"Am I smiling enough?" Ralph Fessler, dean of the School of Education, asked during his interview on Tuesday.
Fessler announced last Monday that he will retire at the end of the academic year, but he was enthusiastic to talk to the News-Letter about the School of Education's newest plans.
Although he was wearing a walking cast, he eagerly gave a tour of the historic private school-turned-university hall, which included a stop in his favorite room, a gorgeous space filled with heavy wood bookshelves and an antique iron staircase.
Fessler, who upon retirement will have completed 26 years at Hopkins, has seen a lot of changes in the education program at Hopkins, most recently the creation of the new School of Education in January 2007.
The School of Education also recently had its accreditation visit and moved into a new building in 2800 N. Charles St.
"I have been weighing which year would be the right year to retire and decided this would be the best time. We're in good shape with a bright future for this school - now it's time to think about different things," he said.
When Fessler first arrived at Hopkins in 1983, the education scene was entirely different, with nine faculty members and four support staff.
Today, Fessler says that the number of faculty members is well in the 60s, with 2,000 students, of which 300 are full-time.
Fessler has served as professor and director of the Graduate Division of Education.
In 1999, he also worked as dean of the School of Professional Studies in Business and Education.
Last year, this school divided, creating the School of Education, whose education program is now entering its 100th year of existence, and the Carey Business School.
He also expanded the master's degree programs and graduate certificate programs to include the Master of Arts in Teaching degree, the school's largest degree program that he re-established in 1986 after a 12-year hiatus.
But Fessler does not want all the credit for the School of Education's expansion.
"My pride comes from people around me," he said, referring to the faculty of the School of Education.
Fessler received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Wisconsin and taught in public schools in Illinois and Wisconsin.
The Milwaukee native held faculty and administrative positions in the University of Wisconsin-River Falls before coming to Hopkins.
"I came because of the challenge of coming here," he said.
"I saw the potential for growth, and I wasn't disappointed. I have never found any place as creative [as this one]. [It gave] the faculty and leadership in the school flexibility and freedom to develop quality programs and creative programs, where the only bureaucracies we have to face are the ones we create ourselves."
Fessler brought prior research from Wisconsin to Hopkins and chaired a task force that designed how teacher education was shaped, including teacher development and teacher leadership.
"Research in education is always practical. It's not just sitting in labs or offices, but it's in our schools and I worked with schools and school systems most of the time I've been here; partnerships in projects and models for developing technology," he said.
In a partnership with Morgan State University and University of Maryland Baltimore County, he worked on how to redesign the teacher training.
"We designed a program that allowed us to recruit highly talented people with strong academic backgrounds who are very motivated to work in urban schools. We worked extensively with them over the summer," he said.
This model is applied to the training that the School of Education provides for programs like Teach for America, in which 80 percent of members enrolled go through the Hopkins system, according to Fessler.
"I learned a lot from that process and what we did at Hopkins became the state design," he said.
"Research in education is always practical - it's not just sitting in labs or offices, but it's in our schools."
From 1999 to 2005, Fessler served as a principal investigator of a $12 million grant that enabled him to prepare teachers to work with children from urban environments.
The project provided support systems, mentoring, supervision from faculty and an online support system.
According to Fessler, the School of Education focuses on two new goals: addressing the most challenging issues facing urban education, including achievement gaps and teacher development in urban schools and partnering with other Hopkins schools.
For example, the School of Education is working with the Whiting School of Education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) to develop school projects in engineering, with the hope of raising K-12 students' interest in career paths in science and technology fields.
"The school of education we see as really a University-wide enterprise, one in which there are opportunities across the University for people who are interested in focusing on helping children," he said.
The School of Education is working with the Kennedy Krieger Mind Brain Institute as well as the departments of cognitive science and neuroscience to conduct research relating neursocience to education.
The two cooperating disciplines will study how neurological impairments are related to learning, learning disabilities, dyslexia and other disorders.
They are studying the relationship between learning and neuoscience in normally developing children.
As a result of Fessler's involvement in coordinating these projects, these research studies will have a tremendous impact on how teacheres plan lessons for children and how they select curriculi.
There are three centers that the School of Education developed after Fessler came to Hopkins.
The Center for Technology and Education is applied in Maryland and across the country and focuses on the integration of technology in schools.
The Center for Research in Reform and Education works in urban schools around the country developing curriculum and support.
The Center for Summer Learning continues summer learning for children when the school year is over.
Fessler, with a sparkle in his eye, deflects sole credit for such an expansion at the learning center.
"The best thing I did was hire great people - it's about what the school looks like today. The future is very bright because we're addressing those challenging issues and facing the education and the achievement gap."
After retiring, Fessler plans to take time to travel, tackle writing and research projects and address other alternatives that he says are too soon to consider.
"I'm not retiring to sit at home or to go fishing. I'll stay active and involved in education issues and issues involving the education of children," he said.
