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.

Working with researchers Prof. Morgaen Donaldson and Associate Prof. Eric Loken from the Neag School of Education, UConn has found so far that the applicant pools in 2021 and 2022 were significantly more diverse than prior years in terms of students’ racial and ethnic backgrounds, family incomes, and other factors.

“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.

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.

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.

After 47 years in education, The Independent Day School’s Dr. Marijke Kehrhahn officially retired on June 30th. Dr. K, which she was affectionately called by the IDS community, served as the Head of School for the past six years, and was previously associated with the school as a Board Trustee and a parent of an IDS student.

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.

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.

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.

“The logic in this case, if extended, could be applied to [religious] charter schools, and many of us see that as the next domino to fall,” says Preston Green, a professor of educational leadership, law, and urban education at the University of Connecticut.