Changes Needed to Help Refugees in Wisconsin Access Higher Education
January 17, 2019 | By Karen Rivedal
A new study shows refugees who resettle in Wisconsin face a daunting array of barriers, both systemic and situational, in getting college degrees. But creative remedies could be developed, UW−Madison researchers say, to ease their path to higher education and then to better jobs.
Middleton High School Minority Mentors Work to Help Elementary Students Achieve
January 14, 2019 | By Pam Cotant
Every other week, Middleton High School students mentor younger students at three Middleton elementary schools. The members of the Black Student Union club “thought the elementary students needed something because there weren’t many teachers of color… so they know someone looks like them and is looking out for them in the district,” said Jaeda Coleman, a Middleton High School sophomore. The mentors are part of Leaders Emerging to Achieve Greatness by Uplifting Each Other, or LEAGUE, which incorporates other groups at Middleton, including the Latinos Unidos and the Student Voice Union. “I love it. ... The kids are just so adorable. It is really good to see them every week,” Coleman said. “It gives you sort of a break from high school where everything (academically) is really tough and stressful.” The Black Student Union, Latinos Unidos and the Student Voice Union all send leaders to the national conference of the Minority Student Achievement Network. It is a national consortium of 27 multiracial, suburban-urban school districts working together to understand and eliminate racial opportunity/achievement gaps that persist within their schools. The organization is based at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at UW-Madison and includes the Madison school district, which is a founding member, and the Sun Prairie, Verona and Middleton-Cross Plains districts.
Baraboo Teacher Works with UW-Madison Researchers Examining Rural Education
January 10, 2019 | By Susan Endres
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are looking to school districts such as Baraboo for insight into what it’s like to teach in rural areas and how to better connect university graduates to those schools.
Educational Policies to Reduce Inequality: Deploying and Building Research in Wisconsin
December 12, 2018
Executive summaries and PDFs of presentations from the December 12 event
A Capitol and Very Wisconsin Idea
December 12, 2018 | By Lynn Armitage
History can be a challenging subject to study, with so many names, dates and places to remember. But thanks to a new educational video game—“Jo Wilder and the Capitol Case”—created by UW–Madison’s Field Day Lab and Wisconsin Public Television, learning about history, specifically Wisconsin history, is “really cool,” says Camren Hokanson, a fourth-grader at Elmwood Elementary School in Elmwood who has played the game multiple times.
MSAN 2019 Institute: Call for Proposals Now Open
December 10, 2018
The call for proposals is now open for the 2019 MSAN Institute on Equity Leadership and Cultural Competence being held April 15-16 at The Concourse Hotel in Madison
The 30-Year Reign of Lunchables
December 5, 2018 | By Joe Pinsker
WCER researcher Andrew Ruis thinks Lunchables has done so well because of how the packaged, compartmentalized lunch food for children it fits into families’ days. The meat-cheese-and-cracker boxes have been around for 30 years.
The Future Of Learning? Well, It’s Personal
November 19, 2018 | By Anya Kamenetz, Kyla Calvert Mason and Robbie Feinberg
WCER researcher Rich Halverson shares his take on indvidualized or personalized learning and the opportunities technology offers in an article published by National Public Radio. "What schools call personalized varies considerably," he says, and "a lot of schools are doing personalized learning, but don't call it that."
Grodksy Comments on Absenteeism
November 15, 2018 | By Molly Beck and Kevin Crowe
Student absences cost three school districts and 124 schools in Wisconsin five points from their overall report card rating from the state Department of Public Instruction, but WCER researcher Eric Grodsky suggests policymakers should examine why students miss school rather than penalize schools in their ratings over a factor school staff cannot control, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
Graue Part of Project Receiving DreamUp Wisconsin Funding
November 14, 2018
When UW–Madison was selected by Schmidt Futures as part of its Alliance for the American Dream Initiative, the grant came with a significant challenge: Produce innovative ideas for increasing the net income of 10,000 Dane County families by 10 percent by 2020.
Jackson to Receive Major Honor from ASHE
November 14, 2018
The Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) recently announced its annual award winners leading up to the organization’s 2018 conference, and two faculty members with UW-Madison’s School of Education are receiving significant recognition.
Jackson Helps Lead New Project via Wisconsin Partnership Program Award
November 2, 2018
Jerlando Jackson, director and chief research scientist of Wisconsin’s Equity and Inclusion Laboratory within WCER, is the academic partner in a university intiative to improve health and health equity across Wisconsin.
Video Game Play Can Change Human Behavior in a Good Way
November 1, 2018
Brain Scans Show Innovative Sci-Fi Game Increases Empathy in Some Children
Working on the Achievement Gap
October 31, 2018 | By Steven Elbow
Some officials, experts and education advocates say initiatives to narrow the gap have been in place for years and are having an impact on a problem that will likely take decades to solve. “I think there have been significant successes across different areas,” Madeline Hafner, a WCER researcher and executive director of the Minority Student Achievement Network told the Capital Times. “Individual schools and individual districts have seen gaps close across different measures.”
Finding A Job That Fits: Study Finds Mismatch Between Education, Job Qualifications
October 30, 2018 | By Shamane Mills
WCER labor economist Matías Scaglione tells Wisconsin Public Radio the gap between education and employment could be even greater in some areas that noted in a new report because the study didn’t look at labor force participation. "Labor force participation rates for people with bachelor’s degrees or higher are 73 percent, more or less. For those with high school degrees it's 58 percent," Scaglione told WPR. "So that’s why focusing on population can be misleading. We have to focus on labor force and then employment."
