Few observers doubt that Teach For America (TFA) has high aspirations. Established in 1990, TFA strives to close persistent racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps in U.S. public education by recruiting high-achieving college graduates to teach for two years in low-income urban and rural schools. In recent years, applications to TFA have soared, especially at highly selective colleges. In 2009-10, for example, 18 percent of Harvard University’s seniors applied to the program. Proposing to expand its teaching corps from 7,300 to 13,000 over the next five years, TFA recently won $50 …

Two members of the Neag School of Education faculty have been awarded two grants totaling more than $6 million in federal grants to expand their research into improving educational outcomes for students.
Sandra M. Chafouleas, Ph.D., a professor in the school psychology program and a research scientist at the Neag Center for Behavioral Research (CBER), has received a $2.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES) for continuing work on Direct Behavior Rating (DBR), which she co-created with an earlier IES grant.
Michael D. Coyne, Ph.D., …

Sally M. Reis, nationally known for working with academically talented and high potential students, and noted as the principal investigator for the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented, has been named the first to hold the new Letitia Neag Morgan Chair for Educational Psychology.
The endowed chair was established in honor of Reis’ mother, who passed away in October 2010. It was created by Ray and Carole Neag, generous supporters to the Neag School of Education at UConn. Letitia Neag Morgan was Ray’s sister.
During the recent Investiture Ceremony to …

Dr. Douglas Fellows ignored the recruiting calls for six months. Administrators from UConn were calling him to interview at the UConn Health Center, to lead their radiology department. He was happy where he was, as the vice chair of radiology, at UMass Medical Center in Worcester, MA.
But then one day, he finally took the call. He was vacationing on the Cape, at Nauset Beach. “I decided to come down and take a look at the position,” he recalled.
It turned out to be a good fit, and in 2007 Dr. Fellows …

Recent cheating scandals in schools across the U.S. have generated alarming national headlines. Connecticut’s own Waterbury Hopeville School is  under investigation for suspected educational misconduct during this year’s state mastery test.
Dr. Jason Stephens, an associate professor in the Neag School of Education‘s Department of Educational Psychology, addressed academic integrity issues like these reported cases and provided insight on prevention strategies in his new book.
The text, Creating a Culture of Academic Integrity: A Tool Kit for Secondary Schools, examines Stephen’s research with co-author David B. Wangaard, E.D., from their three-year intervention …