School of Education News

  • Sheila Kirschbaum stands in front of students on an assembly line at the Tsongas Industrial History Center

    City Honors Director of Tsongas Industrial History Center

    Sheila Kirschbaum’s dedication to hands-on education and the city has won her the 2024 Patrick J. Mogan Learning City Award. Kirschbaum is director of the Tsongas Industrial History Center, UML’s education partnership with Lowell National Historical Park.
    Department News
  • Education Asst. Prof. Christine Leider speaks at an event for new faculty

    New Education Professor Awarded $3.4 Million for Bilingual Teacher Training

    Education Assistant Professor Christine Montecillo Leider, a new faculty member, has been awarded a $3.4 million federal grant to expand training for aspiring bilingual teachers in southeastern Massachusetts – and to start a similar program in UMass Lowell’s School of Education.
    Featured Story
  • Liberal Arts Gabrielle Salvatore '24 in front of UMass Lowell's Coburn Hall

    Build Your Own Major in Bachelor of Liberal Arts

    Students can customize their studies to meet their personal interests and goals through the Bachelor of Liberal Arts degree. They choose two concentrations among 27 options in UML’s flexible, interdisciplinary program.
    Featured Story
  • Ariel Grill

    UTeach Alumni Pay It Forward

    UTeach alumni welcome current UTeach students into their classrooms so they can gain practical teaching experience.
    Featured Story
  • FTEA Jane

    The World Comes to UMass Lowell

    Nineteen teachers representing 18 countries spent six weeks at UMass Lowell for the Fulbright Teaching Excellence and Achievement program.
    Featured Story
  • Teacher-Worrkforce-1

    Education Advocates Aim to Rebuild Teacher Workforce

    The School of Education hosted the [Re]building the Teacher Workforce summit, bringing local teachers and education advocates together to discuss ways to improve diversity and retention within the workforce.
    Featured Story
  • A woman and four men pose for a group photo in front of a sign at a summer camp

    Happy Campers: UML Alumni Revive Youth Program

    A multigenerational group of UML alumni created the Lowell Youth Leadership Program, a nonprofit that runs a free summer camp for underserved kids designed to help them become self-confident, socially connected community leaders.
    Featured Story
  • Eleanora Peters, wearing a UML School of Education shirt, and Regina Peters, wearing a Kennedy College of Sciences sweatshirt, frame the statue of Joan of Arc in Coburn Hall

    Cross-Campus Sisters Graduate Together

    Two of the four Peters sisters, all UMass Lowell Honors students, are graduating together. Eleanora, an education major, has already started on her master's degree. Regina, a biology graduate, is tracking turtles.
    Featured Story
  • Tarlin Family

    Tarlin Triplets Thrive at UMass Lowell

    Triplets Jillian, Chloe and Sam Tarlin have carved out their own paths at UMass Lowell as they prepare to graduate together.
    Featured Story
  • Education student at Educators Rising

    State Grant Will Help Expand Teacher Pathway Program

    Backed by a grant from the Massachusetts Department of Secondary and Elementary Education, the School of Education is expanding programs for students at Lawrence High School who want to become teachers.
    Featured Story
  • Honors education major Eleanora Peters with Education Prof. Pat Fontaine, a mentor with whom she is doing research on Lowell industries during World War I

    Four Sisters Pursue Honors in Biology, Education

    Four close-knit sisters found their way to UMass Lowell to study biology and education. The Peters sisters, who were home-schooled after the oldest finished third grade, are all in the Honors College, and three won Immersive Scholarships to do research.
    Featured Story
  • From left to right in this 1988 black and white photo: then-U.S. Rep. Chester Atkins, the late Massachusetts Sen. Paul Tsongas, and the first director of the Tsongas Industrial History Center, the late Ed Pershey.

    Tsongas Industrial History Center Celebrates 30 Years of Hands-On Learning

    The Tsongas Industrial History Center, a partnership between the university’s School of Education and Lowell National Historical Park, has welcomed more than 1.4 million students and teachers from around New England for hands-on lessons about Lowell’s history, technology and environment since its founding in 1991. 
    Featured Story
  • Four Lowell High School students who plan to become teachers hold up UMass Lowell School of Education polo shirts at UML's fall 2022 education symposium

    Future Teachers Celebrated at Education Symposium

    Future teachers at UMass Lowell and Lowell High School were celebrated at the fall 2022 Education Symposium, where researchers, educators and activists talked about the need for "radical innovation" to address inequities.
    Featured Story
  • Cool Science Alice Lobel

