Bake sales, PTA meetings and parent-teacher conferences have long been seen as the key to engaging parents in their children's education.

Relying on these traditional approaches, however, limits the agency and expertise of parents. Even worse, such approaches are particularly apt to marginalize parents from non-dominant communities.

In a fifth-grade classroom in south Seattle this May, pairs of students pulled vibrant cardboard cubes from a stack and presented them to four panelists.

The boxes were covered with neon duct tape and filled with tubes, popsicle sticks, batteries and matchboxes. While these materials might sound like the ingredients for a simple fifth-grade craft project, there were big ideas in those popsicle sticks.

Dalya Perez grew up on the University of Washington campus, playing with the ducks in Drumheller Fountain and running through the cherry blossom lanes. Yet it was hard to picture herself as a future UW student during those childhood years.

Her parents came to the United States as immigrants, and UW was a place of opportunity — her father worked as an officer with the campus police department while her uncle worked as a custodian.

Dr. Mia Tuan begins her first day as dean of the University of Washington College of Education today, assuming leadership of the nation's No. 6-ranked education school.

A new study from the University of Washington shows that not all reading disabilities are the same and that tests and brain imaging can identify different kinds of specific learning disabilities.

These findings highlight the need to change how children with learning disabilities are diagnosed and treated, says lead author Virginia Berninger, a professor of educational psychology at the UW College of Education.

A hum fills the classroom in Marysville's Liberty Elementary. Students huddle together in groups over large sheets of poster board, sketching maps and arranging prints of photos.

University of Washington College of Education post-doctoral researcher Shelley Stromholt leans down to talk with one group of two boys and a girl, asking where their photographs were taken. Two weeks earlier, the students snapped pictures of some of their favorite places in and around Liberty Elementary. Tonight, they're working together to draw a map of the school with their photos to illustrate it.

When Emma Elliott received a call from her sister-in-law in early 2012 regarding a friend’s partner who had just committed suicide, she was uncertain how to respond. They talked about how traditional Cowichan healing practices and stories could help and were interested in learning about how this issue was handled by their community in the past.

More than 30 leaders from school systems and educational organizations across Washington state will present public demonstrations of their leadership in addressing critical issues involving educational equity, improving teaching and learning, and strategic decision-making and governance. Each member of the University of Washington College of Education's Leadership for Learning (L4L) class of 2015 will present their capstone project and answer questions during hour-long sessions taking place May 8 and 9 in Miller Hall.

The University of Washington is hosting the 2015 Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization (PLATO) conference June 29-30 in Mary Gates Hall. The event will feature hands-on workshops about introducing philosophical inquiry in elementary, middle and high school classrooms, as well as presentations on topics such as creating classroom communities, building school philosophy programs, developing a culturally responsive pedagogy for philosophy programs, and much more.