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Notre Dame psychologist explores how children best learn math — and yes, timed practice helps

2025-05-05T14:37:00-04:00

University of Notre Dame Professor of Psychology Nicole McNeil recently co-authored a report that examines the best way for children to learn arithmetic — whether that’s by memorizing number values and multiplication tables, or by studying math at a deeper, conceptual level.

The report, “What the Science of Learning Teaches Us About Arithmetic Fluency,” was published in the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest and shows that children learn most effectively when instruction follows an evidence‑based cycle: grounding facts in conceptual understanding, using brief timed practice to make those facts automatic, and then returning to discussion and reflection to deepen that knowledge.

McNeil, a fellow with the Institute for Educational Initiatives, researches cognitive development, with a primary focus on how children think, learn, communicate and solve problems in mathematics.

In a recent interview for the Association for Psychological Science, she discussed the report that deepened understanding of how arithmetic fluency develops, why it matters and how educators can help students achieve it.

“We want to be clear: Educators don’t have to choose between timed practice and rich classroom discussions,” McNeil said in the interview. “A carefully structured approach — pairing brief, timed sessions that strengthen facts in memory with purposeful reasoning and discussion activities that weave those facts into an integrated knowledge network — gives students the fluency they need to succeed.”

Media contact: Carrie Gates, associate director of media relations, c.gates@nd.edu, 574-631-4313

Ernest Morrell, Mark Berends recognized for their influence on educational practice and policy

2024-01-18T08:00:00-05:00

Ernest Morrell, left, and Mark Berends

Ernest Morrell and Mark Berends, professors from the University of Notre Dame Institute for Educational Initiatives, were among 200 scholars selected for the Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings, an annual listing published by Education Week that highlights academics who had the year’s biggest impact on educational practice and policy.

Morrell, associate dean for the humanities and equity in the College of Arts and Letters, director of the Notre Dame Center for Literacy Education and the Coyle Professor in Literacy Education, ranked 80th. This is the 10th year that he has been included in the rankings.

And Berends, the Hackett Family Director of the Institute for Educational Initiatives and professor of sociology, placed 172nd. This is his sixth appearance on the list.

Morrell’s research focuses on how the use of popular culture in the classroom can successfully engage urban youth and communities, as well as on translanguaging — the idea that students can maximize their learning by incorporating the many different languages they use every day.

He holds appointments in the departments of English and Africana studies. Morrell, who was elected to the National Academy of Education in 2022, is a fellow in the Kellogg Institute for International 91��Ƶ and director of the National Council of Teachers of English James R. Squire Office of Policy Research in the English Language Arts. He also is a fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA).

Berends has written and published extensively on educational reform, school choice, the effects of family and school changes on student achievement trends, and the effects of schools and classrooms on student achievement.

His research focuses on how school organization and classroom instruction are related to student outcomes, with special attention to underserved students and school reforms aimed at improving their educational opportunities. He is currently conducting several studies on school choice, including an examination of the Indiana Choice Scholarship Program.

Berends is a member of the National Academy of Education and an AERA fellow. He also is a fellow with the Kellogg Institute for International 91��Ƶ.

In addition, David Yaeger, a graduate of the Alliance for Catholic Education’s Teaching Fellows — a two-year Notre Dame program in which participants earn a master’s degree in education while teaching in Catholic K-12 schools in the United States — placed 97th in the rankings.

Yaeger is now an associate professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin.

Rick Hess, director of education policy studies for the American Enterprise Institute, compiles the rankings. They are based on performances in nine categories, including publications, inclusion on syllabuses across the country, education press and web mentions, and mentions in the Congressional Record.

Originally published by Institute for Educational Initiatives on Jan. 8.

Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child part of $23 million award for education in Haiti in partnership with Catholic Relief Services

2022-06-16T11:20:00-04:00

The University of Notre Dame’s Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child (GC-DWC) will play a key role in implementing a $23 million program funded by USAID designed to improve Haitian students’ foundational skills in reading, literacy and social emotional learning by building and strengthening the capacity of teachers, schools and communities.

The GC-DWC is partnering with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and the Episcopal Commission for Catholic Education (CEEC) to implement Continuity of Learning, a four-year program in 170 schools. The consortium is uniquely poised both programmatically and operationally to leverage Notre Dame’s long history in Haiti, including the GC-DWC’s early-grade reading project Read Haiti (2016-20), its recent reading and social and emotional learning intervention Strong Beginnings (2020-24) and a strong relationship with the Haitian Ministry of Education at all levels made possible by partnering with CEEC.

“The GC-DWC’s partnership with the CEEC and CRS over the last eight years has resulted in the strongest education network in Haiti. These funds help us to meet the needs of learners and parents that were always there but have been exacerbated by national disasters and political uprisings,” said Neil Boothby, the center’s director. “We are grateful to be able to continue to support education in Haiti through these awards.”

