“I think we all suspected that we would find a relationship between the racism online in social media and student mental health,” says lead author Adam McCready, an assistant professor-in-residence with UConn’s Neag School of Education. “I think we may have been a little surprised that it was more salient, or held a stronger relationship, than in-person experiences.”

“As science teacher educators committed to making science relevant to students’ lives and consequential in the pursuit of justice, we highlight how science intersects with society, especially how science is represented and made accessible through the media,” writes co-author Todd Campbell.

For college students of color who encounter online racism, the effect of racialized aggressions and assaults reaches far beyond any single social media feed and can lead to real and significant mental health impacts – even more significant than in-person experiences of racial discrimination, according to a recently published study from researchers at UConn and Boston College.

Nearly a year since the nation went into lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, just about everyone is struggling to maintain a semblance of normality. Parents of school-aged children have taken to social media and countless news stories have been written on the difficulties of balancing remote learning with remote working.

In 2013, Neag School alumnus and current educational psychology doctoral student Amit Savkar ’07 Ph.D., ’17 MA, also a UConn associate professor in residence of mathematics, began looking into the reasons why so many students were dropping out of or failing math classes early in their college career.

Why have suicide rates increased among teens in U.S. since the start of the COVID-19 Global Pandemic? A licensed psychologist and Neag School Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor, Sandra M. Chafouleas, joins us for a discussion and to share her thoughts on the mental health struggle of teenagers in schools.

“To boost student achievement and teacher morale, research shows you need highly educated and experienced school principals and district leaders,” says Richard Schwab, dean emeritus of the Neag School and professor in educational leadership. “Thriving businesses invest heavily in leadership development. They commit to training employees who show leadership potential. As in business, effective leaders in education require the right skills and proper support.”

In a newly published research study, Neag School Associate Professor Jennie Weiner and colleagues at several other universities examined the extent to which principals had created the sorts of conditions in their schools that support continued learning and teaching during the pandemic. Specifically, the researchers sought to understand how, and whether, principals were fostering something called “psychological safety” in their schools.

Paul Freeman ’09 Ed.D. is in his 10thyear as the superintendent of Guilford (Conn.) Public Schools and has almost 30 years of administrative and teaching experience in schools in Connecticut. Freeman earned an Ed.D. in 2009 from the Neag School of Education. In addition to having recently been named the state’s Superintendent of the Year by the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents (CAPSS), he had been recognized in 2014 by the Neag School as Outstanding Superintendent of the Year.

The University of Connecticut has been awarded a $179,000 grant from the US Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education for a new research project centered on reimagining dual-language education. The project’s purpose is to improve the ability of dual-language programs to promote the equitable bilingualism and biliteracy development of all students through a greater focus on sociocultural competence.