From the Office of Public Affairs | http://www.news.ku.edu

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KU-led grant will empower underserved communities to address racial disparities in state’s child welfare system

LAWRENCE — Despite growing national attention on racial inequities in the child welfare system, Kansas has seen the disproportionality experienced by Black and Indigenous children increase during the last five years in the foster care system. A new partnership led by the University of Kansas will empower members of these underserved communities to identify and address the problems of racial bias and inequity in the system.

Kansas Geological Survey report assesses health of the High Plains Aquifer

LAWRENCE — A new publication from the Kansas Geological Survey summarizes current regional conditions of the High Plains Aquifer and evaluates progress toward sustaining the largest groundwater resource in the state. It also showcases the progress made in areas that have adopted voluntary water conservation measures to reduce groundwater pumping and extend the life of the aquifer.

Nazi plans for dividing and ‘improving’ Africa during World War II examined

LAWRENCE — A new article in the Journal of Modern History by a University of Kansas professor of history examines how German technocrats created revisionist plans to “unscramble” Africa in the 1930s. Bureaucrats and colonial lobbyists in Nazi Germany helped produce such projects but also oriented them toward the realization of fascist imperial goals.

KPR’s Big Band Christmas will celebrate the joy of jazz

LAWRENCE – Kansas Public Radio will return with the Big Band Christmas holiday jazz concert, featuring the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra and special guest Ron Gutierrez. Join KPR at 8 p.m. Dec. 9 at Liberty Hall. Doors will open at 7 p.m. Tickets may be purchased via Ticketmaster or at the Liberty Hall box office.

Full stories below.

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Contact: Mike Krings, KU News Service, 785-864-8860, [email protected], @MikeKrings

KU-led grant will empower underserved communities to address racial disparities in state’s child welfare system

LAWRENCE — Despite growing national attention on racial inequities in the child welfare system, Kansas has seen the disproportionality experienced by Black and Indigenous children increase during the last five years in the foster care system.

A new partnership led by the University of Kansas will empower members of these underserved communities to identify and address the problems of racial bias and inequity in the system as shown by disproportionality index, the ratio of percent in foster care versus percent in child population.

The Children’s Bureau; the Administration on Children, Youth, and Families; and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have awarded a five-year, $2.5 million grant to fund Kansas Bravely Rising and Activating Voices for Equity, or Kansas BRAVE. The initiative will pair researchers from KU’s School of Social Welfare with agencies of the child welfare system from across the state, community advocacy organizations and people with lived expertise to develop solutions and opportunities.

“Why that’s important, to me, is it’s really working with the community. There will be a big emphasis on including the youth voices in developing the solutions to what they have seen and the resulting inequities they’ve experienced in the child welfare system,” said Pegah Naemi Jimenez, research associate in the KU social welfare school and principal investigator on the grant.

Naemi Jimenez and co-principal investigator Becci Akin, professor of social welfare, will form a partnership with three subrecipients: The Racial Equity Collaborative Inc., Kansas Family Advisory Network and Culture Creations Inc.

“We see our partners as bringing youth and family voices to the table but also keeping accountable those who advance the responses and solutions to these issues,” Naemi Jimenez said of the other recipients. “I see my role as bringing people together to build advisory groups. For example, adults and providers, but also youth, because their experiences can guide what needs to happen. They’ll have the best ideas and solutions.”

Data on racial inequities in child welfare show that the inequities exist along the entire continuum of services.

“For example, Black and Indigenous children are more likely to be investigated and removed from their homes. Once in foster care, they are less likely to be placed with a relative, have continuity and stability in their foster care placements, and return home to their own families and communities,” Akin said.

The project will also be largely guided by the Strengths Perspective, an approach pioneered by KU’s social welfare school that focuses on what an individual or entity does well and uses it as a starting point to address issues, instead of focusing first on a problem or deficit. Through Kansas BRAVE, that approach will put community members who have experienced racial disparities in the system at the forefront of discussions to co-create and co-lead solutions.

The Kansas BRAVE initiative will undertake three strategies to address the system’s disparities.

