special metro edition

Spring 2010

TC TT The Magazineoo of tdaeachersda college , cyyolumbia university

A Century-Plus of Urban EngagementT C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 C 1 Spring 2010

Contevno l u m ets 3 4 • N o . 2 F e at u r e s

TC in the City: A History Schools and Communities Points of Contact 6 Rolling Up Our Sleeves 42 TC’s urban legacy is one of constant engagement to Partner with the Community Associate Vice President Nancy Streim discusses Teachers and Students university-assisted schooling and TC’s efforts to strengthen the community it shares with its neighbors Teacher Observed—and Observing 9 Joining Forces 46 In TC’s Elementary Inclusive Education program, TC’s Partnership with 10 Harlem public schools “assessment” means knowing one’s students and oneself TC Builds a School 50 A Teaching Life 16 The College is at work on a new public pre-K—8 In her journey to understand “cultural literacies,” in West Harlem Ruth Vinz is an ongoing point of contact with city schools Faculty Partners 52 Teaching through Publishing 19 Seven TC professors are at the heart of the For Erick Gordon, director of TC’s Student Press Initiative, Harlem Partnership writing for publication is the curriculum Plus: Partners After School; TC’s Performing Arts Series; Listening to Lives from around the World 20 TC’s Zankel Fellows in the Partnership Schools Jondou Chen is leading an oral history project focused on immigrant students Sound Bodies and Minds Been There, Still Doing That 21 Jacqueline Ancess takes the long view on education reform Fit to Learn 56 Chuck Basch is on a quest to improve the health of Plus: Lucy Calkins and the Reading and Writing Project; the nation’s schoolchildren TC’s Peace Corps Fellows Plus: Testing Obesity Prevention with Fifth Graders School Leadership Hope and Counseling 62 TC’s Dean-Hope Center is a resource center for What It Takes 25 surrounding communities Five TC grads on founding or leading innovative schools Giving Youth a Voice 64 Helping the Best Get Better 31 Empowering public school students to conduct action Why Chuck Cahn founded the TC Cahn Fellows—and stories of research on issues in their lives four program alumni Plus: TC’s Mysak Speech Language and Hearing Center

Chartering Newark’s Future 36 Beyond the Schools Mayor Cory Booker’s legacy in Brick City may rest on improving the schools High-Class Help 66 Students in a unique TC course on consulting are helping NYC’s non-profits

C 2 T C Tp h O o D t o A gY r al pSPRING h b y d e i r2010 d r e r e z n i k comm e ntary

Reading, Writing and Return on Investment 14 Dolores Perin Preparing the 21st Century Principal 28 Craig Richards Liberal Education and Student Diversity 70 Anna Neumann a l u mni profi l e s

Building a School to Change Lives 23 Columbia Secondary School principal Jose Maldonado is planting seeds for the future Embracing Accountability 30 Eric Nadelstern and New York City’s entrepreneurial approach to school leadership Wechsler on the Case 60 A unique pedigree equips a former Peace Corps worker to be the nation’s point person on school health New York in a Nutshell 71 Kingsborough Community College president Regina Peruggi is helping a diverse student population succeed Plus: Ayala Fader (p.72); Barbara Ruth Peltzman (p.74); Brian K. Perkins (p.76); Lois Lacroix Barber (p.77) d e partm e nts

President’s Message 3 Improving Learning in Our Cities TC Campus News 4 A relief effort for Haiti; a curriculum on fiscal responsibility; faculty named AERA Fellows; using board games to teach numbers; state legislators at TC First Editions 5 TC’s faculty in print Alumni News 72 A message from Alumni Council President Robert Weintraub; Class Notes; Remembrances Friend of the College 80 O Pioneer: TC Alumna Mildred Larsen In Focus back cover The Accidental Educator: TC Alumnus Samuel Peabody

T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 1 TC About this Issue TCTodayspring 2 0 1 0 The more TC Today tries to capture the full breadth of what’s going on at Teachers College, the more we realize the impossibility of ever succeeding in any single issue. TC Today, the magazine of Teachers College, The good news, as always, is that the Web allows us to include stories we were is produced by the office of unable to print and to expand on those we did. Development and External Affairs at Teachers College, Columbia University. Thus you can visit www.tc.edu/tctoday for: vice president of Videotaped interviews with each of the Cahn Fellow principals who appear in development and external affairs •• Suzanne M. Murphy the story on page 31. (Ed.M., Organization & Leadership, 1999) (M.A., Organizational Psychology, 1996) •• Profiles of each of the school leaders (and TC alumni) who appear in the round- table discussion, on page 25, of what it takes to found and lead an innovative school in New York City. TC Today Staff An interview with TC Trustee and Newark Mayor Cory Booker (see story on Executive Director •• of External Affairs page 36), as well as video of Booker’s 2009 address at TC’s Convocation. Joe Levine

•• Video of TC Professor Charles Basch’s presentation of his study of health dispar- Director of media relations ities (page 56) that hinder student achievement. Basch is joined by alumnus Howell Patricia Lamiell

Wechsler, the federal government’s point person on school health, and Matthew director, office of the TC web Yale, deputy to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Paul Acquaro (M.A., Instructional Technology, 2004)

Enjoy. associate director of Publications Lisa A. Farmer

Associate Web editor Academic Festival 2010 on the Web Matthew Vincent This issue of TC Today went to press too Administrative Assistant Kalena Rosario soon for us to capture the College’s second Editorial Assistants annual Academic Festival, held on cam- Lily Friedling, Natalie Hadad pus on Saturday, April 24, but our readers can catch it all at www.tc.edu/festival. Highlights of the Festival included pre- Art Direction Deirdre Reznik sentation of the TC President’s medal (M.A., Applied Linguistics, 2004)

to alumni Nahas Angula (at left), Prime Contributing EDITOR Minister of Namibia, and Ulysses Byas, Jonathan Sapers former principal of an all-black school in TC Today, Spring 2010 the American South during the 1950s; a Vol. 34, No. 2 Copyright 2010 special tribute to Trustee Joyce Cowin and by Teachers College, Columbia University

the dedication of the Cowin Conference TC Today is published twice per year by Teachers College, Columbia University. Articles may be reprinted with the Center; and panels, presentations and permission of the Office of External Affairs. performances by TC faculty, students, Please send alumni class notes, letters to the editor, address changes and other correspondence to: alumni and trustees. Stay tuned for infor- TC Today mation about next year’s Festival, which Office of External Affairs 525 West 120th Street, Box 306 will be even bigger and better. New York, NY 10027 212-678-3412 [email protected] Cover Photograph by Samantha Isom. Artwork by David Ort. www.tc.edu/tctoday

2 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 President’s Letter TC

Improving Learning in Our Cities

s we look for ways to unite our many students are helping New York City result could stand as model for the rest strengths at Teachers College, increas- nonprofits solve issues of strategic of the nation. ingly we have focused on learning as focus, leadership transition, workload Meanwhile, TC’s own Office of an imperative for the 21st century. We management and more. Working with School and Community Partnerships is believe the time has arrived when we Gay Men’s Health forging a remark- must improve learning to ensure the Crisis, the American able collaboration competitiveness of this nation with Jewish World Service, with a group others, and to help all people realize the the Pratt Center of neighboring Abenefits of a global economy. We are for Community Harlem public confident we will succeed because of Development and schools that our growing understanding of cognitive other clients is great focuses on cur- processes and of the brain itself, and experience for our stu- ricula and profes- because of the development of an array dents. But the practi- sional develop- of new learning-centered strategies cum also has emerged ment in science, and technologies. as a valued citywide technology, To improve learning we must also engineering and improve the conditions in families, math. We also communities, neighborhoods and cities To improve learning we must are moving for- that make learning possible. As you’ll also improve the conditions ward in creating discover in this issue of TC Today, the our own pre-K–8 College is drawing on its broad expertise in families, communities, public school, across disciplines to do precisely that. neighborhoods and cities that which we hope to To cite just a few examples: open in Harlem In the area of adolescent health, make learning possible. in fall of 2011. Professor Chuck Basch has pulled If there is a together a powerful new meta-study resource that is hugely beneficial to cli- drawback to an issue titled “TC and the that illustrates, as never before, how a ents as well. City,” it is that we lack space to include constellation of health conditions are In Newark, Mayor Cory Booker, all that could be part of it. The arts, for hindering the nation’s young people who is a Trustee of Teachers College, is example, are largely absent here. So stay (and urban minority youth in particu- grappling with the full range of urban tuned for our next issue, which will focus lar) from achieving in school. Chuck’s challenges that we, as an institution, on creativity and the imagination—quali- even greater contribution is his vision engage on an ongoing basis. Under his ties without which learning in any cen- for a nationally coordinated response, leadership, Newark has led the nation tury would be very poor indeed. mediated through our public schools. in reducing violent crime. Now, the city In a unique practicum in our is creating a unique partnership between organizational psychology program, charter schools and its own traditional Professor Debra Noumair and her public school district. If successful, the Susan Fuhrman

p h o t o g r a p h b y j o h n e m e r s o n T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 3 TC CampusKeeping up with people, events and other news fromN Teachersews College

State Legislators curriculum on fiscal responsibility Convene at TC TC received a three-year $2.45-mil- he National Conference lion grant from the Peter G. Peterson of State Legislatures Foundation to develop a non-partisan T convened at TC in curriculum on fiscal responsibility that March to share proven strate- will be distributed free to all U.S. high gies to turn around troubled schools. Faculty member Anand Marri schools and boost student and colleagues are developing the cur- achievement. Co-sponsored riculum to teach students the facts, significance and con- by TC’s National Center for sequences of public policies leading to persistent deficits Postsecondary Research, the and a growing national debt. A baseline study by Marri event featured presentations found virtually no current high school economics educa- by TC faculty members Amy TC collects donations for Haiti. tion about the federal budget and fiscal policy. Stuart Wells, Thomas Bailey, through the Afya Foundation Kevin Dougherty, Michael and a similar offering to the Jacob H. Schiff Foundations Rebell and Charles Basch. Faculty Named towns of Jacmel and Leogan. Professor of Psychology & Tatiana Garakani, ’09, a AERA Fellows Education; Sharon Lynn TC Joins in Haiti United Nations disaster relief even TC faculty Kagan, Virginia and Leonard Relief Effort team member, coordinated members have been Marx Professor of Early some 1,800 rescuers and 160 S named 2010 Fellows Childhood and Family he TC community has search dogs looking for survi- of the American Educational Policy; Janet Miller, Professor responded to the earth- vors. Andy Auguste, Assistant Research Association of English Education; Gary T quake in Haiti. A drive Director of Student Activities (AERA): Jeanne Brooks- Natriello, Ruth L. Gottesman mounted by the College’s and Programs, whose par- Gunn, Virginia and Leonard Professor of Educational Office of Diversity and ents emigrated from Haiti in Marx Professor of Child Research and Director of Community sent 25 bags of the 1970s, promoted the TC Development and Education; TC’s Gottesman Libraries; clothes, food, shoes and bed- Student Senate’s effort to raise Celia Genishi, Professor and Stephen Silverman, ding to Port au Prince money for Haiti relief of Education and Chair, Professor of Education and efforts. Department of Curriculum & Program Coordinator in Teaching; Herbert Ginsburg, Physical Education.

USING BOARD GAMES TO TEACH NUMBERS Learning to count by rote memorization doesn’t necessarily translate into under- standing whether one number is smaller than another, and why. Yet children’s understanding of such “numerical magnitudes” correlates strongly with their performance on achievement tests, said Carnegie Mellon’s Robert Siegler, who delivered TC’s 2010 Tisch Lecture in February. Numerical boardgames can enhance that understanding, Siegler said. Chutes and Ladders, a game that traces its roots back to ancient India, has proven effective at exposing low- and middle-income preschoolers to verbal, visual-spatial, kinesthetic, auditory and temporal cues to numerical magnitudes.

4 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 FirstEditioTC’s facultyn in prints TC

A School Transforms Itself Don’t Wait for the Policymakers! A success story with bilingual students Case studies in school reform

ack in 1993 when Ruth Swinney first became prin- he debate about education in America comes down cipal of P.S. 165, she led her friend María Torres- to the all-important question: how can we effect BGuzmán around the Upper West Side school on Tmeaningful, lasting, positive changes in our schools? one of her “Savage Inequality” tours. Torres-Guzmán, a For TC Associate Professor of Education Thomas professor of bilingual education Hatch, there is no simple recipe for making such changes; at TC, saw firsthand the kind of rather, he believes passionately that the answers should neglect that would have never come first and foremost from the stakeholders whose lives been permitted in a wealthier most hang in the balance: principals, teachers, parents and neighborhood: a leaky roof, miss- students at individual schools. ing tiles, electrical wires hemor- In his latest book Managing to Change: How Schools rhaging from the ceiling. Can Survive (and Sometimes Thrive) The school had been intel- in Turbulent Times, Hatch, who is lectually abandoned, too: P.S. 165 also Co-Director (with Jacqueline had the third lowest scores FREEDOM AT WORK: Ancess) of the National Center for in the entire New York City LANGUAGE, Restructuring Education, Schools school system. A pioneer in PROFESSIONAl and Teaching (NCREST), argues that AND INTELLECTUAL school communities would do well to dual language programs in the DEVELOPMENTS IN school district, Swinney got SCHOOLS seize the initiative rather than relying straight to work, filling P.S. María E. Torres-Guzmán solely on policymakers to raise stan- (Paradigm, 2009) 165 with as many English lan- dards, change curricula and man- { } date improvement programs. Managing to guage learners as possible. In Managing to Change, Hatch Change: How The results inspired Torres-Guzmán’s latest book, schools can survive Freedom at Work: Language, Professional and Intellectual looks at the power that schools (and even sometimes Development in Schools. Torres-Guzmán and co-author have to create the conditions they thrive) in need to be successful and how this turbulent times Swinney chronicle the transformation of P.S. 165 during Thomas Hatch Swinney’s six-year tenure as principal, a period when test approach can work in concert with (TC Press, 2009) scores rose to a 34 percent pass rate in just three years, the larger-scale school improvement { } school’s bilingual program was overhauled and, along with efforts. Through the case studies many other improvements to the physical plant, the front of six diverse schools—including a charter school, a bilin- doors received a fresh coat of paint. gual school, and public schools in both high-poverty and The key to this transformation, as Torres-Guzmán dis- wealthier communities—Managing to Change examines differ- covered, was increased freedom at work. It was Swinney’s ent strategies for increasing overall performance. belief that teachers had to direct their own professional Ultimately, Hatch identifies four key practices that can development because they knew best where their strengths be employed to build the capacity for change, including and weaknesses lay. Torres-Guzmán wanted to show that developing a shared understanding of missions and goals; and change is possible. building relationships between school staff and parents, com- “There was a lot that could be done,” she says, “and this munity members, district administrators, reform organiza- school illustrated it.”  tions and others. 

T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 5 TC in the City: A History

Points of Contact TC’s urban legacy is one of constant engagement, in which the College learns as much as it teaches

6 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 TC in the City: History

he refurbishing of the swimming pool in Thompson Hall in 2008 was hardly a landmark in Teachers College’s history. Yet it renewed a century-old connection between the College and the city.

“We’ve had people from the community ings of a heating apparatus. The Lincoln School faculty, who coming here for years,” says Maria Hataier, were also faculty of TC, published prodigiously, developed Director of Student Activities and Programs, whose office and field-tested curricula and helped to overhaul school sys- operates the Aquatic Center, as it is formally known. “Their tems in Pittsburgh, Denver, Cleveland, Baltimore, Rochester, kids used the pool, their grandkids are now coming here, and Chicago and St. Louis. they all have great stories.” The field of urban education had its formal birth at The pool is just one symbol of TC’s broader involvement TC,in the early 1960s, largely through the efforts of A. Harry with New York and cities in general—an embodiment of John Passow, who taught at the College for nearly 40 years before Dewey’s notion that, “the learning in school should be con- retiring in 1991 as the Jacob H. Schiff Professor Emeritus. In tinuous with that out of school” and that, “this is possible only 1962, Passow chaired a two-week Conference on Curriculum when there are numerous points of contact between the social and Teaching in Depressed Urban Areas. The event, held interests of the one and the other.” at TC, produced the landmark Dewey’s vision has been real- Education in Depressed Areas, edited ized by the countless educators by Passow and published by TC has produced over the years, Teachers College Press, which who have shaped entire school is considered one of the early systems while frequently return- bibles on the teaching of urban, ing to the College for advanced disadvantaged youth. At the invi- degrees or even to join the fac- tation of the Washington, D.C., ulty. And not just educators, but Superintendent of Schools, Carl also human resource managers, Hansen, Passow and a team of education economists, school nearly 100 researchers conducted psychologists, executive coaches an 18-month study of the capital’s community watering hole The TC Aquatic and more. Center, circa 1900. Opposite: Zankel Hall (viewed dysfunctional K–12 education Many of these professions from Amsterdam and 120th), under construction system. The result was the far- were represented at one of the during the same period. reaching and controversial analy- College’s first “points of con- sis, “Toward Creating a Model tact”—the Speyer School, founded by the College and St. Urban School System: A Study of the Washington, D.C., Mary’s Episcopal Church in 1902 on West 126th Street. Public Schools.” A federal judge later cited the report in rul- Created as an outgrowth of the church’s “free kindergarten,” ing that Washington’s tracking system was unconstitutional, Speyer, according to its first principal, “sought to do what can arguing that it resulted “in de facto segregation.” be done, under the conditions of crowded city life, to provide Passow served under the College’s sixth president, John some of the first essentials of wholesome living.” H. Fischer, who, as superintendent of Baltimore City Speyer included health and sanitation in the curriculum, Schools, had become the first big-city schools chief to enforce which, at the time, was not part of public schooling; opened the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down segrega- its library’s doors to the lower middle-class neighborhood, tion. When Fischer, who died this past winter at 99, learned providing a space for community clubs to gather; and main- that some white parents would be keeping their children tained a staff that included two social workers. home, he ordered all absent pupils marked truant. Baltimore Another point of contact was the Lincoln Experimental desegregated largely without mishap, and Fischer received the School, founded in 1917, where first graders studied com- Hollander Award for Contribution to Racial Relations. munity life by building a play city, sixth graders printed and One of Fischer’s top priorities as TC’s President was to published a magazine, and eighth graders explored the work- give greater attention to problems in urban education—

T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 7 specifically to those of inner-city Another faculty member, Frances schools in New York. During his Connor, served as President of the tenure, TC established the Institute Council for Exceptional Children, for Urban and Minority Education the first chapter of which was initially (IUME), and Fischer himself served located at TC. She was instrumental in as member and chair of the National bringing significant government funding Commission on the Education of to the College for research on the needs the Disadvantaged and the National of physically handicapped children. Advisory Commission on Education Building on their work, Leonard of Disadvantaged Children. He also Blackman, now Professor Emeritus of was a major supporter of TC’s work Psychology and Education, won govern- in building an education system in ment funding in special education that Afghanistan, regularly visiting Kabul. led to the construction of Thorndike But it was IUME’s founder, the SCHOOL HOUSING IT ALL peyer Hall in the late 1960s and the establish- School, launched by TC in 1902, provided psychologist and TC alumnus Edmund ment, under Blackman’s direction, a range of supports for students and W. Gordon—now Richard March of the nation’s first comprehensive their families. Hoe Professor Emeritus of Psychology Research and Demonstration Center and Education—who brought the College into a new rela- for the Handicapped. Blackman did pioneering work on tionship with its core community of Harlem. An African the central role of memory in learning to read. He also hired American born in the segregated South to a father who was a young faculty member and former musician, R. Douglas a physician and a mother who was a school teacher, Gordon Greer, who would go on to create autism treatment facilities was an architect of the federal Head Start Program and also a around the world that use Greer’s adaptation of the CABAS major contributor to the Coleman Report, published in 1966, (Comprehensive Applied Behavior Analysis in Schools) meth- which first established that children’s home lives and socio- od. Today, Greer is applying those methods to mainstream economic circumstances are more powerful determinants of children with language deficits that are the result of poverty their educational attainment than school-related factors. rather than their neurological makeup. Gordon has been a lifelong advocate of supplementary Among the contributions of TC to cities in recent years, education—the idea that disadvantaged children must be Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, recently elected to the Institute of provided with the exposure to literature, art, mentoring by Medicine, has conducted large-scale, urban-based studies that adults, psychological and medical health services, and other have helped establish a definitive link between poverty and care that middle class children typically enjoy educational achievement. Many TC faculty members also pro- During the 1950s, together with his wife, Susan, a physi- vided important testimony in New York State’s school finance cian, Gordon—then a practicing minister whose church had lawsuit, which in 2006 concluded with the state legislature assigned him to work with Harlem street gangs—founded the adding billions of dollars in funding to New York City’s school Harriet Tubman Clinic in Harlem, which provided health budget. The lead attorney for that suit was Michael Rebell, who and guidance services for children. In 1973, through a partner- now directs TC’s Campaign for Educational Equity. Thomas ship between TC and the Educational Testing Service, where Sobol, who retired two years ago as TC’s Christian A. Johnson he then held a joint appointment, Gordon launched IUME, Professor of Outstanding Leadership Practice, also gave critical which ever since has conducted research on the needs of disad- testimony in the case during his tenure as New York State’s vantaged communities. In 2007, the College formally opened commissioner of education. its Edmund W. Gordon Campus, located in the former Hotel As Cory Booker, TC Trustee and Mayor of Newark, has Theresa on 125th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard. said, “TC is a voice for a change—a voice that examines the TC has blazed a parallel path in special education. Ignacy tough questions that many people don’t talk about or don’t Goldberg, a faculty member who led many organizations focused take time to explore. And more important, a place that does on mental retardation, argued forcefully that mentally challenged something about those problems as well.” Cities have been children could achieve academically. Subsequently he helped lead the theater where the College has made its greatest mark— the fight to de-institutionalize children with mental retardation. and where it will continue to do so for years to come. k

8 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 Teachers and Students

Teacher, Observed— and Observing For TC’s Elementary Inclusive Education program, “assessment” is an ethos of knowing one’s students and oneself by Jonathan Sapers

p h o t o g r a p h b y s a m a n t h a i s o m T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 9 n a bright morning in March, Colin Schumacher monitors if gardening is some- Angelina Gonzalez’s fifth grade class at P.S. 179 in the South thing they would like Bronx as it practices for an upcoming English Language to do. Every hand Assessment test. The children are quiet as they work through shot up.” a test prep workbook relating to Japanese honey bees. Schumacher, a student teacher in TC’s Elementary Put to Inclusive Education Program, which prepares teachers for the Test Ogrades one through six, calls time and ushers the children Over the past to a space on the rug. Near the window, an oversized pad 20 years, “assess- proclaims, “Good test takers draw conclusions as they read by ment” has become connecting details to what they already know.” the watchword of Schumacher, slight and intensely thoughtful, has been American education. spending a lot of time on this kind of work—highlight- In a broad sense, it is ing test-taking strategies, emphasizing differences between a proxy for “account- BACK TO THE LAND At P.S. 179 in the Bronx, Schumacher and the garden club statements of fact and statements of opinion, and in general ability”—the push (above and opposite), choosing flowers employing the Kaplan-oriented test prep that 179 encourages. to raise performance and planting seeds. Below: Henry, the through state-level “A lot of the stories are interesting,” he says, gamely. “I like class lily. Preceding page: Schumacher the beekeeping one.” standards for what works to keep test prep interesting. Gonzalez, the head teacher, is glad for his help. “Having children should two people in the room is really beneficial, because I have a know and by when large class with different levels of kids. A lot of them are ELLs they should know it. That’s a good thing, most people feel, [English language learners], and some are struggling and we not least because of its equity implications: if the state is going have to do a lot of basic stuff with them. So we can’t really go to hold all kids equally to certain performance levels, it must, out of the box a lot of the time. Though when we do, the kids in theory, also support them equally in reaching those levels. love it.” But in a narrower sense, assessment has come to mean “Out of the box” is where Schumacher really makes his testing—and testing, and testing, and testing. This past semes- mark. Not long ago, for example, he started a garden club ter some Elementary Inclusive student teachers in grades in the class, securing a grant from TC’s Office of Teacher three through five classrooms encountered a two-month Education and School-Based Support to buy planters and stretch in which 75 percent of class time was spent on test bringing in a Seed Savers catalogue that the children took prep, bumping social studies inquiry projects, science experi- turns bringing home. (Their assignment: to put yellow stick- ments and more. ies next to flowers they liked that would mature by late June.) Perhaps even more at issue than the quantity of testing is Growing gardens with students is a the quality. favorite interest of Schumacher’s, but he “What has assessment really done to only suggested it to the students after they poor and marginalized communities and introduced him to Henry, the class plant children?” TC Associate Professor Molly (a lily), which they have been caring for Quinn recently challenged students in since kindergarten. Elementary Inclusive’s appropriately named “Every weekend they fight over who Core class—the program’s Thursday evening gets to take Henry home,” he says. Many of discussion forum where theory is integrated the kids had also written in a New Year’s with practice. “What has it done in terms homework assignment about having family of curriculum? Has it enriched curriculum? members with diabetes and making resolu- What has it done to the quality of life for tions to eat more healthily. “So, they like teachers and for students? And what, ulti- growing things, they have this interest in mately, are we measuring—genuine growth health. I thought maybe I should ask them and understanding, or test-taking skills?”

