Category: News

WCER shares news and stories that highlight research discoveries, past achievements, publications, and the people behind the work.

Two School of Education/WCER Members Awarded Research Fellowships for 2024–25

Thirty-two UW–Madison faculty have been awarded fellowships from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research for 2024–25, including School of Education/WCER members David Kaplan and Andy Garbacz. The awardees span the four research divisions on campus: arts and humanities, physical sciences, social sciences, and biological sciences. “These awards recognize excellence in faculty research, academics, and outreach at various …

WCER Members Selected to be Morgridge Fellows for 2024–2025

Fifteen faculty and campus members at UW–Madison have been named Morgridge Fellows for 2024–2025, including WCER members Matthew Wolfgram and Amanda Fowler, WCER/School of Education researcher/professor Shamya Karumbaiah, and SoE doctoral student Virginia Downing. The 15 were selected through a juried process for a year-long learning community designed to support community-engaged scholarship. The Morgridge Center for Public Service defines community-engaged scholarship as teaching, research, and scholarly activities performed in equitable, …

WCER Researchers Work With Uruguay Leaders to Improve Country’s Innovative Ed-Tech Center

Top officials in Uruguay are working with UW–Madison researchers who are experts in pulling rich new patterns of meaning about culture and human behavior from big data to assess and improve the South American country’s pioneering educational-technology innovation center, known as Ceibal. The trailblazing Uruguayan agency was born as the implementer of a nationwide one-laptop-per-child program 17 years …

Forbes Features Wei LAB Project Building Pathways to Inclusion in Engineering

A project out of Wisconsin’s Equity and Inclusion Laboratory (Wei LAB) that aims to more fully engage women and people of color in engineering was featured in a recent Forbes article headlined “REVIIS and the Path to Inclusive Engineering.” UW–Madison’s Brian Burt, an associate professor in the School of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy …

VETWAYS Explores Social Support Networks for Student Military Across the Country

Current and former members of the military tend to thrive in higher education when service providers reach out to them early and when faculty members recognize the breadth of experience they bring to the classroom, according to new research from UW–Madison. “Creating trust with folks who are honest and straightforward with them is important for …

New WIDA Report Finds Post-Pandemic English Learner Proficiency Scores Continue to Drop

A new report from WCER’s WIDA, the third in an annual series, examines aggregate trends in English learner (EL) proficiency and growth since the pandemic.  Titled “Examining English Learner Testing, Proficiency, and Growth: Continued Trends since the COVID-19 Pandemic,” the report published in mid-April includes the most recent ACCESS assessment data from the 2022-2023 school year. It’s also …

Field Day’s Media Literacy Game Featured in Story From Wisconsin Public Radio, PBS Wisconsin

A story by ‘Wisconsin Life’ contributor Christina Lieffring titled “Choose your own journalism adventure: Teaching media literacy with ‘Headlines and High Water’” on April 9 puts readers, viewers and listeners ringside while students in a class at Marshfield High School play the online educational game from WCER’s Field Day. Produced by Wisconsin Public Radio and PBS Wisconsin, ‘Wisconsin Life’ is a multi-platform project that produces media …

UW–Madison’s Halverson and Saldaña Secure $2 Million From Wallace Foundation for Equity-Centered School Leadership Research

A new research project led by two School of Education faculty members will develop new ways to measure the process and outcomes of equity-centered leadership in schools. The project, called Comprehensive Assessment of Leadership for Learning – Mapping Equity Indicators (CALL-MEI), aims to develop new equity indicators, evidence models, and data tools to measure the process …

WEC’s Nicole Bowman Guest-Edits Special Issue of New Directions for Evaluation

Wisconsin Evaluation Collaborative (WEC) evaluator/associate scientist Nicole R. Bowman is one of four guest editors of a special issue of the quarterly journal, New Directions for Evaluation. Bowman, an expert in culturally responsive evaluation (CRE) and a citizen of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of the Mohican Nation in Wisconsin, also co-authored four articles for the 112-page volume examining the history, legacy, and future of …

New MEP Reports Examine Second Year of MMSD’s Full-Day 4K Program

Two new reports from the Madison Education Partnership (MEP) look at differences in the experiences of students enrolled in full-day and half-day four-year-old kindergarten (4K) in the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) during the 2022–2023 school year, which was the second consecutive year of the full-day 4K program. Researchers assessed 341 4K students, observed 24 classrooms, and interviewed 23 teachers across …