News from WCER
WEC Evaluators Recommend Sharing Best Practices as Student Career Planning Spans State
January 14, 2020 | By Karen Rivedal, WCER Communications
Capstone experience of completing and presenting a final project was most often named by students as the "most beneficial" activity for them to do, along with job-shadowing, in the state-required Academic and Career Planning (ACP) program, a WEC evaluation shows.
Latest Gear Learning Game, ‘Newt’s Voyage,’ Teaches Laws of Physics by Feel
December 16, 2019 | By Karen Rivedal, WCER Communications
Players learn scientifically sound concepts about motion and gravity as they fly virtual spaceships around the moons of distant planets.
What’s Right With Rural
December 4, 2019 | By Lynn Armitage
We hear a lot about the challenges of rural education: declining enrollment, limited resources and funding, difficulty recruiting teachers and keeping them. And at UW‒Madison’s Rural Education Research & Implementation Center (RERIC), much good work is being done to improve educational outcomes in the state’s distant, sometimes forgotten classrooms. But on a recent day in November, the narrative shifted when 19 STEM teachers from 18 rural school districts in Wisconsin traded stories at the third annual Teacher Speakout! sponsored by RERIC, housed at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research. This exchange of ideas between teachers, researchers, policymakers and rural advocates turned into a public display of spirit, grit and passion for what is right with rural education.
WIDA Seeks Input on English Language Development Standards Edition 2020
November 20, 2019 | By WIDA
WIDA, a leading support organization for multilingual learners, educators and families, is seeking public input on the 2020 edition of its English Language Development Standards. The research-based nonprofit includes a consortium of 40 U.S. state education agencies as well as an international consortium of more than 400 international schools. WIDA invites anyone involved in multilingual learner education to share their views by completing an online survey by Dec. 15, 2019.
Rural Teachers & UW–Madison Education Researchers Share Perspectives on STEM Education in Wisconsin
November 13, 2019 | By Lynn Armitage
The Rural Education Research and Implementation Center (RERIC) will host 19 rural STEM educators from 18 school districts around Wisconsin for the third annual Teacher Speakout!, Friday, Nov. 15, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, 1025 West Johnson Street, 13th Floor; followed by field trips on Saturday, Nov. 16 from 8 a.m. to noon starting at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery. The goal of Teacher Speakout! is to bring the voices of rural teachers into a collaborative, public forum with researchers, legislators and rural school advocates.
WCER Project Explores Academic & Career Pathways of Undergrad Military Service Members & Veterans
November 8, 2019 | By Lynn Armitage
A new research project focused on the experiences of undergraduate military service members and veterans enrolled in Wisconsin universities has recently been launched at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, part of UW-Madison’s School of Education. The Veteran Education to Workforce Affinity and Success Study (VETWAYS), a three-year $556,000 project funded by the National Science Foundation, will seek to better understand the unique social experiences and challenges this special student population encounters as they progress through college and into the workforce.
Health and Education: More Schooling Equates to Healthier, Longer Lives
November 1, 2019 | By Karen Rivedal
A critical intersection exists between education and health, according to a consensus of researchers and evaluators from the University of Wisconsin‒Madison who have been working closely with rural schools, the community-school model and Native American communities in Wisconsin.
UW−Madison Mentorship Experts Anchor Federal Push to Diversify Biomedical Workforce
October 31, 2019 | By Karen Rivedal, WCER Communications
UW−Madison will continue to play a leading role in the second and final phase of a sweeping federal investment in better research mentoring, with responsibility for two major grants in the $43 million follow-up push to boost diversity of students, staff and faculty researchers in the biomedical sciences.
MSAN Student Conference Aims to Empower Next Generation of Equity Leaders
October 22, 2019 | By Karen Rivedal, WCER Communications
More than 200 high school students and their chaperones from 19 U.S. school districts will be in Madison Wednesday through Saturday for the MSAN Student Conference, presented by the UW-Madison School of Education annually to develop student leaders dedicated to ending racial disparities in achievement and opportunity.
Wisconsin Partnership Program Awards $1M to One City Schools and UW-Madison Education Research Team
October 17, 2019 | By Janet L. Kelly
A team of early childhood educators and university evaluators, including WCER's Beth Graue and Tenah Hunt, won a $1 million community impact grant from the Wisconsin Partnership Program at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. The five-year grant will be used to train teachers, document and evaluate Madison’s innovative One City Schools. Graue and Hunt will work with One City to develop and implement a multilayered professional development and evaluation process.
New Wisconsin-Minnesota Education Partnership Wins $6.3M Federal Award
October 16, 2019 | By Janet L. Kelly
A new collaboration of Wisconsin and Minnesota education researchers formed to support education priorities in each state has won a five-year, $6.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The overall goal of the project, directed by Steven Kimball and WCER colleague Alisia Moutry, as well as the University of Minnesota's Kim Gibbons and Education Analytics' Ernest Morgan, is to improve the academic achievement of elementary and secondary school students in the two-state region by advancing the use of evidence-based practices.
WCER Experts Explain Critical Intersection between Education, Health
October 8, 2019 | By Karen Rivedal, WCER Communications
University researchers and evaluators versed in rural schools, the community-school model and the schooling of Native American children in Wisconsin shared their expertise and latest evidence-based findings recently in a public hearing at the state Capitol focused on the critical intersection between education and health.
MSAN Student Conference Aims to Empower
October 8, 2019 | By WCER Communications
The annual gathering, now in its 20th year, aims to develop student leaders dedicated to ending racial disparities in achievement and opportunity.
Middle School Absences Send Important Signal
September 25, 2019 | By Madison Education Partnership
A new report from the Madison Education Partnership finds that rather than causing students to do poorly in school, unexcused absences may be signals of significant challenges in students’ lives.
WCER launches $1.5 million internship study of six Historically Black Colleges and Universities
September 19, 2019 | By Lynn Armitage
The Center for Research on College to Workforce Transitions (CCWT)—a project at UW‒Madison’s Wisconsin Center for Education Research—is collaborating with the United Negro College Fund’s Career Pathways Initiative and a vocational psychologist to study internship programs at six HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) that have a high population of STEM graduates.