1 0 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 Teachers and Students

self, student, classroom, school and community to learn the full context of children’s knowledge, understanding and behavior. At the heart of that approach is a constant give-and-take between classes and real-world interaction. “Most programs in teacher education across the country and throughout the world say to students, ‘Take this course, take this course, take this course, then student-teach,’” explains the program’s director, Celia Oyler, Associate Professor of Education. “The student teacher then is in the position of putting together, across the courses and across To underscore those their field experiences, what it means to be a teacher. We uncertainties, Quinn, who don’t believe that’s the best way to have a curriculum.” teaches the class along with Each semester, the program’s 80-odd students, divided Clinical Faculty Member into three cohorts, teach three and a half days a week and Chandra Williams and maintain a full schedule of classes that, beyond the weekly Instructor Ellie Cook, read Core gathering, includes a year-long literacy course. Each her Core students a chil- semester, in 50-hour practica, each student teacher also inves- dren’s story about a sheep tigates his or her school and its surrounding community, vis- named Woolbur who drives iting classes in other grades and attending community events. his parents crazy by cre- “In our integrated program, when you’re talking about atively misunderstanding the appropriate way to do sheep being a teacher, you are applying and talking about manage- activities. Does Woolbur have difficulties with learning or ment, planning, curriculum, child development and diverse just original ways of looking at things? Quinn also shared learners at the same time,” says A. Lin Goodwin, Professor of examples of how children have “misunderstood” ques- Education and TC’s Associate Dean of Teacher Education. tions on standardized tests, like the boy who explained to a “Because that’s what teaching is. And without constantly researcher that he had paired “old” and “thin” from a word relating theory and practice, it’s like trying to learn tennis list that also included “down” and “up” because he reasoned without actually hitting a ball.” that when people get old they tend to get thin. The same The Elementary Inclusive program also is unique in how boy also concluded that “dog” and “boy” were the best pair it matches student teachers to cooperating teachers—head out of a list that also included “bark” and “crumble” because teacher/mentors in the community, like Angelina Gonzalez. a dog is a boy’s best friend. “At a lot of universities, including our biggest competitors “You can see what’s lost on paper pencil tests,” Quinn in New York City, student teachers simply show up at the says. “You have the directions, the child responds and schoolhouse door and the principal distributes them around there’s no way to get at what he’s thinking when he circles the school,” Oyler says. “For us, it’s relationship-building over those words.” time. And it takes a ton of time. Six of our placements in To Quinn, however, “assessment” has a deeper and more January fell through because of somebody having surgery or powerful meaning. “The word literally means ‘to sit beside,’” something happening. So we had to go out and get six more.” she says. “If you think what happens when you can sit side by Each student gets not one but two such placements— side with your student and see what’s happening, you get a “Two contrasting environments where we think they will be very different sense of not only assessing, but teaching, gener- successful,” Oyler says. (Every student teacher at TC com- ally. ‘Sitting beside’ is very intimate—not at all what happens pletes a minimum of twice the number of hours required by when we work from a testing database.” New York State for student teaching, and some programs It’s that view of teaching that animates the Elementary require as much as three times the required number of hours.) Inclusive program. Assessment, as Quinn defines it, is the Everything that happens in the classroom is fodder for study program’s modus operandi, an ethos of constantly observing back in the Core.

photographs b y s a m a n t h a i s o m T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 1 1 “One of our major goals is to critique the common practices of schooling,” Oyler says. “We want students to understand the big implications of small practices. And if you inventory a teacher’s practices in a day, there’s a thousand of them. You’re always making decisions. Teachers are decision makers.” Clearly the approach is working. Elementary Inclusive ranks the highest in US News and World Report of any TC pro- gram. “Principals across the region tell us our students are the was listening to me,” best candidates they interview,” Oyler says. “And the New she says. “That’s not York City Department of Education hires a higher percentage a good feeling. Ever. of our students than from any other teacher education program So I make it very in the city, even though we don’t produce the most teachers.” clear I’m strict. But I make it clear they Going Deep have a voice in my In a workshop on classroom-based assessment that is part classroom and their of the Core class, Chandra Williams is talking to student ideas matter.” teachers about The Look. When her students take standardized tests, Williams “I know you know that look.” She describes the puzzled says, she does everything she can to diffuse the tension. “I’m expression that crosses students’ faces, often just when a not naïve enough to think, oh well, test scores don’t matter,” teacher thinks she’s on a roll. “I knew that look when I was she says. “I don’t want them to matter as much as they do. a student teacher. It was the worst feeling, especially when But I know that they do. So I’ll talk about how I get nervous, you’re being observed. And you’re thinking, ‘Come on, you too, when I take tests, and strategies that I do as Chandra know this, don’t mess up my perfect lesson.’” the person. I go through a whole big process of breathing, of The point: assessment can be as simple—and crucial—as sparkles, of giving each other good luck. If it’s a big test, I go reading faces. around and shake their hands and do something silly just to A TC alumna and Elementary Inclusive graduate who lighten up the mood.” teaches fifth grade at P.S. 180, near the College, Williams goes These practices keep it low-key for students—but for on to share a grab-bag of techniques for keeping tabs on stu- Williams, who came to TC after an extremely challeng- dent understanding. These range from specific practices, such ing stint teaching in an under-served public school in as asking for answers from the entire class in a whisper and Washington, D.C., they are equally or even more important listening for who is and isn’t responding, or requiring periodic as a way for teachers to keep their students in perspective as letters from students about how class is going, to building a human beings. “You will hear teachers say, ‘He’s a two or she’s a three,’” Williams tells the Core cohort, referring to the state’s grading “You will hear teachers say, system for standardized tests. “And you’ve got to think when ‘He’s a two or she’s a three.’ And you hear that—what does that really tell you about a child?” “You may even hear teachers or administrators say things you’ve got to think—what does like, ‘A moveable two or a low two,’” adds Ellie Cook. Critics that really tell you about a child?” have charged that, in an effort to show “AYP” (adequate yearly progress, as stipulated by the federal No Child Left Behind ~ chandra williams law), schools sometimes focus their efforts on improving, even if just by a few points, students near a higher bracket. “I would sense of community in the classroom so children are comfort- encourage you as teachers to think pretty carefully about these able admitting they don’t understand something. labels and the way resources end up being allocated according “One thing I know that I definitely felt as a teenager or a to whether a child is a moveable two or a non-moveable two. preteen in school: I felt like I didn’t have a voice and no one Think about equity and equality.”

1 2 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 p h o t o g r a p h ( t o p ) b y l i s a f a r m e r p h o t o g r a p h ( b o t t o m ) b y d e i r d r e r e z n i k Teachers and Students

would hope that teachers are the most wide-awake and con- scious people on the planet.”

Recharging the Batteries To serve as a cooperating teacher, supervising gradu- ate assistant or clinical faculty member in the Elementary Inclusive program is no light undertaking. Supervisors like Ellie Cook visit student teachers’ classrooms five times in a semester. Cooperating teachers take a role in mid-term and final evaluations. “Our cooperating teachers truly embrace their role on THOUGHTFUL COLLEAGUES Teacher education at TC our team of educators,” says Student Teaching Coordinator is a team effort. Above, from left: Faculty members Quinn, Megan Lawless, who personally interviews each cooperating Williams and Cook. Opposite: Williams (top) with students; teacher candidate. “And we talk about at that initial meet- Schumacher (bottom) hits the books. ing. This is a team effort toward teacher education. And we’re not talking about scripted, prescribed teaching where That focus extends to looking at oneself, as well. One of teachers have no need to think or make decisions. Our focus the students’ earliest assignments in the Elementary Inclusive is on teacher decision-making and what that looks like in Core class is an intensive exercise in self-scrutiny. classrooms. Our cooperating teachers are committed to that “People don’t look critically at where they’re located in the because they want thoughtful colleagues who get that we’re world very often,” Molly Quinn says. “We don’t see what our trying to teach children and not just a curriculum.” prejudices are. The goal through the first semester is to focus Indeed, in a system marked by an ongoing disconnect on the student teacher as an individual, beginning with the between the profession’s highest aspirations and its inescap- inner life. Really take a hard look at who you are and what you able realities, cooperating teachers regularly request return bring: strengths, aspirations and imaginative callings, as well as engagements, in no small part because the program encourag- misconceptions and limited viewpoints. The idea is for students es them to grapple with that disconnect rather than accept it. to look at how their visible and invisible assumptions might That’s not lost on students like Colin Schumacher. “The impact the way they see schools, the child in front of them, an conversations that I have with fellow educators—it’s a never interaction, what their job is, assessment, knowledge.” ending sort of exploration, reflection on yourself and what For Cook, a TC alumna and doctoral student in the you’re doing in the classroom,” he says. “And what you can Department of Curriculum & Teaching, self-scrutiny is par- do better and how you’re reacting to the lives of the students. ticularly important given the dynamics of some of the class- It’s like what Celia told us recently. ‘If you remember any- rooms in which the student teachers are teaching. thing about this program, remember this, Don’t abdicate “As the teacher, you really need to examine things criti- your right to be a thinking person.’” cally in terms of race, socioeconomic status and the idea of disability and ability, and how those things may create a A new harvest culture of power in the classroom,” Cook says. “You need to After lunch back at P.S. 179, the members of Schumacher’s locate yourself in that culture of power, and that can be emo- garden club eagerly return to plant their first seeds, which they tional for many of our students. They grapple with it, because chose partly in hope of attracting butterflies. often they think, ‘Certainly I’m not a racist, so why do I need “We have five bins, and we’re not going to have time for to talk about this?’” all of them,” Schumacher begins. “So I was wondering which Quinn believes such processes are crucial in making one we should work on today. The one that I thought you teachers because teachers are fundamental in making society. might be interested in is the one for bees and butterflies. The “Education says something about what a society views as first thing we need to do is to water the soil.” sacred,” she says. “In terms of public education and a demo- Later, after all of the plants are chosen and preliminary cratic society, it’s the terrain for the democratic project, for watering has been completed, there is just enough time to get realizing a project that has not yet been fully realized. So one all of the seeds planted before the rest of the class returns. k

p h o t o g r a p h b y d e i r d r e r e z n i k T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 1 3 Commentary

Reading, Writing and Return on Investment by Dolores Perin

s our society invests more in com- College Research Center, together who aspire to careers in health care but munity colleges, we must focus on the with Bronx Community College, Los struggle with science courses. many entering students who lack the Angeles Pierce College and Norwalk Summaries written by students literacy skills they need to learn from a Community College, has developed benefiting from our intervention con- postsecondary curriculum. and evaluated such an intervention tain more of the important ideas from To be truly literate, college students for community college students doing source texts than those written by a Amust understand what they’ve read remedial coursework. comparison group. The summaries are well enough to summarize it, analyze The intervention—a self-paced cur- longer than those they wrote prior to it, question it, write about it and in ricular supplement—supports practice the intervention. Also, students who general make use of it practiced with sci- in a variety of contexts. Literacy skills are ence texts write Often, students have more accurate sum- not had sufficient prac- non-negotiable for maries than did tice in applying higher- success in college comparison groups. level literacy strategies Literacy skills to make sense of, say, and life, and thus are non-negotiable a densely written sci- for a good return on for success in college ence textbook. and life, and thus Summarization is America’s investment for a good return on particularly challenge in community colleges. America’s invest- because it depends on ment in community identifying the most important ideas in identifying main ideas in text and colleges. As models for how to instill in texts. Many academically under- applying them to summary writing, as those skills emerge, let’s act on what prepared students have difficulty dis- well as employing academic vocabulary, we know, quickly. Our future depends tinguishing more from less important generating questions and writing opin- on it. information in written sources. ions. It also grounds reading and writing Students need to practice lit- skills in subjects such as anatomy and Dolores Perin is Professor of Psychology and eracy skills within the contexts of physiology, which are appropriate for Education, and Senior Research Associate at specific subjects. TC’s Community the many community college students the Community College Research Center.

1 4 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 illustration b y d a n p a g e c o l l e c t i o n Teachers and Students

The TC Reading and Writing Program

or nearly three decades, Lucy from 61.2 percent in 2005 to 69.8 percent Calkins, Robinson Professor in 2009. of English Education, and the “The collaboration with Columbia F Teachers College Reading and Writing Teachers College Reading and Writing Project (TCRWP) have been leading Project has been instrumental in our large-scale, school based professional devel- school reform efforts,” says Seattle’s Ruth opment in literacy, training hundreds of Medsker, Education Director K–8 & thousands of teachers and working with Middle Schools. “The positive achievement schools and districts in more than 40 cities. gains have crossed over into all academic Calkins, author of the acclaimed The Art content areas. Our middle and K–8 schools of Teaching Reading, The Art of Teaching Writing are transformed as a result of the introduc- and Units of Study for Teaching Writing K–2 tion of the new pedagogy of Readers and and 3–5, has championed “balanced lit- Writers Workshop.” k eracy” that engages students in reading texts for meaning and turns the confrontation of “problems” into teachable classroom moments. T e ac h e r s C o ll e g e P e ac e “We simply want to support literacy reform on a large C o r p s F e ll o w s scale,” Calkins says. “We think we're changing the world.” TCRWP’s work—which includes on-site coaching, For the past 25 years, TC’s Elliot and more than 150 Calendar Conference Days per year and four Roslyn Jaffe Peace Corps Fellows Program Institutes every summer—has been linked to significant test has been fast-tracking returning Peace score gains in New York City, Chicago, Seattle and elsewhere: Corps volunteers into public schools in •• Data from 31 Project schools with continually high lev- the highest-poverty concentration areas els of involvement in TCRWP across the past decade in New York City. Fellows complete a sum- show students in Project schools in New York City mer intensive training program, then serve tend to score significantly higher than their peers in in full-time teaching positions and work other city schools; toward their master’s degrees in educa- •• The English Language Arts proficiency rate of students tion. Fellows receive aid through a scholarship fund set up by in all grades in New York City schools working with • TC Trustee Elliot Jaffe, and their positions are supported by an TCRWP increased by 18 percent from 2007 to 2009; AmeriCorps grant. To date, the program has placed more than In 2009, 73.5 percent of fourth grade students in all • •• 700 fellows in public schools, reaching more than 120,000 stu- TCWRP schools scored in the highest brackets on dents in the highest-needs schools. Presently, there are more English Language Arts test scores, versus 69 percent of • than 300 fellows actively teaching across the city. A dozen the rest in New York City; • •• Since introduction of TCRWP to Seattle public alumni have become principals, school directors and assistant schools, student achievement has improved dramati- principals. • The program boasts a high teacher retention rate: cally, especially in middle schools. The Seattle middle in 2006, 76 percent of former fellows entered their fourth year schools’ passing rates on the Washington Assessment of teaching. In contrast, it is estimated that up to 45 percent of of Student Learning (WASL) rose from 57.8 percent of all new teachers leave the city system within three years. • More the students meeting or exceeding the standard in 2005 than 40 universities now offer Fellows programs modeled after to 75.1 percent of the students meeting or exceeding the TC’s, which was the first of its kind in the country. standard in 2009, as compared with the state increase

T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 1 5 Teaching A ife In her journeyL to understand and re-conceive school- based literacy practices, Ruth Vinz is a point of contact between TC and city schools

by Joe Levine

1 6 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 Teachers and Students

oon after Ruth Vinz joined the faculty of TC’s English to conduct outreach and research focused on adolescent “lit- Education program in 1993, New York State issued eracies”—the meanings that young people make from a vari- Sformidable changes requiring pre-service teaching stu- ety of sources and how they communicate those meanings to dents to serve two field experiences per year instead of one. different audiences. It fell to Vinz, who had spent the previous 23 years teaching The vehicle for this work has been the Morse Center for high school in Idaho, to partner with local secondary public the Professional Education of Teachers, which Vinz founded schools to double TC’s field placements virtually overnight. in 2002, and which has since housed a number of different “It was no easy task, because we had a small cadre of literacy-focused efforts. schools where we were placing student teachers, and we One of the projects is TC’s Student Press Initiative (SPI), needed to develop new partnerships that which Vinz and her then-student, Erick would be of mutual benefit to the schools Gordon founded in 2002, and which and offer the best possible experiences for Gordon has since expanded into one of the our students,” she says. “As a faculty mem- nation’s most innovative project-based pro- ber new to the city, my first months at TC fessional development efforts. (See stories on were spent searching out potential place- pages 19 and 20.) SPI goes into classrooms ments and visiting schools from Brooklyn and collaborates with teachers and students to the Bronx. Those contacts led to long- to write, rewrite, produce and publish term partnerships that are robust today. project-based collections of student writing. Setting up the student teaching placements These projects often involve community- helped get me in the door, and, for that, based research, oral history projects, or I am forever grateful for the good will of discipline-specific essays of various types. teachers and school administrators who “I did this kind of work when I was joined us to help educate the next genera- teaching high school—I used to stand at the tion of teachers.” ditto machine and copy student writing so In essence, “getting in the door” is what Vinz, now they could become the audience for each others’ thinking and the Enid & Lester Morse Chair and Professor in English learning,” Vinz says with a laugh. Education/The Teaching of English, has been doing ever “Ruth is with me in the classroom in every lesson I teach,” since, serving as an ongoing point of connection between says Gordon. “Everything for her is about curiosity—laying TC and city schools. As the English Education program has down a path with students to help them create their own grown steadily on her watch—from 50 students to nearly meanings and grow into their own understandings. She has 250—she and her colleagues have helped create a continu- ous loop in which TC pre-service students student-teach in local schools while learning their craft; accept teaching jobs in Setting up the student those same schools after graduation; mentor subsequent pre- service students from the College in their classrooms; return teaching placements helped get to TC for advanced degrees; become school leaders; and, me in the door, and, for that, I completing the cycle, work with the College to bring the next generation of student teachers to their schools. am forever grateful. One result, Vinz says, is that “we constantly foster new ~ Ruth Vinz partnerships as our program grows.” Another is that Vinz and her colleagues and students have forged close and enduring given me the belief that I can carry my own sense of wonder relationships with individual schools that have enabled them and curiosity into the classroom and be a learner along with my students.” LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION By setting up Vinz’s scholarly interest is in “rethinking my understand- student teaching placements, Ruth Vinz (opposite) became ing of literacies that help us read and write the myriad texts of a partner to schools around the city. Above: Anthologies produced by TC’s Student Press Initiative. the world”—the ways in which teachers construct their own

photographs b y s a m a n t h a i s o m T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 1 7 literacies and make meaning of texts with their students. It’s THE HOUSE THAT RUTH BUILT The Morse Center team. a focus born very much of her own journey in the classroom, Back row (from left): Christina Shon, Erick Gordon, Ruth as she makes clear in a 1991 article that subsequently grew Vinz, Alison Villanueva, Elizabeth Fox. Front row (from left): into her award-winning book, Composing a Teaching Life. In it, Franziska Stutz, Roberta Lenger Kang, Brice Particelli. Vinz recalls listening to her grandmother read to her from the works of Mark Twain, The Brothers Grimm, The Arabian Nights, through memories of her own experiences with literature, she Basho and Lao Tzu. began to question “this socially constructed image of the lit- “On her eastern Idaho farm in the mid-Forties, it was a erature teacher…and…negotiate the image and identity of the time when most fathers had come home from the war and literature teacher that I was becoming.” were well into the rhythms of their work and daily lives,” she She also became immersed in understanding the cultural writes. “Not mine. What remained was my mother’s memo- contexts that shape students’ reading and writing lives. Not ry of him, and the few trinkets and medals that were wrapped surprisingly, that has put her in direct opposition to the wide- in tissue in a suit box...the rest was in the shallow earth of rice spread emphasis on standardized tests that often fail to reflect fields somewhere between Tokyo and Yokohama.” the individuality of both teacher and student. “My grandmother, attempting to fill the space, shared Indeed, the Secondary Literacy Institute (SLI), another with me the literature that she loved…I constructed a world Morse Center initiative, has worked extensively with public of experience and imagining far beyond, where I lived and school teachers to create curriculum-embedded assessments located myself within the spirit of the grandmother who led that are rooted in what’s actually being taught by teachers me into a life with literature. In the text of her reading more and structured to capture students’ reading and writing litera- than in the text of the individual stories, the meaning of what cies. SLI has collaborated closely with, among other external she did and did not do stays with me.” partners, the Institute for Student Achievement, an orga- Vinz writes that later, as an English teacher, she at first nization led by the noted educator and advocate N. Gerry “talked about literature in classrooms” while “students mostly House that assists under-resourced schools in New York and watched,” until “finally, I realized that I had taken on a litera- five other states. Together with another center at TC, the ture teacher’s identity, like putting on a new coat.” By sifting (continued on page 22)

1 8 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 p h o t o g r a p h b y s a m a n t h a i s o m Teachers and Students Teaching through Publishing For Erick Gordon, director of TC’s Student Press Initiative, writing for publication is the curriculum

’ve had very few epiphanies in my Muslim students in New York City life, but this was definitely one of schools. This year, SPI has been work- “Ithem.” Erick Gordon is recalling ing closely with New York City’s his first publishing project with a high District 79—a non-geographical entity school class. It was during his last year of that serves recent immigrants and stu- college in San Francisco. Gordon himself dents seeking high school equivalency had been dabbling in the emerging ‘zine degrees—to create a publication of oral scene and was thinking about a career histories by English language learners in publishing. Then his writing teacher, (see story on page 20). who also taught high school English, “Publishing has always been part of asked Gordon if he would visit her class. my teaching,” says Gordon, who taught “I thought we’d do some sort of pub- high school in Manhattan for seven lication project, but I was thinking of it years after earning his TC degree. “And just in terms of the physical book we’d by that I mean publishing in the broad put together,” he recalls. “Then these kids sense—not just a book, but a process that found a gallery downtown where they connects writers with an audience.” could read their work. They made fliers and posted details in The books that students produce through SPI are beau- Bay Area weeklies. The shift in motivation was unmistakable. tiful paperback volumes that, in addition to being distrib- Still, there was this one kid who was terrified by the idea. I uted to general interest readers, are used in other classrooms spent weeks coaching him for the reading. Then watching in schools across New York City and elsewhere as teachable him at the podium that evening, making eye contact with texts. But Gordon emphasizes that these anthologies are him when he finished—I knew then that this was for me.” ultimately a means to an end. “This” is the vocation that has since become Gordon’s “The books are just a tool to drive the processes that I life work—a unique, project-based approach to teaching in think are most valuable,” he says. “It could be a book, a play, which middle- and high-school students write, revise, pub- a stump speech given at a cardboard podium. Ultimately it’s lish and publicly read aloud their own writing. At Teachers about connecting with audiences and how that contributes College, where Gordon earned his master’s degree in English to students’ understanding of communication. It’s wonder- Education in the early 1990s, this work has expanded into the ful, because kids who wouldn’t normally consider revising Student Press Initiative (SPI), which Gordon co-founded in something they’ve written do it over and over again because 2002 with his mentor, TC Professor Ruth Vinz. they realize, ‘Whoah, this is going out there.’ I’ve had heated Breaking with the traditional “literary magazine” model, arguments with students about a seraph font on the title page, every student in the class participates and is published. SPI and that’s so wonderful. They’re truly invested in what they’re teams have produced more than 100 student publications, creating, and that’s rare in a school environment.” including the annual Killing the Sky anthology of oral histo- The most difficult challenge he faces, Gordon says, is ries written by young Rikers Island inmates at the prison’s raising money to do the work. “It can be tough convincing Horizon Academy; Turning the (Periodic) Table: Chemistry people that this can be the curriculum, and not just an add- Regents Review Raps, by students at NYC Lab School; and on to the curriculum. People seem to think creative work This Is Where I Need to Be, an oral history compilation by is the reward after the real work has been done. But we’re

p h o t o g r a p h b y d e i r d r e r e z n i k T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 1 9 saying, combine creative thinking with rigorous academic thus many of those who work with SPI subsequently are work, and that becomes the curriculum, in ways that not sent to prison for years. only meet but surpass all the testing standards.” “It’s always a terrible reminder of the challenges and Gordon, too, becomes personally invested in all of the limitations of what we’re working with, but I feel we give SPI projects, but perhaps most of all in the anthologies pro- these guys something positive to hold on to, no matter what duced by students at Horizon Academy, the high school for choices they make afterwards,” Gordon says. prisoners on Rikers Island. In March 2010, Gordon and SPI completed an anthology “The Rikers work has always felt closest to my heart,” he with inmates at a maximum security prison in Minnesota. says. “Almost every single student we’ve worked with there “Most of the class were lifers, and they were writing letters has dropped out of high school and then, once arrested, to their younger selves,” Gordon says. “It was unbelievable. decided to come back. Most, if you asked them to point to a They very much had in mind younger guys in similar situa- positive learning experience, couldn’t tell you one past sec- tions, on the verge of making decisions that could determine ond grade. And not to sound cheesy, but when we do the the rest of their lives.” The prisoners’ despair was mitigated, at readings, seeing these guys standing at a podium, reading least a little bit, by the knowledge that the anthology will be original writing to a packed auditorium—something that used in high schools. many of them claim to be the proudest moment of their “They know we get letters back from people, written whole lives—it’s thrilling.” to them,” Gordon says. “The books, at least, have a rich life Rikers is a holding facility for inmates awaiting trial, and after we publish them.” k

L i s t e n i n g t o L i v e s f r o m A r o u n d t h e W o r l d Jondou Chen is leading a project to document the oral histories of immigrant students

huge part of being an immigrant and com- the project with Morse Center coordinator Courtney “ ing from an immigrant culture is the pass- Brown. “But they have incredibly rich life histories A ing of oral traditions. So a student tells and many of them are deeply reflective people, so the story of his mom telling him the story of what why not take what’s seen as a deficiency and turn it was like to grow up in China during World War II, it into a strength?” • Chen seems born to lead this and she tells it to him while they’re flying to the U.S. particular project. He is the son of two students And it brings tears to both their eyes, because he from Taiwan who made the decision to stay on in the realizes why he’s coming.” • Jondou Chen, a fourth- United States when the political situation at home year Ph.D. student in developmental psychology, is became untenable. • “I didn’t realize the gravity of describing a student he interviewed at one of New that until I came to TC,” he says. “We have such a rich York City’s six schools for recent immigrants between international community here. It made me realize the ages of 18 and 25 who are working to complete the weight on my parents as they made that decision their high school degrees. The interviews—conducted in Mandarin, 30 years ago.” • He also has served previously as director of pro- Spanish, French, Haitian Creole, Urdu, Bangla, Gujarti and Arabic, grams for a youth center in San Diego, a teacher, and the director of as well as in English, are part of a massive project by TC’s Student a homeless shelter in Cambridge, Massachusetts. • “Pretty much my Press Initiative through which students at five of the six schools are whole professional life has been based on listening and responding writing personal histories based on their interviews with SPI staff. to and appreciating stories,” he says. • All of which has given him The histories will be published in an anthology later this year, titled an ability to see people in all their dimensions. “I have a student Speaking Worlds: Oral Histories from GED-Plus, and the students who learned literacy by going to a Muslim Holy School and reading will give a public reading at TC’s Cowin Center in late May. • “In a the Koran, and by reading Al Jazeera at the shop he worked in,” he sense, our students might be judged as cognitively delayed because says. “He came here hoping for a better life. He’s angry about the they haven’t yet received a high school diploma and are above the news, yet in his day-to-day interactions with students all over the age one is supposed to receive it,” says Chen, who is co-leading world, you couldn’t find a better example of a peacemaker.”

