The of Berkeley in the Early 1960S

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Carnegie Corporation of New York vol. 2/no. 4 Spring 2004

Alternative Pathways to College

Centers of Education in Russia

An Interview with Marta Tienda The Southof frica 240465-Carnegie 3/19/04 9:12 AM Page Cov2

In April 2003, I was asked to chair the jury that judged the the nation. Complete transparency is not a choice: it is a mandate. competition to select the World Trade Center memorial. My In a recent report, John E. Craig, Jr., executive vice president twelve colleagues and I spent many hours—too many to count and treasurer of The Commonwealth Fund writes, “It seems clear and the work too important to be measured simply by increments that foundations should do more to promote a fuller understand- of time—reviewing the more than 5,000 designs submitted to us, ing of the financial realities that govern their existence, the strate- not only by Americans but by people from all over the world. We gies and management practices that make them effective, and the were all deeply committed to fulfilling the jury’s charge to find a role they play in society.” I couldn’t agree more. Foundations design that, as we said in one of our statements about the process, should stand for the best ideas and impulses of the American was “To remember and honor those who died, to recognize the people, their idealism, altruism, and generosity. Therefore, their endurance of those who survived, and the courage of those values, and how they conduct themselves, must be “higher than who risked their lives to save others.” One thing that became the prevailing standards.” We are accountable not only before the clear as we poured over these law and the court of public opinion, but before history as well. thoughtful, heartfelt, cre- At Carnegie Corporation, we have made strong efforts to ative, and sometimes brilliant let the world see our “glass pockets.” We have over ten years of designs was that the events of Corporation grants available online (www.carnegie.org) in a September 11th had not only searchable database. Our annual reports and up-to-date finan- deeply affected Americans cial statements are also available online, as is a quiz that helps but the wider human com- potential grantees determine whether their projects fit within munity as well. our program guidelines. We also require our trustees and staff to The winning project, conform to our conflict-of-interest policy, which is based upon “Reflecting Absence” by full disclosure by trustees and staff members of affiliations that Michael Arad, was first may lead to conflicts and upon withdrawal from decision making where those affiliations are involved. Foundation execu- tives are focused on assur- ing that the philanthropic © 2002 BEN FRAKER president sector is not only a place announced on January 7th, and the refined design, by Arad with open doors but that foundation officers, staff and boards are and Peter Walker, was unveiled on January 14th at a press con- at the forefront of practicing full and open disclosure of their poli- ference not far from Ground Zero. When asked to speak about cies, strategies and activities. William S. White, chairman of the his design at that event, Arad—a young architect working for board of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, recently wrote New York City’s Housing Authority—poignantly noted that it that “transparency is one of the finest ways to achieve accountabil- was his “personal sense of grief and loss” that had originally ity,” and offered ideas about how to strengthen audit practices, prompted him to enter the competition. compensation policies and public reporting of tax returns. That sorrow is certainly an element of the memorial, but Independent Sector, which is dedicated to strengthening and between “Reflecting Absence” and the landscaping that enhances advancing the nonprofit and philanthropic community and it, the jury members felt the design also provides a kind of unity, which was founded by former Corporation president John combining an urban park and a monument. I personally believe Gardner, has recently issued a Model Code of Ethics for that nobody will mind if you visit the park and sit on a bench and Nonprofit and Philanthropic Organizations and strongly recom- talk or laugh. After all, the monument is not only about death but mends that all nonprofit organizations and foundations either about life. We wanted to help create a place that had hope and develop such a policy or strengthen their existing one. Says Diana represented the resiliency of New York. The monument—which Aviv, president of Independent Sector, “The process of developing is not just about the World Trade Center, but about the Pentagon, such a code by the board and staff helps to infuse into the culture about Pennsylvania, and about the first attack on the towers in of the organization a recognition of how important it is to address 1993, as well—and the soaring buildings that will soon rise issues of values and ethics on an ongoing basis.” around it, embody the idea that life and tragedy go hand in hand; Andrew Carnegie once said that if he were induced to return that life is sometimes inescapably witness to tragedy, incorporates to the business world, his “chief aim would be to address many it, remembers it always—but also, continues on. The monument thousands of workmen as ‘fellow-shareholders’.” I believe that will be an evolving place—it must be, because, as part of New those of us who work in the world of philanthropy should feel York, it will be part of an evolving, restless and defiant city that likewise about our grantees, potential grantees, and about the has witnessed and incorporated tragedy, and still goes on. public we serve: they are all our “fellow-shareholders” and we From the very beginning of the jury’s work, one critical com- should communicate with them fully, openly and clearly and deal ponent that we all agreed upon was transparency: we insisted on with them, always, in a spirit of mutual trust and respect. it, as we insisted on equitable treatment of all the submissions, on the authority of the jury to be the sole judge of the competition and on hearing all interested parties’ opinions. For me, this view extends to the activities of all groups and institutions— including foundations—that have an effect on the public and on VARTAN G REGORIAN, President 240465-Carnegie 3/19/04 9:12 AM Page 1

Carnegie Corporation of New York vol. 2/no. 4 Spring 2004

2 The History of South Africa: A Twice-Told Tale Ten years after the end of apartheid, South Africa tries to come to terms with its troubled history and teach students the truth about their country’s past.

14 Alternative Pathways to College Challenging all students to achieve academic success is a key ingredient of the many new ways school systems, educators and communities are finding to help students gain access to higher education.

24 Centers of Education in Russia: The Case for CASEs Can Centers of Advanced Study and Education (CASEs) in Russia revitalize Russian research and scholarship? A journalist’s-eye view.

36 An Interview with Marta Tienda Carnegie Corporation interviews Marta Tienda, Maurice P. During Professor in Demographic Studies and Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University and a Corporation trustee for the past eight years.

45 Foundation Roundup A series of quick snapshots of projects and initiatives supported by foundations around the country.

48 THEBackPage Improving Education Journalism: Educate the Writer, Too Richard Lee Colvin, director of the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media at Teachers College, Columbia University, writes about the importance of education writers and their professional training.

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE 44 Recent Events

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by K ENNETH f South WALKER frica: A TWICE-TOLD TALE This year, South Africa celebrates the 10th anniversary of the end of apartheid. At the same time, the country is trying to reassess its troubled

CEDRIC NUNN history and find ways of acquainting students with the past.

The 208 black junior high school students The students giggle nervously behind their from the Itltleng Bakgolong Middle School are hands. The reaction is typical among students, the obviously glad to get off the non-air-conditioned largest group of visitors to the museum. White vis- bus after a three-hour drive in the hot spring sun from South Africa’s Northwest Province to Kenneth Walker, who currently runs Lion House Productions, Johannesburg. But almost as soon as they fin- a South African strategic communications firm, has had a ish stretching from the long ride, they imme- distinguished career as a journalist. In the U.S., he worked diately begin nudging one another and pointing for ABC News, covering the White House as well as the U.S. fingers at the building they are here to see. Justice Department and also served as a foreign correspon- The object of all this attention? The signs for dent. Before that, for 13 years he reported for The entry to South Africa’s new Apartheid Museum— Washington Star newspaper, which assigned him to South signs indicating separate entrances for whites Africa in 1981 where his work earned several of the most and blacks. prestigious awards in print journalism. In 1985 he won an “Today,” announces tour guide Peter Kgara, Emmy for a series of reports he did on South Africa for the “some of you will have the opportunity to be white.” ABC news program Nightline.

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itors normally are ushered in through the “Nie Blankes,” or Non-White door, while black visitors are shown through the entrance marked for “Blankes.” This introduction to the museum, directors explain, is to remind visitors of the rigid racial demarcations of nearly all aspects of life. But this day, the black school kids are divided between the doors equally. A hush falls over the students as they are led into the museum for a three-hour examination of apartheid history. “South Africa is not a complete country,” Kgara says as the students wind their way through the museum’s entrance, a series of bars and cages designed to create a feeling of constric- © HADBE PHOTOS/THEMBA WORLD AP/WIDE tion and foreboding—even oppres- Photographs of former African National Congress leaders sion—precisely what museum officials Walter Sisulu (above) and Nelson Mandela (below) at the say is needed to begin an exploration of Apartheid Museum. apartheid. “Our nation,” Kgara continues, “is a work in progress. We have those who want to contribute. Those 1994 is being followed in pursuit of a After conquering the who are neutral. And those who are new history. stuck in the past.” Under apartheid, history teachers settlers proceeded to rena Kgara’s comments seem born out of had two choices: the version of the a growing tension in South Africa that Afrikaners—the descendants of German, surrounds the country’s recent history. Dutch and French Huguenots—or they and mountains after plac When the black majority government could choose history as written by the won elections in 1994, after 50 years of descendants of British settlers. In both even took to rena legally entrenched segregation and 400 accounts, Africans, when mentioned at years of colonialism, there was not one all, were treated as if they didn’t exist statue, monument or museum created before they were subjugated by whites. by, or named for a black South African After conquering the native popula- the society at large aimed at redressing anywhere in the country. Not one. tion, European settlers proceeded to what they feel was their virtual exclu- But now, ten years after the end of rename many of the cities, villages, sion from the symbols and substance of apartheid, issues of heritage and history rivers and mountains after places from their country’s history. And even here, are exploding with a vengeance in their homelands. Europeans even took at the museum designed to expose an South Africa. Unlike other societies to renaming Africans themselves. But international crime against humanity, after revolutionary change, such as gradually, inevitably, inexorably, the there is a reflection of the bitter divi- post-Communist Europe and some lib- black government has turned its atten- sions still remaining. erated African countries, no statues tion to issues of heritage and history. To begin with, the museum attracts were immediately pulled down follow- And it is exposing all the cultural and very few white Afrikaners, the group that ing South Africa’s liberation. No walls racial fault lines still very much in place perhaps feels the most alienated in the were smashed. There was no rush to in post-apartheid South African society. scramble for new historical definitions. rename cities and streets, or instantly The Apartheid Museum is just one “We have some young Afrikaner univer- write new histories. Here, the culture of of a number of broad-based initiatives sity students,” says museum director negotiation that led to democracy in by the South African government and Christopher Till. “They come through,

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mostly with negative comments, like being white. We realized we had to Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria. we’re one-sided. But we don’t get the vast change the tour guide narration and set The Voortrekker was built in 1938 on a majority of average Afrikaners.” some age limits for some of the exhibits.” mountaintop approach to the country’s The museum, like the mushroom- The changes are reflected in guide capital, Pretoria, as a testament to ing collection of other South African Peter Kgara’s presentation. Midway Afrikaner history, especially the defeat heritage sites, seems a huge success through the museum tour, Kgara of black kingdoms during the whites’ with black students. But the message stops at an exhibit entitled: “White movement into the interior as they fled has had to be modulated for them. Opposition to Apartheid,” which lists British domination. Fourteen-year-old student Eddie many of the whites who fought the Gert Opperman, a retired general in Tabotapi, who attends a multiracial system of racial domination. the apartheid military, describes how, in school in Johannesburg, offers one In between exhibits, Kgara men- 1838, 464 Boers fought and defeated explanation of why that is. “Our class tions earlier encounters with black stu- more than 15,000 Zulu warriors. “The visited the Apartheid Museum,” he dents who spoke of wanting revenge Voortrekkers took a vow that if God reports. “When we left, you could see after viewing the depredations of gave them victory over the Zulus, they the white students were not impressed. apartheid. He says, “I told them, ‘Do would always commemorate that day as When they saw pictures of black people you want to be like the Boers? We are a Sabbath.” hanging, they didn’t seem to care. not here to promote bitterness. Don’t Opperman says the monument, Some of my white classmates were go out of here full of anger.’ Not all dedicated on the 100th anniversary of © HADBE PHOTOS/THEMBA WORLD AP/WIDE friends, but when we came out, they whites supported apartheid,” Kgara the victory over the Zulus, is the seemed different to me. One white adds. “And not all blacks opposed it.” Afrikaners’ most important heritage site, and, in post-apartheid South Africa, is their “emotional home.” When Opperman took over the monument in ring the native population, European 1999, attendance was at an all-time low. “Many Afrikaners did not want to asso- d to rename many of the cities, villages, rivers ciate with the monument,” he says. “They were not proud of it.” This led Opperman to a total overhaul of the fter places from their homelands. Europeans monument’s approach. “We brought in professional sound management, k to renaming Africans themselves. upgraded services and facilities. And we embarked on marketing programs aimed at the previously disadvantaged, especially the schools.” classmate said he would call me tomor- Educational coordinator Lynn The campaign has been a huge suc- row and I looked at him with anger.” Abrahams says the Apartheid Museum cess—so much so that, ironically, the Lynn Abrahams is a former history has also been cathartic for her. “When I very survival of what many view as a teacher and provincial leader of the started working here, because of my tribute to apartheid, today almost Youth League of the ruling African political background, I didn’t trust totally depends on the patronage of National Congress (ANC). She now white people. I almost hated them. For black school children. is Educational Coordinator for the me, this museum was a kind of healing. On one rainy day, two busloads of Apartheid Museum. This has given me hope and allowed black students visit the monument “In the beginning,” she says, “we ran me to redirect the anger and hate, from Angana High School, located in pilot programs to see if we needed an age because it was hate that almost killed what used to be called the Northern limit, and how to deal with the kids. my country.” Province before the new local black Most of the black children from those government changed its name back to pilots left here feeling angry and they Two Memories, Two Memorials Limpopo. Adam Netonane, one of the hated the white people. And white chil- For many South Africans, the school’s history teachers, says he had no dren were saying they were ashamed of clearest symbol of that hatred is the reservations about bringing black chil-

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dren to the Voortrekker Monument, unapologetic about the role Freedom tices are an endorsement of paganism. from which blacks were banned until Park will play in reclaiming African By far, the loudest challenges being the early 1990s. history from what he calls “centuries raised are to Freedom Park’s unabashedly “In order to understand South of distortion.” Africanist point of view, and leading that African history and culture,” Netonane “The African voice has been charge are Afrikaners. As Opperman puts says, “these kids have to understand silenced and trampled upon,” he says, it, “There are many Afrikaners who feel what was hidden before. Previously “For much of the history that marginalized, who feel their heritage and when [Afrikaners] built this monu- Europeans wrote, they said Africans culture is being neglected, vandalized, ment, they thought South Africa would were not human. We have to accept as stolen. And there is an outcry that some- stay like it was… But now they have part of our history that we were a colo- thing must be done about it. But we lost power. We have taken over. And we nized people. There is nowhere in the don’t have a choice.” are free also to know. This was for their world where colonialism did not Afrikaners will have a choice about children and their children’s children. destroy what it found when it arrived. whether or not to visit Freedom Park, Now it is also for us.” On top of that, we had the apartheid and Serote isn’t optimistic about the A true test of the monument’s sus- system. There’s a very deep desire in the prospects. “I am sure for some time tainability will begin in 2004, when nation for Freedom Park. I hear that in there will be a serious problem with black students and their teachers will the churches and other places. People Afrikaner attendance,” he says. “It’s have a new, nearby alternative. The gov- pray about how they want Freedom not nice to be told that you did terri- ernment is building a vast new heritage Park because it will reaffirm that they ble wrong. But I am more hopeful site just next door to the Voortrekker are human beings.” about their children.”

Monument. Spanning 129 acres and Clearly, in a country stratified for Serote has met with Opperman to © HADBE PHOTOS/THEMBA WORLD AP/WIDE expected to cost around $50 million, centuries by strict gradations of ethnicity, discuss ways in which they can cooper- the high-tech heritage site is called Freedom Park. The ambitious project will cover more than three billion years of the country’s history—beginning “We don’t have a balanced hist with the genesis of early life forms and later hominids, some of which eventu- The basic problem is the very same people who ally evolved into modern homo sapiens, tracing evidence of humanity’s evolu- tion found in South Africa. It will then history are now trying to rewrite it... focus on the presence of native ethnic groups as well as the arrival and conse- mix the old and quences of European colonialism. It is being built on the adjoining —Chitja Twala, professor of history, Univ mountain approach to Pretoria, juxta- posed, geographically and philosophi- cally, to the Voortrekker Monument. The first phase, celebrating anti- this approach has sparked controversy— ate. So far, that has led to a decision to apartheid freedom fighters, is due to all of which surfaces in the many public build a road linking the Voortrekker open on the 10th anniversary of South hearings held across the country to Monument and Freedom Park. Serote Africa’s new democracy in 2004, with solicit opinion about the park. adds that the meetings have also enlight- completion due four years later. Serote has heard objections from ened him about Afrikaner feelings. “I sat President Thabo Mbeki has called groups ranging from the Society for the down with General Opperman and sud- Freedom Park the most important Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, denly realized I had no inkling of the project of his government. which objects to plans depicting tradi- meaning of the Anglo-Boer war for Dr. Mongane Wally Serote, a tional African slaughter of animals, to Afrikaners,” he explains. “And the pain former Deputy Minister for Arts and some church leaders who claim plans to is very deep. I now have a personal Culture, heads this project, and he is portray ancient African spiritual prac- understanding of that pain, because I

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surprised to find a copy of [late Ghanian President “strong opposition” Kwame] Nkrumah’s book, Africa Must from some of the Unite, I would have been imprisoned by leading white inter- law.” Serote is referring to the fact that national academics Nkrumah’s PanAfricanist clarion call and intellectuals, for the liberation and unification of whom he declined the African continent was among the to name. “They feel most suppressed of books in apartheid- threatened by it. For era South Africa, but any political book many of them, the even vaguely thought to contain themes very phrase African of African empowerment also qualified history, or African for banning. historian, is a contra- Nowhere is this Africanist/ diction in terms,” he European divide over historical inter- suggests. “Their view pretation more sharply contested than of the African role in in academia, which is struggling history is as cargo. under the direction of the government But we can’t go on to come up with a new history to teach being told that archi- in the schools and universities. tecture was founded The fissures were evident at a meet-

