“As education leaders navigate our emerging new reality, it is critical that their decisions, and guidance that informs their decisions, be effective and usable. The evolving education environment demands nimble decision-making that relies on the best available knowledge,” say Neag School’s George Sugai and Sandra Chafouleas.

Bullying, harassment and social exclusion are common climate problems within schools, but they’ve become especially concerning since the 2016 presidential election, George Sugai said.
In his keynote address at the Reynolds Alumni Center on Wednesday, Sugai — a professor at the University of Connecticut with a Ph.D. in special education — discussed the necessity of educators creating a positive school climate on all campuses.

Nowadays, there are new motivators and mantras at the Maxfield Park Primary School. Throughout the day, both inside and outside of the school, students are guided by a set of core values — being safe, responsible and respectful. Beverley Gallimore-Vernon has been leading the shift in behaviour at the school since she became principal a little over one year ago, and much of her success is attributable to the school-wide positive behaviour intervention and support (SWPBIS) program that the school has been piloting under the guidance of the Ministry of Education.

The following PBIS Practitioners Guide — titled National Climate Change: 5 Ways Schools Can Positively and Proactively Support All Students — originally appeared on the OSEP Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports website and is authored by Neag School faculty Brandi Simonsen, George Sugai, Jennifer Freeman, and Tamika La Salle.

WNPR (Neag School’s George Sugai was a guest panelist on zero tolerance policies in Connecticut)

Education Week (Neag School’s George Sugai is interviewed for this story)

Massachusetts requires public schools to have an anti-bullying plan — the result of a 2010 law passed in reaction to the suicides of two students who reportedly had been victims of bullying. George Sugai, co-director of the National Center of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports and a professor at the University of Connecticut Neag School of Education, said research shows that “if classrooms and schools are positive, safe, and caring, [the] likelihood of bullying decreases.”

The U.S. Department of Education has announced a $1.2 million grant to the University of Connecticut Health Center to establish an Early Childhood Personnel Center to serve as a national resource for professionals serving infants, toddlers, and preschool children with disabilities and their families. According to a news release by the U.S. Department of Education, […]

George Sugai, a professor in UConn’s Neag School of Education and an expert on school climate and student behavior, addressed a conference in February that included Vice President Joe Biden on the topic of making schools safer in the wake of the Sandy Hook School tragedy. Sugai, who in December co-authored a national position paper […]

The inability to recognize even simple terms often leads to serious reading problems later, says Michael Coyne, whose research on reading interventions for kindergarteners, including intensive vocabulary training, is gaining national attention. Coyne, an associate professor in the Neag School’s Center for Behavioral Education and Research (CBER), has won nearly $4.5 million in federal grants […]