CSSR/CIE Highlights

Content

Center for Student Success Research: Creating a Brighter Future for Students

The Center for Student Success Research (CSSR) promotes access and success in higher education for marginalized student populations through research, evaluation, and organizational assessment. With funding from the College of Education, the University of Massachusetts Provost's Office, and external funders like the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education and the Spencer Foundation, CSSR affiliates examine issues crucial to the success of students today. For, example, Sade Bonilla and her colleagues were recently awarded a grant from the Institute for Education Sciences (IES) to examine whether high-quality career pathways are accessible to all students and the impact of these pathways on student educational and labor market outcomes. Ezekiel Kimball, Chrystal George Mwangi, and Ryan Wells, along with colleagues from the Psychology and Sociology departments at UMass, are concluding work on a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to examine the organizational structure of the "Eureka" partnership between an informal learning community organization and a large public research university. This partnership has successfully enhanced girls’ engagement and success in science as they transition from middle school to high school and beyond in economically underserved communities.

Click here to learn more about these and other CSSR projects.

Center for International Education: Virtual Workshops for Healing and Recovery

The Center for International Education, in collaboration with the Educator Preparation Office of the College of Education, is sponsoring a biweekly series of virtual workshops focusing on trauma exposure and recovery in crisis and conflict education settings. The primary goal is to bear witness to children and families in a diversity of trauma exposure contexts and to inform education and intervention for healing and recovery. Dr. Laurie Matthew (Eighteen and Under) presented a radical and unique "survivor" perspective on school-based abuse prevention. Dr. Susan Darker-Smith (Trauma Response Network) highlighted the centrality of attachment in addressing trauma in schools through Playfulness, Attachment, Curiosity, and Empathy (PACE) within the context of COVID-19. Dr. Ghassan Abdallah (CARE), shared his experiences of instilling hope within contexts of violent military occupation. The final workshop, led by Dr. Mishy Lesser (Upstander Academy), exposed the graphic intergenerational trauma experienced by indigenous peoples in the USA. The series continues next semester.