Video Games for High Quality Equitable Learning
July 12, 2021
David Gagnon, Director of WCER’s Field Day Lab, discusses the educational advantages of using video games and simulators as teaching tools in this video for University Place on PBS Wisconsin. David explains how games offer opportunities to actively learn new concepts and to fail without real world consequences.
The Roots of ‘Critical Race Theory’
June 29, 2021 | By Frederica Freyberg, PBS Wisconsin
UW–Madison’s Gloria Ladson-Billings, a professor emerita in the School of Education, was interviewed by Frederica Freyberg on PBS Wisconsin’s “Here and Now” program, for a segment titled, “The Roots of Critical Race Theory.” When asked by Freyberg to define critical race theory in layman’s terms, Ladson-Billings explained it as “an attempt to begin to understand racial disparity.”
“If you look over the history of the nation, we started out in 1600 up into the mid-20th century literally saying that the reason that there were racial disparities is because there were biological and intellectual deficiencies. We’ve finally put that myth to rest and eugenics has fallen out of favor,” she said.
“I would say in the next few years we began to look at issues of equal opportunity. So we had the Brown decision … we had Reconstruction, we had … the civil rights movement, the Voting Rights Act. So we’ve had opportunities, but they all get rolled back. … So critical race theory is yet another way to think about, how do we understand racial disparity.”
Freyberg asked Ladson-Billings whether critical race theory teaches hate of white people, as some have claimed. “Absolutely not,” Ladson-Billings said.
Badger Talks: Is the pandemic affecting our memory?
June 22, 2021 | By Veronica Rueckert, University Communications
In this Badger Talks video, WCER researcher Haley Vlach walks us through the reasons why the pandemic has been so challenging for our memory. Vlach is an associate professor of educational sciences and an expert on how memory develops. Vlach says the pandemic robbed us of our “memory cues,” in-person reminders of things we needed to do or to recall that are typically part of our daily routine in non-pandemic life. (Find video link via URL).
LaVar Charleston named UW–Madison’s next chief diversity officer
June 22, 2021 | By Doug Erickson, University Communications
Charleston also has had a long affiliation with WCER, where he helped found Wisconsin’s Equity and Inclusion Laboratory (Wei LAB). He served in numerous capacities at Wei LAB, including assistant director and coordinator of the Research and Evaluation Division. Jerlando Jackson, current Wei LAB director and chief research scientist, chaired the 14-member search and screen committee formed to help find a new chief diversity officer for campus.
Online Internships Fail to Meet Expectations
May 19, 2021 | By Lindsay McKenzie
New research from WCER’s Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions suggests online internships that took place during the pandemic failed to provide effective learning experiences when compared with in-person experiences. How can colleges encourage employers to do better?
New Study Reveals Only 22% of College Students Did Internships During COVID Pandemic
May 18, 2021 | By CCWT/WCER Communications
The first rigorous study of online internships during the pandemic uses survey data from 9,964 students at 11 colleges and universities, yielding valuable insights for students, employers and university officials going forward.
Wisconsin schools look to continue, expand future virtual options
April 22, 2021 | By Amanda St. Hilaire, Fox 6 Milwaukee
Students across Wisconsin had no choice when school buildings shut down one year ago. Now, even as school districts point to the rapid shift to virtual learning as a factor in declining academic performance, administrators are exploring the idea of expanding future online learning.
“Districts that are able to get on top of that more quickly will be much better positioned to meet families’ needs,” Wisconsin Center for Education Research scientist Dr. Bradley Carl said. “And conversely, districts that don’t get going with that are going to lose enrollment.”
New projects study root causes of inequalities and how to reduce their effects
April 15, 2021 | By Natasha Kassulke, UW-Madison News
Fifteen projects — from improving doctor-patient communications for high-risk patients, to using data to understand racial differences in how Americans handle civil legal problems, to better understanding the factors that influence success and well-being of Hmong-American students at the University of Wisconsin–Madison — have been chosen for the Understanding and Reducing Inequalities Initiative.
U.S. Educators Meeting Online in MSAN Institute to Advance Anti-Racist School Leadership
April 15, 2021 | By Karen Rivedal, WCER Communications
Conference attendees are sharing current research and learning promising practices to eliminate barriers to learning and create a more equitable educational environment for students of color.
Report: Outcomes-Based Funding Models Need to be Made More Equitable
April 7, 2021 | By Sara Weissman, Diverse Issues in Higher Education
More than 30 states have outcomes-based funding models, which allocate money to colleges and universities at least partly based on various metrics for student success. But a new report by The Education Trust – examining outcomes-based funding formulas across the country from 2017 to 2020 – argues that these models perpetuate inequities in the ways they’re currently designed.
New Digital Hub Reveals How COVID-19 Has Impacted College Students
April 5, 2021 | By Lynn Armitage, WCER Communications
Over the last year, the pandemic has disrupted the lives of many people, particularly college students whose education, career goals and entry into the workforce have been thrown into a state of uncertainty.
The Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions (CCWT) is shedding light on the higher education experiences of five diverse groups of students from Wisconsin, Georgia and Maryland during the COVID crisis through a new digital hub
The School of Education Sponsors Lecture Promoting Ideals of Antiracism
March 25, 2021 | By St. John's University
Our society faces many concurrent challenges in addition to the COVID-19 outbreak. Anti-Black racism, the threat of financial collapse, and the frequency of environmental disasters often co-exist. Taken together, these four crises have a devastating effect on the nation’s young people of color who confront a variety of daily fears, including eviction, poor air and water quality, racism, and food insecurity.
Theorizing Educational Justice: Political & Educational Considerations
March 22, 2021
Winston Thompson discusses the need to expand upon today’s most popular concepts of educational justice. He introduces two ways of expanding these concepts into a distinctively educational type of justice. By sharing examples of race and immigration cases, he illustrates how broadening current concepts of educational justice can reframe our thinking and better address urgent and under-theorized ethical concerns. Presented by the Wisconsin Center for Education Research and co-sponsored by the Center for Ethics and Education.
UW–Madison research reveals benefit of ethnic studies for Hmong American students
March 11, 2021 | By Janet L. Kelly, WCER Communications
A new report from WCER’s Center for Research on College-to-Workforce Transitions reveals second-year research findings from a unique study of current and former UW–Madison students of HMoob (Hmong)* descent, a population of students rarely researched in higher education. Mentored by WCER research scientists, an eight-member team of current and recently graduated HMoob American UW–Madison students interviewed nearly 100 members of the university’s HMoob American student community. The study found that exposure to ethnic studies courses and programs during college can transform the students’ lives.
Newly funded research will use biomarkers from blood to understand how childhood shapes risks of Alzheimer’s and other dementias
March 3, 2021 | By University of Minnesota News and Events
The University of Minnesota announced today it will begin collecting blood samples from a diverse sample of 25,520 people around the country to better understand how early-life conditions and experiences shape later-life risk of Alzheimer’s and other dementias.
The research, supported by $14.2 million in new funding from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), adds a new component to the ongoing $28.4 million High School & Beyond (HS&B) cohort study and builds upon a $500,000 pilot study funded by the Alzheimer’s Association in 2020.