    Local K-12 Students Use Art to Teach Public About Extreme Weather

    The National Science Foundation-funded project Cool Science hosted its 10th annual Extreme Weather Art Competition for students in grades kindergarten through 12th. The winning posters are now displayed on transit buses in the Merrimack Valley and Worcester areas.
    Featured Story
  • A woman takes a group photo of people in green T-shirts gathered around a sign for Coburn Hall

    Education Doctoral Students Savor Summer Residency Week

    More than 100 doctoral students in the School of Education’s online Leadership in Schooling Ed.D. program worked on their dissertations, took qualifying exams and built a sense of community with their cohorts as Summer Residency Week returned in-person to campus for the first time in three years.
    Featured Story
  • Yanfen Li's research team

    New Program Aims to Foster Diversity in Future Engineering Faculty

    A team of faculty researchers led by Biomedical Engineering Asst. Teaching Prof. Yanfen Li has been awarded a six-year grant totaling nearly $1.5 million by the National Science Foundation to create a diverse and competitive pool of students who could become future faculty candidates in engineering.
    Featured Story
  • First-year teaching artist Emma Michaud plays with the Prelude ensemble of the UMass Lowell String Project

    Take a Bow: String Project Turns 20

    More than 20 years after it began, the UMass Lowell String Project is bringing accessible, high-quality music education on violin, viola and cello to Lowell-area schoolchildren – and giving UML music students teaching experience. 
    Featured Story
  • Students from four area high schools listen to a UML admissions presentation during a field trip sponsored by UTeach

    UML Teacher Candidates Host 130 High School Students on Campus

    Students in the UTeach program who are getting early teaching experience in high school math, science and engineering classrooms hosted their high school students on North Campus for a day of hands-on activities.
    Featured Story
  • Psychology Assoc. Prof. Rocio Rosales is leading a $914,000 grant for master's students in applied behavior analysis and autism studies.

    New Grant to Fund Autism Studies and Special Education Master’s Students

    Psychology Assoc. Prof. Rocio Rosales is leading a $914,000 grant that will train UML master’s students in applied behavior analysis and autism studies to collaborate with special education teams – and master’s students in special education at Lasell University to understand applied behavior analysis.
    Featured Story
  • A man in a bowtie gestures in his hand while speaking

    Good COP, Bad COP: UML Delegates Reflect on U.N. Climate Summit

    An interdisciplinary group of faculty members from UMass Lowell’s Climate Change Initiative attended the recent United Nations global climate summit, aka COP26, in Glasgow, Scotland, where they observed progress being made — but also missed opportunities.
    Featured Story
  • At the fall 2021 Panasuk Symposium at UMass Lowell, a panel of educators and advocates discussed critical race theory

    Educators, Advocates Tackle Critical Race Theory at Symposium

    Educators and student advocates discussed critical race theory at the fall symposium, and how the political controversies surrounding it are affecting students and teachers. The first education symposium to be held since November 2019 also included a workshop on teaching LGBTQ history.
    Featured Story
  • A Cool Science bus poster

    Professor: Science Education Can Help Slow Climate Change

    Science education can help slow the pace of global warming, because people who understand climate science can make informed decisions, says Education Assoc. Prof. Jill Hendrickson Lohmeier. Lohmeier does research on using artwork in informal settings to educate the public about climate science.
    Featured Story
  • Assoc. Prof. of Education Iman Chahine won a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award to do ethnomathematical research in South Africa

    Education Professor Gets Second Fulbright to Complete Ethno-mathematics Project

    Assoc. Prof. Iman Chahine has won a second Fulbright Scholarship to help South African educators build Zulu and Ndebele cultural practices into the math curriculum. The professor of education specializes in ethno-mathematics, which translates beadwork and mural painting into teaching tools.
    Featured Story
  • Assoc. Clinical Prof. of Education Sumudu Lewis directs the UTeach program at UMass Lowell

    UTeach Turns STEM Majors into Sought-After Teachers

    The UTeach program, which turns science, math and engineering majors into classroom teachers, is now in its 10th year at UMass Lowell. Graduates are in great demand at local high schools, and one was named a finalist for Massachusetts STEM Teacher of the Year.
    Featured Story
  • UML Assoc. Prof. of Education Stacy Szczesiul, winner of the Manning Prize for Excellence in Teaching and Service

    Education Professor Wins Manning Prize for Teaching and Service

    Education Assoc. Prof. Stacy Szczesiul won the Manning Prize for Excellence in Teaching and Service in recognition of her commitment to helping students succeed and for her contributions to the Doctor of Education program, which she directs.
    Featured Story
  • Education Assoc. Prof. Phitsamay Uy has started a mentoring program for Asian American and Pacific Islander teachers and education students

