Any disconnect that area high school art teachers have felt with the Art Department and School of Education at UW-Madison is dissolving, thanks to the support of Madison-based art alumna Helen Burish.

Middleton High School art teacher Robin Kourakis (BS Art Ed 2000) made connections with her peers from other schools at the workshops and felt reconnected with her alma mater after 11 years. "I'm sad that I lost contact for years because it's such a great university," Kourakis said.

Burish organized a series of workshops to provide high school art teachers with hands-on professional development while giving the Department’s graduate students and recent alumni an opportunity to share their expertise and talent.

The latest edition of Learning Connections, an alumni news magazine from the UW-Madison School of Education, is now posted online.

The Fall/Winter 2011 issue is dedicated to UW-Madison's "Year of the Wisconsin Idea." It is filled with news about School of Education faculty, staff, students and alumni who are extending the work that begins on our campus into the community and across the state and the nation.

The effects of parental depression on a child can be many, varied and deeply rooted. One such effect is taking on parental responsibilities out of a conscious, or subconscious, desire to maintain normalcy in the home. Children may take on adult responsibilities such as cooking, caring for younger siblings and shopping, at the expense of schoolwork or simply being a kid.

“Children who have a mother with depression have negative outcomes through their lifetime,” said Counseling Psychology Prof. Carmen Valdez, who has dedicated much of her career to ending this trend.

Valdez and her 15-member, interdisciplinary research team of graduate and undergraduate students have spent the past two years setting up and running an outreach program. Their mission is to help children and families overcome the struggles they face surrounding parental depression.

Undergraduate students in the Art Department’s foundations courses recently had their work displayed at the Central China Academy of Fine Art (CAFA) in Beijing.

The show included a big exhibition of work from CAFA students and foundations program professors, as well as students from eight other top art schools in China and international work from eight additional schools: Glasgow School of Art (UK), University of New South Wales (Australia), Lasalle University (Singapore), School of the Art Institute-Chicago, San Francisco Art Institute, California College of the Arts, Minneapolis College of Art and Design and UW-Madison.

State Superintendent Tony Evers has appointed Prof. Rich Halverson (ELPA) and School of Education CIO and Director of MERIT Dan Jacobsohn to the Department of Public Instruction's new Digital Learning Advisory Council, a group that is working to coordinate the approach to technology by Wisconsin’s entire education community—from teachers and district administrators, to private vendors, technical and four-year colleges.

The council includes teachers, technology specialists, and other representatives from public and private schools, school districts, libraries, higher education institutions, and industry. The co-chairs are Connie Erickson, director, Cooperative Educational Service Agency 11, and Mike Kerr, executive director, Wisconsin Technology Initiative. The group expects to consult with educational technology vendors as it progresses in its work.

The Arts Institute and University Housing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison next fall will launch a residential learning community for students interested in creative disciplines including art, dance, design, engineering, fashion, film, music, theatre and computer science.

The Creative Arts and Design Community, to be housed in the campus's Sellery Hall, will welcome students from a broad array of creative disciplines, recognizing that the arts, innovation and creativity are vital and necessary skill sets to successfully enter the workforce in a range of careers and fields.

Teachers and principals will be evaluated on their professional practice and student achievement in an educator evaluation system outlined in a preliminary report issued by the Wisconsin Educator Effectiveness Design Team. State Superintendent Tony Evers appointed the group last December.

As described in the Wisconsin Framework for Educator Effectiveness, student outcomes and educator practice will be weighted equally to create an educator effectiveness performance rating. Outcomes for students will come from multiple measures. Those include value-added data from state assessments, district assessment data, student learning objectives, school-wide reading at the elementary level and graduation at the high school level, and district choice data based on improvement strategies.

Julie Underwood, dean of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education, praised the framework for its comprehensiveness. “The educator effectiveness design team’s work gives us the opportunity to align our system from pre-service education, to professional development, and evaluation,” she said.

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has an agenda for educational games and learning and tapped Asst. Professor Constance Steinkuehler (C&I) to help.

Steinkuehler is on temporary leave from the School of Education to work as a senior policy analyst in the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) where she is helping to craft policy around games developed for educational, health and other behavioral change and outcomes.

Some of Steinkuehler's research interests and activities include digital/media literacy, cognition and learning in online affinity groups and the educational implications of virtual world technology such as multiplayer online games. She is the sole social scientist on a team of several experts in the physical sciences, all of whom demonstrate a passion for the work of OSTP, she said.

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, on behalf of the School of Education's World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA), has received a $10.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to build a technology-based assessment system for English learners.

The department is the lead agency in a 28-state consortium that is working with World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA), housed in the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and five other development and research partners to develop new assessments for English learners (ELs).

The project funded by the grant, known as Assessment Services Supporting ELs through Technology Systems (ASSETS), will develop an online assessment system that will measure student progress in attaining the English language skills they need to be successful in school, and ultimately, postsecondary studies and work.

The Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education will assume an administrative role of the Read On Wisconsin, the statewide online book club for Wisconsin students and educators now in its seventh year.

Read On Wisconsin features recommended books each month for students at five different age levels. The book club’s new website will allow students and teachers from around the state to find out more about the month’s selections by linking to information about the books and their creators through resources from TeachingBooks.net. Beginning in early 2012, the site will also feature student-created book trailers for the selected books.

First launched by former First Lady Jessica Doyle in 2004, the program has proven popular with both students and educators.

Eighteen students participating in the inaugural Global Wisconsin Idea Program -- a unique pairing of American and Chinese teenagers -- will join a Chinese university dean this week to learn more about the science of stem cells during a hands-on workshop hosted by the Morgridge Institute for Research.

The workshop, to be held Wednesday, July 27, is part of a three-week residential program that challenges students to explore global issues of sustainability and the promise of solutions among a variety of emerging research and technologies.

The Global Wisconsin Idea Program is a cross-campus collaborative effort developed by the Wisconsin Center for Academically Talented Youth, part of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and UW–Madison’s Division of International Studies.

Countries around the world are ramping up investments in higher education in a push to create world-class research institutions. At the same time, the top research universities in the United States are confronting the challenges of dwindling resources and support.

Interim Chancellor David Ward will welcome a group of education leaders from around the world to the University of Wisconsin–Madison on Tuesday, July 26 for a panel discussion on these trends and what they mean for the U.S. pre-eminence in higher education.

“Education and Competitiveness: The End of an American Century?” will be held July 26, 3:30-5:30 p.m., in the Wisconsin Idea Room (Room 159) of the Education Building on Bascom Hill. Sponsored by the UW–Madison Division of International Studies and School of Education, the program is free and open to the public.

The Wisconsin Center for Education Products and Services (WCEPS) has tapped Matt Messinger as the organization's first executive director.

Created by friends of the University of Wisconsin-Madison earlier this year, WCEPS will help license and market intellectual property in the field of education created by faculty and staff at the university. Messinger's hiring follows an extensive search process led by local recruitment consultants.

Messinger brings a dozen years of experience in the educational software industry and nonprofit management, and he joins the organization from StudyBlue, an e-learning startup in Madison, where he served as director of learning.

As executive director, Messinger will lead the day-to-day operations of WCEPS and help build awareness about the new organization and its role in supporting education research and product development. He will work collaboratively with both the Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER) and UW-Madison researchers to find effective ways to make their ideas more widely available to the marketplace.

When talking about No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the landmark education reform legislation enacted in 2002, Adam Gamoran doesn’t mince words. “The demise of No Child Left Behind is at hand,” Gamoran says.

Art Education Professor Doug Marschalek’s “Design in Education” students know functional modernist design when they see it. And when they create it. The students designed and built a set of interactive learning stations for a three-part design exhibit based on the work of Herman Miller, Inc., furniture designers. Students from the Art Department’s woodworking/furniture area contributed a separate project for the exhibit, shown at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, in Wausau, Wisconsin.

The UW-Madison’s Hmong Research Team hosted a first-ever Hmong Parent Day on Saturday, April 9. Parents of UW-Madison Hmong students were invited to tour campus and participate in activities – all presented in the Hmong language – intended to help them feel more comfortable with their children's other home on campus and allow them to feel more comfortable and connected with the University.

The Hmong Research Team, composed of graduate and undergraduate students under the direction of Counseling Psychology Professor Alberta M. Gloria, examined the experience of Hmong undergraduates. The team’s in-depth examination of how the learning and social environment affects the whole student was among the first qualitative studies on the experiences of Hmong undergraduates.

The School of Education will host a series of events highlighting education innovations to celebrate Digital Learning Day on February 1, 2012.

The school’s observance is part of the inaugural national and statewide effort to showcase innovative examples of digital learning. There are several ways for members of the campus and greater education to participate.

The winner of the 15th annual Charlotte Zolotow Award for outstanding writing in a picture book is Me … Jane, written and illustrated by Patrick McDonnell. The award is given by the Cooperative Children's Book Center, a library of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and will be formally presented on March 3, 2012 in Madison, WI.

McDonnell’s picture book about chimpanzee researcher Jane Goodall as a child depicts her as a curious, scientific-minded young girl whose favorite stuffed animal was a chimpanzee named Jubilee. She took the stuffed chimp everywhere as she explored and carefully observed the natural world of her childhood . . . and dreamed of someday going to Africa. McDonnell’s spare, skillful, and superbly paced text balances a sense of playfulness with purpose as he conveys Goodall’s focus and determination. Me … Jane was edited by Andrea Spooner and published in the United States in 2011 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

The Arts Institute and the Art Department welcome acclaimed cartoonist and author Lynda Barry to the UW-Madison as the Spring 2012 Artist in Residence. As part of her residency, Barry will offer four free public lectures about cartooning and writing featuring renowned guests Ivan Brunetti, Ryan Knighton, and Dan Chaon, with special guest Chris Ware. (Full schedule below).