© HADBE PHOTOS/THEMBA WORLD AP/WIDE in the West and that ing of the South African Society for Gert Opperman, CEO of the Voortrekker we were living in trees History Teaching (SASHT), an organi- Monument, stands at its main entrance. and didn’t design any zation of university history profes- shelter. We can’t be sors. Out of about 50 participants, told that we made no substantial contri- five were black, a proportion reflected ced history, even today. butions to science, medicine and the nationally in the numbers of white arts. We have to liberate ourselves from versus black university historians. ople who distorted our this thinking. The same kind of lead- Rands Afrikaans University profes- ing intellectuals and philosophers who sor Martin Templeman was the found- distorted our history in the past are the ing chairman of the organization. “We rite it... We must very ones who are objecting to an are definitely the losers in this process African voice today.” of historical reinterpretation,” he says. old and the new.” Perhaps surprisingly, some of the “At the moment, I give history lectures objections to the Africanist interpreta- in the Afrikaans language in only about story, University of the Free State tion come from some black South 10 percent of my courses, at a university Africans. It is not at all unusual for created for Afrikaners. I have no many South Africans of all races, shadow of a doubt that within 10 years, including blacks, to ask visiting foreign- there will be no Afrikaans lectures want them to have a personal under- ers, “Have you been to Africa?” whatsoever at this university.” standing of my pain.” This tendency on the part of many Templeman acknowledges that he blacks in South Africa to refer to Africa first got his appointment at the univer- On the Wrong Side of History? as someplace else, and Africans as some- sity because he was a supporter of The opposition to Freedom Park’s body else, is not surprising to Serote. the National Party, which created African perspective isn’t only voiced “This results from 360 years of isola- apartheid. “It was preordained that by Afrikaners, but also by leading tion,” he says. “Under apartheid, blacks white Afrikaners should get jobs at this intellectuals, both in South Africa and were not permitted to travel, or even particular institution. If I applied internationally. read about the rest of Africa. Nelson now,” he says, “I wouldn’t get a job, When he travels around the world Mandela’s first arrest was for going even if I was the best, because I’m for consultations, Serote says he’s to Algeria. If I had been caught with white and Afrikaans. We’re on the

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wrong side of history and there’s not nationwide who hid and supported much I can do about it.” some of the alleged terrorists when they “The memories of S Professor Johann Tempelhoff is the were still wanted by the police. director of Potchefstrom University’s While critics like Tempelhoff think School of Social Sciences. A longtime the revision of history is going too far like Steve Biko and member of the Society of History in the wrong direction, black historians Teaching, Tempelhoff shares the are certain the process is too slow in European memory in S Afrikaner angst about the “new” his- reclaiming African history. tory. “What gives offense,” he says, “is Chitja Twala, a professor of history risk that they wil the fact there are frequent derogatory at the University of the Free State, is references to Afrikaners in many of the one of those who expressed impatience —N texts now being produced.” at the SASHT conference. “We don’t Tempelhoff sees a connection have a balanced history, even today,” he between the Afrikaner “marginalization says. “The basic problem is the very and demonization” and the apparent same people who distorted our history under the table of history written by growth of armed right-wing activity are now trying to rewrite it.” Europeans,” he said. “It’s still the same among whites. In October 2002, several Nonetheless, Twala is optimistic so-called white liberals who are rewrit- bombs exploded in Soweto and a that eventually, what he calls a proper ing our history. It’s like making a cat nearby village. Within weeks, two balance will be achieved. “We must the head of the university of mice. The dozen members of a right-wing mix the old and the new,” he says. “We type of history being taught in South Afrikaner organization called Boeremag must have a starting point. We cannot African schools today—that is being were arrested for the bombings, which expect this to be done in three years. hammered into the minds of black destroyed several buildings and killed The history project will take us some- children—is meant to instill feelings of three people. Prosecutor Pieter Luyt where. And other people will take it inferiority. At conferences like the contended that there was “considerable” from there.” SASHT meeting, black historians are support for the Boeremag among Dr. Mgwebi Snail, the head of the smallest minority—hardly 5 per- Afrikaners in the country. According Vista University’s History Department, cent. Whites also control academic to witness statements, there were people disagrees. “Africans are just shadows journals. There are cliques and they

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are closed to black historians.” Lelimo told his overwhelmingly white Steve Biko, one of the founders of the The main problem, according to audience at the SASHT gathering. Black Consciousness Movement,” he Snail, is what he calls the poison of a “The norms, values and character of said, adding, “The town where Biko system known as Bantu education, South Africa are still dominated by was born is called Ginsberg, just out- which the apartheid government the oppressors of yesterday,” he added side a place called King Williamstown. imposed during the apartheid era in as the whites sat in stony silence. The memories of South African intel- order to prevent Africans from taking Later, Lelimo said he was disap- lectuals like Biko and Robert Sobukwe, many math, science and technical pointed by the conference. “I went, founder of the Pan Africanist Congress, courses that might lead them into thinking there would be many black are buried under European memory in competition with whites for jobs. The people to listen to me and was South Africa. And this runs the risk point, says Snail, paraphrasing the shocked to find only whites. Blacks that they will not be remembered.” words of a former South African were not there. This speaks to the “Other cities the Europeans prime minister, Hendrik Verwoerd, question of how safe [South African] renamed,” Ngugi continued, “include was to keep blacks from being democracy is. These people don’t see East London and Queenstown. I even educated to a point where they would the danger coming their way. Black came across an area called Uncle Tom’s “yearn to graze in the greener pastures, South Africans must maximize their in Soweto. And then there is the town which are reserved for whites. This chances now, not wait until catastro- of Berlin, named after the very place poison is still being passed on,” phe strikes. I have fear they don’t see where whites met in the 19th century

© AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS he declares. the gravity of the situation.” to carve up African lands among themselves. Why is a free South Africa allowing the African identity and consciousness that existed before colo- ries of South African intellectuals nialism to be submerged under the legacy of the colonial masters of old?” Ngugi asked, adding, “South Africans Biko and Robert Sobukwe are buried under should have no apologies about changing colonial names.” mory in South Africa. This runs the The responsibility for changing the names of places with colonial identifi- they will not be remembered.” cations has fallen to a commission under the responsibility of Thomas —Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, Kenyan writer Ntsewa. A lawyer by training, Ntsewa is the chairman of The Geographic Names Council, established in 1998 to review and change names being used Some of the most passionately Naming Heroes for cities, towns, rivers and mountains. impatient voices involved in South On a recent visit to Cape Town, “Whites are still very much Africa’s historical debate are coming internationally acclaimed Kenyan attached to the past,” Ntsewa says. from other Africans. History professor writer Ngugi Wa Thiong’o echoed the “That is why this process has to pro- Moloantoa Lelimo is executive director warnings of Lelimo and others about ceed even if they are offended. The fear of the Lesotho School Headmasters codifying the history of South Africa’s of offending the minority is an offense Association. Lesotho bills itself as the nonwhite majority. “South Africa holds to the majority,” he insists. “The whites only country in sub-Saharan Africa a special place in the African imagina- gave places new names because they never to have been defeated militarily, tion,” said Ngugi, who has champi- couldn’t pronounce words in the local though they were colonized by the oned African literature in African lan- languages,” Ntsewa said. “They also British. Lesotho achieved independ- guages. As he traveled through South gave places offensive names like ence in 1966. Africa, Ngugi said he was saddened by ‘Kaffirs’ Kraal.’ [Ed. Note: This might “The process of decolonization the absence of recognition of African be translated as “A Nigger’s Village.”] has just begun in South Africa,” heroes. “No street or town is named for We have to ensure that such names are

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removed,” Ntsewa believes. being considered. Afrikaners should regard themselves as Ntsewa and other black historians Tswane mayor Smagaliso Mkhatshwa, lucky for getting off so easily after note that the European urge to re- a Catholic priest, recently fielded angry decades of apartheid abuse. That is true. name didn’t stop with places. Most calls on a radio talk show over the sub- Only a handful of extremist Afrikaners black South Africans are known by ject. Many white callers objected to would really want apartheid to be European first names, the result of an what they viewed as the unnecessary brought back. But,” Du Preez pointed apartheid government requirement expense of a name change, insisting out, the renaming movement has led to that black students have them. “Our that the money could be better spent much bitterness. “Afrikaners,” he wrote, parents used to have to conjure up on services and the needs of poor “feel they are unloved and unwanted.” names for us,” Ntsewa says. black people. In addition, white employers would “When the ANC first came into The Truth and routinely and whimsically change even power,” explains Mkhatshwa, “our Reconciliation Commission the surnames of black workers seeking focus was on providing services like One of South Africa’s first attempts the identity documents required under the apartheid government. Snail, for example, tells of how his grandfather was given his surname by a white “As someone once wrote, in order to bui employer, who thought the worker slow in following his orders. Because the apartheid government rigidly imposed have selective amnesia. If these agr identity document requirements on black workers, Snail’s family has been different factions in South Africa... wou saddled with the name ever since. He is in the process of changing his surname to the family’s original African name. other’s throats.”—Bernard Magubane, Class The Geographic Names Council last year changed the name of Pietersburg, a major South African city water and electricity. We were not to deal with its recent history occurred named for an Afrikaner general, back obsessed with name changes. But this is with the formation of the Truth and to Polokwane, which means “a place of a natural process in the course of trans- Reconciliation Commission, headed safety,” in the Ndebele and Sesotho formation.” by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. languages. Whites marched in the One white Afrikaner telephoned Created shortly after the election of streets to protest the change, and some the radio program to express bitter the new government, the commission, vandalized new signs after the changes opposition to changing Pretoria’s or TRC, as it was known, was tasked were made. Most of the name changes, name. “There is a malevolent spirit in with unearthing the extent and Ntsewa says, are simply to return them this process of changing the name of details of human rights abuses in the to what they were before Europeans Pretoria,” the caller said. “This is the apartheid era. revised them. Many places have long icon of the Afrikaner people. Now that For a country that had done its best had parallel names, he explains. [the nonwhite majority] are in the to keep such matters secret, South Whites used theirs, and blacks used driver’s seat they should respect the Africa underwent a kind of public the old names. contributions Afrikaners made to this shock treatment through months of The commission is now focusing country.” public hearings where thousands of on the Afrikaner heartland—the Max Du Preez, a popular Afrikaner witnesses told dramatic, heart-wrench- South African capital of Pretoria. newspaper columnist widely regarded ing stories of torture and murder. While the metropolitan area has as a liberal, dedicated a newspaper essay Mary Burton, a TRC commis- already been named for a Tswana to the issue. “The way Afrikaner names sioner, says that when so much evi- word meaning “we are all the same” — and symbols have been discarded has dence of abuse was placed on the Tswane—a decision on whether to caused much anxiety,” he wrote. “Some public record, “it became impossible to rename the city itself is only now say, and not without good reason, that deny the effects of apartheid and the

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mechanisms the government used to were many side deals about secrecy. We Dr. June Bam is the chief executive sustain that system.” The immediate may never find out what some of officer of the history project, an initia- aftermath, Burton says, “led to great them were.” Surprisingly, though, tive of the South African Ministry outpourings of guilt and a greater Magubane supports the idea of main- of Education. She proudly points to determination to deal with these issues. taining silence on some issues. Why? accomplishments over the past few But since then, many whites have fallen “As someone once wrote,” he says, “in years, including the approval of a new back into their daily routines of denial. order to build a nation, you have history curriculum and the establish- They have put unpleasantries in the to have selective amnesia. If those ment of programs designed to assist in back of their minds.” agreements had not been reached, the professional development of history But there were some areas of today, the different factions in South teachers. A Writing and Oral History South Africa’s history that Burton Africa would be like Israel and Project has also been launched. And acknowledges the commissioners Palestine. We would still be at each History Roundtables have been estab- knew nothing about and did not other’s throats.” lished in each of the country’s nine provinces to constantly review and improve the teaching and learning of history, as well as the production of r to build a nation, you have to new history textbooks. The roundtables also serve as networks that help history teachers share new ideas hese agreements had not been reached, the and materials. Despite the achievements, Bam ca... would still be at each acknowledges that even 10 years after the establishment of a black majority government in South Africa, students ane, Classification and Reclassification Commission are still being taught what is referred to as “Boer History.” She says, “The fact that apartheid history continues to be examine. These included agreements Teaching the “New History” taught is one of our biggest challenges. between the apartheid government in Schools We just don’t have the capacity or and the ANC to keep certain matters Keeping future generations at peace funding to make the changes as quickly secret. One of those agreements con- with one another is a principle objective as we’d like.” Bam points out that cerned the identities of spies in both of the attempt to produce a new history South Africa still has many schools camps; another closed the veil on curriculum in schools. In effect, the where classes are held under trees and highly classified apartheid govern- battle over different interpretations of still others struggle to get pencils and ment operations in biological, chemi- history is being fought, to a large paper; in such conditions, grand new cal and nuclear weapons. extent, in South Africa’s schools. schemes of history don’t get a high pri- Bernard Magubane, an emeritus “History is one of the memory systems ority, especially when the pressure is to professor of anthropology who that shape our values and morality,” produce rising test results. Many teach- returned to his native South Africa according to a report by the South ers, says Bam, just teach what they were after 27 years of teaching at the African History Project. The exercise to taught. “It’s in their comfort zone and University of Connecticut, heads two reshape the school curriculum is noth- the teachers do what is easy in order to of the government’s most important ing less than an effort to produce new obtain results.” history projects: a commission working unified citizens from a still racially strat- There are other problems, too. on an official history of the fight ified society. Carnegie Corporation of Sighing in exasperation, Bam recalls against apartheid and the Classification New York has provided assistance in the intense battles that preceded the and Reclassification Commission, this area through support aimed at selection of a new history curriculum which is charged with determining helping to strengthen the teaching of for South Africa’s primary and second- which documents from that era should history in South Africa’s schools and ary schools. “There were blacks, whites, be declassified. Magubane says, “There expanding teacher training in this field. coloureds and Indians. Everybody

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wanted their own interpretation of his- larly struggles to keep basic tory. There was even a faction that supplies. According to the didn’t even want any mention of principal, Peter Nhlapo, apartheid at all. It was a big fight, but “Most of the students are very that has been resolved.” poor. And most live with their As Bam indicates, the battle over grannies or with single par- the new South African history is not only one between blacks and whites. Indians and so-called “coloureds,” or mixed-race persons, also have a stake. “They For example, there is a dispute about the role of Mahatma Gandhi, who began his career of nonviolent activism don’t have in South Africa. His granddaughter, Ela Gandhi, still lives in the South enough African city of Durban and publishes a monthly newspaper. “I am doing quite information a lot of work trying to put grandfather into history here,” she said. “They don’t have enough information about about Gandhi in South Africa, so they don’t © COLLECTION/CORBIS HULTON-DEUTSCH know that he developed his nonviolent Mahatma Gandhi (c) when he was a Gandhi lawyer practicing in South Africa, movement here.” circa 1903. Clearly, in South Africa, even the in South subject of Mahatma Gandhi can lead to contentious debate. When a statue of Thandi Macgai is the head of the Gandhi was unveiled in Johannesburg Africa, so they history department at Job Rathebe. recently, it unleashed an angry outcry She’s old enough to have taught the from Africanists and even some Indian don’t know that subject under the apartheid govern- scholars. According to critics, Gandhi’s ment. “During the years of apartheid 25 years of activism in South Africa he developed education, it was quite difficult to were never on behalf of, or in coopera- teach history,” she says. “We were tion with, African people. His exclusive monitored by the principal, who would aim, they say, was to ease the suffering his nonviolent walk around to see what we were of the people of India. doing. I remember,” she continues, Sorting out such arguments would movement “using the book Animal Farm to talk challenge even the best-equipped and about the liberation struggle. Then I staffed schools in the developed world. was in trouble. I was warned on a very In South Africa, where many schools here.” serious note.” lack textbooks and qualified teachers, Despite the vastly improved aca- results of the new approach to history —Ela Gandhi demic environment today, many are, to put it mildly, uneven. students just don’t care about history, Job Rathebe Junior High School Macgai says. “Our youth are into sits in one of the most impoverished ents because of the toll HIV/AIDS has money and music,” she notes. “I sections of Soweto, the group of taken on the community. Most parents observe it with my own children.” It’s a teeming black townships just outside have no jobs and the students are sup- problem cited by many teachers and Johannesburg that proved critical in the ported by their grannies’ pensions. The students themselves. But, in a strange fight against apartheid. The school, a free lunch we give here is often the only dichotomy, the teaching of history in collection of rundown buildings, regu- meal many of these kids get every day.” school also faces discrimination from

