Research

"Bug in the Ear” project allows distant learners to connect with their coaches during critical teaching and learning moments.

Kathleen Artman Meeker’s 6-year-old student had three words in his vocabulary: “No,” “eat” and an expletive that he used to maximum effect in the classroom. The outbursts disrupted the class and puzzled Meeker, who was desperately trying to help him.

Douglas Cheney, professor emeritus of special education, has been selected to receive the 2017 Outstanding CEC Leadership Award from The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), the world’s leading special education membership organization.

By many measures, the United States trails its neighbor to the north in overall performance and equity in student learning.

What can America do to catch up? The University of Washington’s Ken Zeichner, Boeing professor of teacher education, seeks to answer that question in two new books stemming from a worldwide study of policies and practices that advance teaching quality.

A larger percentage of Washington principals are staying in schools with high poverty rates than the national average, and a greater proportion of elementary assistant principals work in high-needs schools, according to a new University of Washington study of principal retention and mobility.

Educators collect and use data on a daily basis to make decisions about how to improve teaching and learning. Yet it’s not enough to simply use data in decision-making; the data used must be sound, interpreted and used appropriately.

School turnarounds can be successful, but evidence-based reforms and a dollop of patience are essential ingredients.

That’s the key finding in a new study by a University of Washington College of Education researcher and colleagues at the University of California, Irvine and Stanford University who explore the effects of federal School Improvement Grants (SIG) aimed at improving the nation’s lowest-performing schools.

Joyce Parker devotes her heart and soul to making sure kids are in school and pointed toward graduation.

“Everyone’s responsible when children are out of school: parents, social workers, church members, teachers, police officers and so on,” said the director of Citizens for a Better Greenville.

That belief set the foundation of the organization’s “Missing in Action” campaign, launched as a concerted community approach to boosting the Mississippi city’s 66 percent graduation rate.

While Washington’s teacher workforce is getting younger, closing the diversity gap in the profession has proven stubbornly resistant over the past two decades according to a new report exploring teacher retention and mobility in the state.

Sheila Valencia, a nationally-recognized scholar of literacy assessment, instruction and policy and University of Washington College of Education professor, has been named a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association.

Many people cling to the ideal of “the school” as the great equalizer, a place where Americans are made and equal opportunity is realized.

Yet “the school” has been and continues to be an agent in oppression argues Joy Williamson-Lott, a professor of the history of education at the University of Washington College of Education. Throughout history, each time communities of color have made progress toward equal educational opportunity, a major societal push-back has caused the loss of gains that appeared won.