Lynda Barry is an author and cartoonist credited with expanding the literary, thematic, and emotional range of American comics. She is best known for her groundbreaking weekly comic strip Ernie Pook’s Comeek, which ran for thirty years throughout the US and Canada. She also adapted her novel, The Good Times are Killing Me, into a long-running off-Broadway play.

Barry has authored 17 books, worked as a commentator for NPR, had a regular monthly feature in publications such as Esquire and Mother Jones, and has been a frequent guest on David Letterman. She is the recipient of many awards, including the 2009 Eisner Award for her graphic novel What It Is (2008). She lives in rural Rock County, Wisconsin.

Using hip-hop pedagogy as a teaching tool to integrate topics from history, politics and art to culture and performance in the classroom will be the topic of the second annual lecture series "Getting Real II" at the University of Wisconsin-Madison this spring. The free 15-week lecture series will begin Monday, Jan. 23 in Room 1101 Grainger Hall and is sponsored by the UW-Madison Office of the Vice Provost for Diversity and Climate and the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives (OMAI). Each week's lecture will begin at 7 p.m. and all are free and open to the public. The series features internationally renowned educator and specialist on multicultural education Curriculum & Instruction Professor Gloria Ladson-Billings as host and a slate of guests from the top universities and leaders in the growing field of hip-hop studies.

Take a break from winter to experience a vast and rich array of modern dance artistry as the Dance Department presents the first Arts Night Out event of the season, "Latitudes," the annual faculty concert. The concert runs Thursday-Saturday, Feb. 2-4, at 8 p.m., with a matinee showing on Sunday, Feb. 5 at 2:30 p.m., at the Margaret H'Doubler Performance Space, Lathrop Hall, 1050 University Ave.

The U.S. Department of Education has invited WISCAPE Scholar Sara Goldrick-Rab to participate in a “Research/Practitioner/Policy Expert Think Tank” on improving college completion among American students.

Five UW-Madison School of Education professors were ranked among the 121 most influential education scholars in 2012 by Education Week columnist Rick Hess. Curriculum & Instruction professor Gloria Ladson-Billings topped the list for UW with a No. 16 ranking. Also making the list for UW were Adam Gamoran (29), Sara Goldrick-Rab (31), Doug Harris (45) and John Witte (71).

Prof. Bruce Wampold (Counseling Psych) has been chosen to receive a Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Award. Gail McKnight Beckman created the Beckman Award to benefit teachers who have inspired their students to make a difference in their communities.

Graduate student Anneliese Cannon (C&I) partnered with Martha Olson of Madison College's Center for College Preparedness and Academic Advancement to establish a culturally-relevant literacy workshop.

OT faculty received a five-year, $3.3 million from the National Institutes of Health to support a research project, "Fetal Alcohol in Monkeys: Dopamine and Behavior."

In the year since the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery opened at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, its resident researchers have gotten comfortable in their innovative new spaces.

Now comes a fun part. Behind a green curtain lies an extension of the facility's capabilities. Lisa Frank's "<1>: "der" //Pattern for a Virtual Environment" takes a $2.5 million device from the realm of research into fine art. As Frank expands her art from two dimensions to three, she demonstrates exciting possibilities for fields not traditionally connected with science. Her exhibit runs Dec. 9-16 at the Discovery building, 330 N. Orchard St.

Assoc. Professor Sara Goldrick-Rab will speak as part of an American Enterprise Institute panel on Capitol Hill on Dec. 8.

School of Education students Matt Schuh and David Persley are members of The MadHatters, a UW-Madison men's a cappella group that was invited to the White House to perform for the President and First Lady on Dec. 7.

The Executive Committee of the Arts Institute and various members of the arts faculty reviewed applications for the Annual Arts Awards.

In case you missed them, or just want to see them again - please visit the pages below to watch recordings of the 2011 American Education Week lectures.

The UW-Madison School of Education will honor six exemplary K-12 educators and administrators in a special ceremony on Thursday, Nov. 17 at 7:00 p.m. – the culminating event of the school’s annual American Education Week celebration. During the Partners in Education ceremony at the Education Building on Bascom Hill, the School will recognize recipients of the 2011 Rockwell Awards for cooperating personnel, as well as the Nemec Elementary Education and Heideman Secondary Education awards, presented to School of Education alumni.

Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery leaders have chosen four School of Education graduate students to receive its Emerging Interfaces Awards.

"As the debate continues over the effects on education of the 2011-'13 state budget, one thing is clear: Students are receiving fewer educational opportunities now than they have in decades, which will affect them for the rest of their lives."

The School of Education will honor some of its very best scholars during an American Education Week 2011 program primarily dedicated to its retiring faculty, distinguished alumni and partner teachers during the week of Nov. 14-18.

On Monday, Nov. 14, the school pays tribute to the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis in an afternoon of lectures from recently retired professors Paul Bredeson (1:00pm), Allen Phelps (2:00 pm) and Alan Knox (3:00pm). The School will also recognize former state Superintendent of Public Instruction Herbert Grover as the recipient of its 2011 Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award.

The celebration continues on Thursday, Nov. 17 with lectures from decorated faculty and alumni, beginning with a talk from retired Curriculum and Instruction professor Ken Zeichner titled "Two Visions of Teaching and Teacher Education for the 21st Century."

Herbert J. “Bert” Grover will receive the UW-Madison School of Education Distinguished Alumni Award at an American Education Week celebration, Monday, November 14, 2011 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education. Throughout his career Grover maintained a link to the UW, research, and many faculty so that the best contemporary research could become part of state educational policy and practice.

Evaluation system to balance educator practice and student outcomes.

Chancellor David Ward, Katherine Cramer Walsh, and David Weerts will share research and insights on the emergence and contemporary practice of the Wisconsin Idea, current challenges, and future possibilities. Facilitated discussions will allow participants to consider together the implications for their own outreach and engagement practice and craft a vision for the future of the Wisconsin Idea.

C&I professor named a 2012 Brock Laureate "for pioneering the adoption of culturally responsive teaching strategies among educators."

Of all the challenges facing principals, maybe the most important are finding and then keeping the best possible teachers in the classrooms. Principals must be strategic in both hiring and managing teaching talent.

The Milwaukee Community Literacy Project supports 300 struggling readers in kindergarten through 3rd grade in reaching proficiency through support in three spheres: the school sphere, the community sphere, and the family sphere.

The central premise of the Developmental Play Assessment (DPA) instrument is that instructional goals for infants, toddlers, and young children with disabilities, or at risk for disabilities, should include attention to developments in play as well as to developments in other domains.

A new online assessments system is being developed for English learners (ELs), funded by a $10.5 million, four-year competitive grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

Madison 1670 WTDY's Amy Barrilleaux interviewed Dean Julie Underwood on Wednesday, Nov. 2 about Wisconsin State Sen. Luther Olsen's teacher evaluation bill.

SB 95, which allows standardized test scores to be used in teacher discipline cases, passed the State Senate last week and was taken up by the Assembly this week.

The Department of Educational Psychology will host the 2013 biennial conference on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL), sponsored by the International Society of the Learning Sciences. Professor Sadhana Puntambekar will chair the conference.

The 111-year-old Education Building’s recent renovations have given the building new life and made it the first and only building in the UW System to receive the highest ranking for a green-built building: LEED Platinum. Beyond that, it became the first state-owned building designed to receive an Energy Star rating for its energy conservation features.

Asst. Professor Nancy Kendall (EPS) and anthropology colleague Clair Wendland, are leading one of eight research projects ranging from human and animal disease to agriculture to economic growth will move forward with start-up funding as part of UW-Madison's focus on global health.

A group of educators, researchers, and education advocates met recently in Madison to establish a statewide research agenda for prekindergarten through 12th-grade education in Wisconsin. Appointed by Evers, the State Superintendent’s Wisconsin Education Research Advisory Council (WERAC) will identify research projects for the next three to five years, foster collaboration among education stakeholders involved in research, serve an advisory role to the Department of Public Instruction, and support broad dissemination of research results that can be acted on in classrooms to improve student learning.

Congratulations to Michael Rea whose piece Prosthetic suit for Stephen Hawking with Japanese Steel is included in the current show Power of Making at London's Victoria and Albert Museum and is the featured piece on the exhibition webpage.

Show Runs:
September 6, 2011-January 2, 2012

TANDEM PRESS ARTIST NICOLA LÓPEZ WILL BE FEATURED IN AN UPCOMING
EXHIBIT HOSTED BY THE SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM OF NEW YORK.

A group of 50 University of Wisconsin–Madison students will take on a new role Wednesday, Oct. 19, leading small groups of Middleton high school students through discussions about this year's Go Big Read selection, "Enrique's Journey."

Go Big Read is a common-reading program at UW–Madison that is designed to engage students, faculty, staff and the community in a shared, academically focused reading experience. It is now in its third year.

WCER researcher Mark Connolly assesses the pros and cons of social media use in the educational setting. Conolly acknowledges there are certainly benefits if social media is used prudently, but educators must also be wary of the inherent drawbacks.

School leaders have considerable data to use for judging school performance, yet they can struggle to associate data with school leadership practice. Richard Halverson and Carolyn Kelley are working to improve 'leadership for learning' in schools by developing the next generation of on-line formative assessment tools. The School Leadership Assessment Tools (CALL) will enable school leaders to better (a) assess the status of their school’s systems, (b) associate assessment results with areas for improvement, and (c) determine leadership tasks for systems improvement. CALL development is guided by rigorous research and validated by comparing the results to value-added measures of student learning, school climate surveys, and local measures of leadership effectiveness.

Beth Graue, Meg Meyer, and colleagues are developing a professional development program to help teachers of 4-year-old kindergarten (4K) develop an understanding of (a) early mathematics development, (b) potential family resources for child learning, and (c) ways to engage home and school to create a culturally relevant, mathematically rich, and developmentally responsive 4K program. Teachers work with, and learn from, a chosen 4-year-old who is different from them in terms of language, socioeconomic status, race, dis/ability, or family structure. Teachers will learn how 4-year-olds develop counting skills, how their families support their learning and development, families’ concerns about their children’s progress. The National Science Foundation funds this 4-year program.