2 0 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 p h o t o g r a p h b y s a m a n t h a i s o m Teachers and Students Been There, Still Doing That Jacqueline Ancess takes the long view on education reform in New York City

t isn’t true that Subsequently, after there’s nothing Ancess was offered a Inew in education position in District 2, a in New York City. group of parents pushed But as Jacqueline through a second gifted Ancess says, “many program, based solely on lessons have been a 99th percentile stan- learned”—and, some- dardized test score. times, forgotten. “You learn that Ancess, if you’re not there to Co-Director of TC’s implement policies you National Center believe in, the political for Restructuring winds change,” she says Education, Schools with a rueful smile. and Teaching (NCREST), has made the case for several of Ancess made perhaps her most enduring and prescient those lessons. contributions as a developer of new schools. She was the Ancess began her 23 years in the city’s public schools as founding director of Manhattan East, and supported the an English teacher in the South Bronx, became a developer development of the Delta Program, the NYC Lab School, of district level programs and professional development for Manhattan New School, East Side Middle School, and junior high schools, and then a junior high school admin- other institutions that are still thriving. istrator. From there she started a new small junior high in “There really were no programs then for school choice, East Harlem when doing that was unheard of and then was so we created ‘option schools,’ which were in many ways named Director of Educational Options, overseeing devel- like today’s charters,” she says. “You developed your own opment of other new small schools and school choice poli- cies in a succession of Manhattan districts. So many schools are dealing In that role, she developed a more equitable policy around gifted education, which, then as now, was seen by with kids for whom education some as a means of drawing middle class families into the public school system, and by others as a tool for excluding will make or break their lives. low-income children. “I went up to TC to talk to a gifted education expert, vision and pedagogy, hired your own teachers, and decided Jim Borland, and he got me to understand that using I.Q. on the work rules.” or standardized tests to screen very young children for gifted The option schools succeeded, Ancess says, because of education isn’t valid,” she recalls. “So our proposal included the political leadership of educators such as then-district those tests, but did not screen on the basis of them.” The superintendent Anthony Alvarado and small schools policy called for multiple assessments and indicators to iden- champion Deborah Meier. Also, she says, because those tify gifted children “based not on their middle-classness, but involved had “a strong sense of community and commit- on their demonstration of several behaviors that showed their ment to children.” potential.” Some parents resisted, Ancess says, but the pro- Eventually Ancess—at the urging of Maxine Greene, posal went through because of its strong basis in research. whom she knew through Lincoln Center—enrolled at TC.

p h o t o g r a p h b y l i s a f a r m e r T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 2 1 She studied with Linda Darling-Hammond, who had just unlike the city’s standardized assessments, track closely founded NCREST with Ann Lieberman, and was soon with the schools’ pedagogy and goals. pursuing a doctorate and conducting a study for NCREST NCREST also works with Say Yes to Education, of performance assessments at a group of schools affiliated founded by the philanthropist George Weiss. Say Yes sup- with the NYC Coalition of Essential Schools. She pub- ports cohorts of economically disadvantaged public school lished a landmark book with Darling-Hammond, Authentic children from kindergarten through high school in order Assessment in Action: Images of Schools and Teachers at Work. to help them reach college, and then pays tuition for all Since Darling-Hammond’s departure for Stanford, who go on to college and other post-secondary education Ancess has co-directed NCREST with Gary Griffin, Betty institutions. NCREST identified schools for Say Yes to sup- Lou Whitford, and, currently, Thomas Hatch. She also has port in Harlem and has served as the organization’s local published numerous articles and a book, Beating the Odds: partner since 2004, when Say Yes committed $50 million High Schools as Communities of Commitment. to support 300 students. With the children now prepar- Today NCREST strategically partners with schools ing to move from elementary to middle school, NCREST and school-focused organizations, helping plan interven- is helping Say Yes to navigate the complicated NYC DOE tions and conduct formative assessment. It works with middle school admission process and prepare the students 31 high schools in New York City that partner with to compete for the best middle schools. It also is conceptual- the Institute for Student Achievement to graduate con- izing enrichment programs, locating special services for the ventionally underserved and underperforming students children, and more. ready for college success. It partners with the National Ancess has had a complex career, but has no difficulty Consortium of Middle College High Schools, supporting identifying its central theme. data use and data-based decision-making for the organi- “So many schools are dealing with kids for whom edu- zation’s more than 30 Middle College and Early College cation will make or break their lives,” she says. “Providing high schools. NCREST also helps 13 elementary schools them with support and encouragement and advocacy makes do action research on their “DYOs,” or “do-your-own” a difference.” math assessments—measurements of student learning that, It’s a lesson that bears repeating. k

Ruth Vinz (Continued from page 18)

National Center for the Restructuring of Education, Schools that corresponds to, say, a piece of literature that they’re and Teaching (NCREST), SLI has worked with 30 ISA high teaching in their classes.” schools in New York City to create “DYOs” (for “develop Vinz says the common thread that links SPI, SLI and your own”)—alternative interim assessments that are aligned other Morse Center efforts is an emphasis on collaboration with the schools’ curricula rather than conducted through with schools that can be all too rare in and professional edu- standardized tests provided by the city. cation initiatives.. “We encourage teachers not to think of assessments as “We don’t go in to do research ‘on’ teachers and class- something that happens to students—an assessment is a rooms—I’m a cynic about data raids in schools,” she says. point in time, when teachers and students reflect on what “The Center is built on the principle of, ‘We create the part- was taught and learned,” House says. “Teachers reflect on nership and the research grows out of the partnership.’ It’s their own practices and students reflect on their learning project-based work that incorporates thoughtful participation as a result of working in this way. Many of our teach- in what it means to teach and learn. You work with their ers are inexperienced, and Ruth and Jacqueline Ancess issues and concerns, and try to do some teaching while you’re [Co-Director of NCREST; see story on page 21] have been at it.” She smiles. “Ultimately, I’ve learned so much more than very skillful in showing them how to design an assessment I’ve taught anyone.” k

2 2 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 School Leadership

Building a School to Change Lives Columbia Secondary School’s principal, Jose Maldonado, is planting seeds for the future by Suzanne Guillette p h o t o g r a p h b y s a m a n t h a i s o m T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 2 3 Alumni Profile

group of 15 sixth It combines the curricular graders—most of richness of an elite private A them holding their school (Maldonado ran one noses—scurry through the halls in Puerto Rico before taking of Columbia Secondary School. on his current assignment) “It’s following us!” one with the idealism of public shouts in reference to the odor education. With a special of shellfish gone bad, the result focus on math, science and of an accidentally unplugged technology, the school— refrigerator, which, unfortu- which currently numbers nately, had been storing an about 280 students in the array of specimens intended sixth, seventh and eighth for dissection in the sixth graders after-school science lab. grades; next year, as its inaugural class moves into the ninth Before chaos ensues, Jose Maldonado, the school’s prin- grade, it will begin functioning as a high school—offers cipal and also, at this particular moment, its after-school classes in more than 60 subjects, including such non- instructor, ushers the group onto the roof to conduct class standard fare as genetics, philosophy, engineering, robotics as usual. Soon students are settled on benches, listening to and outdoor survival. The faculty (whom students address two of their number present findings on the visual systems of as “professor”) are mostly young and all highly accom- crustaceans. Crisis averted. plished (and, in some cases, widely published). Students Since CSS opened its doors nearly three years ago under are assigned, for the duration of their time at the school, his leadership, Maldonado, like most public school principals, into themed “houses,” named for the scientist Marie Curie, has served as a “fundraiser, cheerleader and rainmaker.” Yet he the environmentalist Rachel Carson, the architect Antoni also seems to be involved at almost every level of the school, Gaudí, and other innovative thinkers. And the emphasis is from talking to parents at almost at any time of the day (they on high expectations and the study of big ideas: to develop have his cell phone number and are encouraged to use it) to students’ inquiry and argumentation skills, the school also taking groups of students to his native Puerto Rico as part features a series of courses designed and led by Deanna of the school’s unique “J-term”—a separate mini-semester in Kuhn, Professor of Education and Psychology, who was June when the whole school heads off on extended field study Maldonado’s advisor while he was earning his degree at TC. trips in locations that range from Maine to the parks of New In three short years, CSS has established itself as one of York City. the most rigorous and high-performing schools in the city. “It’s imperative for the principal to be an instructional The President of the Dominican Republic personally visited leader,” says Maldonado, who received his Ph.D. in Science the school and is now working with Maldonado and Kuhn Education from TC and still teaches a course at the College to replicate its methods in a new model school in his own each semester. country. Maldonado is proud, but his ultimate goal extends A partnership between the New York City far beyond putting up impressive numbers. Department of Education, the community, and Columbia “Chances like this don’t come around very often,” he says University, CSS, located on 123rd Street between Amsterdam of his decision to head CSS. “My goal is to leave behind a and Morningside Avenues, serves high-achieving, mostly great public school, one that will be changing the lives of chil- low-income students from a catchment zone that is primarily dren for years to come”—a goal that can only be realized by an in West Harlem. intense focus on students, day in and day out. Back on the roof, discussion among the sixth graders TC CONNECTION Jose Maldonado (above) and many of his turns to how an organism’s brain can process images from faculty (previous page) are TC alumni or current students. different sources. Seated: Andrew Stillman (AP), John Russell, Meredith Hill, Chance Nalley. Standing: Maldonado, Erin Bailey, Sarah Hart, “What a great question,” Maldonado says. “This is a won- Shushan Sadjadi, Dan Novak, Meg Swan, Amy Miller, Dee Mar- derful area for you to think about when you’re doing your tin, Taryn Pritchard, Natasa Pouvnoska, Megan Murphy. Ph.D.’s in science research.” k

2 4 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 p h o t o g r a p h b y s a m a n t h a i s o m What it Takes Five TC graduates discuss the joys and frustrations of founding or leading innovative schools in New York City by David McKay Wilson

ducational entrepreneurship is thriving in New York City, with some 400 new public schools founded since 2002 and indepen- E dent schools constantly recreating themselves in a demand- ing marketplace. • TC stands at the center of that movement, with alumni—and students—creating and leading new schools all over the city. • Starting up a new school is a painstaking endeavor, filled with setbacks, unexpected hurdles and endless hours of planning. To suc- ceed, educators function as instructional leaders, community organiz- ers, fundraisers and negotiators, constantly facing down critics and nay-sayers. • “One of the great American pastimes is having people tell you why your idea isn’t going to work,” says Daniel Kikuji Rubenstein, ’07, co-founder and executive director of Brooklyn Prospect Charter School. “But the great thing about Americans is that we persist anyway. And we come through.” • Here, six TC alumni dis- cuss building new schools and creating innovative programs. Joining Rubenstein are: Luyen Chou, ’06, co-founder and board chairman, Brooklyn Prospect Charter School, and chief product officer of Schoolnet, Inc. The school opened to sixth graders in 2009, and will add one grade a year until 2015 when it serves grades 6 to 12. The curriculum is based on the International Baccalaureate model. Chou was also the former founding associate head at The School at Columbia University. Ramon Gonzalez, ’97, founding principal, M.S. 223, Laboratory School of Finance and Technology, in the South Bronx. M.S. 223 serves grades 6 to 8 in a program that focuses on financial literacy and technology. Jose Maldonado, ’98, founding principal, Columbia Secondary School for Math, Science and Engineering, Manhattan. The school, founded in 2007 with Columbia University, serves academically talent- ed students in grades 6 to 8 and will add one grade a year to grade 12. Joshua Solomon, a TC doctoral degree candidate for 2010, and founding principal, The Business of Sports School, Manhattan. The high school, founded in 2009, focuses on teaching students both business and academic skills through the business of sports. Robert Vitalo, ’80, Head of School, The Berkeley Carroll School, Brooklyn. Berkeley Carroll, one of New York City’s oldest independent schools, serves 800 students in grades pre-K–12 in a college prepara- tory program.

T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 2 5 illustration b y a a r o n m e s h o n What does it take to create an innovative What kind of teachers were you looking for? public school in New York City? Chou: At The School at Columbia University, we wanted Chou: It starts with dozens and dozens of our founding teachers to design the curriculum, so we recruit- hours, as you figure out the curriculum, your ed teachers who believed in the overarching vision and shared mission, what kind of teachers you want to our philosophy. We wanted to get as much of it right the first recruit, and how to recruit students. Teachers time as we could. It can change over time, but it can be very are crucial, and you have to be certain of what painful to change. you promise them and what your expectations for them are. Gonzalez: I wanted teachers who were passionate about It can be incredibly exciting, as you recruit passionate people kids. Quality teachers are what will sustain your school over who want to do something different, who want to innovate time. I wanted teachers who cared about the kids constantly and build something with you. and reflected on how to get better. Once you bring in great Maldonado: Unfortunately, the reality is teachers, you will attract great kids. that you have to sometimes break rules and circumvent a system that resists innovation, How has Teachers College helped? a system in which the locus of authority on Rubenstein: I drew up a rough draft key aspects of daily operation are with bodies of the charter school as an assignment for outside of the school. For example, the DOE dictates which Professor Pearl Rock Kane in her class, chairs you can buy for classrooms. It took an enormous “School Choice and Privatization,” at the amount of work to say that the aesthetic aspect of a class- Klingenstein Center for Independent School room is key to building a positive school environment. I’ve Education. She didn’t like it at first, and made me rewrite it. spent time getting exemptions from the DOE on the calen- Candace Olson, who founded iVillage, was also in the class, dar year, school length, curriculum, what we could buy for and she gave a talk about how to create an organization. the school. Now, we’re in our third year, so we know what The next day, I went in to tell my boss at the Collegiate we need to do to get things done—how to navigate around School that I was quitting at the end of the year to start on the system. this charter school. Luyen Chou was also in Pearl’s class, Gonzalez: As community activists, we and he said he’d join me. believed in getting the opinions of the stake- Chou: Dan and I were the two guys from Brooklyn in holders that the school would affect. We went the Klingenstein program. We’d carpool each day and talk to the community to ask the kids what they about education and philosophy and what we could do. were interested in, and then we created themes We were talking about how to build a charter school, using around their interests. I had published an article on “under- the best thinking of public and private schools, to create an ground economies and urban gangs/street organizations,” institution that goes beyond the basics. I saw it as an intel- and saw how young people were making money in creative lectual exercise, but Dan internalized it. In his final presen- ways—selling tapes, bartering, dee-jaying. This natural inter- tation to the class, he presented his plan for a new school est in finance and technology is why we created our theme. with several of us from the program in the organizational chart, including Professor Kane and Candace. He said, Bob, how has public school development “This isn’t an intellectual exercise, and I’m going to do it.” influenced independent school innovation? He had me as board chairman. I agreed to do it. Candace Vitalo: The public high schools are getting and Professor Kane are on the board, too. better, the charters are getting better, and that forces us to differentiate ourselves, so that it’s How have you partnered with corporations clear in people’s minds why they should invest and nonprofits? in an education like this. They need to know Vitalo: We’re now partnering with the Brooklyn that their children will be exposed to things and be shown Conservatory of Music so we can bring in expert string and they have talents they didn’t think they had. wind instrument teachers. It keeps their teachers busy and

2 6 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 School Leadership

gives them students who may want to pursue their music lenged physically every day. We had a couple of incidents, studies there. We’ve started a similar relationship with the with our kids getting hurt. So we moved out on Christmas Mark Morris Dance Company. Their faculty uses our space Day, in a huge rainstorm, carrying computers up to the and exposes our students to world-class choreography. third floor of M.S. 149, where we shared the third floor Solomon: We have an advisory board of with an adult education program. By the second year, I’d top people from sports organizations that con- convinced the superintendent to move the adult program. nects us to sports—Gary Hoenig, the editor It seemed odd to have adults and middle-school students on of ESPN Magazine, Harvey Schiller, former the same floor. president of the U.S. Olympic Committee, Rubenstein: We’re a charter school, and space is the and Tony Ponturo, Vice President of Global Media and biggest challenge. We’re now getting free space in the Sunset Sports Marketing at Anheuser-Busch. We had speakers come Park High School through the 2010–2011 school year. We in from NBC Sports to talk about the Olympics, from Fox want to stay within District 15, but it probably won’t be in to talk about the World Series and from ESPN to talk about Sunset Park. We have good people working on it and should college basketball and March Madness. We have others from have it resolved in a couple of months. the sports industry come in to talk about career opportunities. Solomon: We share a building with the High School of Graphic Communications Arts, and while the other school Why start a school? is gracious about sharing space, it’s still a challenge to create Solomon: I was inspired by a report from the Mayor’s your own culture within a large school building. We’re on Task Force on Career and Technical Education, which urged a wing of the fifth floor. We share the library, cafeteria and a greater focus on vocational education. So we decided to cre- gym, and we’ve had to figure out how to create our own ate a school focused on the business of sports, which would schedule and rules. The school has metal detectors, and that engage students in such a large industry in New York and was a bit of a culture shock to our students. keep them engaged in learning, in preparing for college or a career. We wanted to teach skills needed in the workplace— What’s innovative about your curriculum? communication skills, such as how to speak, write and make Solomon: At The Business of Sports School, we are devel- presentations; collaboration skills, for working in teams; and oping our own academic culture with hands-on projects that critical thinking skills—how to solve open-ended problems. reflect the demands of the industry. In the freshman biology class, students are studying the body system through sports Gonzalez: I was a staff developer for the district and was injuries—how the body responds to sports injuries, or reac- then recruited to become assistant principal at another school tions to drugs such as steroids. In English class, we mix litera- with a technology theme. It was the district’s top school. ture and practical writing. We teach them how to be a sports I wanted them to become more inclusive. The school was writer and write profiles, and New York Family Sports has somewhat segregated based on student ability level. It needed agreed to publish some of the student work. to change, but the existing staff wasn’t ready. With a new school, you recruit your staff, and there’s change, year to year. Vitalo: We’re departing from the AP program in As the school develops, its focus becomes clearer. At 2010–11. While we respect and understand the validity first, the top issue was school safety. Then it was getting of AP, we think we can design courses that focus more our students proficient in math and English Language Arts. in-depth and give different learning opportunities for our Now the parents want extracurriculars, so we’ve developed kids. Once free of the AP and its set curriculum, we want an arts program and an after-school sports program with a to engage our upper-school students in doing science group called Young Athletes, Inc. It’s that holistic piece that research over a three-year period. They’ll select a topic, gets lost in the drive for test scores. become an expert in it, and spend a summer interning with a researcher, with the ultimate goal of producing a Finding space is tough. How did you do it? paper that will be published. Gonzalez: When we started our school in a shared facil- Maldonado: In addition to our fall and spring semester, ity, we planned to be there all year. But our kids were chal- we have a June semester, where each kid is enrolled in an

T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 2 7 Commentary

Preparing the 21st Century Principal by Craig Richards

he American public school is chang- social entrepreneurial instincts and a Through lectures, reading, role ing, and with it, the job description of facility with technology; and is comfort- playing and simulations, SPA students its leader. able with collaborative decision-making learn about law and ethics, data-driven Twentieth century schools were when is its helpful, and decisive when it leadership, budgeting, conflict resolu- urban and large (3,000 students), com- is not. He or she also embraces change, tion, team-building and self-awareness. prehensive in curriculum, bureaucratic, responding to a new ethos of account- Between summers, they fulfill a 450- and slow to change. Their leaders ability and an inner urgency to improve hour internship supervised by experi- Tunderwent a lengthy induction, taking children’s life chances. enced school leaders who visit them on increasing administrative responsi- The Summer Principals Academy at their schools and consult with their bilities while earning a non-selective, (SPA) at Teachers College ideally mod- supervisors and faculty at TC. part-time master’s Summer Two degree in school culminates with SPA administration. The 21st century students presenting The 21st cen- principal embraces detailed proposals tury school is smaller for new schools, tak- (typically 500–750 change, responding ing New York State’s students); far less to a new ethos of eight-hour building comprehensive but certificate exam (last much more academi- accountability and an year, 96 percent passed cally focused; home inner urgency to improve on the first take), and to a more diverse heading off for leader- student population children’s life chances. ship positions in cities that includes many around the nation. immigrant children from Africa and els how to prepare these new leaders Finally, we invite them back—as Asia; and led by someone half the age of for their jobs and has begun working doctoral candidates, guest lecturers his or her predecessor and often of color closely with the Cahn Fellows Program and faculty—to share what they have or multi-racial and ethnic identity. to foster a bridge between expert and learned. The circle is complete. The 21st century principal more novice principals. likely has 10 or fewer years of teaching After a rigorous recruitment process, Craig Richards is Professor of Education and experience rather than 20 or more; is each new cohort bonds during an inten- founder of the Teachers College Summer highly idealistic and energetic; has strong sive orientation led by Outward Bound. Principals Academy.

2 8 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 illustration b y s c o t t r o b e r t s School Leadership

interdisciplinary course—study abroad, such as a marine because he exhibited relentlessness after coming back from biology trip to Puerto Rico; city class, which focuses on the resource room.” And another kid will say, “Dennis New York City’s history, architecture or natural sur- deserves one, too, because he showed Omar compassion roundings; or sustainability, the most significant challenge when he came back and made sure he knew where we to the world. were.” We are using the School Bucks to build financial In sixth grade we look at water: how do you provide literacy and make our school a community where positive water to eight million people. It’s an engineering feat, to values are held in high esteem. transport water to the city from the Catskills. In the sev- Vitalo: We’ve connected with NYU’s Polytechnic enth grade, we look at energy and what powers the city. Institute to offer college-level engineering courses in the In eighth grade, we look at food systems: how do you feed fall of 2010, taught by an NYU professor. It may be one eight million people a day. The students spend a week of the best preparations for college: to take an actual col- upstate at a small farm that sells directly to restaurants. lege course. Rubenstein: In our middle school, we follow the pillars of the International Baccalaureate program, which has more How have you won permission for emphasis on interdisciplinary courses, a global perspective, new programs? and an extended research project. Gonzalez: We had to go through the community board, and it was accepted. We didn’t impose ourselves on the How do you attract the right students? community but grew organically, based on the needs of the Solomon: Our first year, we received approvals in early community. Our superintendent believed in the model, and February, and applications were due by the end of the that made it fly through the Department of Education. So month, so we only received about 30 applications. Next suddenly, we had four or five months to create the school. was a supplementary round for students who didn’t get any We had no space while planning it, so we did a lot of inter- of their first 12 choices, and we got 300 applicants. We still viewing at Starbucks on 86th Street. weren’t full in September. For September 2010, we’ve held Maldonado: The public school world can be frustrating. three open houses and presented to eighth-grade counselors The bureaucracy makes things inefficient. Something that citywide. Now we have 1,500 applicants for 108 spaces. might take 15 minutes to accomplish in the private-school Rubenstein: First we did market research—you don’t go world can take hours, or even weeks, in the public schools. into this without it. It’s one of those questions you know You have to know what you want, demonstrate its value, the answer to before you start, like asking your girlfriend to and be creative and persistent in going after it. get married. Also, Luyen and I live in the neighborhood, Rubenstein: When we first decided to establish the and neither of us would start a school that we wouldn’t be school, there was a cap on charters, and there were none willing to send our own kids to. We had 350 apply for 100 available. So we were working to build the school without spaces the first year, and we expect 500 this year. knowing when, or if, it would happen. So we were busy developing the idea, building capacity, raising money and What innovative methods do you use to recruiting board members, and we didn’t know if the school motivate your students? would ever exist. Gonzalez: At the Laboratory School of Finance and We applied through the SUNY Board, and we were Technology, we give School Bucks to our students. denied on the first round. They wanted our board to be Teachers get two School Bucks for every period, and they filled out because the board of a charter is ultimately respon- are used to reward students for exemplary service, academ- sible for oversight, for financing the academic program and ic achievement or behavior, based on our core values such hiring the most senior person at the school. We brought as compassion or relentlessness. We’ve fine-tuned it, and on three additional people who were strong, we fleshed out now the students help in the selection process. The teach- the academic program, and we received our charter five er will say, “Based on this lesson, who deserves the School months later. It happened relatively fast, and then we had Bucks?” And a student might say, “Omar deserves one 18 months to open the school. k

T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 2 9 Alumni Profile Embracing Accountability Eric Nadelstern has been a major force in shaping New York City’s entrepreneurial approach to school leadership

he good news, says Eric erment network”of high-performing, Nadelstern, ’73, is that New York autonomous schools. T City’s high school graduation rate “The idea is, there’s a myriad of ways is now 63 percent—up from 50 percent for people to learn, and the central office five years ago, where it stood for decades. should support and not dictate,” he says. The bad news: nearly four in 10 city Nadelstern describes himself as a “dyed- teens still fall short. Most are male students in-the-wool constructivist” who believes of color who grow up in poverty. “you can’t really teach anyone anything, “That begins to frame the enormity of you can only help them by creating condi- the problem,” says Nadelstern, the city’s tions that are conducive to learning.” But in Chief Schools Officer, who attended a his present position, he says, “I work over- Bronx public school, City College, NYU time not to impose that philosophy on oth- and TC, and has spent his entire career in ers. Because I’ve learned that what I believe the city school system. “So our hard work is a lot less important than how principals lies ahead of us.” and teachers believe students can learn best. It would be easy, in defending the graduation rate, to point If they are free to follow their beliefs, they will work more to the constant influx of new immigrants during New York City passionately and get better results. So I’ve become a bit of an Schools Chancellor Joel Klein’s tenure, many with little formal agnostic, and mostly what I believe in is empowering others.” schooling. Nadelstern, who earned his TC degree in TESOL (the Nadelstern has also helped shape programs for the city’s Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages) and later students who speak English as a second language, a group founded and led New York City’s International High School whose graduation rate has climbed by 14 percent during the (IHS), bristles when offered that out. past two years. Nadelstern’s first job was teaching speech to “Educators for far too long have been blaming poverty and immigrant students at his alma mater, DeWitt Clinton High race,” he says. “You can go to schools with poor kids who are School. That prompted him to enroll at TC, where he studied African American and Latino, from families under tremen- with John Fanselow, one of the early TESOL pioneers. He later dous pressure, and they are succeeding at very high levels. managed bilingual ESL programs in city high schools, and his And yes, at other schools kids from the same backgrounds approach there and at IHS has been widely emulated. (There aren’t doing well. It’s the variables we control that can make are now 10 schools in New York City modeled on the original the difference, and we have to accept the accountability.” IHS, and two others in California.) Accountability has been the watchword of the Klein era, and “The assumption used to be that in America, immigrant Nadelstern has been a major part of translating it into practice. assimilation takes generations,” Nadelstern says. “The first “We’ve adopted a portfolio management model that group works hard and their kids graduate from high school. focuses on outcomes and lets people do great work—and Their grandkids go to public universities and their great where we replace the low-performing leaders,” he says. grandkids go to Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia. But The approach has spawned a proliferation of smaller, these days, the expectation is that will happen in four years themed schools, many proposed by their founding princi- rather than four generations. We should embrace that—we’ve pals. Nadelstern helped lead that effort, serving as a dep- got schools and teachers demonstrating it’s possible, daily. uty superintendent in the Bronx overseeing the creation Now we need to do it as a system.” of small schools. He subsequently led the city’s “empow- —David McKay Wilson

3 0 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 Helping the Best Get Better Through a chance business assignment, Chuck Cahn came to understand the importance of effective school principals. He decided to start a program to support them by David McKay Wilson

wenty-five years into his career as investment research INCOMING Cahn (back row, far left) and Dunbar (back row, far director, Chuck Cahn took on an assignment that would right) welcome this year’s new Cahn Fellow principals to TC and T change not only his own life but that of hundreds of educa- the program. tors and thousands of New York City schoolchildren. His company was merging with a larger one, and the directors wanted advice on then, 197 principals, grouped in annual cohorts of between 20 and where to focus the efforts of their charitable foundation. • “Our 30 members, have participated in the 15-month Cahn Fellowships. directive was that it had to be New York City-based and associated Each group spends two weeks together, usually at the Civil War with education,” recalls Cahn. • The final result was an excellent battlefield at Gettysburg, and then meets throughout the year to center, based at a business school, that focused on leadership and work with TC faculty—and each other—on challenges in their own ethics. But along the way, through a conversation with an officer at schools. Cahn Fellows also mentor aspiring principals from within a major charitable trust, Cahn came across an idea that he found their schools with an eye towards grooming their successors and much more compelling. • “She said that if you found a good public the next generation of urban school leaders. To date, more than school, it was sure to have a good principal, and if you found a 15 percent of New York City principals, who work with a total of bad one, it was certain that the principal was bad, too,” Cahn 200,000 school children, have participated in the Cahn Fellows says. “She said there were a great number of principal training Program. • The program emphasizes distributive leadership—the programs, because New York City needs upwards of 300 new prin- idea that, as Cahn puts it, “you’ve got to have good people, give cipals per year. But when I asked her about programs for very good them responsibility and hold them accountable.” • It’s a concept principals, she said there were none.” • Cahn became so taken with that Krista Dunbar, current director of the Cahn Fellows program, the idea that his wife suggested he create such a program himself. says that Cahn himself practices as well as preaches. • “Chuck • “I had always believed, as a manager, that it’s better to leave stays strongly connected to the program, giving us the benefit positions open than to hire someone who isn’t effective,” he says. of his passion and energy as well as his philanthropic support,” • He did a lot of research and became convinced TC was the place Dunbar says. “But he also allows each cohort to evolve in its own to make it happen. And so, in 2003, the Cahn Fellows Program was unique direction, and for new lessons to emerge. That’s as rare as born, with the unique mission of strengthening the New York City it is wonderful.” • In the following stories, TC Today profiles four school system by investing in its most effective leaders. • Since long-serving New York City principals who are former Cahn Fellows.