Four Questions is a community-based approach in which judges, caseworkers, law enforcement and others ask questions in cases in which a child is facing removal from the home. Those questions, addressing issues of safety, family connections and home permanence, have proven effective at reducing removal rates by as much as half in other states. The project will review the approach for use in Kansas.

The second is community forums, which will bring together people who touch the child welfare system in some way, including judges, caseworkers, teachers, medical professionals, police and others who call Child Protective Services. The initiative will offer them tools and interventions to work with families in less harmful ways when dealing with situations that can result in a child’s removal from the home.

Finally, the Brave Space Framework will be offered to agency and community organizations to engage in an anti-racist learning journey to help them assess their operations, identify their goals or changes they’d like to make and use that shared purpose to improve their work in a way that is more than a onetime workshop on diversity.

While Black and Brown families are a small percentage of the population, Naemi Jimenez said they can have strength in numbers when collaborating with the partners in Kansas BRAVE.

“I think this is the time to build these collaborations between families, youths and people who work in the child welfare system to address these issues together,” Naemi Jimenez said. “We will do this work with people who have been marginalized and who are the experts on what needs to happen to do better.”

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Contact: Julie Tollefson, Kansas Geological Survey, 785-864-2114, [email protected]

Kansas Geological Survey report assesses health of the High Plains Aquifer

LAWRENCE — A new publication from the Kansas Geological Survey at the University of Kansas assesses current conditions and trends in water levels and groundwater usage in the High Plains Aquifer, the state’s most economically important groundwater resource.

The report summarizes current regional conditions of the aquifer and evaluates progress toward sustaining or prolonging the life of the largest groundwater resource in the state. It also showcases the progress made in areas that have adopted voluntary water conservation measures to reduce groundwater pumping and extend the life of the aquifer.

“The availability of more than 25 years’ worth of high-quality water-level and water-use data for the aquifer makes it possible to provide a sound assessment of the aquifer status,” said Donald Whittemore, KGS emeritus senior scientist and lead author of “2023 Status of the High Plains Aquifer in Kansas, KGS Technical Series 25.” “The results can help irrigators, groundwater management districts, and other local and state agencies determine how successful conservation efforts have been.”

The High Plains Aquifer, which underlies portions of eight states from South Dakota to Texas, is the primary source of water for western Kansas. It includes the Ogallala Aquifer of western Kansas and the Great Bend Prairie and Equus Beds aquifers in the south-central part of the state.

The new publication provides data for each of the state’s five groundwater management districts, created to provide local management of water resources. All five GMDs overlie the High Plains aquifer.

Groundwater levels in the Ogallala portion of the aquifer (GMDs 1, 3 and 4) have dropped significantly since the start of widespread irrigation of cropland in the 1940s and 1950s. In some areas, less than 40% of the original aquifer thickness remains.

This new assessment found that groundwater levels could be sustained — defined as a zero water-level change — in most of the imperiled areas of western Kansas for at least one to two decades by reducing pumping between 18% and 32%.

In south-central Kansas, the Equus Beds aquifer in GMD2 has seen stable water levels during the last 25 years while the GMD5 Big Bend Prairie region shows a slight decline. The pumping reduction needed to achieve districtwide stable water levels in GMD5 is 1.6%.

Analysis of data gathered in GMD1 in west-central Kansas and a part of GMD4 in northwest Kansas show water conservation measures adopted in these areas have slowed the rate of water use and water-level declines. By determining water use under similar climatic conditions before and after conservation measures were implemented, KGS researchers were able to determine how much reduction in pumping could be attributed to irrigation efficiency and how much was the result of a decrease in irrigated area.

In Sheridan County in GMD4, the state’s first Local Enhanced Management Area (LEMA), the Sheridan-6 LEMA, has realized water savings attributed to irrigation efficiency of about 23%, with an additional 1% of savings related to a decrease in irrigated area, since it began operation in 2013. The average annual groundwater level decline in the SD-6 LEMA for 2013–2022 was 0.5 feet compared to 2 feet in the pre-LEMA years of 2002-2012. LEMAs allow local stakeholders to develop plans to reduce irrigation pumping in a specified area. GMDs and the Kansas Department of Agriculture Division of Water Resources oversee compliance monitoring and enforcement.