School of Education Academic Advisor Aaron Bird Bear will be part of an event using a location-specific iPhone application to interact with past and present storytellers of UW-Madison.

Rebecca Kopriva is working with Phoebe Winter (Edvantia) and Jim Bauman (Center for Applied Linguistics) to manage the project designed to help students with limited English proficiency.

President Barack Obama has announced that he will nominate Adam Gamoran, associate dean for research in the UW-Madison School of Education, for reappointment as a member of the National Board for Education Sciences. Dr. Gamoran is an elected member of the National Academy of Education, and he has served on several committees of the National Research Council, including the Board on Science Education. He chairs the Independent Advisory Panel of the National Assessment of Career and Technical Education for the U.S. Department of Education, and he was appointed to the National Board for Education Sciences in 2010. His current term ends in November 2011.

Adam Gamoran, associate dean for research in the School of Education, will testify before the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, subcommittee on Research and Science Education on Wednesday, October 12, 2011 at 9 a.m. (CDT).

The hearing on What Makes for Successful K-12 STEM Education will be webcast live. It follows the release of a report on Successful K-12 STEM Education issued by the National Research Council’s (NRC) Committee on Highly Successful Schools or Programs in K-12 STEM Education, chaired by Dr. Gamoran.

The UW-Madison’s Global Studies in Higher Education (GSHE) has announced the return of their Distinguished Speaker Series. The project is headed by Amy Stambach, associate dean of the Division of International Studies and professor of Educational Policy Studies in the School of Education. The series begins with a talk by Roland Chin from the University of Hong Kong on October 3 at 4pm in 206 Ingraham Hall.

The School of Education will take center stage during the Wisconsin Science Festival's "Arts Night Out" kickoff event at the Wisconsin Union Theater on Thursday, September 22 (7:30-9:00pm). Arts Institute Director Norma Saldivar played a key role in organizing the show, which features choreography and performances from Dance Department faculty and students.

Dean Underwood's response to the Center for Equal Opportunity.

Rohany Nayan, a doctoral student in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction, recently visited the White House in connection with her participation in UW-Madison's Lubar Institute for the Study of Abrahamic Religions. The Malaysia native is an active member of an interfaith initiative at UW that is sponsored by the White House's Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge.

Dean Underwood was a featured presenter in the UW-Madison Office of Quality Improvement's 2011 Showcase.

What happens when you mix one part Aldo Leopold, another part Frank Lloyd Wright and add a pinch of Indiana Jones? Anyone can find out with a visit to the first Wisconsin Science Festival, an educational and fun-filled exploration of science and art taking stage across several sites in Madison from Sept. 22-25.

The School of Education’s Arts Institute, Dance Department and Office of Education Outreach and Partnerships, as well as Dean Julie Underwood, have been partners in planning and developing the Festival.

Taiwanese Arts Week will be held from Sept. 10-18 to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the founding of Taiwan.

Titled "Bring the Tradition and Innovation of Taiwanese Arts to Madison," this celebration intends to promote intercultural understanding through artistic exchange.

Organized by UW-Madison dance professor Jin-Wen Yu in collaboration with the Taipei Cultural Center/Economic and Cultural Office in New York along with numerous UW and local Madison organizations, this series of exhibits, screenings, lectures and performances will showcase the liveliness of Taiwanese arts with the Madison public.

Ryan Vernosh, Minnesota’s 2010 Teacher of the Year, developed a passion for culturally relevant teaching as an undergraduate at UW-Madison, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in elementary education in 2002. The Green Bay native points to the achievement gap and social justice as the two biggest issues facing education – and the driving forces behind his teaching.

Vernosh, who earned his master’s degree at the University of St. Thomas, has taught in Saint Paul Public Schools since 2004 and at Saint Paul’s Maxfield Magnet Elementary School since 2006. He teaches sixth-grade boys of color as part the gender-specific programming at Maxfield, which serves a neighborhood where many families live in poverty.

Maxfield Magnet Principal Nancy Stachel called Vernosh a consummate educator. Saint Paul Public Schools Superintendent Valeria Silva said, “Ryan represents the teacher of the future that our nation's students need right now."

Dean Julie Underwood discussed the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and public schools as a guest on The Majority Report Radio with Sam Seder on Monday, July 18.

The Education Building on Bascom Hill recently became the first building in the University of Wisconsin System to receive the highest ranking for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). On July 1, 2011, the U.S. Green Building Council certified the recently renovated 111-year-old building with the LEED Platinum stamp.

Results from an ongoing random assignment study of a private grant program in Wisconsin indicate that low-income students who receive Pell Grants and are unlikely to finish college get a sizeable boost in college persistence from additional financial aid. The findings suggest that directing aid to serve the neediest students may be the most equitable and cost-effective approach. Researchers with the Wisconsin Scholars Longitudinal Study (WSLS) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have been examining the impact of the Fund for Wisconsin Scholars (FFWS) need-based grant program on the educational attainment of its recipients since 2008. FFWS provides $3,500 per year to full-time, federal Pell Grant recipients enrolled at University of Wisconsin System institutions. WSLS researchers have collected survey and interview data on 1,500 students, including 600 grant recipients and a random sample of 900 eligible non-recipients who serve as a control group.

"Our findings suggest that making college more affordable for students who were initially unlikely to succeed in college increased their college persistence rates over the first three years of college by about 17 percentage points," says Sara Goldrick-Rab, WSLS co-director and associate professor of educational policy studies and sociology.

About 100 middle-school students will participate in Movin' Minds, a program organized by Precollege OPTIONS in Education Outreach and Partnerships at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Movin' Minds, which runs from July 18-22, allows students to exercise their bodies and minds.

Researchers at the new Morgridge Institute for Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have released the biomedical research organization's first digital learning game created through collaborations among scientists and education researchers.

Adam Gamoran, Associate Dean for research in the School of Education and director of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, has been selected as a finalist for the university’s top research job, it was announced on June 10.

John and Tashia Morgridge did much more than deliver the charge to the graduates at the Spring 2011 undergraduate commencement ceremonies. They announced that they have pledged to match each gift made by a member of the graduating senior class through the end of 2011.

The Education Building has been named among the "Top Projects of 2010" by the Daily Reporter, a news publication for construction professionals in Wisconsin.

The public will have many opportunities to experience a massive showcase of hands-on science when the National Science Olympiad Tournament rolls into the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Wednesday-Saturday, May 18-21. More than 6,000 students, educators and parents from all 50 states will visit UW-Madison for the 27th annual tournament, one of the nation's most prestigious competitions of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

ELPA Assistant Professor and WISCAPE Scholar Xueli Wang has received a $40,000 research grant from the Association for Institutional Research (AIR) for a project titled “Modeling Student Entrance into STEM Fields of Study at Community Colleges and Four-Year Institutions: Towards a Theoretical Framework of Motivation, High School Learning, and Postsecondary Context of Support."

Alumni John and Tashia Morgridge will deliver the charge to the graduates at the university’s four undergraduate commencement ceremonies on Saturday and Sunday, May 14-15, at the Kohl Center.

Michael W. Apple (C&I/EPS) was recently awarded an honorary doctorate from the National University of La Pampa in Argentina.

The School of Education will honor two of its 2011 Alumni Award recipients from the Dance Department on Friday, April 29, in the Virginia Harrison Parlor at Lathrop Hall. Maxine Sheets-Johnstone (MA '54, PhD '63) will be honored with the school's 2011 Alumni Achievement Award, while Rebecca Davis (BFA '00) will receive the Outstanding Recent Graduate Award.

The School of Education will host two commencement celebrations to honor its Spring 2011 graduates. On Friday, May 13, the School will recognize its PhD and MFA degree recipients during a hooding ceremony and reception. The festivities continue on Saturday, May 14 with a pre-commencement breakfast gathering at the Art Lofts for all bachelor's and master's degree recipients.

Sixteen accomplished Chinese student-athletes, including one coach, will spend nearly nine months living and studying at UW-Madison. The group, which includes multiple world champions and Olympic medal winners, is the second cohort in the university's partnership with Beijing Sport University, the foremost sports, physical education and exercise science institution in China.

UW-Madison kinesiology professor Li Li Ji developed the idea three years ago, preceding a 2008 visit to the United States by a delegation of 11 presidents and deans of top Chinese institutions.

To meet the growing demand to bring education research and development to the general public, friends of the University of Wisconsin-Madison have established the Wisconsin Center for Education Products and Services (WCEPS). Serving a parallel role to that of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), WCEPS will help license and market non-patentable, but often copyright protected, types of intellectual property created by faculty and staff at UW-Madison.

“Our vision with WCEPS is to support the UW-Madison research community and provide an effective way to protect as well as disseminate their educational research and ideas to K-12 education levels—similar to WARF’s work in the patentable arena,” says Dean Julie Underwood, of the UW-Madison School of Education.

Taught by Professor Jack Damer, Art 316: Lithography combines artistry, history, science, and technology to help students learn a printing process that seems ancient but is actually quite modern.

“A lot of students are turned off by working with stone in the twenty-first century,” Damer says. “But the process was created in 1798, making it one of the newest forms of printmaking.” (On Wisconsin Feature)

The UW–Madison School of Education and eight of the School’s core programs again rank among the top 10 in the United States, a distinction unmatched by any other school or college of education. Seven programs again rank in the top four in their respective fields.

Overall, the School of Education ranks ninth among more than 200 schools of education nationally, according to U.S. News and World Report’s 2012 edition of America’s Best Graduate Schools. The School, which also was ninth last year, consistently ranks in or near the top 10.

