The journey from detention to diploma is a challenging one for students transitioning from expulsion or the juvenile justice system to the classroom.
More than 25,000 youth reside in detention facilities on any given day in the United States. About two-thirds of those youth do not successfully re-engage with school upon their release, due to the lack of effective transition supports.
A few years ago, Michelle Hughes, an audiologist and professor of special education and communication disorders, came across a journal article about an individual who experienced a drug overdose and ended up with sudden hearing loss.
Then she found more articles featuring similar stories. She was fascinated.
A new funding opportunity is available to support faculty engaged in field-based human subjects research.
The MAP Academy invites interdisciplinary faculty across all campuses to submit proposals for the Applied Analytics and Data Infrastructure (AADI) Catalyst Program — an initiative to support the rigor of high-quality, field-based human research at the University of Nebraska. The program launched last fiscal year and is made possible through a grant from the Nebraska Research Initiative.
Public opinion toward poverty in the United States — and financial assistance from the government — is divided.
According to research, many Americans support federal spending on assistance to the poor, but not federal spending on welfare.
To better understand this disparity, a pilot project led by Jamy Rentschler, MAP Academy postdoctoral fellow, and Brandi Woodell, UNL graduate and current Assistant Professor at Old Dominion University, are exploring how people determine a person’s deservingness of receiving financial assistance, and the types of assistance they view as acceptable.
Last fall, more than 900 teacher positions in Nebraska were either vacant or filled by underqualified personnel, according to the Nebraska Department of Education.
With so many vacancies, school districts are forced to compete for candidates from a relatively small pool — something that can have long-term negative effects on rural Nebraska communities.
Making sure rural youth have enough to eat is important for both their health and education. Attending school with an empty stomach affects a student’s ability to focus and learn, making proper nutrition essential for academic success.
Nebraska Extension educators Beth Nacke and Natalie Sehi are leading research focused on adolescent nutrition insecurity. They recently worked with the MAP Academy to create a database to analyze the nutritional and economic impact of Nebraska Extension’s statewide Monthly Meal Kit program.
As the makeup of American communities changes in coming years to grapple with impending transfers of wealth and leadership, sustainability of rural communities is a priority.
Lindsay Hastings, Clifton Professor in Mentoring Research at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, has recently worked with her team — Justine Bircher, Mary Emery and Jordan Rasmussen — on a project to build leadership development systems to sustain rural communities for the future.
In recent years, illnesses, quarantines and school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic have increased emphasis on the importance of instructional time for children’s academic achievement following absences from the classroom.
There is also recent evidence that pandemic school closures disproportionately affected U.S. schools that had students with lower third-grade standardized test scores and higher shares of students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds.