The success of the Sheridan-6 LEMA led to the formation of a districtwide LEMA in GMD4 in 2018. That LEMA has yet to have a significant effect on water use or water-level declines.

Two LEMAs have been established in GMD1, the first in Wichita County in 2021 and the second in the district’s four other counties in spring 2023. Water Conservation Areas — conservation plans submitted by individual producers — were established in all five counties before the LEMAs were formed.

Analysis showed a total reduction in pumping districtwide in GMD1 of about 24%, with 10.5% due to irrigation efficiency and nearly 14% due to decreases in irrigated acreage.

Wichita County has seen reductions in pumping of about 40%. Water levels in parts of this county and other areas in the district have fallen so low that large-scale irrigation pumping has been reduced or is no longer possible. As a result, farmers are adjusting by reducing acreage, changing cropping patterns and adopting technologies to reduce water usage.

“Our results show that the only way to slow water-level declines is to reduce pumping in conjunction with modification of agricultural practices,” said Jim Butler, KGS senior scientist and one of the report’s co-authors. “Use of more efficient irrigation technology by itself will not slow these declines. As has been shown in Kansas and elsewhere, efficient irrigation technology must be coupled with a binding agreement to reduce pumping if we are to make a difference.”

In GMD3 in southwest Kansas, where several WCAs but no LEMAs have been established, groundwater use since 2019 appears to have dropped by nearly 13% compared to 2005-2018.

“The considerable noise in these data make it difficult to say for sure, so additional years of monitoring are needed to confirm this reduction and how much is the result of decreases in irrigated area or decreases in irrigation application rates,” Butler said.

The KGS and the KDA-DWR measure groundwater levels in 1,400 wells across the High Plains Aquifer annually. In addition, water-right holders are required to report water use annually to the KDA-DWR, which verifies them through various means.

“2023 Status of the High Plains Aquifer in Kansas” by Whittemore, Butler and Brownie Wilson is available both in print and online. Two online-only appendices provide additional information. Print copies may be purchased at the Kansas Geological Survey in Lawrence, at the Kansas Geologic Sample Repository in Wichita or by contacting the KGS publications sales office.

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Contact: Jon Niccum, KU News Service, 785-864-7633, [email protected]

Nazi plans for dividing and ‘improving’ Africa during World War II examined

LAWRENCE — While Germany’s 1939 invasion of Poland marks the official start of World War II, one of the major on-ramps to war was the Italian invasion of Ethiopia four years earlier.

“This introduced fascism’s threat to European peace and order by threatening the colonial balance of power in Africa,” said Andrew Denning, an associate professor of history at the University of Kansas.

How the Axis powers intended for Africa to factor into this global conflict — and how those plans fell apart — is the subject of his latest article.

“Unscrambling Africa: From Eurafrican Technopolitics to the Fascist New Order” examines how German technocrats created revisionist plans to “unscramble” Africa in the 1930s. Bureaucrats and colonial lobbyists in Nazi Germany helped produce such projects but also oriented them toward the realization of fascist imperial goals. Although these blueprints were never implemented, they indicate how interwar empire-building in Africa connected Nazi Germany to other powers in Europe. It appears in the Journal of Modern History.

“It’s important we study plans that never come to be,” Denning said. “There are lots of things we can learn about the way societies function — and the ideologies and mentalities that operate within them — if we look at the kinds of utopias they imagine. For all of the Nazi movement’s dystopian outcomes, we have to recognize that many Germans thought they were constructing utopia.”

These plans were elaborated when most of the African continent was controlled by European powers, a relic of the global competition of the 1880s termed the “scramble for Africa.”

“The scramble for Africa produced a checkerboard of different European colonies. What Nazi and Italian Fascist officials wanted was not necessarily to conquer all of these areas but redistribute them to better represent the balance of power in the 1930s. This would obviously leave Germany and Italy in possession of much larger territories. But also, interestingly, they believed that this unscrambling would lead to much more European cooperation,” Denning said.