Six alumni who have made significant contributions to dance, kinesiology, educational administration and educational psychology will be honored with 2011 UW-Madison School of Education Alumni Awards.

The Alumni Achievement Award, the School of Education’s highest honor, recognizes a career of extraordinary accomplishment, while the Outstanding Recent Graduate Award honors accomplished alumni who have received a degree from the School within the past 10 years.

Two recipients who are alumni of the Kinesiology Department will be honored during the department’s Centennial Celebration gala reception at the Memorial Union on April 1. The Dance Department will recognize two of its graduates in a special ceremony at Lathrop Hall on April 29. The two other recipients have been invited to campus to be recognized during the School’s annual American Education Week celebration in mid-November.

Blogs aren’t just about trivial pursuits anymore. UW-Madison faculty are using these online diaries to share ideas and discoveries with colleagues around the world.

Blogging is a way to generate real-time debates — something that can’t happen often in the pages of research journals, says Sara Goldrick-Rab, assistant professor in the Departments of Educational Policy Studies and Sociology.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the physical education program at UW-Madison, which later became incorporated into the Department of Physical Education and Dance. In recognition of its long and proud history, the Department of Kinesiology is presenting "A Centennial Celebration: Honoring Our Physical Education Heritage, Celebrating Scientific Achievement, and Embracing the Wisconsin Idea" on April 1-2.

Leticia Smith-Evans, assistant counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), is among the distinguished UW-Madison alumni selected for this year's Forward Under 40 honor. At LDF, much of her work today focuses on educational issues such as school desegregation, voluntary integration, school discipline reform and closing achievement and opportunity gaps.

The Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER) at UW-Madison hosts an annual conference for staff from Wisconsin's Comprehensive Educational Service Areas (CESAs), which provide assistance to school districts across the state. The 14th annual conference, held February 23, focused on "Students with Special Needs and Low-Incidence Disabilities," and feature faculty members from the School of Education's Department of Rehabilitation Psychology and Special Education.

Scholars from a range of disciplines at the University of Wisconsin–Madison will dissect and discuss the Obama Administration’s education agenda during a daylong conference, sponsored by the Department of Educational Policy Studies (EPS) in the UW–Madison School of Education.

The conference, “The Obama Education Agenda: Principles, Policies and Prospects,” will be held March 9, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., in the Wisconsin Idea Room (Room 159) of the Education Building, 1000 Bascom Mall on the UW–Madison campus. All sessions are open to the public.

The Dance Department and Arts Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are sponsoring the Sunlight Project & Symposium -- a series of 10 events March 24–26 related to They Marched into Sunlight, by Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Maraniss. The book chronicles two events in October 1967 — the ambush of a U.S. battalion by North Vietnamese soldiers and a UW-Madison student riot protesting Dow Chemical.

The Project & Symposium, organized by UW-Madison Dance, grew out of New York-based dance artist Robin Becker’s collaboration with Maraniss. It will culminate with a concert presenting two new dance works based on Maraniss’ book -- "Into Sunlight" by Becker and "Sunlit Fields" by Jin-Wen Yu, Dance professor and chair.

Counseling Psychology Professor Stephen Quintana will lead a presidential task force of distinguished scholars who will examine the psychological aspects of educational disparities. American Psychological Association (APA) President Melba Vasquez recently appointed Quintana as chair of the six-member Presidential Task Force on Educational Disparities.

According to the APA, the task force is tasked with addressing questions such as: What does psychology have to say and offer about addressing the impact of educational disparities, especially on poor and racial/ethnic minority students? What are the sources of the educational gaps?

Clifton Conrad, a professor in the School of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, along with Marybeth Gasman of the University of Pennsylvania, has been awarded a three-year, $1.5 million grant from the Lumina Foundation for Education, USA Funds and the Kresge Foundation.

Consisting of $500,000 from each of the funding agencies, the grant will be used to study “models of success” that help students finish their degrees at minority-serving institutions, including historically black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions and Native American tribal colleges.

The Year of the Arts will roll through spring semester with enticing performances and events that showcase the breadth, depth, power and purpose of the arts on campus. Dance, theater, music, visual arts, film and writing are all part of the mix. Three marquee and more than a dozen featured events are added to some 300 performances, exhibits and lectures that regularly take place every year.

"Big Red Lollipop" by Rukhsana Khan has been selected as the 2011 winner of the Charlotte Zolotow Award for outstanding writing in a picture book, to be presented March 5, by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center, a library of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Established in 1998, the award honors the work of Charlotte Zolotow, a distinguished children’s book editor for 38 years with Harper Junior Books, and author of more than 70 picture books. Zolotow attended the University of Wisconsin on a writing scholarship from 1933 to 1936, and studied with Professor Helen C. White.

The National Writing Project—an initiative based on the idea of teachers teaching teachers to improve their writing instruction—is returning to Madison, kicking off in July with a four-week Summer Institute to prepare approximately 15 teacher-leaders, who, in turn, can assist other teachers.

The University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science and School of Education are collaborating on the Greater Madison Writing Project (GMWP), the newest member of the National Writing Project (NWP) network.

Diane Ravitch, regarded among the nation’s leading education historians today, will offer an informed analysis of the current state of American education—what’s broken and how can it be fixed—at a free, public presentation sponsored by the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Education, and the Wisconsin Center on Education Research, with support from the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC) and the UW–Madison Lectures Committee.

Ravitch’s presentation, The Future of Public Education, will be held Tuesday, March 8, from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. in the Wisconsin Union Theater, Memorial Union, 800 Langdon Street, Madison. The program will be available online via streamed video.

“We all need ‘time-outs’ … that time in all our lives when we need to sit down, open a book and forget about our present worries and concerns,” says sculptor Gary Lee Price. "Time Out Boy" and "Time Out Girl" — Price’s bronze sculptures of a boy and a girl sitting in rocking chairs and reading — represents “a reprieve from all the kids’ social happenings and just spending some quiet time alone with a good book.”

The two “Time Out” sculptures occupy a prominent place in the Education Building Commons, nestled next to the fireplace. They were unveiled November 5, 2010, during the official Education Building dedication program, to honor Tashia and John Morgridge for their dedication to literacy and reading education, in addition to making the renovation and addition project possible.

With any building project, the planning and construction phases attempt to take all facets into consideration, but the ultimate measure comes when people begin to occupy and use the spaces. Beyond the initial excitement of moving into spectacular spaces, the experiences and observations of Education Building occupants and users offer interesting perspectives on the $34 million renovation and addition project.

“We set out to create welcoming spaces that bring people together, instill an appreciation of our history and enable them to effectively learn, explore and collaborate,” says Julie Underwood, dean of the School of Education. “We’ve clearly accomplished that.”

The Careers Conference, hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center on Education and Work, will mark 25 years of career education and development with this year's annual event in Madison. What started as a local event has grown to a national affair that also reaches audiences from other countries. The conference will be held Monday-Wednesday, Jan. 24-26, at Madison's Concourse Hotel.

The Careers Conference offers career specialists and career educators the opportunity to connect with other experts and practitioners in their fields as well as learn about practices, strategies and programs that will help them develop into well-informed professional individuals. The conference will feature overall sessions, workshops, on-site work tours and more. Stressing the importance of lifelong career development needs, the conference's topics target a wide range of participants.

The UW-Madison Arts Institute has announced its 2010-11 recipients of awards that honor faculty, staff and students in the arts who have demonstrated excellence in creative inquiry, outreach and professional excellence. This year's award recipients will be honored at a ceremony and reception on Tuesday, May 3.

The honorees include Nancy Mladenoff and John Hitchcock of the Art faculty, as well as several students in the Art and Dance departments.

American colleges and universities are becoming less productive in getting students through to graduation, but their productivity can be improved, according to a new study by two University of Wisconsin-Madison education experts.

Conducted by Douglas N. Harris and Sara Goldrick-Rab from the Department of Educational Policy Studies, the analysis indicates that several kinds of higher education programs and strategies used nationwide are not cost effective, and rising operating costs are just one factor.

Ken Goldstein, UW-Madison professor of political science, talks with Artistic Director Chris Walker, assistant professor in the Dance Department, about UW-Madison's First Wave program on and its impact -- on the program "Office Hours," which airs on the Big Ten Network and may be viewed online.

The Education Building's Bascom Hill entrance is among 25 images of iconic entranceways featured in "Doors of UW-Madison" a new poster on sale at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with all proceeds benefiting need-based scholarships. The Division of Enrollment Management developed the poster as a special incentive to help support UW-Madison students through the Great People Scholarship Campaign.

The Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters in partnership with the UW–Madison School of Education and Wisconsin Center for Education Research is hosting an evening with author and educational historian Diane Ravitch, Tuesday, March 8, 2011, from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. in the Wisconsin Union Theater. This event is free and open to the public.

This program kicks off a special three-part series, "Education is Fundamental," which aims to bring together leading historians, researchers, and administrators in education to discuss the most important challenges facing Wisconsin and offer ideas for repair.

Dean Julie Underwood commends the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for taking a serious interest in teacher preparation and agrees with what the newspaper has identified as the key elements of an excellent teacher-education program.

While the report highlights how one small, private program meets these characteristics, the University of Wisconsin-Madison serves as an example of how a large public institution can provide high-quality teacher education.

Allied Drive Literacy Time has nurtured a partnership between UW–Madison’s School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS) and participants in the Safe Haven after-school program, run by Madison School and Community Recreation (MSCR) at the Allied Drive Learning Center.

Once a month, UW-Madison students and other volunteers share a themed program of reading and collaboration with four classes of children in grades K–3. The Children’s Cooperative Book Center (CCBC) has aided this initiative.

Studies have long shown that education is linked to better health, but new research by Pamela Herd, an associate professor of public affairs and sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, shows that higher academic performance in high school plays a critical role in better health throughout life.

