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.

Radio Dispatch with The Knefels (13:09 Neag School’s Preston Green is interviewed about how the charter school sector resembles the Enron crisis)

The Neag School of Education ranked 27 this year. In addition, U.S. News ranked three of the Neag School’s specialty programs among the top 20 in the nation. Those were: Special Education, 15; Educational Psychology, 18; and Secondary Teacher Education, 18.

Superintendent of Schools Sal Corda announced the appointment of Mary Grandville as Principal of Parkway School effective, July 1.

Mary Grandville will be the new principal at Parkway School in Greenwich effective July 1, Superintendent of Schools Sal Corda announced.

Ed Tech (Research on media literacy in the digital age,  from Neag School’s Donald Leu, is mentioned in this article)