Press
Because of their expertise and national visibility, WCER researchers receive many requests to
comment on current education issues around the country. Here is a selection of recent media mentions.
2008
November
Rob Meyer discusses Madison schools' performance in recent value-added evaluations (Wisconsin State Journal, 16 November)
Allan Odden comments on budget cutbacks affecting New York schools (Newsday, 15 November)
Allan Odden comments on the proposal by Washington DC schools chief Michelle Rhee to shake up the teacher tenure system (New York Times, 12 November).
October
Diana Hess says youth are increasingly interested in politics partly because political campaigns are reaching out to them online and making it easier for them to take part in the process (Wauconda Courier, 30 October).
Beth Graue discusses outcomes from SAGE, the state's school class-size reduction program (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 29 October).
Doug Harris comments on political resistance to using student performance databases in value-added measurement efforts (Education Week, 22 October).
Tim Boals and Eric Osthoff discuss results of changes in the Verona (Wis.) school district's ELL education policy (Verona Press, 21 October).
MSAN Director Madeline Hafner facilitated a discussion on creating bonds between students and teachers at Freeport Illinois' second annual equity summit (The Journal-Standard, 18 October).
Diana Hess discusses getting students interested in elections and teaching them how to discuss potentially controversial issues (Wisconsin State Journal, 15 October).
Sara Goldrick-Rab and Allan Odden discuss student tuition and financial aid in the context of the faltering economy (Daily Cardinal, 13 October).
Allan Odden discusses traditional and reform salary schedules for teachers (Dispatch Politics, 12 October).
Diana Hess says young people are more likely to vote if they understand the issues (WKOW-TV27, 9 October).
Sara Goldrick-Rab discusses the economic downturn's effect on college affordability (Chronicle.com, 10 October).
September
The annual Minority Student Achievement Network (MSAN) student conference is covered in the The Capital Times (1 Oct.) and The Madison Times (19 Sept).
Doug Harris and Thomas Toch say the next U.S. President should work to make NCLB "a more legitimate report card of school performance, one that provides a fair and accurate gauge of educators’ contribution to their students’ achievement" (Education Week, 29 September).
Tim Boals discusses WIDA's new assessment for English-language learners who have severe disabilities, and new funding from the U.S. Department of Education
(Education Week, 23 September).
Adam Gamoran discusses reform efforts in algebra instruction (USA Today, 22 September).
Allan Odden discusses a new book detailing the Kennewick (Wash.) School District's success improving annual academic growth for K-12 students (CNNMoney.com, 16 Sept.).
Diana Hess discusses textbooks' treatment of the September 11 attacks (Parsippany, NJ, Daily Record11 Sept.).
SCALE Principal Investigator Terry Millar comments on the importance of the new Large Hadron Collider, billed as the largest physics experiment in history (Madison Capital Times, 10 September).
Sara Goldrick-Rab discusses factors underlying students dropping out of college (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 6 Sept.).
August
David Williamson Shaffer believes that computers alter “the way people think in the digital age,” and he rates their advent with “the development of language itself” (The Chronicle, 24 August).
Susan Millar discusses the proposed National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies (The Chronicle, 20 August).
Adam Gamoran and Richard Halverson discuss the process of assigning children to their new classrooms in the fall (Wisconsin State Journal, 14 August).
In a paper commissioned for the Center for American Progress, Sara Goldrick-Rab and Josipa Roksa argue that federal higher education policy focuses too much on colleges and not enough on their students (Chronicle of Higher Education Daily, 13 August).
July
Allan Odden discusses new teacher incentive programs in a story about schools in Washington DC and surrounding counties (Washington Post, 28 July).
Diana Hess evaluates civic engagement programs like iVote08 and finds that some do influence students do become more interested in public policy questions (The Daily Northwestern, 24 July).
UW Madison education professors Sara Goldrick-Rab and Michael Olneck are mentioned in a July 3 New York Times article about a generational change in higher ed faculty.
June
Sara Goldrick-Rab has found that students from lower-status socio-economic backgrounds are more likely than their well-off peers to transfer from two-year to four-year institutions in ways that reduce their odds of earning a degree (Inside Higher Education, 23 June).
North Carolina becomes the 18th state to join the WIDA ACCESS for ELLs network (Education Week, 13 June).
At an Urban Institute Conference Adam Gamoran discusses using value-added models to measure school effectiveness (Education Daily, 6 June).
An astronomer and former student praises his mentor Bob Mathieu (Daily Cardinal, 5 June).
May
Adam Gamoran discusses the uses of value-added designs in identifying effective teaching and measuring the impact of certain programs and practices (Education Week, 28 May).
WCER's Value Added Research Center is helping the Madison Metropolitan School District "Dig into the data and draw the inferences that can be supported by observed results." (Isthmus, 22 May).
CPRE research on teacher pay-for-performance programs is cited in Education Week (14 May).
Ruth Lopez Turley, a co-PI on a WCER grant to study social capital in the FAST program, has her new study on college-going rates reviewed in The Chronicle
Doug Harris, Rob Meyer, and Adam Gamoran discuss trends in value-added assessment practice (Education Week, 7 May).
Sara Goldrick-Rab discusses unit-record-tracking (Chronicle of Higher Ed, 5 May).
April
Allan Odden's school finance research is mentioned in an Op-Ed piece by Paul Hill and Marguerite Roza (Education Week, 30 April).
Norman Webb's Depth of Knowledge metric is discussed in the context of Mississippi's curriculum and assessment programs (Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, 28 April).
