Classrooms missing roofs and walls. Children lacking access to basic education. Teachers using tarp as chalkboards.
And, amidst it all, the indomitable spirit of people working to improve each other’s lives.
CYFS Director Susan Sheridan encountered these dual realities during a recent mission to La Montagne (mawn-TYN’), Haiti, a beautiful but historically poor mountainside community devastated by a 2010 earthquake.
The University of Nebraska–Lincoln recently presented the 2011 Outstanding Postdoc Award to Ji Hoon Ryoo, a postdoctoral research associate with the CYFS-housed National Center for Research on Rural Education (R2Ed).
The award recognizes exceptional postdoctoral scholars for their comprehensive efforts in research, teaching, mentoring, innovation and service to UNL or the community. Ryoo received the honor during the Nov. 2 UNL Research Fair. He was nominated by mentor James Bovaird, director of the CYFS Statistics and Research Methodology Unit and associate professor with UNL’s Department of Educational Psychology.
Conventional wisdom says that people get what they pay for – but a new study suggests that money goes only so far when it comes to finding quality child care.
The study, led by CYFS Faculty Affiliates Julia Torquati and Helen Raikes, examined whether family income, education level and other factors predicted the actual and parent-perceived quality of 359 Midwestern child care programs.
The Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools (CYFS) has released its annual report for the 2010 fiscal year, which ran from July 2010 through June 2011.
Titled “Realizing Potential, Reaching Beyond,” the report features snapshots of the center’s achievements in conducting applied research, translating that research to the field, and collaborating with partners to advance the CYFS mission.
Coaches typically develop game plans designed to achieve success on the field, court, diamond or ice. CYFS Research Associate Professor Lisa Knoche is helping to ensure that Nebraska adds “classroom” and “home” to that list.
Knoche, CYFS Consultant Sue Bainter and several graduate student affiliates offered a glimpse into their year-long evaluation of the Early Childhood Coaching Project during a Sept. 29 meeting in Lincoln, Neb. The project – developed by the Nebraska Department of Education’s Early Childhood Training Center – prepares early childhood professionals who work with teachers and families to enhance young children’s development.
An intervention approach emphasizing parental engagement and family-school partnerships improves preschool children’s early language and literacy skills, according to a newly published study from the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools.
They may lack a driver’s license and ride the bus to school, but students at Lincoln’s Culler Middle School are using other forms of transportation to reach destinations further down the road.
With the support of the Nebraska Center for Research on CYFS, the Nebraska Transportation Center and the Mid-America Transportation Center, Culler recently concluded the first year of an after-school engineering club that illustrated how math and science make modern transportation possible. Dubbed Roads, Rails and Race Cars, the weekly club offered interactive activities that helped Culler students grasp the diverse applications of the algebra, geometry and physics they learned in class.
Susan Swearer, associate professor of educational psychology and CYFS faculty affiliate, participated in the White House Conference on Bullying Prevention held March 10.
Swearer was one of four national bullying experts who joined President and First Lady Obama, along with members of the U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to discuss the causes, consequences and prevention of bullying. Teachers, parents and students from across the United States were also on hand to lend their perspectives.