Despite Germany’s descent into fascism, African planning provided an opportunity for those skeptical of the regime to still pursue their work. Scientists, engineers, geographers, chemists and agronomists willingly took part in this venture in pursuit of what they often saw as rational forms of colonial development, Denning said.

Those plans included building continental-scale infrastructures such as roads, railways and air connections. But, not surprisingly given the Nazis’ agenda, these experts gave scant thought to the effects of such transformations on the lives of 130 million Africans, according to Denning.

“German planners occasionally mentioned African residents as needed laborers for their grandiose projects but rarely described how they might be affected by this, let alone how these developments might benefit Africans. That’s where we really see the extremity of some of these plans,” he said.

While researching this topic, Denning said he was most surprised to learn how close Nazi ideas about ruling Africa were to other nations.

“German plans to ground colonialism in infrastructure development were quite similar to those produced not only in Italy by the fascists at the same time, but by the British, French and Belgians of the 1920s and ’30s as well,” he said.

Like planners in those other European nations, those in the Third Reich aspired to fuse Europe and Africa into “Eurafrica.” They wanted to move away from the old methods of merely extracting resources from the continent and instead establish it as a place where reciprocity could exist to the mutual benefit of both regions, although the scale always tipped toward Europe.

He said, “This is an area in which their ideas are very much inspired by, in conversation with and often running in parallel to what their eventual enemies in World War II thought and did.”

A KU faculty member since 2015, Denning’s expertise is in 20th century European history. He is also the recently appointed director of KU’s Museum Studies Program. His latest book, “The Interwar World” (Routledge, 2023), focuses on the turbulent period of 1918-1939.

If the Axis powers had won the war, what would Africa look like today?

“Although historians are loath to engage in counterfactual history, the idea was that the Germans and their Italian allies would operate Africa collaboratively to develop massive, continent-spanning infrastructures not stopped or divided by territorial borders,” Denning said.

“They were thinking about a way of ruling in Africa that would benefit Europeans of all kinds of nationalities … but certainly not benefit Africans.”

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Don’t miss new episodes of “When Experts Attack!,”

a KU News Service podcast hosted by Kansas Public Radio.

https://kansaspublicradio.org/when-experts-attack

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Contact: Emily Fisher, Kansas Public Radio, 785-864-0190, [email protected], @kprnews

KPR’s Big Band Christmas will celebrate the joy of jazz

LAWRENCE – Kansas Public Radio will return with the Big Band Christmas holiday jazz concert for another year of festive cheer. Join KPR staff members at 8 p.m. Dec. 9 at Liberty Hall. Doors will open at 7 p.m.

The concert will feature a night of swingin’ Yuletide favorites with the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra, an internationally acclaimed performing arts group providing jazz entertainment and education to the Kansas City area and beyond. Formed in 2003, the ensemble brings together 19 area musicians, including direction from bandleader and trumpeter Clint Ashlock. Special guest Ron Gutierrez will provide vocals.

This year, general admission seats have been expanded from the balcony to include a select number of seats on the main level of the theatre. All general admission seats are first come, first served, so attendees are encouraged to arrive early.

Don’t delay; this event has been known to sell out. Tickets are available for purchase at Ticketmaster.com or at the Liberty Hall box office. A service charge may be added to the order. Tickets can be purchased on the night of the concert, if available.

The event is made possible by Dr. Stephen Chronister of Healing Smiles of Topeka.

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KU News Service

1450 Jayhawk Blvd.

Lawrence KS 66045

Phone: 785-864-3256

Fax: 785-864-3339

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http://www.news.ku.edu

Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, director of news and media relations, [email protected]

Today’s News is a free service from the Office of Public Affairs

From the Office of Public Affairs | http://www.news.ku.edu

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Study shows wealth does not ensure equal amounts of health across race, ethnicity

LAWRENCE — A recently published University of Kansas analysis of national data and reports of mental health and well-being showed that it takes more financial assets for people of color to have the same health outcomes as white Americans. Further, the study found that unsecured debt is associated with better health among white individuals but is linked to worse health outcomes for people of color. That indicates policy is needed to address wealth disparities from the earliest stages of life, according to study author Sicong “Summer” Sun, assistant professor of social welfare at KU.