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the government even as it tries to rein- Rathebe. It sits on many acres of well- Illsley confirms the view of many vigorate the topic. One of the main tended gardens and fountains. John other teachers and students that there is educational tasks that the new govern- Illsley, the head of the history depart- a particular aversion among white stu- ment focused on after it took power 10 ment, describes the school’s origins as dents to study contemporary—mean- years ago was to reverse the decades of “British colonial. Its traditions are very ing apartheid—history. “There is an policy that prevented Africans from much English public school,” he says, audible groan in the class when they learning skills and trades, so much adding, “In many ways, we’re more hear we are about to deal with it,” he emphasis has now been placed on sci- English public school now than says. It’s a kind of sullen resentment, ence and math courses designed to English public schools back in Great just below the surface, of having to go accelerate the development of workers. Britain.” Illsley, like all teachers here, through all this. There’s not a helluva The result has been that, even wears black lecturer’s robes during lot to be proud of in that period for among many teachers, history has school hours. While the number of white South Africans.” become a kind of dumping ground. black students has risen in the 10 years On the other hand, according to Soweto high school history teacher of democracy, whites still represent Illsley, the black students, the children Malopotsa Malepu says that when more than 60 percent of students. of the emerging business and govern- teachers advise students on what Illsley is strongly critical of the ment elite, seem very receptive to the courses to take they send the “slow process of curriculum revision being subject. “Black pupils have always learners” to history classes. directed by the Education Ministry, been more politically aware than white Eighteen-year-old Tshepiso calling it “largely politically motivated. students, and they still are,” he says. Kachelenga seems to understand I think the present government is mak- “Under apartheid, whites were shel- © COLLECTION/CORBIS HULTON-DEUTSCH why that is. “The other day I told ing the same mistake as the apartheid tered from information and knowledge my friend I was doing history,” government in using history for a about what their government was Kachelenga says. “He laughed at me particular ideological purpose. There doing. So the problem is that black because he said history won’t help me is definitely an agenda to push, an and white pupils view the issue totally get a job. He said history is about old Africanist point of view—maybe even differently. In some of my classes, that people. They are dead.” Sixteen-year- Marxist,” he says. “And I have been has become open in terms of the ten- old Penelope Moyila shares similar very critical of that.” Illsley also criti- sions you can see developing. That’s a experiences. “Most students don’t like cized “the hugely self-congratulatory major problem.” history,” she says. “My friends think theme the government is pushing Phillip Johnson seems an exception I’m stupid for studying it.” in contemporary history, meaning to the examples offered by Illsley. A Despite this dim view, a visitor to the struggle against apartheid. It’s white 17-year-old, Phillip expresses the history class at Job Rathebe finds being overdone.” genuine appreciation at having studied the students abuzz with excitement. Illsley says that process “doesn’t apartheid history. “Since we studied Teacher Lucky Mabasa is passionately affect the history we teach here, it a few years ago,” he says, “I feel engaged with the subject of history as because we won’t tackle it until we have strongly against racism. It’s not until he divides the class into teams that prepared properly for it. If we go by the you study it that you really understand compete for answers to historical ques- book, we’ll have to considerably revise it. By raising the issue of mistakes tions concerning conflict, tolerance what we teach. The year 2006 is made in the past, we get a chance to and globalization. The students say the deadline.” change the future. We are building tol- that they find Mabasa’s history classes Even among these much more erance, and I feel that I do need to help exciting and stimulating, leading some affluent students, Illsley says there is an the country, and be a part of it. We of them to rush home to share the day’s aversion to studying history in favor of have something special that not all lessons with often illiterate parents. more commercial courses. “There’s a countries have. Our country is more However, when a visitor asked the stu- hugely vocational decision-making diverse than anywhere else,” he says, dents how many thought that studying process that goes on here with students perhaps summing up many of South history would help them get a job, only and parents in terms of what their kids Africa’s challenges, as well as its most one raised a hand. should study,” he says. “Even boys who promising resources, in a few well-cho- The Pretoria Boys School is about enjoy history ask, how is this going sen words. “I definitely think we are as far as you can get from Soweto’s Job to help me?” on the right road.” ■

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by K ATHY lternative S EAL Pathways to ollege CThe demarcation line between high school and college is beginning to blur as educators and students find new ways to connect institutions and educational experiences.

At one side of the cafeteria of Middle College High School on the campus of New York City’s LaGuardia Community College, four boys in baggy pants and black hooded sweatshirts roar in raucous singsong: “You were jumpin’ around / You were jumpin’ around / You were slappin’ heads on the floor.” Leaping up from their table, two of the boys start play punching each other. Howling erupts as one of the play-fighting boys lifts a chair over his head, brandishing it at no one in particular. None of this noisy horseplay fazes Alex Panesso, an 18-year-old senior eating lunch on the other side of the cafeteria. Arms resting on the sticky pink cafeteria table in front of him, Panesso slides his eyes briefly toward the younger boys. “There are some students who take too much advantage of our freedom,” he explains calmly. “As a soph- omore, I messed up, I got bored. But then as a junior, I found out the only way I’m going to pass high school is by me doing it. That’s what I like about this school. We have to be responsible for ourselves. We’re inter- acting with adults and have more understanding with teachers. It changes your whole world,” says Panesso,

Kathy Seal recently coauthored with Deborah Stipek Motivated Minds: Raising Children to Love Learning (©2001 Henry Holt and Co.; Owl Books), which popularizes the last 30 years of academic research into children’s motivation to learn. Her articles and essays have appeared in publications including The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Omni, Family Circle, Educational Leadership, and Columbia Journalism Review.

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who plans to go to college, major in needs 17 months of post-high-school Jobs for the Future, a nonprofit research, business and then earn an MBA. training to work on today’s computer- consulting and advocacy organization This juxtaposition of rowdy adoles- filled cars. Jobs in health care and educa- that has received Corporation support cent behavior with cool, goal-directed tion have proliferated. Offices now for its work on new models of high maturity is emblematic of Middle account for 38 percent of all American school learning, including early College High School (MCHS), which employment and “are expected to add college programs. grants teenagers a judicious mix of free- four million new jobs by 2006, com- But policymakers and parents can’t dom and structure as it propels them pared to the 750,000 expected in the simply snap their fingers and expect toward adulthood. Serving teenagers who otherwise might drop out of high school, graduate with substandard skills or try college and fail, MCHS allows students to take courses at LaGuardia Community College, and is also piloting a program in which students stay a thirteenth year and graduate with an AA degree. It’s one of a plethora of models arising in response to the 21st century economic demand that nearly every youth attend at least two years of postsecondary education. It may not be too much to say that an entire alternative system is evolving, poised to change the American high school and significantly broaden the college prep system as we know it. Most of these new institutions are small schools embracing innovations such as project-based learning, portfo- Alex Panesso (r.), pictured with students Valerie Fernandez (l.) and lio assessments and internships. And Nurys Benzant (c.), says that the educational experience at the Middle though they come in many different College High School on the campus of New York City’s LaGuardia Community College “changes your whole world.” « shapes and forms, these initiatives EE SISCO AIM are all responding to changes in the American economy that dictate a new closely watched information technology teenagers to finish high school and paradigm for schooling. Before the sector,” notes Anthony Carnevale in move on to college. Many families, United States began to de-industrialize Help Wanted…Credentials Required: especially in urban areas, can’t afford in the 1970s, the lack of a college or Community Colleges in the Knowledge college tuition. Parents who haven’t even a high school diploma didn’t pre- Economy (Educational Testing Service, attended college themselves aren’t clude a decent middle class life. But 2001). The majority of those office familiar with the admissions and finan- while factory jobs accounted for 32 jobs are professional—in management, cial aid procedures. percent of employment in 1959, that accounting, sales and marketing. In Furthermore, just as teenagers are figure plunged to 17 percent by 1997. other words, the fastest growing jobs gaining the ability for complex abstract Gone are the days when auto, steel require higher education. thought and need motivating cognitive and rubber tire factories hired “warm “Two years of postsecondary educa- challenges, they’re often stymied by the bodies,” meaning just about anyone tion has become the minimum that low academic expectations implied by who could pass a physical. young people must achieve if they are the tracking that is common in The U.S. now has a service econ- to enter jobs that pay enough to sustain America’s approximately 14,600 basic omy, marbled throughout with high a family,” says Hilary Pennington, chief comprehensive high schools. tech. That means even Mr. Goodwrench executive officer and vice chairman of Compounding the problem, most of

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these schools still operate according to an untenable model for a 21st century have produced a high school dropout the factory model instituted after Henry society rooted in a knowledge-based rate estimated at nearly 50 percent Ford introduced the moving assembly economy, where highly skilled and edu- for urban students. And one study of line in 1913. Designed to produce large cated workers are becoming the norm. high school graduates in Baltimore’s numbers of standard-quality students, There are other problems with this non-selective high schools found that such schools fostered “punctuality, regu- outdated model of high school, as well. between 1993 and 1998, no more than larity, attention, and silence,” which Large, comprehensive schools provide 41 percent were attending college the Stanford education professor Linda little opportunity for teachers to get to year after graduation. Even students who Darling-Hammond points out in her know their students’ individual capaci- manage to get to college find it tough book The Right To Learn: A Blueprint for ties or needs, let alone provide person- going: 35.5 percent of first- and second- Creating Schools That Work (Jossey-Bass, alized attention and support. They year college students had to take 1997) were the key habits for success in offer little incentive for all students to remedial courses in industrial society. Beginning about achieve at high levels and few opportu- 1999-2000.

Many traditional American high schools are not equipped to provide the academic rigor or educational challenge students need to go on to higher education.

1920, behaviorist theory also encour- nities for teachers to work together to But creating one new high school aged a curriculum focused on eliciting create learning communities that bene- model won’t solve these problems. uniform responses, rather than on sharp- fit both student and instructor. Teenagers’ personalities and trajectories ening students’ thinking and their Nor do the large factory-model differ enormously, says Kurt Fischer, understanding of ideas. schools usually meet the psychological professor of education and development As a consequence, many traditional needs of adolescents. As they start to at the Harvard Graduate School of American high schools—particularly in form an identity and see what part they Education. That means the U.S. needs a urban areas, where they tend to be large, might play in society, teenagers need variety of alternate pathways to college. “all-purpose” institutions that elemen- caring adults to serve as role models and tary, junior high and middle schools give them guidance. They also need Shalom Means Opportunity funnel students into, almost indiscrimi- peers “with similar goals moving on to When Alex Don Martin was 14, he nately—are not equipped to provide the the next step,” adds Mike Nakkula, spent his days skateboarding, smoking academic rigor or educational challenge assistant professor of human develop- marijuana, and drinking beer. He lived and sense of purpose needed to provide ment and urban education at the with his unemployed and mentally ill all students with the opportunity to Harvard Graduate School of Education. mother, but also spent nights at his succeed in high school and go on to Students in urban schools who don’t father’s apartment, sleeping on the higher education. Like de facto sorting feel well-supported often feel like “they couch. “I was out with my friends all the machines left over from an earlier age, have to take care of themselves,” says time. I wouldn’t come home at all on the design of these schools is still rooted Nakkula, “and to satisfy their need for weekends,” he remembers. In the 10th in the idea of sending high-achieving economic gain they can’t wait two-to- grade, he dropped out of school. students on to college while allowing four years, so they go out and get jobs.” Today Martin, who graduated from others to step off the educational track Such psychological and financial Marquette University Law School in to pursue a vocation or, for nongradu- pressures, combined with curricula that Milwaukee with high honors, works ates, to fill unskilled labor slots. That is don’t set high expectations for students, at a small law firm in that city. The

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28-year-old husband and new father credits the turnaround in his life to Shalom High School, where his father took him in desperation when Martin was 16. Run by TransCenter for Youth Inc., a community-based organization in Milwaukee, Shalom is one of several dozen Community Based Organization (CBO) schools nationwide providing an increasingly important alternate path- way to college. Shalom opened in 1973 as a private school for youth referred by local courts. (Its name comes from a sign remaining on its building from a 1960s-era

Franciscan Brothers ecumenical drop-in “We have an open campus because we want to teach kids to center.) By 1981, six Shalom directors be responsible,” says Aaron Listhaus, principal of LaGuardia « had burned out from the task of raising EE SISCO Middle College High School. AIM the school’s budget every year. The seventh, Daniel Grego, decided to work on the role of the United States and with community activists, state legisla- the Soviet Union in Somalia. To gradu- “How do tors and Wisconsin governor Tony Earl ate, he presented a portfolio of work, on legislation allowing districts with including a paper on the ethics of teach large numbers of high school dropouts the death penalty, before a graduation you to contract for schooling with private, committee of two teachers and three nonprofit and nonsectarian community- community members. After gradua- kids to be based agencies. Enacted in 1985, this tion, about half of Shalom’s students “money follows the at-risk student” law enter college. quadrupled Shalom’s budget overnight. Shalom has received funding from autonomous (Minnesota has a similar statute.) Soon, many different private and corporate says Grego, parents were knocking on foundations including the Lynde if they’re the door saying, “Does my son have to and Harry Bradley Foundation; the rob a store to get into Shalom?” Helen Bader Foundation; the Greater Like Northwest Opportunities Milwaukee Foundation; the Faye not given Vocational Academy (NOVA) and El McBeath Foundation; Patrick and Anna Puente High School for Science Math M. Cudahy Fund; the Northwestern any and Technology, two Milwaukee schools Mutual Foundation; Ameritech; also run by TransCenter, Shalom has Johnson Controls Foundation; the 100 students. Most are high school Walton Family Foundation; the Stackner freedoms?” dropouts. “We tend to get 16-19-year- Family Foundation; the Archdiocese olds who haven’t earned many credits,” of Milwaukee Supporting Fund; and the —Aaron Listhaus, says Grego. To graduate, they must earn Miller Brewing Company. principal, LaGuardia 22 credits and demonstrate mastery of 300 core skills, often through a Freedom and Responsibility: Middle College project chosen to match their interests. A Model for Change High School One girl, for example, wrote about LaGuardia Middle College characters—literary, cinematic and High School was founded with a real—who succumbed to each of the Carnegie Corporation planning seven deadly sins. Martin did a project grant on the campus of LaGuardia

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Community College in 1974. The pio- 100 ninth grade slots, says principal dents derive them. neering 530-student school (now Aaron Listhaus. Applicants have to Now MCHS is ratcheting up expec- downsizing to 430) was later replicated show potential for college work, but tations by piloting its Middle College- at 31 sites nationwide. Today it serves as must have failed at least three courses Early College (MCEC) High School one model for the Early College High or been truant for 40 days during the program with 17 students. Community School Initiative, which will work with previous year. college courses have always been nonprofit intermediaries to establish The school offers a demanding cur- optional for 11th and 12th graders, but early college high schools nationwide. riculum and multiple support strate- MCEC students, who will graduate Students will graduate from these early gies, yet simultaneously accords stu- with an AA degree, must take 12 quar- colleges with an AA degree or two years dents a large measure of adult freedom. terly courses at LaGuardia Community of college credit toward the baccalaure- Smoking in front of the entrance is College during those years and one ate degree. Funded by the Bill & allowed—although not without fierce each summer, as well as a full load of Melinda Gates Foundation along with ongoing debate. Beyond losing grade college classes during an extra “13th Carnegie Corporation of New York, the points, there are no penalties for cutting grade” year. Ford Foundation and the W.K. Kellogg class, although teachers will talk to stu- They also attend a 70-minute semi- Foundation, the more than $60 mil- dents who do so. Students have unfet- nar four times a week where MCHS lion, five-year effort aims to increase tered Internet access; they choose their teacher David Grodsky coaches stu- college-going for underrepresented courses and internships. And their dents through their college courses. youth by creating a seamless transition opinions count: the administration That means everything from giving between high school and college, rescinded a hated ban on hats (which them vouchers to buy books and help- especially for low-income and first- may signal gang affiliations) when ing them understand their assignments, generation college-goers, English lan- students promised to report any signs of to working with their college instructor guage learners and students of color. gang activity at school. when necessary. For example, when As of this writing, eleven intermedi- “How do you teach kids to be MCEC students told Grodsky agitat- ary or partner organizations, coordi- autonomous if they’re not given any edly that they had to role-play joining a nated by Jobs for the Future, will each freedoms?” asks Listhaus. “We have an gang, he explained to their Theater as create or redesign between six and open campus because we want to teach Communication instructor that the twenty public schools. They will enroll kids to be responsible, to handle their issue was still too raw for them. no more than 400 students, provide a time and make those decisions.” But his biggest task, says Grodsky, is rigorous curriculum and engage stu- Like Alex Panesso, almost every nudging students toward the maturity dents in “active inquiry.” student initially “messes up” but then demanded by college culture. They have “Not enough kids complete col- realizes his or her error. “At first, I did to be self-starters, prepared and on time, lege in this country,” says Cecilia take advantage of how they treat you and adjust to lectures and tests rather Cunningham, a former LaGuardia like an adult,” admits Nurys Benzant, than projects, he says. Furthermore, MCHS principal who now directs the an 18-year-old junior from Queens. college professors are less personal and 30-member Middle College National “That’s why I’m a junior. I was sup- flexible than MCHS teachers. Consortium, based at LaGuardia posed to be a senior. …Now I’m grate- “Here, teachers have kind of moth- Community College. “Now we’re ful they did teach me responsibility.” ered and fathered them through by going to see if by combining grades 9- Benzant plans to get a B.A. in education being friendly and funny and getting 14 into one institution we’re able to and teach literature and writing. to know them as individuals,” explains get more of them through. There’s no Pedagogy also reflects respect for Grodsky, a 34-year-old Princeton gradu- doubt that we will.” students’ minds. “The teachers want ate. “College professors are nice enough Indictors are that Cunningham and you to know what and why you’re people, but a little less interested in her colleagues are on the right track. doing something rather than just running a student-centered classroom.” Ninety-seven percent of MCHS’ 2003 saying, ‘Do this,’” explains senior Other Gates partner organizations graduates will attend college (more Valerie Fernandez, 17, who wants to are designing Early College High than one-third will go to four-year study computer graphics at a four-year Schools along distinctly different lines. schools), and the school receives more college. Instead of simply memorizing Some examples: than 1,000 applications annually for its geometry formulas, for example, stu- ■ In Washington State, eight early

