Author Archive
Justis Lopez: Celebrating Inclusion, Joy in Education
On the way home from a hip-hop education conference last year, Justis Lopez ’14 (ED), ’15 (MA) and his colleague Ryan Parker were unpacking what they had learned and what they were feeling that day. They started to freestyle rap and found themselves filled with joy, repeating the verse ‘I’m feeling so happy.’ Their freestyling turned into a song called “HAPPYVISM” that is now part of a greater initiative they have named Project Happyvism.
The Prevalence and the Price of Police in Schools
Since the 1900s, U.S. public schools have employed a growing number of school resource officers (SROs) – defined here as sworn law enforcement officials. In 1975, only 1% of schools reported having police officers on site, but by 2018, approximately 58% of schools had at least one sworn law enforcement official present during the school week.
Reducing Racism in Schools: The Promise of Anti-Racist Policies
In 2020, the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others led to a resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement across the nation and around the globe. The revitalization of this movement has come with increased public demand for policy change, and specific calls for anti-racist policies in schools. As a result, many educational leaders are grappling with what this means for their respective contexts, and the extent to which their school or district’s current policies measure up to public demand.
5 Lessons for Navigating Life as a Ph.D. Student: A Reflection
Michigan native Jeremy Landa, formerly a high school social studies teacher and swimming coach, arrived at UConn in the fall of 2015 as one of the Neag School’s first-ever Dean’s Doctoral Scholars. Having recently defended his dissertation in education policy, he now reflects on his experience as a doctoral student, sharing some of his learnings about the Ph.D. process, and himself, along the way.
How Three Conn. Superintendents Are Navigating School Reopenings
The summer is typically a time for school superintendents to reflect on the previous school year and start thinking about the year ahead. However, preparation looks very different in the age of COVID-19 as school districts choose between three reopening models: fully in-person, hybrid, or remote.
Alumna Truth Hunter Named Neag School’s Next Dean’s Doctoral Scholar
“I want to take the information my students trusted me with and give it a voice, give it a platform, allow it to start new conversations, and new ways of thinking,” says Truth Hunter ’14 MA, Neag School of Education Dean's Doctoral Scholar. "That is how I hope to use my experience as a Dean’s Doctoral Scholar."
Ph.D. Student Pauline Batista Seeks to Support Youth’s Voice
“In my work as a researcher,” says LLEP doctoral candidate Pauline Batista ’16 MA, “I come from an understanding where youth do not have a voice unless youth have the educational skill set or the educational apparatus.”
Reimagining the Ballpark Experience Amid COVID-19
Andrew Girard MA ’19 has been preparing for baseball’s opening day since this past September. As the stadium operations manager for the Hartford Yard Goats, Girard oversees the maintenance and facility enhancement projects at Dunkin’ Donuts Park in Hartford, Connecticut. When he learned that the season start date would be delayed due to COVID-19, he and his team began creating systems to ensure that fans would feel comfortable and safe when they were able to return to the park.
Students Build Fictional World With Real Educational Impact
Polykosmia is a universe dreamed up by students in two classes led this spring by Stephen Slota (he/him, they/them), Neag School assistant professor-in-residence of educational technology. The project, an exercise in both worldbuilding and lesson planning, involved designing everything from mythologies to local governments to individual character arcs. Students also learned how to adapt worldbuilding activities into K–12 classrooms and how to design lesson plans that connected story objectives in a fictional world with learning objectives in the classroom.