer to that question may be found in the dynamic learning… Read More

By Jennifer Kiilerich In rural Monroe County, Tennessee, the school district’s only teacher of students with visual impairments (TVI) is approaching retirement. But her daughter, Andrea Leatherwood, is almost ready to step into the role. Leatherwood is among the first cohort of teachers accepted last summer into the new Vanderbilt… Read More

See how Class of 2025 double major Julia Red Wing is using challenging life experiences as motivation to make a difference. Read More

In the spring semester, Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development celebrated the administrative promotions of Nicole A. Cobb to associate dean for professional education and Catherine Gavin Loss to associate provost for academic affairs in the Office of Faculty Affairs and Professional Education. The… Read More