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colleges will integrate Native American Utah has a state program that pays Frank Hernandez’ devotion to Middle culture into their programs. Antioch up to 75 percent of state university College High School (MCHS) at Contra University of Seattle is redesigning tuition for students who have earned an Costa College (CCC) in San Pablo, California, soars beyond his professional six high schools and launching two AA degree by the September follow- commitment. Growing up in the surround- others for students in grades 9-14. ing high school graduation. The ing blue collar neighborhood, known for its All students will graduate with college Utah Partnership for Education and shipyard and oil refineries, Hernandez credits, some with an AA degree. Economic Development is working to attended this community college just north Curriculum at the new, year-round extend it to students who complete the of Berkeley in the early 1960s. After earn- ing his B.A. at San Francisco State program will include native literature new charter schools’ university-level University, he returned to Contra Costa, and arts and possibly courses in the math and science core. whose aura of a “ poor minority school” at Lummi, Salish and Lushotseed native ■ Emphasizing the liberal arts and languages. The project aims to shift links to major research universities expectations for Native Americans away and colleges, the Woodrow Wilson from remediation and toward rig- National Fellowship Foundation orous academics. will redesign one school and create ■ Students in Portland Community nine others based on the model of Two Sc College’s College Bound program in Bard High School Early College Oregon are high school dropouts who (BHSEC), a two-year-old New enter with an average 1.89 GPA, but York City public school. Eleventh leave with both a high school diploma and 12th graders at BHSEC

and enough college credits to take them take four Great Books/critical ©BARBARA ALLCOX through freshman year. Twenty-two reading and writing seminars, and Frank Hernandez, dean, percent graduate with an AA degree. college-level courses in subjects Contra Costa College The Early College High School initia- such as philosophy and math, many times contrasted sharply to the white sub- tive will give Portland Community taught by Ph.Ds. They graduate urban image and facilities of two other local College $4.85 million to replicate its with an AA degree. community colleges. 400-student College Bound program at While BHSEC students are chosen Hernandez began working as a coun- eight community colleges nationwide chiefly for their motivation—dean of selor, determined to show students they over the next five years. studies Pat Sharpe says the school wants had opportunities to succeed in the world beyond. He particularly wanted to pro- ■ Faculty from nearby universities students “who thirst for ideas”—the vide a role model to the growing number will teach university-level math and Woodrow Wilson schools will target of Latino students on campus. science courses at six math and science “disadvantaged students, largely minor- “I felt it was a real responsibility to charter schools created by the ity urban poor,” says Anthony W. Marx, show students that there were alternatives Utah Partnership for Education and former director of the Woodrow Wilson beyond the city limits,” says Hernandez, Economic Development and the state Early College High School Initiative now dean of Contra Costa and liaison to its Middle College High School. governor’s office. who took over the presidency of When that possibility took shape Unlike many other early college high Amherst College in July 2003. in 1989 in the form of a proposed MCHS schools, these “New Century High Four-year liberal arts colleges and at Contra Costa, Hernandez jumped in Schools” will emphasize traditional universities including CUNY-Hunter, enthusiastically. But he was not the only “direct instruction” integrated with a Brooklyn College and California State one to greet with excitement this effort— sponsored by the Ford Foundation—to lesser amount of project-based learning, University, Los Angeles are helping the replicate the LaGuardia MCHS model in says Rich Kendell, deputy to Utah Woodrow Wilson schools develop cur- New York City. Similarly strong bonds to Governor Mike O. Leavitt and project riculum and select teachers. The aim is the community abound among Contra director for the Utah New Century to broaden the reach of liberal arts Costa staff. As a result, the college has an High Schools. Forty-eight local high training. “Given the future of the global extremely high commitment to its middle tech firms have already agreed to pro- economic division of labor, the U.S. college high school, which in turn has resulted in unusually close integration of vide help ranging from curriculum economy is going to be increasingly the two institutions. advice and teaching to sponsoring sum- requiring critical thinking, which is the “The community college commit- mer school and providing internships. mainstay of the liberal arts,” says Marx. ment to its MCHS is extremely high, and

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they’ve probably had the highest level of col- accompanies this academic blending. part of the campus,” says Carlone. “Our stu- laboration” of all the middle colleges to date, Appointed as liaison between the college and dents are part of the college.” says Cee Cee Cunningham, director of the the high school soon after the middle college’s Former MCHS principal Myra Silverman’s Middle College National Consortium. The somewhat shaky launch, Hernandez insisted on familiarity with the school district (she’s a 20- new and redesigned institutions in the Early bringing middle college staff on to the college’s year veteran) enabled her to iron out a number College High School Initiative (see accompa- Academic Senate Council. Today, MCHS of problems faced by MCHS at its inception. nying story), she adds, are emulating that counselor Emilie Wilson reports to that council She obtained teacher preparation periods, for close cooperation. on the middle college every month. A joint example, and even managed to change the In some instances, Contra Costa and MCHS/CCC Advisory committee also dis- MCHS calendar to fit in with the community MCHS collaborate so closely that the two cusses middle college issues regularly. It makes college year.“She was really good at working her institutions seem fused. MCHS students who recommendations on MCHS admissions deci- system to get stuff,” recalls want to work on their yearbook, for example, sions, and is currently refining the school’s Hernandez. “She had do so in a graphics course taught by a Contra admissions criteria. (MCHS received 300 appli- been in the district and Costa instructor. Similarly, the 25 students on cations for 70 places for its 2003 entering class.) was connected. She wo Schools ollaborate C and Students ucceed the high school’s two-year-old robotics team In addition, MCHS staff take part in the knewS supporters of take the college’s Computer Science 101: college’s academic senate; the high school’s the project.” Robotics alongside MCHS’ Principles of nine teachers may attend college academic Thorough min- Technology course. Contra Costa students in department meetings. And principal Gary gling of MCHS and Contra the computer science class mentor the high Carlone attends the college’s council of depart- Costa also gives MCHS students organizational schoolers, who build a robot from scratch in six ment chairs. and job experiences, while supplying the col- weeks, and then enter it into competition with Such tight linkages have apparently borne lege with needed services. For example, the robots built by other high school teams. fruit. It’s not only that 50 of the 53 MCHS MCHS Leadership Class runs the campus-wide Key to this snug integration of MCHS and 2003 graduates went on to two- or four-year recycling program, and keeps the college’s bul- Contra Costa is the requirement that every colleges (three went into the military) and that letin boards up-to-date. Club members usher at MCHS student take a community college eight also received AA degrees. But in 2003, graduation, and set up events like Career Day course each semester. As a result, MCHS has MCHS students also achieved the highest or Martin Luther King’s birthday. Says MCHS the highest percentage of community college standardized state test scores in the West student Avestro, “We’re learning to become courses passed by students of any middle col- Contra Costa Unified School District: an aver- mature and handle ourselves in situations.” lege, says Cunningham. In the 2001-2002 age of 783 (out of a possible 1,000) on the Not that all is rosy at MCHS: in addition school year, MCHS students passed 99 percent state’s Academic Performance Index (API). to the state budget crisis and resulting cuts in of their Contra Costa courses. In comparison, Though such high test scores rouse accusa- community college and school district fund- only 40 percent of the 6,000 students at all mid- tions of “cherry picking” the district’s best stu- ing, recent legislation prevents the majority of dle colleges took community college courses, dents for admission, MCHS—like LaGuardia MCHS students from taking physical educa- and they passed only 80 percent of them. MCHS—admits mainly students who have tion and summer school courses at Contra Contra Costa faculty and MCHS teachers good potential but aren’t performing well. Costa. The quantity of community college teach some courses collaboratively. For exam- “We look for the middle performing stu- credits MCHS students can take in one year ple, as part of the American Social History dent—not low-low or high-high—though we without paying has also been reduced. In Project, created by the Middle College do take some of each,” explains Carlone. January, Contra Costa was put on the state’s fis- National Consortium, college instructor Today, MCHS’ and Contra Costa’s shar- cal watch list. Carolyn Hodge teaches African-American his- ing of space and facilities, while not unusual But if Carolyn Hodge has her way, the tory in conjunction with MCHS’s Adolph among middle colleges, is readily apparent on a MCHS students will be around for a long time “Bert” Bertero, who teaches U.S. history. green and relatively compact California cam- to come. While admitting they can be more That means, for example, that Bertero pus, as compared to an east coast campus boisterous than the older community college might supply historical perspective or detail whose buildings may be separated by city students, Hodges says, “I love them. They have during Hodge’s classes. “If I’m at a period of streets, as they are at LaGuardia. Carlone’s a lot of energy. They are always more upbeat history—say the Treaty of Paris in 1763—I’ll office is one floor below the college president’s, than my regular college students. They do real look over to him, and he’ll tell me who was and MCHS students have access to the entire quality work—sometimes better than my regu- fighting whom,” explains Hodge. Contra Costa campus, including classrooms, lar students. They go the extra mile. I really like A large measure of shared governance laboratories, library and media center. “We are that enthusiasm.”

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Creating a College- and “life experience,” a visit one after- alienated from their high schools. It Bound Culture noon to Language Arts teacher Jennifer offers a flexible year-round schedule of For some students, getting to college Block’s classroom finds serious students small classes from early morning to nine depends on having more time to finish like Dormevil, her 55-year-old class- p.m. If students don’t finish high school high school. Twenty-eight-year-old Lisa mate Iris Rivera and 19-year-old by age 18, “we roll them right over to Dormevil is one such student. Growing Timmy Anderson, a dropout from our adult high school completion pro- up in foster homes—her mother spent Trenton High School, learning about gram, which has the same core curricu- 27 years as a drug addict—Dormevil left irony, defining the word “cunning,” lum,” says principal James Andersen. high school in 10th grade. Pregnant and answering questions about inference— Horizonte students complete a accompanied by her one-year-old son, and pleading to take that day’s text, the “service learning” project, studying a she moved from Virginia to New Jersey novel Black Girl Lost (All America community issue, performing a task in 1991, sleeping some nights in card- Distributors Corps, 1999) by Donald to meet that need and writing up board boxes, begging passersby for Goines, home to finish. what they learned from the project. change. In 2003, Dormevil graduated After class, black hair pulled back While the school does not keep from the Daylight/Twilight High from her round ebony face into a short, exact college- School, a three-year-old public school flippy ponytail, Dormevil exudes joy. going

“Given the future of the global economic division of labor, the U.S. economy is going to be increasingly requiring critical thinking.” —Anthony W. Marx, president, Amherst College

in Trenton for students 16 and older “I thought I’d never see the day statistics, 72 of its 200 youth grad- who want to finish high school. when I would get a letter saying, ‘You’re uates in June 2003 applied for college Open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., accepted to college,’” she says. Her exu- and the school’s $500 college “starter” Daylight/Twilight offers a largely reme- berance at receiving such a letter from scholarships. dial curriculum. Its flexible schedule Mercer Community College in Trenton Even more flexible than Daylight/ allowed Dormevil—who now has four so touched guidance counselor Alfred Twilight High School and Horizonte are children and works as a cook at Pizza W. Bridges that he posted it in the the dozens of virtual schools operated by Hut—to attend two days a week from school’s hallway, later adding 80 more at least ten states, eight universities and 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. Serving 3,000 stu- student acceptances. “I’m trying to cre- several public school districts nation- dents, of whom 80 percent are African- ate a college-going culture here,” says wide. Some students take only one or American, at its main campus and six Bridges, a former vice president of the more courses, but others complete an satellites, the school offers no frills, College of New Jersey. entire curriculum online. There are also except a prom. Most students try the Horizonte Instruction and Training online high schools run by private high school several times before staying. Center, an alternative public high schools, regional agencies and consortia, “Our students are older, better-focused school in Salt Lake City, similarly as well as by nonprofit and for-profit and directed. They want to patch a big allows students to finish high school organizations. hole that’s been missing in their lives,” at their own pace. Serving 800 inner says principal Bill Tracy. city 7th-to-12th graders at nine sites, Patching Up the Patchwork Although the state allows credits Horizonte was an adult school that Today’s efforts to smooth the path- for a few academically dubious achieve- added a program in the 1980s for stu- way into college may seem like an ments, such as gaining a driver’s license dents who felt socially or culturally attempt to recover a halcyon educa-

22 carnegie reporter—Spring 2oo4 240465-Carnegie 3/19/04 9:15 AM Page 23

tional past. However, history suggests chose electives rather than following to enter community college. They could otherwise. a dictated curriculum. That choice also stay two extra years to remediate, In 1900, only ten percent of implied, however, that they had learned or to take AP or International American 14-to-17-year-olds attended the liberal arts in high school. Later, in Baccalaureate Diploma courses or other high schools. By 1980, 90 percent of reaction, higher education again took advanced work before entering college. youth in that age bracket were enrolled. up the liberal arts. As a result, students Others are advocating state legislation As students flooded in, public high today may build a liberal arts founda- that will extend state K-12 financing schools grew into large institutions with tion either in a “college prep” high into the 13th and 14th years, promoting curriculum tracks separating college school curriculum or in college—or the idea that, as LaGuardia MCHS prep students from those taking the in neither place. The “neither place” principal Aaron Listhaus puts it, “college increasingly numerous “commercial” or option is becoming all the more likely as education is a right, not a privilege.” “vocational” courses. “This was done,” students increasingly attend several dif- Perhaps the biggest challenge, explains Anthony Marx, “on the false ferent postsecondary institutions, col- though, is encouraging systemic change idea that not all students are capable of lecting credits as though at an educa- on the high school level so that, as a academic work.” tional buffet rather than a sit-down five- society, we are not approaching the Thus schools that in the past pro- course meal. problem of helping youngsters make vided college prep education only for a This lack of coherent design in the the transition from high school to col- minority are now being asked to do so American educational system has also lege on a one-school-at-a-time basis. for the great majority. meant, adds Orrill, that intellectual Indeed, the idea of creating alternative Furthermore, the experimental achievement for many students ends pathways to college is rooted in the pathways emerging for this majority before 11th grade, as shown by the fact pressures that an increasingly knowl- are not replacing a rationally designed that high school graduation exams in edge-based economy has placed on system. The American “K-12 + college” most states rarely test beyond the 9th or schools, students, teachers, administra- configuration arose, notes Bob Orrill, 10th grade level. (Even the SATs, he tors, parents, policymakers, business executive director of the National adds, don’t test far above a 10th grade leaders—meaning just about everyone Council on Education and the program.) That leaves what Orrill calls “a with a stake in the nation’s future. Says Disciplines, by “historic accident”—as dangerously weak, even vacant ‘center’ in Barbara Gombach, program associate in a patchwork of institutions. grades 11-14.” The major efforts to firm the Education Division of Carnegie In the 1800s, state governments up those years—advanced placement Corporation of New York, which has allowed both high schools and colleges (AP) classes and dual enrollment (high provided support for a number of early to grant either a B.A. or a certi- school students taking community col- college strategies (as well as creating and ficate, explains Carnegie Corporation lege courses)—are thus growing rapidly. funding Schools for a New Society, a Education Division Chair Daniel Fallon. But many consider AP and dual major urban high school reform initia- Those awarding a B.A. were called col- enrollment only stopgap measures. tive that is also supported by the Bill & leges, and those granting a certificate Grades 11-14 are still orphans, they Melinda Gates Foundation), “Our chal- were called high schools—even though contend, and the junior and senior high lenge now is to create systems of good they might have had the same curricu- school years, in particular, are pointless. high schools—places that prepare all of lum. The high school course might even “For elite kids, it’s senioritis,” says the nation’s adolescents for college, for be more rigorous. Exactly where students Anthony Marx. “For kids who aren’t employment, and for citizenship.” should study the liberal arts was unclear. going on to college, it’s often a waste There are reasons to be encouraged. That confusion grew with the because they’re bored and the work is High school, college and university founding of the American research uni- not sufficiently advanced.” policymakers, for example, are begin- versity in the last half of the 19th Institutionalizing multiple new ning to address together the need to century. While colonial American col- pathways to college to clarify the grades restructure high schools and ease the leges were modeled after Oxford and 11-14 muddle will demand changes in transition to college. A resolution of Cambridge universities, with liberal arts public understanding and policy. Some the grades 11-14 problem—which at the core, the new research universities educators are calling for a one-track Daniel Fallon calls “the unfinished incorporated the German idea of lern- curriculum ending at 10th grade, business of American education”—may freiheit, the freedom to learn. Students after which students would be prepared be on the horizon. ■

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Centers of Edu in ussia: The Case for CASEs

After the fall of the Soviet Union, there were fears that universities in the new Russia would not be able to support a high level of scholarship. A visit to see the results of a Corporation-supported project designed to advance the intellectual life of this vast, mercurial country provided memorable impressions for the author and her colleagues.

As an upbeat American jazz band played from a balcony loft in a crowded and popular restaurant in central Russia, Mary Popova’s face beamed with the pleasure of telling me what the fellows grant she had received as a result of Carnegie Corporation’s support of higher education in Russia meant to her. Across the noisy table, Popova, a professor of literature at Voronezh State University, a Russian regional institution celebrating its 85th year, said, “First of all, it meant that my application was high quality, and that was professionally affirming.” The fellowship had also given Popova the ability to spend a semester studying at the University of Kansas, an experience that included having access to books that she told me, “I never dreamed I could put my hands on.” “Was that what living in America represented to you?” I asked “Access to scholarship?” “Well, living in America changed my perceptions of the country and I never thought that at my age, I could change,” said this intense, enthusiastic woman, the sin-

Susan King is Vice President, Public Affairs of Carnegie Corporation of New York. She spent twenty years as a journalist covering national and international issues and, before joining PHOTOGRAPHS BY SUSAN KING PHOTOGRAPHS the foundation, served as Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the Department of Labor.

