News from WCER
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.
Increasing graduate student debt affects African American students most, study finds
August 15, 2019 | By WCER Communications
A new study shows low-income and African American graduate students increasingly face a double-edged sword of advanced-degree promise and peril: better-than-average income returns on graduate and professional degrees but levels of debt to earn those degrees that outpace the debt borne by white students.
What I learned when I studied six Chicago schools transforming to personalized learning environments
August 11, 2019 | By Rich Halverson
As a guest author in the newsletter Getting Smart, University of Wisconsin School of Education Professor Rich Halverson describes the benefits of personalized learning he witnessed during a study of six Chicago public schools involved with LEAP Innovations, a national organization that connects innovation and education to transform how students learn.
WIDA goes global
August 1, 2019 | By Lynn Armitage
In 2008, the Shanghai American School contacted Timothy Boals, executive director of the WIDA Consortium at WCER, about using WIDA’s acclaimed research-based standards and assessments to help English-language learners. “A teacher there had used our language development tools in the States and recommended them,” Boals recalls the conversation that unofficially launched the WIDA International School Consortium. Today, WIDA’s international program has pioneered the improvement of teaching and learning for multilingualism around the world. It has grown into a worldwide ELL network of more than 400 accredited preK-12 international schools where English is the language of instruction, in more than 100 countries.
Study Shows Power of Refocusing Student Stress in Middle School Transition
July 29, 2019 | By Karen Rivedal, WCER Communications
A new study by education researchers at the University of Wisconsin−Madison shows that proactively addressing students’ anxieties with clear and cost-effective messaging early in the school year can lead to a lasting record of higher grades, better attendance, and fewer behavioral problems for sixth graders embarking on their stressful first year of middle school.
‘We Care for Dane Kids’ Team, Including WCER’s Graue, Wins 2nd Place, $400K to Raise Family Incomes
July 3, 2019 | By Karen Rivedal
A campus-community partnership including WCER’s Beth Graue is one of two teams from UW-Madison to win funding in a national competition aimed at developing innovative ideas to expand and strengthen the U.S. middle class.