The conclusion relies on data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, a groundbreaking survey that has involved more than 10,000 graduates of Wisconsin's high school class of 1957 during the last 53 years.

The 2010 Chinese Champions program at UW-Madison is winding up a highly successful inaugural session amid news that the innovative exchange has been extended for three additional years.

The groundbreaking program -- created by Li Li Ji, a UW-Madison professor of kinesiology -- allowed eight Olympic-caliber Chinese student-athletes and coaches to live and study at UW-Madison as part of a partnership with Beijing University of Sport.

Videos by MERIT Media of four of the programs from the School of the Education's American Education Week/Education Building Dedication even, November 15 and 16, have been posted for online viewing.

Recent suicides by young people have prompted a popular video campaign urging lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth who are being bullied to persevere, because “it gets better.”

Unfortunately, simply waiting for the abuse to end isn’t enough, according to participants in a recent UW-Madison School of Education forum.

“It doesn’t get better unless we make it better,” says Dean Julie Underwood, who joined professors Julie Mead and Colleen Capper for a panel discussion of “GLBT Legal Issues and the Public Schools,” held in conjunction with the School of Education’s Common Read initiative.

Diana E. Hess, professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been named senior vice president of the Spencer Foundation, a private organization dedicated to the belief that research is necessary to improving education.

UW-Madison students, faculty and staff gathered in the Bascom Hill TelePresence Classroom in the Education Building on Friday, Nov. 5 to inaugurate the powerful new videoconferencing device through a virtual meeting with Chancellor Biddy Martin, center right, and Vice Provost for Globalization and Dean of International Studies Gilles Bousquet, center left, in Beijing.

Students from professor Jeremi Suri’s Grand Strategy Program discussed the use of new technology in connecting the U.S. and China.

A slide show of Education Building images by University Communications photographer Jeff Miller has been posted on UW-Madison's main website, in advance of the upcoming formal dedication on Monday, Nov. 15, during American Education Week.

Members of the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus community are remembering Dylan Ellefson as a warm and funny friend who would have made an outstanding Spanish teacher. Ellefson, 21, was killed in a two-car accident in the 1400 block of East Johnson Street around 12:30 p.m. on Oct. 24, according to Madison Police.

Wisconsin will be home to a national research and training center aimed at improving employment rates and the quality of employment for people with disabilities, funded by a five-year, $5 million grant from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research in the U.S. Department of Education.
The Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Effective Vocational Rehabilitation Service Delivery Practices will be based jointly at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Wisconsin-Stout.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education will host a special American Education Week (AEW) program November 15-16 to celebrate the grand reopening of the revamped Education Building on Bascom Hill.

The full two-day event will bring together more than 30 distinguished UW-Madison alumni, faculty and experts from around the country to discuss critical issues in education today. The program also will honor the profession of teaching.

The 26th annual Assistive Technology Expo 2010 will be held October 21 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Engineering Centers Building, 1550 Engineering Drive on the UW-Madison campus. The expo features about 40 exhibits displaying some of the latest advances in technology that can make a difference in the lives of people with disabilities, open up new possibilities, and facilitate participation in school, employment, and community life.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison will host the first conference of CRÈME International, the International Consortium on Equity in Music Education, from Oct. 20-23.

The conference will assemble scholars, researchers, educators, artists and activists around the theme of "Race, Erasure and Equity in Music Education," with keynote addresses, paper presentations and roundtable sessions. It is co-sponsored by the School of Music, the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and the Division of Continuing Studies.

On Sunday, Oct. 10, American Printmaking Now will open at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing, and prints from the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Tandem Press will be among those featured. Following Beijing, the exhibition will travel to Guan Shanyue Art Museum in Shenzhen City (Nov. 16-Dec. 5), Zhejiang Art Museum (Dec. 28-Jan. 23) and the Shanghai Art Museum (March 8-April 8) in succession.

"This is an extraordinary opportunity for Tandem Press and recognizes the importance of the Press on an international level," says Paula Panczenko, director of the Tandem Press.

Leaders from Shanghai’s East China Normal University (ECNU), one of China’s top institutions of teacher training, visited UW-Madison on Sept. 14 to learn more about the School of Education and discuss possible collaborations in the future.

The visit follows UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin’s stop at ECNU during her spring trip to China. Li Li Ji, a UW-Madison professor of kinesiology who also serves as adjunct professor at ECNU, facilitated the visit after accompanying the chancellor in the spring.

The UW-Madison School of Education's Common Read Series this year will focus on the complexities of sexuality and genders, particularly in the context of education today.

Dean Julie Underwood has invited the entire School of Education community to read “Freak Show,” by James St. James, which will serve as a spring board to discuss the multiple ways in which genders and sexuality shape educational and life experiences.

"Illuminate: UW-Madison Year of the Arts" is a special initiative aimed at kicking up the campus arts scene with additional programming to spotlight and celebrate the breadth, depth, power and purpose of the arts on campus. All the visual and performing arts departments — include Art and Dance in the School of Education — are getting into the act.

The Year of the Arts initiative is led by the Arts Institute, an intercollege unit of the School of Education, College of Letters & Science, and the School of Human Ecology.

The elite student-athletes and coaches from China who are studying at UW-Madison this fall were formally welcomed by Chancellor Biddy Martin with a picnic Monday evening at Olin House.

The group is part of the inaugural Chinese Champions Program, a first-of-its-kind collaboration jointly announced by Martin and Beijing Sports University officials during a meeting in Beijing in March. The idea for the program was initiated two years ago by UW-Madison Kinesiology professor and chair Li Li Ji.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education has returned to the Education Building on Bascom Hill, coming home to a much-improved facility than the place it vacated in 2008 thanks to a $34 million makeover.

The building occupants moved into their new spaces during the first two weeks of August. The School will launch a year-long celebration of the Education Building re-opening the week of August 23 with special events for building occupants, those involved with the project, and emeritus Education faculty and staff.

This summer, there's no cooler place to be than in the lab for two dozen scientifically minded middle-school students. The students, from the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, arrived in Madison July 12 for a stem cell science camp that spans four days. The Georgia students are being paired with students from the School of Education's PEOPLE program, which also works to advance academic achievement among students of color and from families with low incomes.

Organized by the Morgridge Institute for Research, the science camp aims to introduce diverse middle-school students from challenging backgrounds to a variety of careers in the rapidly growing field of regenerative biology.

A group of elite Chinese student-athletes and coaches is expected to arrive in Madison on Friday, July 23, marking the start of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Chinese Champions Program. The idea for the program was formed two years ago with the help of kinesiology professor and chair Li Li Ji.

The nine athletes (two of whom are coaches) will live and study on campus until Dec. 15, as part of a novel, formal exchange with Beijing University of Sport, the foremost sports, physical education and exercise science institution in China. Among the elite athletes, the best known is Luo Xuejuan, a swimmer who earned a gold medal in the breaststroke in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.

The Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives (OMAI) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison continues to draw national praise for expanding the dimensions of educational creativity.

The National Governors Association (NGA) is recognizing Willie Ney, executive director of OMAI and founder of OMAI’s First Wave Spoken Word and Urban Arts Community. The NGA will honor Ney for Distinguished Service to the Arts on Friday, July 9 at the NGA’s annual meeting in Boston.

Daniel S. Jacobsohn, who has been a leader in technology services at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has been named to the newly created position of Chief Information Officer of the School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dean Julie Underwood announced.

Jacobsohn, who will be a member of School's Senior Leadership team, will be responsible for providing overall leadership, vision, strategic management and accountability for School-wide information technology, media development, research, instructional support, and library services.

The 2010 Wisconsin Triennial, on view at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA) from May 22 to August 15, 2010, features many of the Art Department's faculty, staff and alumni.

The School Psychology Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison recently added another honor to its list of distinctions.

The American Psychological Association (APA) presented the program — part of the top-ranked Department of Educational Psychology — with an Innovative Practices in Graduate Education Award, which recognizes new and creative approaches to training graduate students in various areas of psychology.

CCBC Choices, the popular publication produced by UW-Madison's Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC), involves more than an annotated list of titles. The CCBC librarians also prepare annual essays on publishing trends and web presentations linked to CCBC Choices. These features, along with information about ordering copies of CCBC Choices 2010, are available on the CCBC website.

Education took center stage at UW-Madison’s May 15 morning commencement exercises for bachelor’s and master’s degree candidates, with a keynote address by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and a student address by education graduate Hilary Minor.

The School of Education hosted a reception and hooding ceremony honoring its PhD and MFA candidates on Friday afternoon, May 14, 2010. On Saturday morning, May 15, the School celebrated the achievements of its bachelor’s and master’s degree candidates with a commencement breakfast.

Those earning bachelor’s degrees this spring from the University of Wisconsin-Madison included more than 110 students who represent the increasing diversity on campus. Their majors vary — from pre-law and natural sciences in genetics to Caribbean and Iberian studies and elementary education — but these minority and first-generation college students, who’ve been supported and nurtured by programs to guide them past institutional barriers, share a record of accomplishment.

Minneapolis-based artist Randy Walker has been commissioned to design and install a permanent outdoor sculpture on the new terrace on the north side of the UW-Madison Education Building, as part of the renovation and addition project. Walker discusses his work, Proximal Ring, with Campus Connections.

The UW-Madison School of Education honored three of its outstanding graduates on Friday, April 23, 2010, as part of its 100th Anniversary Celebration of Lathrop Hall. Alumni Achievement Awards were presented to Jane Clark, professor and chair of the Department of Kinesiology, School of Public Health at the University of Maryland, College Park; and to Sharon Gersten Luckman, executive director of the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation. Receiving the 2010 Outstanding Recent Graduate Award was Tori Rogoski-Rutta, founder and director of the Dance Education Center in Stevens Point.

