Alfonso, a professor of school psychology who came to GSE in 1994, has rejoined the Division of Psychological and Educational Services, where he will expand partnerships between the University and needy New York City schoolchildren.

“I miss being in the administration because there were different ways to effect change, but there are also opportunities to influence change through writing, advising and mentoring students, and partnering with different agencies,”
he said.

Alfonso said working as the associate dean gave him a unique perspective on GSE and the University in general. He relished the challenge of working with multiple constituencies, from faculty members to students and administrators.

During his tenure as associate dean, he taught one class each semester and pursued his research interests, which include assessment and treatment of preschoolers, psycho-educational assessment, life satisfaction and subjective well-being, professional training and stressful life events. This semester, he is teaching a preschool assessment class and an internship seminar for students.

GSE’s outreach programs are among his priorities, too. The school is in its 15th year of the Bronx Project, in which professors, psychologists and students provide psychoeducational services at least one day a week at five to eight Catholic elementary schools in the South Bronx and Harlem.

“We’ve garnered $1.4 million; we’ve served more than 2,000 students; and we’ve had close to 100 school psychology externs—students who are gaining practical experience working in these schools,” he said.

“My goal is to expand that project to more schools, provide more services and secure greater funding,” he added.

A similar project began last spring on Roosevelt Island, where 20 graduate students, under the supervision of GSE professors, conducted educational assessments of 146 students in two schools. The schools then submitted the data to the Department of Education as part of their individual educational plans.

Aside from assisting in partnerships outside the University, such as the Los Ninos Young Child Expo and Conference, Alfonso is hoping to increase collaboration within Fordham. An upcoming conference for Catholic school principals, which he is organizing with the Office of Catholic School Leadership, is one such example.

“There are a lot of groups out there that want to collaborate and do good things, especially in these difficult economic times when education is being hit left and right, and there are so many children who need services,” he said. “When we work together, we have a better shot at helping them.”

Collaboration is a theme that reverberates through Alfonso’s research. In papers including “Review of the Battelle Developmental Inventory: Second Edition” (Journal of Early Childhood and Infant Psychology, 2010) and books such as Essentials of Specific Learning Disability Identification (Wiley, 2011), Alfonso and colleagues help address the science/practice gap.

“My colleagues and I continue to write chapters and books on assessments, and how we can translate theory and empirical work into everyday practice based on sound evidence,” he said.

Unfortunately, Alfonso said the biggest impediment to school success for children is poverty, which has been increasing for some time.

“Beyond the shadow of a doubt, poverty is the No. 1 risk factor for kids in terms of education, job attainment and avoiding incarceration,” he said.

“Many of the kids we serve in the Catholic schools are living in poverty. Often, these children are considered lazy or not so smart, but clearly the problem is that they do not have basic resources. They’re getting off to a very bad start, and the data are clear that when you’re off to a bad start, if there’s no intervention, you flatline. But when you intervene early and intensely and you maintain it through the early grades, the trajectory changes, and those kids have a higher probability of success.”

Alfonso draws a parallel between early intervention and the green-energy movement, which didn’t begin to gain in popularity until it was clear that money could be made from it. Right now, there’s little money in childhood early intervention.

“There’s a great line by Chris Rock, who says, ‘There’s no money in the cure; there’s money in the medicine. But if you cure the disease, you don’t need medicine.’

“My calling has been to serve others, and while the method and the means of doing that has changed over time, the core has remained the same, which is helping the less fortunate become autonomous contributors to society,” he said.

“You’ve got to start as early as possible for that to happen. The most important investment the country can make is in its children.”

The Graduate School of Education (GSE) was a major sponsor of the two-day conference that brought together thinkers, practitioners and more than 10,000 educators at the New York Hilton in Manhattan.

Meyers discussed his highly acclaimed young adult novels, such as Monster (HarperCollins, 1999), winner of the 2000 Coretta Scott King Author Award, andLockdown (Amistad, 2010). He read an excerpt fromKick (HarperTeen, 2011), which he co-wrote with teenage author Ross Workman.

“Teachers tell me kids are reluctant to read books, yet they will read my books,” he said. “I think it’s because I’ve given them a voice. I went to Stuyvesant High School and dropped out twice. I couldn’t tell teachers what was going on in my life—that my mother was an alcoholic and my family was dysfunctional.”

Myers, who speaks frequently at youth prisons, said that his books resonate with inmates.

“A young prisoner once told me that he has felt the way my characters have felt,” he said.

Growing up in Harlem, Myers said, all he was given to read were works by British writers.

“When I began writing as a child, I’d write ‘Ode to a Fire Hydrant.’ There was something there, but it wasn’t me,” he said, adding that the lack of diversity in literature forced him to reject a lot of himself in his early years.

“I didn’t want to be black or a Harlemite anymore because those things weren’t found in the books I was given to read,” he said. “But when I read James Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blues, it’s as if it gave me permission to write about black life. I knew I enjoyed writing, but I couldn’t write about my own life before then.”

Chun Zhang, Ph.D, was among a handful of Fordham faculty and administrators to present workshops at the two-day event. Photo by Bruce Gilbert

Myers said he knew he had connected with readers when he gave a talk at a school and a young African-American girl was adamant that he wrote a character wrong.

“She kept saying [the character]wouldn’t do that and I said, ‘I’m onto something here,’” he said.

Myers was blunt about the responsibility of adults in urban areas to push education in general and literacy in particular.

“Education is real freedom,” he said. “We need people publicly addressing this, saying, ‘Not only should you do this; you must do this. This is your future.’”

