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  • Research fails to support current rapid growth of charter schools

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The case for charter schools, by all appearances, has been made with politicians and the public. Forty states now have them, their numbers are rapidly increasing, and they now serve more than a million students.

  • Reality TV provides an education for self-help citizenship, author says

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Many things have been said about reality TV, but "educational" has rarely been among them.

  • Public schools as good as private schools in raising math scores, study says

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Students in public schools learn as much or more math between kindergarten and fifth grade as similar students in private schools, according to a new University of Illinois study of multi-year, longitudinal data on nearly 10,000 students.

  • Fear of Germany's destruction drove Nazism's appeal, scholar says

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Seventy-five years after the Nazis rose to power, historians still struggle to explain how the Nazis could take such effective hold of Germany and bring it to such murderous extremes in war and in the Holocaust.

  • Illinoisans unimpressed with quality of state's colleges and universities

    Champaign, IGPA, the U. of I. College of Media, and the Forum on the Future of Public Education at the Urbana-Champaign campus.

  • U. of I. professor James Anderson named to National Academy of Education

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - James D. Anderson, the Gutsgell Professor of educational policy studies at the University of Illinois, has been elected to membership in the National Academy of Education, considered the highest honor in the field of educational scholarship.

  • Violet Harris

    How do you keep kids reading throughout the summer?

    A Minute With™... education professor Violet Harris

  • Local teachers to attend Chancellor's Academy at U. of I. starting July 31

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Eighty-seven local teachers are expected to take part in the fourth annual Chancellor's Academy, which starts Thursday (July 31) and continues on weekdays through Aug. 8.

  • Law School Day to take place Oct. 8 at the U. of I.

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Illinois college students preparing to apply to law school are invited to attend Law School Day at the University of Illinois on Oct. 8.

  • Youth Literature Fest coming to U. of I., area schools, community Oct. 2-4

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Books, kids, and the love of reading will take center stage Oct. 2-4 in Champaign-Urbana, at the University of Illinois, and in 44 area schools - all as part of a first-ever Youth Literature Festival in East Central Illinois.

  • Author Naomi Klein to speak Oct. 29 at the University of Illinois

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Author and syndicated columnist Naomi Klein will speak Oct. 29 on the University of Illinois campus, on the topic "Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism in Latin America."

  • Sarah J. McCarthey

    What should President Obama do with No Child Left Behind?

    A Minute With™... education professor Sarah J. McCarthey

  • Quality, quantity lacking in children's educational TV, study says

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Commercial broadcasters are doing the "bare minimum and not much more" for children's educational programming, according to University of Illinois communication professor Barbara Wilson, one of two lead researchers on a study released today (Nov. 12) by the organization Children Now.

  • E-Learning can have positive effect on classroom learning, scholar says

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Traditional classroom teaching in higher education could learn a thing or two from online teaching, otherwise known as e-learning, according to a University of Illinois professor who studies computer-mediated communication, information exchange and the Internet.

  • Boy-girl bullying in middle grades more common than previously thought

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Much more cross-gender bullying - specifically, unpopular boys harassing popular girls - occurs in later elementary school grades than previously thought, meaning educators should take reports of harassment from popular girls seriously, according to new research by a University of Illinois professor who studies child development.

  • Education secretary pick a pragmatic reformer, liked by teachers unions

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The naming of Arne Duncan, chief executive of the Chicago public school system, to run the U.S. Department of Education signals that education will not be second-tier issue in a Barack Obama presidency, says James D. Anderson, the Gutsgell Professor of educational policy studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

  • Education professor Sarah Lubienski questions the value of international math and science testing on judging the quality of U.S. elementary schools.

    Value of international math and science test questioned by scholar

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - To no one's surprise, Asian students outscored their American classmates on the 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), a highly respected international assessment administered every four years to compare the mathematics and science test scores of fourth- and eighth-grade students from around the world. But according to a University of Illinois education professor, one standardized test should not be taken as a final verdict on the quality of math and science education in U.S. elementary schools.

  • Anne Haas Dyson, a professor of curriculum and instruction at Illinois, says playtime for children is a "fundamental avenue" for learning.

    All work and no play makes for troubling trend in early education

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Parents and educators who favor traditional classroom-style learning over free, unstructured playtime in preschool and kindergarten may actually be stunting a child's development instead of enhancing it, according to a University of Illinois professor who studies childhood learning and literacy development.

