The University of Connecticut’s Early College Experience (ECE) Program allows high school students to earn UConn credits and meet general education requirements by taking college courses while still in high school. UConn’s Neag School of Education, consistently ranked as one of the top 20 public graduate schools of education in the nation, recently piloted several education courses and next year will offer courses in multiple high schools across Connecticut.

From online streaming to health care systems, from retailers to researchers, the demand for knowledgeable and skilled data scientists has never been greater. UConn has stepped up to meet the need with the launch of a new multidisciplinary Master’s in Data Science program and an inaugural full-time cohort of 20 students starting in the upcoming Fall 2022 semester.

Any evidence supporting the link between creativity and mental illness is extremely tenuous, says Prof James C Kaufman at the University of Connecticut. “Historiometric” analyses, for example, have plumbed the biographies of notable artists. While these studies seem to suggest that mental illness is more prevalent in creative personalities, any post-hoc diagnoses, based purely on a text, have to be treated with great caution. “They are not super objective,” says Kaufman. “Very few creativity researchers believe there is a strong connection.” And the idea that mental anguish may inspire great art certainly shouldn’t be grounds for avoiding treatment for a serious conditions, he says.

Town Manager Rick Ledwith and Interim Superintendent of Schools Andy Morrow announced Tuesday that effective immediately Roszena Haskins has been promoted to a new position, and as executive director of Equity Advancement will manage the commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion for both the school district and the town as a whole.

Congratulations to Anamaria Arteaga, the July 2022 Holmes Scholar of the Month. Arteaga is a Ph.D. student at the University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Education. As the service-learning course instructor for the Human Rights and Action Learning Community, she currently works as a graduate assistant for Community Outreach. Arteaga is also a board-certified behavior analyst (BCBA) with a background in applied behavior analysis (ABA) who has worked with children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and other related disabilities.

“Our results show that schools, district leaders, and community groups should consider increasing their investments in summer programs as an evidence-based strategy to aid in pandemic-related educational recovery, particularly for children whose learning has been placed most at risk,” said study co-author Kathleen Lynch, an assistant professor of learning sciences at the University of Connecticut.

Mansfield Middle School Principal Candace Morell has been named the school system’s director of teaching and learning. Morell has served as a public educator for more than 25 years. She is a graduate of the UConn Neag School of Education with a Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education, Master of Science degree in Education, and a Sixth Year Diploma in Educational Leadership.

Are school choice programs contributing to segregation in American schools? The answer is undoubtedly yes, according to a recent research brief published by the National Coalition on School Diversity and written by Casey Cobb, the Raymond Neag Endowed Professor of Educational Policy in the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut.

An ambitious team of researchers from across the University has won $3mn from the National Science Foundation to pursue a project in the neuroscience of learning. The program, known as TRANSCEND: TRANSdisciplinary Convergence in Educational Neuroscience Doctoral training, aims to get graduate students from both classic and atypical backgrounds into educational neuroscience research.

According to Preston Green III, a professor at the University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Education, the fact that public funding for private schools has to include religious schools could be interpreted to allow for funding religious charter schools.