p h o t o g r a p h b y d e i r d r e r e z n i k T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 3 1 charge, able to serve as the “tie-breaker” when tough decisions Learning by Community must be made. “I’ve moved from being the captain of the ship Steven Duch, Hillcrest High to becoming an admiral of the fleet because there is a fleet of small schools within the building, and ultimately I’m the one t’s one thing to tweak a suc- who is navigating them through the course,” he says. cessful model to keep things Duch believes the learning communities have empowered Ifresh. Stephen Duch essen- his teaching and administrative staffs, most of whom are peo- tially threw the whole model out ple he has hired during his 14-year tenure. (Duch is a Queens the window. native, and 22 of his 180 teachers are Hillcrest graduates.) Four years ago, Hillcrest High Each day the teachers have common planning time, which is in Queens, where Duch had led by teachers and supported by Duch and the school’s assis- served as principal since 1996, tant principals. Duch says the teachers have become more boasted an above average four-year graduation rate—58 per- involved in the day-to-day operation of the school, making cent compared to less than 50 percent citywide. But that still them more concerned with the school’s overall progress. left close to four in 10 Hillcrest students who didn’t graduate Duch sees their growing involvement as a way to guard within four years, which Duch found unacceptable. against what he calls the “curdle factor”—when teachers turn So Duch split the school’s 3,400 students into seven small sour and become cynical and bitter. learning communities, each with a theme-based program: “The Cahn program provided me the opportunity to be pre-med, health careers, theatre, public service and law, busi- reflective on what the role of the teachers should look like,” ness tech, humanities, and pre-teaching. Each community is says Duch. “It let me work on what needs to be in place to led by a teacher director and guidance counselor, and Duch sustain teachers to be successful in schools.” oversees the operation. Duch hatched the concept during his year in the Cahn Fellows program at Teachers College, a time when he also Leadership under Fire worked with educators from New Visions for Public Schools Barbara Freeman, P.s. 161 and the New York City Leadership Academy. A grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation provided funding to n 1999, when Barbara Freeman became principal of train teachers to lead the small learning communities within P.S. 161 on West 133rd Street in Harlem, the school the sprawling high school complex that serves a diverse stu- I had been languishing for six years on the state’s list of dent population that’s about 42 percent African American, 30 Schools Under Registration Review (SURR). Just 24 percent percent Asian, 23 percent Hispanic and 5 percent white. of its mostly Latino students were proficient in math and “The Cahn program opened my eyes to begin looking at only 11 percent in English Language Arts. education in a different way,” he says. “And it helped move Freeman, who is African American, didn’t speak much our school to a very, very different place than what our neigh- Spanish, but the city, which was jumpstarting reform in boring schools have been able to achieve over the years.” SURR schools, tapped her for her experience working as an Duch sees his model of separate-but-conjoined learning assistant principal at struggling schools in the South Bronx communities as preferable to reform efforts at other compre- and Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. Tough hensive high schools, where formerly monolithic institutions and smart, she also has an easy laugh and the ability to listen have been divided into stand-alone small schools within a to others’ concerns. broader campus. The latter approach, he says, can lead to Freeman made good headway at 161, but a year into her feuding among principals for supplies and building space. efforts, she knew there was a still a long way to go. Then The small learning communities at Hillcrest, in contrast, the city proposed turning the school into a charter, to be retain an esprit de corps, with students from all the com- managed by Edison Schools, a private company. Freeman munities participating together in a broad range of athletic convened the school community to discuss the impending and extracurricular programs. The school also offers a vast change, but stayed publicly impartial so parents could decide array of AP and early college courses. And Duch remains in what would be best for their kids.

3 2 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 How strategically you use your leadership became a big eye-opener for me. ~ Barbara Freeman

The result was gratifying. The school community mobi- “The last thing I wanted parents and teachers to think was lized itself to keep 161 in city hands and under Freeman’s that an African-American principal is coming in, not really leadership. Parents organized to fight the plan and became validating their culture and their instructional way of their involved in school issues. Teachers began tutoring kids during kids, and dismantling a lot of things,” she says. “However, the cooperation periods and at lunch. programs weren’t working. So it was my job to show them When it came to a vote, parents rejected the Edison take- how they were not working.” over. Better still, they stayed committed to all the new efforts During 2006, Freeman honed her leadership skills in the they had set in motion. Cahn Fellows program, focusing on the adjustments that 161 Today, 86 percent of students at the school—officially has needed to make as it has added grade 7 and planned for known as P.S./M.S. 161 Pedro Albizu Campos—are proficient the addition of grade 8. in math, and 70 percent are proficient in English. “How strategically you use your leadership became a big “That incident hastened reform by five years,” says, eye-opener for me,” says Freeman. Now she’s working to Freeman, who is now pursuing a doctorate in educational improve her school at a time when test scores are up, and leadership at TC. pressures for change aren’t coming from downtown. By Since then, she has implemented reforms focused on studying at TC while continuing to lead at P.S. 161, she’s able accountability, teacher quality, and development of the to see how theory plays out in practice several blocks north of school’s transitional bilingual program to increase the focus campus on West 133rd Street. on learning English. The latter priority has required particu- “I’m happy with my school and the progress that it’s mak- lar diplomacy. ing,” says Freeman. “It’s ever-evolving, which keeps it fresh.”

p h o t o g r a p h b y s a m a n t h a i s o m T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 3 3 “”

Knowing how the community ticks, and then having that understanding of what kids need, has really made a difference in the school. ~ lily woo

A Voice (and Appreciator) of above grade level, 99 percent are proficient in math, and 98 Experience percent proficient in science and social studies. Yet despite her Chinatown roots, Woo won her prin- Lily Woo, P.S. 130 cipalship at 130 amid great controversy. Parents and teach- t P.S. 130 in Manhattan’s Chinatown neighbor- ers were backing a beloved assistant principal, but the city hood, Principal Lily Woo schedules Parents administration turned to Woo, who had experience with A Association meetings at the start of the school day. programming for English Language Learners. After she got School concerts, too. the job, the district superintendent offered to transfer the That’s because Woo, who grew up in Chinatown after assistant principal in order to ease Woo’s transition, but her family emigrated from China to New York City when Woo declined, choosing to work with the entire staff she she was a child, knows from firsthand experience that many had inherited. parents in the neighborhood work long evening hours. Twenty years, later that same assistant principal still “When we have parent meetings in the morning, we works collaboratively with Woo at P.S. 130. get up to 300 people,” says Woo, whose mother worked in “He’s a wonderful person and has become a great friend,” a laundry and father worked in restaurants. “Knowing how she says. “I felt that if I could bring him in and convince the community ticks, and then having that understanding of him to support the initiatives, then others would go along what kids need, has really made a difference in the school.” with it as well.” Woo has served since 1990 as principal of P.S. 130, where Woo was among the first cohort of principals participat- about 90 percent of the students are Asian and 81 percent ing in TC’s Cahn Fellows program in 2003. After 13 years of come from low-income families. When she first arrived, leading P.S. 130, she was finding it lonely at the top without about 38 percent of the students were reading on grade level. peers to give her feedback on new initiatives or thorny issues. Today, even though a majority of the students come to the She was mentoring other principals around the city, but her school not speaking English, 93 percent are reading at or own professional development was at a standstill.

3 4 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 p h o t o g r a p h b y s a m a n t h a i s o m School Leadership

The program gave her the peer contact and support she those voices had been silent craved. She also enjoyed being back in school, even though for many years because they the Cahn Fellows study a lot of history—a subject she had weren’t at the table.” never liked because “it was always about memorizing dates One issue put forward by and places.” However, when the Cahn Fellows visited the the committee concerned the Civil War battlefield in Gettysburg and read about the deci- school’s student-activity hour, sion-making of the generals, history came sharply alive. which was set aside for student “It opened my eyes,” she says. And her ears—for one of clubs and was not being used the harsh realities of Gettysburg is that, in many instances, to its full potential. Today, stu- hundreds and even thousands of lives could have been saved dents still get involved in clubs if commanders had listened to their subordinates. during that hour. But now the time also is used for tutorials “It shows that you really have to be a good listener,” she for students who need extra help, or for community service, says. “You really have to take people’s input into account and as part of the school’s new requirement that students devote weigh all options. You can’t just say, ‘We are doing it my way 40 hours each year to community service. because I said so.’” “The committee didn’t ask me if their proposal was a good idea,” Zaza recalls. “They came to me and said: ‘This is the idea —will you support it?’ And we were able to remove some dif- Empowering the ficulties so they could make the program successful.” School Community One critically important element of a successful school Joseph Zaza, Leon Goldstein High School —parental involvement—had proven especially difficult to develop at Goldstein because students live all over the city, alk about trial by fire. Joseph Zaza’s first week on with some traveling up to two hours by public transpor- the job in 2001 as principal of Leon Goldstein tation each day. After hearing suggestions about how to T High School coincided with the terrorist attacks of improve Goldstein’s school store, which had been a glori- September 11th. The school, located in Brooklyn on the fied storage room, Zaza encouraged the school’s Parents campus of Kingsborough Community College, was never Association to take charge. Today, several parents are in danger, but during those first terrible hours, no one really involved in the venture, which opens for business every knew what was going on. To make matters worse, the day, selling school supplies and Goldstein’s own clothing school’s students and teachers were at that time scattered line, which includes t-shirts in 64 different colors. across several buildings on campus. That meant that Zaza, The parents also proposed a carnival that has since even as he dashed from building to building himself, was become a regular end-of-year event at the school. forced to rely on a staff he’d only just met. Of course, even the principal needs a sense of community, In retrospect, the experience was an object lesson in a and for Zaza, the Cahn program has provided it. Zaza and precept Zaza has since come to value highly: distributive members of his cohort have created and maintained a group leadership, the notion of getting people to take ownership for called the Alumni Network of Cahn Fellows for Distinguished their piece of the total system. That idea is also one of the key New York City Principals. In February, the alumni met at philosophies imparted by the TC Cahn Fellows program, in Teachers College to hear WNYC radio host Beth Fertig talk which Zaza participated in 2005. Zaza had entered the pro- about her new book, Why Can’t U Teach Me 2 Read: Three Students gram with the goal of moving the Goldstein school, which and a Mayor Put Our Schools to the Test. was already one of the city’s better performing institutions, “I valued the ability to call upon a wider array of prin- “from good to great.” cipals who led different types of schools—from elementary To do that, Zaza created a committee made up of teachers, to high school, and from relatively low-performing to parents, social workers, guidance counselors, and the school’s very high-performing,” says Zaza, now in his ninth year at pupil personnel team, and empowered them to meet regu- Goldstein. “I’ve learned, not only from my own challenges larly and come to him with their own ideas. and how I’ve tried to overcome them, but by hearing about “All these other voices created a dialogue around what the lessons my colleagues have learned as they continually the school needed to reach every child,” says Zaza. “And improve their schools.” k

T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 3 5 Chartering Newark’s Future TC Trustee Cory Booker has made Brick City a much safer place, but his legacy there may rest on how much he can improve the schools

by Joe Levine

3 6 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 ne night during Cory Booker’s eight-year stay in Brick Towers, a Newark hous- ing project notorious for its drug dealers and violence, he came upon a 12-year-old boy named Wasim Miller who had been shot four times in the chest. Speaking in 2006 at Teachers College, where he is a trustee, Booker, who had just become Newark’s mayor, recalled that horrific experience: “He fell backwards, and I caught him. I remember laying him down on the ground and watching his chest fill up with TURNING BRICK CITY GREEN Booker at the dedication of a deep, red blood. I drew my hands into this boy’s chest, trying renovated park in 2009. He has committed $40 million to upgrading to stop the bleeding, and screaming at people to call an ambu- Newark’s parks and playgrounds. lance, call the police, asking his name, and when I got it, saying, ‘Wasim, don’t go, stay with me.’ He coughed and gagged and a little girl named Natalie, shyly collected her prize, a bicycle, went silent, and I tried to clear an air passage, but he died. then turned to run back to her family. “And I remember going home that night and giving up. I “Hey, where you going?” Booker called after her, grin- was so angry and so frustrated at the world, I just could not ning. “You gotta learn to be like a politician and always stay understand why this could happen—why, in a nation that for the picture.” professes to stand for what we stand for, would we allow this The story of Cory Booker and his crusade to transform kind of reality to exist?” one of America’s most benighted cities has perhaps been After a sleepless night, Booker walked outside and spotted more widely chronicled than that of any other modern-day Virginia Jones, Brick Towers’ indomitable tenant president. politician. Booker’s first mayoral bid, when he lost to the He knew she had lost her own son, a soldier, to gun violence incumbent Sharpe James in 2002 by just 3,500 votes, became in Brick Towers while he was home visiting her on leave. Just the subject of the award-winning documentary Street Fight. seeing her snapped Booker out of his funk. His first year in office was the focus of a 10-part series in the “I had asked her, not long after it happened, ‘Mrs. Jones, New York Times, and more recently, he and members of his why do you live here?’” Booker recounted. “’Why do you administration were real-life characters in “Brick City,” a choose to stay here in Brick Towers, where we’re both paying docudrama on the Sundance Channel that was co-produced market rent, when there are so many other places you could live?’ And she looked at me, and she drew herself up and folded her arms across her chest, and she said, ‘Because I am in Booker and his crusade to charge of Homeland Security.’” transform one of America’s most An American Story benighted cities has perhaps been On a beautiful Saturday in early spring last year, a crowd more widely chronicled than that had assembled for the reopening of a block-long, wedge- shaped park in Newark’s North Ward where George of any other modern-day politician. Washington and his troops rested in 1775. Most of the city council members were there, particularly those from the by the actor Forest Whitaker. He has been featured in a host largely Latino North Ward, where Booker has always been of major publications. popular with voters. Booker has star power, to be sure. He is just 41, black, Some time before noon, the Mayor, flanked by aides in strikingly handsome, a former high school football All- suits but wearing a short-sleeved shirt and sneakers, rolled American (and All-Pacific-10), Rhodes Scholar and Yale law up in a black van, jumped out and began shaking hands and school graduate. He quotes scripture, Langston Hughes and hoisting children on his shoulders. Not long afterward there Elie Wiesel. He has recruited show business personalities like was an Easter Egg hunt, with Booker presiding. The winner, Brad Pitt, Bon Jovi and Sarah Silverman to help Newark, not

photographs b y c h a r l o t t e r a y m o n d T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 3 7 to mention hedge fund managers, intellectuals and wealthy philanthropists. And he has guts, shrugging aside an assassi- nation plot by the New Jersey chapter of the Bloods after his victorious 2006 mayoral campaign. He has needed all those assets as Mayor of Newark, a city he calls “the center of the fight for America.” Twenty-six per- cent of Newark’s 280,000 people live in poverty, and in some neighborhoods more than 40 percent, a level many experts view as the threshold for collapse. Unemployment, by official tally, stands near 15 percent, and as of the 2000 census, little STAR POWER Booker and Bon Jovi at the dedication of more than half of Newark’s working-age adults held jobs or affordable housing made possible by Bon Jovi’s foundation. were looking for work. Booker has recruited Brad Pitt, Sarah Silverman and others to The Newark public school system was so dysfunctional Newark’s cause. Opposite: Speaking at TC’s 2009 Convocation. that in 1995 the state took it over and still retains control. Only one in 11 adults in Newark holds a college degree, trying to meet. “He doesn’t have to be here,” a member of among the nation’s lowest rates of college attainment. Newark’s school board told me last spring. “He could be run- Corruption has pervaded the city’s politics, with five of ning a hedge fund.” the past six mayors, including James, having been indicted during or after they were in office. Taking the hard way And then there is crime. Until the past two years, during Yet even before completing his Yale law degree, which Booker and his police chief, Garry McCarthy, have pre- Booker, who grew up in the affluent New Jersey suburb of sided over the nation’s most dramatic reduction in homicides Harrington Park, had relocated to Brick Towers in Newark and shootings, the city was among America’s most violent. and took jobs as a staff attorney for the Urban Justice Center But it may be his obsession with accountability that best and program coordinator of the Newark Youth Project. explains Booker’s grip on the popular imagination. A political career may already have been on his mind, but there surely were easier ways to earn his street cred. In 1999, as a councilman representing the city’s Central The biggest, most Ward, Booker waged a 10-day hunger strike to protest overwhelming challenge Cory police indifference to gang violence, sleeping in a tent across from another Newark housing project where just Booker faced when he was a few weeks earlier the security booth had been burned to the ground and the guards forced to flee by drug deal- elected was the perception of ers. Later, he lived for five months in a trailer, parking Newark as a nearly failed city. each night on other blighted corners. Local gangs threw garbage and excrement at him, and other members of the ~ Clement Price, city council denounced him for pulling a publicity stunt, Rutgers University historian but he stayed, leading neighborhood vigils that ultimately brought a public visit from Mayor James. Back in Brick “I’m a Christian man who loves Judaism, because I love Towers, he led a legal fight against the landlord that this idea of wrestling with God,” says Booker, who was resulted in successful federal prosecution. The Democratic elected to lead a Jewish student organization at Oxford. “And Leadership Council, Bill Clinton’s power base, named I love my own heritage, because there were people who him as one of their “100 to Watch.” believed that you never, never give up the fight.” As Mayor, Booker didn’t change his M.O., holding open Similarly, at TC’s 2009 commencement ceremonies, he office hours during which the public could meet with him exhorted graduates to “Be the change you want to see”—a personally to discuss everything from parking tickets to standard even his critics usually credit him for genuinely eviction notices. (These continue on a bimonthly basis.) He

3 8 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 p h o t o g r a p h b y m i k e c o p p o l a / g e t t y i m a g e s stayed in Brick Towers for several more months, part of a to succeed as a city. Because of him, a lot of people—and I last group of tenants who held out against the demolition of include myself as one of them—now see it as a city that has the complex until a deal was struck to replace it with a bet- turned a corner and can be saved.” ter facility. He worked 14-hour days and spent his weekend Booker has his critics, too, particularly regarding unem- nights riding out with the police to the scenes of shootings, ployment, which has increased sharply during the economic declaring repeatedly that his administration would live or die downturn of the past two years, compounding the city’s per- based on its performance on public safety. sistent intergenerational poverty. Some—Price included —feel Meanwhile, the Booker team was directing $40 million he should not have been part of the “Brick City” docudrama through a public/private partnership to upgrade more than or a facetious on-air feud with Conan O’Brien. Booker is still 20 parks and playgrounds; doubling construction of afford- considered a virtual lock to win reelection this June against able housing; deploying 100 new surveillance cameras and Clifford Minor, an Essex County prosecutor who is backed by 140 new police officers; creating programs to find jobs for Sharpe James, but there is some speculation that turnout at the ex-offenders; and creating a $6-million fund to support small polls could be underwhelming. “The country has been in the business development. grip of a tenacious recession for two years, and Newark has felt These efforts have by and large earned Booker high marks the pain,” Price says. “People could take out their idiosyncratic from many close observers on the Newark scene. frustrations against Cory by voting for Cliff.” “The biggest, most overwhelming challenge Cory Booker faced when he was elected was the perception of Newark as a A legacy in education nearly failed city—and, in some people’s minds, as a city that If public safety has been the bellwether for Booker’s first had already failed,” says Rutgers University historian Clement administration, education may well dictate the success of his Price, who chairs the Newark Public Schools Foundation. second one and tell the ultimate tale of his legacy to the city. “That was a huge challenge, and across the board, that’s been Booker has intimated as much from the beginning of his his greatest success—that through his personal magnetism time in office, making it clear, in that same 2006 speech at and persuasiveness, he has encouraged a lot of people inside Teachers College, that he understood Virginia Jones’ reference and outside Newark to give it a second or even a third chance to “homeland security” in a broad context.

p h o t o g r a p h b y s a m a n t h a i s o m T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 3 9 “I went to a conference where Colin Powell was talking about the Middle East, and at one point I raised my hand and asked him what he considered the biggest threat to our national safety,” he told his audience that day. “And he didn’t miss a beat. He said poverty and the education achievement gap. And I thought, ‘Wow, this guy really gets it.’” Booker has repeatedly asserted that he would not only like Newark to regain control of its school system, but also that he wants the kind of mayoral control of schools achieved by Michael Bloomberg (New York City), Richard M. Daley that I feel respon- (Chicago), Adrian Fenty (Washington, D.C.) and Thomas sible for, even Menino (Boston). However, to win back local control of their though I don’t schools, New Jersey municipalities must successfully navi- run the schools. gate a murky process known as QSAC (for “Quality Single And I’m going to Accountability Continuum”)—a series of repeated evaluations find a way to get that must culminate in a city meeting at least 80 percent of great educational criteria in five categories just to become eligible. Then, when options for every the state decides to give the go-ahead, the city must hold a single one of referendum within the next 365 days to determine whether those children.” its school board will be an elected one or, instead, appointed Only the state can actually grant charters, but Booker has by the Mayor. done everything in his power to create a receptive climate for To date, Jersey City is New Jersey’s only municipality to charters in Newark. regain control of its school system from the state, and while During his first term, seven charter schools have either Newark is expected to follow suit at some point during the opened or expanded in Newark, with the number of students next few years, no one is holding their breath. in charters increasing from about 3,500 to 6,400, or about 14 For Booker, that’s essentially left charter schools as the percent of the overall student population. Booker ultimately one venue through which he can improve education oppor- hopes to increase that figure to as much as 25 percent. He tunities for the city’s young people. has laid the groundwork for that expansion by brokering the “I’ve become sort of the Malcolm X of education,” he said establishment of the Newark Charter School Fund, a coali- in an interview conducted at TC after he spoke at the College’s tion of four major national foundations—Gates, Walton, 2009 commencement. “Which is, by any means necessary Fisher and Robertson—that has invested $18 million. Four local foundations—Victoria, Prudential, GEM and MJC Amelior have also signed on, committing another $4 million I’ve become sort of the for future projects. Thanks to the creation of the Fund, two Malcolm X of education. Which leading charter school organizations, KIPP and North Star, have pledged to open as many as 18 new schools in Newark is, by any means necessary we’re over the next decade. going to get there. Largely through the Fund, the city also has signed contracts with several “non-traditional” organizations that prepare teach- ~ cory booker ers and school leaders, including Teach for America, Building Excellent Schools, New Teachers for New Schools and the we’re going to get there. And I’m not going to be an ideologue New Teacher Project, to create what Booker calls “a pipeline of about this. I don’t think that charter schools are, by defini- human capital” into the schools. Last year, the Fund covered tion, good. I don’t think that public schools are, by definition, the full cost of each certified teacher placed in a district or char- good. I don’t think that private schools are, by definition, good. ter school in Newark, and also covered the full cost of the one- The only good schools I know are the ones that produce good year residencies required for teachers brought in by Building results. And I’ve got 45,000 school-aged children in Newark Excellent Schools and New Leaders for New Schools.