24 carnegie reporter—Spring 2oo4 240465-Carnegie 3/19/04 9:16 AM Page 25 ducation BY S USAN K ING

Deana Arsenian (left) with author Susan King (second from left) at a CASEs meeting at Saratov State University. Es

Stopping for tea on the road from Saratov to Voronezh, Corporation staff members, Deana Arsenian (second from left); Neil Grabois (right); and Ed Sermier (second from right); sit with Irina Laktionova (left), CASEs program manager; Andrei Kortunov (third from left), Russian director of CASEs; and Sergei Kamshilin (third from right), Voronezh CASEs coordinator. 240465-Carnegie 3/19/04 9:17 AM Page 26

gle mother of a grown son. “But I did!” uation: Neil Grabois, vice president and now, those of us who helped create the she exclaimed. director for strategic planning and pro- CASEs will be judged on the impact I was intrigued. “Have your new gram coordination; Ed Sermier, vice and wisdom of this initiative, which perceptions changed your work?” I president and chief administrative offi- will run for six-to-nine years and cost said, almost shouting as the band cer and corporate secretary; and Deana approximately $20 million in the pur- cranked up. Arsenian, the leader of our group, sen- suit of a singular goal: reinvigorating a “Yes,” Popova replied. “Now, I focus ior program officer in the Corporation’s post-Communist Russian university on results. I used to focus on process, International Peace and Security pro- system that had, for the most part, but in America, results matter.” Popova’s gram and the person within the abandoned regional intellectuals and eyes sparkled. Clearly, I was talking to a Corporation responsible for this com- scholars to the free-market uncertainties happy woman who was proud that she plicated Russian initiative. She wanted of modern life. was no longer just a professor, or even a a high-level delegation to visit the uni- Under the leadership of Vartan professor with a sought-after Carnegie fellowship. Now, she was also the academic advisor of the Voronezh Center for Advanced Study and Education “I focus on results. I used to (CASE), one of nine CASEs established by Carnegie Corporation of New York since 2000. I had come to Russia to visit focus on process, but in America, four of them. results matter.” —Mary Popova, A Reporter’s Journey I was part of a group who had trav- academic advisor of the Voronezh CASE eled to Russia in November 2003 to see the results of the Corporation-sponsored CASE program, which is aimed at revitalizing higher education in the for- versities in order to emphasize to the Gregorian, the Corporation’s president, mer Soviet Union through the estab- Russian educational leadership how who had taken office in 1997 promis- lishment of university-based centers important the CASE initiative is to ing that the foundation would take dedicated to the promotion of scholar- the Corporation and its partners, the risks, learn from its mistakes and dis- ship, publications, academic mobility, Russian Ministry of Education and the seminate information about what works international networking and access to John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur in its programs and what doesn’t, I set resources. Although for several years Foundation. out on this long trek that wound its way now I have been the vice president, I was planning to write about my from Moscow to St. Petersburg to public affairs for the Corporation, most impressions of the CASEs when I got Rostov on the Don with a journalist’s of my earlier career had been spent as a back to New York, but I knew that curiosity, a storyteller’s imperative and a journalist, and my reporter’s passion to doing so would present a challenge on healthy degree of skepticism. understand and explain issues and many levels. For example, I understood events meant that I came to Russia that for the first time in my experience Results, Not Process looking for the real story of the CASEs, as a journalist, I would be writing for an The morning after Popova showed to see if the strategies, plans and pro- audience who could not necessarily take us the renewed night life of Voronezh, grams so carefully conceived by the my objectivity for granted. As a mem- a city almost totally destroyed by the Corporation and its partners in the ven- ber of the Corporation team that is German army in World War II and ture, energetically debated among all responsible for both shaping an ambi- now the very picture of a rebuilt involved and now being implemented tious program like CASEs and making metropolis, albeit Soviet style, she led a in Russian universities, were working it accountable, I was not simply a jour- presentation about the Voronezh CASE out as we had all hoped. nalist documenting and reporting: I in a crowded, well-lit and book-lined I was joined by Corporation col- had—and have—a stake in the out- office. Voronezh State University, like leagues who have a trained eye for eval- come. I was also aware that years from all the other institutions that had sub-

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mitted proposals and won the competi- divide. We hope the scholars and stu- the mid-60s. Products of Soviet ideol- tion to create a CASE, had to provide dents in the colloquiums and in their ogy and scholarship, it’s unlikely these prime real estate for the CASE office, research will create a bridge to that individuals will change their thinking its computer center and its library. The other side,” she added hopefully. or their methods. The promise of new walls were newly painted and the When she finished, she asked for ideas and innovative thought and teach- shelves were of shiny wood, a surprise questions, “In the American style,” as ing won’t surface for at least a decade after a long walk through an otherwise she put it, “so we can have a discus- when the young scholars, professors down-on-its-luck building just off the sion.” This was not a phrase tossed out and leaders begin to dominate the intel- city square, where an imposing statue for the benefit of her foundation audi- lectual life of Russia. of Lenin still stood. ence. Popova had told me at the restau- But almost five years since the rant that she has changed her teaching Corporation began to study what could style and that she is urging others in the be done in higher education in the for- university to do the same. mer Soviet Union, and three years since She said, “In Russia, what we’ve the establishment of the first three always done is lecture our students. You CASEs, there are results. In this article, stand up in front of them for hours and I will not attempt to evaluate the level tell them what to think. When they of scholarship being generated—that’s take exams, our tradition has been to not my expertise—but I can report that have the students give back to you as I traveled from once CASE to exactly what you’ve told them. Now, another, I heard, in the conversations instead, I ask my students to analyze and perspectives of the young intellec- and think. For many of them, that’s tuals who are part of the centers, a great something new.” hunger for change. And in many of the This kind of interactive educational young researchers and professors, I saw process, challenging students and the kinds of attitudes and ideas com- demanding dissent and debate, is mon among ambitious young American part of the revolution in the humanities scholars who are seeking to stand out

Mary Popova, professor of lit- that the Corporation and others are among their peers, who are passionate erature and academic advisor hoping will help to transform Russia’s about their field of research and quick of the Voronezh CASE. university system. “My sense,” Deana to criticize programs that don’t quite Arsenian said to me, “is that none of the work as promised. Like any presentation during the scholars from these centers are invited Soviet era, Popova’s talk contained a to Western conferences on the basis Conversations in Moscow detailed list of facts: 66 conferences con- of their scholarship. Can the CASEs On a Sunday afternoon, as darkness vened since the Voronezh CASE had change that?” she wondered aloud. “I’ve crept up early on the capital city, five been established three years ago; 33 no doubt CASEs will improve the young Moscovites, chosen as part of books had been published; 500 copies of scholarship in the country and within the community of 300 CASE fellows, each book had been printed and distrib- the universities, but I don’t know joined me for tea in the lobby of one of uted. But unlike the Soviet era, there whether that will push the institutions Moscow’s new plush hotels that serve was an openness and enthusiasm about to elevate the social sciences to world the burgeoning business class. They Popova’s presentation, which focused on level,” she concluded. were mostly in their 20s, focused, intel- a rethinking of the Russian identity. And how effective radically re-engi- lectually aggressive and demanding: “We analyze our modern culture at neering the way teachers of history, they showed up with as many questions the same time that it is changing,” social studies and philosophy—so long as insights into the program. Popova explained to the group. “We steeped in the ideology of the Soviet “The regional head of my program see our CASE in terms of the system—will be, may not be known for is very hierarchical and really not open metaphor of a bridge. We understand years. Many factors mitigate against to new discussions. He is set in his ways where we are now but we don’t know success: in some universities, for exam- and seems to have attitudes about what lies on the other side of the ple, the average age of a professor is in young researchers from the capital,”

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Tatiana Pisheva, a political psychology Connecting student at Moscow State University told me about her contact at Saratov State University, a regional CASE we scholars—particularly would travel to the next day. She echoed an attitude one might expect those outside Moscow from an American Ivy League Ph.D. speaking about a less-than-stellar and St. Petersburg— Midwestern university in the U.S., and one shared by both the CASE fellows I met here and later, in St. Petersburg. has always been Despite Pisheva’s reservations, connecting scholars, particularly those in one of the the provinces outside Moscow and St. Petersburg—which have traditionally critical concerns under- been the centers of intellectual thought in Russia—has always been one of the critical concerns underpinning CASEs, pinning CASEs as has academic mobility, which stalled after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Financial support for regional universities also dried up. At the moment when Such publications are a plus for a ambitious 31-year-old who, in addi- the ideological noose around the young professor who is building a tion to her academic pursuits, was humanities and social sciences was name for himself and who wants to working for members of the Duma, unknotted, and innovation and intel- help rewrite Russia’s history books. “It’s Russia’s principal legislative body, who lectual debate were most needed, entre- my goal to break the old stereotypes of hire young researchers and consultants preneurship had replaced higher educa- historical memory,” he said. “Today, like Shelekasova to carry out public tion as Russia’s leading value. Chaos the textbooks are written by old-fash- opinion analysis for their election rather than continuity was the hallmark ioned people and people who were not campaigns. of the 1990s. The fear among all the specialists in their disciplines. They Because of her responsibilities, partners in CASEs was that one of the don’t know enough about the world.” Shelekasova had no time to travel to greatest strengths of Russia—its intel- Quiet, studious, and clearly dedicated, CASE conferences outside Moscow, but lectual life—would be lost. he went on to say, “Changing and Pisheva, her research partner thought The students who joined me and guiding the minds of young people— the regional experience important for the Corporation team for tea were some that is enormously difficult. It’s hard their joint work. “You need to under- of Russia’s intellectual elite who saw enough to change one mind, but to do stand public opinion outside Moscow,” their competitively won CASE fellow- it on a mass scale…” his voice trailed she said. ships as both financial support and a off. He wasn’t promising to change the Throughout the afternoon, the resume builder. As a group, they shared minds and memories of Russia’s young scholars’ conversation wandered ambition, intensity and few illusions people in one generation—he was just through the pros and cons of academic about their country or their future. willing to try. mobility and interaction; they voiced “I’ve had good cooperation with my The younger women who joined complaints about voucher payments, Saratov colleague,” said Alexander us at tea were more impetuous, more confusion about what their stipend Techoudinov, a historian, and, at 42, in a hurry, more anxious to be part of covered, and had many other ques- the oldest of the group. His fellow his- the political swirl of Moscow. “The tions about how their fellowship sup- torian at the Saratov CASE, he said, was fellowship is very important for my port was playing out. But Andrei also very Western-minded. “We wrote Ph.D. It’s prestigious and gives me Kortunov, the director of the CASE and edited some papers together,” he financial and intellectual support,” program who listened for most of the explained. said Natalia Shelekasova, a lively and two-hour discussion, was offering no

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dents who are anxious to rigid Soviet ideology, I had originally influence the wider world. thought it ironic that one of the They are not ideologues. Corporation’s main partners in the They are not captives of CASEs program was the Russian their past. They are infused Ministry of Education, which in the with the power of ideas. past had promulgated only “official” As the teacups emp- information in state-authorized text- tied, I couldn’t help but books. But Deana Arsenian, who was ask one more question of educated in Moscow before her family this energetic group. I emigrated to the United States, and asked each where they who worked in Russia during the Soviet wanted to be and what days and in the period of transition to they wanted to do in ten democracy, believes that the success of years, but long-term plans CASEs depends on an effective working were not something these relationship with the Ministry—not products of the years of simply because the government’s educa- upheaval in Russia were tional leadership can open doors and

CASE fellows at a cafe comfortable depending reinforce the scholarship strategies the in Moscow. on. “We can’t look that far ahead,” said Corporation is promoting, but because Natasha Anokhina, another political the Ministry and the country have every scientist at Moscow State University. reason to want the goals articulated by compromises on the basic notion All five scholars did indicate, however, the CASEs mandate to be achieved. behind the CASE fellowships. “They that in the future, they wanted a pub- “What the Ministry wants is the CASE- are meant to benefit the young schol- lic leadership role, financial security produced research to lead to a new, ars, yes,” he said. “But first and fore- and no connection with the concept of strengthened and Westernized curricu- most, we must use our Moscow-based being an “idealist.” Once a respected lum,” Arsenian said. “The CASEs are a researchers to enhance the CASEs in notion in intellectual circles, in Russia, way to create reform.” the provinces,” he told the group with- it is now a word with a taint. “We’re all Russia’s educational system has out equivocation. These scholars, priv- optimistic,” Shelekasova interjected. always been rigorous and demanding. ileged in their Moscow positions, were “We believe we have a good life in And while it had its shortcomings—the not getting coddled by Kortunov. He Russia and certainly, a better one than same educational opportunities were was letting them know that they had a before. But an idealist today, in Russia, not available to every student and social compact with the larger Russian is a foolish person. We are realists.” examinations often determined a academic community. They were part Remembering my first trip to the young person’s ability to continue on of the Carnegie Corporation program Soviet Union at the end of the 1970s for future study—education was highly because of what they could share with and the propaganda machine that sat- valued in Soviet society and university regional scholars. Social compacts— urated public life and political dia- study was a widely offered and fully- the responsibility to share with society, logue then—and continued to do so paid-for option. Since the transition to not simply advance oneself—is a until the Soviet Union’s recent col- democracy, education has been over- theme close to Kortunov’s heart. lapse—I wondered aloud where these shadowed by other national concerns I watched the interaction between young scholars had found their belief and Russia’s educational standing in Kortunov and these young scholars and in the freedom of ideas. “In books,” the industrial world has slid down- except for the halting English and need the historian Techoudinov told me. No wards, a position that Russian leader- for translation from time to time, the one disagreed. ship finds unacceptable. “Emerging as setting could have been Cambridge, a global player is a top goal for the or Princeton or New Haven. Smart, The Ministry of Education: Ministry,” Arsenian explained to me focused, determined, opinionated and a Welcome Partner with the certainty that the CASEs can exciting, these young scholars were part As a reporter who had known play a key role in the emerging new of an international community of stu- Russia in the days when it was ruled by Russian culture.

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For Arsenian, who has had consid- State University saw a very dif- erable experience with the power of ferent picture: their institution philanthropy and is well aware of how had made it through the really often a grantee’s aspirations can change difficult financial years after the once its funding is secure, the Ministry fall of the Soviet Union and their also provides some guarantee that the proposal to create a CASE had won plans and agreements signed with the support from the Corporation and CASE universities will be respected. its partners, all of which, for them, “The Ministry’s involvement is critical,” were signals of the rebirth of this she explained, “because it means that ancient town. the CASEs are not perceived as just The CASE itself is important to a Western program but as a joint the university because in Russia, U.S.-Russian, private-public partner- which has a population that is shrink- ship. The universities don’t see us as a ing precipitously, it is expected that CASE scholar, Tatyana charity, but as a collaborator.” some regional universities will not sur- Kharlamova, at Saratov State University. vive. Only those with proven records On to Saratov of leadership and excellence can feel Reaching Saratov after a much- confident about their future. For delayed and very crowded flight on a many universities, the presence of a post-Soviet regional airline named CASE is the best guarantee that they Saratov Air, which did not give me deep will not be on the Russian govern- confidence in its flying history, I real- ment’s extinction list. ized how distant the world of Moscow At Saratov State, we meet with is from some of our regional CASEs. Velikhan Mirzekhanov, the CASE Untouched in World War II, director and a warm and friendly man Saratov is still dominated by the small- who is well liked on campus. This was village style of architecture that arose actually not my first encounter with in the past centuries when it was a vital Mirzekhanov. A year earlier, he and trading center on the Volga River. By two other university CASE directors contrast, young students at the univer- had traveled to an international meet- sity have the look of the fashion- ing in Pittsburgh that I also attended. conscious MTV generation: tight Talking with him at the meeting, he jeans, stiletto-heeled boots and short- seemed to me to be somewhat differ- cropped skirts. But the old Soviet-era ent than his colleagues: more innova- A lively street in Saratov. Intourist hotel is still the only place for tive and flexible in his thinking and travelers to stay, and adding to a gen- less “Soviet,” perhaps in part because eral air of bleakness, a November of his non-Russian ethnic roots, which snowstorm had left the city without are in Dagestan, one of the former Saratov CASE, which officially focuses power the week before we arrived and Soviet republics. Translating for him on “Phenomenology of Power: State, had felled many trees. In the Soviet was Tatyana Kharlamova, who hardly Society, Individual Destiny (Russian days, Saratov was a closed city because fit the old stereotype of a Russian and International Experience).” She of its defense work, cut off from the female with academic status. She was started to give her opinion at the meet- West; today, it still seemed to move at slight, with dark hair highlighted to a ing in Pittsburgh but was outnum- a 19th century pace. Russian henna version of chestnut bered and upstaged by the table of But where we visitors may have brown. Since her English was quite male leaders who dominated the meet- seen a rather poor and struggling good, I had tried to engage her in a ing. I left her that day promising we urban center, the leaders of Saratov conversation about the theme* of the would meet again in Saratov.

*Each CASE is organized around the individual university’s strengths and emphasizes a particular intellectual theme.