  • Education professor Brenda M. Trofanenko says Americans' historical apathy is an indictment of the way history is taught in grades K-12.

    Rote memorization of historical facts adds to collective cluelessness

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - As fans of talk-show host Jay Leno's man-on-the-street interviews know, Americans suffer from a national epidemic of historical and civic ignorance. But just because most Americans know more about "American Idol" than they do about American government doesn't necessarily mean it's entirely their fault.

  • Education professors Sarah and Chris Lubienski have found that public-school students outperform their private-school classmates on standardized math tests, thanks to two key factors: certified math teachers, and a modern, reform-oriented math curriculum.

    Certified teachers+modern instruction=better public-school math scores

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - In another "Freakonomics"-style study that turns conventional wisdom about public- versus private-school education on its head, a team of University of Illinois education professors has found that public-school students outperform their private-school classmates on standardized math tests, thanks to two key factors: certified math teachers, and a modern, reform-oriented math curriculum.

  • Christy Lleras, a professor of human and community development, says that "soft skills" are better predictors of earnings and higher educational achievement later in life than having good grades and high standardized test scores.

    Social skills, extracurricular activities in high school pay off later in life

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - It turns out that being voted "Most likely to succeed" in high school might actually be a good predictor of one's financial and educational success later in life.

  • Walter W. McMahon is a professor of economics emeritus and of educational organization and leadership emeritus.

    What will stimulus spending mean to higher education?

    A Minute With™... Walter W. McMahon, a professor of economics emeritus and educational organization and leadership emeritus

  • Education professor Michael A. Peters says universities need to embrace new online media, social networks and a culture of "openness" as part of their pedagogy, or they risk becoming seen as anachronisms in today's hyper-connected world.

    Ivory tower needs to adapt to online media landscape, scholar says

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Universities need to embrace new online media, social networks and a culture of "openness" as part of their pedagogy, or they risk becoming seen as anachronisms in today's hyper-connected world where information is available freely, says a University of Illinois expert who studies the knowledge economy's effect on higher education.

  • Education professor Debra Bragg says that the applied baccalaureate degree is becoming a more popular option for students, especially for career-changing adult learners and first-generation college students, as states look for novel ways to improve access to higher education.

    Applied baccalaureate degrees at two-year colleges play critical roles

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Applied baccalaureate degree programs at community colleges not only offer a path for non-traditional students to earn a bachelor's degree, but they also help state and local governments address shortages in the workforce, according to a University of Illinois expert who studies how first-generation college students use community colleges as a bridge to higher education.

  • David Brown, a professor in the U. of I. College of Education and expert in science education, says that interactive web-based science tutorials can be effective tools for helping elementary school teachers construct powerful explanatory models of difficult scientific concepts.

    Online tutorials help elementary school teachers make sense of science

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Interactive Web-based science tutorials can be effective tools for helping elementary school teachers construct powerful explanatory models of difficult scientific concepts, and research shows the interactive tutorials are just as effective online as they are in face-to-face settings, says a University of Illinois expert in science education.

  • Education professor Debra Bragg says that community colleges are an underfunded community asset and an invaluable resource for first-generation college students, low-skilled adult workers and immigrants aspiring to enter college, and downsized workers and mid-career changers transitioning to a recession-proof career.

    U. of I. education expert: community colleges undervalued, underfunded

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Popular culture may have an uncharitable attitude toward community colleges, but a University of Illinois expert in education says they are an underfunded community asset and an invaluable resource for first-generation college students, low-skilled adult workers and immigrants aspiring to enter college, and downsized workers and mid-career changers transitioning to a recession-proof career.

  • Education professor Christopher Lubienski, left, and graduate student Peter Weitzel have found that a market-based approach to increasing school choice actually leads to fewer educational opportunities, particularly for disadvantaged students in urban areas.

    Market-style incentives to increase school choice have opposite effect

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A market-based approach to increasing school choice actually leads to fewer educational opportunities, particularly for disadvantaged students in urban areas, according to a University of Illinois expert in education.

  • Christopher M. Span, a professor of educational policy studies at Illinois, has written a new book, "From Cotton Field to Schoolhouse: African American Education in Missisippi, 1862-1875," that explores the question of education for newly emancipated slaves in post-bellum Mississippi.

