Americans with lower education levels suffer more pain than people with more education
October 29, 2020 | By JEFF RENAUD, Western News
Americans with university degrees or higher level of education endure substantially less pain than those who are less educated, according to an international study led by Western University. With more than half of U.S. adults reporting chronic pain, the study will help health-care professionals and policymakers better target relief, the researchers said.
“Pain affects quality of life of individuals and their families,” said Western sociology professor Anna Zajacova. “It is an incredibly important health condition that we must try to understand better. And like many other seemingly personal issues, there are powerful social forces driving pain in society. Education is one of those forces.”
Why online school works better for this Madison family
October 26, 2020 | By Michelle Baik
The switch to virtual schooling has been a challenge for many families, but one Madison family has been doing it for years. They say virtual learning works better for them. Ian Santin is a 12th grader at the Destinations Career Academy of Wisconsin, an online school. After attending middle school in the Madison Metropolitan School District, Ian made the switch five years ago. He said his ADHD made it hard to focus in the classroom. Amy Santin says her son is a better student now, due to more flexibility in his five to six hours-long day. She said, “We can provide an environment that’s conducive to him. He can take movement breaks. He’s just a lot happier, and he’s actually started to enjoy learning.”
Wisconsin Partnership Program awards $6 million in community impact grants to health equity programs
October 16, 2020
The Wisconsin Partnership Program at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health has announced its 2020 Community Impact Grant awards for initiatives that aim to advance health equity and improve health and well-being throughout Wisconsin. Initiatives that address the health of Black men and women, prevent suicide among Wisconsin farmers and promote economic stability and restorative justice are among the six award recipients.
Cap Times Idea Fest: COVID-19 is a chance to reimagine education, panelists say
October 14, 2020 | By Ben Farrell, Special to the Cap Times
Panelists Gloria Ladson-Billings, a retired University of Wisconsin-Madison education professor who taught for 26 years and is now the National Academy of Education president; Carlton Jenkins, the newly hired Madison Metropolitan School District superintendent, and Mary Lee McKenzie, an educator at Clark Community School in Middleton shared their insights on how the crisis can — and perhaps should — lead to a drastic reimagining of what education looks like.
AERA Virtual Awards Ceremony Saturday to Honor WCER’s Good, Cheng
September 29, 2020 | By WCER Communications
Annalee Good and Emily Cheng will be honored in a virtual ceremony Saturday for a paper with Vanderbilt University colleagues that won one of AERA’s 2020 excellence in education research awards. The celebration is open to the public and will broadcast live on ZOOM.
Savvas Learning Company Launches Culturally Responsive Learning Initiative
September 24, 2020 | By Savvas Learning Company
Savvas Learning Company, a next-generation learning solutions provider for K-12 education, is proud to announce the launch of its Culturally Responsive Learning (CRL) Initiative that will focus on supporting teachers in making real changes in their classroom practices to foster student voice and improve achievement as well as using curriculum that opens minds and allows students to see themselves reflected in what they learn.
Why Reading Is Fundamental to Racial Equity
September 15, 2020 | By Stephanie J. Hull, T74
America is finally waking up to the full scope and severity of its oldest illness: racism. We cannot afford to hit snooze. And yet this awakening comes at a time when coronavirus-related school closures are exacerbating racial inequalities in our education system, even as the virus and the recession disproportionately hurt communities of color.
UW-Madison researcher collaborates on new NSF-funded national artificial intelligence initiative
September 14, 2020 | By Lynn Armitage, WCER Communications
Sadhana Puntambekar, a principal investigator at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research and professor in the University of Wisconsin─Madison School of Education, will collaborate with national researchers on establishing one of five artificial intelligence (AI) institutes and education hubs. A $100 million initiative of the National Science Foundation, the centers are the single most significant federal investment to date in exploring how AI can benefit the United States’ quality of life, economy and international competitiveness.
UW Researchers Partner with Madison School District to Sharpen 4K Teaching
August 21, 2020 | By Karen Rivedal, WCER Communications
The project, funded by a $400,000 federal grant, culminated with the delivery of research-based professional development sessions to 20 Madison 4K teachers on four Saturdays last school year.
Making Science Multilingual Partnership works to change the way we teach science
August 20, 2020 | By Jesse Stone, Nevada Today
Yerington Elementary is trying something new. They’re working towards implementing teaching science in every classroom as part of their school improvement program. This year, the school is participating as a pilot of brand-new ideas and principles made by Making Science Multilingual that make science teaching more effective not just for students that learn English as a second language, but everyone.
Many rural Wisconsin school districts don’t have full-time nurses. Some don’t have any at all.
August 18, 2020 | By Naomi Kowles
Across Wisconsin in small, rural districts made up of just a few hundred students, full-time school nurses are a scarce commodity. It’s not a new issue, but the implications of a school year unfolding mid-pandemic with incomplete access to medically-training staff is one that’s concerning to district administrators as they plan for an uncertain, and often in-person, return to school this fall.
Coronavirus has upended school plans.
August 12, 2020 | By Michelle Fox, CNBC
WCER’s Madeline Hafner, executive director of the Minority Student Achievement Network Consortium, is quoted in this CNBC news story that reports on how inequity in the education of minority and disadvantaged children will grow due to the move to virtual learning prompted by COVID-19.
COVID-19 BACK TO SCHOOL
August 10, 2020 | By Logan Wroge, Wisconsin State Journal
In this article in the Wisconsin State Journal, WCER researchers and UW-Madison School of Education professors Gloria Ladson-Billings and Mitchell Nathan, with colleague Beverly Trezek, and Seth Pollock, offer insights into how students' academic and social-emotional needs will be intertwined in the coming school year due to the disruptions caused by COVID-19.
UW-Madison expert on going back to school
August 10, 2020 | By Gena Kittner
CRECE Director Beth Graue provides advice on how teacher, staff, parents and students can untangle the many unusual issues surrounding the return of school this fall in this extensive Q&A with the Wisconsin State Journal.
As school restarts, UW experts say supporting academics, social-emotional health is key
August 10, 2020 | By Logan Wroge
WCER researchers Mitch Nathan and Gloria Ladson-Billings provide expertise on the importance of supporting students' academic and social-emotional needs in this back-to-school story by the Wisconsin State Journal.
