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[July 2011 | No Comments | 179 views]

What school reform model has no student lotteries and doesn’t require youngsters to leave their neighborhood schools?  U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal may not have known the answer prior to a visit to Waterbury last week.  Now he knows the answer (CommPACT Schools) and much more!
Sen. Richard Blumenthal visited Washington Elementary School in Waterbury. “I was very excited and impressed with the CommPACT model, and the enthusiasm and engagement of the teachers and parents working together and collaborating,” he said after a roundtable discussion at the school.
The Connecticut Education Association invited …

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supporting neag »

[July 2011 | 3 Comments | 221 views]
In Age of Internet, Noted UConn Researcher Pioneers New Tactics for Teaching Reading

A child reads information in a school textbook. A child then reads that same information on a computer. Is the comprehension the same?
No, says Dr. Donald Leu, a prominent reading researcher, director of UConn’s internationally renowned New Literacies Research Lab in the Neag School of Education and the John and Maria Neag Endowed Chair in Literacy and Technology.  “This is a digital native generation,” he says. “But they are really not very skilled in using information.”
Leu believes he can change that. “We’ve identified the skills and strategies for successful online …

in print »

[July 2011 | No Comments | 64 views]
Dr. Jason Irizarry Publishes Book on “The Latinization of U.S. Schools: Successful Teaching and Learning in Shifting Cultural Contexts”

Despite the rise in Latino population in the United States, academic achievement in schools is scarcely recognized among Latino youth. Dr. Jason G. Irizarry, an assistant professor of multicultural education in the Neag School of Education’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction, analyzed this issue of underachievement in his recently published book, The Latinization of U.S. Schools: Successful Teaching and Learning in Shifting Cultural Contexts.
Dr. Irizarry’s inspiration came from a high school student of his, who told him on his first day that, “Latinos are not smart; we are just not …

in the field »

[July 2011 | No Comments | 152 views]
Grip Strength Is Good Indicator of Overall Health

When Richard Bohannon does physical therapy with his stroke and cancer patients, the one thing he always makes sure to check is their grip strength.
While not yet widely used in the medical community, a grip strength test can be an important screening tool in assessing a person’s overall health, says Dr. Bohannon, a professor of physical therapy in the Department of Kinesiology at the Neag School of Education.
“Weakness is one of those cluster signs of frailty,” says Bohannon. “There are other things, like unintentional weight loss and a particularly slow …

in the spotlight »

[July 2011 | One Comment | 145 views]
Neag Undergrad Does the Research, Does the Math

This is the story of how Neag junior Briana Hennessy missed a trip to Mexico, instead became immersed in math justification research, and went to Tanzania this summer and got to teach math.
She says of the change in destination, “I was going to do a community service project but not related to teaching, so it was much better that I got to go to Tanzania and teach. It ended up being great that I didn’t go to Mexico.”
The Mexico trip was ditched because of a U.S. State Department travel warning. …

in the spotlight »

[July 2011 | No Comments | 66 views]
Mentor Connection Students Get Crash Course in Archaeology

UConn archaeology professor Nick Bellantoni had just met his three charges, high school juniors participating in UConn Mentor Connection who chose to spend the three-week program working with the State Archaeologist, when an aide told Bellantoni the New Haven police were on the line, looking for him. A skeleton had been found at a construction site in the Elm City, and they wanted Bellantoni to extricate it.
Welcome to the field of archaeology.
“It was quite an orientation to archaeology,” Bellantoni said Friday, as he and the students were packing up their …