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At Saratov State in a psychological sense. wide boulevards and smart shops give Studying power gives rise to Rostov a more cosmopolitan air than many interesting ideas.” Saratov. On the “left bank” of the Don University, winning But she also admitted River, in a section called “Las Vegas” that one of the reasons she by the locals, boarded-up summer support for their and other Russian intellec- restaurants and casinos speak of a tuals want to study power is vibrant warm-weather life. Shabby proposal to develop that they want to have a camps, once summer retreats for Soviet sense of how, personally, factory workers, tell of a day when the they can use it. “People are system took care of all of a family’s a CASE was a freer now and they can voice needs. Rundown and decaying, these their personal points of camps now await an entrepreneur’s signal of their view,” Kharlamova told me. transformation. “I think they are eager to For the Carnegie Corporation team, express themselves, now that Rostov was an experience of the birth of town’s rebirth they have an opportunity a CASE. We could smell the paint when to do so.” we arrived at the new offices for the During the CASE staff, and camera crews from the Communist days, local television station soon showed up Kharlamova’s to record the president of the university father was mayor receiving the official international foun- of Saratov. He dation recognition. had urged her to Marguerite Zakovorotnaya, a 30- explore the wider year-old historian and CASE adminis- world, but even trator, like many of the young women now Kharlamova we met in the new Russia, proved to be insists that she adept at filling several roles: researcher, would never leave administrator and tour guide. She was for very long. clearly able to navigate the politics of Saratov is her the university, dominated by older home, the home men who had held their leadership of her family. But positions for decades. She found noth- because of her ing ironic, as she did much of the work involvement with during the visit, that the CASEs the CASE program, her hori- theme, like many others, focused on zons have broadened and her power and identity. curiosity has been whetted. In October 2003, in Washington, As we began our tour of the CASE, D.C., at a gathering I attended, it was I spotted Kharlamova in a large, bright Rostov on the Don Zakovorotnaya who had presented the lecture hall. Her hair was redder, but The newest CASE to be established most fluid and influential report of a her smile just as warm. As I’d said I is in Rostov on the Don River. CASE forum at a meeting held at the would, I sought her out to finish our Considered to be the number-three celebrated Kennan Institute, which is discussion from Pittsburgh. “The the- university in Russia, the institution had the U.S. manager for the CASE initia- matic priority of our CASE is com- entered several rounds of CASE compe- tive. Zakovorotnaya’s paper, entitled pelling,” she told me as the tape tition before submitting a winning The Nature of Russian Political Power in recorder whirred. “Power is a very com- proposal on the third round. Regional Perspectives, examined what plex phenomena. It can be connected A city on a major truck route to she called the “lost”—those unsure of not only with politics but with other the Caucasus, Rostov is close to the where they fit into the changing spheres of society and can also be seen chaos of post-Soviet troubles. Still, its Russian society. Before more than 100

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U.S. scholars and others from the nine her, the CASEs represent a form of pro- have further conversation with an CASES, Zakovorotnaya caught the tection against what she termed “the English-speaker and to pour out his attention of the audience with her Russian brain drain.” ideas and beliefs. He has worked since provocative and focused presentation. Of the many young intellectuals he was 15 and risen to the top at each “Russians are trying to define their I met with in Rostov, none epit- job. I was convinced that this was the post-Communist identity and to find omized the intellectual potential kind of young intellectual who would organizing principles to construct their Zakovorotnaya wanted so dearly for find and take advantage of any opportu- own world in the global society,” she the CASEs to promote and protect as nities that came his way. And even in had told the audience that day. Dressed much as Herman Mineev. Just 24, he this far-off town, hours from Moscow in a black turtleneck, skirt and tall black was tall, dark-haired and emotional. and seemingly unconnected to the West, boots, Zakovorotnaya looked like she His English was out of practice but he could call the U.S. home. But her wanted desperately to converse in the accent and her insights revealed a very language. He was frustrated when he Russian scholar. “The feelings ‘I can’ couldn’t find the right English words instead of ‘we can’ now dominate,” she to discuss his many-layered ideas. But had said, while also focusing on the his eyes twinkled and his hands gestic- need for a multidisciplinary approach ulated with enthusiasm as he told me to contemporary issues, which is an why he had given up his high-paying important criterion in selecting univer- vice president’s job at a mobile phone sities to develop a CASE. company to become a full-time, $30- Even all this time after that meeting a-month professor of sociology. in Washington, Zakovorotnaya was still “I earned big money for Rostov,” he aglow with the opportunity to have pre- told me. “If I wanted expensive jeans, I sented a paper. It gave her a certain could buy them; if I wanted to go to an competitive advantage among her col- expensive nightclub, I could go to the leagues, and although she spent most of nightclub. But I realized that it’s not our two days in Rostov handling logis- those things that I need. To think and

tics, it was clear that she had benefited do research, that’s what excites me.” CASE scholar Herman Mineev, from the travel opportunities offered by Mineev’s field of study focuses on in Rostov. the CASEs program. Her husband political science and history. But ethnic owns the Ford automobile franchise in conflicts and how to prevent them—a Mineev talked about himself as Rostov and the family has the financial field of scholarship the Corporation a young citizen of the world. “There are ability to travel to Europe, but as a has supported for many years—is what no longer borders,” he said. “Eventually, scholar, she wants to go to Novgorod or seems to animate Herman most. “I we will all be connected. The model of Voronezh, where other CASEs are want to find models that will prevent the Internet influences our minds and exploring similar Russian power issues. conflicts,” he said, “because that’s what the way we live. We are one world.” In her conversation with me, her most worries me the most. Chechnya and Despite his optimism, I couldn’t passionate comments came when she Kosovo, for example: I want to know help but ask if he felt cut off from the talked about what Russia’s universities why some of these conflicts have rest of Russia—and the world—here in are losing. “The intellectual sphere still bloody conclusions and others, like Rostov. Ending the isolation of scholars exists,” she said, “but it’s evaporating. I Quebec, achieve peaceful solutions.” was one of the seminal ideas behind can’t imagine how we will progress if we As he spoke in his halting English, I Vartan Gregorian’s decision to create a don’t have our intellectual potential wondered if living close to the higher education program that could stimulated, if we lose the people who Caucasus made this field of study so reinvigorate and reconnect Russian think. We can’t be robots,” she said, alive for him. He was not focused on intellectuals to their national and inter- referring to the old Soviet system of something theoretical: Mineev saw his national peers, and the notion had per- education. But most of all, she seemed work as vital and urgent. meated the CASE design. “I don’t feel as to worry about young intellectuals leav- He traveled by bus across town to connected as I would like,” Mineev told ing Russia for greener pastures—for meet me for a second time, anxious to me. “I want to study in many other

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countries, including the U.S.” I had no one long night as we traveled from one university—which regional institutions doubt that in the near future, Mineev regional CASE to another. “But it is tend to be—the risks for a scholar can would find a way to use his connection what we hope to develop through the be high.” Outlining the challenges, to the CASE program to make his CASE initiative. CASEs,” he contin- Kortunov told me that one major prob- dream of academic mobility come true. ued, “are built on the assumption that lem is the fact that in Russian universi- Meeting Mineev was, for me, one of you need to invest heavily in faculty, ties, there are layers of bureaucracy the highlights of this journey through especially younger faculty, which involved in the degree-granting process. an ever-changing Russia. It wasn’t only should have a profound impact on both Being innovative might antagonize his determination to speak English or their research capacity and their teach- older professors who have to approve a his wonderful way of saying that mate- ing ability, because if these young pro- young scholar’s degree because still, rial things didn’t satisfy his Russian soul. fessors can think creatively enough to today, many in the top ranks of Russian It was the fact that he was experiment- design and implement an innovative universities cling to the old Soviet way of doing things. But change must come. Building the humanities and supporting research “Eventually, we will all be connected. based on intellectual pursuit is the only way that Russian educational leaders The model of the Internet influences our see the country reconnecting with Europe and restoring its status as a world-class power. In the highest circles minds and the way we live. We are one of the Kremlin, there has even been discussion about joining the “Bologna world.” —Herman Mineev, CASE scholar Process,” which would allow students in Europe and Russia to have equivalent degrees with credits that are valid ing with his life, following one direction research project, that ability will affect in both European and Russian institu- and then another and that he believed how they teach their students.” tions. Currently, a Russian degree is not he could change, invent and then rein- Continuing, Kortunov said, “Political accepted in the West and Russian offi- vent himself again and again that science didn’t exist in the Soviet Union. cials see this as a crippling problem in a appealed to me. It was so American! You had scientific Communism. globalized economy. But as much as my journalistic spirit Sociology was perceived as a bourgeois In the traditional Russian setting, needed to hear these stories and meet alternative to the Marxist analysis of the word “scholar” painted a picture of the young professors and students who social problems, so sociology as a field someone working for hours in a library, would give life to the work being carried never developed. And statistics, which researching everything that had been out at the CASEs, I was aware that, as a economists need to do serious work, written about a subject and then sim- foundation, we are spending millions of were unavailable—statistics were state ply repackaging already accepted dollars not only to benefit the lives of secrets. Many social science scholars knowledge in a different way. Now, individual intellectuals but to promote had to adjust themselves to the situa- under Western pressure, and in the deep-seated change in Russia’s higher tion under Soviet rule. They were not CASE framework, a scholar must be, in education system. Our ambitious hope allowed to fulfill the traditional role of Kortunov’s words, “Ambitious, not is that the CASEs can serve as catalysts scholars working in the humanities—to about his or her own personal career, in bringing about transformation. raise questions about society.” but in terms of the questions and prob- This is a goal shared by Andrei “Ending the Soviet style of educa- lems he or she is approaching.” At the Kortunov, director of the CASEs pro- tion-by-rote will not be easy,” Kortunov conclusion of our conversation, it was gram. “In the past, in Russia, we didn’t continued. “We need to develop a clear to me that for Kortunov, building engage in innovative, Western-style research culture that is not afraid to be a culture where intellectual honesty is scholarship, developing data, collecting both controversial and provocative, appreciated, nurtured and dissemi- facts and analyzing our results,” he which means that one must take risks. nated, is critical to the very future of explained to me in a lengthy interview And if you are working in a conservative Russia, and to all its people.

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To Voronezh, and Then Home In the conference Voronezh State University—one of my starting points for this story, though in reality, one of the last stops on our room in Voronezh, Russian journey—is located in the old, picturesque city of Voronezh, about there was as much 350 miles south of Moscow. The university was one of the first institutions energy in the debate selected by the Corporation to develop a CASE and is far along in the connection business, having sponsored those as was coming from 66 conferences Mary Popova had told us about in her presentation—and a the overworked number that I knew Kortunov was worried might represent what he termed “action but little substance.” heating system. Since I was still struggling with the concept of each CASE having an organizing theme aimed at attracting intellectual discussions don’t have to able ally? We’re betting that one way is scholars from many disciplines, I was end with the conferences—they can go to change the mentality of the upcom- anxious to attend a university-spon- on indefinitely, even with international ing Russian elite. If education is impor- sored, theme-oriented conference, and colleagues. As an example, a young pro- tant for the cultivation of new thinking at Voronezh, I got my chance. The con- fessor named Inna Ananievskaia, who in Russia, then you can make a direct ference, which was in its last day when studies Germanic and Romance lan- correlation between the Corporation’s we Corporation travelers sat in on the guages, told us about meeting a Scottish goals for the CASEs and larger U.S. proceedings, was being held in a room professor at an earlier conference, a spe- goals. So the CASE program benefits so small and hot that there were cialist in the same field who challenged both countries.” droplets of water and steam on the everything Ananievskaia believed about For myself, beyond the overarching windows. About 50 scholars were her subject. “I never expected to be able ideals everyone hopes that the CASEs crammed into the room and there was to discuss my interests with a colleague are striving to embody, I still wanted to as much energy in the debate over the at such a high level,” she said, beaming sum up what a ten-day tour of a selec- subject of language as was coming from as she told us the story. The debate tion of the CASE institutions really the overworked heating system. The didn’t end with the conference: she and revealed to a group of non-Russian- discussion centered on the “dumbing the Scottish professor are still happily speaking philanthropists who have down” of Russian words as German arguing by e-mail. played a part in developing the pro- and American phrases invaded every- On the flight home, I sat with gram’s strategies for reform. We came to day Russian discourse. Some thought it Arsenian and discussed our experiences see what the Corporation had wrought was the end of civilization as Russians at the CASEs we had just visited. She and to reinforce for the leaders of the know it; others thought it was proof was in a mood to be both philosophical Russian regional universities we were that Russia is no longer isolated. and analytical about the program and working with that the Corporation and Although a few university students its objectives. “Because of Russia’s geog- its partners had high expectations and attended, most of the participants were raphy, its human resources and its rela- high demands. professors from smaller universities in tionships with other countries,” she During the course of our trip, we had the region, a fact that confirmed for said, “as well as its nuclear, biological met a handful of politicians who had Deana Arsenian and Andrei Kortunov and chemical weapons status, Russia is proved to us that politicians share a cer- that the CASE had become a magnet poised to become either a major partner tain style of optimism and confidence all for intellectuals from the provinces and with the U.S. in dealing with global over the world. We had dined with four had succeeded in making connections. challenges or a major problem. How do university presidents—all men—who And in the age of Internet connectivity, you ensure that Russia becomes a reli- clearly wanted the prestige of having

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convinced that the Corporation-sup- the Corporation’s work helped to ported strategies were working in terms change, even in some small way, how of building infrastructure and encour- university leaders think, how the aging academic mobility, he was less humanities are taught and how a sure that CASEs would be equally research university should operate? As I effective in reforming the bureaucratic said at the beginning of this article, I’m and moribund Russian humanities probably not the right person to make field. “The social sciences have to those judgments. But what I do now examine a country’s political and eco- know with crystal clarity is how incred- nomic structures,” he said, “so scholars ibly ambitious the CASE program is: working in that field are usually seen as on the one hand, it can be seen as a hostile to the party in power. We’ll just straightforward educational project, but have to wait and see how that dynamic on the other, it is a subversive partner- plays out in Russia,” he concluded. ship aimed at transforming the way Before coming to the Corporation, Russian social sciences and scholarship Ed Sermier had spent many years work- will develop in the future. ing in high-level administrative positions “In terms of individual destinies, for New York City, so bureaucracies are we have already accomplished some- their institution chosen to create a CASE not unfamiliar to him, and he knows thing,” Kortunov had told me. “We but were not uniformly putting their from experience how difficult it is for know we can make a difference in office’s clout behind the initiative, facts bureaucracy-bound institutions to scholars’ professional lives. But on the duly noted by Arsenian, who has a strong change. “The more I saw of the CASEs, institutional level, we still must wait voice in whether the individual CASE the more I realized how complicated and see if the system of linking research projects will receive renewed support. what we are trying to do really is,” he and education is adopted by the higher We had heard—and participated told me. “Maybe I’m just an unrepentant education system at large. We would in—the traditional and seemingly end- pragmatist, but I think there is too much like the CASEs to become the back- less vodka toasts to everything from going on in a university for the program bone of the university system, flagships Western friends to innovation. We had to be the real lever for change that we of the new research universities that met ambitious young students who want.” Still, Sermier has no doubt that will emerge in Russia.” wanted financial and intellectual numerous individual Russian scholars There are thousands of colleges and rewards, and mid-level professors who are benefiting from their involvement universities across the 12 time zones of had survived the lean post-Soviet years with the CASE program, that strong Russia, with thousands of students and and now wanted desperately to attract investments are being made, and that the professors, but overall, the Russian pop- financial and intellectual support. Corporation has the right people to lead ulation is on the decline. The life “Generally, my expectations were the program, particularly in Andrei expectancy for a man in Russia is just met,” Neil Grabois told me on the Kortunov. “I’ve rarely met any one per- 57, and only 145 million people live in plane as the reality of the Russian expe- son as honest, thoughtful and capable as this massive, sprawling country that rience became past tense and conclu- Andrei,” Sermier told me. “I hope that touches Europe on the east and the sions started forming in his mind. “It’s in the long term, he will become a key Pacific Ocean on the west. In the years one thing to read proposals, designs and advisor to someone in Russia who can to come, many universities will not sur- strategies, but another to see them put bring about real change.” vive the harsh economic realities facing into practice at universities in foreign And what were my reactions? Well, the nation. Only the best will get the cultures.” A former college president, I had come to Russia to find out, financial and institutional support to Grabois knows what it takes to remain through interviews and conversation, become world-class universities. Deana competitive in terms of academics, about the progress of scholarship in the Arsenian and Andrei Kortunov are bet- infrastructure and finances, so he is well country, but also about the aspirations ting that CASEs will be the model for aware of how important it is for and achievements of individuals, what will become the excellent Russian regional Russian universities to win because for me, that’s the real story of university of the 21st century. U.S. financial support. Though he was the CASEs. But in the larger sense, had I found it hard to bet against them. ■

Spring 2oo4 —carnegie reporter 35 240465-Carnegie 3/19/04 9:19 AM Page 36 Interviewan with... COURTESY OF PRINCETON UNIVERSITY OF PRINCETON COURTESY 240465-Carnegie 3/19/04 9:20 AM Page 37 w . Marta Tienda

Marta Tienda, who served for eight years as a trustee of Carnegie Corporation of New York, is Maurice P. During Professor in Demographic Studies and Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University, where she served as director of the Office of Population Research. Previously she was Ralph Lewis Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago, where she served as department chair and editor of the flagship journal, American Journal of Sociology. Tienda also held positions at UW-Madison and a visiting position at Stanford University. Tienda is past- president of the Population Association of America and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Graduating magna cum laude with a B.A. in Spanish from Michigan State University and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in sociology from the University of Texas at Austin, Tienda has been the recipient of numerous fellowships and honors. She is interviewed here by the Carnegie Reporter. Carnegie Reporter: Let’s start with some of your recent work. In the last few years you’ve been doing specific demographic research focused on young Hispanics and immigrants and their advancement in higher education. It was as you wrote up your findings that you became very outspoken about the need for affirmative action, but you didn’t expect that to be your conclusion when you began your research, did you? Marta Tienda: When I began the work in higher education, about six years ago, it was an outgrowth of my broader concerns with equity, access and opportunity. In that context, I was certainly aware that the political climate around affirmative action was in flux. There had

COURTESY OF PRINCETON UNIVERSITY OF PRINCETON COURTESY been some progress—perhaps not enough—but the benchmarks for affirmative action were

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not clear. And it was becoming increas- ple from achieving the kind of educa- diverse nation in the world, are we ingly apparent that existing affirmative tional success that will lead to career representing that diversity in our lead- action policies could not continue ad and economic gains. As a society and as ership? Are we using higher education infinitum without some clear justifica- a nation, we simply can’t go on allow- to plan for the future? And that means tion. But when I began to look at the ing so many with so much to con- making sure that the diversity of soci- evidence, the possibilities and alterna- tribute to fall between the cracks. ety is reflected in all its institutions tives that were “race neutral” in a soci- CR: And you considered it imperative to and aspects—but in my research, I ety that in many ways had become race support your arguments with data and didn’t see that. stratified, there didn’t seem to be detailed research? In my research, I also focused on answers. After studying the data, I con- MT: Absolutely. And in doing the the alternative affirmative action plan cluded that there was simply no hope research, there were several things that underway in Texas known as the Ten “ Through my research, it became clear to me that there is a lot of untapped talent out there, young people who, because of different kinds of situations, because of accidents of birth or other factors, are simply being held back.”

that an individual could break the jointly led me to the conclusion that Percent Plan.2 It’s a strategy that is chains of educational inequality with- there is a continuing need for affirma- allegedly race neutral and is supposed out affirmative action. tive action. First of all, I started to to provide equal opportunity, but Reflecting on my own educational read broadly on the subject, steeping while a bold experiment, to be sure, it opportunities—I was the first person in myself in issues ranging from the capitalizes on the very inequities that my family to go to college, for exam- Bakke decision1 all the way forward to required affirmative action in the first ple—it seemed to me that there were see what the trends were. And though place. It attempts to level the playing fewer opportunities today than in the you can look at this as a glass-half- field by guaranteeing automatic admis- past for minorities to access higher edu- empty or half-full issue, it is the case sion to the state’s public colleges and cation and to advance in that environ- that while the proportion of blacks universities for high school graduates ment. Through my research, it became and Hispanics in higher education has in the top ten percent of their class. clear to me that there is a lot of risen, you have to factor in that they But there’s a great deal of criticism of untapped talent out there, young peo- also now account for a higher percent- the plan because it allows kids who are ple who, because of different kinds of age of the population than twenty-five attending less competitive schools to situations, because of accidents of birth years ago when the Bakke decision was have an unfair advantage and also or other factors, are simply being held handed down, so there have been no doesn’t take into account other factors back. They went to the wrong school, real net gains in over two decades. that may prevent high-achieving, their parents lost their jobs—all sorts of Therefore, we have to ask ourselves, low-income minority students from circumstances can prevent young peo- while we have become the most attending college. 1 In 1978, the Supreme Court ruled, in the case of the University of California vs. Bakke, that Allan Bakke, a white man who was not accepted to the University of California medical school, which had admitted less academically qualified blacks, had been illegally denied admission, but also said that medical schools were entitled to consider race as a factor in admission. The ruling was seen as upholding the general principle of affirmative action.