4 0 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 p h o t o g r a p h ( t o p ) a n d r e w lichtenstein / g e t t y i m a g e s p h o t o g r a p h ( b o t t o m ) b l o o m b e r g / g e t t y i m a g e s School Leadership

place to do it. Because in New Orleans, the charter sector is completely replacing the public school sector, which was essentially wiped out in Hurricane Katrina. And in D.C., 40 percent of their kids are already in charters, and they’ve been so aggressive about it that those schools are mirroring the traditional public schools. The kids are faring about the same. But Newark, in part because the state has been so stringent about approving charters, has a smaller number of charters and they’ve been doing a great job.” Similarly, the Teacher Village complex will house teachers from both charters and traditional district schools, and the deal DAUNTING PROJECT As a Newark City Councilman, Booker camped out in front of Garden Spires, a housing project where with the alternative teacher preparation organizations will pro- dealers had forced guards to flee. Opposite: Booker on the vide teachers for Newark’s district schools as well as for charters. campaign trail (top) and on camera in the home office. “We said, the last thing we want is for there to be a fight for talent, and the district has to benefit from the influx of Most recently, the city and the Newark Charter School high-quality educators from this,” Wright says. “The superin- Fund have partnered with a private developer, Ron Beit, on tendent didn’t have the resources to invest in it, so the Fund an agreement for a project called Teacher Village, which will covered 100 percent of the first year for him.” Ultimately, create three new charter schools—including one led by KIPP Wright says, the city doesn’t care whether these new teachers and another by Discovery, another successful group—and on- end up in charters or district schools. “As long as you’re in a site housing for teachers across an eight-block downtown area Newark school, our investment is paying off.” in the Central Ward. With New Jersey’s recent election of a Republican, Chris Once a Brick Citizen… Christie, as Governor, and with Christie’s appointment of Booker’s quest for mayoral control of Newark’s schools Bret Schundler—formerly Mayor of Jersey City, and an out- highlights perhaps the biggest question people have about him. spoken proponent of school choice—as state education com- “I don’t think people are worried about him having may- missioner, the long-term outlook for charter school develop- oral control—it’s a question of who will come after him,” says ment seems especially bright. Newark, too, has a new schools Dan Gohl, Executive Officer for Innovation and Change superintendent—former Washington, D.C., schools chief serving under Newark’s schools superintendent. Clifford Janey—and he is much more open to charter school It will take another four years, and perhaps longer, to development than his predecessor. judge the sum of Cory Booker’s accomplishments in Newark. But what really makes school development in Newark There are those who feel that if, as he has indicated, he moves unique is that, ultimately, it is not all or even primar- on after two terms in office, it will mean that the job was ily about charters. Indeed, that was the city’s pitch to the only a way station in his career. Perhaps they are grudgingly four national foundations now represented in the Newark expressing the fear that, however unsatisfying life has been, Charter School Fund. the specter of a Newark without the idealism and energy of “They had pooled their resources to prove that you could Cory Booker is a lot more frightening. By the same token, create a vibrant, highly successful charter sector to sit beside it’s hard to imagine Booker without the city he has made his and hopefully help a traditional district,” says De’Shawn personal quest. Wright, Booker’s top education advisor. “They had looked at “I feel like Newark has given me the greatest blessings the top 100 urban environments with charters and decided of my life, beyond my family,” he said last year. “Newark is which would be most ready for significant investment, and often called ‘Brick City.’ And people think it’s because of the initially they decided on Newark, Washington, D.C., and architecture, but I always say it’s because of the people. That New Orleans. And we said to them, great, we support what they’re strong, they’re hard, they’re resilient, they’re enduring. you want—the Mayor does not see charters as a universal And when folks come together in Newark—like bricks— panacea, he believes a majority of kids will always be in there’s nothing they can’t build or create. And so to have the traditional public school districts. But Newark is the only chance to work on a daily basis with this spirit, it’s a gift.” k

p h o t o g r a p h b y c h a r l o t t e r a y m o n d T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 4 1 Faculty Essay Schools and Community

Rolling Up Our Sleeves to Partner on the Ground Nancy Streim, Associate Vice President for School and Community Partnerships, talks about her team’s efforts to position the College as a leader in university-assisted schooling and strengthen the community that Teachers College shares with its neighbors.

by Patricia Lamiell

4 2 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 Schools and Communities

TC TODAY: You have a bachelor’s degree in art history STREIM: At the time, I was an Associate Dean. Susan from Bryn Mawr. How did you get from there to run- asked me to head up the educational planning for that ning the Office of School and Community Partnerships at school, which is called the Penn Alexander School. And it Teachers College? really was the highlight of my work at Penn, the culmina- NANCY STREIM: I started as a curator for a small histori- tion of all the things I cared about. Penn Alexander opened cal society in Rochester, New York, and discovered that it in 2001, and it has been a tremendous success, in terms wasn’t the kind of stimulating work that I wanted to do. of making opportunities for all students in the neighbor- I needed to find a way to have an impact that was much hood to achieve academically and go on to top-quality high more tangible and related to the real world. So, the work I schools and beyond, and to strengthen the community, did even then, as a curator, was focused on museum educa- and to develop models for how universities can work pro- tion. And I discovered that the way to have an impact is ductively with local public schools. When Susan Fuhrman to be involved in education. But I gradually moved away came to Teachers College as president, she asked me to from museums as the venue for doing that, because the real come and build for TC, in upper Manhattan, the kind of action is in public schools. program of university-school partnerships that she and I I went on to work at a college for the deaf, where I both had developed together in Philadelphia. taught and did administrative work, and earned a master’s TC TODAY: degree in higher-ed administration. And again, I found that You came to TC in 2007. How did you begin? while academic work is deeply interesting, I personally saw STREIM: I started by taking stock of what was already myself more on the front lines in making opportunities for going on at TC, with respect to relationships with public students to succeed. And particularly for students who, by schools in New York City. I got to know faculty and fac- virtue of various kinds of circumstances, might not have the ulty interests, and their hopes and dreams for how to make same opportunities as others. this kind of partnership work and be productive. And at From there I went off to do a Ph.D. in child language the same time, I tried to get to know the New York City acquisition at the University of Wisconsin, with the idea Department of Education, and the community and com- that I would like to get back into a higher-ed setting, par- munity organizations, to get a better sense of how they ticularly a school of education, where I could relate my imagined TC being a strong partner within them. And then academic interests in children’s development, and issues in I took on, as my mission, to bring those things together. public schools. At multiple levels —and this is important to me, in terms of how I think about university-school partnership—there TC TODAY: So that’s the higher-ed piece; how did you are ways in which TC can be a good neighbor by making combine that with an interest in community work? our resources, facilities, advice, more accessible to schools STREIM: After my degree, I went to Penn and spent 19 in New York City. Equally important, involvement with years at the Graduate School of Education doing many schools and the community educates us about the current interesting things. But my work ended up zeroing in on needs and practices of principals and teachers, about the university-school partnerships. makeup of the communities they serve, and more. It’s a constant feedback process that enriches everyone. TC TODAY: And at Penn, you met Susan Fuhrman when And we do that, but that’s just the beginning. That just she became Dean of the Graduate School of Education. breaks down some of the traditional barriers between higher How did you get involved in Penn’s plan to build a com- education and K–12 education, by trying to provide more munity K–8 school in Philadelphia? opportunities for our work to get out there, and for schools to get onto our campus. One of the efforts that has come out of that work was to create a performing arts series at TC NYC PARTNERS Front: Janell Catlin (left), Samantha (see story on page 50), where we line up a number of per- Freeman. Rear: Nancy Streim (far left), Dawn Arno and formances each year, and invite all the schools in the area to Emily Zemke. come, and provide them with curriculum support materials,

p h o t o g r a p h b y d e i r d r e r e z n i k T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 4 3 so that they can tie the experience back into their curricular and services. All of those agreements have been attained in goals. It’s exposure for kids to the arts, it’s exposure for kids to principle, but we’re now just getting them all in writing. the college campus, and it’s a way to get to know schools and We expect that they will be up and running by the end of build relationships that also take us into other realms. the spring.

TC TODAY: So you started to get the community think- TC TODAY: Can you elaborate on your philosophy about ing of TC as a resource for New York City public schools. partnership schools? What was the next step? STREIM: The way I have approached the partnership is STREIM: The next, deeper level, is project work. At this to be a full partner to the principal in developing plans for level, we work with a smaller number of schools, but in the school, priorities for the school, resources for the school, a more sustained way around an identified project that’s staffing for the school—so, it is a Department of Education focused on something that the school is seeking to improve, school, but it also is our school. We have accountability for and we support them in doing that. An example is our that school, our name is associated with that school, and Harlem Schools Partnership for STEM Education, which that’s how it would be for up to 10 or 12 schools. attempts to improve the teaching and learning of science, math and technology in 10 schools in Harlem. That’s a five- TC TODAY: So now we’re getting to the deepest level of year project. We do professional development, curriculum community engagement: starting a new school. development, some curriculum enrichment for students, but STREIM: This is where we bring together all the things we it’s all focused on STEM. know and care about at TC, to create a top-notch supportive, forward-looking education for neighborhood children. The concepts are derived from the experiences Susan and I had in We have accountability Philadelphia, but the particular design of the school, and the for that school, our name is priorities, will reflect the needs of this community and the strengths of Teachers College. We are going to take the les- associated with that school, and sons learned in Philadelphia about school organization, cur- that’s how it would be for up to riculum and partnership, and put those in place here. 10 or 12 schools. TC TODAY: The Penn Alexander School in Philadelphia was a ground-up structure. This likely won’t be, correct? STREIM: Having a facility that’s designed specifically for the TC TODAY: So you’re inside Harlem schools in a sustained school is a luxury that’s wonderful if it can work out, but one way through a number of years. What comes after that? can create a fabulous university-assisted partnership school STREIM: Now we really are seeking to implement and dis- in an existing facility also. And given the scarcity of space in seminate our own model of university-school partnership, New York, that’s more likely, at least in the beginning. If it through partnership schools. We are setting up agreements should turn out that the school outgrows whatever space it with a number of schools in our community, probably five starts in, then we certainly are keeping open building some- or six to start and 10 or 12 ultimately, where we agree to thing from the ground up in the future. work together across all aspects of the school. TC is going to direct its resources to help those schools, TC TODAY: Why is this new school in northern in comprehensive ways, reach all of their targets. It may Manhattan important for TC? focus on STEM or college readiness, or it may be arts or STREIM: Susan Fuhrman really says it best when she talks it may be social work services. We would bring in the about the deep moral obligation of a school of education to kinds of supports that the school and we, together, would not only create new knowledge in the abstract, but to put in direct toward a set of goals for strengthening the school. place research findings ideas and best practices into schools Partnership schools might see a whole array of supports in the communities where we live. After all, we’re an anchor

4 4 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 Schools and Communities

institution in our community. We’ve been here for over a wouldn’t otherwise have access to. In some cases, those are hundred years. We’ll be here for another hundred years and financial resources, because as we raise money for a variety more. And the schools are among the other longest-standing of projects, some of those funds go directly into the schools, anchor institutions in the community. It’s our joint commu- and they also benefit by having the human resources that nity; it’s our collective community. So Susan takes it as a core our students and faculty bring to the schools. So whether mission of her presidency to ensure that Teachers College is it’s tutors or coaches, or extra hands in the classroom. These making those kinds of investments and strengthening the are all ways that TC supplements what the schools would community we share with all of our neighbors. otherwise have access to.

TC TODAY: What does this mean for TC faculty? STREIM: The partnerships enhance the research under- The partnerships enhance standings of our faculty, as well as support real schools in addressing research questions that have immediate bearing the research understandings of on their own professional world. This approach gives fac- our faculty, as well as support ulty incredible opportunities to do a whole array of research projects with schools—not just in schools, but with schools. I real schools in addressing have found a lot of interest on the part of faculty who have wonderful ideas for establishing research projects that involve research questions that have schools, but could use some help shaping how those projects immediate bearing on their own could be of benefit to the school, and gaining entrée into the schools, as well as access to others around Teachers College professional world. and Columbia, and in the community, who might be good partners in this work as well. TC TODAY: How does TC compare with other graduate TC TODAY: What about students? schools of education, which presumably do their own ver- STREIM: The Office of School and Community Partnerships sions of work in their communities? has created pathways by which students can connect what STREIM: Teachers College is positioning itself as a leader they’re learning in the classroom with how it plays out in in a university-assisted schooling model. Lots of colleges practice, and to bring the ideas and the knowledge that they’re and schools of education at the undergraduate and gradu- gaining through their work in the field, back into their think- ate level have community outreach. And they certainly all ing about their coursework and about their own research. The have student teaching opportunities. But what’s different opportunity to work in and with schools enhances the TC about what we’re doing, and what TC is taking the lead student experience in ways that no other kind of opportunity on, is creating this kind of partnership where the graduate can do, especially for a school of education. We have, this year, school of education has rolled up its sleeves, and is an on- 100 students who are providing services in schools in ways that the-ground partner to help strengthen and sustain educa- connect to their own learning. So, whether they are Reading tional improvements in the community, and is informing Buddies, or Zankel Fellows or graduate assistants in the Harlem its teaching and research programs by getting faculty and Ivy after-school program, there are dozens of ways that our stu- students involved in that work. dents are spending time in schools in guided, mentored ways And as we have in the past, we will continue to con- that inform how they think about themselves as educators. vene and encourage other colleges and universities to do this kind of deep work, which goes beyond episodic TC TODAY: How does the community benefit? student community service. What we’re doing is so very STREIM: The community benefits by having the additional appropriate to schools of education, and we’re a national resources that Teachers College is able to provide, that they leader in that work. k

T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 4 5 Joining Forces TC is partnering with 10 local public schools to improve education in science, technology, engineering and math by Patricia Lamiell

uring preparation time for a lesson at New The computer charts and compares temperatures and the York City’s P.S. 161, TC’s Ellen Meier, Associate amount of light on each hemisphere. It projects figures onto a DProfessor of Computing and Education; and Rita screen in the front of the classroom illustrating why, when it Sanchez Gonzalez, a Ph.D. student in math education, are is spring in New York, it is fall on the other side of the globe, observing three science teachers practice a sixth-grade experi- in Santiago, Chile. ment on what causes seasons. “We work with the teachers to develop project-based The lesson, designed by Sanchez and the teachers, activities,” Meier says. “We don’t just talk to the teachers involves taping temperature probes and light sensors to two about what to do. We engage them in designing activities, different spots on a globe and connecting the sensors to a infusing technology in ways that help students build new laptop computer. The teachers slowly move the globe around content knowledge.” a stationary light bulb to simulate a year of season changes. Learning by doing is key to TC’s approach in its Harlem Schools Partnership (HSP), a collaboration between the College and 10 public schools in northern Manhattan focused on the STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering and math). “The aim of the HSP is to address the immediate needs of schools by matching our expertise with schools’ goals,” says TC alumna Janell N. Catlin, Adjunct Professor of Science Education and Project Director for the Partnership, which is funded by a five-year, $5-million grant from the General Electric Foundation. In addition to P.S. 161, also called Don Pedro Albizu Campos, the other Harlem Partnership schools are Public

4 6 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 p h o t o g r a p h ( t o p ) b y s a m a n t h a i s o m p h o t o g r a p h ( b o t t o m ) b y d e i r d r e r e z n i k Schools and Communities

Schools 36, 153, 28, 154, 76, 161 and 180; a summer institute on inquiry-based Intermediate School 195, Heritage High practices and an upcoming fall science School (680) and A. Philip Randolph content course for HSP participants. High School (540). The work is Meanwhile, the TC faculty members designed to help teachers improve their have gone into the individual schools to instruction in the STEM disciplines, in help the principals and teachers assess which African-American and Latino their needs. That effort has been followed teachers are underrepresented. Science, by a collaborative design of classroom in particular, has been overlooked in projects and school-wide initiatives. For many schools in favor of reading and example, at the Heritage School—an arts- math in light of extensive high-stakes themed high school founded more than testing. To meet the goals of the project, a decade ago by a TC faculty member the Partnership provides TC faculty and Judith Burton—Alexander Karp and students with opportunities for out- Erica Walker are developing a two- reach to the Partnership schools. pronged peer math tutoring initiative Along with Meier, the core TC for students as well as teachers. The peer faculty members supporting the tutoring program for students involves Partnership are, in Science Education, high-achieving high school students Christopher Emdin, Felicia Moore Mensah and Ann Rivet; tutoring their peers, supervised by teachers and a team of grad- in Math Education, Alexander Karp and Erica Walker; and uate students, after school three days per week. in International and Transcultural Studies, Regina Cortina Eventually, the peer tutoring program for teachers (see faculty profiles on page 52). They and their TC students will result in an online resource for teachers, across the are in the Partnership schools, weekly. Collaborators in the Partnership and beyond, where they can connect with one Partnership include the Fu Foundation School of Engineering another and share knowledge. Karp and Walker and their and Applied Science at Columbia, which provides several team of graduate students are collecting data about tutors’ and after-school activities in HSP schools, the New York City teachers’ practice, and students’ mathematical difficulties, to Department of Education, and the Morningside Area Alliance. develop a map for organizing teacher-led seminars that focus The Partnership formally kicked off last spring when on enhancing student understanding of mathematics. Catlin and HSP principal investigator Nancy Streim hosted Also at the Heritage School, Emdin and Alissa Berg, a more than 50 educators from the participating schools for a doctoral student in science education, have started a vol- full-day workshop. While there were some clinics and dem- untary after-school science club that meets weekly. “We’ve onstrations by the TC faculty members, the focus was also on made ice cream to illustrate freezing and melting points, and learning what the teachers’ needs were. solvents,” Emdin says. “We’ve conducted exciting lab experi- In the fall, the Partnership ran a workshop series for ments to see the reaction of the chemicals.” Just five students elementary school teachers. This summer, Catlin is planning showed up to the first meeting in November, but this spring the club regularly drew as many as 30. At Public Schools 36 and 180, Moore Mensah and her team of graduate students employ FOSS (Full Option Science System) kits supplied by the New York City Department of Education and produced by the Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California at Berkeley. “The FOSS kits provide

LESSON PLANNER TC doctoral student Rita Sanchez (op- posite page, top right) works with Jackie Perez (far left) and Carla Espana, teachers at P.S. 161. Top: Ellen Meier, Associate Professor of Computing and Education, and a globe rigged to illustrate the changing seasons. At left: TC student Drew Watson with students at one of TC’s Harlem Partner schools. Opposite page, bottom: Janell Catlin.

p h o t o g r a p h ( t o p ) b y s a m a n t h a i s o m T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 4 7 P a r t n e r S aft e r s C h o o l A collaboration that ranges from nutrition surveys to bullying prevention “ s this a liquid, a gas or a solid?” Chereese Gardner, Ia student in TC’s Science Education program, stands before a group of second grad- ers at P.S. 92 in West Harlem, holding up a quart of milk. Despite the dreary weather HOW TO TEACH URBAN SCIENCE Felicia outside, the mood in the class- Moore Mensah, Assistant Professor of Science room is buoyant. Every hand Education (above), leads a class at TC for flies up. • Today’s lesson, part pre-service students. of an after-school science pro- gram, focuses on the principles grade-specific, hands-on activities and curricular of cohesion and adhesion. The concepts,” Moore Mensah says. TC students concept of adhesion—the ten- in her Science Methods class also observe the dency of dissimilar molecules Partnership teachers for six weeks and keep a to come together due to attractive forces—serves as an apt metaphor for journal, then plan and teach science lessons the larger after-school program in which Gardner, who is also a Zankel drawn from classroom observations and student Fellow, works: the Harlem Ivy 21st Century Community Learning Center. • interviews. “It’s a great opportunity to give pre- Two years ago, TC received a $3.2-million grant from the New York State service students experience teaching science in Department of Education to create science-based service learning pro- urban classrooms,” says Moore Mensah, “and grams that would focus on the STEM (science, technology, engineering and they get to see good science being taught.” math) disciplines—subjects that have received less funding in recent years, The Partnership’s collaborative teaching style especially in poorer schools. • In addition to teaching science, Harlem Ivy can be jarring to educators who were trained promotes service learning with projects that are student-driven, led by to lecture in front of the classroom to rows of group leaders and coordinated by TC students. Examples include earthquake silent students. To underscore that point, Meier relief, a nutrition survey and a bullying-prevention project. • With a shared tells a story, possibly apocryphal, about a prin- interest in working in underserved Harlem schools, TC joined forces with The cipal who comes to a classroom to observe the After School Corporation (TASC), which had already been operating after- teacher. The principal finds students working school programs in conjunction with four Harlem community-based orga- in small groups around computers, while the nizations (CBOs): Children’s Art and Science Workshops, Harlem Children’s teacher moves from group to group, listening to Zone, Harlem Dowling, and the New York City Mission Society. Each of the the students and posing provocative questions. four sites—Public Schools 161, 115 and 92, and C.S. 154—has two gradu- “Oh,” the principal says to the teacher, “I’ll come ate students working with CBO staff to facilitate service learning and STEM back when you’re teaching.” components throughout the school year. Additionally, TC works with TASC • It doesn’t take long, though, before the and literacy provider Community-Word Project to host training workshops mutual benefits of such a collaborative approach for CBO group leaders. “The collaboration really seems to benefit the • become apparent. As Catlin sees it, those benefits sites, which are getting enrichment they would not otherwise have,” says Samantha Freeman, Harlem Ivy Project Director. “The CBOs are strong, which cut both ways. is a rare and wonderful part of being in New York City. For TC students to “We have this great institution, with great minds, with students who are willing to invest have contact with them on a regular basis is invaluable.” • Back in the P.S. 92 classroom, students are engrossed in the cohesion-adhesion experiment. in the community, and so we need to service They add food coloring to a plate of milk, place a Q-tip that has been dipped the area in which we are situated,” she says. in dish soap in the center, and watch the coloring swirl magically moving “Meanwhile, we’re supporting our faculty and away from the middle of the plate. our students in doing the kind of work that is —Suzanne Guillette important to them. This is the future of success- ful urban communities.” k

4 8 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 Curtain Up! TC’s Performing Arts Series brings local school children to campus for live music and theater. They leave singing in the street by Patricia Lamiell

ew in the TC community can forget the day last in the spotlight The cast of “Alice in Operaland” year when the Zimbabwean band Liyana rocked the performing at Teachers College. F Cowin Conference Center with its powerful Afro- fusion sound. Children came from schools across New York pel, reggae and traditional Shona music with vocals, marim- City to hear Liyana play two performances. They stood at bas, drums and keyboard, all fronted by the high, clear voice their seats to dance, clap and sing along. of Prudence Mabhena, who performs in a wheelchair. Liyana’s concert also inspired Emily Zemke, Associate Liyana’s visit was first proposed in summer 2008, when Director of TC’s Office of School and Community the College received a call from Deborah Briggs, Executive Partnerships, to create an ongoing series of live performances Director of the PG Foundation, who holds a doctorate of arts at TC for children from local public schools. in education from TC. Briggs was managing the inaugural Liyana’s energetic act includes nine young musicians with U.S. tour of the young Zimbabwean band and wondered if severe disabilities who started playing together as teenagers. her alma mater would host a performance. They make their own instruments to accommodate their Zemke, who has a self-professed “passion for the arts,” physical challenges. The band’s unique sound combines gos- collaborated with Briggs and a team of faculty and students

T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 4 9 T C B u i l d s a s C h o o l The College is making plans to open its own pre-K–8 public school in West Harlem

he need for an outstanding school in the community rich diversity of the neighborhoods it serves. Admission will not “ has been well documented. But it is not in our interest be determined by test scores or entrance tests. The Department T to duplicate, replicate or undermine what is already of Education will work with Teachers College to decide whether flourishing in the community. We would like to know what’s the school will operate a zoned, choice or lottery system of important to you.” • Those words, spoken by Nancy Streim, TC’s admissions. • The school is intended to demonstrate how a Associate Vice President for School and Community Partnerships higher education institution can effectively deliver comprehen- to a group of some 50 West Harlem parents and neighbor- sive educational services in an urban community public school. hood leaders this past February, • As a community institution, the stand as TC’s guiding philosophy new school will have TC’s assis- as it moves toward opening a tance in bringing an array of aca- new pre-K–8 public school in the demic, social and health services area in fall 2011. • It’s a stance into the school to ensure stu- firmly rooted in positive expe- dent learning and support strong rience. Streim and TC President families and healthy communi- Susan Fuhrman led the creation of ties. Student interns from TC will the Penn Alexander School in West assist in and out of the class- Philadelphia during the late 1990s room. Out-of-school-time learn- and early 2000s, when Fuhrman ing experiences will be developed was Dean of the University of with TC in collaboration with Pennsylvania’s Graduate of School community-based organiza- of Education. That effort, which tions to complement classroom serves as a model for developing instruction and broaden learn- the proposed new TC Community ing opportunities for children and School, involved the neighbor- families. • Once the school is hood right from the beginning. open, Teachers College will have Thus in Harlem, TC has consulted an ongoing role in its operation widely with community leaders and will share accountability for and elected officials, as well as student success. • Following the New York City Department of Streim’s introductory remarks at Education, which has been enthusiastic about TC’s plans. “Two the community meeting, parents ticked off their wish list for major priorities of DOE are creating great new schools and the school, including respect for students, teachers and par- forging strong community partnerships,” says Debra Kurshan, ents; a balance of standardized testing with less traditional Director of DOE’s Office of Portfolio Development. “This exciting methods of assessment; and extensive use of the rich cultural new collaboration with TC lets us achieve both. We look forward and historical resources of Harlem as educational assets. They to working with them to provide one more high-quality option wanted the school to be a hub of community activity and offer for families.” • TC’s proposed school, which does not yet have a full array of community services, including health services, a location, will serve pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, adult education, after-school programs and early childhood phasing in up to 500 students over five years. Streim told the education. • Most important was the desire for the school to group in February that, with Manhattan land scarce and expen- be accessible to parents and to communicate well with them. sive, it is likely that the school will start out sharing an existing “I can’t be a partner with a bureaucracy,” said Shirley Carroll, structure but might get its own new building later. Pending final a lifetime community resident who attended with her husband DOE approval, TC faculty will begin designing the curriculum for and preschool-aged son. • For Streim, it could have been a the school using the community’s input as guidance for their page taken from the school’s development plan. “We’ve all got work. The goal is for the school’s population to represent the the same vision,” she says.

5 0 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 illustration b y a n n a & e l e n a b a l b u s s o Schools and Communities

to coordinate the live performances in the Cowin Center for some 1,000 students and 100 teachers from 13 neighborhood schools. Another 17 schools across the city watched the per- formances through a live stream over the Internet. The day at TC would be featured in a film about Liyana’s U.S. tour, Music by Prudence, which later won an Academy Award for best short documentary. Liyana and its members would also have a lasting impact at TC. “The feedback from children and teachers was over- whelming,” Zemke recalls. “They said the performance had really touched them, and even changed their lives. “We realized that we could do more of these on-campus INSPIRATIONAL Prudence Mabhena, lead singer of Liyana, experiences for schools in our neighborhood,” she says. at the band’s Cowin Center performances in January 2009. “Children’s exposure to live arts is declining because of the emphasis on tests and core subjects, and there are many 2,000 public school students to campus along with their children on our own doorstep who rarely, if ever, experi- teachers and reached many more through online footage. ence live performances.” This spring the performance series has expanded to Zemke had a head start with the program. ArtsPower four events, all in the Cowin Center. On March 25 and 26, National Touring Theatre had already approached her about Discover Opera! staged “Alice in Operaland,” the Manhattan bringing a performance to campus. She contacted Mark School of Music brought its jazz band for a performance of Blackman, founding co-director (whose father, the pioneering “Get Into the Groove” on April 8, and on May 19, ArtsPower psychologist and researcher Leonard Blackman, is a TC emer- was slated to return to campus with a performance of “From itus faculty member), and arranged for the company to per- the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.” For each form “My Heart in a Suitcase,” a story about Kindertransport, performance, a small team of TC students has created pre- the rescue of Jewish children from Nazi Germany. and post-performance mini-lesson plans to help teachers Zemke also reached out to the Manhattan School of integrate the themes and concepts of the performances into Music, TC’s neighbor to the north, which brought its perfor- their classroom work. mance of “A Bel Canto Cricket in Times Square,” written by Zemke sees the series as another way in which TC can be its Discover Opera! student group. With those two perfor- a good neighbor to the city’s public schools and broaden both mances last spring, plus the Liyana show, the office brought the academic and cultural experiences of children from high- poverty, predominantly immigrant neighborhoods. There is a solid educational component as well. Zemke cites research showing that exposure to live performance enhances children’s reading skills, attention, information processing and ability to empathize. A 1999 study by faculty members Judith Burton, Chair of the Arts and Humanities Department, Robert Horowitz, Associate Director of the Center for Arts Education Research, and Hal Abeles, Professor of Music Education, went even farther in finding that studying the arts helps students develop a “rich array of complex cognitive abilities.” Children who visit TC also experience the College as a STAGING GROUND Emily Zemke is helping TC bring welcoming place. ”The campus visits encourage them to form thousands of local schoolchildren to campus through a new positive and personal impressions about higher education,” performing arts series. Zemke says. “They leave here singing in the street.” 