Through this program, children in first through fourth grades will benefit from a resilient education system that delivers uninterrupted access to a safe, quality education. The program will achieve the overarching goal through a four-pronged approach:

Building students' social, emotional, reading and literacy skills.
Enabling a safe learning environment for students, teachers and school administrators.
Bolstering coordination among key local education stakeholders at the national, community and household levels to increase support and advocate for improved learning.
Strengthening delivery modalities and actors’ coordination for improvement and sustainability for learners’ continuity of learning.

“We are excited to partner with Haitian educators and administrators to collect and leverage data to create sustainable and impactful opportunities for students,” said Kate Schuenke-Lucien, GC-DWC’s director for Haiti and senior associate director for strategic planning.

Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child receives $3.4 million to support resilient education in Haiti

2022-02-22T16:00:00-05:00

The Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child (GC-DWC) at the University of Notre Dame has received three grant awards totaling $3.4 million to fund resilient education programming in Haiti.

These awards — from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the LEGO Foundation and USAID — build on Notre Dame’s long history in Haiti and its ongoing commitment to strengthen Haitian education through the Institute for Educational Initiatives. The institute began its work expanding early-grade literacy after the 2010 earthquake and now serves 270 schools and dozens of Catholic parishes.

“With our partners in Haiti, we are building resilient child development and education systems that draw on the three pillars of Haitian society: the home, the school and the church,” said Kate Schuenke-Lucien, the director for Haiti and senior associate director for strategic planning at the GC-DWC. “These new awards allow us to expand our work, especially in light of the damage caused by the 2021 earthquake.”

The awards support the following projects:

Education Partnerships: Supporting Disaster Recovery and Catalyzing Long-Term Education Systems Development in Haiti. Funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and in partnership with Fédération des Écoles Protestantes d'Haïti and the Ministry of National Education, the GC-DWC is convening a series of virtual and in-person meetings in early 2022 to review and reimagine how education actors can build a more resilient education system in Haiti. Situational analyses of earthquakes, school closures, student attendance and parental needs will be studied, and a common vision with response objectives articulated by participating stakeholders. The final report generated by these meetings will be used to guide education priorities for funders in 2022 and beyond.
Systems Activation in Emergencies: Leveraging the Home, 91��Ƶ and Church to Address Early Childhood Development in Haiti. Funded by the LEGO Foundation, this is an 18-month response to chronic and systemic challenges facing the education system in Haiti that were exacerbated by the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that hit southern Haiti in August 2021. The GC-DWC, in partnership with Catholic Relief Services and the Episcopal Commission for Catholic Education, is working with communities in the South department to support school earthquake recovery and integrate a robust package of interventions for children and their families based on two core programmatic pillars: focusing on relationships and activating the system closest to the child. Beginning last December, the consortium introduced radio programming for distance learning, outreach and training for parents of children ages 8 and younger and early childhood development programming, including hot meals for students. The GC-DWC will also establish community resource centers in five parish communities to link school-based learning activities to parent programming and engagement.
USAID Crisis Modifier for Strong Beginnings. Funded by USAID, this crisis modifier allows GC-DWC to build on its Strong Beginnings project and supply additional resources to Haitian learners in light of political protests, school closures and frequent earthquakes. The additional funding will allow GC-DWC to build temporary learning structures, provide psychosocial support to parents and deliver nutrition support for families.

“The GC-DWC is excited to partner with Haitian educators, administrators, leaders and donors to respond to urgent needs in Haiti and build a stronger foundation for education moving forward,” said Neil Boothby, the director of GC-DWC and a professor at Notre Dame. “We hope these investments will go a long way toward creating pathways for learners to bright futures.”

Two Notre Dame faculty rank on Edu-Scholar Public Influence list

2022-01-07T10:30:00-05:00

Two professors from the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Educational Initiatives were among the 200 scholars selected for the Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings. Published by Education Week, the annual listing highlights academics who had the biggest impact on educational practice and policy.

Ernest Morrell, the associate dean for the humanities and equity in Notre Dame’s College of Arts and Letters, the Coyle Professor in Literacy Education and the director of the Notre Dame Center for Literacy Education, ranked 71st in the 2022 list. Mark Berends, the Hackett Family Director of the Institute for Educational Initiatives, a professor of sociology and the director of the Center for Research on Educational Opportunity, placed 169th.

Morrell’s research focuses on how the use of popular culture in the classroom can successfully engage urban youth and communities and on translanguaging — the idea that students can maximize their learning by using the many different languages they use in their everyday lives. He also co-designed the first AP seminar on the African diaspora.

