News and Announcement

Brock Wilson Ph.D.

Biography
• Ph.D., Economics, University of Oregon
• M.S., Economics, University of Oregon
• B.S., Economics and Mathematics, University of Oregon

ISER faculty Dr. Katie Cueva attended the ExploraVision Awards in Washington DC in June 2024 as a keynote speaker, where she reflected on her experiences as a past award winner and her current work. The following article describes the K-12 science competition and this year's winners, as well as summarizes Dr. Cueva's remarks.

Across the Arctic, schools struggle to meet the needs of all students, especially Indigenous students and those who have learning disabilities. Education systems are needed that allow students to study in institutions grounded in their own cultures and languages, regardless of whether they are newcomers or Indigenous, and that prepare them to succeed regardless of learning differences.

Originally published April 4, 2024.

APPLICATIONS DUE APRIL 1, 2024

The Vic Fischer Undergraduate Research Award provides $2500 to an exemplary UAA undergraduate in the social sciences or other applicable fields interested in researching public policy issues in Alaska or the Arctic in Fall 2024.

In this new ISER report (https://scholarworks.alaska.edu/handle/11122/14906), ISER economist Matthew Berman and CAEPR director Dayna DeFeo explore how Alaska teacher salaries compare to the national average, adjusted for cost of living differences. They also examined trends in salaries of Alaska and US teachers adjusted for inflation over the past several decades, and how the salary differentials have changed over time.

The public is invited to an education policy forum titled: “Funding Education in Alaska: Lessons and Insights from Local and National Research” on February 8, 2024, at 5:00 pm in the Egan Lecture Hall room 112 on the UAS campus in Juneau. This free event, co-sponsored by the UAS School of Education and the UAA Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER), features Dr.

Unalaska Island, Alaska, served as a US military base during World War II. The military installed bases on Unalaska and nearby islands, many of which were built adjacent to Unangan communities. The military used toxic compounds in its operations and left a legacy of pollution that may pose health risks to residents and local wildlife.

This is a list of recent publications and reports by CAEPR and ISER focused on school finance, teacher workforce issues (recruitment, retention, and turnover),and related topics. This represents only a small portion of the education-related products from CAEPR and ISER. All CAEPR/ISER reports are available on the web at Scholarworks@UA, and you can see many of our peer-reviewed journal publications on journal websites or via the UAA/APU Consortium Library.

Increased wildfire activity has raised concerns among communities about how to assess and prepare for this threat. There is a need for wildfire hazard assessment approaches that capture local variability to inform decisions, produce results understood by the public, and are updatable in a timely manner. In this article, Schmidt and her co-authors describe how, in partnership with wildfire practitioners and communities, they created a tool that rapidly assesses wildfire hazards and is easily modified to help identify and prioritize mitigation activities.