Faculty and Staff News

Three SOE faculty retire: Drs. Alan Feldman, Masha Rudman and David Schimmel announce retirement

Dr. Allan Feldman Retires

Dr. Allan Feldman, professor in the Department of Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies, retired recently after 16 years with the School of Education. Dr. Feldman received his B.A. in mathematics from New York University and a Master’s degree in Teacher Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. His professional experience includes 17 years teaching high school physics and middle school science in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

It was while he was teaching at Germantown Friends School in the Philadelphia area that Dr. Feldman decided “to do something new.”
“I had always thought about getting a doctorate and 1989 seemed like the right time,” he said.

Awarded a Ph.D. in science education from Stanford University, he accepted a position as assistant professor at UMass Amherst School of Education in 1993.

Recognized for his extensive work in action research, Dr. Feldman has positively impacted the way science and math is taught in schools in the UMass Amherst region, primarily through the STEM Collaborative, a $5,000,000 NSF-funded project started in 1997 with Dr. Mort Sternheim, physics, that involved Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges; Springfield Technical, Holyoke, and Greenfield Community Colleges; and the Springfield, Holyoke, Amherst, Hadley, Northampton, South Hadley, and Franklin County school systems. The work of the Collaborative continues today through the many programs and projects of the STEM Institute, including the Franklin County Research Academies for Young Scientists (STEM RAYS) which provides science research programs for grade 4-8 students in after-school and summer programs.

“Probably the biggest surprise I’ve had over the past 16 years is, hopefully, the effect I’ve had on science teachers in the Valley,” Dr. Feldman said. “All these teachers I’ve educated as part of the STEM program are in every school in the region. I should have expected that, but I didn’t! I mean, whoever thinks about staying in one place for 16 years and the effect that will have?”

Dr. Feldman received the UMass Amherst 1998-99 Distinguished Academic Outreach Award and the 2003-04 UMass Amherst TEACHnology Fellowship for incorporating technology into teaching.

In 2004, he became the director of Pioneer Valley PreK-16 Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Pipeline Network, funded by the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education "to increase the number of Massachusetts students who participate in programs that support careers in fields related to mathematics, science, technology, and engineering...to increase the number of qualified mathematics, technology, engineering and science teachers in the Commonwealth and to improve the mathematics, technology, engineering and science educational offerings available in public and private schools."

Dr. Feldman reflected on his years at SOE, saying “I’ve learned a lot from my colleagues and I’ve enjoyed mentoring new faculty. I look at the news hires and I’m excited about the possibilities they bring to SOE.”

This year, he will “work in the preparation of new science teachers and do research on science teaching” as professor of science education at the University of South Florida Tampa. He plans to continue working with doctoral students at the School of Education and to enjoy an ongoing “relationship with UMass Amherst,” he said.

Dr. Masha Rudman Retires

Childrens’ literature expert, Masha Kabakow Rudman, professor in the Department of Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies, announced her retirement this year.

Dr. Rudman was awarded a B.A. degree in English Literature in 1953 and a M.S. degree in Elementary Education in 1956 from Hunter College, New York. She taught in the New York City public schools for five years, an experience about which she said: “If you care about civil rights and underserved populations, teaching in the public schools, teaching poor, urban populations has many lessons.”

Dr. Rudman also taught in private elementary schools and served as a lecturer in education at Hunter College in 1964 before entering UMass Amherst School of Education as a doctoral student. She received her Ed.D. in 1970.

Dr. Rudman recalled her first years in the School of Education as a heady period of innovation, characterized by the mythic “faculty retreat in Colorado.” “We were challenged with re-designing the school. You had to defend what you were doing, conventional or unconventional,” she said. “We created The Learning Theater. We came up with a title to represent teaching of elementary teacher education in an integrated, inclusion mode. It was the context of ‘theatre’ that was the structure of the program.”

The Learning Theater became the Integrated Day Off Campus program, which Rudman spearheaded for 35 years, and which brought together teachers from Holyoke, Springfield, Chicopee, South Hadley, Granby and Amherst, Mass.

Rudman’s wealth of professional experience also includes serving as coordinator of the Language Arts component of the Model Elementary Teacher Education program, the Learning Centers for Operation Broad Jump, and the School of Education’s Elementary Teacher Education Program from 1990-2009. She was co-coordinator of the Collaborative Teacher Education Program (CTEP) from 2002-2004

From 1989-92, Dr. Rudman chaired the Joint Council of the National Council of Teachers of English and the Children’s Book Council. She was a member of the Massachusetts Advisory Commission on Personnel and Teacher Certification. From 1982 to 2009, she directed the regional annual “Perspectives in Children’s Literature” conference which brought hundreds of authors and illustrators to campus annually. Rudman described the conference’s core objective as presenting “as many perspectives in children’s literature as possible.”

