The University of Connecticut is serving as one of the lead institutions on a $32.6 million U.S. Department of Education grant supporting schools and districts throughout the nation to implement empirically based practices to increase student success.

This major federal investment represents five additional years of funding for the National Technical Assistance Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), which just celebrated its 20th year.

This week, we’re taking the show on the road, taping in front of a Homecoming Weekend crowd estimated to be the largest ever assembled to listen to an episode of this podcast. Prof. Margaret Rubega (@ProfRubega) talks about what it’s like to be the official state bird expert, Baseball Coach Jim Penders recalls the time he threw an award into the sea, and we look back on homecomings past, complete with smocks.

On the surface, this student is picture-perfect: Straight A’s, president of a club, athlete, 100 volunteer hours, works three jobs and fundraiser for numerous causes.

This was me.

James Kaufman classified creativity in four distinct ways: mini-c (personal insights), little-c (everyday creativity), pro-c (expert level) and big-c (creative genius). He said the kind of creativity exhibited by students with ADHD is often undervalued because it encourages others to be open to newness, which is scary for those who are accustomed to rhythm and order.

Norwich Tech has named Patricia King its new principal. King has worked in Connecticut school systems for more than 20 years as a teacher, department head, assistant principal, and principal. She served for 18 years as a high school Career Technical Education teacher and department head. She holds a sixth-year diploma in Educational Administration from the University of Connecticut.

Despite the growing numbers of English-language learners in U.S. schools, their representation in gifted and talented programs continues to lag behind not only their native English-speaking peers, but also other underserved populations, including black and Hispanic students and children from low-income families.

The root of the problem is the procedures and policies that most schools use to identify gifted students beacuse they frequently overlook academically talented English-learners, a report from the National Center for Research on Gifted Education found.

Spend any amount of time around kids and it quickly becomes evident that they need to move. Running, jumping, and dancing are not just outlets for the limitless childhood energy we wish we could bottle up and use as adults — they are another form of literacy.

There is a wide divide between political debates about the teaching of reading and the actual instruction students receive in classrooms. The sloppy, mudslinging nature of these debates has led to confusion, distrust and a tribe-like affiliation with single approaches among practitioners, researchers and policymakers.

Like most kids heading into seventh grade, Jesús Cortés-Sanchez was not yet thinking ahead to a future career. What mattered most then was enjoying time with his friends. Even into his high school years, the idea of going to college was not on his mind. An undocumented student ineligible to apply for federal student aid, he viewed college as an unrealistic, financially impossible feat.

All of that would start to change when a recent Yale School of Music graduate named John Miller began recruiting students to a new band program he had established at Cortés-Sanchez’s middle school in New Haven, Conn.

Two research projects co-led by professors in the Neag School of Education have recently been awarded a total of more than $2.5 million in federal funding, made available through the National Science Foundation (NSF).