Category: School News

UW–Madison report: math achievement challenges begin early, intensify for MMSD elementary students

 By Karen Rivedal, Office of Research and Scholarship A new report by the Madison Education Partnership (MEP) is helping guide efforts by the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) to strengthen elementary mathematics fluency by providing insights on students’ math performance during the 2024–2025 school year. “This report provides a clear baseline,” the document notes, “for …

Angie Kang wins 2026 Charlotte Zolotow Award for ‘Our Lake’

“Our Lake,” written and illustrated by Angie Kang, is the winner of the 2026 Charlotte Zolotow Award for outstanding writing in a picture book. The award is given by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC), a library of the UW–Madison School of Education. “Our Lake” was edited by Namrata Tripathi and published in the United …

Dance Department and Li Chiao-Ping Dance present ‘Here Lies the Truth’ Feb. 5–7

The UW–Madison Dance Department and Li Chiao-Ping Dance will present the final performances of “Here Lies the Truth,” a multidisciplinary, mixed-media dance theater work, Feb. 5–7 in the Margaret H’Doubler Performance Space, Lathrop Hall (1050 University Ave.). “Here Lies the Truth” investigates “the truth” as it relates to race, power, access, equity, and positionality. Directed …

From art student to game changer

By Kari Dickinson UW–Madison alumnus Brian Raffel’s path to the top of the video game industry has been anything but conventional. A former art student turned high school art teacher, Raffel co-founded Raven Software with his brother, Steve, in 1990, when they got a publishing deal for their first computer game, Black Crypt. What began …

School of Education doctoral student advances to Three Minute Thesis finals

Nine UW–Madison graduate students will bring their best three-minute pitch about their research and its impact to the university’s annual Three Minute Thesis (3MT) finals on Friday, Feb. 20, including Benjamin Lebovitz, a PhD student in the School of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis. Three Minute Thesis, an international research competition, challenges graduate …

Equipping dance artists for the future

By Kari Dickinson As the Dance Department celebrates its centennial, it is also looking to the future with the launch of a new Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Dance program. The first students will arrive in fall 2026. This fully funded, two-year degree gives outstanding artists opportunities to push the boundaries of their creative …

Dancing for (over) a century

By Kari Dickinson More than 100 years ago, Margaret H’Doubler taught the first dance courses on the UW–Madison campus. At the time, the idea that dance was suitable for academic study was nothing short of radical. From those first improvisational classes in 1917 grew the nation’s first dance major, formally approved on June 8, 1926. …

UW–Madison research develops new framework to strengthen instruction for multilingual learners

By Karen Rivedal, Office of Research and Scholarship As multilingual learners make up a growing share of U.S. classrooms, educators face increasing pressure to support students who are learning academic content and the language of instruction at the same time. In response, a recent working paper from the Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER), part …

WIDA’s Next Chapter: A Q&A with Executive Director Jenni Torres

By Hannah Haynes, WIDA Communications  Jenni Torres has built her life on a simple but powerful belief: Language is a bridge. As the new executive director of WIDA, she brings that conviction to the forefront of a national and global effort to engage, equip, and inspire the educators who impact the lives of multilingual learners. …

School of Education’s Conroy chosen for Distinguished Teaching Award

School of Education faculty member Colleen Conroy, an assistant professor in the Department of Theatre and Drama, is among 13 UW–Madison faculty members selected this year as recipients for Distinguished Teaching Awards, an honor established in 1953 to recognize some of the university’s finest educators.  Conroy is being honored with the Chancellor’s Inclusive Excellence Teaching …