Morgaen Donaldson, associate dean for research at the University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Education, says CCERC “is a shining example of how research can make a positive difference. Bringing together researchers from across Connecticut’s higher education institutions, CCERC breaks down barriers to produce research that addresses pressing issues in the state’s schools.

Emily Wicks with UConn’s Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry noticed the pandemic-era disruptions to kids’ social-emotional learning and development, and reached out to Sandy Chafouleas at the university’s Neag School of Education. Together they developed Feel Your Best Self, a puppet-centered program aimed at helping “strengthen the emotional well-being of elementary-aged children.”

Alyssa Hadley Dunn is director of teacher education and an associate professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Education, but just a month ago she was teaching at Michigan State. Her research has focused on how inequity and trauma can affect learning, and she wrote a book, Teaching on Days After, designed for educators grappling with how to deal with tragedies or upsetting world events.

Alyssa Hadley Dunn, an education professor at Michigan State until a month ago, said she had taught another student who had also survived the Sandy Hook shooting. That student had written something for Dr. Dunn’s book on how educators should handle the days after tragedies on campus.

Sandra Chafouleas, a professor at the UConn Neag School of Education, said she believed the increase in weapons was a signal that students’ “needs aren’t being met” — and specifically the need for connection.

“Belonging, social connection, feeling [a] sense of mastery … kids bring weapons to school because they’re not feeling those things or because they’ve learned it or modeled it as acceptable behavior in other spaces,” she said.

Current principal at Haddam-Killingworth High School in Haddam, Connecticut, Donna Hayward, was named the 2023 National Principle of the Year by the Association of Secondary Principles in November, according to UConn Today. “I can’t remember the last 20 years a Connecticut principal won a national award,” Jeffery Wihbey, Superintendent of Regional School District 17 of Connecticut, said. Wihbey said there have been a lot of positive things revolving around her due to her accomplishment and mentioned that there was a lot of positivity surrounding the event as well.

The UConn Neag School of Education has expanded their enrollment and program outreach in an effort to minimize the teacher shortage in Connecticut.

Neag provides accepted undergraduate students with a 5-year plan to earn their master’s degree and a teaching license in the state of Connecticut post-graduation, Neag School of Education Dean Jason Irizarry said. Students apply to the Integrated Bachelor and Master’s program in their sophomore year at UConn. Starting in their junior year, students are placed in a different district each semester where they student teach, sixth semester special education major Hannah Gariepy said.

re charter schools public or private? A case speeding towards the Supreme Court is likely to settle this age-old dispute once and for all by declaring charters as “non-state actors.” Peltier vs. Charter Day School Inc. is nominally about dress codes, chivalry and “fragile vessels.” But as special guests Bruce Baker and Preston Green explain, the real question here is whether students attending charter schools have the same civil rights and Constitutional protections as their public school peers.

A roomful of teachers, students and parents applauded as the announcement was made that Jordan Grossman will make a return to Canton as its next superintendent of schools. The announcement came at a special meeting of the Canton Board of Education. Grossman served as assistant principal at Canton High School, as principal of Canton Intermediate School, and as both an assistant superintendent and acting superintendent in Canton, and has been Granby’s superintendent of schools for the past three years. He will begin his new role July 1.

In the era of social media, antisemitism and Holocaust denial are no longer hidden in the margins, spewed by fringe hate groups. From Ye – formerly known as Kanye West – and NBA player Kyrie Irving to members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, well-recognized personalities have echoed antisemitic ideas, often online. Rather than teaching the Holocaust as an isolated event, educators must grapple with how it connects to antisemitism past and present. That means adapting to how people learn and live today: online.