CEHD Selects 2025 Partnership Award Recipients

Photo caption: Top photo: Representatives from the College of Education & Human Development's Adult Literacy Research Center and the Technical College System of Georgia’s Office of Adult Education pose for a group photo; bottom photo: Representatives from the College of Education & Human Development's Principals Center and educational leadership programs pose for a photo with staff from Fulton County Schools’ Department of Professional Learning and Leadership Development.

ATLANTA—Georgia State University’s College of Education & Human Development (CEHD) has selected the Technical College System of Georgia’s Office of Adult Education and Fulton County Schools’ Department of Professional Learning and Leadership Development as the 2025 recipients of the CEHD Partnership Award.

This annual award honors the valuable partnerships that exist between the college and members of the community. It celebrates these joint efforts to address educational and community challenges and advance the public good through sustained and collaborative initiatives.

The Technical College System of Georgia’s Office of Adult Education (OAE) is a network of 30 providers across the state that helps adults learn the skills needed to get a job that can support one’s family. They offer high school equivalency preparation and testing, adult literacy programs, English as a Second Language instruction, civics education, family literacy programs and workforce training.

The OAE has worked with Regents’ Professor Daphne Greenberg, director of the College of Education & Human Development’s Adult Literacy Research Center (ALRC), in an informal capacity since the 1980s. They’d connect at statewide adult literacy conferences, invite OAE staff to Georgia State University professional development workshops and more.

In 2015, the OAE and the ALRC wrote an Institute of Education Sciences grant proposal together that formally solidified their partnership and led to several joint research studies. ALRC faculty, students and postdoctoral fellows have conducted research with adult learners at OAE sites to learn more about incorporating digital literacy skills into adult education classes, improving onboarding for adult education teachers and increasing student retention rates.

“Throughout our partnership, time is always allocated to discuss how our partnership’s research findings can best be translated into the Office of Adult Education’s decision-making processes about policy and practice in their adult education programs,” Greenberg wrote in her award nomination letter. “For the ALRC, this partnership helps build knowledge in the education sciences about factors that promote success in adult literacy programs. The partnership results in increasing the capacity of education policymakers and practitioners to use knowledge generated from high quality data analysis, research and evaluation.”

Fulton County Schools’ Department of Professional Learning and Leadership Development (PLLD) works to inspire and equip all Fulton County Schools employees to create learning environments where every student can thrive and succeed. The department is committed to fostering a culture of continuous growth that empowers educators and leaders to drive innovation, equity and excellence across the school district.

PLLD initially partnered with the CEHD’s Principals Center in 2013 to support its new principals during their first three years in their positions. The center created a customized induction program for Fulton County new principals that included monthly on-site coaching sessions during the academic year. As a result, Fulton County Schools now has a 97 percent retention rate for its new principals.

The PLLD built on their partnership in 2021, working with the CEHD’s educational leadership faculty to address leadership shortages in their school district. They launched two leadership cohorts in the college’s Tier I and Tier II educational leadership programs that would lead to leadership certification in Georgia. Since 2021, the Tier I and Tier II programs have enrolled 119 and 40 educators from Fulton County, respectively, and logged more than 3,000 graduate credit hours.

“Our close relationship with Fulton County Schools allows us to better support our candidates,” Yinying Wang, associate professor in educational leadership, wrote in her team’s award nomination letter. “Fulton County Schools helps select mentors and provides them guidance on how to support their candidates. They also continually provide support for and communication with students while they are in our program. The close collaboration with PLLD gives us a direct window into district perspectives, needs and experiences.”

This year’s award recipients were formally recognized at the college’s Partnership Award Luncheon on Nov. 13.

“The partnerships with the Department of Professional Learning and Leadership Development and the Office of Adult Education reflect a commitment to lifelong learning,” said DaShaunda Patterson, CEHD associate dean for faculty affairs. “Through our partnerships with these organizations, evidence-based practices are implemented to bolster both the leadership and educator workforce, as well as advance research and policy around adult education and literacy. We are grateful for partnerships that allow us to support successful outcomes for all stakeholders in our communities.”

For more information about the college’s Partnership Award, visit https://education.gsu.edu/cehd-partnership-award.