    Education Professor Creates Mentoring Network for Asian American Teachers

    Assoc. Prof. Phitsamay Uy was the first refugee from Laos to become a tenured professor of education in the United States. She started a mentoring network under an NEA grant to make sure other Asian American and Pacific Islander educators don’t feel as alone as she once did.
    Featured Story
  • UML Education Prof. James Nehring with Merrily, a boat he built himself

    Education Professor Rows ‘Merrily’ for Scholarships

    A decade ago, Education Prof. James Nehring cycled across the U.S. to raise money for a scholarship to benefit first-generation education students at UMass Lowell. Now, he’s rowing down the East Coast in a boat that he built himself, in order to double the scholarship.
    Featured Story
  • Lowell National Historical Park interpretation ranger Allison Horrocks enacts a mill girl on a virtual field trip

    Educators Create Live, Virtual Field Trips at Tsongas Industrial History Center

    When school field trips to the Tsongas Industrial History Center – a partnership between Lowell National Historical Park and UML’s College of Education – were canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, center staff seized the opportunity to create live, interactive virtual field trips for K-12 students.
    Featured Story
  • Philanthropist Luis Pedroso with UMass Lowell Education Prof. Eleanor Abrams

    Education Students Get Paid Experience in Lowell Schools

    The Pedroso Tutors program is providing valuable, paid classroom experience to UML education students as they help elementary school students in Lowell. The program is funded by Luis Pedroso, an entrepreneur and philanthropist who is a graduate of the Lowell Public Schools.
    Featured Story
  • UMass Lowell Ph.D. students Pamela Fallon in nursing and Sharifa Djurabaeva in education

    Ph.D. Students Find Each Other on the Run

    Two Ph.D. students – one an educator from Uzbekistan, the other a nurse practitioner — met through a women’s running group in North Andover. Their friendship grew as they shared early morning runs, dissertation tips and their personal histories amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
    Featured Story
  • UML education major Abby O'Keefe is doing her student-teaching remotely

    Student Teachers Meet the Pandemic Challenge

    Senior education majors at UMass Lowell are facing unprecedented challenges as they do their student teaching online, in classrooms, or both. But they say that the children and their mentor teachers make it all worthwhile.
    Featured Story
  • Science teacher Karin Loach '11 '20 won an award for Best Graduate Paper at a major educational research conference.

    Education Doctoral Grad Wins Award for STEM Teaching Research

    Science teacher Karin Loach ’11, ’20 presented a paper at the 2020 conference for the Eastern Education Research Association, held last February. This fall, she learned that she’d won the 2020 Best Graduate Paper award for her study of elementary educators’ confidence in their science-teaching ability.
    Featured Story
  • Immigrants being sworn in as U.S. citizens at Minute Man National Historical Park in 2007

    History Center Educating Teachers, Public about Voting Rights

    The Tsongas Industrial History Center has created a series of free, live webinars to educate teachers about the historic struggles of Black people, women and other groups to win the vote and have a say in government.
    Featured Story
  • A single father encourages his son who's doing a school project

    Back to (Virtual) School Tips – for Parents

    Eliza Bobek, clinical assistant professor of education, has two young children, and like many working parents she’s juggling her job with supervising her children’s online learning. In the process, she’s learned a lot about taking breaks and using timers.
    Featured Story
  • UMass Lowell Education Assoc. Prof. Phitsamay Uy

    Education Faculty Prepare Teachers for Multilingual Students

    UML’s education faculty prepare future teachers for classrooms with multilingual students. The inclusive teaching methods they impart benefit all students, including those with learning disabilities.
    Featured Story
  • CS Pathways teacher workshop

    Researchers Awarded $1M NSF Grant to Create Middle School Curriculum

    A team of researchers from UMass Lowell and SUNY Albany won a three-year, $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to create a computer science curriculum for middle schools in collaboration with school districts in Lowell and Methuen, Mass., and Schenectady, N.Y.
    Featured Story
  • Asst. Prof. of Education Jack Schneider opposes the use of high-stakes standardized testing.