Research, new recordings bring works of 20th century Ecuadorian composer to light

LAWRENCE – Ecuadorian composer Luis Humberto Salgado was so far ahead of his time that neither he nor the public in Quito, where he lived, heard most of his orchestral and chamber music works performed during his life (1903-1977). But now a new project organized by a University of Kansas professor of ethnomusicology is bringing Salgado’s work to a worldwide audience. Not only has KU published and distributed 13 Salgado compositions for chamber music for the first time, but School of Music faculty members have recorded four of the compositions for a new album issued on the Naxos label. A recording of six more compositions is scheduled for release in 2024.

Full stories below.

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Contact: Mike Krings, KU News Service, 785-864-8860, [email protected], @MikeKrings

Study shows wealth does not ensure equal amounts of health across race, ethnicity

LAWRENCE — Money may not buy happiness, as the saying goes, but it can buy health — to an extent. A new study from the University of Kansas has found that the same amount of wealth does not ensure the same level of positive health outcomes for everyone.

An analysis of national data and reports of mental health and well-being showed that it takes more financial assets for people of color to have the same health outcomes as white Americans. Surprisingly, the study found that unsecured debt is associated with better health among white individuals but is linked to worse health outcomes for people of color. That indicates policy is needed to address wealth disparities from the earliest stages of life, the study’s author wrote.

Sicong “Summer” Sun, assistant professor of social welfare at KU, analyzed data on wealth, assets, debt and other socioeconomic factors and compared that with the self-reported physical and mental health of more than 7,000 Americans ages 30-36. The data was part of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, which periodically collects data from participants on various aspects of their lives. The study was published in the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities.

Wealth is often measured as net worth by calculating total assets minus total debt. Though net worth provides helpful information on household socioeconomic standing and economic resources, it provides little information on the most effective approaches to intervene. To address this gap, Sun analyzed individuals’ wealth as a measure of their financial assets, such as savings, retirement plans, stocks and bonds; nonfinancial assets, including real estate and vehicle value; secured debt, such as mortgages; and unsecured debt, including student loans, credit card debt and payday loans.

“I want to dissect the components of wealth and assess how they are associated with health,” said Sun, who is also a faculty affiliate with the Toni Johnson Center for Racial & Social Justice. “I think the findings can be very helpful in identifying potential policy and program levers to help ensure better wealth and health outcomes for all. There are various types of assets and debts, each of which is linked to health differently.”

The study found that financial assets and secured debt were positively associated with self-rated health and mental health. Unsecured debt was negatively associated with mental health. Efforts to expand and improve financial access and inclusion, such as emergency savings, banking and financial services, affordable credit and affordable housing loans may yield health benefits in addition to economic well-being. Thus, interdisciplinary research collaboration and cross-sector partnerships could be productive, Sun said.

However, the relationships between wealth and health vary by race/ethnicity, the results showed. The study analyzed wealth and health outcomes for non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic Americans.

“I think one of the most interesting findings is in relation to unsecure debt,” Sun said. “In this life stage (30-36), I found of all types of assets and debts, the prevalence and amount were highest for white young adults. For example, 74% of non-Hispanic white young adults reported having unsecured debt, in contrast to 57% of non-Hispanic Black young adults. Unsecured debt was protective of health for white respondents but was detrimental for people of color, especially Black young adults. This indicates that debt carries various social and economic implications, challenges and ways of affecting people, and these aspects differ between white Americans and people of color.”

Other aspects of socioeconomic status also proved to be important for health. Racial disparities in self-rated health were attenuated by controlling for income, education, employment and net worth. This finding points to the importance of addressing socioeconomic inequities during young adulthood, Sun said.

“Not surprisingly, disparities emerge early in life for people of color,” Sun said. “Thinking about policy and program interventions like asset building and debt relief are helpful, not only for helping people attain assets, but ensuring better health outcomes throughout the life course.”

