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.
UNI students are again heading into local classrooms to help instruct students struggling with literacy. The class s a unique combination of university lectures, hands-on experience and community service.
