Establishing “Innovation Funds” for community partnerships that enhance learning, creating professional development programs more aligned with federal education expectations, and establishing new frameworks for teacher evaluations are among the ways states awarded Race to the Top (RTT) grants have begun to used their share of the $4 billion given by the federal government in 2011 to improve K-12 school quality and effectiveness.
First-year state progress reports were released by the U.S. Department of Education in January. But according UConn’s Tammy Kolbe, an assistant research professor at the Neag School of Education’s …

New Connecticut Regional School District 14 Superintendent Jody Goeler credits the Advanced Leadership Development Institute for Early Career Superintendents at the Neag School of Education with giving him not just the tools, support and opportunities needed to better manage the practical, day-to-day aspects of his job, but also to tackle the unavoidable sticky—and inevitably unexpected—situations.
“When you’re the superintendent of schools, you’re literally the only one in town, and it sometimes can be a lonely position,” said Goeler, who was assistant superintendent in Avon before becoming the head of District 14, …

Students are not all on the same playing field in the classroom. They come from different backgrounds, learn differently and therefore, especially when learning science, need teachers who support them through effective instructional approaches with culture as a starting point.
This approach is the foundation of the second edition of Teaching Science to Every Child by Dr. John Settlage, associate professor in science teacher education at the Neag School of Education. The textbook serves as a tool for educators to think about all learners, regardless of abilities or language, with strategies …

A program that pairs UConn students with schools in Hartford’s North End—using sports as common ground for learning—has instilled the importance of community service in every participant.
Week after week since 2004, UConn students have spent time in Hartford through the Neag School of Education’s Husky Sport program. They work alongside nearly 30 community organizations, particularly the City of Hartford’s Parker Memorial Center, and in five local schools—Capital Prep, Clark, Fred D. Wish, Martin Luther King and SAND—to drive home the importance of education, engage the students in school-wide reading challenges, …

The brightly lit room was buzzing. Groups of three or four children, all fourth graders, sat or stood around small tables, trying mightily to create an electromagnetic current that would lift more and more paper clips.  Their teacher, Freddie DeJesus, wandered from table to table, sitting and chatting and making suggestions to help move each group in the right direction.
Le’Lah Arthur loves it.
“This is a really fun place,” says Le’Lah, referring to the sparkling new Renzulli Academy on Cornwall Street in Hartford, the first stand-alone, public school academy for gifted …