Allan Odden discusses teacher pay, benefits, and incentives at a Hechinger Institute conference (Grand Rapids Press, 24 April).
March
Timothy Boals discusses WIDA's ACCESS for ELLs English-language proficiency test (Education Week, 26 March).
Terry Millar is profiled in the University's Wisconsin Idea series in part because of his work with the Madison school district.
Patricia Burch discusses variations in the quality of federally mandated public after-school tutoring (USA Today, 26 March) and (Shreveport Times, 27 March).
Adam Gamoran discusses the relationship of small class sizes to student achievement and teachers' practice (USA Today, 24 March).
Mitchell Nathan discusses teaching and learning algebra in a story about the National Mathematics Advisory Panel's new report (Christian Science Monitor, 13 March).
Sara Goldrick-Rab discusses the pros and cons of the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) grant program (Capital Times, 11 March).
Beth Graue discusses "academic redshirting," or holding children back an extra year from kindergarten (St. Louis Post Dispatch, 10 March).
Beth Graue is profiled in the University's Wisconsin Idea series.
Allan Odden discusses class size and teacher professional development at the Governor's Commission on Education Improvement in North Dakota (Bismarck Tribune, 7 March).
Allan Odden discusses how North Dakota's Commission on Education could shift resources to concentrate on core academic courses (The Forum, 10 March).
February
David Williamson Shaffer discusses his book, How Computer Games Help Children Learn (Orange County Register, 27 February).
WCER's Minority Student Achievement Network (MSAN) is the subject of a feature in the Madison Capital Times (20 February).
WCER's Minority Student Achievment Network (MSAN) conducted a Youth Summit in Amherst, Mass., where students of color from several districts gathered to discuss ways to remedy achievement gap (Daily Hampshire Gazette, 12 February).
January
Allan Odden discusses challenges of creating performance assessment systems in the article "Advancing Pay for Performance" (Quality Counts, Education Week, 10 January).
David Williamson Shaffer discusses how epistemic games place children in the role of a professional and encourage them to think in an innovative way (Elburn IL Herald, 11 January).
Madison was the only Wisconsin school district to win a grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Teaching American History program, which aims to improve the training of teachers. WCER’s Shihmei Barger is evaluation researcher for this 3-year project. (Wisconsin State Journal, 4 January).
2007
December
The Minority Student Achievement Network, which makes its home at WCER, is mentioned among Strategic Education Research Partnerships that work to build "coherent, use-inspired programs of research" (Education Week, 12 December, p. 19).
A recent study of Board Certified Teachers by Douglas Harris and colleague Tim R. Sass is cited in the St. Petersburg Times (Dec. 5).
Terry Millar discusses the SCALE project's work nationwide in preparing future teachers and providing professional development opportunities for teachers in mathematics and science (Wisconsin State Journal, 4 December).
November
Patricia Burch published a commentary piece discussing the lack of scrutiny in holding private firms accountable for achievement improvements under NCLB. (Education Week, 28 November).
Mary Ann Zehr describes WIDA's work in her Learning the Language blog (Education Week, 20 November).
Adam Gamoran's new book, Standards-Based Reform and the Poverty Gap, is reviewed in Education Week (8 November).
Allan Odden discusses school-wide team-building efforts that reward teachers and school staffs for student gains through a combination of adequate base pay, rewards for professional improvement and bonuses for student achievement gains (Delaware Online 11 November).
October
WCER's World Class Instructional Design and Assessment consortium (WIDA) and its Access for ELLs assessment are mentioned in the special report "ELL Testing: A state of flux" (District Administration, October 2007, pp. 35-40).
Adam Gamoran comments on a pair of studies measuring the degree to which NCLB pressures educators to focus on students who fall just below the passing threshold on state tests—at the expense of students at the high and low ends of the achievement spectrum (Education Week, 31 October).
Allan Odden calls "significant" New York City's plan to give cash bonuses to teachers at some of the city's high-need schools that raise student test scores (Education Week, 24 October).
Eric Camburn and Allan Odden discuss neighborhood schools, social capital, and the politics of closing schools
(Wisconsin State Journal, 21 October).
Sara Goldrick-Rab discusses the difficulties students face when trying to pay their own way through college (Daily Cardinal, 22 October).
September
Allan Odden is quoted in a story about growing momentum for alternate teacher pay systems (Education Week, 27 September).
Diana Hess discusses how teaching controversial issues like 9/11 can put pressure on teachers to give different emphases to issues like civil liberties vs. patriotism (Denver Post, 11 September).
Allan Odden comments on Chicago becoming the nation's largest school district to offer teachers performance-based pay (Chicago Sun Times, 4 September).
August
Allan Odden and colleague Lawrence Picus write in Education Week that "Simply finding enough money to adequately fund a state’s schools does not solve the school finance problem. An equally difficult challenge is structuring a school finance system to support these evidence-based resource allocation strategies." (Education Week, 15 August)
WCER researcher Susan Millar discusses science and engineering education and the challenges of scaling up reform programs (Chronicle of Higher Education, 3 August).
Geoffrey Borman's study of summer learning loss is cited in the context of the growing popularity of summer programs in public schools
(Lower Hudson Online, 10 August).
Sara Goldrick-Rab discusses the cost of college tuition and how first-generation college students cope (Wisconsin State Journal, 5 August).
July
WCER's Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL) is called the "principal effort" in the nationwide attempt to train the next generation of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics faculty members to use new teaching methods including student-centered teaching (Chronicle of Higher Education, issue dated 3 August).
Geoffrey Borman discusses the value of keeping students' minds engaged through the summer and recommends giving students activities to reinforce the lessons they learned during the regular school year. (Wisconsin State Journal, 14 July).
