The end is in sight! If you've earned 90 or more academic credits, you received a message from the Registrar's Office informing you that you are eligible to apply for graduation.

However, eligibility is only the start of the graduation application process. Below are four simple steps you can take now to ensure that you’ll soon be shaking hands with Dr. Hrabowski as you receive your UMBC diploma.

Note: Even if you do not plan to attend the commencement ceremony, you still need to apply to graduate in order to earn your degree.

Step 1: Apply for Graduation!

Friday, February 15^th is the last day undergraduates can apply for May Graduation.

Only those students who have every single requirement needed for degree completion on their spring semester schedules will be permitted to participate in the Commencement ceremony.

If you are taking a course at another institution that you plan to transfer, you must have an approved Verification of Transferability formon file with the Registrar’s Office and be prepared to submit a copy of your schedule.

Step 2: Embrace your degree audit!

Your degree audit indicates your progress toward degree completion. If you see “unsatisfied” items, these are requirements that need to be addressed immediately. Your degree audit is located on myUMBC, under the guide link “Advising and Student Support.”

Makesure any substitutions or waivers of major requirements are documented in your degree audit; you may need to submit a Help/RT ticket to the Registrar’s Office to add these notations to your record.

Step 3: Wrap up any outstanding details ASAP!

If you have Advanced Placement or CLEP scores, transfer transcripts, 201 lever language substitutions, or other items you need to provide to UMBC, delay no longer!  If the major, minor, or certificate program on your record is out of date, or if you have additional majors or minors that you need to remove, submit a new Declaration of Major form.  Any of these items could prevent you from being able to graduate.

Step 4: Let the celebration begin!

Participating in the commencement ceremony* and other celebratory activities on campus is the culmination of all of your hard work. Take time to recognize all it took to get you to this moment and be proud of your accomplishments!

Finally, use this link to check your Honors eligibility.

Internship opportunities at A.J. Adam Engineering:

We are an MEP consulting firm located in Towson, MD. We are looking for a Mechanical and an Electrical intern.  Attached please find the internship flyer. Please let me know if you have any questions/comments.

Milly Ruiz
Office and Administrative Manager

A.J. Adam Engineering LLC
744 Dulaney Valley Rd., Suite 16
Towson, MD  21204
443.519.1010 (Phone)
www.ajadam.com  

MEP Design I LEED Services I LCCA I Master Planning I Commissioning I CA I Energy Conservation I Acoustic Studies IQA/QC I Feasibility Studies

by F. Chris Curran, assistant professor of public policy, UMBC

Proponents of restorative justice suffered a blow recently with the late 2018 release of a much anticipated RAND study of restorative practices in Pittsburgh schools. The study’s results showed restorative practices were not as effective as many hoped – or as they are sometimes portrayed by proponents and in the media .

Unlike traditional disciplinary approaches, such as suspension, which remove students from school, restorative practices focus on repairing harm done by getting victims and perpetrators together to talk.

The idea is to rebuild and restore a sense of dignity and community.

As an educational researcher who studies school discipline, I think it would be misguided to use the study as a reason to go back to the old way of doing things, as is currently under debate in some locales.

First, let’s look at what the study found.

Mixed results

On the positive side, the study found evidence that teachers in schools using restorative practices reported better classroom management and school climate. Restorative practices led to an almost 15 percent decline in days lost to suspension overall. The intervention decreased the days lost to suspension for both black students and students from lower income households. However, it had no significant impact on white students or students from more affluent households. Furthermore, impacts were particularly large in elementary schools – there, the intervention led to an over 50 percent decline in days lost to suspension.

At the same time, however, there were a number of negative outcomes. Restorative practices did not lead to lower rates of suspension in middle schools. Nor did it result in declines in suspensions for violence or arrests. Furthermore, there were negative, statistically significant impacts on standardized achievement test scores in middle schools and for black students.

And, contrary to how teachers saw restorative practices, students reported worse classroom management and relationships.

In my opinion, it’s fair to say the findings were mixed at best.

Strong design, different takes on results

While the new study is not the first to examine restorative practices, it is notable for the strength of its research design. Schools were randomly assigned to use the Institute for Restorative Practices’ SaferSanerSchools Whole-School Change program or not. Since randomized controlled trials are considered the “gold-standard” of evaluating the effectiveness of an intervention, the RAND study theoretically provides more credible estimates of the true effect of the program separate from other school policies and practices.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the mixed findings have resulted in differing interpretations of the results.

For instance, Max Eden, of the Manhattan Institute, criticized the study’s original authors and popular media for focusing on the positive findings and downplaying the negative results. Ironically, Eden played up the negative findings claiming that “restorative justice isn’t working”.

In addition to the RAND study of restorative practices, other recent studies of discipline reforms, including bans on the use of suspension for minor offenses and shortening the length of suspensions, have also resulted in mixed findings.

A return to suspensions is not the solution

So what should educators and policymakers do with these results?

Even though the RAND study presents a speed bump on the road to discipline reform, turning back to what research has shown to be ineffective and inequitable exclusionary discipline practices would also be a mistake. Numerous studies have found that being suspended from school is predictive of a host of negative outcomes. Those outcomes include decreased academic achievement, a higher likelihood of involvement with the justice system, and decreased civic engagement as adults.

Zero tolerance policies have also been shown to result in greater uses of suspensions and little benefit in terms of improved school climate.

Exclusionary practices are also disproportionately used against students of color. Federal data and other studies have repeatedly shown that black students are three to four times as likely to be suspended as white students, with a large number of these suspensions being for lower level misconduct like “disrespect.”

Such disparities can’t be explained by differences in behavior across racial groups. The disparities may be the result of differences in the use of exclusionary discipline policies across schools.

Reducing suspensions and improving equity in school discipline is still a valid policy goal. The fact that initial reforms have not produced immediate positive results is disappointing, but hardly surprising. After all, changing practice and finding effective interventions in the field of education is hard work. Instead of settling for suspensions, I believe this is the time when states and local school districts should double down on trying innovative alternative approaches to discipline.2

* * * * *

F. Chris Curran, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Header image of Chris Curran by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC Magazine.

São Paulo School of Advanced Science on Atmospheric Aerosols: Properties, Measurements, Modeling, and Effects on Climate and Health

 July 22 to August 2, 2019, São Paulo, Brazil

 Application deadline: 24th March 2019

Goal: To provide young scientists with state-of-the-art knowledge on aerosol properties, measurements, modeling, and effects on climate and health. Participants will learn, in an intense and synergistic way, from internationally renowned scientists, in an environment tailored to promote great interaction, and to foster the development of collaborative networks.

Audience: The school is for graduate students and early career scientists. Priority will be given to candidates currently enrolled in graduate programs, but senior undergraduate and young researchers are also welcome. Applications of candidates from different academic backgrounds are encouraged.

About 100 participants, 50 from Brazil and 50 from other countries will be selected. A significant number of travel grants are available.

The School is organized by the Physics Institute of the University of São Paulo, and sponsored by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP).

Website of the School: http://spsas-aerosols.if.usp.br 

Click here for more details and application...https://sites.google.com/view/spsas-aerosols/application