T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 5 1 Faculty Partners Seven faculty are at the heart of TC’s Harlem collaboration

Understanding the Needs of and Harlem, and realized that Immigrant Students Hip Hop offered a channel into their minds. Regina Cortina Emdin believes Hip-Hop has egina Cortina, Associate five “C’s”—content, context, cos- Professor of Education, mopolitanism, co-teaching and R teaches courses in co-generative dialogue—applicable to comparative and international science education in the urban class- education that emphasize the room. He sees them as part of Reality social dimensions of education, Pedagogy—instruction focused on the realities of students’ lives. class, gender and race and focus Emdin got his students and their teachers at Marie on the critical educational issues Curie School in the Bronx rapping about photosynthesis. facing Latinos in the United He used co-generative ciphers, the highly codified, non- States. She has led creation at TC of a Faculty Working verbal system rappers use when they are creating rap songs Group on Latin American and Latina/o Education and together, as a model for classroom discussion. is the author of several books, including Immigrants and At Heritage High School, through TC’s Harlem Schooling: Mexicans in New York (2003), and Women and Partnership, Emdin tries to “get students excited about sci- Teaching: International Perspectives on the Feminization of a ence again, like most of them were in third and fourth grade,” Profession (2006). A key focus of her research is the impact and to model hands-on, engaging teaching for science teach- of human migration on schools in the United States, ers. Both require building trust and a sense of community. It with an emphasis on creating greater understanding of doesn’t get more co-generative than that. the needs of immigrant students from Latin America and the Caribbean. “In all of my work,” Cortina says, “I am strongly com- Making Math Meaningful mitted to producing a new generation of graduate stu- Alexander Karp dents, scholars and educational leaders who can help to lexander Karp, Associate create effective schools for the great diversity of students Professor of Mathematics seeking opportunities to learn and grow in the United Education, researches States today.” A problem solving and teaching through problem solving. Having Using Hip Hop Culture to Teach spent 18 years as a middle and secondary school teacher, he Christopher Emdin himself wants to solve the prob- hristopher Emdin, Assistant Professor of Science lem of improving mathemat- Education, grew up in the 1980s during Hip Hop’s ics teaching in New York City classrooms and making C ascendance. In high school he discovered he could mathematics more meaningful and engaging for students. rap about a wide range of topics, and even began a rap He believes his role in the Harlem Schools Partnership is career. When he became a science educator instead, he to facilitate a substantial increase in teachers’ pedagogical identified strongly with his young students in the Bronx content knowledge.

5 2 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 Schools and Communities

“I would like teachers to move away from a lesson anything for her, so I wanted to model that is based on the senseless drill of one type of be a doctor to help her.” routine exercise, to a model based on diverse and challeng- Education “opened up many ing assignments.” opportunities” for her and motivates her work now in Harlem. Moore Mensah initiated Saturday work- Using Technology to Create shops at TC for in-service teachers Authentic Learning Environments from Harlem Partnership schools Ellen Meier to improve their knowledge of sci- ence and teaching skills. Her pre-service students participate in llen B. Meier uses technol- the Partnership, working with the Harlem teachers to plan and ogy to help create hands- teach lessons aligned with state science standards and based on E on, interactive projects classroom observations and student interviews. that engage children in math and “Children within our partner schools deserve a quality science principles. “Technology education,” Moore Mensah writes. “Science education pro- provides powerful new ways to motes their learning and development.” think about transforming our educational environment,” says Meier, Associate Professor of “There’s Got to be a Better Way” Computing and Education and Co-Director of TC’s Center Ann Rivet for Technology and School Change. “Technology can accel- s an undergraduate phys- erate our work with urban schools in a way that puts stu- ics major, Ann Rivet, dents at the center of the learning process.” Assistant Professor of Meier developed a commitment to urban education as A Science Education, looked at the a student teacher and high school English teacher in Kansas back of her quantum physics City. “There is so much work to be done,” she says, especially professor’s head as he wrote long in under-funded schools that lack technological resources. equations on the blackboard, and Meier advocates the use of technology that she believes will transform the teaching and learning process to be much more thought, there’s got to be a better way interactive, collaborative and dynamic. to learn this. “I’m not interested in ‘technologizing’ the status quo, but in As a doctoral student doing research in Detroit public using technology to create learning environments that allow schools, Rivet grew even more interested in better engag- students to explore content in authentic and interesting ways.” ing middle-school students in science literacy. Now, Rivet is Co-Director of TC’s Urban Science Education Center, which focuses on equity and acces- For the Love of Science sibility for economically disadvantaged students. Through the Harlem Schools Partnership she directs TC students Felicia Moore Mensah working with science teachers in two middle schools to elicia Moore Mensah grew up running through gain a clear picture of how to improve curriculum and corn fields in North Carolina, so it might seem teaching strategies. F odd that her focus is promoting science educa- It’s a challenge for teachers to make room in their already tion for students in the nation’s biggest city. But Moore packed schedules for new approaches, but Rivet says student Mensah has “always enjoyed wondering and thinking performance at the Partnership schools is already showing about the world, even as a young girl, before I knew what signs of improvement. “Students are engaged and learning sci- science was.” Her interest in science was also fueled by a ence so that they actually understand it. Eventually, this will desire to become a physician. “My mom was sick when be reflected in higher achievement and students who are bet- I was young, and I didn’t think the doctors were doing ter prepared for future science learning.”

T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 5 3 Math Isn’t Just Something You Do Georgia, Walker strove to help stu- in Class dents develop confidence in their mathematics abilities and learn as Erica Walker much mathematics as possible. At s a high school student in Atlanta, Erica Walker, one point, she established a peer Associate Professor of Mathematics and Education, tutoring program. “As a teacher, it A was very interested in mathematics. “I remember was very beneficial for me to hear working with my friends and solving problems together, in how kids talked about mathemat- and out of school,” she says. ics and explained concepts to each other. Some of their With the Harlem Schools Partnership, she says, “I want explanations and analogies showed up in my own lessons, to ensure that high school students have opportunities to and I would be sure to ‘cite’ the students when I used their do mathematics in this way also—to know that mathemat- examples. They loved this! ics is not just something you do in class, and that you don’t “So this notion of working with teachers to try to have to always rely on an adult to do mathematical things. create mathematics communities in which students are Because having these kinds of experiences—coupled with highly engaged and are leaders, too, is really important to some great teachers—was powerful for me.” When she me. These experiences continue to inspire my work as a became a high school math teacher in DeKalb County, researcher and educator.” k

L e n d i n g a h A n d TC’s ZankelSchools Fellows receive as financial Hubs aid in return for urban service work eth Guadagni, a student in of the College: boosting financial aid, TC’s Reading Specialist pro- and increasing the College’s commit- B gram, spends her Mondays ment to urban service. Today, Zankel and Tuesdays at the Heritage School Fellows work through a wide range in East Harlem. She helps a reading of the College’s outreach projects, teacher and a history and economics including the TC Reading and Math teacher with in-class group work and Buddies, the Harlem Ivy after-school individual tutoring. • Jill DeCosta, program and the Student Press a student in the same program who Initiative. • Guadagni says her par- once taught high school English in ticipation in the Zankel program has Japan, also puts in significant time at provided unique benefits. “I’m look- Heritage. She assists a reading spe- fellowship TC Zankel Fellows Jill DeCosta (left) and ing at curricula and watching teach- cialist by working on targeted skills Beth Guadagni at Heritage School. ers’ methods with a different, more with small groups of students and literacy-based focus,” she wrote in also administers reading tests, such as the San Diego Quick Reading an e-mail. “My observation of the history and economics classes Assessment, to monitor students’ progress. • Guadagni and DeCosta has given me perspective on the challenges of literacy instruc- are both part of the College’s Arthur Zankel Urban Fellowship tion across the content areas.” • As an extension of their work at Program. Each year, the Fellowship provides a cohort of around 50 TC Heritage, DeCosta and Guadagni are working on a joint master’s students with grants of $10,000 each. In exchange, they perform a thesis, focused on effective reading comprehension instruction for minimum of five hours of service per week, in addition to field place- struggling adolescent students. • “I am grateful for this opportu- ment time required by their degree programs with inner-city youth. nity,” wrote DeCosta in an e-mail about the Zankel Fellowship. “It • Established in 2006 with a $10-million bequest from late TC Board has given me on-the-job training.” Vice Chair Arthur Zankel, the program combines two important aims —Suzanne Guillette

5 4 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 p h o t o g r a p h ( b o t t o m ) b y d e i r d r e r e z n i k

Sound Bodies and Minds

it to F earn Chuck Basch is on a quest to improve the health Lof the nation’s schoolchildren

5 6 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 t’s hard enough to get one teenager to think about long-term health consequences. Getting a whole nation of them to do it would seem a particularly tall order—yet that’s precisely what Chuck Basch has in mind, both to stem a steadily unfold- ing public health crisis and as a strategy to overcome the academic achieve- ment gap that separates poor, inner-city youth from their wealthier white peers. IFor the past two years, •• Asthma affects more than 14 Basch, TC’s Richard March percent of youth under 18; Hoe Professor of Health •• One in three teens is expect- Education, has been engaged in ed to become pregnant; the Herculean task of gathering •• Twenty-eight percent of ado- and synthesizing information lescents have been bullied from virtually every impor- at school; tant recent study conducted •• Two in three students don’t on seven health issues that get enough physical activity; can have a major impact on •• 20 percent of youth skip school performance: poor breakfast on any given day;. vision; asthma; teen pregnancy; •• About 8 percent of youth aggression and violence; insufficient physical activity; insuf- ages 6–17 have been diagnosed with hyperactivity. ficient breakfast; and inattention and hyperactivity. This past But the situation is far worse for urban minority youth. March, at a special forum presented by TC’s Campaign for Among the examples Basch gave: Educational Equity (which had commissioned the research), •• Black children are significantly more likely to suffer from Basch presented his findings in TC’s Cowin Conference asthma, and certain populations within Latinos—most Center, joined by TC alumnus Howell Wechsler, Director notably Puerto Ricans—are as well. Urban minority of the Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH) youth also have higher rates of poorly controlled asthma, for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (see as indicated by over-use of the emergency room and story on page 60); Matthew Yale, Deputy Chief of Staff to under-use of efficacious medicines; U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan; and Jane Quinn, •• Non-Hispanic black teens have pregnancy rates three Assistant Executive Director for Community Schools for the times as high as whites, and rates for Hispanic teens are Children’s Aid Society. four times as high as for whites; “Over the past several decades, a variety of strategies have been tried to help close the achievement gap—standards, accountability, NCLB, more rigorous teacher certification A variety of strategies have —and they’re all important, but they won’t have the desired been tried to help close the effect unless students are motivated and ready to learn,” Basch told his audience. “Educationally relevant health disparities” achievement gap, but they won’t are key drivers of the achievement gap, Basch said, “but they have the desired effect unless are largely overlooked.” The numbers alone provide overwhelming support for students are motivated and ready that contention. Among the statistics Basch cited: •• Visual problems affect more than 20 percent of to learn. American youth; ~ Chuck Basch

illustration b y j o s é o r t e g a T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 5 7 •• Nearly 10 percent of Hispanic youths missed one or more days of school in the past month because they were afraid—a figure more than twice as high as for whites. Rates for blacks were more than 50 percent higher than for whites. Yet, Basch said, “all of this is old news—everyone knows this.” What’s new, he said, is research on how these condi- tions work to impair educational outcomes. Basch has identi- fied pathways through which this occurs, including sensory perception (if students can’t see and hear well, they can’t learn effectively); cognition (thinking, memory, focused attention and problem solving); and school connectedness (“it’s been PREVENTIVE MEDICINE Basch, with TC Provost Tom widely documented that the extent to which students feel James (far right), receives research funding from the Ameri- connected to their schools makes them more likely to succeed can Cancer Society. academically and socially and less likely to engage in health- and educationally compromising behaviors”). ents must get that child to an optometrist, and the teacher And because each of the seven conditions works must make sure that the child wears glasses in class.” through one or more of these pathways, the combined effect In addition, health education must become a fundamental of the seven is synergistic, creating a crisis that is more than part of the mission of schools, Basch said. For that to happen, the sum of its parts. schools of education must incorporate health into their cur- So what must happen to change that picture? ricula for preparing school administrators and teachers. “The most important thing is not doing just one Of course, just putting information or even recommen- thing,” Basch said. “Instead, we must address a set of priori- dations out there isn’t going to change the world. Basch’s ties simultaneously.” next quest is to win backing for a major demonstration The country needs a national school health strategic project in which he would implement a coordinated health plan, developed by the U.S. Department of Education, he project in a large group of schools and then evaluate its said. Yet at the same time, because education in America is impact. If that sounds like a daunting task, consider that Basch has received more than $15 million in grants dur- Most schools are already ing his career, nearly all of it comprising large-scale pre- ventive health interventions/evaluations in underserved devoting resources to important communities. During the 1980s, he led the Washington Heights-Inwood Healthy Heart Project, a cardiovascular health barriers to learning. But disease prevention program that targeted the mostly Latino we’re not getting a good return families in northern Manhattan. Most recently, backed by a $2.2-million grant from the American Cancer Society, he on our investment. and another TC faculty member, Randi Wolf, have been ~ chuck basch assessing the effectiveness of “academic detailing” of doctors and telephone outreach to patients as a means of improving so decentralized, planning must also go on at the local level. rates of colorectal cancer screening among the predominant- Health-related measures must be integrated into school ly black and Hispanic members of a large national labor accountability mechanisms, and health goals must become union. And in between, he has mounted similar efforts part of individual school improvement plans. Beyond that, focused on diabetic retinopathy, HIV/AIDS and other “different people involved in schools must play different preventable health problems that disproportionately affect roles to try to achieve the same goals,” because otherwise urban minority populations. resources will not be used effectively. “If the school sends a The common denominator in all this work is educa- note home saying that a child has vision problems, the par- tion—which explains why Basch has become convinced

5 8 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 T e s t i n g o B e s i t y P r e v e n t i o n w i t h F i ft h G r a d e r s that schools are not only the ideal target but also the eachers College has ideal medium for change. received a three-year “Most schools are already devoting some atten- T $1.497-million grant tion and resources to addressing important health from the U.S. Department of barriers to learning, but these efforts are too often Agriculture (USDA) to develop poor quality, not strategically planned to influence a science education and nutri- educational outcomes, and not effectively coordi- tion curriculum and evaluate its nated to maximize linkages between different school effectiveness in preventing obe- health components,” he says. “In other words, we’re sity in some 2,000 low-income, already spending the money, but we’re not getting a predominantly minority fifth good return on our investment.” graders at 20 New York City pub- Basch believes that the current constellation lic schools. • Isobel Contento, Mary Swartz Rose Professor in Nutrition of government leaders—beginning with President and Education, and Pamela Koch, Executive Director of TC’s Center for Barack Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Food & Environment, are the principal investigators for the project. Duncan—bodes well for making the kinds of fun- The curriculum they are developing for this grant, “Food, Health & damental changes he is urging in efforts to close the Choices,” is an adaptation of their middle-school curriculum that has achievement gap. That was an opinion seconded by been evaluated, with positive results in changing eating and activity Matthew Yale of USDOE, who cited several indica- behaviors, in both New York City and Michigan. The curriculum incor- tors that the current administration is focused on porates science concepts and social cognitive and self-determination health. These include First Lady Michelle Obama’s theories, focusing on empowering students to make healthy choices. “Let’s Move” initiative, and the Elementary and It will make extensive use of Contento’s book, Nutrition Education: Secondary Education Act, now up for reauthoriza- Linking Research, Theory and Practice, published in 2007, with a second tion, which contains significant funding for an initia- edition coming out this spring. • This new study extends their previous tive focused on healthier schools. work in that the curriculum will be accompanied by implementation in the participating schools of a “wellness policy” that promotes healthy Still, Yale said, there isn’t enough time in the snacks, regular physical activity and other changes in both the school school day and year to effectively address both aca- and fifth grade classroom environment Children participating in the demic and health priorities. He called the separation • study will be evaluated, both prior to the study and afterward, for their of the two areas “a false choice” and said “we need height, weight and body fat; for changes in their eating behaviors and kids in the building longer.” levels of physical activity; and for improvements in their knowledge Wechsler, for his part, called Basch’s findings of healthy nutrition and fitness practices. “This is the generation “insightful and clearly compelling.” • of children who are expected to have shorter lifespans than their par- “People in the health fields are often asked, ents,” says Contento. “The prediction is that one-third will develop ‘where’s the evidence’” of the need for prioritizing diabetes in their lifetimes, with consequences that will include work- health spending, he said, but Basch’s data will enable place absenteeism, poor vision and difficulty in walking. So it’s criti- them to “turn the tables on policymakers.” cally important that we develop and evaluate education and policy “A lot of health professionals who advocate for approaches that will lead to more positive outcomes.” • A pilot of the coordinated school health get the feeling they’re study will begin this coming fall in eight city classrooms. The full study being eyed as crazy radicals for distracting from the begins in fall 2011, with five schools receiving both the curriculum essential mission of American schools—but that’s not and wellness policy interventions; five receiving just the curriculum; the mission I learned about at TC,” Wechsler said. five receiving just the wellness policy; and five receiving neither. (The Noting that he was speaking in TC’s Horace Mann schools that receive neither will then receive both as “delayed con- Hall, he repeated Mann’s famous quote that “On the trols” in 2012.) One major goal of the study is to determine whether broad and firm foundation of health alone can the the curriculum and wellness policy together create a synergistic effect loftiest and most enduring structures of the intellect that is more positive than either alone. • The schools that will partici- be reared.” pate in the study have not yet been selected, but Contento and Koch “Somehow,” he said, “we have to get back to that.” k hope to work in schools where TC has existing partnerships.

illustration b y d a n i e l b e j a r T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 5 9 Wechsler on the Case Alumnus’ unique pedigree has equipped him to be the nation’s point person on school health

ome are called to their professions. Howell Wechsler went into public health for a case of beer. S “I was in the Peace Corps in Zaire [now the Democratic Republic of Congo]. I was teaching English as a foreign language in a small town called Bumba, and there were all these funeral processions with tiny, tiny coffins,” recalls Wechsler, now Director of the Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH) for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “I asked a medical professional why so many little kids were dying, and he said it was the measles. He said there were refrigerators filled with vaccine, but people were too afraid to get their kids vaccinated. I said, ‘They love field experience Wechsler during his Peace Corps days. their kids as much as anyone, I can get them to come.’ He said, ‘If you can get 100 kids, I’ll get you a case of beer.’” Wechsler “It changed everything,” Wechsler says. “I got a firsthand laughs. “My Peace Corps salary allowed for maybe one or two knowledge of how schools work in the real world. Chuck beers a month, so it was very tempting.” was an important thinker early on in the movement we call With no media available, Wechsler got his message out coordinated school health, and his evaluation and commu- through the city’s informal social networks. “The church had nity organizing classes were invaluable. I still draw on those a network to see if kids were getting baptized, the government experiences—in fact, without them, I would never have gotten had one for public works.” He put on skits, including one the position I’m in now or even have worked at CDC. They where he boxed the measles, first with his hands tied behind shaped my vision for what we should do nationally.” his back, and then (post-vaccination) with both hands free. His That vision is essentially the DASH mission: to help the efforts were a smash hit. nation’s schools realize they can improve health and education- “Over the course of the entire previous year, they had al outcomes through high-quality, evidence-based, strategically vaccinated about 400 kids. I worked with nurses, and in just planned and effectively coordinated school-based programs that two days we vaccinated more than 2,000 kids. It was social target smoking, alcohol and drug abuse, violence, safety, sexual marketing—that’s what we call it now. I was mobilizing the health (prevention of HIV and other sexually transmitted dis- community and developing different ways to communicate eases, as well as teen pregnancy), obesity and asthma. the message. They needed to hear about it in a fresh way. After Unfortunately, there are significant bureaucratic obstacles that, I was hooked on public health for life.” to that objective. One, Wechsler says, is that “Congress tends to Wechsler came back to the States, earned a master’s degree appropriate funds for more categorical reasons.” Another is that in public health at Columbia, and got hired to direct the the education and public health communities don’t communi- Washington Heights-Inwood Healthy Heart Program in cate terribly well with one another. northern Manhattan, reporting to TC professor Chuck Basch. “Often they have turf battles,” he says. “Public health people Much of the work, conducted in schools in the two primarily have great frustration with education people. They wonder, Latino neighborhoods, involved educating teachers, parents ‘Why can’t we just come into the schools and do our programs?’ and students about the benefits of drinking low-fat milk, And they tend to want a harder edge on their evaluation data. exercising, smoking cessation and other ways of reducing risk Education people often find public health people condescend- of heart attack and stroke. Along the way, Basch convinced ing, pushy and ignorant of how things work in a school Wechsler to go for a doctorate in health education at TC. setting.”Then, too, the two communities speak different lan-

6 0 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 Alumni Profile

guages —literally. “In public health, ‘surveillance’ means ‘data on CDC standards for health policies and practices. Two others collection,’” Wechsler says. “In education, it’s something the are the Health Education Curriculum Analysis Tool and the police do.” Which makes Wechsler—whose mom, a public Physical Education Curriculum Analysis Tool, which schools school teacher, wanted to be a doctor—a uniquely valuable guy. use to improve curricula in those two areas. “Having the two degrees increases my credibility and helps “These tools and the data we’ve disseminated have helped me understand both worlds,” he says. “Ultimately, our goal at schools make dramatic improvements in their health-related DASH is to help them work together.” policies and programs,” Wechsler says. It’s an effort, he says, that starts with data systems DASH Perhaps Wechsler’s biggest frustration is that DASH cur- uses to describe the behaviors and health risks of young people, rently has funds support coordinated school health programs and what schools are doing about them. in just 22 states. On the upside, that situation demonstrates “There are two beautiful things about the data we collect,” the effectiveness of DASH efforts: among states that have done he says. “One is that while others collect data on just drugs or the best job eliminating soft drinks and junk food from their just violence, we do it on a cross-section of issues, so we see pat- schools, nine of the top 10 are DASH-funded. terns emerge in adolescent health. The other is that we not only Meanwhile, federal agencies are cooperating more, as collect national data, but also support state and city agencies to demonstrated during the recent outbreaks of H1N1 (swine gather the same data at their own levels. That wouldn’t exist flu), when CDC, the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. without us, and it’s tremendously useful stuff.” Department of Agriculture and others worked well together. One DASH product is the School Health Index, a self- “Changing human behavior is difficult, and never as simple assessment and planning guide that enables individual schools as it seems,” Wechsler says. to grade themselves and develop improvement strategies based But a case of beer can help. k — Joe Levine

T h e E d wa r d D . M y s ak s P e e c h , L a n g u ag e & H e a r i n g C e n t e r The Edward D. Mysak Speech and Hearing Center, located on screenings throughout the city for young students. • “Students the first floor of Macy Hall, serves some 60 clients weekly from get to work in lots of different environments, with a variety of TC’s neighboring communities. Clients include children, stroke populations,” says Elise Wagner, Assistant Director of the Center. survivors, senior citizens and TC students. The services provided “It’s a wonderful training experience for them.” • Many clients address speech sound production, word choice, sentence speak English as a second language, and the Center is coherence, and many other communication uniquely positioned to serve many in their native issues. • Under the supervision of the clinical language. • “We have students who speak faculty of TC’s Department of Biobehavioral Spanish, Arabic, Hebrew, Farsi, Japanese, as Sciences, TC Speech Language Pathology well as some of the languages spoken in students provide in-house services to China and India,” says Wagner, “and we are toddlers in need of early intervention for able to provide services in these languag- speech issues, elementary and middle es. It’s a real benefit to the community.” school students with delayed language • Most of the treatment and evaluation skills, and adults with traumatic brain work is done one-on-one in the Center’s injury or other issues effecting commu- training rooms, which are equipped with nication. • In addition, an aphasia group cameras and microphones to record the meets twice a month, providing a group-based sessions. Students, supervisors and caregiv- approach to helping people with this acquired ers are able to observe the training sessions language disorder, which may cause difficulty in from behind a one-way glass panel. • This summer, the Clinic producing or comprehending spoken or written language. The will close for three months for renovations to further enhance the group members support each other in a conversational set- space with state-of-the-art technology and treatment suites. ting in improving communications skills. • TC students, led by Wagner says, “We look forward to reopening in September—in the Center’s Director, Jo Ann Nicholas, also perform hearing time for our 2010 incoming class.”

illustration b y d a v i d p l u n k e r t T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 6 1 ope andH Counseling TC’s Dean-Hope Center is an important resource for surrounding communities by Temma Ehrenfeld

he client at TC’s Dean-Hope Center for Hall. On arriving, they step into a cheery green and orange Educational and Psychological Services was a waiting room with wavy cube benches and a photo of Martin T highly verbal, athletic 12-year-old boy who was get- Luther King delivering his “I Have a Dream” speech. ting “only” Bs in school. His parents thought he had atten- Created in 1983 as the Center for Educational and tion deficit disorder, but to Colin Cox, then a first-year TC Professional Services and rechristened in 2008, Dean-Hope school psychology student, that diagnosis didn’t add up. offers the community a wide array of services, including play “I didn’t pay attention in sixth grade either,” says Cox, therapy for children, couples counseling, career counseling, and who studied English Literature at Notre Dame and coaches long- and short-term individual psychotherapy. It also offers an lacrosse. “I wanted to be outside.” educational testing and referral program for local children and During a half-day school visit, Cox interviewed the boy’s annually provides some 250 TC doctoral and master’s students teachers and observed him in class. His supervisor, doctoral in clinical psychology and school psychology the chance to do student Rebecca Rialon, and faculty member Marla Brassard, direct work with clients, under close supervision. helped him synthesize the information in a 20-page report. Psychological services start at a very nominal fee, depend- Ultimately, after a battery of tests, Cox’s conclusion rested on ing on the client’s income. About half pay less than 40 per- two key observations: cent of the maximum charge for 18 hour-long sessions twice “If he had severe ADD, he wouldn’t have been able to a week. About 30 children annually receive, at or below cost, pay attention for two hours a session during tests,” Cox says. the educational testing service—including a psychological “Also, he was doing well in some areas, but not in others— assessment—a package of professional services worth $3,000. which ruled out an inability to focus.” “We are offering families the opportunity to gain excel- Each year, some 300 clients from Washington Heights lent quality services that otherwise they would not be able to and Harlem in New York and Fort Lee and Hoboken in obtain unless through the Board of Education,” says Dean- New Jersey visit the Dean-Hope Center in TC’s Thorndike Hope Director Dinelia Rosa of the testing program.