WIDA director Timothy Boals says English Language Learners need a curriculum that goes far beyond teaching pronunciation and grammar to make their content classes more comprehensible (Education Week, 18 July).
David Woods's Transana project is reviewed by Jill-Hurst Wall of Syracuse University and Hurst Associates, Ltd.
(Digitization 101, 19 July)
Norman Webb's 'depth of knowledge' framework is discussed in the context of the Mississippi Department of Education (Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, 17 July).
In an article about teacher merit pay, Tony Milanowski discusses research findings to date (Hometown Annapolis, 9 July).
June
Radio program host Joy Cardin and Allan Odden discuss how states are experimenting with merit pay for teachers and giving bonuses for raising student achievement and for reaching other goals (20 June, Wisconsin Public Radio).
Allan Odden discusses the growing trend of rewarding teachers with bonuses or raises for improving student achievement, working in lower income schools, or teaching subjects that are hard to staff (New York Times, 18 June).
WCER's Families and Schools Together (FAST) program, developed by Dr. Lynn McDonald, is the cover story for the June issue of American School Board Journal.
A study by Allan Odden and colleague Lawrence Picus finds that Wyoming schools devote a significant portion of their money to raising teacher salaries rather than hiring more educators (Education Week, 20 June).
Beth Graue is among experts on school readiness quoted in the article "When Should a Kid Start Kindergarten?" (NY Times, 3 June) She is also
among early childhood experts interviewed on the radio program The State of Things (WUNC radio, Chapel Hill, NC, 13 June).
May
Sara Goldrick-Rab and colleagues discuss her work in designing the Wisconsin Covenant program, which pledges admission to college for good grades and good behavior. The program has the potential to raise student expectations and improve academic preparation for college (Badger Herald 10 May). In the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Online, Goldrick-Rab says
scholarships should be based on need; offering grants, not loans, to cover all tuition and fees and some living expenses; and giving a helping hand to low-income students to maintain their grades and to apply for college. (14 May)
Allan Odden’s recent report proposes raising state education spending by about 9% to fund an "adequate" education (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Online, 8 May)
April
"We spend four, five, six years or more of a kid's mathematical education teaching them what a 99-cent calculator can do," said David Williamson Shaffer, author of the new book How Computer Games Help Children Learn.
(BeaconNewsOnline.com, 3 April)
Adam Gamoran discusses the challenges of evaluating NCLB at this point (ShreveportTimes.com, 12 April).
March
Richard Halverson says the Madison school district faces issues of race, expansion, poverty, and the flight of white families. Over the past 10 years, district enrollment has declined about 3 percent, while the number of students from low-income families has increased to 40 percent (Capital Times, 30 March).
Beth Graue discusses the future of Wisconsin’s SAGE program, in the face of flat funding, rising education expenses, and projected increases in elementary school populations (Madison Commons, 30 March).
WCER Director Adam Gamoran is among those discussing the phenomenon of female students outnumbering male students on college campuses around the country (WKOW-TV March 20).
Allan Odden discusses teacher career paths and advancing into mentoring roles as an alternative to administrative positions (Delaware Online, 19 March).
Adam Gamoran discusses the No Child Left Behind Act, saying that the law’s “mechanisms are just coming into play, and not enough time has passed to establish a trend” (Education Week, 9 March, registration required).
For a story on WTMJ-TV (March 1), Milwaukee, Beth Graue talked about determining when a child is ready to enter kindergarten.
February
David Shaffer talks about the ways epistemic computer games can transform education and how this approach is "180 degrees opposite" from the emphasis on standardized testing (Capital Times, 19 February)
In a discussion of the governor's proposed education budget WCER Director Adam Gamoran says research shows high-quality child care early in life leads to students who will be more likely to graduate from high school, go to college, and avoid trouble with the law (Wisconsin State Journal, 11 February).
David Shaffer discusses the educational value of epistemic computer games (Chicago Tribune, 11 February)
Allan Odden discusses public financing for schools and taxpayer expectations (Chicago Tribune, 2 February)
January
Allan Odden's study of Arkansas school funding is cited as the state considers its "road map" for education adequacy (Times-Record, 23 January)
Allan Odden discusses his task force and its plan to increase the number of students attaining proficient and advanced ratings on standardized tests, and for funding Wisconsin schools to adequately educate all children, including those with special needs (Wisconsin State Journal, 29 January: first article, second article).
Richard Halverson talks about the academic success of students at Madison's Mendota School and how school leaders there use data to drive decision-making (The Capital Times, 26 January: first article, second article).
The Families and Schools Together (FAST) Program is being implemented in more school districts near Philadelphia (Bucks County Courier Times, 17 January).
Sharon Derry talks about the growing trend in K-12 online and virtual learning environments (Journal-Sentinel Online, 14 January)
SCALE director Terry Millar discusses the mutual benefits of collaborating with K-12 mathematics teachers in the Madison Metropolitan School District (Isthmus, 12 January).
David Williamson Shaffer discusses the value of epistemic games in preparing tomorrow's workforce (Reuters, 11 January)
2006
December
David Williamson Shaffer discusses remodeling education to provide students the kind of environments that professionals experience as they learn their crafts (Chicago Tribune, 25 December).
He also discusses how educators can use computer games to prepare children for a life of innovation and creativity rather than giving them standardized skills for life in the factory (Grand Haven [MI] Tribune, 27 December). In the print edition of the Wisconsin State Journal, he
discusses how epistemic computer games can encourage students to think innovatively.
