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 pr​ogram, 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.

Because reopening public schools in the coming school year will be fraught with unprecedented challenges, experts say, and education budgets may get cut to the bone, news of charter school startups and expansions will undoubtedly spark heated opposition from public school parents and teachers, even in well-to-do suburban communities, like Wake County, that may have been insulated from the financial costs of school choice in the past.

Glenn Mitoma referenced research that shows these mascots are harmful to the learning experience and mental health of children and teams, creating poor outcomes especially for indigenous students, but students of any other race as well.

Preston Green III, a professor of urban education and educational law with the University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Education, agreed there’s no legal basis for even the temporary withholding of the diploma. The student has property rights to the diploma under state law, as well as Constitutional protections under the First Amendment, Green confirmed.

It is the responsibility of sport governing bodies to support and encourage humanitarian athletes who speak out for causes grounded in the principles of Olympism, argue Mary Hums, Eli A. Wolff, and Nina Siegfried in this comment.

Polykosmia is a universe dreamed up by students in two classes led this spring by Stephen Slota (he/him, they/them), Neag School assistant professor-in-residence of educational technology. The project, an exercise in both worldbuilding and lesson planning, involved designing everything from mythologies to local governments to individual character arcs. Students also learned how to adapt worldbuilding activities into K–12 classrooms and how to design lesson plans that connected story objectives in a fictional world with learning objectives in the classroom.

Tamika P. La Salle, an associate professor of educational psychology with the University of Connecticut’s
Neag School of Education, said immigrant families tend to come with much more of a group mentality.

“It’s not just doing better for them, it’s doing better for their families and making their family proud. A lot of them have this collective identity,” said La Salle.