BY MEREDITH ALEXANDER

Abstract designs painted by 4-year-olds adorn Deborah Stipek's office walls -- reminders of her past life. Not long ago, Stipek, dean of the School of Education, was directing the Corinne Seeds University Elementary School at the University of California-Los Angeles, where she was in the thick of decision making about questions as practical as when Spanish-speaking students should be taught English.

Today, instead of keeping watch over kids running through school corridors, Stipek is leading the many professors whose photos line the walls of Cubberley Hall. Heading the school, with its history of teacher training but also a strong tradition of academic research, poses its own challenges. Stipek faces the daunting task of maintaining a tradition of top-notch research without neglecting the problems that education schools around the country are striving to address -- issues raised by the practice of teaching real children.

Stipek, dean since January, doesn't seem cowed by the work ahead. Her background -- a thorough blending of theory and practice -- stands her in good stead.

"I feel like I'm kind of jumping on a train that was already moving in exactly the direction I would have wanted to go," Stipek says. "The trajectory of the school is extremely constructive -- it's on a path that is very compatible with my values."

Out of the ivory tower

That direction is part of a wider movement in the academic field of education, Stipek says.

Like many other high-level schools of education, which began as teacher colleges or "normal schools," Stanford's school started hiring academics with disciplinary backgrounds in the 1960s and 1970s. But the professors' research topics -- in economics, anthropology, psychology and more -- were growing further from teachers' concerns. There was "more and more divorce from practice," Stipek says.

Deborah Stipek, dean of the School of Education, speaks at an event for supporters of the San Francisco School Volunteers Program. Photo: L.A. Cicero

That has been changing, and Stipek is glad to see the new trend.

"In the last five to 10 years, more so in the last five years, the pendulum has swung back toward getting involved in practice," Stipek says.

"We're stepping out of the ivory tower, rolling up our sleeves, working with practitioners side-by-side," the dean says.

Stipek's own research focuses on the motivation of children in real classrooms -- a subject with practical implications -- and in recent years, she has noticed that her labors have begun to garner more respect. "At UCLA, I felt a distinct trend toward being rewarded and valued," she said.

Why this shift? Stipek points to the growing interest in education on the part of the public and the political elite. She also has seen major foundations open their coffers to fund research at the juncture of theory and practice.

This is nothing new for the education scholar, however. Her career has been a constant balancing act between academic research, practice and policy making.

The pull of policy

It began when she was a graduate student in developmental psychology at Yale. Stipek spent a summer working with her mentor, Professor Edward Zigler, at the Office of Child Development in Washington, D.C., which oversaw the HeadStart preschool program. There, the young education scholar was "infused with both the interests and the values of working in the public policy arena," she recalls.

That interest was strengthened when Stipek landed a job in an education psychology program at UCLA's School of Education, where she says she "was surrounded by people who were interested in the practical issues involved in education."

A desire to have an impact on education policy swept Stipek into another Washington experience. While on sabbatical from UCLA, she spent a year in the mid-1980s working for former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley. She came away with a greater understanding of the political process and an enhanced sympathy for politicians. "It made me understand the bind they're in," she says, remarking that even the best politicians have to answer to constituents and please voters.

At the helm

Not content with policy making from a distance, Stipek decided to work on schooling from close up, becoming director of the Corinne Seeds University Elementary School (also called the UCLA Laboratory School) and the Urban Education Studies Center, an associated research center, in 1991. Though she'd never taught kids herself, she relished the idea of helping design innovative learning environments.

Being thrust into practical decision making was an eye-opener. "I learned a lot about what makes schools function well," Stipek says.

As director, she led high-level discussions about how research should inform teaching practices. One hard question, for instance, revolved around bilingual education and how to keep bilingual children's language learning on track. Stipek and other school leaders examined existing research on the topic -- and did some of their own research, which they built on as they redesigned the curriculum. Instead of cutting off Spanish education early, they decided to transition Spanish-speaking students into English literacy while at the same time maintaining their Spanish classes through the sixth grade.

On one occasion, Stipek got a taste of what real teachers face. In "one totally desperate moment," she was called in to teach a second-grade class.

"I was a complete and total disaster. I had no control. Kids were practically hanging from the rafters," she remembers. Unable to continue, she ran down the hall to get help from a more seasoned teacher.

But the school's principal, Margaret Heritage, who worked closely with her for several years, doesn't fault Stipek for her singular shortcoming -- she thinks Stipek has skills where it really matters, in leadership.

"She's not just a scholar -- she's a leader, she's got vision, she's can-do and she's a good fundraiser," Heritage says.

Heritage recalls the time the university cut the school's subsidy and its future seemed jeopardized. Stipek and Heritage realized that tuition would have to be raised, but they wanted to ensure that the diverse student population would not be driven away.