Allan Odden discusses the QEO (Qualified Economic Offer) in the context of statewide teacher salaries (Wisconsin State Journal, 17 December)
Allan Odden discussed the Wisconsin School Finance Adequacy Initiative, a task force that was set up to study school financing. Its findings include a conclusion that an increase in spending of 6.8% could more than double academic achievement (For the Record, WISC TV3, 11 December).
November
Sara Goldrick-Rab discusses differences in students' ability to afford college and to succeed, depending on families' social and economic status (Daily Cardinal, 7 November).
Allen Phelps discusses reduced funding for Wisconsin's Youth Apprenticeship program, which gives high school students a head start on their vocational or technical education and their careers (15 November, Journal-Sentinel Online).
Beth Graue discusses the Wisconsin SAGE program and the benefits of small class size (Chicago Sun-Times, 24 November).
Allan Odden discusses teacher incentive plans geared to bonuses for individuals (Education Week, 15 November, p. 7).
WCER's World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment Consortium (WIDA) is noted as a model program for identifying English Language Learner (ELL) students and tracking their performance in the report Double the Work: Challenges and Solutions to Acquiring Language and Academic Literacy for Adolescent English Language Learners, by the Alliance for Excellent Education.
Mitchell Nathan discusses the "testing effect," the interplay between testing and students' improved retention of course materials, in ScienceNOW Daily News (13 November).
Timothy Boals, director of WCER's World-class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA) consortium, discusses the negative effects of the U.S. Education Department's requirement that states prove the validity of portfolio assessments for English-language learners or risk having their large-scale assessment systems rejected under NCLB
(Education Week, 15 November).
The work of Tom Carpenter and colleagues at WCER's National Center for Improving Student Learning and Achievement in Mathematics and Science is praised in American School Board Journal, November 2006.
October
Tony Milanowski discusses options for providing extra incentive pay to teachers willing to work in struggling schools
(Contra Costa Times, 21 October).
Allan Odden discusses how merit pay rewards teachers for doing what the system wants them to do, and the adoption of merit pay in Wisconsin (Isthmus, 27 October).
Allan Odden published an Op-Ed piece advocating doubling student performance results in Wisconsin and explaining the work of the Policy Advisory Task Force, which includes education, political, business, and taxpayer groups (Wisconsin State Journal, 22 October).
Allan Odden discusses school funding and school restructuring in the Journal Sentinel Online (20 October) and in the Wisconsin State Journal (16 October).
While on a lecture tour of Taiwan, Adam Gamoran was interviewed by public television about U.S. and international research on ability grouping (Taiwan Broadcasting System, 12 October).
September
Beth Graue discusses the first day of kindergarten and what parents can expect from this rite of passage (Madison.com 2 September). She also talks about how 'redshirting' kids, or holding them back a year, can lead to higher-than-expected social and emotional problems and special-education diagnoses (Orange County Register, 4 September).
Education Week cites WCER Senior Scientist Norman Webb's study of
alignment between Maine's mathematics standards and tht SAT (Ed Week, 13
September, p. 24).
Wisconsin Public Radio interviewed Sara Goldrick-Rab about college completion rates in Wisconsin for the news story “Study Says U.S. Students Not Earning College Degrees.” (Wisconsin Public Radio News Stories, 7 September).
August
Norman Webb is cited in an article about Maine's switching from the traditional Maine Educational Assessment to the SAT (Bangor Daily News, 12 August).
July
Timothy Boals, director of WCER's WIDA program, discusses assessing comprehension and communication of students who are English-language learners (Education Week, 12 July). WIDA is the World-class Instructional Design and Assessment consortium.
Beth Graue discusses the drawbacks of academic redshirting, or holding children back an extra year from kindergarten (LATimes.com 5 July).
Norman Webb is cited as helping the state of Maine
align its state assessments with its own standards and with the SAT (Bangor Daily News, 11 July).
June
Beth Graue discusses the practice of holding back boys from kindergarten an extra year to allow more time for maturation (Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 13 June).
Geoffrey Borman discusses the relative importance of school factors, rather than students' family backgrounds, in variations in student achievement (Education Week, 21 June. Registration required).
Gary Cook discusses how students with disabilities fare on Wisconsin's standardized tests (Journal Sentinel Online, 5 June).
May
Norman Webb discusses the importance of aligning state-level assessments with learning standards (Decatur, Ill. Herald & Review, 17 May).
Allan Odden and colleague Lawrence Picus cowrote an Op-Ed piece about quality teaching and school finance adequacy for Arkansas Online (published 7 May).
Gary Cook is quoted in an article about the national shortage of people qualified to create tests and analyze the results. (New York Times, 5 May)
Beth Graue discusses parents who delay their boys' entrance into kindergarten until age 6 for developmental readiness (Chicago Tribune, 2 May).