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CR: In studying the data, you also found particularly Hispanics—are growing. essary [to promote educational access].” that there were geographic and family How are we going to stop that? If we, as If we are going to meet that charge a factors that were critical to whether a stu- a society, are going to accept that there quarter century from now, we have a big dent had access to higher education and are tolerable limits of inequality and job to do. To begin with, we have to actually graduated from college. that there will always be some form of break the connection between parents’ MT: There are a number of circum- economic, class, or racial inequality— educational attainment and the proba- stances and characteristics that affect not that I endorse that point of view— bility that a child will go to college who goes to college and who doesn’t. then don’t we at least have to say, if because so many young Hispanics today We know, for example, that if parents these are the tolerable limits, can we have parents who didn’t go to college. have a higher level of education, their afford to let them get worse? The only way we can address some The widening gap in opportu- of these inequalities is by taking delib- nity and achievement between erate and systematic steps forward, whites and Hispanics—in education and that means that for now we need and other areas—is particularly important to focus on because Hispanics are growing so fast as an

children are very likely to go to college. For some young people, the idea of attending college is always on their radar to use affirmative action to make screen. As a first generation sure that we’re getting the best and college goer, I can tell you that the brightest into the schools that isn’t always the case for many of us, ethnic group. The Hispanic second will position them for opportunity which has been confirmed by the data. generation, the children of immi- and achievement. But what’s important is that when grants—the children whose parents CR: You’ve never been an outspoken sup- we think about the sources of diversifi- tend not to have higher education— porter of affirmative action during your cation of the U.S. population, the have a median age of 12.7 years. That’s career, so did this conclusion surprise you? fastest growth is in the number of kids an enormously significant bulge mov- MT: I was teaching a six-week seminar whose parents don’t have any higher ing through the population pipeline, on affirmative action at the time that I education. Consequently, even in those and has major implications if you think started this project and I told my stu- instances where the parents have of the words of Justice Sandra Day dents that I didn’t think affirmative moved up economically and socially, O’Connor who said, in an opinion action was the best solution to the the probability of their children achiev- handed down in the recent Supreme problem of educational inequality and ing a higher level of education than Court decision upholding the that one of the goals of the seminar their parents is not clearly in evidence. University of Michigan Law School’s would be to identify alternative strate- But what is clear, as demonstrated by affirmative action policies, that she gies. At the end of the seminar, I was the data, is that the educational dispar- hoped “…25 years from now, the use of stunned that I had to retract my state- ities between whites and nonwhites— racial preferences will no longer be nec- ment and say that I didn’t think there

2 An alternative to affirmative action for individual students, the Ten Percent Plan admits the top 10 percent of every high school graduating class into state institutions of higher education.

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was an alternative to affirmative action. could earn a scholarship, that’s when I demic credentials are a matter of public During that seminar, one aspect of thought, well, I’m going to continue as record. So when I take on a project, our research focused on when young far as I can go. I’m known for addressing the issues minorities began thinking about going CR: It was important to you that you involved scientifically, as an investiga- to college, and for many, it turned out to could earn the scholarship? That it tion. I don’t approach my work with be late in the game—nearly one-third of wasn’t free? preconceived beliefs—I do have those we questioned as part of a survey MT: Yes. I don’t believe in free. I think hypotheses; I have expectations based we conducted said they didn’t think you need to work for what you get. I on what I know and what I’ve learned. about college until high school or mid- make my kids work for things. The But that doesn’t mean I’m going to dle school. That’s too far along in their only things they don’t have to earn are confirm them with my research. educational career, especially if that books—books are given. If one of my So now I am in a position to carry kids wants a book, I always buy it. I out objective research about Hispanics never argue with them, never ask why and Hispanic women. And it’s even they want it, and they know that. Everything else is negotiable. And that’s just the way it is.

decision isn’t made until high school. I was lucky, personally. more important because of the role When I was in seventh model issue. It was an important and grade, a teacher asked me, lasting lesson for me to think about the “What are you going to do when you CR: You once told a professor that you fact that somebody might be looking at finish high school?” And I said, “I’m were going to quit because you felt he was what I do and who I am to legitimate going to be a hairdresser.” I’d seen peo- urging you to go into Women’s Studies or herself. I had never experienced that ple do hairdressing and I thought that Hispanic Studies and towards work that because, being raised in Michigan, I it looked like fun. But then the teacher you felt would pigeonhole you. It’s inter- was not a typical Latina—there were said to me, “Don’t you want to go to esting, then, that in last few years, besides not a lot of people like me where we college?” It was such a riveting moment focusing on minorities in higher educa- lived. So I never felt uncomfortable for me that I even remember what the tion in general, you have also focused on because of who I was or worried about teacher was wearing that day. Until young Hispanic women. What made you the fact that I was Mexican or that my then, I thought that college was only change your mind and focus your studies family spoke Spanish. for rich people and I was from a work- on the ethnic group that you are part of Being poor, though, I remember ing class family. But when my teacher and on young women in that group in very well, so that was an issue, but my suggested college and told me that particular? ethnic identity was not. And about being there were scholarships to help good MT: Well, because I can do it now. I poor, my main thoughts about myself in students like me get to college, that was can do whatever I want. And nobody’s relation to other people were that maybe it. College was what I was doing and going to say “It’s just because she’s one I’m different from you, but I’m not less where I was going. And I never let go of them.” I’ve made my reputation and than you. I had heard the expressions, of that idea. Once I realized that I achieved what I needed to; my aca- “poor Mexican” and “dumb Mexican,”

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but I never understood why those and hard work—there are no short cuts. always tested better in math and the hard descriptions should apply. I certainly None at all! But once you reach that sciences and I wanted to be a biologist. I knew that I wasn’t dumb, for instance. I mature status you can choose the issues loved natural sciences when I was going wasn’t at the bottom of my class, ever, so you want to explore and make the kinds to college but I was told that you couldn’t nobody could call me “dumb Mexican.” of scientific contributions that are combine humanities and science. It wasn’t It never fit. And if somebody tried to put going to have lasting impact. true, but that’s what happened, so I just me into that kind of box, I never let it A young woman who came here to stayed on the literature route because it happen. I resisted it, which is why earlier Princeton for a special summer science was something secure that I knew I could in my career I resisted doing women’s program had an opportunity to do the do. But then, when I got to graduate studies or Chicano studies. I always calculus workshop but was told by school, I just gravitated toward the quan- wanted to go where my curiosity and my another colleague, “You don’t need cal- titative. It happened that in the summer “ Becoming a mature, established scholar takes time. But once you reach that mature status, you can choose the issues you want to explore and make the kinds of scientific contributions that have a lasting impact.”

intellect took me. So that was the star culus. You’ll never use it.” When I heard between my junior and senior years, I that I always followed. about that, I sat her down and said, started working with migrant farm It was in graduate school at Stanford “Excuse me, you invest now. Your job is workers, helping them to certify for food that I first realized who I was and what I to learn everything you can and invest it stamps. At the time, I had been thinking did could have an impact on other in yourself. You need calculus because, about becoming a Spanish teacher, but I women. It was a discovery for me that for example, that way you have the had already done some student teaching someone would look up to me and say, opportunity and the flexibility to and was demoralized by it, especially by she’s like us. Young women identified become a demographer in the future or what went on in the teachers’ room. I with me because of how I look and the take mathematics or economics. But if heard teachers simply writing students way I dress. And they said, you know, you say no to calculus now, you’ve off. So when I went to graduate school, I you’re like us. You dress like us and you closed those doors and years from now knew that I wanted to change fields from talk like us and we see you standing up you may find yourself wishing that you teaching to something else. My profes- for yourself. That makes us feel that we had taken the workshop.” There are sors all said, “Oh, Senorita Tienda, that’s can be like you. We feel legitimated by some times when windows of opportu- because you had a very exciting summer. your example. nity appear and you just have to take It will wear off.” But it didn’t. Being CR: So being an established scholar, rec- advantage of them, even if it means involved with migrant workers gave me ognized for your science and your work, making sacrifices. some insight into the challenges faced by liberated you to work on Hispanic and CR: How did you end up choosing a the census, for example. During that women’s issues? career as a demographer? summer, I heard many people talking MT: Becoming a mature, established MT: I actually have an undergraduate about the “fourth count,” which, though scholar takes time. It takes many years degree in literature though, ironically, I I didn’t quite understand it then, was

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aimed at analyzing 1970 census data foundation. How important do you think keep asking, where are we going? Are we by certain race-ethnic groups, so, for foundations are? Are they “levers for still being true to the mission that our instance, you could get an idea of how change” in our society, as many say? Are founder gave us? many Mexicans were living in Michigan. they important institutions that deserve In the same way that Supreme Court I was intrigued. the support and protection of the tax justices interpret the Constitution, the The rest was really sort of serendipi- exemption they currently have? board of trustees at a foundation also tous. At Michigan State, where I went MT: I’ve had a wonderful opportunity interprets a foundation’s mission within to college, there was a professor named to serve not only the Corporation the contemporary period. What does it Harley Browning who was a very but also on the boards of the Russell mean today versus what it meant when respected demographer. He eventually Sage, Kaiser and W.T. Grant founda- the institution was founded? And while became my major professor, but I met tions as well as on the board of the supporting projects that further the mis- “ From my perspective, the importance of foundations—where they are indispensable—is that they can afford to take risks as well as trail blaze, set standards and study issues in ways that our government, for instance, cannot.”

him because I was taking a course on Jacobs Foundation of Switzerland and sion, how do foundations make the most Mexican society and in that class I did have some insights as an academic who effective use of their limited resources? some work that attracted his attention: has sought and won foundation grants. To answer those questions, foundation it was a hypothetical interview with From my perspective, the impor- trustees and staff must do quite a bit of Gloria Steinem, the leading feminist, in tance of foundations—where they are strategic planning. which I asked about her views on indispensable—is that they can afford But with focus and strong leader- Mexican society. Professor Browning to take risks as well as trail blaze, set ship, foundations can make a huge dif- was intrigued with the paper and he standards and study issues in ways that ference. At the Russell Sage Foundation, said, “Well, you can really write. Come our government, for instance, cannot. for example, the area of behavioral eco- see me.” After a couple of papers he Second, foundations have the organiza- nomics was something that was nur- said, “Do you want to be a demogra- tional capacity for change and for main- tured. At first, the staff of Russell Sage pher?” I said, “That sounds like a good taining institutional memory, qualities was seen almost like a band of rene- idea.” The rest is history. that are not endemic to government, gades. Behavioral economics? People CR: Now let’s turn to the world of foun- particularly at high levels, because asked what that was. Now it’s a very dations. You have served on a number they’re constantly churning with politi- established part of how social scientists of prominent foundation boards— cal shifts and currents. Foundations think about the combination of psy- including Carnegie Corporation of New have a vision, a mission. At the chology, economics and individual York—and you are also the recipient of Corporation, we have revisited our mis- behavior that transcends any one of foundation grants. I think you have a sion many times and asked, what did those single fields alone. unique perspective on this not-well- Andrew Carnegie really want to do? At the Corporation, support for understood American institution, the Even in setting our spending rules we different aspects of education at differ-

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ent times in the foundation’s long his- CR: You’re saying that foundations have results into the hands that can do the tory has always been the key to fulfill- the capital and the patience to support most good with it, help to connect aca- ing Andrew Carnegie’s mandate to such projects? demics and policymakers so that high- promote “the advancement and diffu- MT: Yes, they do and they have the quality, effective research findings can sion of knowledge and understand- flexibility to decide, for example, that be used to arrive at solutions for the ing.” Take the Corporation’s current they will work on an issue for five years problems that beset society—or at work in teacher education: it’s always or ten years and stay the course. That’s least, to start along that road. been accepted that teachers are hard, not to look for the quick fix. CR: Dissemination is critical in your trained, that it’s just something that Redesigning urban high schools, which view? happens. But we’ve also taken for is also a top priority now for the MT: I always tell my students that if Corporation, is a difficult problem to you don’t write down what you think tackle, but it hasn’t stopped us from or what you learn, you can have the investing millions of dollars in big most brilliant idea of the century but cities, including New York, with its it will get lost. Many foundations have large, comprehensive highs schools that made getting the word out an integral have not been the most productive or part of their mission because what efficient or produced the best educa- good does the most valuable research tional outcomes for students. If institu- do if nobody knows about it? But tions like the Corporation turn away the success and importance of founda- from problems like that, who will take tions doesn’t rest on one single them on? factor. Leadership and vision are para- Another important role for foun- mount—there’s just no substitute for dations is their emphasis on public them. They set the tone, the direction policy—you can’t be any more strate- and the priorities, but no single Marta Tienda and her sons Luis gic than trying to have influence in person can be responsible for that and Carlos. that arena. And one way to have that alone, especially in larger organiza- granted that the training was good kind of influence is through the tions. After serving for a number of enough to produce high-quality teach- support of research and scholarship years on foundation boards, it’s clear ers who can provide effective educa- targeted toward specific problems. to me that a well-balanced board is tion to all students, which is not the Policymakers need that kind of infor- important because it adds perspective. case. By working with schools of edu- mation to develop effective programs A good board is a working board that cation through the Corporation’s and policies, but in academia—the is there to support the senior staff and Teachers for a New Era initiative, the main source of the type of research I’m the entire leadership of a foundation, foundation is helping the schools to talking about—professors don’t often but it also doesn’t just sign off on improve, to do better in training and think about how they can play a role in everything because then there’s no nurturing the best possible teachers, the public policy dynamic in this value added. who studies have shown to be the most country or about the more far-ranging The government doesn’t realize important factor in student achieve- implications of their work. They just what an ally it has in the foundation ment. It’s a long-term undertaking. carry out the scholarship or the sci- world. Foundations really do buttress The data also shows us that teacher ence, have it published and then the many government programs, which in expectations have a lot to do with work ends. But foundations can help countless cases have been implemented how a child performs in school. with the follow-through. It’s like as the result of foundation-supported Foundations can support that kind of tennis: if you just hit the ball and research or models. Foundations are research and learning and truly make you don’t follow through, you don’t the nation’s partners in addressing a big difference in how people craft know where the ball is going to go. many of its most critical problems, and programs and policies, and in how suc- Foundation support for research—and will certainly continue in that role for cessful interventions get implemented. its dissemination—can help get the years to come. ■

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RecentEvents

Carnegie Forum on the 2004 presidential election. J.P. Morgan for $480 million Carnegie Corporation of Money and Politics Over more than a decade, (the equivalent today of New York hosted the first On January 26, 2004, the Corporation’s investment in approximately $10.1 billion). medals ceremony, which was Carnegie Corporation of New campaign finance reform— With that sale, the second initiated by the Corporation’s York held a forum on Money nearly $20 million—is viewed phase of the industrialist’s life president, Vartan Gregorian. and Politics, with Senator John by many as having had a major began—that of philanthropist. Walter and Leonore McCain (R-AZ) as the featured role in building the “modern” Many also mark the date as the Annenberg, Brooke Astor, speaker. A panel discussion campaign finance reform move- beginning of the modern era of Irene Diamond, the Gates followed Senator McCain’s ment. In introducing Senator philanthropy. For the next 18 Family, the Rockefeller Family, keynote address; it focused McCain to years, until he died in 1919, George Soros and Ted Turner on the future of campaign the approximately 100 policy- Carnegie proceeded to give were the first honorees. finance reform and included makers, leaders in the non- away the vast bulk of his for- “We seek to reinvigorate Charles E. Kolb, president, profit field, voting rights and tune with a single purpose in and challenge the philan- Committee for Economic other activists gathered at the mind: the betterment of thropic community for Development; Chellie Pingree, forum, Vartan Gregorian said, humankind. tomorrow,” said Gregorian “Campaign finance reform On December 10, 2001, the at the 2001 presentation. is not a Democratic or 22 nonprofit and philanthropic On December 8, 2003, Republican issue—it is an organizations that Andrew the Carnegie Institution of American issue. To keep our Carnegie created—in the U.S. Washington held the second democracy strong and vital, we and abroad—inaugurated the medal awards, presenting the all have to work toward clean Andrew Carnegie Medals of Andrew Carnegie Medal of elections, toward reducing the Philanthropy to mark the cen- Philanthropy to the Sainsbury influence of money and special tennial observance of the family of Great Britain and Dr. interests in the choices available beginning of Carnegie’s philan- Kazuo Inamori of Japan. to us as citizens.” thropic career by recognizing In the Sainsbury family, one Echoing Gregorian’s con- individuals who, like Andrew of Great Britain’s most notable cerns, McCain pointed to the Carnegie, have dedicated their philanthropic powerhouses, Supreme Court decision, saying private wealth to the public Andrew Carnegie’s vision of the Court had made it clear good and who have made long- philanthropy thrives. Today, BEN FRAKER that “money is not free speech.” term philanthropic contribu- there are 19 Sainsbury trusts, Senator John McCain (l.), Vartan Gregorian (c.) and Meghan McCain He also credited much of the tions in the United States and set up by 18 different family (r.), the senator’s daughter. success of the McCain-Feingold throughout the world. At that members spanning more than legislation to the fact that time, it was announced that the three generations. They sup- president, Common Cause; “enough Americans were Carnegie Medals would be port a wide variety of causes— and Trevor Potter, general aroused by the issues that they awarded every two years. (Continued on page 47) counsel, The Reform Institute, demanded that we bring about all Corporation grantees. change” in the way we fund One month before the election campaigns. He con- forum took place, the U.S. cluded his remarks by saying, Supreme Court issued a land- “There is great dissatisfaction mark decision that essentially throughout the country upheld Congress’ right to with the state of politics in limit the influence of money America,” and called for bipar- in politics. The ruling meant tisan reform in a number of that most of the Bipartisan other areas, including Social Campaign Reform Act— Security and Medicare. more popularly known as the McCain-Feingold law, after The 2003 Carnegie the two senators who spon- Medals of Philanthropy sored it, McCain and Russell are Awarded COURTESY OF JIM JOHNSON COURTESY Feingold (D-WI)—would In 1901, Andrew Carnegie Dr. Kazuo Inamori (l.); Richard A. Meserve, president, stand, and would apply to sold his vast steel empire to Carnegie Institution (c.); and Lord David Sainsbury (r.).

