Teaching Quality

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.

All students are capable of engaging deeply in scientific investigation and thinking—if conditions in the classroom are right. In the new book “Ambitious Science Teaching,” University of Washington College of Education researchers outline a powerful framework for science teaching that is rigorous and equitable for students from all backgrounds.

As a third-grade teacher, Kacy Lebby (MIT ‘15) is bringing the outdoors into her classroom by teaching all subjects, not just science, from an environmental perspective.

Yet growing up, Lebby never saw herself becoming a teacher. As a hands-on learner, she always felt more comfortable outdoors than in a classroom. This trait led her to become an outdoor educator, where she taught subjects such as recreation and backpacking to middle and high school students.

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.

Noah Zeichner (MIT '04) and Diana Hess (PhD '98) are being honored by the National Council for the Social Studies during its annual conference this November.

Zeichner, who teaches at Ingraham International High School in Seattle will receive the 2017 Award for Global Understanding while Hess, dean of University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education, will receive the 2017 Jean Dresden Grambs Distinguished Career Research in Social Studies Award.

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.

Sustaining ongoing improvement in instruction is a persistent challenge for schools and districts, but Washington state’s adoption of a new teacher and principal evaluation system earlier this decade is contributing to more collaborative improvement efforts, a new study by University of Washington College of Education researchers finds.

The town of Faraday has a problem.

Its citizens are interested in building a magnetic train to make it easier to connect with other towns, but they need to figure out how to make the technology work.

That’s where the town’s scientists—in this case a group of two dozen Seattle 3rd, 4th and 5th graders enrolled in a summer learning program in the Beacon Hill neighborhood—come in.

It’s their job to collect evidence about how magnets work, determine whether the technology could be used to power a train and then explain their findings to the citizens of Faraday.

Sixth-grade teacher Ryan Mateo Sharnbroich has one goal for the first day of school: to make sure his students know they are welcomed and understood in his classroom. Sharnbroich, who is pursuing his Master of Education in Instructional Leadership, is laying the foundation to embrace difficult and sensitive conversations about equity and difference with his students later in the year.