David Wizer (Educational Technology and Literacy) and Jane Neapolitan (Office of Academic Innovation) held a poster session at the Association of University Centers on Disabilities Conference held December 4-7, 2016, in Washington, DC. The poster session titled, “Towson University’s Universal Design for Learning Faculty Development Initiatives that Lead to Enhanced Teaching and Student Learning,” focused on the basic principles of UDL that address variability of student learning and how they are being applied in TU courses, such as TSEM, and in faculty development initiatives, such as the TU UDL-Professional Development Network sponsored by the Office of Academic Innovation.
Assistant Professor Pamela Hickey (College of Education) is first author on a book chapter entitled, “Beyond the School of Greece and Into Baltimore: Education in Undemocratic Democracies” in an edited volume Democracy and Decency: What does education have to do with it? The Department of Secondary and Middle School Education and the Department of Educational Technology and Literacy have collaborated to design a unique Master’s program that enhances local middle school teachers’ ability to use state-of-the-art technology to improve student learning. A cohort of 17 middle school teachers from throughout Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS) begins TU’s program this spring. The timing is ideal as BCPS continues to expands its ambitious …. “multi-year effort called S.T.A.T. (Students and Teachers Accessing Tomorrow) to create 21st century learning environments in every classroom in the county, is centered on shifting teaching and learning through the integration of technology. Lighthouse schools are those that have been tasked with pioneering staff development, curriculum conversion, personalized and blended learning, and the use of 1:1 digital devices for each student.” (this quotation is from http://www.bcps.org/news/articles/article8174.html as a way to describe what BCPS is doing with STAT) “What’s most innovative about this program is that it capitalizes on Towson’s reputation for excellence in middle school education and in technology education.” –Todd Kenreich, Director of TU Master’s in Secondary Education
Jian Huang (Finance) and Christopher Anderson had an article, titled “Institutional Investment in IPO and Post-IPO M&A Activity”, accepted for publication in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Empirical Finance. The article’s abstract: Secondary market stock returns of newly public firms with high levels of institutional investment exceed returns of firms with low institutional investment (Field and Lowry, 2009). We find that a material portion of this performance differential is attributable to institutional investment in firms that participate in mergers and acquisitions after their initial public offerings (IPOs). Specifically, institutions not only tend to avoid underperforming firms, on average, but also invest heavily in IPO firms that subsequently become M&A participants, especially well-performing bidders and targets. Superior returns among firms with high institutional ownership suggests the ability of institutional investors to identify and actively monitor newly public M&A participants.
