Faculty member Diane Hirshberg was interviewed by the High North News about challenges facing educators and students across the Circumpolar North as schools and universities are asked to move their teaching online.
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The Institute of Social and Economic Research’s (ISER) Dr. Dayna DeFeo alongside ISER researcher, Trang Tran, and Associate Vice Provost for Workforce Development at the University of Alaska (UA) Statewide, Teri Cothren, presented at the 6th Annual AlaskaCAN! Conference in Anchorage last week.
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Dr. Diane Hirshberg traveled to Joensuu, Finland to meet with collaborators on a new project called Enhancing Equity and Inclusion in Education in Circumpolar North (EICN).
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Dr. Diane Hirshberg is co-author of a just-released report on how districts and schools use Title VI Indian Education Formula Grants. The study examines the implementation of the Title VI grants and addresses the services that Title VI funds support, how grantees work with stakeholders to identify program-eligible children, and how they measure progress toward their project objectives. This study, led by SRI International, was conducted for the U.S. Department of Education Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development Policy and Program Studies Service.
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The Alaska Association for Career & Technical Education (ACTE) held their annual professional development conference, Growing Stronger Together 2019, this week at the Captain Cook Hotel in Anchorage.
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Director of the Center for Alaska Education Policy Research (CAEPR) and Research Assistant Professor of Education Policy, Dr. Dayna DeFeo, was recently featured by KTUU to discuss the growing concern around the number of teachers in Alaska. Dr. DeFeo explained that lower enrollment in education programs has resulted in less teachers being produced locally. On top of that, issues with the budget make it difficult to hold on to the ones that are currently working here.
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The Improving Childcare Outcomes Research (ICOR) project, with Diane Hirshberg as part of the team, is expanding the definition of culturally responsive teaching from its current K-12 focus to include early childhood education. This involves creating and assessing the effectiveness of new professional development aimed at strengthening culturally responsive practices among early childhood educators. The work is intended to be informed by research. As part of that, researchers surveyed parents and educators about how they define culturally responsive practice.
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ISER researchers Dayna DeFeo, director of the Center for Alaska Education Policy Research and Diane Hirshberg, professor of education policy, were featured prominently in Education Week for a recent article on teacher turnover in Alaska.
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In a new education publication, Dayna DeFeo, Matthew Berman, Alexandra Hill, and Diane Hirshberg examine how Alaska’s K-12 spending compares to other states in the US. In Alaska’s fiscal crisis that has drawn increased attention to education spending, this report shows that after taking into account higher Alaska prices for items largely beyond local school districts' control, Alaska's per pupil spending is about average among all the US states.
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In the midst of a national teacher shortage, Alaska does not simply need teachers, it needs high quality educators who reflect the diversity of its students. Teachers who are prepared in Alaska not only bring cultural familiarity, but also have lower turnover rates. Grow-your-own initiatives to recruit and train local teachers are a sustainable and effective way to staff classrooms with “homegrown” educators who are culturally and linguistically similar to the students and communities they serve, but Alaska is not recruiting enough Alaskans into teaching.