A Century-Plus of Urban Engagementt C T O D a Y L SPRING 2010 C 1 Spring 2010
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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 LU M Ets 3 4 • N O . 2 FE 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 TPHOTOGRAPH O D A Y l SPRING BY DEIRDRE 2010 REZNIK 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 LU mni profi LE 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.