In celebration of the Neag School’s most recent Ed.D. cohorts, the Department of Educational Leadership hosted an Ed.D. Research Symposium at the Gentry Building that drew Neag School students, faculty, and staff, as well as guests from across the state.

Based out of UConn’s Neag School of Education, the seven-year-old CommPACT program matches communities, parents, administrators, children, and teachers with experts and best practices designed to improve education and opportunities for students and family members alike.

Neag School of Education faculty members Bianca Montrosse-Moorhead and Suzanne M. Wilson are working with scientists, science educators, and teacher leaders at the American Museum of Natural History and other partners to raise the quality of science education in the U.S. and meet Next Generation of Science Standards.

Students across the state are wondering: what happened to Gillette Castle? In the real world, the historic mansion built in 1914 by actor William Gillette sits safely atop its perch overlooking the Connecticut River in East Haddam. But in The Great Connecticut Caper – a serialized e-book being released, with help from UConn Libraries and Neag faculty, by the nonprofit organization Connecticut Humanities – students must follow the clues to find and recover the national historic landmark.

When the White House organized the nation’s first-ever summit focused on improving school counseling and college advising last year, experts from UConn’s Neag School of Education were among those invited to speak and share ideas as recognized leaders.

In January, the State Board of Education voted to adopt the proposal – called the Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks – as a guide recommended for use by local school districts. Alan S. Marcus, an associate professor of curriculum and instruction in UConn’s Neag School of Education, was a lead writer for the state’s new Social Studies Frameworks.

This past fall, Neag Assistant Professor Joseph Cooper began reaching out to black male student-athletes at UConn, gathering them for a new grassroots effort called Collective Uplift, which seeks to empower, educate, and inspire ethnic minorities at UConn to maximize their full potential as holistic individuals, not exclusively in the realm of athletics, but also beyond.

The Neag School’s Center for Education Policy Analysis (CEPA) hosted “A Conversation with Representative Andy Fleischmann” at the Storrs campus. As the chairman of the Education Committee of the Connecticut State Assembly, State Rep. Fleischmann spoke about the future of education in Connecticut schools and how education policy research could better inform policy making in Hartford and beyond.

This view of a spelling bee as a competitive entertainment event was part of the success of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” the award-winning musical presented this past fall by the Connecticut Repertory Theatre. As the characters moved through the backstory of their lives in flashbacks during the spelling bee, the theme of competition was ever-present in the setting – a school gymnasium, with its floor lined as a basketball court. University faculty say that competition in the classroom and on the playing field can provide many lessons to students, although it may have a downside for some.

Chosen through a competitive selection process and authorized by the U.S. Congress-revitalized Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Act, the National Center for Research on Gifted Education (NCRGE) at UConn was established with a $2 million grant from the federal Department of Education’s Institute of Educational Sciences to be used over the next two years.