Community Partnerships

As science educators struggle to design learning experiences that meaningfully engage youth, turning to film production offers a promising tool for providing teen women from historically marginalized groups with access to participate in science and engineering.

The following story was originally published in the March 2018 edition of Columns magazine.

On a chilly day in November, the third grade classroom in Seattle’s John Muir Elementary School is cozy. Colorful posters cover the walls and beneath them, children fidget and giggle. The teacher, Marjorie Lamarre, urges the class to quiet down and gather in a circle on a big red mat.

Two ongoing partnerships between Puget Sound area school districts and University of Washington College of Education researchers are being extended with support from two new grants from the Spencer Foundation.

U.S. News & World Report has ranked the University of Washington College of Education No. 9 among the nation's best education schools in its annual graduate school ratings, released March 20.

UW College of Education ranked No. 3 among education schools at public institutions in the U.S. in the 2019 edition of the U.S. News ratings. This is the fifth consecutive year that UW has been ranked third or higher among public institutions by U.S. News.

A few weeks into her new job training teen volunteers at Pacific Science Center how to take up issues of equity and social justice in their work, Pilar Letrondo noticed something concerning mid-way through a session she was leading on identity.

"All the white kids sat on one side of the table and all of the non-white kids sat on the other," she said. "[I] realized that I needed to address the seating situation.”

It was a striking example of how physical spaces can impact teaching and learning, and even more so, the challenge of overcoming bias in educational spaces.

Over 24 intense hours, teams of University of Washington education students drew upon design thinking processes to craft new ideas for better addressing the educational needs of immigrant and refugee youth and families.

Long-time civic leader and philanthropist Ginger Ackerley will be remembered for advancing education in the Puget Sound region and her efforts to ensure that all children enter school prepared to learn throughout their lives.

In the coming year, Kristin Percy Calaff will be hiring up to 20 teachers who can speak Spanish or Vietnamese to staff the growing number of dual language classrooms in Highline Public Schools.

That is, if she can find them.

Across the United States, and indeed throughout the world, there’s passionate debate about how to best prepare teachers and ensure all students are taught by highly-qualified educators.

The University of Washington College of Education will deepen research-practice partnerships that are expanding access to high-quality educational opportunities for underserved students and communities in Washington state with a $1.7 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Over the next two years, the grant will build on the College’s extensive partnerships with more than 300 schools, districts, educational organizations and communities across the state and identify key areas of opportunity along the cradle-to-career education continuum.