 |
|
|
INSIDE IOWA STATE
May 3, 2002
Manatt mentors record number of Ph.D. students
 |
Richard Manatt with the thesis of his
175th doctoral student.
Photo by Bob Elbert. |
by Kevin Brown
Top sports recruiters are able to spot potential talent. Top educators
possess that same keen awareness of untapped teaching ability. Take the case
of Richard Manatt, university professor of educational leadership and policy
studies, and Frances Kayona, one of the 175-plus Ph.D. graduates whose
review committee Manatt has chaired or co-chaired in his 38-year career at
Iowa State.
Kayona was working as a night auditor for an Arizona hotel where Manatt
stayed several times a year while conducting research. Manatt could sense
that Kayona had more potential.
"I kept encouraging her to come to Iowa State," Manatt said. "She was
definitely underemployed. She finally took my advice, completed her master's
and Ph.D. work here, and served as the program manager for our School
Improvement Model program for another four years."
Kayona, now an assistant professor of educational leadership and community
psychology at St. Cloud State University, Minnesota, said Manatt's
perseverance changed her life. And now she can make that same positive
impact on future teachers and administrators.
Of the 175 Ph.D. graduates, a record number in the state and among Iowa
State's peer institutions, many have chosen similar paths. Forty-nine are
college professors, 10 are college department chairs and one has become a
university president. Many work as principals or superintendents in school
districts from Iowa to Taiwan.
Kayona, an American Indian, is one of 35 female and 18 ethnic minority
doctoral candidates who studied with Manatt.
Manatt said his philosophy for Ph.D. students was that he should be able to
graduate five students every year -- two in the fall, two in the spring and
one in the summer. He worked with 27 Ph.D. students in the 1960s, 53 in the
1970s and 44 in both the 80s and 90s. So far this decade, he has graduated
seven Ph.D. students. Two more will graduate before Manatt retires May 15.
For several decades, Manatt was in a friendly competition with economics
professor Earl Heady, until Heady's death in 1987. The two would get
together at each commencement to compare their graduate tallies.
As creator and director of the college's School Improvement Model (SIM)
program, Manatt, with research partner Shirley Stow, was able to attract
significant grant funding and subsequently quality students, a key factor in
his ability to work with so many Ph.D. students.
School districts, foundations and the U.S. Department of Education provided
grant funding that paid for the graduate students who provided on-site
evaluation and training. The self-funded program enabled Manatt to offer
many Ph.D. students a salary that was high enough to support a family. Ames
offered an attractive community for young professionals.
The SIM project helped many school districts in the country create
evaluation tools for teachers, principals and superintendents. In 1973,
Manatt helped introduce the then-revolutionary idea of having students
provide feedback about their teachers. The West Des Moines Community School
District was the test district.
Manatt said the new model provided full circle evalution, from what
students knew when they entered to what they had learned by the time they
left.
"Those experiences led to all of the research we have done. We went from
norm-referenced testing to a sense of how the students were learning," he
said.
Manatt and his Ph.D. students also researched areas in educational
management, performance appraisals and school improvements using curriculum
renewal, alignment and assessment.
Besides collaborating with his students, Manatt has conducted research with
his wife, Jackie, a former English teacher and program manager of Iowa
State's Science Bound program. The two studied international
English-speaking schools in 17 countries and in dependent schools of the
U.S. military. Their joint research established evaluating tools schools
could use to gauge the quality of education.
"These schools promise parents and U.S. corporations (who pay for many of
the schools) that the education provided in host foreign countries provides
the same education as a good U.S. school," Manatt said.
One study showed disparity in some military dependent schools between
minority students and white students. Through Manatt's research, school
officials were able to address some of the inequities.
Jackie Manatt created and manages a database that keeps Manatt's "extended
family" of Ph.D. students connected and networked.
Many of those students provided the base for a new endowment at Iowa State
in Manatt's name. The endowment funds fellowships for Ph.D. students in
educational administration. The fund drew strong support from the
professor's alumni, and one of them, Les Omotani, superintendent of the West
Des Moines school district, chaired the fund-raising drive.
"These people literally are part of our family," Manatt said. "When they
first come to ISU, we help them find places to live, good schools for their
children and provide a social network early on. We continue that same level
of commitment after they graduate."
|
Ames, Iowa 50011, (515) 294-4111
Published by: University Relations,
online@iastate.edu
Copyright © 1995-2001, Iowa State University. All rights reserved.
|
|