Adam Gamoran talks about Madison's reduction of the racial achievement gap with the Schools of Hope Leadership Team at United Way of Dane County. (Madison.com, 1 May)
April
Adam Gamoran discusses the pros and cons of grouping students by ability. (Wisconsin State Journal, 17 April)
Geoffrey Borman discusses the results of his three-year study of the effectiveness of the Success For All reading program. (Education Week, 12 April)
March
UW Madison Education Professor Bradford Brown discusses what parents can do when their children start hanging around with the wrong crowd. (MSNBC, 7 March)
February
In a recent presentation to the Madison school board, Adam Gamoran said that grouping students by ability "has in the past led to lower-tracked classes with weaker teachers, lower standards, and higher percentages of minorities" (ISTHMUS, 24 February, p. 9)
Meg Meyer is quoted in an article about the benefits of hands-on learning. (Wausau Daily Herald, 15 February)
January 2006
Gloria Ladson-Billings discusses quality teaching in the context of school funding and desegregation. (Rethinking Schools, Winter 2005-06, p. 36-37)
Allan Odden discusses the value of incentive-based pay for teachers. (Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 27 January)
Elizabeth Graue discusses the merits of half-day versus whole-day kindergarten. (White Plains, NY Journal News, 17 January)
2005
November 2005
Sara Goldrick-Rab discusses a six-state, four-year study that reveals discord between some one-stop career centers and community colleges over the role that training programs should play in workforce development. (Employment & Training Reporter, 28 November)
Gloria Ladson-Billings says that Madison and Wisconsin should keep trying to attract more minority educators to be positive role models for all children. (Wisconsin State Journal, 28 November)
Eric Camburn discusses a national study using teacher logs to document in detail what occurs in classrooms. (Education Week, 16 November)
Allan Odden says Denver's new teacher pay plan shows that voters are willing to back higher pay for teachers if it promises to raise student achievement. (Education Week, 9 November)
Ken Zeichner is among those discussing Southern Methodist University's teacher education program (New York Times, 3 November)
October 2005
Martha Alibali discusses her research on the importance of gestures in learning and teaching (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 22 October)
Elizabeth Graue discusses helping children adjust to new school environments. (Boston Globe, 13 October)
David Williamson Shaffer comments on virtual charter schools. (Wisconsin State Journal, 5 October)
September 2005
Lynn McDonald's Wisconsin Baby FAST Initiative extends its reach to 10 sites in Wisconsin, including Racine. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 26 September)
Martha Alibali's research into classroom gestures and student learning receives a full-page feature in Education Week, 7 September
August 2005
Sara Y. Goldrick-Rab comments on a recent study arguing that poorly prepared students appear to be more likely to complete a degree if they attend a private college or university. (Chronicle of Higher Education, 15 August, registration required)
Allan Odden discusses Florida's teacher performance-pay program. (Education Week, 10 August)
July 2005
Beth Graue discusses the stresses children feel when beginning a new school
year (Boston Globe, 28 July)
Cognitively Guided Instruction,
a program for teaching mathematics developed at WCER by Liz Fennema and Tom Carpenter, is mentioned as a model of professional development that has shown success in changing classroom practices. (Education Week, July 27, p. 18)
Geoffrey Borman discusses how summer academic enrichment programs can help reduce students' learning losses over the summer. (San Jose Mercury News, 11 July)
June 2005
Ken Zeichner was co-author and one of three speakers on June 20 to announce the release of the new book STUDYING TEACHER EDUCATION: The report of the AERA Panel on Research and Teacher Education. It was published for the American Educational Research Association by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Read about the book.
David Williamson Shaffer discusses people's use of personalized tag lines in e-mail messages. (Wisconsin State Journal, 20 June) In another article, he says that technologically advanced toys, devices, and video games help students become familiar with technology and to prepare for life in an increasingly technologically oriented society. (Wisconsin State Journal, 30 June)
Allan Odden discusses merit pay as a strategy to attract and retain quality teachers and increase accountability. (Florida Today, 6 June) In another article, he discusses school funding in South Dakota and calculating the cost of education a child. (Sioux Falls Argus Leader, 27 June)
May 2005
Rob Meyer talks about using value-added analyses in measuring school progress. (Education Week, 18 May)
Geoffrey Borman discusses his national study of the Success for All school improvement program. (Education Week, 11 May)
Allan Odden discusses the success of a charter school, the Vaughn Next Century Learning Center, in the Los Angeles Unified District. Although all of its students come from low-income families, they outperform most similar schools on statewide tests. The Vaughn system "could well be adopted by other school districts in California," says Odden. (San Jose Mercury News, 2 May; login required)
Allan Odden discusses the idea of teacher pay scales based largely on classroom performance. (San Jose Mercury News, 2 May)
April 2005
Chuck Kalish discusses how children's imaginary friends, and engagement in fantasy, is a kind of life skill that's important. (Wisconsin State Journal, 3 April 05)
Allan Odden discusses various kinds of teacher professional development programs. (Scranton Times, 17 April)
Allan Odden says it makes good sense to pay teachers to acquire instruction skills that we know produce more student learning. (Cincinnati Enquirer, 6 April)
Deborah Vandell says that children in high-quality day care learn better language skills than children in poorer-quality care. They also are more adept at reading and math, and they tend to have better memory skills through third grade. (Arizona Republic, 14 April) (Education Week, 4 May 2005)
March 2005
Adam Gamoran discusses UW-Madison's faculty benefits arrangements in the context of the state legislature's proposd amendment to the state constitution. (Madison Capital Times, 28 March 05)
Ken Zeichner talks about the core curriculum for teacher training.
(Education Week, 2 March 05)
Beth Graue and B. Bradford Brown discuss trends toward
over-protective parenting. (Wisconsin State Journal, 6 March 05)
Margaret Meyer talks about gender disparity in high level math and science jobs.
(The Daily Cardinal, 8 March 05)
February 2005
Bradford Brown discusses the highs and lows of the middle school romance. (Washington Post, 13 February)
Allan Odden discusses teacher incentive pay elements in the context of the Texas pay and benefits system. (San Antonio Express-News, 11 February 05)
WCER Director Adam Gamoran participates in a panel at a conference on No Child Left Behind sponsored by the
Millersville University School of Education. Lancaster Intelligencer Journal.