"She was the one who went to the parent meetings and talked to them about this change," Heritage remembers. "It wasn't particularly popular, as you might imagine, but she was very strong and very compassionate."

Stipek also pursued outside donors. "She's very good at figuring out what's going to appeal to people," Heritage says.

Challenges ahead

That ability to lead and appeal to different kinds of people surely will be tested at Stanford. In recent years, the school has seen a literal revolution in faculty, with about 20 faculty retiring and a new set of scholars brought in to replace them. Stipek has spent a lot of time connecting to faculty, new and old.

Stipek acknowledges that when it comes to fundraising, the school faces a special challenge. Because most alumni do not earn high salaries, it can be hard for them to contribute. The dean has a humorous scheme in mind to compensate for this: Create a joint library for education and business school students and encourage them to marry each other, she explains, chuckling.

In a more serious vein, Stipek says she believes the rising interest in education nationally could benefit the School of Education by attracting outside donors.

"I am hopeful that at a time when people care a lot about education and are very concerned about improving education, they see the Stanford School of Education as an opportunity to have an impact," she says.

But that's only going to be possible if faculty continue to be innovative in marrying research and practice, according to Stipek.

The greatest danger to education faculty, she believes, is dividing their work into two separate worlds: conducting research on Monday, Wednesday and Friday while working with schools on Tuesday and Thursday. Instead, she encourages professors to combine both aspects of their work in creative projects. Associate Professor Jo Boaler's work on mathematics teaching is a good example, Stipek says. Boaler is studying how to use practical tools -- like videotapes of experienced teachers -- in teacher training.

Building on initiatives

Other initiatives at the school focus on bringing practice into the center of the academic setting. Professor and former dean Rich Shavelson saw to it that the school's teacher education and administrator education programs were given special prominence at the school, and he says that Stipek is considering adding an elementary teaching program to the lineup. Shavelson also notes that the school has a master's program and new doctoral program in "technologically intensive learning environments," an area at the forefront of teaching. He lauds Stipek for broadening these efforts and for supporting the John Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities, which is helping identify the needs of young people in Redwood City and West Oakland.

"What's been nice with the transition is that she picked up on the agenda we'd begun and said, 'Yes, that's what I think we should be doing, too,'" Shavelson says. "In some ways it's a seamless transition."

Shavelson adds that Stipek reaches out to Stanford's neighbors in positive ways. "She's out speaking all the time to people in the community about education -- she's quite active that way," he says, noting that she is also actively pursuing fundraising.

Stipek has helped launch new initiatives that unite research and practice: The school has received a $5 million grant from the Gates Foundation to design and support small schools, especially ones for low-income, urban youth, and along with the nonprofit organization Aspire, a number of education professors have helped jump-start a new school in the Ravenswood City School District (the first public high school to serve children in in the district that includes parts of Menlo Park and East Palo Alto in 25 years). There is also a new program to assist teachers in the Bay Area who want to receive national board certification.

Uniting theory and practice

Stipek is still bringing her enthusiasm for combining theory and practical problems to her own work as well. And just as the energy of a good teacher motivates children, Stipek's own drive to make the academy relevant to the classroom may inspire other scholars. Her new book for parents (see accompanying article) has hit best-seller lists. Her book on motivational research for teachers, Motivation to Learn: Theory to Practice, just emerged in its fourth edition and has been widely praised. "She was able to take the main principles [of motivation] and write about them succinctly and concisely, all within the framework of how is this important for a teacher," says Sandra Graham, a professor and former colleague at UCLA who uses the book in her classes.

Stipek also continues to take calls from legislators seeking to fine-tune education bills, even when she disagrees with much of the content. She's still willing to help "get the best out of a bad bill," she says.

Stipek's biggest current research-practice project is chairing the MacArthur Foundation's Network on Teaching and Learning, a group of about 10 researchers and practitioners who plan to meet for five to 10 years "to really analyze and dissect the whole research-practice disconnect and try to develop some strategies for creating better connections," Stipek explains. One of the group's projects is to lay the groundwork for information management systems that will store data on effective teaching methods -- data that can be accessed later when teachers are making decisions about instructing individual children.

Stipek is upbeat about the network's approach, which she calls "problem-solving research."

"Instead of being driven by theoretical questions, it's driven by the problems of practice," she says. "That's a passion for me."

• VIDEO: Stipek emphasizes supporting rather than controlling children's learning experiences
  
  
• Best-seller, co-authored by Stipek, helps parents encourage childrens’ learning
  
  
• Top tips for raising kids who love to learn
  
  
• Education faculty help launch Ravenswood's first public high school in 25 years (9/5/01)
  
  
• New School of Education dean wants to narrow gap between theory and practice (1/24/01)
  
  
• Grant to create center to study effectiveness of programs for youth (9/20/00)
  
  
• UCLA's Stipek chosen to lead Education School (4/12/00)