“I think the results of our initial study provide confirmation — from a research standpoint — regarding the many news reports that we have seen about the increased expectation, without additional resources, faced by caregivers of children with disabilities,” says Sandra Chafouleas, co-director of the Collaboratory on School and Child Health and a UConn Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor. “The burden is real, and taking not only a toll on their children but caregiver well-being.”
“During the pandemic, I saw teachers from across the world sharing their students’ works similar to a collaboration between students from Purdue University and the University of Connecticut I led three years earlier,” says Christopher Cayari, assistant professor of music at Purdue University. “My students at Purdue were ecstatic to see their ukulele-playing tests turned into a music video featuring their virtual friends hundreds of miles away.”
“Like monuments, mascots are not just symbols of a dark past, but barriers to a more just future. If schools and communities are to reckon with the past and present of systemic racism, and move toward a future of human rights, both monuments and mascots must fall,” says Glenn Mitoma, an assistant professor of human rights and curriculum and instruction at the University of Connecticut, and director of UConn’s Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.
“On the anniversary of Juneteenth, hundreds of mostly young, Black protesters went directly to the Hartford mayor’s brownstone house in downtown with a simple demand: abolish police. Despite their demand, the mayor’s response was a mismatch. Instead of defunding, abolishing, or even tangibly reducing the size of the police, the mayor recommended building more affordable housing in the suburbs. Rather than racial and economic justice for the Black and Puerto Rican people in Hartford now, the response was clear: I will not help you change policies, but I will help you leave,” say co-authors Robert Cotto and Brendan Mahoney.
“Student input is critical,” said Sandra Chafouleas, a psychology professor at the University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Education. “We can’t just assume that we know best because we are the adults.”
“To my surprise, the tweet went viral and led to my writing an op-ed in The New York Times entitled ‘I Refuse to Run a Coronavirus Home School.’ Since then, in addition to trying to keep my sanity, I have appeared on shows from ‘Good Morning America’ to ‘Central Time’ on Wisconsin Public Radio, spreading the message to parents that all we can do right now is our best and that’s enough,” says Jennie Weiner, an associate professor of educational leadership. “That we need to have self-compassion because it’s going to be messy, and to remember that educators, too, need our support and compassion as they attempt to be superhuman so we can feel a bit more human.”
Cutting across all this work is equity. Connecticut, like much of the country, is more diverse than it once was. To help ensure equal educational opportunity for all its students, UCAPP hopes to train principals to spot inequities and negotiate thorny social issues to help resolve them. It has therefore worked to infuse equity into its curriculum and create space for groups education systems often overlook.
To my surprise, the tweet went viral and led to my writing an op-ed in The New York Times entitled “I Refuse
to Run a Coronavirus Home School.” Since then, in addition to trying to keep my sanity, I have appeared on shows from “Good Morning America” to “Central Time” on Wisconsin Public Radio, spreading the message to parents that all we can do right now is our best and that’s enough.
With so many interests shaping its principal preparation program, how well is UCAPP addressing the needs of its students, who many consider UCAPP’s primary stakeholders? UCAPP connected the Wallace editorial team with four members of its class of 2021, the first class to train in the current iteration of the program, so we could seek out their views about the new program.
In the wake of the pandemic, schools have pivoted to online learning. Rachael Gabriel, associate professor of literacy education and director of Neag School of Education’s Reading and Language Arts Center, knew she wanted to help the education community amid this major shift.