The findings add to Sun’s previous work on the effects of wealth on health in young adulthood.

The results also show the importance of policy that begins to address wealth and health disparities from a young age, such as universal child development accounts and baby bonds. Additionally, addressing unsecured debt through policy such as student loan forgiveness could yield health benefits, especially for people of color, Sun said. Such policies could help address structural injustices and lead to better health outcomes for all, which in turn would have a positive social and economic effect.

“Money can buy health to a certain extent, but not at the same level for everyone,” Sun said. “Simply having more money or resources isn’t enough to make sure everyone is equally healthy. We must critically examine how the systemic power structure is linked to the social construction of race. It is important to address historical legacies of inequities in financial systems.”

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The official university Twitter account has changed to @UnivOfKansas.

Refollow @KUNews for KU News Service stories, discoveries and experts.

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Contact: Rick Hellman, KU News Service, 785-864-8852, [email protected], @RickHellman

Research, new recordings bring works of 20th century Ecuadorian composer to light

LAWRENCE – Ecuadorian composer Luis Humberto Salgado was so far ahead of his time that neither he nor the public in Quito, where he lived, heard most of his orchestral and chamber music works performed during his life (1903-1977).

“He wrote music for a large symphony orchestra that didn’t exist yet in Ecuador,” said Ketty Wong, University of Kansas associate professor of ethnomusicology.

The compositions he wrote were inspired by Arnold Schoenberg’s 12-tone technique and existed only in Salgado’s mind and in handwritten paper form. For years after his death, the manuscripts languished in an heir’s closet.

But now a new project organized by Wong is bringing Salgado’s work to a worldwide audience. Not only has KU published and distributed 13 Salgado compositions for chamber music — set down in formal musical notation and with the instruments’ individual parts — for the first time, but School of Music faculty members have recorded four of the compositions for a new album issued on the Naxos label. A recording of six more compositions is scheduled for release in 2024.

The teaching musicians — pianist Ellen Sommer, cellist Hannah Collins, violinist David Colwell and violist Boris Vayner — and the musicologist traveled in October to Ecuador to present copies of the recordings and the sheet music to the Ministry of Culture and Heritage and to present concerts of Salgado’s music. They were hosted by the House of Music in the capital city, Quito, and University of the Arts in Guayaquil.

“Salgado is considered Ecuador’s most prominent composer because he was a pioneer in combining vernacular music with the avant-garde techniques of his time, and he did so in creative and idiosyncratic ways. He was also very prolific in his musical output,” said Wong, who is a native of Guayaquil. “He has nine symphonies like Beethoven, four operas, seven concertos and numerous works for piano and chamber ensemble. No other composer had approached these genres in Ecuador in the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s.”

He wrote works for a large symphony orchestra, and Ecuador didn’t have one until 1956, after Salgado had already composed his first three symphonies, and even then, it was not large enough to perform Salgado’s major works completely, Wong said.

She said Salgado used folk motifs in his music but filtered them through Schoenberg’s dissonant system so that the public did not understand or recognize his portrayal of Ecuadorian music.

“He was a pianist, and he performed frequently in Quito,” Wong. “He was the director of the National Conservatory, where he taught music theory and harmony. He also had a newspaper column, where he published articles about his views on modern music in the 1960s and ’70s. So he was a public figure. People knew and respected him, but they didn’t know his music.”

Wong said she was inspired by a 1989 issue of an Ecuadorian music journal dedicated to Salgado to begin the process of rectifying that. She reached out to Salgado’s heirs, who allowed her to photocopy two of his symphony manuscripts for her master’s degree research.

Despite the centenary of his birth in 2003, shortly after which Wong’s master’s thesis was published, and his heirs having sold his manuscripts, which wound up with the Ministry of Culture, most of Salgado’s music remained unpublished and unheard, Wong said.