    Faculty: Colleges and Schools Rethinking Role of Standardized Tests

    As the COVID-19 pandemic disrupts standardized testing and widens educational gaps between well-off and low-income students and districts, College of Education faculty say that educators have an opportunity to rethink the outsized role that test scores play in K-12 schools and college admissions.
    Featured Story
  • UML education majors open Chromebooks they were given as part of a pilot project

    New Educational Tech Class Coincides with Pandemic

    Midway through the spring 2020 semester, as first-year education majors were taking a new, required class in educational technology, schools closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Studying virtually themselves while learning how best to use online teaching tools is giving these students a new perspective on technology’s promise – and its limitations.
    Featured Story
  • A school group at the Tsongas Industrial History Center

    As Teaching Goes Online, College of Education Helps Schools and Parents

    The College of Education is stepping up to help teachers in K-12 schools transition their classes online during school closures caused by COVID-19. Clinical Prof. Michelle Scribner-MacLean created a Facebook group with teacher resources, and the Tsongas Industrial History Center is beefing up its social media offerings and website.
    Featured Story
  • Conservator Gianfranco Pocobene, second from right, discusses the Coburn Hall murals with Chancellor Jacquie Moloney, right, and others.

    Coburn Hall’s Historic Murals Brought Back to Life

    Art conservators are uncovering and restoring a set of 1930s murals depicting the educational mission of Lowell Teachers College, as part of the renovation and expansion of Coburn Hall.
    Featured Story
  • Professor Iman Chahine at North-West University in South Africa

    For UML Prof, Math and Culture are Intertwined

    Research by Iman Chahine, associate professor of education, in South Africa through a Fulbright Scholar Award is featured.
    Boston Globe In The News
  • A view of the new addition on the back of Coburn Hall

    At 123 Years Old, Coburn Hall’s Never Looked Newer

    The start of the spring 2020 semester brings the reopening of the university’s earliest academic building, Coburn Hall, as well as a new home for the Centers for Learning and Academic Support Services and progress on several other Facilities Management projects.
    Featured Story
  • Chancellor Jacqueline Moloney and Art professor Marie Frank look at the relief sculptures in the large hall of Coburn Hall

    Coburn Hall Renovations, Hidden Mural Revealed

    Under layers and layers of beige paint, UMass Lowell’s Coburn Hall hid a colorful mural of 1930s Lowell for more than three decades.
    Lowell Sun In The News
  • Nicole Villafana, right, and two other students from Lawrence High visited the UMass Lowell campus to consider careers in education

    UML Partners with High Schools to Diversify Teaching Profession

    UML’s College of Education is working with the state and local school districts to recruit future teachers who represent the Merrimack Valley’s diversity. Lawrence High School students visited the campus recently to learn more about careers in education – and campus life.
    Featured Story
  • Asst. Prof. Gulden Camci-Unal delivers her keynote speech

    Eggshells, Interruptions and AI: Inside the Faculty Symposium

    UML faculty members were recognized for achievements in research, teaching and service at the annual Faculty Symposium, which featured 60 “lightning talks” on current research and conversations on better teaching at the UMass Lowell Inn & Conference Center.
    Featured Story
  • UMass Lowell students Danelia Ramirez, Janelle Christopher and Emily Crespo spoke on a panel at the College of Education's Panasuk Symposium 2019

    Researcher: Social and Emotional Learning are Key to School Success

    Students who develop socially and emotionally also learn better, says researcher Juliette Berg. She shared her work and strategies for improving school climate and student attitudes at the College of Education’s annual Panasuk Symposium.
    Featured Story
  • Assoc. Prof. of Education Iman Chahine won a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award to do ethnomathematical research in South Africa

    Education Professor Wins Fulbright for Ethno-mathematics Work

    Assoc. Prof. of Education Iman Chahine has received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award to do research in ethno-mathematics. She will spend nine months in South Africa training teachers and evaluating math lessons and materials she developed, based on Zulu and Ndebele arts and culture.
    Featured Story
  • During an in-class career choice exercise at UMass Lowell, most students joined the social/helping group.

    Students Find a Focus in New Career Exploration Class

    A new career exploration class helps first- and second-year students in the College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences decide on a major – or confirm their choice.
    Featured Story
  • Twins Kayla and Jae'la Rowles and friend Tyson Minor are part of the new DC-CAP Scholars program at UMass Lowell

    New Program Provides Merit Scholarships for 20 Students from Washington, D.C.

