In this opinion piece, Assistant Professor Joseph Cooper weighs in on the recent #TakeAKnee protests and provides his insight into what he sees as the most powerful form of activism within a capitalist society: economic activism.

Congratulations to our Neag School alumni, faculty, staff, and students on their continued accomplishments inside and outside the classroom. 

Current Ph.D. student and two-time Neag School alumnus Kevin Liner ’10 (CLAS), (ED), ’11 MA is knee-deep in his doctoral studies, focusing his research interests on mathematics education.

Neag School alumna Jennifer Lanese ’94 (ED), ’95 MA authors this original piece, reflecting on the meaning of privilege, its impact in the classroom, and how educators can work toward fostering a culturally competent learning environment for their students.

How can teachers and schools promote creativity and innovation through education? Ronald Beghetto suggests structured uncertainty in this TEDxUConn talk, which took place this past spring in Storrs.

Led by Erik Hines, assistant professor in the Department of Educational Psychology, students and faculty advisors from University of Connecticut’s ScHOLA2RS House traveled to the Bahia region of Brazil this spring to learn about the low access rate to higher education among Afro-Brazilian adolescents. Hines is the faculty advisor for the ScHOLA2RS House Learning Community.

Since 2015, Monique Duzant-Hastings has been working with students in grades 5 through 8 who have social, emotional, and behavioral needs. Thanks to the Neag School’s new partnership with her employer, the LEARN Regional Educational Service Center, she has now found a way to advance her career by pursuing certification as a K-12 special education teacher — at no cost to her. The new partnership offers LEARN personnel like Duzant-Hastings — a busy mother of three — the opportunity to apply for admission to the Neag School’s Teacher Certification Program for College Graduates (TCPCG) in special education at UConn’s Avery Point campus.

Professor Sandra M. Chafouleas in the Neag School’s Department of Educational Psychology has been named a University of Connecticut Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor — the highest honor that the university bestows on faculty who have demonstrated excellence in scholarship, teaching, and service.

U.S. News & World Report released its 2018 national rankings of graduate schools of education on March 14, 2017, with the Neag School of Education ranking No. 27 in the nation. Among public graduate schools of education, the Neag School remains in the top 20 nationally, at No. 17.

In 2001, Enron rocked the financial world by declaring bankruptcy in the wake of a now infamous accounting scandal. Within months, shares in the energy and commodities giant – the seventh-largest corporation in the country at the time – plunged to penny stock levels. Thousands of employees lost their jobs. Investors lost billions. Less than 20 years later, the same type of fraud and mismanagement is happening in the charter school sector, says Preston Green, a professor of educational leadership and law at UConn’s Neag School of Education.