Wei LAB Director Jackson was once again named to Education Week blogger Rick Hess’s annual list of the 200 most influential education scholars in the United States.

Hess explained the purpose of the rankings is to spotlight scholars “who did the most last year to shape educational practice and policy.”

“Simply being included in this list of 200 scholars is an accomplishment,” he said, “given the 20,000 or more who might qualify.”

Wei LAB Research Scientist Dr. Brian A. Burt and Research Associate Blayne D. Stone, Jr. authored a new article in the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, titled “STEM validation among underrepresented students: Leveraging insights from a STEM diversity program to broaden participation.”

The authors studied 20 underrepresented students participating in the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program, funded by the National Science Foundation, and described the programmatic influences of LSAMP that support students’ successful progress within STEM disciplines.

The study aimed to increasing understanding of how students experience STEM diversity programs and identify with their specific practices and activities, how those practices and activities shape students’ experiences, and how the practices, activities, and participation influence how students view themselves as members of the STEM community.

Burt and Stone collaborated on the article with Rudisang Motshubi of Iowa State University, and Lorenzo D. Baber of Loyola University Chicago.

The article is one of three Dr. Burt has published recently. He has also authored Broadening participation in the engineering professoriate: Influences on Allen’s journey in developing professorial intentions, which appears in the Journal of Engineering Education, and Black Men in Engineering Graduate Programs: A Theoretical Model of the Motivation to Persist, published in the Teachers College Record.

Director Jerlando F. L. Jackson was selected for the 2020 Slesinger Award for Excellence in Mentoring during a virtual ceremony on Dec. 3, 2020.

The award was created to celebrate the work of individuals who help women faculty members at UW–Madison achieve their goals and reach their highest potential. The award includes $2,500 from the Women’s Philanthropy Council to direct to a UW–Madison initiative or program of the honoree’s choosing.

“Jerlando’s mentoring transcends identities, cultures, geography, nationalities, and much more,” said Dr. Xueli Wang, a professor in the Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis program at UW-Madison and one of the individuals who nominated Dr. Jackson for the award. “Many of us who are women faculty and faculty of color are now thriving as impactful researchers, educators, and leaders in our own rights largely owing to who he is and how he gives as one of the most transformative mentors, past, present, and future.”

Senior Research Associate Dr. Shawn Anthony Robinson shared his perspective in a recent Boston Globe article on the additional challenges the COVID-19 pandemic has posed for children with reading challenges. “Kids in need of remedial support already were vulnerable before the pandemic. Now they’re facing educational ruin,” the article asserts.

Dr. Robinson illuminated how racial biases in the educational system disproportionately affect Black and brown children.

“There are racial biases in our system in terms of how we see students with dyslexia,” Robinson is quoted as saying. “Black and brown children have essentially been ignored in decades of research on reading interventions, and often get diagnosed with emotional or behavioral disorders when their real struggle relates to reading.”

Director Jackson was selected to moderate a panel and town hall on systemic racism and racial injustice during the 2020 UW-Madison Diversity Forum.

The town hall focused on struggles of Black Americans, especially Black men, and changes needed to improve quality of life and opportunity for all of the individuals, families and communities caught in the current dysfunctional reality. The panel focused particularly on the impact that disparities in justice and systemic racism have on the lives of Black men.

Panelists included Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes; Dr. Ruben Anthony, President and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Madison; Joshua Hargrove, criminal defense lawyer and former Assistant District Attorney for Madison, Wis.; and Elizer Darris, founder of Darris Consulting Group.