A UW–Madison education professor has been chosen for the 2010 class of William T. Grant Scholars, an elite group of early-career researchers studying ways to improve the lives of youth. Sara Goldrick-Rab, assistant professor of educational policy studies and sociology, plans to use the award to help expand on a landmark, randomized trial of need-based student financial aid>

While finalizing preparations for the Lathrop Hall centennial celebration, the UW–Madison Dance Program received an added reason to rejoice — the nation’s first college program to offer a dance degree had just been granted departmental status. Until the latest move, the program had operated under the wing of the Department of Kinesiology in the School of Education.

The UW-Madison Collegiate Slam Team took first place this month at the 2010 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational hosted by Emerson College in Boston. The UW-Madison team included four students from First Wave Hip-Hop Theater Ensemble, which is based in the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives (OMAI), in the School of Education.

Yet again, seven core programs of the UW–Madison School of Education rank among the top three in the United States, a distinction unmatched by any other school or college of education. Overall, the School of Education ranks ninth among more than 200 schools of education nationally (third among public universities), according to U.S. News and World Report’s 2011 edition of America’s Best Graduate Schools.

Congratulations, graduates! The School of Education will celebrate the achievements of its 2010 spring graduates with a hooding ceremony for PhD and MFA degree candidates on Friday, May 14, 3:30-5:00 p.m. in the Nicholas-Johnson Pavilion and a commencement breakfast for bachelor's and master's degree candidates on Saturday, May 15, 8:15-9:30 a.m. in Gordon Commons.

Eleven accomplished Chinese student-athletes will spend six months living and studying at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as part of a groundbreaking partnership with Beijing University of Sport, the foremost sports, physical education and exercise science institution in China. The idea for the program was formed two years ago with the help of UW-Madison kinesiology professor and chair Li Li Ji.

Sandy-stoned Lathrop Hall on University Avenue turns 100 this year. To celebrate this centennial, dozens of faculty, staff, students and alumni who spent many memorable years in Lathrop – the long-time home of women’s physical education and dance programs – will gather April 21-24 for concerts, panel discussions, lectures, presentations, historical displays, tours and socials.

In addition to providing a contemporary home for the School of Education, the Education Building Renovation and Addition Project has become a learning laboratory for how to do environmentally sound capital projects. The building project currently is on track to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold certification, a noteworthy distinction that no campus building has yet attained.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will speak at UW-Madison's Saturday morning (10 a.m.) commencement ceremony on May 15 at the Kohl Center, Chancellor Biddy Martin announced. "It is a privilege and an honor to have a Cabinet member, particularly the secretary of education, speak to our graduates," Martin says.

Through its new American Indian Curriculum Services (AICS) office, the School of Education has launched an effort to provide resources for integrating American Indian studies into school curriculum. To raise awareness on campus about American Indian perspectives, the School has been engaging in a series of discussions. For two SOE staff members, these efforts reflect personal passions for education and American Indian culture.

As a place where faculty and student artists can create and share their work, the Art Lofts works. Now, the Art Department, alumni and friends have turned their sights on constructing an Art Instructional Building next door to the Art Lofts, to replace the current space in the Humanities Building.

In the Art of Clinical Communication class, students in the School of Veterinary Medicine learn to communicate with human clients -- with Counseling Psychology students playing a range of roles.

President Obama has nominated Adam Gamoran as a member of the National Board for Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Gamoran is the John D. MacArthur Professor of Sociology and Educational Policy Studies and director of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Twenty-one high school spoken-word artists from southern Wisconsin will participate in a finale competition at 7 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 26, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Memorial Union Theater. The finale, culminating from competitive semifinal slams at high schools and community centers in Milwaukee and the Madison area, will decide the members of the Wisconsin Grand Slam Poetry Team. This team will represent the state at the 13th Annual Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam Festival in Los Angeles on July 19-25.

Craig Kielburger believes that “the greatest challenge facing our time is that we are raising a generation of passive bystanders.”
The Canadian activist will speak on “The World Needs Your Kid: How to Nurture Children Who Care and Contribute” – during this year’s Wisconsin Council for Social Studies and International Education Conference, March 15-16. The UW-Madison School of Education and its Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis are among the conference co-sponsors.

Students, staff, and faculty will gather for a tribute to Shanica Adkins, a UW-Madison senior killed in a Dec. 31 auto accident, on Monday, Jan. 25, 10-11:30 a.m. at Tripp Commons in Memorial Union. Adkins came to UW-Madison as a PEOPLE scholar and has served the program as a volunteer tutor for middle-school students and as a dorm counselor in the summer for high school students. The first in her family to attend college, she planned to pursue a master's degree in social work after graduating in May with a double major in social work and sociology.

How can teachers best organize students for instruction? UW-Madison education professor Adam Gamoran discusses recent research on tracking and ability grouping in the January feature article from the Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER).

"What Can You Do with a Paleta?" by Carmen Tafolla is the thirteenth annual winner of the Charlotte Zolotow Award for outstanding writing in a picture book. The award is given by the Cooperative Children's Book Center, a library of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The 24th annual Careers Conference (January 25-27) will focus on innovative strategies and approaches for addressing the complex challenges created by the global recession. The wide variety of sessions and programs on this year’s conference agenda are led by well-known national experts as well as everyday practitioners. These sessions, along with workplace tours, featured speakers and workshops, will provide professional development opportunities that will enable educators, counselors, and practitioners to engage youth and adults in the kind of planning that can lead to a productive and satisfying career.

In 2008, Arne Duncan (then CEO of Chicago Public Schools) selected education alumnus Donald Fraynd to participate in a bold strategy for dealing with the city's lowest-performing schools. As head of Chicago’s Office of School Turnaround, Fraynd aims to transform chronically underperforming schools into high-performing schools by using a comprehensive reform model. Already he is seeing promising signs.

Looking around the exterior of the Education Building on Bascom Hill these days provides a good view of the shape of things to come.

The side that has faced Bascom Mall for nearly 110 years now looks brighter, thanks to a thorough cleaning of the brick façade. On the north side, facing Observatory Drive and Lake Mendota, the hodge-podge of tacked-on brick appendages has been replaced by a new east wing and central commons section.

James C. Wright Middle School -- one of the UW-Madison School of Education's partner schools -- recently enjoyed a day in the national spotlight, when President Obama visited November 4, 2009 to talk about education and meet with students.

The experience was particularly remarkable for Lori Mann Carey of the Art Department and her young daughter, who saw the president up close. "What a day!" Carey says.

In the last 10 years, 40 states have implemented class-size reduction programs, which are popular with the public. However, people often use differing definitions for the term "class-size reduction." To sort out the terminologies, UW-Madison professor Beth Graue and colleague Erica Rauscher interviewed scholars who have worked on the topic and began unpacking the assumptions used in research, policy, and practice.

The Cooperative Children's Book Center is offering a preview of titles to be included in "CCBC Choices 2010," highlighting the best books published in 2009. The CCBC librarians will be updating this PDF document periodically throughout the fall. The next issue of the the popular "CCBC Choices" will be available after March 6, 2010.

Education professor Richard Halverson offers a vision for the future of American education that goes well beyond the walls of a classroom in a new book he has co-authored, Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology: The Digital Revolution and Schooling in America. “I want schools to understand what they’re up against, and I want schools to be able to embrace opportunities where digital learning makes sense,” says Halverson.

Administrators from Wisconsin school districts are working with School of Education researchers to learn how to use a new student growth measure. In early November, the Value-Added Research Center (VARC) began rolling out a series of training sessions for school administrators on value-added research. Value-added research offers a fair and transparent system of measuring student growth that can account for such factors as a student’s prior performance level or socioeconomic status.

We’re proud to call her one of ours! Alexa Posny (M.A. ’76, special education & behavioral disabilities; Ph.D. ’88, educational administration) has been appointed assistant secretary of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in the U.S. Department of Education. Posny has initiated and administered numerous programs for children and adults with special needs at both state and national levels, most recently serving as the Kansas education commissioner.

American Education Week is a time to recognize all the people – in schools, universities, homes, businesses and communities – who work together to help children and young adults learn. The School of Education marks the occasion with a full week of events that include public lectures on local school governance and the future of school accountability, a forum on innovative ideas for need-based aid in Wisconsin, the fall faculty dance concert, and an art talk, to name but a few. Most events are free and open to the public.

The Strategic Management of Human Capital in Education project (SMHC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is offering a national conference for teams of education leaders from urban school districts across the country. Keynote presenters and panel presentations will focus on leading edge, comprehensive approaches to talent and human capital management practices currently in progress in places throughout the country and performance management strategies and tools used in districts and organizations. The conference will take place in Washington, D.C. Online registration closes on Tuesday, October 27.

Join the librarians of UW-Madison' Cooperative Children's Book Center for timely, 30-minute tours through some of the newest and best in children’s and young adult literature. These monthly are designed to give librarians a heads-up about selected new titles of note, as well as to revisit some of the books already in library collections. (Registration required; sessions are archived for reference.)

“Assistive technology is a foundation to the quality of life that almost all persons with disabilities require,” says Monica KamalRossa, who is the lead organizer for the 25th annual Assistive Technology Expo.

The Expo will be held Wednesday, November 4, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Engineering Centers Building, 1550 Engineering Drive on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. The event is free and open to the general public and showcases some of the latest advances in technology that can offer people with disabilities new opportunities to participate in school, employment and community life.

UW–Madison education professor Geoffrey Borman and colleagues have evaluated Open Court Reading (OCR), a phonics-based K–6 curriculum grounded in research-based practices. Even though OCR has been widely used since the 1960s, it had not been evaluated rigorously, so these findings should prove significant for curriculum leaders, literacy leaders, researchers, and policymakers.

A research team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison recently won $4.5 million in federal grants to study computer games and learning.

"Funding at this scale gives us an unprecedented opportunity to use computer games to teach — and to test what kids have learned — in a new way," says David Williamson Shaffer, a professor of educational psychology in the UW-Madison School of Education who is principal investigator on three of the four grants. "This funding lets us use the power of computer technology to prepare kids for the world of global competition that computer technology has created."

