Each year in the United States, approximately 5 to 7.5 million students in the nation’s K-12 schools miss a month or more of school. That means 150 to 225 million instructional days are lost every school year. The problem is more pronounced in low-income urban communities throughout the country. In elementary school, for example, students who live in poverty were found to be as much as five times more likely to be chronically absent than their advantaged peers.

Each year, more than half a million students drop out of high school in the United States. But what if schools could predict which individuals were most at risk for dropping out — and perhaps even take action to prevent such an outcome? As it turns out, such a scenario is closer than ever to becoming a reality.

When Sushruta Kunnenkeri was a child, his father fostered a learning environment at the kitchen table, inviting his children to talk about science and history, giving them the confidence to explore new fields and ask questions — something Kunnenkeri, now an aspiring science teacher enrolled in the Teacher Certification Program for College Graduates (TCPCG), wants to encourage his students to do.

UConn’s Office of First Year Programs and Learning Communities has tapped internationally recognized creativity expert and Neag School educational psychology professor Ronald Beghetto as the faculty director of UConn’s Innovation House. Beghetto, a 2015 UConn faculty of the year awardee who focuses his research on creative thought and action in educational settings, began his new director role this past fall.

Since 2001, the Fulbright Specialist Program has been pairing a selection of top U.S. faculty experts and other professionals from a variety of disciplines with foreign host institutions for anywhere between two and six weeks to serve as consultants — sharing their knowledge and skills, and taking part in activities that support the host institution’s priorities and goals — while being immersed in other cultures. Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Educational Psychology Scott Brown, who is certified as a Fulbright Specialist, accepted an assignment that sent him this past month to Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Pontifical Xavierian University) in Cali, Colombia.