    New book explores post-emancipation education of blacks in Mississippi

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - In the years immediately following the Civil War, the question of education for newly emancipated slaves in Mississippi centered on whether schools should seek to educate blacks as citizens or train them as subsistence laborers. While many whites favored the laborer option, those who had been freed wanted schools established by and for themselves as a means of achieving independence, equality and political empowerment - in essence, full citizenship, says Christopher M. Span, a professor of educational policy studies at the University of Illinois.

  • Debra Bragg

    In this economy, interest in community colleges is growing rapidly. How will $12 billion in stimulus funding help them meet demand?

    A Minute With™... Debra Bragg, a professor of higher education

  • Mothers and fathers play different roles and make different contributions to a child's upbringing, but a father's influence upon a child's academic success later in life is felt the most when he's involved from the very beginning, says Brent McBride, a University of Illinois expert in early childhood education.

    Parental influences differ in determining child's later academic success

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Mothers and fathers play different roles and make different contributions to a child's upbringing, but a father's influence upon a child's academic success later in life is felt the most when he's involved from the very beginning, says a University of Illinois expert in early childhood education.

  • Education professor Brenda M. Trofanenko says the study of genocide and "difficult knowledge" of historical events is best left to high school students.

    War, genocide 'difficult knowledge' to teach younger students

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Whether they're found in a museum or a textbook, historical narratives about traumatic events such as war and genocide are better left to older students, who have typically developed a more refined historical consciousness, says a University of Illinois professor who studies and teaches historical instruction.

  • Dorothy Espelage

    What constitutes bullying, and how should kids and parents respond to it?

    A Minute With™... educational psychology professor Dorothy Espelage

  • To adequately prepare today's students for tomorrow's global economy, teacher education expert Mark Dressman favors "transcultural education," which he defines as an experience that goes beyond the traditional rite-of-passage trip to western Europe.

    Students, teachers need to be transculturally literate, expert says

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The current generation of college students and teachers need to be as culturally fluent with people from different cultures as they are with their own, a soft skill that has become an essential part of life in the 21st century, a University of Illinois expert on teacher education says.

  • Education professor Jennifer A. Delaney, an expert in higher education funding, discusses volatility in higher education funding.

    How universities became the 'balancing wheel' for fluctuating state budgets

    A Minute With™... education professor Jennifer A. Delaney

  • Education professor Liora Bresler says the underlying similarities between teaching, research and music can be a powerful metaphor for education and qualitative inquiry.

    Musical sensibility can help shape teaching, research education

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The underlying similarities between teaching, research and music can be a powerful metaphor for education and qualitative inquiry, according to a University of Illinois professor of education.

  • Carol L. Tilley, a professor of libary and information science at Illinois, says that critics who equate texting with literary degradation are wrong, and that they also overlook the bigger role that texting and its distant cousin, "tweeting," could play in education and research.

    Texting, tweeting ought to be viewed as GR8 teaching tools, scholar says

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The impact of text messaging on the decline of formal writing among teens has been debated in pedagogical circles ever since cell-phone ownership became an adolescent rite of passage in the mid-2000s. But according to a University of Illinois expert in media literacy, not only are critics who argue that texting is synonymous with literary degradation wrong, they also often overlook the bigger role that texting and its distant cousin, "tweeting," could play in education and research.

  • A new study co-written by Gloriana Gonzlez, an expert in math education at Illinois, suggests the students who used dynamic geometry software were more successful in discovering new mathematical ideas than when they used static, paper-based diagrams.

    Adding technology to geometry class improves opportunities to learn

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A new study co-written by a University of Illinois expert in math education suggests that incorporating technology in high school-level geometry classes not only makes the teaching of concepts such as congruency easier, it also empowers students to discover other geometric relationships they wouldn't ordinarily uncover when more traditional methods of instruction were used.

  • Would more charter schools help reform education in America?

    A Minute With™... education professor Christopher Lubienski

  • Laurie Kramer, a professor of applied family studies at Illinois, says that what we learn from our siblings when we grow up has - for better or for worse - a considerable influence on our social and emotional development as adults.

    Siblings play formative, influential role as 'agents of socialization'

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - What we learn from our siblings when we grow up has - for better or for worse - a considerable influence on our social and emotional development as adults, according to an expert in sibling, parent-child and peer relationships at the University of Illinois.

