Alexandra Vasile Named Inaugural Student Success Faculty Fellow

Alexandra Vasile, teaching assistant professor of childhood education in the College of Education and Health Professions, was named the inaugural Student Success Faculty Fellow for the spring 2026 semester.

This fellowship, open to all faculty, is a new initiative designed to support innovative, evidence-based projects that improve student retention and advance student success. Fellows propose their own projects and work closely with Deb Korth, senior associate vice provost for student success and academic excellence, and Jen Caba, director of learning innovation and assessment, to design, implement and evaluate projects addressing specific retention challenges on campus.

Vasile's project, titled "Early Academic Signals Pilot for Teacher Preparation Courses," will focus on supporting students in the teacher preparation program and help ensure they receive the resources they need to succeed.

"Students in the teacher preparation program often face academic or organizational challenges that build up quietly until they lead to serious performance problems or a formal Notice of Concern," Vasile said. "By the time this system is activated, the student is usually already significantly behind or at risk of falling behind in the program. This project idea came about as a result of needing to create a coherent way to identify early signs of disengagement or academic difficulty before they turn into larger issues."

The project consists of an early-intervention pilot system in upper-level education courses. The system will use Starfish (an early alert, scheduling and case management system) to identify early signals, such as missed assignments, repeated late work, weak performance on the first major assignment or frequent absences. System flags have been created in collaboration with the U of A Starfish team led by Ana Barker, associate director for Starfish, outreach, advocacy and retention. These signals will be tracked over time to show patterns and identify students who may be at risk of falling behind. When a student triggers one of these early signals, they will receive a supportive message and check-in from faculty. By the end of the pilot, the project will assess which early indicators are most predictive, how students respond to timely outreach and whether this structured approach leads to increased student success in the program.

"One of the things we really like about Dr. Vasile's work is that she is taking lessons learned from her ACUE Certification in Effective College Teaching and applying it to our campus Starfish platform to track student progress," Korth said. "Alexandra's work will play a key role in the implementation of a strategic early warning system that can be scaled across campus, and she will help create a faculty-friendly model that will enhance and complement current practices."

About Vasile

Vasile joined the U of A College of Education and Health Professions in 2022 as an assistant teaching professor. The courses she has taught at the university include Social Studies Methods; Development and Learning Theories; Classroom Management, Measurement & Research; Understanding Cultures in the Classroom; Applied Practicum; Teaching Residency Seminar; Multicultural Education; and American Educational History. She has also designed several service-learning courses in partnership with museums and community organizations.

Prior to joining the U of A, Vasile was a college counselor at the American Academy in Brno, Czech Republic, where she guided students through applications, testing and admissions to U.S. and U.K. universities. Before her role at the American Academy, she was a social studies and science teacher at the Arkansas Arts Academy in Rogers. In addition, she was a distinguished doctoral fellow in the College of Education and Health Professions at the U of A, where she conducted large-scale data analysis of student and teacher data sets; assessed the effectiveness of curriculum designs, intervention programs and teaching strategies; and used research findings to inform classroom strategies and instructional practices.

In her time at the U of A, she received Faculty Applause Awards (2022, 2023) from the Office for Faculty Affairs and the Associated Student Government, and she received Teaching Commendations from the Wally Cordes Teaching and Faculty Support Center (2023, 2024). She was also awarded the Service Learning Grant in 2024 to develop a service-learning course for Social Studies Methods with local museum partnerships, and she was the recipient of the Student Success Grant in 2023.

Vasile holds a Ph.D. in K-12 curriculum and instruction from the U of A. She received a master's degree in comparative and international education from the University of Oxford, and she earned a bachelor's degree in American cultural studies and history from the University of Bucharest in Romania.

For more information on this fellowship and how to apply, contact Deb Korth at dkorth@uark.edu.

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