Jane Cooley

Desegregating schools has long been considered a matter of equity, justice, and improved student achievement.

But there is still a lot to learn about exactly how having diverse classrooms improves student achievement. For example, do student peer groups affect individual achievement?

Yes, peer effects are important determinants of student achievement, but it remains difficult to calculate the actual effects of desegregation directly.  WCER researcher Jane Cooley uses a new approach to identify the effect of peer behavior on individual student achievement.

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Press

Allan Odden is working with the Wyoming Legislature’s Select Committee on School Finance Recalibration to improve statewide school testing (Powell Tribune, 31 Aug.).

Sara Goldrick-Rab says there is so much uncertainty around college financial aid programs that students can't count on them (Fox11 TV, 17 Aug.). And on On 17 August Rab gave the presentation "Making Financial Aid Count" to the Wisconsin State Legislature's Legislative Council's Special Committee on Review of Higher Education Financial Aid Programs.

Boise State University President Bob Kustra cites the book, “Rethinking Education in The Age of Technology,” by Allan Collins and Richard Halverson, saying it raises questions for the university as it maps an “agenda for innovation” (Arbiter Online, 23 August).

Chris Thorn discusses new directions for the Value Added Research Center (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 22 August).

Geoffrey Borman's evaluation of the Comprehensive School Reform program is mentioned in a review of Supplemental Educational Services (Education Week, 17 August).

Sarah Archibald is among those commenting on how Wisconsin educators may use their share of the $26-billion package of state aid that the President signed this week (Wisconsin Public Radio, 11 August)

CENTER SITES

Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning

Center on Education and Work

Children, Families & Schools

Consortium for Policy Research in Education

Coordination, Consultation & Evaluation Center

CoMPASS

Culture, Cognition, and Evaluation of STEM Higher Education Reform

Data-Driven Instructional Systems

Diversity in Mathematics Education

Early Child Care & After-School Care

Formative Language Assessment Records for ELLs in Secondary Schools

Interdisciplinary Training Program in the Education Sciences

Mobilizing STEM for a Sustainable Future

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Secondary Teacher Education Project

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System-wide Change for All Learners and Educators

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Testing Accommodations Research

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WIDA Consortium

A newly published study examines middle algebra school students’ representational fluency, or their ability to reason with and between multiple representations, using tabular, graphical, verbal, and symbolic representations of linear and nonlinear relations. In this study students had 9 weeks of algebra instruction using either Connected Mathematics (CM), a widely adopted reform curriculum, or Bridging Instruction (BI). BI is a novel curriculum taught by the same teacher that drew on students’ mathematical preconceptions and their invented solution strategies. Both instructional approaches improved students’ abilities to solve problems using linear equations. But BI students showed larger improvements overall, with significant gains using equations and word expressions for linear and nonlinear functions. The study was conducted by Mitchell Nathan, Martha Alibali, and colleagues. See WCER Working Paper No. 2010-9.