CURA is pleased to announce the recipients of this year′s Fesler-Lampert Chair in Urban and Regional Affairs and Faculty Interactive Research Program Award. 

Forrest Fleischman from the Department of Forest Resources is the 2021-2022 Fesler-Lampert Chair in Urban and Regional Affairs with this project, Urban Environmental Policy Advocacy: How Citizens Shape Cities’ Environmental Policy Agenda in the Twin Cities.

Additionally, three Faculty Interactive Research Program proposals were funded:

• Samuel S. David (Department of Curriculum and Instruction, College of…

Researcher: Forrest Fleischman (Department of Forest Resources, College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resources Sciences)

In recent decades cities have emerged as a major locus of environmental policymaking. Policymaking is the result of people advocating for policy change, yet there are few studies examining what makes advocacy effective at changing policy. Ineffective advocacy strategies by individuals and groups such as businesses, community organizations, and nonprofits may waste community resources and lead to poor policy outcomes when important voices are left out of decision-making. The long history of environmental advocacy in the Twin Cities has…

Researcher: Soumya Sen (Information and Decision Sciences Department, Carlson School of Management)

Substance abuse and addiction to alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs have a significant and costly impact on the health and well being of residents of our state. In partnership with the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation of Center City, MN, we propose to take a data-driven approach – using machine learning and data analytics on electronic health records of patients suffering from substance use disorder – to help care providers improve their understanding of the patient population, predict risk of relapse, and design better treatment plans. Our research…

Researcher: Melissa A. Koenig (Institute of Child Development, College of Education and Human Development)

In our research, we investigate the nature of children’s trust in other people, and the role that trust plays in children’s learning and socio-emotional well-being. We study trust as an important mechanism of interpersonal connection and learning, one that varies from child to child, and from relationship to relationship. If successful, support from the Faculty Interactive Research Program would provide funding for the research support and the teacher, staff and parent compensation that is required to launch the project described in our letter. Ascension…

Researcher: Samuel S. David (Department of Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education and Human Development)

Finding effective ways to teach reading comprehension to English learners (ELs) is a critical challenge for educational researchers nationally, and in Minnesota specifically. TRANSLATE is an instructional model designed for ELs performing below grade level, providing teachers with the means to access ELs’ myriad language resources. Qualitative analyses of the TRANSLATE approach have shown that students engaged in TRANSLATE lessons develop new comprehension strategies that capitalize on their home language resources, and an early mixed-methods pilot…

CURA senior research associate Dr. Brittany Lewis and graduate research assistant Molly Calhoun’s North Minneapolis evictions research was recently published in “Collaborations: A Journal of Community-Based Research and Practice.” 

Abstract: Single Black mothers face the highest risk of eviction in the United States. In North Minneapolis, a community manufactured to contain undesirable populations through housing discrimination, decades of urban disinvestment, and unfair lending practices, the situation has become further exacerbated by the rise in distressed-property investment and disproportionate…

The City of Minneapolis is moving to initiate a “community preference” policy, to give residents residing within certain neighborhoods preference to receive assistance for specific city affordable housing programs or projects. Such preference policies have been adopted by other cities, including New York, San Francisco, and Seattle in order to mitigate the displacement of residents from neighborhoods experiencing rapid increases in housing costs. 

CURA researchers Edward G. Goetz and Aaron Sepulveda modeled several different kinds of preference policies for the City of Minneapolis to estimate the impacts of different policy choices available to the city. The…

Minnesota’s English Learner student population has consistently grown in recent years and is growing at a faster rate than the total student population. A complex web of funding streams intends to support English Learners; however, concerns have been raised over whether designated funding is reaching English Learners and whether it is providing adequate support. This report aims to address those concerns through the following study aims: 1.) Provide a clear understanding of English Learner funding streams and how the funding is spent, 2.) Get a sense of whether the current funding is meeting students’ needs, and 3.) Offer suggestions of how English Learner funding could be improved.…