Associate Professor of Education
Co-founder, co-director of the Center for Adolescent Research
and Development
Degrees
Doctor of Philosophy, Fordham University
Master of Arts, Fordham University
Bachelor of Arts, Fordham University
Office: Hudson Hall, Room 109-B
Office Hours: On sabbatical.
Phone: 845-569-3532
Email: frances.spielhagen@msmc.edu
Sabbatical
Dr. Spielhagen is on sabbatical during the 2012-2013 academic
year. She will have access to email, but advising questions should
be referred to the Division of Education. Dr. Spielhagen will be a
Visiting Research Professor in Residence at the Center for Gifted
Education at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg,
Virginia.
Bio
Frances R. Spielhagen, PhD, is currently associate professor of
education and director of the Center
for Adolescent Research and Development (CARD) at Mount Saint
Mary College. Professor Spielhagen teaches courses in curriculum
planning and assessment to pre-service teachers.
As co-director of CARD, she facilitates research and evaluation
projects, mentors junior scholars, and organizes an annual
conference on Adolescence in the 21st Century.
Before entering the academy in 2002, she served for 30 years as
a public school teacher in grades 7-12 (Latin, Social
Studies, English) and as coordinator of talent development (gifted)
programs.
From 2003-2006, she was an American Educational Research
Association/Institute for Educational Sciences Post-Doctoral
Research Fellow at the Center for Gifted Education at the College
of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA. There, she explored
advanced opportunities in mathematics among under-represented
populations, under the mentorship of Dr. Joyce Van Tassel-Baska.
Professor Spielhagen has presented several peer-reviewed papers on
that research, both at AERA and in other national and international
venues, most recently at the biennial meeting of the World Council
for Gifted and Talented Children in Prague, in August 2011.
Other longstanding research interests have included gender
equity, single-sex education, and motivation and engagement among
adolescents. Professor Spielhagen first explored issues of gender
equity in 1990-1991, as a teacher engaged in action research
through an Eleanor Roosevelt Fellowship from the American
Association of University Women. At that time, the focus was on
female achievement. From 2003-2005, she conducted research on
single-sex education in a small urban public middle school. In
recent years (2006-current), she has served on the advisory board
of the Gurian Institute, which has focused on achievement among
boys. In 2007-2008, as consultant to the Gurian Institute, she
evaluated the professional development of teachers in the
single-sex schools in Atlanta, Georgia.
Her publications include peer reviewed articles in the Journal
for Advanced Academics, the Middle Grades Research Journal,
Research in Middle Level Education, and American Secondary
Education, several book chapters, and two books, Debating
Single-Sex Education: Separate and Equal (Rowman &
Littlefield, 2007) and The Algebra Solution to Mathematics
Reform: Completing the Equation (Teachers College Press,
2011).
Dr. Spielhagen has also been involved in service to national
organizations. From 2007-2009, she was president of the Sociology
of Education Association. From 2009-2011, she was co-chair of the
Education Committee of the National Association for Gifted
Children. From 2010-current, she has served as a mentor on the AERA
Undergraduate Research Program under the direction of George
Wimberly. She has just been named the editor-in-chief of the Middle
Grades Research Journal (2011-2014) and selected for membership on
the Research and Evaluation Awards Committee of the National
Association for Gifted Children.
Professor Spielhagen is currently conducting a longitudinal
study of the civic behaviors and attitudes among her former high
school students who were engaged in problem-based service learning
projects she created.