    Under a new partnership, 20 high school graduates from Washington, D.C., are studying at UMass Lowell this fall with merit scholarships. It’s part of the university’s mission to support students from all backgrounds in getting a great college education.
    Featured Story
  • Researchers Bob Chen, Stephen Mishol and Jill Lohmeier pose for a photo with a Cool Science contestant

    Cool Science Expands with $3 Million NSF Grant

    For seven years, the Cool Science contest has asked children to communicate climate science through art, with the winning works displayed on Lowell buses. A $3 million National Science Foundation grant will expand Cool Science in Massachusetts and add two metropolitan areas in the Midwest.
    Featured Story
  • Faculty members practice in a TEAL classroom

    UML Opens New Doors on Active Learning Classrooms

    UMass Lowell is introducing its first two Technology Enhanced Active Learning (TEAL) classrooms at Olsen Hall this fall, becoming one of the first universities in the region to implement Sony Vision Exchange technology.
    Featured Story
  • Lori Weeden speaks during the workshop

    It’s Never Too Early to Learn About Climate Change

    The UMass Lowell Climate Change Initiative, in conjunction with the National Association of Geoscience Teachers and the College of Education, hosted a professional development workshop for two dozen area K-12 teachers on incorporating climate change education into the classroom.
    Featured Story
  • UMass Lowell history major Bradley Sherwood works year-round at the Tsongas Industrial History Center at Lowell National Historical Park

    Sun and Fun, Science and History at National Park Summer Camps

    Summer camps at the Lowell National Historical Park allow children to explore history, science and more while having fun. The camps are run by the Tsongas Industrial History Center, a partnership between the park and UML’s College of Education.
    Featured Story
  • UMass Lowell College of Education Assoc. Prof. James Nehring in his office, with a quilty made by families of his former students

    Education Professor Wins Manning Prize for Teaching Excellence

    Jim Nehring, an associate professor of education, won the Manning Prize for Teaching Excellence at UMass Lowell this year. Nehring is a strong advocate for public education that couples academic rigor with inquiry-based, student-centered learning.
    Featured Story
  • Keynote speaker and Congressman Lori Trahan, right, with Kim Rist, Brian Rist and Chancellor Jacqueline Moloney.

    Record River Hawk Class Soars Out Into the World

    The university honored its largest graduating class ever – more than 4,500 students – at graduate and undergraduate Commencement exercises held over two days at the Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell.
    Featured Story
  • UMass Lowell Vice Provost for Innovation and Workforce Development Steven Tello

    Online and On Campus, UML Quality is High

    UMass Lowell, a pioneer in online and continuing education, earns high rankings for its excellent professors and up-to-the-minute programs. Now it’s integrating its online and on-campus graduate programs in a new Division of Graduate, Online and Professional Studies.
    Featured Story
  • Nursing students Kelly Tanner, Sharon Nabulime and Mamawa Sannoh at the Student Research & Community Engagement Symposium

    Symposium Showcases Student Research and Community Projects

    More than 280 students finished the academic year by presenting their work at the annual Student Research & Community Engagement Symposium. Many of the students’ research projects aimed to solve or engage real-world problems, from public health to violent crime.
    Featured Story
  • MIT Linguistics Prof. Michel DeGraff spoke at the UMass Lowell symposium on instructing children in their own language

    “Language is Wealth”

    Immigrants bring a wealth of different languages to the United States. When schools value those languages, children learn better – and everyone benefits, Prof. Michel DeGraff told educators at the College of Education’s spring symposium.
    Featured Story
  • Bernie and Kay Petruzzello

    Senior is Fourth Generation to Graduate from UML

    When Harry Rider graduates from UMass Lowell this spring, he will be the fourth generation in his family to do so, starting when his great-grandmother earned her teaching certificate at Lowell Normal School.
    Featured Story
  • Asst. Prof. of Psychology Miko Wilford speaks at a panel on problems with the plea system

    Psychology Prof Tackles Injustice in the Justice System

    Asst. Prof. Miko Wilford has won a five-year, $498,000 National Science Foundation CAREER grant to study an urgent issue for the justice system: Why innocent suspects plead guilty.
    Featured Story
  • Closeup of new Lowell quarters in person's hand

    Lowell Flips Over its 'America the Beautiful' Quarter

    "Remember this day," UMass Lowell Chancellor Jacquie Moloney told the students who were the first ones in the nation to get their hands on a Lowell quarter, depicting a mill girl working at a power loom with a view of the Mill City -- including the Boott Mill clock tower. "You are making history."
    Lowell Sun In The News
  • The design for the U.S. Mint's 2019 Massachusetts quarter in the America the Beautiful series, which features Lowell National Historical Park

    Lowell Quarter Launched by Mint – with UML's Help

    The U.S. Mint’s release of a new state quarter featuring Lowell National Historical Park represents a quiet triumph for UML’s Ellen Anstey, who has devoted a decade to promoting, researching and critiquing designs for the coin.
    Featured Story
  • Asst. Prof. of Education Jack Schneider

    Failing Public Schools? Education Professor Says No

    Are America’s public schools failing their students? For the most part, they’re not, says education historian and Asst. Prof. Jack Schneider – despite political rhetoric to the contrary.