January 2005
Allan Odden talks about teacher performance pay.(Education Week's "Quality Counts 2005")
Allan Odden discusses efforts in Menomonee Falls (Wis.) to move beyond the standard model of compensation system. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 22 January)
2004
December 2004
Thomas Romberg talks about U.S. students trailing their international
peers in math and science.
(Science Now, 7 December 04)
Allan Odden talks about new approaches to teacher compensation.
(Education Week, 1 December 04)
November 2004
Diana Hess and Gloria Ladson-Billings speak at
the conference, "Dialogues with Democracy: Improving Civic Education in
Wisconsin's Schools." The event helps kindergarten through 12th grade
students better understand the democratic process.
(Badger Herald, 30 November)
September 2004
Lynn McDonald's Wisconsin Baby FAST Initiative receives a one-year grant
from the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention to try the new Baby FAST
program at 10 sites in Wisconsin. (FAST stands for Families and Schools Together.) Racine
and about a dozen other communities have made applications to be test sites, and decisions
on the sites are expected to be made by the end of October.
(Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal,
26 September) and
http://www.jsonline.com/news/racine/sep04/261811.asp
August 2004
In a study of more than 8,000 Wisconsin students, Beth Graue found that
students who delayed or repeated 5-year-old kindergarten were more likely to
need special education services later. Such pupils were more likely to be boys,
low-income and minorities
(Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, 21 August 2004).
June 2004
Gregory A. Moses develops multimedia presentations that
his students can watch or listen to, even those who are blind or deaf.
Moses is an investigator in the WCER project “Digital Insight: A
Prototype Digital Media Research System,” and a professor in
the College of Engineering. (University Communications News@UW-Madison, 8 June 2004)
WCER Senior Scientist Norman Webb and colleagues have evaluated
Wisconsin’s class-size reduction program, SAGE. The study confirms some previous
findings but more information is needed to determine the program’s long-term
effects. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 2 June 2004)
Lynn McDonald’s Families and Schools Together (FAST) is
the subject of the program, “In Focus,” on Channel 8 Houston PBS TV,
1 June, and the subject of a newspaper story
(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 9 June 2004)
Kimber Malmgren recently studied foster children with
emotional and behavioral disorders who had landed in the criminal justice system.
What struck her was their high mibility among schools. While most children move
about once in their entire childhood, children in her study often moved this much
each school year. (Toledo
Blade, 27 June 2004)
May 2004
Carolyn Kelley, author of the book “Paying Teachers for
What They Know and Do,” is quoted in an article about teachers’ contracts
in the Minneapolis Public Schools.
(Minneapolis Star Tribune, 23 May 2004)
Allan Odden comments on the trend of school districts creating
salary systems tied in part to student progress. (New York Times, 9 May 2004) Odden
is quoted in a story about incentive pay plans that would give teachers and other
school staff pay raises if students reach certain academic goals. (NBC TV15 News,
12 May 2004)
Lynn McDonald’s Families and Schools Together (FAST) program
is profiled (The Charlotte Observer, 18 May 2004)
Bradford Brown is quoted in the article "Brains and
Behavior." (Wisconsin State Journal, 18 May 2004)
April 2004
The assessment tool Surveys of the Enacted Curriculum (SEC), developed by
Andy Porter, John Smithson, and Rolf Blank, is profiled.
(NCREL
Learning Point, Spring 2004)
March 2004
Studies of student tracking and achievement by Adam Gamoran
and Samuel R. Lucas are cited in Education Week
(3 March 04)
Allan Odden is quoted in an article about Denver’s
consideration of a groundbreaking pay plan that would base their pay raises
on student performance rather than longevity. (Associated Press, 18 March 2004)
Lynn McDonald’s Families and Schools Together (FAST) is
among programs being funded by the James L. Knight Foundation in Akron, Ohio.
(City of Akron News Release, 24 March 2004)
February 2004
Allan Odden discusses the costs of implementing No Child
Left Behind (Education Week, 2/4/04)
WCER’s Web site is reviewed favorably by the Internet Scout Project.
(Scout Report, 6 February 2004)
WCER’s project System-Wide Change for All Learners and Educators (SCALE)
is mentioned as an example of NSF-sponsored research in a story about White House
education budget proposals. (Education Week, 11 February 2004)
January 2004
Lynn McDonald, director of Families and Schools Together (FAST),
is mentioned in the article “City To Get Program For Teen Moms and Babies.”
(Wisconsin State Journal, 14 January 2004) She also is cited in the article “
For Better Brains, Bond With Babies” where her program Baby FAST is said to
combine “science and common-sense parenting to help young parents build up
baby brains.” (Wisconsin State Journal, 15 January 2004)
2003
December 2003
Ken Zeichner is mentioned as one of 29 UW-Madison faculty who are
among the most cited researchers in their fields over two decades, according to
Thomson ISI, a citation indexing company. (UW-Madison media release, 14 November 2003)
October 2003
Lynn McDonald’s Families and Schools Together (FAST)
program received nearly one million dollars in funding from the U.S. Department
of Justice, which will support FAST initiatives in 20 Wisconsin schools, bringing
the state total to 100. (The Madison Capital Times, 10 October 2003)
Andy Porter and John Smithson have developed
a tool that allows researchers to quantify the content topics and cognitive demands
in standards, assessments, and local curricula for mathematics and science, and
a way to illustrate that information. (Education Week, 8 October 2003)
Gloria Ladson-Billings publishes an article about Newark’s
“Project New Beginnings.” (Education Week, 1 October 2003)
September 2003
Lynn McDonald’s Families and Schools Together (FAST)
is profiled among “Programs That Hold Promise” in preventing teen
drug abuse. (Christian Science Monitor, 23 September, 2003)
August 2003
Allan Odden is quoted in an article about his study of school
funding policies in Arizona (The (Madison) Capital Times, 7 August 2003).
