News from WCER
Self-Affirmation Exercises Found To Boost Some Achievement
July 30, 2014
Self-affirmation writing exercises improved the achievement, especially in mathematics, of students who may suffer from stereotype threat.
WIDA Goes Global with Summer Academy for International Schools
July 30, 2014
From Afghanistan to Zambia, international schools are reconsidering their approach to teaching English language learners, and many are looking to tap into WIDA’s expertise.
Afterschool Program Reduces Mobility Among Some Families
July 1, 2014
An afterschool program for children and families was found to substantially reduce the school mobility of Black students who otherwise were especially likely to change schools. Improved relationships among families help explain this finding.
Quantifying Uncertainty: David Kaplan Explains the Usefulness of Bayesian Statistics
June 23, 2014
To most academics, and even many statisticians, the world of Bayesian statistics remains a dark and dangerous realm, rarely visited and greatly feared.
Department Chairs Become Instructional Leaders
June 2, 2014
Distributed throughout a high school, department chairs are ideally positioned to help increase student learning, and yet they receive little or no formal training, and there is no universally accepted job description.
Tackling Racial Disparities in School Discipline
May 22, 2014
MSAN hosted its 2014 Institute on April 14 and 15 in Madison, attracting hundreds of educators from public school districts
Aligning Educational Policy and Curricula with Employer Expectations
May 1, 2014
Millions remain unemployed as the nation’s economy recovers all too slowly from the recession of 2008.
The Network Seeks to Transform Public Education
April 29, 2014
Funded by Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction, the UW–Madison School of Education, and WCER, the Network creates collaborative, interdisciplinary opportunities to share knowledge and turn research into effective practices that improve education both inside and outside of schools.
What Factors Make College Affordable for Low-Income Students
April 28, 2014
Many students from low-income families leave college before completing a degree, sometimes attributing their departure to college “unaffordability."
Creating a Computer Science Pipeline for African Americans
April 28, 2014
The number of African American faculty teaching computer science in higher education is alarmingly low, according to LaVar J. Charleston.
Nathan’s Paper on Study Habits Passes Popularity Milestone
April 23, 2014
A paper coauthored by Mitchell J. Nathan published in January 2013 in Psychological Science in the Public Interest has garnered more than 100,000 downloads/page views, making it the most downloaded article in the journal’s history.
Wisconsin HOPE Lab Set to Tackle Inequality in College Attainment
April 23, 2014
On May 5, WCER researcher Sara Goldrick-Rab will launch the Wisconsin HOPE Lab, dedicated to making the pursuit of a postsecondary education more accessible and obtainable for Wisconsin students of all backgrounds.
Good, Burch Examine the Potential Dangers of Privatizing Digital Education
April 17, 2014
Digital education may be an innovative path forward for the American public schools system, but many of the existing virtual teaching programs have serious flaws, according to a new book co-authored by WCER researcher Annalee Good and former UW–Madison Assistant Professor and WCER researcher Patricia Burch.
Sharing Responsibility to Improve Teaching and Learning
April 9, 2014
Educators in elementary and secondary schools around the country can now tap into the Comprehensive Assessment of Leadership for Learning (CALL) survey to assess how to improve their schools.
Common Core Standards Do Not Account for Diversity
April 7, 2014
A professor considers the Common Core Standards in the context of students she has taught and the historical inequities that have plagued American schools.