“In 2017, there was suddenly an interest among symphony orchestra conductors to play new works by Ecuadorian composers,” she said. “They began to play the symphonies. And they all came to me to ask, ‘Where can I find the music scores? Can you tell me more about Salgado?’ Now his nine symphonies are recorded. They have been performed in Ecuador since 2017. And then I thought it was time to go back to Salgado and publish a book in English so that he and his music are better known outside of Ecuador.”

Wong is working on that book now.

Meanwhile, the KU School of Music backed her project, which resulted in the publication of the sheet music in 2020 and now the recordings and performances.

“The project was to make his music audible and accessible so that people can play it and enjoy it, because I think he’s a composer that speaks to the time in which he lived,” Wong said.

For instance, one of his newly published compositions was inspired by the U.S. moon landing in 1969.

“Scholars have studied the effects of the 12-tone technique in the works of composers in the U.S. and Europe,” Wong said, “but we know little about how this technique was received in Latin America.”

Now that Salgado’s music is out there, Wong feels sure it will resonate.

“Musicians always look for new repertoire, and, especially given the push for diversity, musicians want to perform music of underrepresented composers,” she said.

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KU News Service

1450 Jayhawk Blvd.

Lawrence KS 66045

Phone: 785-864-3256

Fax: 785-864-3339

[email protected]

http://www.news.ku.edu

Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, director of news and media relations, [email protected]

Today’s News is a free service from the Office of Public Affairs

From the Office of Public Affairs | http://www.news.ku.edu

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School of Public Affairs & Administration announces new director

LAWRENCE – The University of Kansas School of Public Affairs & Administration will welcome new leadership in 2024. Maja Husar Holmes has been named director of the school, effective Jan. 1. During her 15 years at West Virginia University, Holmes has directed the Department of Public Administration, led public service graduate programs and contributed to college and university strategic initiatives.

AAI announces the Center for Reimagining Education

LAWRENCE — The Achievement & Assessment Institute at the University of Kansas has announced the new Center for Reimagining Education (CRE), whose mission is to accelerate the pace of change in schools and districts. CRE will pursue its goals by leveraging technology and data and bringing together diverse teams of people to establish school-community driven partnerships and open pathways for learning. The center grew out a 2023 book co-written by two KU researchers titled “Duck and Cover: Confronting and Correcting Dubious Practices in Education.”

Full stories below.

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Contact: Sydney Bannister, School of Public Affairs & Administration, [email protected], @KUSPAA

School of Public Affairs & Administration announces new director

LAWRENCE – The University of Kansas School of Public Affairs & Administration (SPAA) will welcome new leadership in 2024. Maja Husar Holmes has been named director of the school, effective Jan. 1.

During her 15 years at West Virginia University, Holmes has directed the Department of Public Administration, led public service graduate programs and contributed to college and university strategic initiatives. Her initiatives included advancing public service education, engaging research and fostering inclusivity.

In addition to her role as school director, Holmes will join SPAA as a tenured professor of public administration. Throughout her career, her research has focused on public leadership and diversity in public management and higher education. Her work has been published in journals including State and Local Government Review, Administration & Society, Journal of Public Administration Research & Theory and Innovative Higher Education. She also has made significant contributions to advancing social justice and inclusivity in higher education through National Science Foundation-funded applied research.

“Dr. Holmes is uniquely qualified to lead our school into the future given the excellence of her research and her experience with applying research to action to help public organizations address critical issues, like social equity,” said Marilu Goodyear, the school’s interim director. “We all look forward to collaborating with her as we seek to fulfill our role serving KU and our communities.”

Additionally, Holmes has served key roles in supporting the profession of public service education. She is on the Executive Council of Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs and Administration and served as chair and member of the Commission on Peer Review and Accreditation. At WVU, her roles as an Office of the Provost Academic Leadership Fellow, Women’s Leadership Initiative coach and Teaching & Learning Commons Faculty Associate reflect her commitment to promoting holistic, equitable experiences for students, faculty and staff.

“It is a privilege to be part of the continuing commitment of SPAA to prepare professionals for a thriving public service. It is energizing to join the SPAA faculty, who are leaders in emergent research relevant to communities and advancing the public good,” Holmes said, who joined SPAA administration in thanking Goodyear for her nearly two years serving as interim director.

