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Viola
E. Florez began her career at A&M
in 1982 and quickly rose through the ranks
to full professor in 1992. She was an
assistant head of educational curriculum
and instruction 1990–92, executive
assistant to the president 1993–95,
interim dean for the College of Education
1995–96, and interim vice president
and CEO for A&M Galveston 1996–97.
In 1997, she was appointed dean of the
College of Education at the University
of New Mexico. She earned her M.A. from
the University of Colorado at Boulder
and her Ph.D. from the Texas A&M University-Kingsville.
She is a recipient of the American Council
on Education’s ACE Award and a Distinguished
Teaching Award from the Association of
Former Students. Her research has focused
on the impact of language proficiency
on writing behavior. Writing on this subject
with Nancy L. Hadaway, she observed:
“Does oral language proficiency
impact on writing behavior? The research
seems to point in that direction. When
Vann (1981) discusses the acquisition
of writing, she notes that oral competence
affects writing. In fact, in the beginning
stages of writing, compositions look like
speech written down. Yet for this study,
no real correlation between . . . oral
language proficiency test scores and the
students’ writing profile scores
seemed to exist. However, oral language
development activities prior to the last
set of writing activities did have an
impact.”
Viola Florez with Nancy L. Hadaway, “Relationship
of Oral Language Proficiency and Writing
Behaviors of Secondary Second Language
Learners,” ERIC document 283359.
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On
the subject of the mission of colleges
of education, she has stated:
“Recommendations nationwide call
for schools of education to evaluate their
professional preparation programs and
no longer accept the ‘status quo’
programs that have been used to train
all school personnel. After all, if society
relies on schools of education to help
improve the schooling of children, of
what value are these schools of education
if the educators and leaders they train
are unable to contribute significantly
to enhancing the quality and social responsiveness
of elementary and secondary education.”
From Perspective, fall/winter 1995–96.
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