6 2 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 photographs b y d e i r d r e r e z n i k Sound Bodies and Minds

child a label?’” Peverly says. Although boys are diagnosed more often with a reading disability, Peverly points out that scientific data doesn’t support the idea that the disorder is more common in boys than girls. “Boys are more active,” he says. Thus, they get referred for an evaluation more often. All TC school psychology students prepare for their dis- cussions with parents by role-playing in small supervisory groups with their faculty member. “You don’t know what parents are looking for. If you say, ‘No problems,’ that often means, ‘No services from the Department of Ed,’” Cox says. LOOKING DEEPER First-year school psychology student Some parents, Brassard confirms, are seeking a “Nickerson Colin Cox (opposite) ruled out an ADD diagnosis for a young Letter,” which requires New York City to pay for special patient. Amanda Brening (above) chose to attend TC because education outside the system. Some may hope for a learning of the Dean-Hope training program. disability diagnosis to give their child extra time on College Board exams. Often Dean-Hope responds that a child of Over the years, a growing variety of schoolchildren average ability at a competitive school simply needs addi- have come to Dean-Hope for testing. “When I first came to tional nightly homework help. Teachers College, the kids we saw typically had lower IQs and Dean-Hope’s testing program is semester-long, for stu- came from single-parent homes,” says Brassard, Professor of dents, so clients have time to bond and reveal non-academic Psychology and Education, who supervises students learning issues. Testing sessions are videotaped; the doctoral supervi- to conduct psycho-educational assessments. “Now the children sors watch the tapes, and Brassard samples them. Dean- come from a huge variety of backgrounds, from poor to rich, Hope’s half-day school visit is also unusual. and all different ethnicities, including immigrants.” Another service the Center offers is separate feedback ses- The Center provides translation services for non-English- sions for younger children. When first-year student Amanda speaking parents. Dean-Hope’s testing program is popular Brening learned about emotional issues in a boy who had with Catholic schools, and also with upper-income parents never discussed them before, she referred him to psychother- who can afford to pay full price for a professional but are apy mid-term, while the full assessment was still underway. drawn to Dean-Hope’s more comprehensive service. But before speaking with his mother, she discussed the pos- One-third or more of the testing clients have been assessed sibility of therapy with the boy, who, she says, was “excited” at least once before they come to Dean-Hope. Often, parents by the idea. and teachers believe a child has a learning problem, but Dean- Hands-on clinical experiences like these are invaluable Hope’s assessment frequently reveals a bigger picture. for Teachers College students, who begin assessing students “Some children could have used services years before,” says in their first semester. “Most school psychology programs Steve Peverly, Professor of Psychology and Education, who won’t let students do the testing in complicated cases until directs TC’s Training Program in School Psychology. Many they graduate or in their last year in an internship. We others have been misdiagnosed with academic problems like think the only way to learn is by doing it under close super- dyslexia or attention deficit disorder, when in fact they are nor- vision,” says Brassard. Brening chose Teachers College over mal or suffering from emotional problems. Frequently children three other programs, all well-regarded and less expensive, referred for trouble reading often turn out to have parents who because of the Dean-Hope training program. “The big- have recently separated, and are living in a new home with new gest draw of Teachers College is that you work with kids family members and without privacy. right way,” she says. “It’s scary at first, but the supervisors If a child is dyslexic, Brassard says, the signs are easy to and professors really help. The most important thing I’ve spot. “Often it runs in the family, the child has had it from learned is to take note of everything in a session—something the beginning, and the school hasn’t been able to help.” that may not seem important may be. You have to take a Reading disabilities are another frequent misdiagnosis, genuine interest in the child—you could make a huge differ- especially in boys. “I often think, ‘Why did anyone give this ence in their lives.” k

T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 6 3 Giving Youth a Voice In which public school students get empowered to conduct action research on issues that affect their lives by Temma Ehrenfeld

ost parents nowadays have at least a dim aware- That is precisely the approach of the Youth Researchers ness that by middle school, kids are thinking Collective, an initiative created in Fall 2009 by Laura Smith, Mabout dating. What they may not know is that Assistant Professor of Counseling and Clinical Psychology at it can sometimes be rough going. At one New York City TC. The Collective empowers students in low-income New public school, for instance, sixth and seventh graders recent- York City communities to develop and conduct “participa- ly reported knowing their “number” on a 1–10 scale defining tory action research” on issues that affect their own lives. their physical attractiveness—the supposed consensus opin- The students, who meet weekly with students at Teachers ion of their peers. College, present their findings at an annual research confer- The typical adult response to such information is to set ence called Youth Voices. Last year’s conference was held as limits, instruct, counsel and otherwise manage the situation. part of TC’s Winter Roundtable, a diversity-themed event, But what if kids themselves were to gather data on their own with an array of educators and psychologists from around the and their peers’ experiences, determine precisely what kinds nation in attendance. This year’s conference will be a free- of behaviors go on, assemble their findings and put together standing community-wide gathering, held on May 7. recommendations for action—how to protect one another The Youth Researchers Collective is a collaboration from certain social pitfalls while still leaving space for rela- between Smith and the New York City Department tionships to form? of Education, facilitated by TC’s Office of School and

6 4 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 illustration b y n i s h a n j . a k g u l i a n Sound Bodies and Minds

“As a PAR co-researcher, my task is to convey that the knowledge that students have is powerful and their voices should be heard—and that their voices can produce change through research,” says Jessica Pierre, a TC graduate student who works with the project. Shaquinah Taylor reflected on the growth of the teens’ confidence over time, noting “When we first started with the kids, I could tell they looked to us to be the teachers because we were the adults in the room. But with little things, like having them choose our activities, or by taking walks where they pointed out what they would change in their communities, it became clear that this process was about us learning together.” In addition to the project on middle school views about dating, the Collective currently includes two other student initiatives. In one, a group of high school students has chosen to produce a multimedia report on images of women in the media. In another, middle school students are looking at bul- lying and harassment through online social networks. In all of these efforts, the TC students work with the public school students to find effective ways of discovering voice LESSONS (From left to right) Jessica Pierre, Kim Baranowski, Alexandra Figari, Akilah Reynolds, Shaquinah knowledge in their areas of interest and then applying their Taylor, Lauren Reynolds and Laura Smith. findings back in their schools. As part of this process, the TC students help the public schoolers learn about research meth- Community Partnerships. TC students who participate odology and the dynamics of making group decisions. This are currently supported either through the College’s Zankel year’s research groups are currently in the process of surveying Fellowship program or by funding from the Neukom their peers using electronic and paper-and-pencil method- Family Foundation. ologies, conducting focus groups of students, and creating The term “action research,” coined in the 1940s by the PowerPoint slides and video footage to supplement their con- psychologist Kurt Lewin, describes research conducted ference presentations. with the goal of enacting social change. Participatory action research (known as PAR) builds on this premise by incorpo- Poor and working-class rating the collaboration of community members as part of the research team. The work of theorist Paulo Freire is considered people don’t have the same to be foundational to the PAR approach. Freire argued that platform to express their research, educational programming and other interventions should include and be driven by those whom they are meant perceptions and views. to benefit, particularly groups that are disenfranchised and ~ laura smith disadvantaged. “People in the middle and upper classes often see each “The work these kids are doing benefits them on a num- other as the ones who have wisdom and who create knowl- ber of levels,” Smith says. “It provides them with a context for edge,” Smith says. “Poor and working-class people tend to be discovering and voicing their own insights into issues that excluded from public discourse—they don’t have the same affect their daily lives. But they also are learning skills—data platform to express their perceptions and views. And certain- collection, critical thinking, how to work in teams—that will ly that’s true with low-income, urban public school kids. So serve them well in later life. Recently one of the high school the Youth Researchers Collective is really about the democra- students said to one of our students, ‘Now that I’ve met you, I tization of knowledge production.” can see myself where you are—in college or grad school.’” k

p h o t o g r a p h b y l i s a f a r m e r T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 6 5 Beyond the Schools

igh-Class Help A unique TC course on consulting is winning rave reviews from Hnonprofit clients. The price isn’t bad, either by Joe Levine 6 6 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 Beyond the Schools

wo years ago, Armando Peralta and three other TC students visited the Hetrick-Martin Institute T (HMI), which manages New York City’s Harvey Milk High School and provides counseling and legal assistance to teenagers who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered. The TC group had come as part of a unique course, offered through the College’s Social-Organizational Psychology Program, that gives students real-world, hands- on experience acting as consultants to New York City non- profits. Which is to say, they were there as invited guests. “But as we walked into the building and approached the APPRECIATIVE CLIENT Ana Oliveira, head of the New York front desk, all the activities stopped and you could hear a pin City Women’s Foundation, calls Noumair’s consulting class drop,” recalls Peralta. “All the attention was focused on us.” “preciously valuable.” Only a few weeks before, when HMI’s executive director had come to TC to be interviewed by students in the course, for Eisenhower Leadership Development Program students Peralta had thought that the director’s own leadership style like Peralta—army officers from West Point who earn a TC might be part of the organization’s problem. master’s degree in organizational psychology. Client orga- “But, boy, was I wrong,” he says. “It had so much more to nizations over the years have included the New York City do with the culture there, which, by nature of the population Ballet, Gay Men’s Health Crisis, the American Jewish World they were dealing with, had to be protective. At that moment Service, the Pratt Center for Community Development and when we arrived at their headquarters, you just could see that many others. the boundaries that were protecting them were also hindering “This kind of consulting is preciously valuable for non- them in what they were trying to do.” profits,” says Ana Oliveira, President and CEO of the New Such insights are the stock and trade of the Practicum in York City Women’s Foundation, which was a client of the Change and Consultation in Organizations, as the Teachers class in Fall 2008. “It’s great that TC has moved toward insti- College consulting course is known. Taught by Debra tutionalizing this very generous resource.” Noumair, Associate Professor and Director of the Executive Each semester, the 30-odd students in the course spend Master’s Program in Change Leadership, the semester-long the first several weeks learning through role-play how to con- course teaches students to apply a systems approach to sult with organizations. The students divide into four teams, understanding issues of performance and change in complex thrashing out issues of how they themselves will function as organizations. It was developed more than three decades ago by Warner Burke, TC’s Edward Lee Thorndike Professor of Psychology and Education. Often what clients present as “Often what clients present as the problem, isn’t,” says the problem, isn’t...and typically it Noumair, a TC alumna who leads the practice component of the org-psych program and has extensive professional experi- turns out to be a cultural issue too ence as both an executive coach and organizational consul- tant. “Something else is going on, and typically it turns out to embedded for the client to see. be a cultural issue too embedded for the client to see. Through ~ debra noumair interviews, site visits and other data collection, our students hold up a mirror that shows what’s going on.” a group. Noumair takes pains to make sure the teams reflect The course is a capstone for both master’s and doctoral an equal distribution of race and gender, personality type and students in the org-psych program, and is now also required program since interpersonal relationship issues are often the igh-Class Help focus of the client organizations’ presenting problems. For team players Students (from left): Paul Havongse, Val- example, the mix of Eisenhower students with non-military erie Morel, Armando Peralta, Frank Golom and Katie Babbit. TC students has made for an interesting dynamic, with the

photographs b y d e i r d r e r e z n i k T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 6 7 There was a genuine ‘Aha’ moment where the TC students really helped us. ~ robert Bank, executive vice president, american jewish world service

West Pointers often being quicker, at least initially, to assume Frank Golom, a fifth-year org-psych doctoral student who leadership roles and the TC students focusing more on took the course a few years ago and then served as a process process issues. consultant—a kind of consultant to the student consultants. “We had extremely different teams that were very diverse Halfway through the semester, a representative or group in terms of cultural and professional background,” says from the client organization comes in and presents the Valerie Morel, an org-psych master’s student who took the problem. The students then make site visits to the client’s class in Fall 2009. “So there were very intense inter-group headquarters, collect data, analyze it and—at semester’s end, dynamics, and it took a lot of conflict and resolution to see when the client visits TC again—feed it back through a sys- how the strengths of one team could benefit the other, but tems model like the one developed in 1992 by Burke and the eventually we got there.” organizational psychologist George H. Litwin. That model, For example, teams watched one another consult which stresses the links between different areas of an organi- with clients. zation, provides a framework for how performance is affected “By creating an organization of your own, you’re getting by internal and external factors, including structure, mission the experience of what it’s like to be in an organizational and strategy, culture, policies and procedures, motivation, culture, and how the clients get to where they’ve gotten,” says individual needs and values, and individual skills and abilities. This approach puts all potential variables on the table. Perhaps even more important, it depersonalizes conflict. re you an experienced working professional interested in “The natural tendency is for people to say, ‘What’s wrong learning more about organization change and consulta- with the leader?’ or ‘What’s wrong with this individual?’ but tion? The Social-Organizational Psychology Program is A with a systems approach you step back and ask questions like, now offering an Executive Master’s Degree in Change Leadership. ‘Are there goals? Are those goals clear to everyone?’” Golom For more information or to see if this new program is right for says. “The last place you go is to the individual problem.” you, please visit www.tc.edu/leadchange. Clearly that benefited the Pratt Center for Community Development (a non-profit within the Pratt Institute, a pri-

6 8 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 p h o t o g r a p h b y s a m a n t h a i s o m Beyond the Schools

“They gave us a series of questions that we as a staff had to answer and then give to the new boss, and he had questions he had to answer and share with us,” Farris recalls. “He even reused the questions with us in a staff meeting from his new perspective after being on the job a bit. The questions were a really useful tool, because they helped all of us get our anxiety down on paper and have the boss speak directly to it.” The ultimate goal is not to sidestep emotions, only to direct them to where they can be most productive. “People tend to say, ‘stop feeling that and do your work,’ GOAL REORIENTED but that’s like being in a dysfunctional family where someone Janelle Farris of the Pratt insults someone and then just hopes to move on,” says Robert Center for Community Bank, Executive Vice President of American Jewish World Development (above) says Service (AJWS), which was a client last year. “But sometimes, the consulting class helped the way people feel toward one another and work together focus her organization across different areas of an organization is the work.” on objectives rather than In the scenario Bank shared with the class, four groups personalities. At right: that constitute the programs division within AJWS had Debra Noumair directs the Executive Master’s Program restructured, one program director was now supervising his in Change Leadership former colleagues, and two directors were new to the organi- zation. The presenting problem was how best to realign the vate art college), a client of the class in Spring 2009. organization amid all the moving parts, ambivalent feelings “We were a small organization changing directors at and concerns about lack of clarity around new roles a time when all foundations around the city were seeing and responsibilities. their funding slow down,” says Associate Director Janelle The student consultants urged the division’s leaders to Farris, who at the time was serving as Interim Director. clearly map out workflow and spend a lot of time explain- “Historically, we were a community development organiza- ing the underlying rationale for the restructuring and how tion with strong name recognition and a focus on affordable it would help the Center more effectively realize its mission. housing, but now we were hiring someone whose back- The approach turned out to be the right one for the division’s ground was economic development. We were excited about employees, who cared very much about the organization. the change but nervous, too. This was only our third director “They were all well-meaning people who wanted to adapt in 45 years; this was a major transition for us.” to the change, but they needed an external eye to help them But instead of focusing on leadership transition—a frame come to a place of confidence in the new roadmap for their conducive to personality conflicts—the class keyed in on the division,” Bank says. “There was a genuine ‘Aha’ moment larger ways that the Center itself was in flux. where the TC students really helped us see that.” “They’re an organization of ‘do-gooders’—that’s the word Of course, not every client is quite that receptive. I think of—but now, with the budget crunch caused by the “The key is getting the client to own the data,” says Paul recession, they were going into more of a consulting mode, Havongse, a third-year org-psych doctoral student and cur- which meant they would have to operate more like a busi- rent process consultant in Noumair’s class. “A management ness,” says Katie Babbit, an Eisenhower student who was consultant often follows the doctor-patient model—here’s in the class that semester. “And there was resistance to that, your problem, here’s the fix. We ask the client, ‘Where do because in the past many of them had defined themselves in you see yourself in this?’” reaction to business. Yet the new person being brought in Katie Babbit puts it more bluntly. “They have to embrace had been hired specifically to take them in a new direction.” what you’re telling them.” She grins. “Because at the end of Armed with that understanding, the class was able to give the day, if they don’t, it’s going to be ‘Thank you very much everyone, quite literally, a script to follow. for the help, but we disagree—and you’re fired.’” k

T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 6 9 Commentary

Liberal Education and Student Diversity by Anna Neumann

n times of upheaval, leaders and poli- Liberal education—often infused access to two- or four-year colleges, cymakers often support instructional into the “core” undergraduate require- graduate school and professional edu- development in applied scientific, ments and blending with occupational/ cation, but little about the access they professional and occupational fields, professional studies—fosters the devel- have (or lack) to the rich learning and because they think those fields will opment of our future workers, profes- personal developmental opportunities best prepare students for future jobs sionals, citizens, thinkers and leaders. that liberal education, thoughtfully and careers. conducted, may IYet within every provide. job and career is a per- Liberal education Given the son whose aspirations, promises of lib- values, commitments, fosters the eral education—to curiosities and talents broaden and deepen can propel his or her development of students’ thinking, job. Jobs don’t “run” our future workers, indeed for produc- or “produce” on their tive work, but also own; they require professionals, for creating and thoughtful, aware and leading it and the sensitive people who citizens, thinkers larger world to are alert to the good and leaders. which it contrib- and harm that their utes —it is critical job-based efforts can that we offer it at its produce, attuned to evidence but able Yet in a society where demograph- best to all students. to imagine beyond it, and who can act ics are quickly shifting—blurring Without preparing, as thinkers, with discipline but are guided by flex- traditional ideas about majority and learners, actors and leaders, the per- ible minds. minorities in our population—liberal sons who will “fill” the jobs and careers That is the premise of MetroCiti, education is rarely discussed, purpose- of the future, it is hard to believe that an initiative I created two years ago fully, as a context for the learning of their work (however well prepared with doctoral students Milagros students diverse in terms of race and they are for it) will yield a better world Castillo and Liza Bolitzer, which seeks ethnicity, family educational back- than the one we have now. to improve teaching and learning in grounds, citizenship and immigration urban college classrooms committed to status, gender orientations and so on. Anna Neumann is Professor of diverse students’ liberal education. We hear much about diverse students’ Higher Education.

7 0 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 illustration b y r a f a e l l o p e z Alumni Profile New York in a Nutshell Kingsborough Community College mirrors the city’s exceptional diversity. President Regina Peruggi is intent on helping all her students succeed

t Kingsborough Community looks out at Sheepshead Bay and Jamaica College on Brooklyn’s waterfront, Bay. Peruggi, the first female president in the A President Regina Peruggi oversees College’s 40-year history, had no doubts in a sprawling campus that she likens to “the making the move. new Ellis Island.” “Community colleges have been a much Students from 172 nations have enrolled undervalued sector in higher education,” she this year in credit and non-credit courses says. “They are only now being recognized.” that provide job training for the unemployed With recognition, however, have come or underemployed, college credits that lead concerns that, of the thousands of students to an associate’s degree, and an entryway to who enroll in community colleges, not higher education and a better life for New enough graduate. One obstacle is that so York City’s increasingly diverse population. many arrive without adequate preparation for Despite the region’s economic down- college-level coursework. turn, enrollments at KCC this year are up by 2,000, to about At KCC, the graduation rate is 37 percent—considerably 17,000 students. higher than the 28 percent rate for community colleges across “Students whose families are feeling the pinch see KCC as the nation, but still not where Peruggi would like it to be. To a wise investment,” says Peruggi, who grew up in the Bronx, that end, she has instituted the “President’s Prep” a six-week not far from Yankee Stadium. “And loads of adults who have course taken prior to enrollment to help students speed up their lost their jobs are coming back to school for two-year degrees remedial work. She has expanded freshman-year learning com- in technical fields, health care and graphic design.” munities, which link remedial, general education and student Peruggi began her career as a drug abuse counselor in a development courses so that students can earn credit while they state rehabilitation center and then taught elementary school. improve their skills. And, she has engaged the campus in plan- In becoming KCC’s president in 2004, Peruggi returned to ning and development activities that have resulted in faculty The City University of New York, where she had gotten her and staff transforming almost every expect of the college experi- start in higher education in 1974 directing the York College ence at Kingsborough. KCC also works with 25 New York Community Learning Center. By 1984, she was CUNY’s City high schools through the College Now program, which associate dean for adult programs and continuing education, offers college-level courses for advanced students. These initia- developing literacy and workforce programs while building tives are part of Peruggi’s mission to send educated young adults partnerships with business and city labor unions. out into the world to make their way in the 21st century. While working at CUNY, she earned her doctorate “I really believe that higher education is the key to at Teachers College, and by 1990 was named President of a better life,” says Peruggi, who, among her many civic Marymount Manhattan College. During her tenure there, activities, serves on The American Council on Education’s which lasted until 2001, the College’s enrollment doubled, Commission on Lifelong Learning, as a commissioner on academic programs grew, the budget was balanced, and the the Women’s Refuge Commission and as a member of the school’s first dormitory was built. After she left she served for Advisory Board of the Student World Assembly. “If you three years as president of the Central Park Conservancy, the believe that, then you will focus attention on what students non-profit group that manages Central Park. need to be successful and do what’s necessary to make sure Then came the opportunity to lead KCC, located at that they get that degree.” Manhattan Beach on a 70-acre waterfront campus that —David McKay Wilson

T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 7 1 TC Alumni News

TheA latest on alumnilumn events, services and other goings-on i News To Brooklyn, in Search of a Sacred Past In documenting the lives of Hasidic women, anthropologist Ayala Fader explored her own roots had a yearning for a “There are definitely con- lost past,” says Ayala nections between teaching “ English as a second language IFader, Associate Professor of Anthropology and anthropology,” she says. at Fordham University’s Since publishing Mitzvah Lincoln Center campus. “I Girls, Fader has kept a busy have always had an interest schedule of lectures and read- in alternative communities ings. The book, which is the that draw on a sacred past, first to explore the upbringing while making it meaningful of Hasidic Jewish girls in the LOCAL FIELD WORK Fader, a Fordham anthropologist, did her for today.” United States, received the research in Brooklyn Thus when Fader, then 2009 Barbara Dobkin Award a doctoral student at NYU, focusing on the language and saw that certain linkages were in Women’s Studies from the was casting about for a dis- socialization of young women. tenuous. “I realized how dif- National Jewish Book Council sertation topic some years She participated in life-cycle ferent we were, how we had and a New York City Book ago, she turned to her own events, such as bridal classes. completely different under- Award, sponsored by the New roots. Fader had grown up in Eventually, she turned the standings of what it meant to York Society Library. a Reform Jewish household outcome of her “longitudinal be Jewish and a woman and a As for the longing that in New York City and felt a study” into a book, Mitzvah New Yorker.” had initially brought Fader strong nostalgia for the world Girls: Bringing Up the Next Fader has plenty of experi- into the Hasidic world, it was of her Eastern European great Generation of Hasidic Jews in ence navigating cultural dif- satisfied—though not in the grandparents. She remembered Brooklyn (Princeton University ferences. At TC, she earned way she’d originally imag- traveling to Brooklyn to visit Press, 2009), which she broad- her master’s degree in the ined. Speaking of the kinship Hasidic communities as part of ened to include the experi- TESOL program. Afterward, that she developed with her an elementary school field trip. ences, values and roles of “girls she traveled, teaching English subjects-turned-friends, Fader She was interested in bilingual- who want to become the next in Spain and Mexico. As a says, “I might not always agree ism in an urban context. generation of believers.” doctoral student, she supple- with their views on Judaism Eventually, Fader’s research Although Fader, a self- mented her income as an or their politics, but I have brought her to Boro Park, described Jewish feminist, had English teacher at the Fashion great respect for them and the Brooklyn, where, for two initially assumed that she and Institute of Technology, level of seriousness they have years, she immersed herself her subjects would share some Rockefeller University and the with regard to religion.” k in a Hasidic community, common ground, she soon New School. —Suzanne Guillette

7 2 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 Teachers College Alumni Council

The Teachers College Alumni Council consists of 35 members who represent all 90,000 gradu- ates. The Council partners with the Department of Development and External Affairs to advance the goals of the College by pro- viding alumni with opportuni- Alumni News ties to remain involved in the life of the College through social alumni Council President’s Message activities, volunteer efforts and financial support. Dear Fellow Alumni, also developed ways to recognize In my last letter to you, in TC many others of you, who contrib- Today, I told you that we modified ute in so many ways across the Executive Committee the mission of our Alumni Council TC spectrum of disciplines. • Our Robert Weintraub, President to better align with the admin- “International Outreach” com- Standing Committee Chairs istration’s direction and the mittee enhanced connections Awards Committee wants and needs of our 90,000- with numerous international Adam Vane, Co-chair Jeffrey Putman, Co-chair member Alumni Association. Since that students and alumni—through meetings, time, our committees have been work- receptions and socials, here and abroad. Dean’s Advisory Committee Elaine Heffner, Co-chair ing to make that mission—(re)connecting • Our “Nominations” committee selected you to TC—a reality. • Working with the nine new members for the Alumni Council, International Committee College’s Alumni Relations department, with rich and diverse backgrounds and Patrick McGuire, Chair our “Alumni Wants and Needs” commit- skills. We say goodbye and thanks to those Program Committee tee polled and talked with hundreds of rolling off the Council and look forward to Michael Passow, Chair alumni. They also spoke with the heads of welcoming the new members in September. Student Relations Committee departments and programs, because it is • Please note that we can always use help Jeffrey Putman, Chair through those that many of you maintain on our committees. If you are interested, TC Annual Fund your connection. • As a result of what they contact Rosella Garcia, Director of Alumni Terri Nixon, Chair learned, the “Programs and Resources” Relations, [email protected]. • To our gradu- Historian committee held a number of department ating students, the Alumni Council and I Christopher Scott events that drew rather large and live- wish you much success in all that you do. Members-At-Large ly crowds. The Web site was improved. Please let us know what you want and need Constance B. Green And new “social networking” opportuni- from your alma mater and stay connected. Kate Moody ties were put in place. Look for us on I look forward to meeting many of you at Madelon Stewart LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Of course, Commencement. To all my fellow alum- Alice Wilder, • Immediate Past President we also hosted the Academic Festival, ni, I wish you a wonderful summer, and Joyce Cowin, which I know many of you enjoyed. • hope to connect with you again in the fall. Trustee Representative to the The “Awards and Recognition” committee Sincerely, Alumni Council kept the tradition of honoring an impres- sive slate of alumni with the Teachers College “Distinguished Alumni Award” Robert Weintraub For more information about the Alumni Council, please visit our and “Early Career Award.” The committee President, TC Alumni Association Web site: www.tc.edu/alumni.