Odden and Marc J. Wallace, Jr. coauthor a commentary piece “Leveraging
Teacher Pay: How We Can Raise Student Achievement Through Better Systems of
Compensation” (Education Week, 6 August, 2003)
In the U.S. News & World Report rankings of “America’s Best
Graduate Schools” the UW-Madison School of Education is ranked No. 2 in
Secondary Education, No. 2 in Elementary Education, No. 3 in Education Policy,
No. 1 in Curriculum & Instruction, No. 1 in Administration/Supervision,
and ties (with Stanford) for No. 1 in Educational Psychology. (Usnews.com, August 2003)
July 2003
Terry Millar, codirector of System-wide Change for All
Learners and Educators (SCALE), is quoted in an article about the Providence
RI school district’s participation in the five-year NSF-funded project
which includes schools in Denver, Los Angeles, and Madison.
(Providence Journal, 29 July 2003)
April 2003
Allan Odden is quoted in an article about a
CPRE study of Kentucky’s education spending. (Education Week, 16 April 2003)
March 2003
Deborah Lowe Vandell is quoted in an article
about the quality of child-care centers in Wisconsin. (Wisconsin State Journal,
2 March 2003)
February 2003
Deborah Lowe Vandell is quoted in an article
about the quality of child-care centers in the U.S. (Wisconsin State
Journal, 20 February 2003)
David W. Shafer is quoted in an article about the
Wisconsin Connections Academy, the state's first virtual school (Duluth News, 10 February 2003)
January 2003
Gloria Ladson-Billings is quoted in article
about the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (The Madison
Capital Times, 21 January 2003)
Ken Zeichner is quoted in an article about
the state's score in a national study of states’ efforts
to attract and retain qualified teachers in high-need schools.
(The Madison Capital Times, 14 Jan. 2003)
2002
December 2002
Geoffrey Borman is quoted as lead researcher in a study of 29
popular schoolwide improvement programs. The study concludes that the
comprehensive models are better than the status quo when it comes to
raising student achievement. (Education Week, 11 December 2002)
November 2002
Geoffrey Borman is quoted in an article about the "What
Works Clearinghouse" (New York Times, 10 November 2002)
October 2002
WCER’s project System-wide Change for All Learners and
Educators (SCALE) is mentioned as the largest of seven grants awarded by the NSF in the current round of awards for centers to develop teaching leadership in science and mathematics. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 3 October 2002)
September 2002
Lynn McDonald’s Families and Schools
Together (FAST) program is featured at length (Kitchener, Ontario Record,
16 September 2002)
August 2002
Jeff Braden is quoted in an article
about a new Wisconsin state law that ends automatic academic
promotions for K-12 students. (Wisconsin State Journal, 25 August 2002)
June 2002
Andy Porter is quoted in an article about
the influence of advocacy-based education studies. (Education Week, 12 June 2002)
Audrey Cotherman, former Wyoming deputy
state Superintendent of Public Instruction, receives recognition
as the incoming director of WCER’s Comprehensive Consortium-VI. (Casper Star-Tribune, 2001)
May 2002
Gloria Ladson-Billings is quoted in an article
about pay inequity in the professions and how that affects the pool
of qualified teachers. (Forbes Magazine, 27 May 2002)
Norman Webb is quoted in an article about national
science education standards and their effect on classrooms. (Education
Week, 22 May 2002)
Allan Odden is quoted in an article about Cincinnati
teachers' consideration of a “pay for performance” plan.
(Education Week, 29 May, 2002)
April 2002
Andy Porter is quoted in an article about the White
House’s commitment to what it calls “evidence-based”
education practice. (Education Week, 10 April 2002)
Deborah Lowe Vandell is quoted by nationally
syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman in an article about the quality of
child care programs.
A talk by Gloria Ladson-Billings at the American
Educational Research Association addressed the question, Has the US
become a more compassionate place since September 11? (She argues
that it had not). Her colleague, Mary Haywood Metz, a professor of
educational policy studies, says that the kind of anger and alienation
found in much of the Arab world could also be found in American inner-cities.
(London Times Educational Supplement, 12 April 2002)
Ken Zeichner, speaking at the AERA convention,
is quoted in an article about the difficulty of communicating research
results with classroom teachers. (New Orleans Times-Picayune, 4 April 2002)
March 2002
Adam Gamoran is quoted in an article about tracking
students—separating them into classes with students of similar abilities.
(Glasgow, Scotland Herald, 25 March, 2002)
January 2002
Lynn McDonald’s Families and Schools Together (FAST)
program is praised as “pretty impressive” by Senator Herb Kohl (D-Wis)
at a participating school in La Crosse. (La Crosse Tribune, 16 Jan 2002)
2001
December 2001
Allan Odden is mentioned in an article about the need for a state-wide
education summit to address school funding. (Wisconsin Week, 2 December 2001)
Lynn McDonald’s Families and Schools Together (FAST) program
receives a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. (Madison Capital Times, 11 December 2001)
FAST is featured in an article in the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, 18 December 2001.
October 2001
The US Department of Education funds WCER’s new Coordination, Consultation,
and Evaluation Center for Implementing K-3 Behavior and Reading Intervention Models,
to be directed by Stephen Elliot and Thomas Kratochwill.