Dr. Rudman’s awards are numerous: she was the first SOE faculty member to be honored with the University of Massachusetts’ Distinguished Teaching Award (1972); was elected to the Hall of Fame of the Alumni Association of Hunter College (1973); was named Humanities Fellow, Institute for the Advancement of the Humanities, University of Massachusetts (1983) ; was designated as Humanities Scholar for the program, "Not for Children Only," sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities (1985); was elected to Professors of Curriculum, an honorary section of the ASCD (1985); and was invited by the United States Holocaust Memorial Council to have an article displayed in their Resource Center (1991). She received the 1999 School of Education Outstanding Teacher Award.

Currently working on the 4th edition of her first book, “Children’s Literature: An Issues Approach,” Dr. Rudman said that the seminal text was “controversial” when it was first published in 1976.

“Ethel Hines, editor- in- chief of Hornbook said I was singlehandedly going to be the death of children’s literature,” Rudman said. “My book was the first text that adults - teachers, librarians, parents - could use for critical reading of children’s literature. It is so accepted now to look at issues and require children to look at what is implied in literature. It wasn’t permitted then. They thought it would ruin the story, the aesthetic. They taught plot, character, story, maybe things like truth, justice…abstracts… I think that’s fine, but I say it’s not sufficient.”

This year, Dr. Rudman’s personal collection of more than 8000 volumes of children’s literature plus 500 or more professional reference books will be archived by the UMass Amherst W.E.B. DuBois Library.

“One of the reasons I didn’t pursue retirement was that I didn’t want to toss out these books. I was so invested in this, it made me very sad to think that this would disappear. And when the library came up with this idea of making my library a permanent, special collection, I was thrilled,” Rudman said. “I was so impressed. I thought ‘WOW!’ It was a big surprise and satisfaction.”

Dr. Rudman will continue to teach and write from the office in Furcolo Hall that she has occupied for decades. “I’ve been in Furcolo for 45 years,” she said. “When there was a possibility of moving, I said, ‘I want to stay here.’ I started in room 118, then was in room 2, then 224, then expanded into this room. It’s my second home.”

We will post details about an event celebrating the formal acceptance of Dr. Rudman’s collection of children's literature by the W.E.B. DuBois Library on the School of Education’s website when they become available.

If you are interested in making a donation in honor of a retiring faculty member, click here to learn more.

<top

Dr. David Schimmel Retires from School of Education

David Schimmel, professor in the Department of Educational Policy, Research and Administration, recently retired, having been a member of the faculty of the School of Education since 1968.

Dr. Schimmel attended Duke University (B.A. political science, 1955), Yale University Law School (J.D. 1958), and Hebrew Union College (B.H.L.1962.) He was admitted to practice before the Maryland Bar, 1959; Massachusetts Bar, 1985, and U.S. Supreme court, 1963. After having practiced law in Baltimore, Dr. Schimmel joined the Peace Corps as operations officer, West African division, Washington, D.C in 1962; served as associate Peace Corps director, Ethiopia; in the Peace Corps Office of Planning, Washington, D.C.; and as director of the Peace Corps Virgin Islands training center. He also served as director of Volunteers to America, Department of State, from 1966-1967.

Dr. Schimmel has been a Visiting Professor, Harvard Graduate School of Education since 1998. He is a recipient of the Educational Press Association of America’s Distinguished Achievement Award for excellence in educational journalism, the Commonwealth Honors College Outstanding Service Award, and the University of Massachusetts Distinguished Academic Outreach Award.

Dr. Schimmel joined the faculty of the School of Education during “the Dwight Allen years” which he described as “a time of energy, dedication, shared purpose and commitment to improve public education. It was a place of high risk, high gain. (Dean Allen) brought people from diverse backgrounds, non-conventional people and gave them freedom to reach high.”

During that time, Dr. Schimmel helped to found the School’s Center for International Education which he said he continues to admire for doing “terrific work preparing American and international students to be able to spread literacy in at risk and underserved communities around the world.”

It was also a time in which he defined what he calls his mission: legal literacy for teachers.

“It took me 12 years after law school to find an area where there was a need for law in America,” he said. “And that was to teach law to non-lawyers, to enable citizens to take law into their own hands.”

Dr. Schimmel has written more than 50 articles and eight books in his area of expertise, education and the law.

From his first book, “The Civil Rights of Teachers,” (1973) to his current work, “Principals Teaching the Law: 10 Legal Topics Your Teachers Need to Know,” (scheduled for publication Summer 2010), Dr. Schimmel’s work has focused on increasing teachers’ knowledge of the law.

“You see teachers enter the classroom, there is a lot of anxiety. Their law school is the teachers lounge. In a national survey, 50% of the teachers say their primary source of information about school law is other teachers,” he said. “More than 85% of the teachers in the survey had no background in school law.”

Dr. Schimmel said “Principals Teaching the Law” is the first book written to help principals become effective law advisors to their staff.

Although retired, Dr. Schimmel will continue to teach at the School of Education. “I love teaching and sharing what is important to know,” he said. “I am grateful to Dean Allen and the School of Education for taking the risk, enabling me to do work that is important. It has been very satisfying.”

If you are interested in making a donation in honor of a retiring faculty member, please click here for details.

<top