Faculty News

The Washington state legislative session kicks off on January 14, and following a massive overhaul of Washington’s K-12 funding system to comply with the McCleary decision, the legislature will consider a number of proposals impacting early childhood education, special education and more.

An article offering middle school math teachers strategies to engage all students while maintaining rigor co-authored by the University of Washington College of Education’s Katherine Lewis has received the Linking Research and Practice Outstanding Publication Award from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Research Committee.

Marilyn Cohen, a research associate professor at the University of Washington College of Education and director of the NW Center for Excellence in Media Literacy, recently received the National Telemedia Council’s 2018 Jessie McCanse Award.

Regarded as the “Nobel Prize” of media literacy, the award recognizes Cohen’s longtime contributions to the field.

Twenty years ago, as the new principal of an international school in Athens, Greece, Kimberly Mitchell and the school’s faculty embarked on a process of adopting the International Baccalaureate program. While Mitchell knew little about the IB program and its focus on inquiry-based instruction at the time, her research launched a worldwide exploration of what inquiry was and how great teachers are practicing it in their classrooms.

Experience in the classroom is crucial to pre-service teachers’ development and successful entry into the profession. Yet these clinical experiences can be stressful for novice teachers—and their mentors—as they observe, engage in and make sense of teaching while also ensuring their students stay on track academically.

From an early age, standardized tests loomed large for Chun Wang. In China, how Wang and her classmates performed on high-stakes tests would determine not only which university they could go to, but what they’d study.

Today, the new University of Washington College of Education faculty member is working to create more reliable and fair tests.

From her first experiences teaching English as a New Language in Washington, D.C., Emily Machado recognized the power of teachers to advance equity in their classrooms. She also saw how many students weren't able to bring their languages and identities into school.

Introducing science to young children as an engaging, active and fun enterprise is critical to nurturing their long-term interest in STEM learning and careers.    

Kristen Missall, associate professor at the University of Washington College of Education, is exploring how to strengthen learning in informal, play-based settings as part of a National Science Foundation-funded project to redesign an exhibit at Iowa Children’s Museum.

The benefits of study abroad are well documented, from increased confidence to an expanded worldview — and college students who study abroad are more likely to do better in school and graduate on time.

But that experience is often unattainable for a particular group of students: men of color. Of the more than 300,000 U.S. undergraduates who study abroad each year, an overwhelming majority are white women.

For students at the University of Washington, the Brotherhood Initiative wants to help level the field.

Two leading education researchers discussed the future of community- and video-based research during Facebook Live sessions hosted by the University of Washington College of Education this month.