Alumni, students, faculty, and administrators from the Neag School of Education joined education professionals from across Connecticut last week for an evening of networking, followed by a panel discussion, at Hartford’s Spotlight Theatre. It was the fourth annual Educational Leadership Forum.
We talked with the Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Educational Psychology in the Neag School of Education this spring. Sandra Chafouleas was seeking summer reads that would “stretch her in new ways” but also relate to the field of study she’s so passionate about.
In Degrees of Change: UConn Increases Diversity in Teaching Programs, Enright states that “UConn and the Neag School of Education have made a concerted effort to increase their minority student population, with the long-term hope of closing the gap that exists now in classrooms.”
A lack of diversity among classroom teachers in elementary and secondary schools has long been a national issue. In the state of Connecticut alone, less than 8 percent of teachers are of color, while students of color represent 40 percent of the population.
“Student of color benefit from having teachers of color,” says Dean Gladis Kersaint. “They respond when they are supported by teachers of a like race. It’s not just students of color, though. Research supports that all students, no matter what race, benefit from having teachers of color.”
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Anna Cutaia announced the appointment of Dr. Amy Fedigan to the post of Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning for the Milford Public School district.
Over 75 students entering grades 6, 7, and 8 participated in a free STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) enrichment program at NFA this summer. Guided by NFA faculty in collaboration with aspiring teachers from UConn’s Neag School of Education, the young students from Norwich and surrounding towns received a summer boost in their STEM education with hands-on learning to explore creative approaches to scientific questions, applying mathematics to modern day problems, and solving complex STEM problems, while having fun working in teams with new friends.
Devin Kearns, an assistant professor of special education at the University of Connecticut, told the Register he believes genetic research has “a lot of really amazing potential to help kids of all kinds.” Reached for comment last week, Kearns, who has an appointment at the Haskins Laboratory at Yale but claims no affiliation with the Lexinome Project or its staff, said his research has to do with neuroimaging, or tracing development of young people’s brains as they are exposed to different reading interventions.
The University of Connecticut will begin a teaching certification program in Mandarin Chinese next year, in response to a need for Mandarin elementary and high school teachers both at the state and national level.
In affiliation with the Neag School’s Center for Education Policy Analysis (CEPA), a group of doctoral students in the Learning, Leadership, and Education Policy program have recently released three issue briefs, each of which offers a closer look at specific topics of discussion in the realm of education, as well as recommendations for the future.