UW–Madison’s Clifton Conrad and Gerald Dryer were recently interviewed for WalletHub’s “2023’s Most Educated States in America.”
Conrad is a Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor in the School of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis (ELPA). His research is focused on both undergraduate and graduate education, with his primary emphasis on advancing student learning and persistence in higher education and equal opportunity in higher education.
Dryer is a PhD student in ELPA and the research director for UW–Madison’s Comprehensive Assessment of Leadership Learning-Equity Centered Leadership (CALL-ECL) project. He explores the relationship between social justice and personalized learning in schools, as well as how to design instruction that engages students while allowing meaningful control over their own learning.
In their study, WalletHub compared all 50 states across multiple metrics that examine the key factors of a well-educated population: educational attainment, school quality, and achievement gaps between genders and races. They then interviewed experts in various fields — including Conrad and Dryer — about other topics in higher education.
Conrad and Dryer note that, “Education policy should be, without exception, an integral part of the economic development strategy of states,” and suggest that highly educated cities may be more economically stable.
“A city with a more highly-educated population that engages in knowledge-centered careers withstands economic shocks fare more successfully than less educated cities in which most workers are engaged in manufacturing or service industries that at more vulnerable to economic shocks,” they remark.
Read more of Conrad and Dryer’s thoughts on education and check out the full article from WalletHub.