Helping Kids Learn
Alumnus Stan Deno retired, but educators still rely on his research to help special education students
Ask Stan Deno, Ph.D. '65, about his life’s work and he’ll tell you that he has Sputnik to thank—at least in part—for helping him find his way into a career that remains rewarding, even in retirement. Deno, a professor of educational psychology at the college until 2009, was studying biology at St. Olaf College when the first Soviet satellite was launched in 1957.
A few years later, with his bachelor’s degree and teaching license, Deno was working as a high school biology teacher and taking post-graduate classes at the University. One of his professors urged him to apply for a new fellowship in educational psychology funded by the National Defense Educational Act, passed in the wake of the Soviet achievement.
“I applied, and that fellowship really changed my career path,” recalls Deno. His initial plan to teach at the high school level evolved into studying the psychology of learning and classroom instruction.
In his first faculty position at the University of Delaware, Deno continued his research on classroom behavior and learning. But colleagues soon steered him toward focusing on special education after realizing he was the son of Evelyn Deno, a noted child psychologist who had earned her Ph.D. from the University’s Institute of Child Development the same year Stan graduated from St. Olaf.
“They recruited me to work with them on newly developing programs for children with disabilities, which got me much more involved in special education,” he says.
The move into special education put Deno in an ideal position to return to the University in 1969 as a professor of educational psychology. He and his wife had wanted to return to Minnesota to be near family, but Deno also thought the Minneapolis public schools during the Civil Rights era offered enormous potential for studying the issues of educational inequality.
“Very few major research institutions are located in urban environments, and the University ranked very high for special education, so I was really motivated to come back,” he says.
In the late 1970s, while at the University, Deno did extensive research on why students fail to develop basic skills in reading, writing, and math. His work led to the development of curriculum-based measurement (CBM), a set of federally recognized procedures teachers use nationwide to identify and help special education students with mild disabilities who are underperforming in the classroom.
Although Deno retired in 2009, he continues to respond to invitations to write and speak about CBM, keeping a busy schedule (see “Summit on special education” ). As a tribute to his work in developing CBM, former students and colleagues are writing a new book, A Measure of Success: The Influence of Curriculum-Based Measurement on Education, to be published next year. Deno plans to dedicate the royalties to the Stanley Deno Fund to support graduate students in special education.
“I never imagined I would have the kind of fulfillment from my academic life that I have had,” says Deno. “I’ve seen the work I’ve been involved in play out in public schools to a degree that is just beyond me.”
Story by Meleah Maynard | September 2011