Morrell holds appointments in the University’s Department of English and Department of Africana 91��Ƶ. He is a fellow in the Kellogg Institute for International 91��Ƶ and the director of the National Council of Teachers of English James R. Squire Office for Policy Research in the English Language Arts. This is the eighth year he has been included in the rankings.

Berends has written and published extensively on educational reform, school choice, the effects of family and school changes on student achievement trends and the effects of schools and classrooms on student achievement. His research focuses on how school organization and classroom instruction are related to student outcomes, with special attention to underserved students and school reforms aimed at improving their educational opportunities. Currently, he is conducting several studies on school choice, including an examination of the Indiana Choice Scholarship Program.

Berends, who became director of the Institute for Educational Initiatives in July after a national search, is a member of the National Academy of Education, a fellow of the American Educational Research Association, and a fellow in the Kellogg Institute for International 91��Ƶ. This is his fourth appearance on the list.

“These selections show the impact that Notre Dame is having on K-12 education across the country,” Berends said. “We represent the many talented faculty in the institute who are working each day to improve the education of all children, especially the most disadvantaged.”

Rick Hess, the director of education policy studies for the American Enterprise Institute, compiles the rankings each year. The rankings are based on performances in nine categories that include publications, inclusion on syllabuses across the country, education press and web mentions and mentions in the Congressional Record.

Also included in the rankings were two graduates of the Alliance for Catholic Education’s Teaching Fellows, a two-year Notre Dame program in which participants earn a master’s degree in education while teaching in Catholic K-12 schools in the United States. David Yeager, now an associate professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, placed 128th. Anna Egalite, now an associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership, Policy and Human Development in the College of Education at North Carolina State University, placed 194th.

Originally published at iei.nd.edu on Jan. 6.

Catholic Diocese of Cleveland and Notre Dame ACE Academies to partner in two schools

2021-08-27T09:00:00-04:00

Two schools in the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland will join the network of Notre Dame ACE Academies this school year, in a partnership between the diocese and the University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education.

St. Anthony of Padua 91��Ƶ in Akron and St. Augustine Catholic 91��Ƶ in Barberton will be part of ACE’s network, which creates thriving and resilient Catholic schools through an emphasis on Catholic school culture, strong teaching and learning and operational vitality.

Bishop Edward C. Malesic, J.C.L., joined in the announcement with Ryan Clark, the director of Notre Dame ACE Academies, and Frank O’Linn, the superintendent of schools for the diocese.

“Since my arrival in Northeast Ohio almost a year ago, I have come to see that one of the great treasures of the diocese is our Catholic school system. In fact, Catholic education is one of the largest and most important youth ministries within our diocese,” Malesic said. “I am very grateful for the collaborative work between Dr. O’Linn, our education leadership and the Notre Dame ACE schools to bring a most innovative, multifaceted program to two of our Akron-area Catholic schools, ensuring their academic excellence, accessibility and sustainability for years to come. The partnership of these schools will make them places where our children encounter the love and teaching of Jesus, giving them the best environment in which to flourish in their studies and personal formation. We want only the best for our children.”

The mission of the Notre Dame ACE Academies is to provide a Catholic education of the highest quality to as many children as possible by mobilizing the resources of the University, (arch)dioceses, statewide parental choice programs and local communities. ACE faculty and staff will work closely with local leadership of Notre Dame ACE Academies in greater Akron to increase academic achievement, boost enrollment and strengthen the schools’ Catholic identity by enhancing school leadership, curriculum, instruction, professional development, financial management and marketing.

“Catholic education is at a crossroads today, and we are increasingly challenged to sustain Catholic schools in all communities, but especially those with limited resources,” O’Linn said. “Our collaboration with Notre Dame ACE Academies will strengthen educational opportunities for all young people, especially the most vulnerable, through leadership, research and innovative practices. I am excited about their arrival in our diocese in Akron, which has seen numerous elementary school closures in recent years. This partnership will support children’s ongoing opportunity to grow academically, personally and spiritually through Catholic education.”

Notre Dame ACE Academies were founded in 2010 as a response to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ call for a “new model of sponsorship and collaboration” between Catholic institutions of higher education and parish schools. The network has heeded the call and has experienced both academic and enrollment gains in its schools. The generosity of several notable benefactors, including Greg and Tricia Griffith, Tom and Ginny Jeckering, the Humble Heart Gentle Soul Foundation, the McGinty Family Foundation and select other anonymous donors, made this partnership possible.

“After spending time in these two schools and learning about the opportunity to strengthen schools that have been serving the Akron and Barberton communities for decades, we knew it was a good fit for our formation and support program,” Clark said. “It’s an opportunity to show how we can be stronger together.”

For more about ACE and the Notre Dame ACE Academies, visit http://ace.nd.edu/academies.