SPAA provides society with high-quality research in the areas of budget and finance, law and society, public management, public policy and urban planning. Faculty educate public servants who leave the school to contribute to society through action and research. The school’s excellence is recognized by five faculty who are National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) Fellows and by its U.S. News and World Report No. 1 ranking in local government.

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The official university Twitter account has changed to @UnivOfKansas.

Refollow @KUNews for KU News Service stories, discoveries and experts.

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Contact: Alicia Marksberry, Achievement & Assessment Institute, [email protected], @AAI_at_KU

AAI announces the Center for Reimagining Education

LAWRENCE — The Achievement & Assessment Institute (AAI) has announced the new Center for Reimagining Education (CRE), whose mission is to accelerate the pace of change in schools and districts. CRE will pursue its goals by leveraging technology and data and bringing together diverse teams of people to establish school-community driven partnerships and open pathways for learning.

The center is led by founding director Des Floyd and includes co-founders Rick Ginsberg, dean of the KU School of Education & Human Sciences, and Yong Zhao, Foundation Distinguished Professor of Educational Psychology at KU. The initial work of the center is funded by a seed gift from the Al & Sharon Cinelli Family Foundation.

CRE seeks to help teachers, leaders and districts innovate by taking ideas from conception to implementation. CRE will work with schools and the communities they serve through partnerships, practice and by centering learners as catalysts for change and transformation.

“We want to see schools completely reimagine what they’re doing,” Ginsberg said.

“Rather than it being the traditional top-down change, which hasn’t changed anything in 120 some odd years, let’s try a different approach driven by students and technology.”

The center grew out of Zhao and Ginsberg’s book, “Duck and Cover: Confronting and Correcting Dubious Practices in Education.” The book explores educational practices whose usefulness has declined over time, lack sound theoretical foundations or long-term evidence — or are even harmful.

“For the last 30 years now I’ve been talking a lot about how traditional education cannot be improved, it has to be transformed,” Zhao said. “I’ve been writing a lot about different ways to do that and working with schools in the U.S., Australia, China and Argentina. But because it was just me by myself, I’ve only been able to give them ideas and suggestions. It was nothing like a whole center like CRE that can truly bring the changes to education in Kansas and beyond.”

The trio hope to provide the tools and means to try new forms of teaching, especially in underserved communities. Floyd said that an important aspect of the transformation of education is looking at a student’s potential.

“I’m more interested in capability, not just ability. And when you talk about capability, we’re talking about potential. We’re talking about what is possible,” Floyd said.

Floyd has 25 years of experience working in the education sector, including as a secondary school teacher in a high needs public high school and as a districtwide and statewide coach, servicing schools and districts with the highest concentrations of traditionally marginalized student and family populations.

“I’m someone who critiques the K12 system as well, but I also have been through it, and there’s a lot that I’ve tried,” he said. “So, the question is, what are we offering folks in the way of solutions? How are we supporting them with the challenges that they’re faced with?”

For AAI Director and University Distinguished Professor Neal Kingston, the new center aligns closely with the mission of the Achievement & Assessment Institute.

“It is important to think about educational change through multiple methodological perspectives. While some educational problems are well served by incremental changes, others are best served by stronger actions. Egregious approaches (ducking under a desk to protect yourself from an atom bomb, as described by Zhao and Ginsberg in their book), should be thrown out and replaced,” Kingston said.

The center will use a two-pronged approach to system innovation, the first consisting of establishing and accelerating the pace of educational progress by empowering students to lead as drivers of change. The second involves supporting a school-within-a-school path to change that emphasizes students’ needs, passions and tech savvy and new innovations in educator and leader practice.

“I’m looking forward to spending time with researchers here at KU helping us to build the evidence base for human potential and capability. Our framework will be informed and shaped by the work that I’m doing with Rick and Yong and members of our advisory board,” Floyd said. “This is a place where ideas go to grow, and I feel like that applies to me as well as the students and other people who are a part of this.”

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Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, director of news and media relations, [email protected]

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