T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 7 3 TC Alumni News Class Notes

classmate” and wonderful sup- dent and co-founder of Global porter, whose own career has Educational Institute, Inc., added much to the promotion where students learn English Class Notes of literacy through teaching and as a Second Language and take Connecting alumni far and near with writing, and who nominated foreign language classes. He me for the award).It can take a has been a Spanish and ESL Teachers College and each other network of TC alums to make a professor, director and chair Distinguished Alumni Award. of languages and ESL depart- Arts & Humanities a literacy project in Uganda Thanks, ‘TC sister-alums’—for ments and administrator of which inspired me to initiate being those ‘others’ in my life international admissions. Language, Literature & Social Book-Fairs-for-Literacy and who have both supported His latest book, Perspectives on Studies Authors-for-Literacy events and inspired.” Community College ESL: Faculty, Patricia Lynn Duffy (M.A., at the UN Language and Administration and the Working 1981) writes, “In my speech Communications Progamme); Music & Music Education Environment was published by accepting the Distinguished Caroline Vaughan (who former- Michael Bitz (Ed.D., 1998; the TESOL Organization in Alumni Award in 2009, I ly headed the UN Language and Ed.M., 1996) was named the 2008. He also raises and rescues remember saying that one thing Communications Programme); first recipient of the Mind Trust Siberian huskies and show ban- I had learned in life was that Mary Regan (my colleague Fellowship in Educational tam chickens in Florida. we can do nothing without the in the UN Programme who Entrepreneurship. Through support of others. Whatever I took it upon herself to organize the fellowship, Bitz launched Curriculum & Teaching achieved that led to the award volunteers, collect, carry, set the Youth Music Exchange, could not have happened with- up, and hawk books); Maxine school-based record labels Curriculum and Teaching out the work and support of Steinhaus (who has always been owned and managed by youths. Martha Harville (Ed.D., 2000) five talented TC ‘sister-alums’: on hand to listen, lend encour- Prior to the fellowship, Bitz “I have relocated to be with Kate Parry (who launched the agement to my projects), and; was a faculty member at TC family in Georgia, but I am Kitengesa Community Library, Ann Kennedy (my “sister-TC where he led the Comic Book still in the education field as Project, about which he has Associate Graduate Faculty written two books: Manga High: Member at Central Michigan t e ac h e r o f h o n o r Literacy, Identity, and Coming University. I work full-time of Age in an Urban High School as a Data Support Specialist Barbara Ruth Peltzman (Harvard Education Press) and for Fulton County Schools in (Ed.D. ’75) received a 2010 “Teacher When Commas Meet Kryptonite: Georgia. I am working on two new articles about defining of Honor” award from Kappa Delta Classroom Lessons from the Comic Book Project (TC Press). effective teaching. Pi, the international honor society in Bernardo Nieto (M.A., 1980) education. Peltzman, whose doctor- Teaching of English Last October, after 30 years, Yang Hu (Ed.D., 1995; Ed.M., ate is in curriculum and teaching, Nieto visited TC and writes, 1989; M.A., 1987) is currently is Associate Professor and Program “I went with my children and working as an associate pro- my wife to show them the Director at the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at fessor of Literacy Education places, the dorm (Bancroft St. John’s University in Staten Island, where she has been on at Hunter College School of Hall) where we lived, the Education where she coordi- the full-time faculty since 1985. For more than 30 years, classrooms, etc. It was a nice • nates the Master’s Program in Peltzman has taught curriculum, children’s literature, edu- experience now that my chil- Literacy Education. She has a dren are deciding about their cation history and methodology for pre-service teachers at book (co-authored with her future studies. I thank TC for St. John’s, and authored two books on the history of edu- Hunter College colleagues) the wonderful experience I had coming out titled Teaching and cation. Peltzman taught public school and was a reading there, for all the opportuni- Learning in the (dis) Comfort Zone: specialist in St. Alban’s, Queens, from 1969 to 1972, after ties, the knowledge gained, A Guide for New Teachers and the qualified and devoted receiving a bachelor of arts degree from Mills College of Literacy Coaches. For more infor- people I met as my profes- Education in New York. She received a master’s degree in mation, go to www.palgrave- sors and instructors. After all usa.com. education from St. John’s. Her favorite professional activity these years I have to say I am is teaching reading and literacy to undergraduate students Teaching of Spanish proud to be a TC graduate at St. John’s. “That’s where I really feel like I’ve got my hand Jose A. Carmona (Ed.M., and, thanks to the knowledge on tomorrow—when I deal with my students,” she says. 1986; M.A., 1984) is the presi- acquired there, I have been

7 4 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 able to help many people in Counseling & Clinical my country and better serve Psychology In Memoriam the mission and ideals Counseling Psychology of UNICEF.” Allison Schaffer (Ed.M., 2007; For the present, information regarding TC alumni who have William Varney (M.A., M.A., 2007) had an article passed away is available exclusively on the TC Web site. To view 1966), who enrolled at TC in published in the Jan/Feb edi- In Memoriam, please visit: www.tc.edu/inmemoriam. the master’s program in Early tion of the ASCA School Counselor Elementary Education, writes, Magazine on creating communi- ty connections for students as a Talented Development Center engages readers with an intrigu- “I lived in the TC Dorms, and in Westchester County. She is ing plot, an aplomb narrative and did my student teaching at part of a comprehensive school character education program. a Board member of the New fully realized characters.” P.S. 125 Manhattan. It was a York State Camp Directors wonderful year of discovery and Vivian Ota Wang (Ph.D., Association and member Guidance self-discovery, during which I 1995; M.Phil., 1994) was of the American Camping Olivia J. Hooker (M.A., 1947) fell in love with one of my class- recently honored by the Association. She can be reached was honored by New York mates, whom I later married. I American Psychological at www.challengecamps.com. State Senate with a resolution did my student teaching under Association. She is also a honoring the Greenburgh resi- the guidance of the brilliantly recipient of the 2010 TC Health & Behavior dent, psychologist and former talented Bill Cirone, who taught Distinguished Alumni Awards. Studies college professor at Fordham an IGC (Intellectually Gifted University, for her achieve- Children) 6th grade at P.S. 125. Psychology in Education Giftedness ments and contributions to the With a master’s degree under Carole Berman (M.A., 1974) James Guilford (M.A., 2008) has women’s’ and civil rights move- my belt, I stayed on at P.S. 125. has devoted the last 35 years published a young-adult novel ments. Born in 1915, Hooker I shall never forget that amazing of her teaching career to gifted titled “The Pencil Test.” A review was the first African-American chunk of my life which began education. She is the director posted by Independent Schools woman to enlist in the U.S. with my year at TC.” and founder of the Gifted and Magazine says: “The Pencil Test Coast Guard during World

“When I created my estate plans, I made sure that I included a bequest gift to Teachers College.” — Dr. Maria Schantz, Ed.D., Languages, Literature, Speech and Theatre Grace Dodge Society Member since 2007

For more information on gift annuities, bequests or other planned gifts, please contact: Louis Lo Ré Director of Planned Giving 212-678-3037, [email protected] T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 7 5 TC Alumni News Class Notes s t u d y i n g s c h o o l C h e m i s t r y

s a toxicologist, Brian K. Perkins to me in education because I could see (Ed.D., ’97) predicted health out- the systemic nature in social organiza- A comes based on sophisticated tions,” Perkins says. “Everything in chem- mathematical algorithms developed by istry and toxicology is about systems, so actuarial scientists. • Today, he’s put- I posed questions that appeared to be ting those quantitative skills to use as an ordinary location questions to me, but education researcher and faculty mem- were atypical of the way people then had ber in Teachers College’s Department of been trained in education.” • His decision Organization and Leadership. • “In medi- to delve into education issues changed cine, epidemiology is like a detective sci- his life. He went on earn his doctorate at ence—you see what’s occurred and try to Teachers College and join the faculty at figure out what has caused it,” says Perkins. Southern Connecticut State University in “So at TC, we say, ‘We have our educa- New Haven, where he served as Chair of its tional system, now let’s figure out what’s Department of Education Leadership and CLIMATOLOGIST Perkins used wrong and see how to change it.’” Since Policy Studies. He later served as President • epidemiological techniques to 2006, Perkins—sponsored by the Council on study school environments. of the New Haven Board of Education Urban School Boards at the National School and was National Chair of the Council of Boards Association—has conducted several groundbreaking Urban School Boards (CUBE) at the National School Boards studies on school climate in city districts across the nation. His Association. • “Brian understands the importance of a devel- first study, “Where We Learn,” surveyed 32,000 students from opmental perspective to any real school reform,” says Comer. 129 schools on issues that ranged from bullying and parent “In other words, that school leaders must create an environ- involvement to racial attitudes and school safety. • In 2007, ment that fosters the biological, social, emotional and moral in his study, “Where We Teach,” he surveyed 5,100 teachers and development of children, and that enables adults to acquire administrators on similar issues. A year later, after Perkins had the skills and understanding to make that happen.” • One arrived at Teachers College, he surveyed 10,000 urban parents conclusion Perkins has drawn from his consulting work: even for a third study, “What We Think.” • This fall, Perkins plans to the smallest nuances of school climate can affect children in survey 100,000 children, 20,000 teachers, 20,000 parents and profound ways. The ornate school architecture of the early 1,000 administrators to delve deeper into these stakeholders’ and mid-20th century may have made inefficient use of views and expectations about school climate. • What people space, but unlike today’s sterile buildings, it sent a message think and expect about school can have an impact on what to children that they—and more broadly, the educational happens there, says Perkins, who has also done school stud- enterprise itself—mattered. At the same time, Perkins says, ies in South Africa. • “People come expecting things, based it’s important for educators to recognize the cultural norms on what they’ve heard and what they’ve been conditioned to of the children they are teaching—particularly children from think,” he says. • How did a toxicologist become an education disadvantaged circumstances. • “Dr. Comer once said that in researcher? As a public health student at Yale, Perkins worked order for children in the inner city to be successful, they have with James Comer, one of the nation’s leading child psychia- to look and act different from anyone who’s ever cared for trists (and currently a Teachers College Trustee). Perkins, who them,” says Perkins, an African American whose parents were had earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry at Grambling high school graduates. “In other words, they go to school and State University, turned to education after Comer asked him get told, ‘Don’t talk like that’ or ‘don’t dress like that’—but to develop research criteria to evaluate the effectiveness of ‘that’s how Grandma talks and she loves me!’ Or, ‘That’s how an educational program. • Comer wanted someone outside everyone in my neighborhood dresses.’ • “So we have to deal the educational field to design the evaluation protocols. with that. We’re deconstructing children at the same time • “I remember talking to Dr. Comer and realizing that all we’re constructing them as new citizens.” • Perkins’ major my training in chemistry and toxicology were very valuable studies can be accessed at www.nsba.org.

7 6 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 War II and is a survivor of the 2010. Fitzpatrick has served director of Distance and original academic love of science Tulsa Riot of 1921. After the three years on the CGFNS Distributed Education at and supports science programs military, she earned a master’s in Committee on Appeals. Central Michigan University for 77 school districts. Having psychology from TC and a doc- first published science books torate in psychology from the Organization & Science Education with legendary TC professor University of Rochester. After Leadership A. Barry Bergman (Ed.D., 1975; Willard Jacobson, Bergman has serving as a Fordham University Ed.M., 1973; M.A., 1970) is authored (or co-authored) seven professor, she worked as a Adult Education Guided Regional Science Coordinator books in the field of science Intensive Study psychologist at the Fred Keller for Putnam/Northern education and school adminis- John M. Carfora (Ed.D., School in Yonkers until 2002. Westchester BOCES. Having tration. Coming in March 2010 2007) co-authored a new book retired seven years ago after a is the revision of a book on the titled The Art of Funding and Learning Disabilities 30-year career as a school princi- elementary school principalship Implementing Ideas: A Guide to Julie Griffin (Ed.M., 1983; pal, Bergman has returned to his for Corwin Press. M.A., 1977) is the Executive Proposal Development and Project Director of the Newark Management (Sage, 2010). h e lp i n g tc ’ s s t u d e n t s Renaissance House, a private, Higher & Post Secondary not-for-profit community-based Education Lois LaCroix Barber (M.A., organization that was estab- Emily Grey (Ed.M., 2006; M.A., Clinical Psychology, 1972), passed lished in 1975 as a drug-free resi- 2004) moved to New York after away in August 2009. Born in Ann dential therapeutic community graduating from Duke to pursue Arbor in 1921, she studied econom- for the treatment of substance her M.A. in higher education abusing adults. Partnership in at TC. During that time, she ics at Northwestern University in Philanthropy, a statewide non- worked at Columbia in the Chicago. During World War II, she profit organization that provides Center for Career Education, served as an economist in Hawaii, counsel and practical assistance where she advised undergradu- where one of her important duties was to keep meat prices to other nonprofits, has selected ate students for five years while stable during wartime rationing. After the war, she moved Newark Renaissance House completing her degree, and then • as a consultancy client in the transitioned to NYU to pursue to Oxford, England and married Charles Barber, a Rhodes Garden State for 2009–2010. her Ph.D. She is a full-time stu- Scholar. Later, in the Washington, D.C., and New York City dent and an adjunct teacher and Nursing Education metropolitan areas, she raised her four children—Brad, researcher at NYU. M. Louise Fitzpatrick (Ed.D., Ann, Robin and Betsy—and was skilled at planning family 1972; Ed.M., 1969; M.A., 1968), adventures in Europe. She also raised Norwegian Elkhounds Math, Science & endowed dean and professor of from puppies to champions. Later, she worked for Meals on the Villanova University College Technology Wheels while caring for her centenarian mother. With her of Nursing, has been elected as Instructional Technology • a Registered Nurse Trustee to & Media children grown, Lois decided to enroll at Teachers College. the Commission on Graduates Yoon-il Auh (Ed.D., 2000; After receiving her M.A., she served as a special educa- of Foreign Nursing Schools M.A., 1993; Ed.M., 1991) is the tion tutor in the Greenwich, Connecticut, school system (CGFNS) International Board deputy provost at the National where she was known for her enthusiasm, optimism and of Trustees. She will serve a four- Labor College in Maryland. year term beginning January He previously served as the creativity. • Her passion for positive growth and develop- ment in young people was also evident in her work with the Greenwich Community Center; she was determined to make Contact us. We want the Center a place for children to convene and be active. • She also co-founded a library at the Church Center for to hear from you! the United Nations, home to the archives of noted early peace activist and feminist Esther Hymer, tracing 50 years Let us know what’s happening in your career and your life. Send of work for equality of women internationally. • When she news of your promotion, books you’ve written or new family mem- passed away last August, her husband, Charles, decided bers to: Office of Alumni Relations, 525 West 120th Street, Box to make a gift to Teachers College in her memory. With the 306, New York, NY 10027, or call us at 212-678-3215, or e-mail: endorsement of Charles and her children, this gift was used [email protected]. to establish the Lois LaCroix Barber Scholarship Fund to provide general scholarship assistance for students at TC.

T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 7 7 TC Alumni News r e m e mb r a n c e S

R. Freeman Butts, education his- mentary school administrator in the torian and philosopher, died in March Santa Monica, California, Unified at 99. Known to generations at TC as School District from 1956–65. In the “J,” Butts served on the College’s fac- early 1980s, as Director of Research ulty for 40 years, becoming Professor in Teacher Education at the University of Education in 1948 and then the of Texas at Austin, Griffin conducted William F. Russell Professor in the some of the largest-scale research yet Foundations of Education from 1958 to his retirement. done on teacher education. After a stint at Teachers College Along with George S. Counts, William Heard Kilpatrick and that began in 1971, he served for five years as the Dean of others at TC, Butts proposed an integrative approach to the College of Education at the University of Illinois and the study of education and its interaction with cultur- another six as Chair of the Department of Teaching and al and social conditions. His books include The College Teaching Education at the University of Arizona, before Charts its Course (1939), A History of Education in American returning to TC in 1996. Among his many books and mono- Culture (with Lawrence Cremin, 1953), American Education graphs, Griffin was editor of Rethinking Standards through in International Development (1963), and The Education of Teacher Preparation Partnerships, (SUNY Press, 2002), which the West (1973). Butts directed TC’s Teachers for East Africa documents six exemplary teacher preparation programs Project, a pilot for the Peace Corps, and served as Associate participating in university-school partnerships. Dean for International Studies from 1961 to 1975, also over- seeing the College’s first Afghanistan Project. Marlin M. Mackenzie, Professor Emeritus of Education in Movement John H. Fischer, TC’s sixth presi- Sciences, passed away in the fall of dent, passed away in late December 2009. An acclaimed sports psychologist, at the age of 99. A former elemen- Mackenzie developed the metaskills tary school teacher, guidance counselor model of sports counseling for both and vice principal, he came to national professional and amateur athletes, attention in 1954 when, as superin- which as he described it, evolved from the use of neuro- tendent of Baltimore city schools, he linguistic programming and Ericksonian communication pat- became the first big-city education chief to implement the terns. Mackenzie was the author of several widely read self- Supreme Court’s desegregation ruling in Brown vs. Board of help sports books, including Golf: The Mind Game, Tennis: The Education. When he learned, at the beginning of the school Mind Game, Beginning Swimming, and (with Ken Denlinger) year, that some white parents would be keeping their children Skiing: The Mind Game, as well as Toward a New Curriculum in home, he ordered that all absent pupils be marked as truants. Physical Education, (McGraw-Hill). In 1955, the Baltimore school system desegregated largely without mishap, and the following year, Fischer received William Summerscales, Professor the Hollander Award for Contribution to Racial Relations. Emeritus of Education, passed away in During Fischer’s presidency, TC established the Institute for February. He was formerly the Director Urban and Minority Education (IUME), as well as the Institute Of Experimental Lay Studies with the of International Studies. Fischer served as member and Board Of Education of the United chair of the National Commission on the Education of the Presbyterian Church. He also served Disadvantaged, and the National Advisory Commission on as Teachers College’s first Director of Education of Disadvantaged Children. Institutional Development. In that capacity, during the 1970s, together with the College’s Alumni Council, Summerscales ini- Gary A. Griffin, Professor Emeritus of Education and tiated the Distinguished Alumni Awards Program to broadcast former director of TC’s National Center for Restructuring the breadth and variety of careers pursued by TC’s graduates. Education, Schools and Teaching (NCREST), passed away Summerscales was also the author of Affirmation and Dissent: in early March. Griffin’s focus on child-centered educa- Columbia’s Response to the Crisis of World War I, published by tion grew out of his nine years as a teacher and ele- Teachers College Press in 1970.

7 8 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 Samuel Peabody (Continued from back cover) much of the evening very anx- man, while Judy Peabody worked iously listening to the radio—not as a group addiction counselor. because she was worried about He did that for 17 years before my mother, but because she felt fundraising and becoming direc- it would be a waste if she’d only tor for another nonprofit, Broad gone from restaurant to restau- Jump, which hired teachers at rant without getting arrested. She sites around the city to work kept muttering, ‘Why don’t they on weekends and during the say whether she’s been arrested?’ summer with students at risk And finally, when the Queen for dropping out of high school. Mother said goodbye, she said to It was then that Peabody was my sister, ‘I do hope your mother ROLE MODEL Peabody’s mother was jailed at age 72 for visited by Gary Simons, a young gets arrested soon.’” attempting to eat in segregated restaurants with black teacher in the Bronx who wanted Peabody seems to share his friends. The story made international news. to start a program to place mother’s rebellious streak, doing promising students of color in his level best upon complet- lexic, I had never been a particularly good independent schools throughout ing college and military service to avoid student, but by now I was a war veteran, the Northeast and help support them becoming a teacher. “My grandfather had I’d worked in a bank and a school, and I through to college. founded Groton, an uncle was headmas- felt I knew something and was ready to Peabody pitched Simons’ idea to ter of St. Mark’s [a rival prep school in learn.” He taught at TC’s Agnes Russell Broad Jump’s board, and Prep for Prep Massachusetts], and my father and another School on the Columbia campus and was born. Today it boasts more than brother were clergymen, so education was also at “an overly permissive school on 3,800 alumni in leadership positions more or less the family business,” he recalls. the Upper West Side” where the students in different fields, and in 2008, Mayor “So I decided I wanted to be a banker.” were actually glad when he asked them Bloomberg declared November 29th He hired on as a trainee in the credit to hit the books instead of go skating. “Prep for Prep Day.” department of Hanover Trust and spent After getting his degree, he taught for Eventually, Peabody moved on to two years on Wall Street, until, as he tells eight more years at St. Bernard’s and was become chair of Citizens Committee for it, “I came back from lunch one beauti- principal of the lower school at Rye for a Children, which advocates for children’s ful Indian summer day to a desk full of decade, once enduring a memorable tirade and family issues and amasses research to papers and said, ‘I don’t care about any of from Martha Mitchell when he recom- help legislators in Albany at budget time this,’ and went up to personnel and quit. mended that her daughter be kept back in to restore funds to key social programs. One friend, this starchy New England kindergarten. (Mitchell called him “Mr. As he takes stock of the world from woman, said, ‘I knew you wouldn’t last— Peacock” and threatened to ensure that a his present vantage point, Peabody is both you always wore blue shirts.’” proposed bridge to connect Long Island optimistic and somewhat chastened by the He called St. Bernard’s, where his for- and Westchester would be built directly cyclical nature of social progress. American mer Latin teacher from the school he had over the school.) public schools are, in his view, at a low attended as a boy was now the headmas- He came away believing that “a point, prompting him to hope fervently ter, and asked, “Is there something I can teacher, however specialized, should be a that “Obama takes his campaign promises do there while I think about what I really teacher of all things—bigger things, like seriously.” Educational fads like phonetic want to do?” He was promptly put to how to conduct oneself in the world.” spelling come and go. On the other hand, work taking the boys out to Central Park Peabody’s subsequent career has cer- people look to teachers with even greater to play soccer and substituting for absent tainly met that standard. In the late 1960s, urgency than they did 30 years ago. teachers. Soon Peabody realized that this Peabody and his wife—Judy Peabody, “Recently, a former student called me was, in fact, what he wanted to do, and who would later become known as a to say, ‘I just wanted to show you I turned he decided to spend the following year at pioneer in funding AIDS care and advo- out all right, and to tell you how much you Teachers College to truly learn his trade. cacy—helped found Reality House, a meant to me.’” Peabody’s voice catches. “It’s “It was the first time I ever got an ‘A’ drug rehabilitation center in northern a gift, to hear something like that.” k in my life,” he recalls. “Due to being a dys- Manhattan. Sam Peabody served as chair- —Joe Levine

T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 7 9 O Pioneer! When her TC education ended abruptly in 1942, Mildred Larsen continued it on her own— in a one-room schoolhouse in an impoverished prairie town

ildred Casserino was 21 years of the working poor. Drawn by that mission, old in August 1942 when she Larsen, the only daughter of Italian immigrants Mstepped out of a car on an who had toiled in factory jobs to send her to col- empty road in eastern Colorado, just miles lege, had enrolled at New College in 1939. But from the Nebraska and Wyoming borders, with the advent of World War II, New College and waited to meet her future. could no longer send students abroad, and in “It was like that scene in ‘North by 1941, TC closed the school, leaving Mildred Northwest,’ when Cary Grant gets dropped Larsen with insufficient field experience to win a off in the middle of South Dakota,” recalls teaching job in New York City. Casserino, 90, who now goes by her mar- Undaunted, she decided to seek out the ried name, Larsen. “There wasn’t a car or a field experiences that New College would have person in sight.” given her. It was, perhaps, more like a scene from “I desperately wanted to know what it was like Grapes of Wrath. Dust storms had ravaged to start out as a young worker, struggling to find a job,” she says. the high plains region and the tiny town of Crook, Colorado, She worked briefly at TC, typing up reports in the psychol- with a population of fewer than 200 people, stood beyond the ogy department until she had saved $100, and then headed west reach of a federal electrification effort. There were no phones, by train and bus. By the time she reached Denver, her cash was electric lights or running water. The one utility pole was for running short, so she decided to stop and look for work. She reg- telegraph transmission. istered with an agency “but they were suspicious of me because of “It was hard to believe that this was the U.S.,” Larsen says. my last name and because I had darker skin than the people out What impelled a young girl from Brooklyn to come to there—they thought I was Mexican.” such a place? Teachers College—or, more precisely, New On the Friday before Labor Day weekend, a school in Crook College, the undergraduate school that TC had created accepted her. She caught a ride back east across the state and started work the following Monday. The school was a one-room shack It was like that scene in ‘North with no books or paper (Larsen would make the trip to the country seat, Sterling, once a month, to buy both with her own money). by Northwest,’ when Cary Grant There were just seven students, spanning first grade through eighth – the children of migrant workers from Russia, the Ukraine and gets dropped off in the middle of other countries, several of whom spoke no English and all of whom South Dakota. There wasn’t a car worked for three hours in the mornings before coming to school. Larsen herself walked several miles to work each day, during the or a person in sight. winter in temperatures that dropped to 30 below zero and snow so deep it took all her strength to push her door open in the morning. in 1932 to help regenerate a society ravaged by the Great Upon arriving, she lit a coal stove and cooked breakfast for the stu- Depression. The school sent its students to an opening sum- dents from government rations that, having been picked clean by mer boot camp in Appalachia and also required them to other schools further east, generally consisted of dried beans. spend a year teaching overseas and another year teaching in “I loved it,” she says. “I loved the students, and the people in an industrial setting in order to understand the tribulations the town were lovely and generous. The one-room school was

l 8 0 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 Friend of the College TC

very satisfying, because it was like an extended family. The older kids took care of the younger ones.” She stayed a year before moving back to New York City, now armed with the requisite experience to get a teaching job. Not long afterward, she moved to Paris and spent a year teaching French to children of embassy employees at an American school. (She had majored in the subject at New College and even tutored a fellow student, the Columbia quar- terback Sid Luckman, who went on to star with the Chicago Bears in the National Football League.) She moved back to New York again, went to a New College reunion and met Victor Larsen, who had been a senior when she was a freshman. They got married, moved out to Long Island, and she earned a master’s degree at TC and taught in the public schools while he taught at Adelphi University. They never had children, but Mildred worked with so many over the years that she never felt deprived on that score. Today Larsen lives in Washington State, near the Puget Sound. Victor passed away 24 years ago, but she still stays in touch with a few fellow New College gradu- ates, including Richard Alexander, whose father was the school’s founding dean. Perhaps surprisingly for someone who has led such an adventurous life, she says she doesn’t think she could handle teaching in today’s public schools. “The problems are so enormous,” she says. “There isn’t enough money to give the children and teachers what they need.” That, she says, is why she has chosen to include Teachers College in her will. “I’m so glad to see what’s going on at TC,” she says. “I believe in what you’re doing. TC has always been ahead of its time.” From one pioneer to another. k Teachers College Non-Profit Org US Postage Columbia University PAID Box 306 Burl., VT 05401 525 West 120th Street Permit 19 New York NY 10027-6696

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In Focus TC The Accidental Educator Samuel Peabody set out not to be a teacher. He now defines himself as one in the broadest sense

ost people would describe him as a philanthropist, but Samuel Peabody has always found that word “too high falutin.” M “When I’m asked, I say I’m a teacher,” he says. That may sound disingenuous coming from the man who helped found such fixtures on New York City’s charitable landscape as Reality House and Prep for Prep, and who presided over the Citizens Committee for Children. But Peabody—who did indeed teach fourth grade at New York City’s St. Bernard’s School and also served as lower school head at Rye Country Day School—wears his celebrity lightly. He’s not likely to tell you, for example, that he’s a direct descendant of John Endicott, founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629; Joseph Peabody, builder in the 18th century of one of Salem’s largest fleets; Francis and Oliver Peabody, founders of the investment firm of Kidder, Peabody; and Endicott Peabody, who founded the Groton School (FDR went there). He will, however, flash a mischievous grin and (if you happen to be visiting him in the Fifth Avenue apartment where he and his wife have lived for the past 52 years) hand you a framed photograph of an elegant, white-haired woman peering out from behind bars: his mother, Mary Parkman Peabody, who at 72 got herself arrested in St. Augustine, Florida, in 1964 for attempting to eat at segregated restaurants with black friends. The jailing of a woman who was both the mother of the gover- nor of Massachusetts (that would be Sam’s brother, also named Endicott Peabody) and the wife of a prominent Episcopal bishop made interna- tional news and focused the spotlight on the sit-ins and protests in St. Augustine that set the stage for passage of the Civil Rights Act. “At the time that it happened, my sister, who was very strong on civil rights”—the late Marietta Peabody Tree, who served under President Kennedy as U.S. representative on the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, a post initiated by Eleanor Roosevelt—“was vacationing in Barbados with her husband, who was Anglo American, and it so happened that the Queen Mother was their dinner guest. My sister spent 2 T C T O D A Y l SPRING 2010 (continued on page 79) p h o t o g r a p h b y s a m a n t h a i s o m