The transformation has been nothing short of dramatic — and it’s not yet complete. When I put on my hard hat and pass through the fence surrounding the Education Building on Bascom Hill every week or two, I can always count on seeing several things that have changed since my previous visit. In short, my mission is to find progress and photograph it.

The UW-Madison Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives (OMAI), which oversees the First Wave Learning Community, has been selected to receive one of the state’s top honors, a 2009 Governor’s Award in Support of the Arts. This is the first time a university arts program has won the award in its long history of recognizing arts programs and philanthropists across the state of Wisconsin.

The UW-Madison will host a semester-long fall lecture series based on the scholarship and art of Hip-Hop. The public and entire campus community are invited to attend the free lecture series, which is a cooperative venture of the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives (OMAI), the Havens Center and the Office of the Vice Provost for Climate and Diversity.

Three units of the UW-Madison School of Education have been consolidated into a single entity, pooling resources and expertise to better serve both internal and external users.
The new unit, called Media, Education Resources, and Information Technology (MERIT), combines the Center for Instructional Materials and Computing (CIMC), the Instructional Media Development Center (IMDC) and the School of Education’s Information Technology Office.

Adam Kelley (B.S. '07 in elementary education and African-American studies) is using the skills he learned teaching in the Madison Professional Development Schools (PDS) Partnership to train teachers in a remote area of Uganda as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer.

“Sense of Place, Sense of Self,” is the latest bibliography from the Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC). This list explores fiction for older elementary through high school readers in which the modern-day setting plays a critical role.

Six months into the construction phase, the Education Building Renovation/Addition Project has brought dramatic changes to the 100-year-old Bascom Hill structure. Currently, construction of the building's new sections may be viewed through a pair of webcams, with views from Helen C. White and Science halls.

(For links to the webcams, see the full article.)

The University of Wisconsin-Madison will celebrate its eighth year of an important pipeline for student diversity from noon-2 p.m. on Friday, July 31, at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison. The class of 2009, composed of 74 Pre-College Enrichment Opportunity Program for Learning Excellence (PEOPLE) high school graduates, will be recognized for completing the high school portion of the program and being admitted to UW-Madison for undergraduate studies.

The Art Department has received a $90,000 grant from the Windgate Foundation to establish the “Windgate Resident Artist Program” in the Wood/Furniture Area. The program will bring six artists to campus for semester-long residencies over the next three years, beginning with Katie Hudnall in fall 2009.

“Kathleen T. Horning is one of the most influential librarians you’ll ever meet – and one of the kindest,” writes Nina Lindsay in a School Library Journal article. Horning, who is the director of the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) – a research library housed in the School of Education, recently was recognized by the American Library Association for her “extraordinary contributions to promoting access to books and encouraging a love of reading for lifelong learning.” In her interview with Lindsay, Horning discusses the journey that brought her to the CCBC, the one book every family should have, and much more.

Julie Underwood returned to her post as dean of the UW-Madison School of Education after serving as UW-Madison’s interim provost for the first half of 2009. Adam Gamoran, who served as interim dean, welcomed Underwood back at the July 15 meeting of the School’s Administrative Council.

Research into low academic achievement for African American children shows that the culture of children and their teachers affects student engagement and learning, and that parental involvement and social networks are important. To gain insight from children’s lived experiences, and to map networks of social support, UW-Madison professor of Human Ecology Jeffrey Lewis and colleague Amy Hilgendorf interviewed 28 African American boys in grades 4-6 in one Wisconsin city. (From the Wisconsin Center for Education Research)

Professional golfer Steve Stricker is giving a boost to student golf instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison by designating the university to receive $45,000 through the 2008 Ryder Cup Outreach Program.

The funds, distributed through the Play Golf America University Program, will enable the Physical Education Activity Program in the Department of Kinesiology and the Division of Recreational Sports to expand golf programs at UW-Madison.

More than 40 educators from nine states will attend the fourth annual Hip Hop and Spoken Word Teacher/Educator Institute on campus July 6-10. Winner of the 2007 North American Association of Summer Sessions “Creative and Innovative Program Award,” this institute brings together teachers, professors, community leaders, emcees and activists who use the media of spoken word and hip-hop as relevant and dynamic educational tools to engage students across multidisciplinary curricula.

The Center on Education and Work (CEW) recently launched "Planning for Retirement: Exploring Your Career and Leisure Options," an online, independent-study course using the university's Learn@UW Web site.

According to the stereotypical view, retirement involves ceasing to work and going off, for example, to travel and visit the grandkids. Today, however, baby boomers reaching that stage in their lives have more options, Judy Ettinger, an emerita senior outreach specialist at CEW says. And they don't necessarily stop working.

A group of faculty, students and staff associated with the UW's Department of Rehabilitation Psychology and Special Education have been working on Project Summer, which aims to establish relationships, connections and tools to link youth with significant disabilities to employment and other service opportunities in their communities.

Studies by researchers at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER) demonstrate that schools in several states have effectively doubled student performance. From these findings, the researchers developed a list of 10 steps schools can take to dramatically improve student performance.

Kenneth Zeichner, the Hoefs-Bascom Professor of Teacher Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and associate dean of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education, has been elected to the prestigious National Academy of Education (NAEd).

Hundreds of students, faculty, staff, alumni, guests and members of the public attended the Art Department and School of Education's celebration of the opening of the Art Lofts facility during the week of May 5-9, 2009. Highlights included remarks by Provost Julie Underwood, Interim Dean Adam Gamoran, Chancellor Biddy Martin and Lt. Governor Barbara Lawton, along with demonstrations by art alumni Marvin Lipofsky and David Dahlquist. The family of emeritus faculty member Harvey Littleton and Dale Chihuly (by video) reflected on the early days of glass and ceramics on the UW campus.

More that 350 people gathered in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union on April 29 for the School of Education’s annual Undergraduate Awards Banquet, where 211 scholarships totaling nearly $400,000 were announced. The banquet provides scholarship recipients and their families the chance to say “thank you” to the people who support their scholarships.

Peggy Choy — dancer, choreographer and teacher — thrives on diversity. While firmly grounded in her Korean-American roots, Choy actively seeks out and engages in collaborations that cut across artistic and cultural boundaries and create experiences of intercultural synergy. Choy, an instructor in UW-Madison’s Dance Program and outreach coordinator for the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, has been named one of the 2009 UW-Madison Outstanding Women of Color.

The Art Department, the School of Education and university will celebrate the opening of the Art Lofts, 111 N. Frances St., with a series of events the week of May 5-9, all free and open to the public. These will include tours, demonstrations and student art sales from 1:30-5 p.m. on Wednesday, May 6, and from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on Saturday, May 9.

The UW–Madison School of Education is ranked seventh among more than 200 schools of education nationally, with seven of its core programs rated among the top three, according to U.S. News and World Report’s 2010 edition of America’s Best Graduate Schools.

The School of Education is pleased to announce the recipients of its 2009 Distinguished Achievement Awards, the highest honor it bestows upon current faculty and staff.

The School of Education will hold two celebrations in honor of its graduates this spring: a reception and hooding ceremony for Ph.D. and M.F.A. degree candidates on Friday, May 15; and a commencement breakfast for bachelor's and master's degree candidates on Saturday, May 16. Pre-registration is required.

The project to renovate and renew the Education Building is now making visible progress. A webcam has been set up for viewing exterior work on the north side of the building.

The UW-Madison School of Education is joining with partners from the United Kingdom and Australia to offer a course on democracy education this summer at the University of London’s Institute of Education. The course will be taught by faculty from the three institutions.

Science teacher Stephanie Waite (B.S. ’06 in biology and broad field science) is using her experiences in China and the Galapagos Islands to engage students at Racine Park High School in environmental issues, both at home and far beyond. Stephanie credits the School of Education's International Education Conference, which she attended as an undergraduate, with fueling her love for educational travel.

The Singapore Ministry of Education has awarded a four-year $3.5 million contract to the Center on Education and Work (CEW) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s School of Education for localizing CEW’s WISCareers and CareerLocker online career-information systems for use in Singapore schools.

After years of planning, the $34 million project to renovate and add to the Education Building on Bascom Hill has reached the construction phase. On January 19, the building was turned over to the general contractor, J.P. Cullen of Janesville, which has begun the on-site work.

Many schoolchildren who have learning disabilities or limited English proficiency receive some form of tutoring after school, but programs too often are staffed with poorly trained volunteers. To address the problem, education associate professor Kimber Malmgren has developed a tutoring program centered on evidence-based reading instructional practices. It’s inexpensive and can be easily adopted by afterschool programs for their own use

Transformation of the old university warehouse on Francis Street to a state-of-the-art facility for Art Department programs began a few years ago with the move of the glass lab and metal sculpture foundry to the building. The latest development – a $9.2 million renovation completed in December – provides a new home for ceramics, papermaking and other areas, plus studio space for more than 60 faculty and graduate students, as well as accessible public spaces where art can be exhibited.

Career development and counseling can provide the best defense in times of economic instability. With the current recession as a backdrop, preeminent experts and practitioners are convening in Madison January 26-28 to share the latest strategies, programs, and best practices in the field of career development.

Is it possible to “make it” as an artist in today’s society? Art Department alumni J.J. Sedelmaier, Brenda Baker and Brian Raffel will share their professional experiences during the last day of the UW–Madison Arts Enterprise Symposium, which runs from Friday, Jan. 30 through Sunday, Feb. 1. Also featured at the event will be art professors Aris Georgiades and Gail Simpson, dance professors Li Chiao-Ping and Jin-Wen Yu, and Arts Institute outreach specialist Kate Hewson. Sessions will be held at the UW-Madison Pyle Center.

