Jerlando F.L. Jackson to deliver keynote address at statewide diversity conference
February 19, 2020
At least 70 Diversifying Faculty in Illinois (DFI) Fellowship recipients and other graduate students of color interested in the professoriate as a career path are expected at the fifth-annual statewide conference at Northern Illinois University. UW-Madison's Jerlando F.L. Jackson will deliver the keynote address. The program will take place Friday-Saturday, Feb. 28-29 in the Holmes Student Center.
Op-Ed: Sacramento’s army of interns deserves to be paid
February 19, 2020 | By Victoria Pfau
Research from Matthew T. Hora, director of WCER's Center for Research on College-Work Transitions, is mentioned in this opinion piece advocating for student intern pay in the California State Capitol.
Wisconsin ACT scores reveal glaring disparities, DPI, UW work to address
February 18, 2020 | By Erin Gretzinger
As a new analysis captures persisting disparities in Wisconsin’s ACT scores for college readiness, state officials and researchers work to understand and combat issues within the educational achievement gap. In a recent analysis conducted by the Wisconsin Policy Forum on Wisconsin ACT data from the past few years, researchers found “areas of concern” with declining and stagnant college readiness scores of high school juniors.
Teacher-Guided Play Seen as Key to Deeper Student Learning
February 14, 2020 | By Karen Rivedal, WCER Communications
An errant paper airplane, and a teacher’s insightful response to it, led to one of the best examples of successful play-based learning in a classroom that Angela Pyle, a faculty member in early childhood education at the University of Toronto, has witnessed in her extensive research.
Termed “inquiry play,” it’s a type of teacher-guided play in which an instructor seizes on young students’ expressed passions for a topic or activity, even if it means shifting gears to pursue an unexpected interruption as a multi-faceted learning opportunity.
Beyond the “English Learner” Label: Recognizing Latina/o/x Students’ Multilingual Repertoires
February 12, 2020
In this talk, Ramón Martínez delves beneath the label of “English Learner” to reveal the complexity of Latina/o/x students’ everyday language. He highlights how their everyday linguistic dexterity overlaps with the kinds of language and literacy privileged in academic settings. He shares examples and findings from his ethnographic research in a Los Angeles school that can inform the design of robust learning environments for Latina/o/x children and youth.
Internships can ease the path from college to career — but they often don’t.
February 12, 2020
It’s becoming increasingly clear how critical internships are in landing a job after college and accelerating one’s career. So I was very interested when I learned that Matthew Hora, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin at Madison who studies the path from college to career, had turned his attention to internships because I knew he would challenge some common assumptions.
Teaching and Attending to Culture, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Program Evaluation
February 3, 2020
The American Evaluation Association's 2019 Promising New Evaluator, Ayesha Boyce, who also co-directs UNC Greensboro's assessment, evaluation and research services, will present strategies on embodying program evaluation with the values of a more just society. She will address how it can become a social, cultural, and political force to address issues of inequity while still maintaining methodological rigor and trustworthiness.
Entry-level workers can lose 6% of their wages if they don’t have this
February 1, 2020 | By Matthew T. Hora
Fast Company ran Matthew Hora's article originally published in The Conversation about the importance of internships to college students' career prospects.
African Americans Take on More Education Debt—And the Payoff Is Complicated
January 28, 2020 | By Jaymes Pyne and Eric Grodsky
When seeking graduate and professional degrees, African Americans take on over 50% more debt than white students. On the upside, African Americans also see a bigger payoff to earning such degrees. Whether or not that payoff is enough to make up for the additional debt burden is unclear.
Dramatic fallout: Telling the story of a play labeled ‘Indecent’
January 26, 2020 | By Gena Kittner
Erica Halverson is mentioned and quoted about her role in the play "Indecent" being performed in Madison, WI, Feb. 6 - 15, 2020.
5 obstacles that stop many students from taking an internship
January 24, 2020 | By Matt Hora
The inability to take internships is a problem because internships serve as an important signal that students are ready to enter the workforce. In a recent study, students who listed an internship on their resume received 14% more offers for an interview than those who did not.
African Americans take on more debt for grad school – but the payoff is also bigger
January 23, 2020 | By Eric Grodsky, University of Wisconsin-Madison and Jaymes Pyne, Stanford University
When seeking graduate and professional degrees, African Americans take on over 50% more debt than white students. On the upside, African Americans also see a bigger payoff to earning such degrees. Whether or not that payoff is enough to make up for the additional debt burden is unclear. These are some key takeaways from a study we released in January 2020 by Eric Grodsky from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Jaymes Pyne, Stanford University.
Does America Really Want More Black Teachers? If So, Supporting HBCUs is the Answer.
January 21, 2020 | By Tina and Trina Fletcher
In 2016, the National Center for Education Statistics reported 75% of students who earned a Bachelor’s degree in education were White and according to scholar Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings’ book Crossing Over to Canaan, America’s teacher educators are 88% White. Nonetheless, a 2016 study by Cherng and Halpin found that students of all races prefer teachers of color.
Recent education appointments, including new WCER Director Courtney Bell
January 16, 2020 | By Julia Piper, The Chronicle of Higher Education
Courtney Bell, a principal research scientist with the Educational Testing Service, a private, nonprofit educational testing and assessment organization, will become director of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin at Madison on July 1.
WIDA Receives $4 Million to Support Multilingual Learners with Cognitive Disabilities
January 14, 2020 | By Katie Stenz, WIDA
Educational tools and resources for assessing a small but important group of students, multilingual learners challenged with the most significant cognitive disabilities, now will become reality thanks to a $3.998 million U.S. Department of Education grant awarded to WIDA.