(Education Week, 24 October 2001)
Walter Secada is interviewed and WCER’s Diversity in Mathematics
Education project is featured on Madison television news. (WMTV - NBC15, 10 October 2001)
Andy Porter is quoted in an article about the alignment of state
teaching, standards, and tests. (Education Week, 31 October 2001)
September 2001
Allan Odden is quoted in an article about Cincinnati’s
teacher performance-pay plan. (Education Week, 19 September 2001)
James Stewart, co-director of WCER’s National
Center for Improving Student Learning and Achievement in Mathematics and
Science, is quoted in an article about the need for more “hands-on,
minds-on," activities in science classrooms. (Christian Science Monitor,
18 September 2001)
August 2001
Andy Porter is quoted in a story about the push for
school standards. (abcNEWS.com, 15 August, 2001)
July 2001
Geoffrey Borman is quoted in an article about the benefits of students'
taking summer enrichment courses. (USA Today, 17 July 2001)
June 2001
Andy Porter is quoted in an article about the “Condition
of Education” report released by the National Center for Education Statistics.
(Education Week, 6 June 2001)
Thomas Carpenter is quoted in an article about the trend for more
schools to require that all students pass algebra courses before graduating.
(Los Angeles Times, 6 June 2001)
May 2001
Thomas Carpenter is quoted in an article about debates over
how mathematics is taught in Fairfax County public schools. (Washington Post, 14 May 2001)
Andy Porter is quoted in an article about updating state
assessment systems. (Education Week, 2 May 2001)
Lynn McDonald’s Families and Schools Together (FAST)
program is highlighted in The Madison Capital Times, 18 May 2001.
April 2001
Deborah Lowe Vandell is quoted in an article about the
percentage of kids in day care who show aggressive behavior. (Boston Globe,
26 April 2001)
Allan Odden is quoted in articles about Cincinnati’s
proposed performance pay plan. (New York Times, 18 April 2001, and Education Week, 25 April)
March 2001
Thomas Carpenter is quoted in an article about algebra being
introduced in early elementary curricula. (Education Week, 28 March 2001)
Thomas Romberg is quoted in an article about the use of
calculators in mathematics classrooms. (Wisconsin State Journal, 31 March 2001)
February 2001
Bradford Brown is quoted in an article about parents learning
to recognize, and not trample on, the feelings that their children try to express
at Valentine’s Day, and how girls are usually more keen and prepared for
intimacy at pre-teen ages because they have practiced close, confidential
relationships with girlfriends. (Boston Globe, 8 February 2001)
January 2001
Allan Odden is quoted in an article about Iowa considering
a pay-for-performance compensation plan for teachers. (Education Week, 10 January 2001)
Gloria Ladson-Billings is quoted in an article about ways
to challenge racism. (Wisconsin State Journal, 15 January 2001)
2000
November 2000
Adam Gamoran is quoted in an article about his study finding
that all students, regardless of their prior mathematical skills, benefit from
taking algebra. (Education Week, 15 November 2000)
October 2000
Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI) is a featured program at the “
Decade of Behavior” National Forum in Washington, DC. CGI is the
professional development program that helps teachers to understand
children’s mathematical thinking, and was developed at WCER by
Thomas Carpenter and Elizabeth Fennema.
(UW-Madison News Release, 4 October 2000)
August 2000
William Clune is quoted in an article about results of
the voucher school program in the District of Columbia. (Washington Post, 28
August 2000)
June 2000
A recent 10-state study by Andy Porter finds gaps between
instruction and assessment. (Education Week, 7 June 2000)
Allan Odden is quoted in an article about a newly restructured
teacher pay system at Vaughn Learning Center, Pacoima, Calif.
(Education Week, 14 June 2000)
May 2000
Allan Odden is quoted in an article about Cincinnati’s
new, five-tiered system of teacher career levels aligned with 16 new teaching
standards, in-depth assessments, and professional development.
(Education Week, 24 May, 2000)
Andy Porter is quoted in a story about the national movement
to establish “high stakes” tests for students. (Education Week, 3 May 2000)
April 2000
Carolyn Kelley and Steve Kimball are quoted
in an article about the degree of “ripple effect” created by teachers
who earn National Board Teacher Certification. (Education Week, 3 May 2000)
Deborah Lowe Vandell is quoted in an article about child care
and after-school programs. (New York Times, 11 April 2000)
March 2000
Allan Odden is quoted as the Los Angeles school
district considers paying teachers based on how much they improve their
students’ scores on standardized tests. (Education Week, 22 March 2000)
For the second year in a row, US. News & World Report ranks the UW-Madison
School of Education in its Top 10 Education Schools in the country. Its curriculum
and instruction program was ranked No. 1, as was its Educational Psychology program.
Its Educational Administration and Secondary Teacher Education programs are ranked
No. 2 nationwide. (Wisconsin State Journal, 31 March 2000)
February 2000
Deborah Lowe Vandell says after-school programs are potentially
potent weapons against a host of persistent problems ranging from juvenile crime
to lagging test scores. (Education Week, 2 February 2000)
Elizabeth Graue is interviewed about her study of “
redshirting,” or holding back children from kindergarten an extra year
(Wisconsin Public Radio, 24 February 2000, and Wisconsin Department of Public
Instruction’s Education Forum, Feb. 25)
January 2000
Elizabeth Graue is interviewed in a story about “
redshirting,” or holding back, children from kindergarten an extra year.
(Chicago Tribune, 9 January 2000)
Allan Odden is interviewed in a story about a bonus
plan for teachers proposed by Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson.
(Wisconsin State Journal, 30 January 2000)
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