Drake PhD student Thomas Ahart named assistant superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools. Ahart will oversee a wide range of teaching and learning functions, including curriculum, assessment, ELL, early childhood education, special education and gifted and talented programs.

Affinity reunions are in the works for other Drake University colleges, schools and organizations, as well as 30- and 50-year cluster reunions.

Linda Lane’s Great-Aunt Gallie, a teacher in the segregated public schools of the South, couldn’t have imagined that someday her grandniece would work to close the achievement gap between African American and white students in Pittsburgh Public Schools.

This April, the annual Iowa Distance Learning Association Conference will address the need for educators to understand and correctly use instructional technology.

“The inability to read affects every area of a person’s life,” says Anne Murr, coordinator of the Drake University Adult Literacy Center. “However, this is a minority that doesn’t speak out.”