The RHAM Board of Education announced the appointment of Patricia Law to succeed Superintendent Robert Siminski, who is retiring.

Paula Milone-Nuzzo, professor and dean of the College of Nursing, has been named the new president of the MGH Institute of Health Professions. Milone-Nuzzo will end her tenure at Penn State in August and a national search for her replacement will begin immediately.

There’s not much research available to prove whether or not game-based learning even works, according to a 2012 paper that University of Connecticut researchers published in the Review of Educational Research.

Shamim S. Patwa has been named the 2017 Outstanding School Educator Award recipient by the University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Education Alumni Board. Patwa was recognized on March 18 at the Neag School’s 19th Annual Awards Celebration in Storrs, Conn.

First-year college students with executive function difficulties arrive on campus and can be overwhelmed by the independence. Research shows that the ability to self-advocate is the most crucial factor in college success for students with executive function deficits, says Allison Lombardi, an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut.

Dyllis Schlosser Braithwaite is the opposite of what people envision when they think of a fashion trendsetter. She’s 89 years old, 5-foot-3, a size 12 to 14 and a suburban shopkeeper.

n Making Teacher Evaluation Work, Authors Rachael Gabriel and Sarah Woulfin suggest there’s a way to not only improve the evaluation process, but use evaluations as a way to improve teaching. Rachael and Sarah have created a resource for teachers and evaluators to read together that walks them through every step of the evaluation process.

In part it’s a pushback to the narrow focus on math and reading tests under the former federal accountability law No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Declines in student participation in elective courses nationwide, especially in applied technical education, showed “the poverty of focusing on academics only … and losing the practical application of learning,” says Shaun Dougherty, an education policy professor at the University of Connecticut Neag School of Education in Storrs. “To be a good college student, employee, citizen, you have to have a broader appreciation for why what you are studying might matter.”

Rachel Holden is a graduate student studying agricultural education at UConn, with the goal of becoming a teacher after she graduates in May 2017. She is currently student teaching at the agricultural science program at Lyman Hall High School in Wallingford, Connecticut, with a class of animal science students.

Renzulli Academy will host its Invention Convention and Inquiry Project Expo from noon to 2 p.m. March 24 at Bennie Dover Jackson Middle School, 36 Waller St., New London.