Contact: Theo Helm, 574-631-3893, thelm1@nd.edu

Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child wins award to strengthen Haitian education data systems

2021-08-12T13:00:00-04:00

The University of Notre Dame’s Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child Haiti has been awarded $2.24 million from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to enhance school data collection systems in Haiti and equip schools with data-backed processes to improve student learning and development outcomes.

The two-year project will engage schools that are a part of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Model 91��Ƶ Network in the Central Plateau of Haiti, a region with a difficult topography, high rates of poverty and limited scalable and effective academic interventions. Given these realities, the network seeks to improve outcomes of students in the Central Plateau through sustainable, multilayered, data-driven and effective governmental and civil society partnerships.

This latest award will be leveraged to enhance Haitian schools’ capacities to collect and use relevant data to drive informed decision-making. The project brings together the GC-DWC Haiti, Notre Dame’s Children’s Environmental Health Initiative and the Université Quisqueya in Haiti to equip local schools with the skills and tools necessary to increase capacity for multilevel data collection, annual benchmarking, evaluation and visualization.

“In the context of a low-income country such as Haiti, with a chronic lack of investment in education, the role of scalable, cost-effective and culturally appropriate interventions that embrace data-informed approaches cannot be overlooked,” said Neil Boothby, the founding director of the GC-DWC and principal investigator on the project. “There is an urgent opportunity to provide capacity-building resources to Haitian education networks at the school level and to equip them with the tools to leverage data effectively in order to improve student outcomes.”

The GC-DWC and its partners will develop a school-based information system tailored to the needs of the Model 91��Ƶ Network, build schools’ capacity for the implementation of data collection and provide ongoing support and professional development to schools. These processes will ensure that data are used to address gaps in students’ educational experiences and to strengthen current curriculum and school practices. In particular, CEHI will leverage its data expertise to build a functional and robust data platform at both the school and national levels.

“In the Haitian education system, robust data and data systems can provide an energizing source of power, change and innovation,” said Marie Lynn Miranda, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost of the University of Notre Dame and director of CEHI. “We are excited to partner with Haitian educators and administrators to collect and leverage data to create sustainable and impactful opportunities for students.”

Berends Elected to the National Academy of Education

2020-02-25T10:00:00-05:00

Mark Berends, Ph.D., the director of the University of Notre Dame’s Center for Research on Educational Opportunity and a professor of sociology, has been elected to the National Academy of Education.

The academy advances high-quality research that improves education quality and practice. Members are elected on the basis of outstanding scholarship related to education.

In addition to directing the Center for Research on Educational Opportunity, Berends chairs the faculty committee of the Notre Dame Program for Interdisciplinary Educational Research, is a Fellow in the Institute for Educational Initiatives and serves on the Institute’s faculty committee. He is also a Fellow in the Kellogg Institute for International 91��Ƶ.

“Mark’s research has provided invaluable perspective on how we can improve the education of all youth, particularly the disadvantaged,” said John Staud, the acting director of the institute and the executive director of the Alliance for Catholic Education. “I am so happy to see his work recognized by the academy.”

“I am deeply honored to be invited to join the academy,” Berends said. “It is an incredibly distinguished group of thinkers and researchers, and I am proud to be a part of it.”

Berends has written and published extensively on educational reform, school choice, the effects of family and school changes on student achievement trends and gaps and the effects of schools and classrooms on student achievement. His research focuses on how school organization and classroom instruction are related to student outcomes, with special attention to disadvantaged students and school reforms aimed at improving their educational opportunities. Within this agenda, he has applied a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods to understanding the effects of school reforms on teachers and students.

Currently, he is conducting several studies on school choice, including an examination of the Indiana Choice Scholarship Program, parent decision-making and satisfaction in a lottery-based study of charter schools and how organizational and instructional contexts are related to student outcomes in charter, voucher and traditional public schools. Berends serves on numerous editorial boards, technical panels and policy forums; he is a fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA); former co-editor of AERA’s American Educational Research Journal and Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis and twice the vice president of the AERA’s Division L, Educational Policy and Politics. His latest books are 91��Ƶ Choice and 91��Ƶ Improvement (Harvard Education Press, 2011), 91��Ƶ Choice at the Crossroads: Research Perspectives (Routledge, 2019), Handbook of Research on 91��Ƶ Choice, 2nd Edition (Routledge, 2020) and the International Handbook of the Sociology of Education (SAGE, forthcoming).

Berends is one of 15 newly elected members who will be inducted November 6 in Washington, DC. Academy members are elected on the basis of outstanding scholarship related to education. Nominations are submitted by individual Academy members once a year for review and election by the organization’s membership.

“These diverse scholars are at the forefront of those who are improving the lives of students in the United States and abroad through their outstanding contributions to education scholarship and research,” Ladson-Billings said.

Originally published by Institute for Educational Initiatives at iei.nd.edu on February 25, 2020.