Patrick Farrell, who has served as provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison since April 2006, will return to the College of Engineering faculty at the end of the fall 2008 semester. Beginning in January, Dean Julie Underwood of the School of Education will serve as interim provost through the full course of the search process, which will begin soon.

Sara Goldrick-Rab and Douglas N. Harris, assistant professors of educational policy studies, are co-directing a groundbreaking study of the long-term effects of financial aid on college students. Participants include nearly 6,000 Wisconsin residents receiving a federal Pell grant while enrolled at each of the 42 public colleges statewide. Many are also grantees of the Fund for Wisconsin Scholars (FFWS), a foundation established by UW-Madison alumni John and Tashia Morgridge.

Light sculptures designed by Art faculty members Steven Feren and Gail Simpson are being placed along the Dayton Street promenades leading to the Kohl Center. Intended to add color and activity to the plaza area, the 17-foot-tall sculptures consist of a light standard supported by a stainless steel structure and wrapped with ribbons of bronze. Each sculpture contains 200 energy-efficient LED lights that are computer controlled and are capable of generating millions of color variations. The artwork was funded privately by a gift from U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl.

Neither man set out to be an educational leader. But circumstances, opportunities and inspiration led John Wiley and Art Rainwater to two of the most visible education posts in Madison — chancellor of the state’s flagship university and superintendent of the state’s second- largest public school district. Both stepped down from those posts in mid-2008, and are now sharing their experience and knowledge with current and future leaders through the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis (ELPA).

Monica KamalRossa left Wisconsin in late October with her wheelchair and her bicycle to hit the streets in the New York City Marathon. Since injuring her spinal cord in a 2001 skiing accident, she has relied on a trio of wheelchairs to get around. This time, KamalRossa sped around New York City in a handcycle – a recumbent bicycle operated by a two-hand crank.

The UW–Madison School of Education invites faculty, staff, students and the public to join in its celebration of American Education Week, November 16–22.

“Once upon a time, in a dilapidated house that belonged in a second-rate crime novel, a group of UW-Madison graduate (art) students discovered some unwelcome visitors.” Thus begins the article, “50 Years of MFA Studios: A Nooks and Crannies Retrospective,” a special feature that first appeared in the Art Department’s 2008 fall newsletter.

Art professor Truman Lowe recently treated members of the Art Department's Board of Visitors, art faculty and art alumni to an exclusive, pre-opening tour of the exhibition "Fritz Scholder: Indian/Not Indian" at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian in New York City.

Understanding legal boundaries can make teachers more comfortable and guide them in respectfully balancing legitimate competing interests, says Julie Mead, professor in UW-Madison’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis.

A new online career-matching initiative aims to promote job opportunities across Wisconsin for young people and build the state’s information technology workforce. UW-Madison's Center on Education and Work (CEW) helped to develop this resource, which allows Wisconsin companies and organizations to publicize information technology internships to students seeking exciting career opportunities.

“My sisters and I grew up feeling that the way to make our lives meaningful was to make a life where you work in service to others,” says Professor Nancy Kendall, who is spending a year in Mozambique and Malawi to conduct research on children affected by HIV/AIDS.

During her Peace Corps experience a few years ago, Anne Riordan fell in love with a place where winters last nine months and temperatures plummet to 40 degrees below zero. Since then, Riordan has dreamed of returning to Mongolia. She found her chance in 2007 when a Fulbright Fellowship enabled her to go back to the central Asia country to complete research for her master’s degree in special education at UW-Madison.

A national coalition of two dozen multiracial school districts is identifying practices and strategies that show promise in alleviating disparities in student achievement. Now based at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, the Minority Student Achievement Network is focusing its research and development on four areas: mathematics, literacy, teacher-student relationships, and conversations about race.

Spirit and generosity marked UW Day at the Wisconsin State Fair on August 6, when the fair grounds were saturated with red and white. Not only did fair goers enjoy Bucky, the sounds of the UW Marching Band and numerous exhibits, they also had an opportunity to do good deeds by contributing school supplies for children who need them in the Milwaukee public schools.

Dozens of middleschoolers from across the Madison area came to UW-Madison campus in July to attend more than a dozen courses including exercise science, radio production, cartography and entomology as part of a new pre-college program called Movin’ Minds.

Three School of Education graduate students received international travel awards from UW-Madison's Global Studies program.

Nicole Gruter has a story for every object at her yard sale and she wouldn’t let you buy it without hearing the tale.

Researchers are examining the practices and potential of digital media. Constance Steinkuehler and other scholars contend that video games can promote literacy skills and foster learning. And they've set out to show how that can work.

The School of Education will hold two celebrations in honor of its graduates this spring.

Three outstanding alumnae returned to Madison this spring, when each participated in a special day-on-campus to celebrate their achievements and receive the School’s highest honors.

A record-setting 240 undergraduate scholarships, worth a total of nearly $500,000, were announced at the School of Education Undergraduate Honors Banquet, April 30.

Seven members of the School of Education have been selected to receive Distinguished Achievement Awards, the highest honor the School bestows upon current faculty and staff.

With work on one building project underway and construction set to begin early next year on another, the UW–Madison School of Education faces some exciting changes on the horizon.

The UW–Madison School of Education's core programs again this year rank among the very best in the nation, according to U.S. News and World Report’s 2009 edition of America’s Best Graduate Schools.

The public is invited to a memorial service for painter and UW-Madison Art Department faculty member, Gelsy Verna, who unexpectedly died last month.

More than 500 students and faculty from 33 colleges and universities in the Midwest, along with 30 students from Taiwan, will come to campus in March to participate in the North-Central Region American College Dance Conference.

The Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis (ELPA) is putting current research on successful schools to good use via two initiatives: an annual conference for practitioners and a new cohort approach to its existing Ph.D. program.

Scholars from UW-Madison and other institutions will meet on Thursday and Friday, Feb. 7 and 8, to discuss the intersections of religion and education in the United States and around the world. "Faith in Schools: Religion and Education in Comparative and International Perspectives," the fifth annual conference sponsored by the UW-Madison Department of Educational Policy Studies, will be held at the Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St. All sessions are free and open to the public.

The Art Department's visiting-artist program is introducing students to professional artists and also providing weekly visiting-artist lectures that are free and open to the public.

The Art Department Faculty Exhibition at the Chazen Museum of Art fills three galleries as well as the museum's entire fourth floor, and showcases the work of 27 faculty, 17 emeritus faculty, and seven affiliates. Faculty members will give a series of talks during the exhibition, which runs from Jan. 26 to Mar. 30. The public is invited to an opening reception at the Chazen on Friday, Jan. 25, from 6 to 8 p.m.

UW–Madison spent $30 million of externally generated funds on education research in fiscal 2006, more than any other U.S. university, according to the latest figures released by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Most of the education research at UW–Madison resides in the School of Education’s Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER), one of the nation’s oldest and largest university-based research centers.

Educators from area K-12 schools filled the Memorial Union's Great Hall with conversation, laughter and applause during the 2007 Partners in Education Banquet on Tuesday, Nov. 13. A photo gallery accompanies the news article.

Videos, photographs, a book project, and sculptural elements that explore landscape, culture, and technology will be featured in “The Beautiful Lie,” an exhibit by Stephen Hilyard running Dec. 1 through Feb. 17 at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA), at the Overture Center.

Construction soon will begin on the next phase of an effort to consolidate all Art Department programs at a single site. Once completed, the Art Lofts - located in a remodeled warehouse next to the Kohl Center - will house all departmental programs except those now located on the sixth and seventh floors of the Humanities Building.

Kinesiology professor Jo-Anne Lazarus is engaged as both researcher and subject in exploring a range of therapies aimed at warding off the progression of the disease.

Great Public Schools: A Basic Right and Our Responsibility is the theme of American Education Week 2007, a celebration of all the people – in schools, homes and communities – who work together to help children and young adults achieve. The School of Education will mark the occasion with a full calendar of events, and it invites the public to join in the celebration!

The campus-wide Arts Night Out! celebration (Oct. 13) features a drive-by printing press, Art Department activities for children and adults, lessons in ballroom dancing, and much more.

Research findings just published by occupational therapy professor Mary Schneider and colleagues suggest that infants and children who carry a certain gene variant may be more vulnerable to ill effects of fetal alcohol exposure.

The Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (CIRTL), which is administered by the UW-Madison School of Education, has received a three-year, $5.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to expand a campus science education program to five other major research universities.

Months of study and ongoing discussions involving the State of Wisconsin, UW-Madison, the School of Education, and the architectural and engineering firm of Hammel, Green, and Abrahamson, Inc. have produced the basic concept plan for renovating and expanding the Education Building.

Two UW-Madison education assistant professors are studying fantasy leagues in a new project aimed at understanding how both expert and novice players approach the game and what their strategies reveal about how people learn.

Ute Ritschel, a UW-Madison Arts Institute spring 2007 artist in residence, brings together artists from around the world to explore the connection between art and nature.

Some Madison middle school students will have a pretty impressive subject for their “What I did on my summer vacation” essays – developing their own plan for making over the capital city’s most famous street and some of its key neighborhoods.

Professor and department chair Li Li Ji takes students to his native China to learn about their physical education programs.

William P. Morgan, UW-Madison emeritus professor and renowned sports psychologist, and his contributions to the field of exercise psychology have been honored in several ways over the past year, culminating in this year’s Hetherington Award, the highest award bestowed by the American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education.

The Clark W. Hetherington Award – given to Morgan this month at the Academy’s annual meeting in Tucson, Arizona – honors members who have provided outstanding leadership and significant contributions to those fields.

Associate Professor Nancy Mladenoff returns to teach painting after residencies in Norway and the Czech Republic.

Fast forward five years: After picking up sandwiches and chips at the Education Cafe, several education students gather nearby, in a quiet corner of the new Education Building commons area, around a laptop computer to put the finishing touches on an upcoming group presentation.