The Celebration of Teaching and Learning was hosted by public television stations Thirteen/WNET and WLIW 21, among other supporters. Headline speakers included Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, Mehmet Oz, M.D., host of the “Dr. Oz Show” and Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.

Several members of the GSE faculty and administration presented workshops, including:

• Vincent C. Alfonso, Ph.D., professor and associate dean of GSE, on “Assessment of Young Children: Special Considerations for Diverse and Underserved Populations;”

• Carlos R. McRay, Ed.D., associate professor, on “Cultural Collision and Collusion: Reflections on Hip-Hop Culture, Values and Schools;”

• Anita Batisti, Ph.D., associate dean and director of GSE’s Center for Educational Partnerships; Marge Struk, network leader for Fordham’s Partnership Support Organization (PSO); and Joseph Porzio, project associate for PSO, on “What We Should Teach and Why: The Common Core Standards;”

• Amelio D’Onofrio, Ph.D., clinical professor and director of the Psychological Services Institute on “Learning to Love the Bully: Breaking the Cycle of Violence,” and

• Chun Zhang, Ph.D., professor, on “Documenting the Impact of Teacher Candidates’ on Student Behavior and Learning.”

Though he no longer lives in Harlem, Myers said he visits the ever-evolving neighborhood at least once a month.

“People moving into the million-dollar brownstones [in Harlem]are not connecting with that kid whose father is in Green Haven [Correctional Facility] and whose mother on welfare,” he said.

“The Kennedys gave physical fitness a shot in the arm. You’d see pictures of them throwing around a football. We need someone—an Obama, anyone—saying to the kids in these communities, ‘Put a book in your hand,’” Myers said.

Walk into just about any New York City public or private school classroom and you’re bound to experience a remarkable range of cultural and linguistic diversity. That kind of diversity can be a great strength, but for teachers who often have limited resources it can pose a challenge—and for children with learning and behavior difficulties, it can mean the difference between getting the services they need to be successful in school and getting lost in the system.

Thinking about ways to help those students is one of the things that occupies the long, busy days of Vincent C. Alfonso, Ph.D., professor and associate dean for academic affairs in the Graduate School of Education (GSE). An expert in the psycho-educational assessment of children with a specialty in learning disabilities, Alfonso teaches future professionals (school psychologists, teachers) how to recognize autism, language delays and other developmental disabilities and devise treatments for youngsters who struggle to succeed in the classroom and in life.

Early intervention is his mantra.

“Early identification is the best prevention we have,” said Alfonso, who has seen positive movement in federal and state laws in the last decade to protect children under the age of five. “It’s really not that different than evaluating early for cancer.”

A Brooklyn native from a Cuban-Italian family, Alfonso did his doctoral work at Hofstra University and started his professional life at a Long Island school district, assessing and counseling students with potential learning disabilities and consulting with parents. In some ways, his job came down to answering a seemingly simple question of his young charges, “Are they in good shape to go to and do well in school?”

Alfonso came to Fordham as an assistant professor in 1994 and went on to coordinate the school psychology programs for three years while also serving as executive director of the R.A. Hagin School Consultation and Early Childhood Centers, where he still acts as academic training coordinator. There are about 150 students in the school psychology program and a small subset are enrolled in a preschool psychology master’s program.

Associate dean for academic affairs since August 2005, Alfonso said he misses some of the perks of professorial life: working with graduate students on research projects, educating and training future professionals and representing Fordham in the field.

But the opportunity “to effect positive change” through the guidance and mentoring of young faculty is what swayed Alfonso to make the leap from faculty to administration.

“I think we really need to continue bridging the gap between science and practice,” he said.

Helping schools adopt new means of assessment is critical, as is community outreach and partnership, which Alfonso would like to see more of in his department, “so that the gap between the halls of academe and the halls of schools isn’t so great.”

He points to a recently created program between GSE and the Bronx Zoo that will offer a Master of Science degree in education and New York state initial teacher certification in adolescent science education. The program will focus on teaching methods, the psychology of adolescent development and learning, learning environments for adolescents, and teaching linguistically and culturally diverse adolescents, among other areas. (See the article, “GSE and Bronx Zoo Announce Master’s Degree Program”)

Alfonso is also proud of the 10-year-old relationship between the school psychology program in the Division of Psychological and Educational Services and eight Catholic elementary schools in the Bronx and Harlem, where Fordham school psychology graduate students provide psycho-educational services to young pupils. Although the New York City State Department of Education is responsible for evaluating students in both public and private schools, Alfonso said “there is a very long wait for children to be served” in the latter, which often simply do not have the resources to evaluate and accommodate children with learning and behavior difficulties.

One resource in the field is a book Alfonso co-authored that is considered a bible of sorts for evaluators. Essentials of Cross-Battery Assessment, Second Edition (Wiley, 2007) advocates employing multiple assessment tools and tailoring them to the individual’s particular difficulties, “rather than using one instrument,” Alfonso said. “It’s a method that colleagues and I have not devised but have tried to perfect.”

Although there may be no such thing as perfection in working with students with severe learning and behavior difficulties — or any students, for that matter — Alfonso can’t stress enough the unhealthy outcomes for a young person whose difficulties aren’t treated as early as possible. “Dropping out of school,” the most common response to ignored learning and behavior disabilities, “has a very large domino effect,” he said. Quality of life and life satisfaction will ultimately suffer, for that individual and for his or her family.

Which brings Alfonso back to the mantra of early intervention. Better late than never, but early is best of all.

“I don’t think there’s a point of no return, but the longer we wait—just as in medicine, whether you’re trying to stop smoking or drinking coffee—the harder it is to help people,” Alfonso said. “There isn’t a point of no return, but you’re going to have to work real hard.”

By Julie Bourbon