WCER - Wisconsin Center for Education Research

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View lectures, photos and an overview of our celebration. FEATURE STORIES UW-Madison FAST Program Shown to Increase School Engagement among Latino Families A new study recently published by four UW-Madison education researchers, all graduate students in sociology and fellows in WCER’s Interdisciplinary Training Program in the Education Sciences, identifies processes for improving the engagement of low-income Latino families with their children’s elementary schools. The researchers studied data drawn from families in Phoenix, Ariz., and San Antonio, Texas, who participated in the FAST program, an after-school program designed to strengthen relationships between families and schools. Developed within the Wisconsin Center for Education Research in UW-Madison’s School of Education, FAST is used in 46 states and 13 countries. More than 75 percent of the parents in the study self-identified as Latino. The researchers found the program was highly effective at creating social interactions that aid in the nurturing of trusting relationships between low-income minority families and schools, according to Megan N. Shoji and David E. Rangel, two of the authors of a paper on the topic recently published by Early Childhood Research Quarterly. Read more Winn Awarded William T. Grant Distinguished Fellowship Wisconsin Center for Education (WCER) researcher Maisha T. Winn recently received the William T. Grant Distinguished Fellowship Award for her proposal, “Restorative Justice and the Reclamation of Civic Education for Youth.” The goal of the project, according to the William T. Grant Foundation website, is to “better understand the challenges organizations face when initiating restorative justice initiatives.” The $154,000 grant is scheduled to run from March 2015 to February 2016. “These awards reflect important and enduring features of our grant-making,” Foundation President Adam Gamoran, a former UW-Madison School of Education faculty member who directed the Wisconsin Center for Education Research from 2004-2013, said in a news release. “This includes a strong belief that research can address practical questions in a way that advances fundamental knowledge about children and youth.”. Read more
	EVENTS & PRESS Press Angela Byars-Winston discusses diversity in the STEM workforce (Madison.com, 14 Jan) Sara Goldrick-Rab calls President Obama's community college plan "smart and bold" (Madison.com, 11 Jan.) Obama's community college plan has roots in the work of Sara Goldrick-Rab, among others (New York Times, 9 Jan. and The Chronicle, 11 Jan.) The Huffington post recommends paying close attention to the new focus on "good for you video games" developed by Kurt Squire, Constance Steinkuehler, and others (Huffington Post, 5 January) Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools work with MSAN to narrow the suspension gap (Chapel Hill News, 5 December) Northwestern is modeling its academy on the Entering Mentoring training curriculum developed at UW-Madison (GEN News, 25 Nov.) Beth Graue says smaller classes work best when teachers tailor instruction to each student’s needs and when they spend more time getting to know their students’ families (Albuquerque Journal, 25 Nov.)	CENTER SITES Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning Center on Education and Work Children, Families & Schools Culturally Responsive Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports Consortium for Policy Research in Education Comprehensive Assessment of Leadership for Learning Culture, Cognition, and Evaluation of STEM Higher Education Reform Epistemic Games Group Exploring the alignment between workforce and education Formative Language Assessment Records for ELLs in Secondary Schools Interactive Learning & Design Lab Interdisciplinary Training Program in the Education Sciences Investing in Family Engagement Longitudinal Study of Future STEM Scholars Mobilizing STEM for a Sustainable Future Minority Student Achievement Network ONPAR Assessment PhillyFAST-i3 Strategic Management of Human Capital Surveys of Enacted Curriculum System-wide Change for All Learners and Educators Talking About Leaving, Revisited TDOP: Teaching Dimensions Observation Protocol Tracking the Processes of Data Driven Decision-Making in Higher Education Transana Value-Added Research Center WIDA Consortium Wisconsin's Equity and Inclusion Laboratory
WCER NEWS CIRTL Network Featured in Report Proposing Broad Changes to Undergraduate STEM Education According to a report recently released by the Coalition for Reform of Undergraduate STEM Education, the CIRTL Network is one of four national programs that could drastically increase the number of college students who graduate with a degree in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The report comes from a two-day workshop hosted by the Coalition and American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in June 2013, according to a news release on the AAAS website. It notes that recent data show that less than 40 percent of students who enter college with the intention of majoring in a STEM discipline complete a STEM degree, and cites data showing that two major factors influencing the high attrition rate are “uninspiring” introductory courses and an unwelcoming atmosphere from faculty. Read more