  • Brent McBride, a professor of human development at Illinois, says the college drop-out rates of traditional undergraduates who are also full-time parents is a growing problem in the U.S.

    On-campus child care needed for increasing number of student-parents

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The lack of affordable, high-quality on-campus day care programs that cater to undergraduate students who double as parents is a stealth issue that has the potential to harm both the student-parent and the child, says a University of Illinois expert in early childhood education.

  • On the reforms needed in teacher education

    A Minute With™...  Mary Kalantzis, the dean of the College of Education

  • Timothy Reese Cain, a professor of educational organization and leadership, says scholars have thus far ignored the long, contentious history of faculty unionization.

    College faculty unionization still contested territory, scholar says

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Despite growth in recent decades, unionization of higher education faculty remains contested, and its modern concerns can be traced back to the 1910s and 1920s, according to a University of Illinois expert in historical issues involving faculty work and faculty workers.

  • Anne Haas Dyson, a professor of curriculum and instruction in the U. of I. College of Education, says that a highly-regimented writing curriculum that prohibits young children from borrowing from our common cultural landscape - movies, TV shows, comic books and cartoons - is a problematic one.

    Perchance to dream, perchance to write for young children

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - An approach to teaching young children the principles of writing and literacy that prohibits them from borrowing from our common cultural landscape is a problematic one, according to a University of Illinois professor who studies childhood learning and literacy development.

  • Brendesha Tynes, a professor of educational psychology and of African American studies at Illinois, discovered that white students and those who rated highly in color-blind racial attitudes were more likely not to be offended by images from racially-themed parties where attendees dressed and acted as caricatures of racial stereotypes.

    Color-blind racial ideology linked to racism, both online and offline

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Images from racial theme parties that are posted on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace not only elicit different reactions from different people based on their race and their attitudes toward diversity, they also represent an indirect way to express racist views about minorities, according to published research by a University of Illinois professor who studies the convergence of race and the Internet.

  • Education professor Brendesha Tynes has been awarded a $1.4 million grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to study the effects of online racial discrimination.

    Illinois professor receives four-year $1.4 million grant from NICHD

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Brendesha Tynes, a professor of educational psychology and of African American studies at the University of Illinois, has been awarded a $1.4 million grant to study the effects of online racial discrimination. The grant is from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

  • A sink-or-swim mentality for socializing new employees will ultimately only drain organizations of their best talent over time, according to new research by Russell F. Korte, a University of Illinois expert in workplace dynamics.

    Relationship building among co-workers key driver of workplace socialization

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A sink-or-swim mentality for socializing new employees will ultimately only drain organizations of their best talent over time, according to new research by a University of Illinois expert in workplace dynamics.

  • Carolyn Shields

    Why should kids get summers off?

    A Minute With™... Carolyn Shields, a professor of education

  • Colleges and universities are under siege from an array of economic, political and cultural forces that are dramatically changing higher education as we know it , says Cary Nelson, a professor emeritus of English at Illinois and the three-term president of the American Association of University Professors.

    Higher education under siege, scholar argues in new book

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Colleges and universities are under siege from an array of economic, political and cultural forces that are dramatically changing higher education as we know it - but not for the better, according to Cary Nelson, a professor emeritus of English at the University of Illinois.

  • Education professor Debra Bragg says a major reason why college completion is not keeping pace with enrollment is that many students graduate from high school inadequately prepared for college-level work.

    Better alignment needed between high schools, community colleges

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - High schools need to work with community colleges to align their curricula better and to reduce the number of students who need to enroll in remedial courses, according to a University of Illinois expert who studies community college education policy.

  • Among the authors participating in the second Youth Literature Festival, to take place Oct. 9 at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts on the University of Illinois campus, are Debbi Chocolate, who has written more than 20 picture books, some of which have been featured on the television shows "Reading Rainbow" and "Sesame Street."

    Youth literature festival to feature authors, variety of art forms

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Nationally known and emerging authors, illustrators, poets and storytellers will engage with their young readers and readers young at heart during the second Youth Literature Festival. The festival, to take place Oct. 9 at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts on the University of Illinois campus, celebrates the ways in which written works enrich the lives of young people and promotes reading as a fun activity.