UNI NEWS SERVICES - The University of Northern Iowa’s online master’s in education programs ranked among the top 25% nationally in a recently released 2021 U.S. News and World Report review.
The UNI programs tied for 72nd among 296 programs for master’s degrees in the first year UNI submitted information for this particular category.
2020 brought plenty to be angry about. There’s been a global pandemic, a national reckoning with racial injustice, an economic crisis and a presidential election - all of it debated each day on social media. But UNI education professor Suzanne Freedman, who has specialized in forgiveness research over nearly three decades and teaches a course on the subject, said now may be a good time to remember the benefits of forgiveness, empathy and understanding.
The UNI Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders has welcomed a new addition to their department: baby “Paul.”
Weighing just under two and a half pounds, “Paul” is a preterm infant born at 27 weeks. He has a pulse, real hair, and can breathe and cry.
Paul is not a real infant, though, but rather a top-of-the-line high emotion simulator that students in the department will soon begin using for classwork.
As COVID-19 prompted abrupt, statewide school closures, University of Northern Iowa student teachers on the cusp of becoming fully certified educators found themselves suddenly transitioning the remainder of their semester to an online format and interviewing for positions remotely.
It was a jarring shift, but these students had already completed over 100 hours of classroom experience prior to student teaching and were ready to handle the task.
UNI Associate Professor of Literacy and Education Shuaib Meacham helps teach future educators how to handle race in the classroom. He also leads a local hip hop literacy program to help connect youth to their love of language, and is helping launch a new project aimed at showcasing Iowa’s diversity. Here, he discusses his work and offers advice for using this unprecedented moment to create lasting change.
What are some examples of racial inequality in teaching and education?
When local public school teachers started emailing Michael Graziano, UNI professor of religions, for advice on how to handle religion in the classroom he saw an unmet need. Now, a new $10,000 grant from the Whiting Foundation will allow Graziano to develop a seminar on religion for public school teachers. From how to be inclusive of religious diversity, to how to discuss religion in school curriculum, Graziano has the expertise to help teachers navigate these situations — and a vision for an inclusive future.
UNI professor Matt Townsley wants to see an education revolution. In his upcoming book “Making Grades Matter,” co-written with Nathan Wear, the UNI educational leadership assistant professor lays out the path for middle and high schools to abandon traditional letter grades in favor of a standards-based grading model. In this conversation, he outlines his case for why schools should rethink the way they think about grades and learning.
What is standards-based grading? Is it the death knell of letter grades?
A new program from the University of Northern Iowa and Green Hills Area Education Agency will help increase student access to mental health services in high-need, rural areas of western Iowa currently struggling to hire school psychologists.
Mental health issues are on the rise in Iowa schools, but the school psychologists to help combat this trend are in short supply. UNI's School Psychology Program is the only state accepting students and helping meet these needs, and one of its associate professors was recently recognized for her work in the field.
In September, the UNI and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), a leading national higher education association based in Washington, D.C., released a comprehensive policy framework to revitalize the federal government’s role in educator preparation. The UNI-AASCU collaboration has been named the Project to Revitalize the Educator Preparation in America, or PREP America, in recognition of the need to develop new, meaningful solutions to longstanding challenges confronting America’s educators.
