In this policy brief, doctoral student Shannon Kelley presents a brief overview of early childhood literacy including its importance for future literacy achievement. She details six best practices for preschools of all types, discuss the importance of family literacy, and offers three high-leverage strategies parents and guardians can use with their children.

White public schools have always gotten more money than Black public schools. These funding disparities go back to the so-called “separate but equal” era – which was enshrined into the nation’s laws by the Supreme Court’s 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson. The disparities have persisted even after Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision that ordered the desegregation of America’s public schools.

With federal funding, Lisa Sanetti and colleagues will explore interventions to help reduce schoolteacher stress and improve mental well-being, with the long-term goal of retraining teachers in classrooms.

Michael Fenn ’19 (CLAS), ’21 MA, a native of East Lyme, Connecticut, grew up around many family members who served as teachers, including his father, grandmother, mother, and two of his sisters. After completing his undergraduate degree in general science at UConn in 2019, Forsyth went on to earn his master’s degree in curriculum and instruction through the 11-month Teacher Certification Program for College Graduates (TCPCG) at the Neag School of Education. He is now a middle school science teacher for Manchester (Connecticut) Public Schools.

This summer, UConn neuroscientist Fumiko Hoeft, Neag School Associate Professor of Educational  Psychology Devin Kearns, and collaborators from psychological sciences, education, mathematics, the Brain Imaging Research Center (BIRC), and others  launched the five-week, all-expenses-included summer camp at Storrs for third- and fourth-grade children who are struggling to read.

Neag School of Education professor of science education Todd Campbell is working on two grants focused on expanding the diversity and accessibility of science education in Connecticut and beyond. The first grant is funded through a $1.5 million National Science Foundation grant. The project will develop and implement a unit on the science of COVID-19 through a social justice lens, while also supporting groups of teachers to develop, test, and refine justice-centered instructional practices in local schools.

The Connecticut Noyce Math Teacher Leaders (MTL) Program, led by Principal Investigator and Neag School Associate Professor Megan Staples, aims to support the development and retention of exceptional math educators in Connecticut’s highest-needs school districts — while also building these districts’ future leadership capacity in math education.

The Connecticut Noyce Math Teacher Leaders (MTL) Program, led by Principal Investigator and Neag School Associate Professor Megan Staples, aims to support the development and retention of exceptional math educators in Connecticut’s highest-needs school districts — while also building these districts’ future leadership capacity in math education.

Connecticut is the first state in the nation to mandate that all of its high schools offer an elective class on Black and Latinx history. These classes must be taught by the fall of 2022, but many high schools have added them to the curriculum this year. Alan Marcus, a professor of curriculum and instruction in UConn’s Neag School of Education, has led a team that developed a website to assist high school teachers with the instruction of this course.

On this interactive website, explore a selection of the Neag School’s research achievements, fundraising milestones, media coverage, and more from this past academic year.