The Federal Commission on School Safety will have its first “field” hearing Thursday—and second meeting—at a school in Anne Arundel County, Md., that has embraced Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, or PBIS. Also on hand: Dr. George Sugai, the co-director of the Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports at the University of Connecticut.

Should a shooting or other traumatic event happen, schools that have positive behavioral interventions in place can respond “more quickly and more strategically,” said George Sugai, co-director of the Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports.

During a field visit by the Federal Commission on School Safety at the Frank Hebron-Harman Elementary School in Hanover, Md., George Sugai said schools that have faithfully and consistently implemented the PBIS program — which includes interventions for students who misbehave — have seen results. If schools implement the strategy, “you’re likely to see decreases in referrals for major infractions. You’re likely to see decreases in bullying,” Sugai said.

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos will visit Frank Hebron-Harman Elementary School in Hanover Thursday to learn about the school’s use of approaches to encouraging positive behavior. The visit will be the first field trip by the Federal Commission on School Safety. University of Connecticut Professor George Sugai, a top PBIS expert according to the Education Department, will speak to the commission.

This interview features the perspectives of Dr. James C. Kaufman, Professor of Educational Psychology in the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut.

The Milford Board of Education appointed seasoned educator Anna Cutaia as superintendent of schools. Cutaia, superintendent of schools for Regional District 14, which encompasses Bethlehem and Woodbury, and former director of elementary education in Fairfield, will take the reins of the city’s school system around Aug. 1.

Rachel E. Gabriel and Sarah L. Woulfin of the University of Connecticut ask a simple but very important question: Isn’t it time to redesign teacher evaluation? Most states are stuck with laws they wrote to apply for Race to the Top funding. Nearly a decade has passed. We now know that test-based evaluation has failed. Why are so many states and districts holding on to a failed strategy for evaluating teachers? Is it inertia? Apathy?

“It’s a moral hazard issue — a devil’s bargain,” Preston Green, a professor of education leadership and law at the University of Connecticut, said after reviewing the contract between the school and K12. “These districts need the money, are responsible for these students but the students are not a part of them. The question becomes: How concerned is the district going to be? It just doesn’t have the incentive to focus on these students. They’re just dollars to them.”

“A recent national survey reported that millennials are struggling with their knowledge of the Holocaust,” says Alan Marcus, associate professor of curriculum and instruction at the Neag School. “The survey results show that 22 percent of millennials have not heard of, or are not sure if they have heard of the Holocaust, and that 66 percent could not identify Auschwitz.”

“As a scholar of Holocaust education and teacher education, I argue that knowledge of specific facts is only a small part of knowing about any historical event, including the Holocaust.”

Del Siegle, professor and associate dean for research and faculty affairs at UConn’s Neag School of Education is interviewed about his career and expertise in gifted education by National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) member and Neag School alum Carla Brigandi ’15 Ph.D., now assistant professor of gifted education at West Virginia University.