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.

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.

UMass Lowell and Lawrence Public Schools have teamed up to offer bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education and public administration at no cost to school employees.

Chelmsford Public Schools Superintendent Jay Lang received the President’s Award from the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents.

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.

Education Assoc. Prof. Phitsamay Uy has won the Manning Prize for Excellence in Teaching in recognition of her commitment to students and the campus community.

Ten UTeach students traveled to England for the undergraduate teacher preparation program’s first study abroad trip.

UTeach alumni welcome current UTeach students into their classrooms so they can gain practical teaching experience.

Nineteen teachers representing 18 countries spent six weeks at UMass Lowell for the Fulbright Teaching Excellence and Achievement program.

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.

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.

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.

Triplets Jillian, Chloe and Sam Tarlin have carved out their own paths at UMass Lowell as they prepare to graduate together.

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.

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.

The Grow Your Own pathway program is designed to help students at Lowell High School figure out early if they want to teach – while earning college credit.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

Two professors in the School of Education have received a $250,000 grant to partner with the Lowell Public Schools on evaluating and improving schools, using holistic measures that go beyond standardized testing.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Research by Iman Chahine, associate professor of education, in South Africa through a Fulbright Scholar Award is featured.

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.

Under layers and layers of beige paint, UMass Lowell’s Coburn Hall hid a colorful mural of 1930s Lowell for more than three decades.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Education, psychology and art faculty worked with community groups to collect folktales from four Southeast Asian countries and turn them into a book that can be used in the Lowell schools.

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.

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.

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.

"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."

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.

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.