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FoundationRoundup

housing and health care during despite the financial stress University and received a time when earnings, particu- brought about by a weak econ- support from Carnegie larly for low- and moderate- omy and government cuts. Corporation, the Ewing income groups, stayed flat or About 90 percent of the Marion Kauffman Foundation, decreased. And though organizations surveyed faced the Rockefeller Brothers Fund incomes in the bottom 40 per- fiscal difficulties in 2003 and and the Surdna Foundation. cent of the income distribu- nearly half of this group For more information, go to tion finally rose in the late defined the difficulties as www.jhu.edu/listeningpost/news. Going Into Debt to 1990s, they quickly declined “severe.” Yet the majority Make Ends Meet as the recession began in 2000. wound up boosting revenue, The U.S. economy is The number of working and almost two-thirds were improving, but for many families spending more than able to expand their activities Americans the financial picture 50 percent of their income on to meet the greater demand is growing bleaker. housing has increased dramati- for services. National Research Borrowing to Make Ends cally, rising almost 60 percent, Most organizations accom- Council Recommends Meet, a D¯emos report, traces from 3 million to nearly 5 mil- plished this through a combi- Establishing Advisory the substantial rise in credit lion families, just between nation of aggressive fund-rais- Board for Biotechnology card debt during the 1990s 1997 and 2001. ing, collaboration with other Research and foreshadows an economy Health care costs grew by 18 organizations, use of reserve Biotechnology research has led in which low- and moderate- percent during the 1990s and funds and expanding their to many discoveries that have income families face increasing by another 11 percent during advocacy activities. benefited medicine, agriculture financial insecurity. As cash 2000 and 2001. At the same At the same time, belt-tight- and other life sciences, but its has grown tighter and savings time, the proportion of work- ening forced more than half misuse has the potential to wipe have dwindled or disappeared, ers receiving full health cover- the groups to freeze salaries or out many of the advancements more and more Americans age from their employers fell decrease benefits. Over 70 per- made over the past 100 years, and have turned to credit cards significantly. cent reported postponing hir- could also be used to create bio- to meet basic needs such as D¯emos, a nonpartisan pub- ing, eliminating vacant staff logical weapons. food, rent and health care. lic policy organization working positions or relying more on A new report from the The result is widening eco- to improve democracy, part-time staff. National Academies’ National nomic disparity and a growing strengthen effective govern- Some respondents com- Research Council (NRC), number of people who are ment and foster greater eco- mented on the tension Biotechnology Research in an Age of perpetually in debt. nomic opportunity, along brought on by fewer resources Terrorism, offers recommenda- While credit card debt is with The Annie E. Casey and increased workloads. tions for upgrading current proce- often thought to be the result Foundation and the Fannie Others wondered about dures for reviewing experiments of poor fiscal discipline and Mae Foundation, provided recruiting competent profes- of concern by creating a tiered, unnecessary consumption, a support for this study. sional staff at a time of salary self-governing system of institu- broader look reveals the causal For more information, go and benefit cuts. One particu- tional biosafety committees effects of economic trends and to www.demos-usa.org. lar worry is that the additional linked to the National Institute policy decisions within the time and energy needed to of Health’s Recombinant DNA banking industry. assure survival may be detri- Advisory Committee. Overall, the average American mental to the services that An independent National family saw a 53 percent increase charities are committed Science Advisory Board for in credit card debt between to provide. Biodefense, made up of top 1989 and 2001. For very-low- The study focused on organ- scientists and security experts, income families, however, the Nonprofits Hard Hit izations working on behalf of would oversee the experiments, increase was 184 percent and for But Meeting the children and families, the eld- review processes and serve as senior citizens, 149 percent. Challenge erly, community and economic a go-between for the scientific Even middle-class families expe- A report on the charitable development and the arts. It community and the federal rienced an increase of 75 per- segment of America’s nonprofit is part of the Nonprofit government. cent in credit card debt. sector finds organizations man- Listening Post Project at the NRC also recommends Part of the reason may have aging to increase both services Center for Civil Society expanding the number of to do with rising costs for and revenue over the past year, Studies at Johns Hopkins research classifications to be

Spring 2oo4 —carnegie reporter 45 240465-Carnegie 3/19/04 9:20 AM Page 46

monitored, including the addi- but monetarily influential per- clean money/clean elections other reports describe small tion of experiments on render- centage of the population. rules have begun to see a numbers of young people ing vaccines ineffective, confer- A new study called The Real broader diversity of candidates working on campaigns, raising ring resistance to therapeutic Color of Money analyzes more running for election, includ- doubts about the future of antibiotics and antiviral agents than $2 billion of personal ing greater numbers of candi- democracy if the trend contin- and altering the virulence in contributions made to federal dates of color and those from ues as young voters age. pathogens and nonpathogens. candidates, parties and politi- low- and moderate-income Using a network of part- Finally, the report stresses the cal action committees (PACs) echelons. Under these rules, ners—including Rock The importance of building global by comparing zip codes of candidates who agree to strict Vote, MTV, Youth Vote and consensus and guidelines on donors to race, ethnic and campaign spending limits the Campaign for Young biotechnology research, with income information from the become eligible for public Voters—the project will the goal of building a coordi- 2000 U.S. Census. funding, opening the way for launch voter drives in each of nated system of monitoring Findings indicate that nine citizens to run for election the six states, using peer-to- dangerous pathogens and toxins out of ten of the individual dol- who may otherwise not be peer contacts and professional worldwide and promoting con- lars ($200+) donated during the able to afford a campaign. organizers to register and sistency in research oversight. two election cycles come from The Real Color of Money is a encourage youth involvement The report was sponsored by zip codes that are predomi- collaborative effort of Public during the election period. the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation nantly non-Hispanic white. Campaign, the Fannie Lou The New Voters Project is and the Nuclear Threat About 50 percent of the Hamer Project and the William being coordinated by The Initiative. For more informa- individual contributions came C. Velasquez Institute. It was George Washington University tion, go to www.nap.edu. from zip codes defined as made possible by funding from Graduate School of Political being wealthy, although just the Ford and Joyce foundations. Management, in conjunction 12 percent of the voting-age For more information, go to with Public Interest Research population lives in these www.colorofmoney.org. Group (PIRG) centers in neighborhoods. Colorado, Iowa, New Mexico, In contrast, low-income Nevada, Oregon and Wisconsin. neighborhoods, accounting for Principal funding for the nearly 9 percent of the adult initiative comes from the population, contributed just New Voters Project: Pew Charitable Trusts. For under 6 percent. Mobilizing Young more information, go to The study suggests that Voters www.newvotersproject.org. campaign money, not votes, A coordinated initiative to dictates who can run for office mobilize two million 18-to-24- and that it may bring undue year-old voters for the 2004 William C. Velasquez Institute influence to bear on legislative elections is under way in priorities as well. The underly- Colorado, Iowa, New Mexico, ing implication is that con- Nevada, Oregon and Wisconsin. FANNIE cerns critical to citizens of The nonpartisan New LOU color and poorer Americans, Voters Project is combining HAMER who lack the entrée large con- campaign strategy with grass- PROJECT tributions presumably guaran- roots canvassing to encourage New Study Uses tee, are not given the same pri- political participation among Patients’ Perceptions ority. As a consequence, they eligible young people, a to Rate Quality of Following the Money experience a poorer quality of potential voting bloc of almost Health Care Research into individual life, especially in matters like 24 million people nationwide. Results of a Commonwealth contributions to political basic health care and educa- The project’s coordinators Fund survey of patients’ per- campaigns in 2000 and 2002 tional opportunities. are addressing concerns that ceptions of medical care sys- finds most of the money for While individual political America’s youngest voters are tems in Australia, New federal campaigns coming from contributions do not fall into generally disengaged from Zealand, Canada, the United America’s wealthiest neighbor- the “soft” money category political participation. Data Kingdom and America suggest hoods, compounding the targeted by the Bipartisan from recent elections across that the United States, which belief that the nation’s political Campaign Reform Act, there the country reveal low num- topped the list in per capita agenda is being set by a small is evidence that states with bers of youth votes while spending, may not be getting

46 carnegie reporter—Spring 2oo4 240465-Carnegie 3/19/04 9:20 AM Page 47

RecentEvents... Continued from page 44

the best value for its money. from the arts and mental The survey was based on health to education and the standards of health care estab- environment—in regions as lished by The Institute of diverse as sub-Saharan Africa, Medicine, including patient Russia and the U.K. safety, timeliness, and patient- Dr. Kazuo Inamori, Japan’s centeredness (the degree to well-known, self-made busi- which physicians involve ness visionary, lives his belief patients in care decisions). that one should contribute The study’s findings are avail- both materially and spiritually able in a report called Mirror, to society. Throughout his leg- Mirror on the Wall: Looking endary business career, at the Quality of American Inamori has used his gains to Health Care Through the promote academic and cultural development and international

Patient’s Lens. « EE SISCO

Americans reported the least understanding. His Inamori AIM difficulty in waiting for hospital Foundation, with its annual Vartan Gregorian (far left); U.S. Secretary of Education Rod admission and for surgical pro- Nobel-class Kyoto prizes, the Paige (far right) and other former secretaries of education. cedures. However, American Abshire-Inamori Leadership patients, along with those from Academy at the Center for many educational reforms were and New York City Schools Canada and the U.K., were Strategic and International undertaken, among them, a Chancellor Joel Klein. The more likely to report waiting Studies, and his endowed uni- governors’ conference on edu- current chairman of the five days or more for a doctor’s versity chairs are among his cation convened by then- Trust, David Gardner, had appointment. many means for contributing President George Bush, which served as the chairman of the In terms of patient safety, to the world community. His was directly inspired by the National Commission on Americans were twice as likely book, A Passion for Success, report; 13 years later, President Excellence in Education. as others to report a medical outlines his philosophy that George W. Bush signed the The symposium consisted or medication error with seri- philanthropy is part of a landmark No Child Left of two panel discussions, one ous health consequences. productive life. Behind legislation into law. But looking back on the report’s The U.S. ranked last in The next Carnegie medals for all the debate, increased legacy and another panel healthcare efficiency. U.S. will be awarded in 2005. spending, and national atten- looking forward to the future patients were most likely to tion, how much has teaching of education. Many sympo- be sent for duplicate tests and A Nation at Risk and learning improved in the sium participants agreed that to have the test results fail to Revisited nation’s schools since the America is still educationally reach the doctor in time for an In 1983, when the 18-mem- release of A Nation at Risk at risk, and that a number of appointment. Americans were ber National Commission on more than two decades earlier? the reforms urged by A also more likely to say they Excellence in Education issued That question was discussed Nation at Risk and subse- had to repeat their medical its report, A Nation at Risk: at an October 23 symposium, quent reports—including histories multiple times. The Imperative for Educational which focused on Reflecting on improving teacher educa- Effectiveness of care was Reform, concern about the sta- Two Decades of Reform—a cele- tion—remain unfinished. measured by the patient’s abil- tus of American education in bration of the 20th anniversary Even so, as Vartan Gregorian, ity to follow up on care and the United States resulted in of the findings of the Nation at president of Carnegie whether physicians reviewed an unanticipated level of pub- Risk report. The Corporation Corporation of New York, the course of treatment with lic attention and debate. The hosted the gathering along pointed out, “As the result of them. The U.K. received the report famously warned that, with the California-based A Nation at Risk—and the best rating in this area, while “Our Nation is at risk. The J. Paul Getty Trust, bringing growing body of research on America tied for last place educational foundations of our together the remaining 12 how children learn and what with Australia. U.S. patients society are presently being members of the Commission constitutes good teaching— were also most likely to report eroded by a rising tide of and about 75 other educa- we have come a long way. going without recommended mediocrity that threatens our tional leaders, including U.S. The challenge ahead of us is care because of the cost very future as a Nation and Secretary of Education Rod to continue to improve our involved. For more informa- a people.” Paige, former U.S. Secretary of schools and the quality of tion go to www.cmwf.org In the years that followed, Education Richard W. Riley American education.”

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BackTHE Page

Richard Lee Colvin is director of the writer also had to have an apprecia- try invests less than half as much on color of their skin, the magnitude of Hechinger Institute on Education and tion of the fact that it’s culturally training—based on percentage of their parents’ income, the language the Media at Teachers College, Colum- acceptable in the U.S. for someone payroll—than does the average U.S. they speak at home or whether they bia University. He joined the Institute to admit publicly—as did a student company. The survey also found cope with a disability of some sort. in 2002 from the Los Angeles Times, quoted in the article—that, “I just that a lack of training is journalists’ That goal is often espoused but where he had been writing about think I’m not good in math.” number-one source of job dissatis- rarely achieved. In fact, what’s national education issues. He is mar- faction and that eight-in-ten jour- termed the “achievement gap”—that ried to Melissa C. Payton, also a jour- Education Journalism nalists want more. aggregate difference in academic nalist, and they have two children in Deconstructed But the journalists’ deep engage- achievement that leaves African public school in Ridgewood, N.J. He is Deconstructing newspaper arti- ment at the seminars—asking astute American and Latino students far a graduate of Oberlin College and of cles and broadcast reports about questions from beginning to end— behind their white and Asian Ameri- the University of Michigan, where he education is an occupational hazard also shows how seriously they take can counterparts—has been grow- earned a master’s degree in journalism. for me. I became the director of the their specialty. Journalists aren’t held ing, and not shrinking, for years. Hechinger Institute on Education in the highest esteem these days by If we’re asking all that of our and the Media at Teachers College, many Americans but it would do schools, shouldn’t we also be asking Columbia University, last May after critics well to see them in action as a lot of the journalists who report on

by R ICHARD L EE C OLVIN Improving Education Journalism: Educate the Writer, Too

more than 20 years of writing about they wrestle with issues that lie close them? And what must be done to education at three different newspa- to the heart of the elusive promise make sure they’re up to that task? pers, most recently the Los Angeles that is public education. The Washington Post recently pub- Times. The institute’s mission is to We ask a lot of our public schools. Covering Schools vs. lished a fascinating article that promote reporting about education We ask them to prepare graduates Covering Education explored why, precisely, “math is that is “fair, accurate and insightful”; for the job market and for success in Education writing started becom- hard” for many people. The piece, its main method of accomplishing college—two paths that more and ing a specialized task in American written by one of The Post’s educa- that is to offer in-depth seminars on more these days look alike in terms journalism around the middle of the tion reporters, delved into both psy- newsworthy issues for journalists of the skills they require. We want century. With the advent of the G.I. chology and cutting-edge science, who specialize in covering, supervis- graduates to flourish in intangible Bill in 1944, military veterans began reporting that brain researchers are ing coverage of or editorializing ways, to gain an appreciation for art enrolling in college in record num- using neuro-imaging techniques to about education. In 2003, for exam- and music and competition and bers. More students were going to literally “watch” the brain as its ple, the institute offered eight semi- effort. We ask schools to help young high school instead of heading into owner puzzles over math problems. nars on topics that included testing, people prepare to participate in this factories. Suburbanization began. So The technique has yielded impor- school choice, leadership in urban fragile experiment in self-regulation did the civil rights movement and tant insights into how the brain han- schools, the poor preparation of that we call democracy. If all that’s desegregation. The federal role in dles the task of reading, insights that many high school graduates for col- not enough, we believe that even as education expanded following the are beginning to influence instruc- lege or the job market and the ero- our society grows more divided eco- 1957 launch of Sputnik, which was tion. The hope is that such research sion of access to higher education. nomically, the schools can somehow seen, in part, as a failure of the can bolster math education as well. During each seminar, I’m struck overcome that fault and provide a American education system to keep Beyond the article’s intriguing anew by how appreciative my jour- springboard to opportunity for all. us scientifically competitive. central question, I was struck by nalistic colleagues are for the oppor- The federal No Child Left Behind Newspapers responded to those how much the writer had to know tunity to learn. Their reaction, in Act raises the stakes even further. trends by improving their coverage or be able to find out in order to part, reflects the fact that newspa- Signed into law two years ago by of education. Large, influential effectively communicate the infor- pers, most of which are highly prof- President George W. Bush, the law papers such as The New York Times mation to her readers. Different itable, spend only a pittance on pro- prescribes a regimen of testing and and the now-defunct New York Her- pedagogical approaches, develop- fessional development. A 2002 accountability that’s breathtakingly ald-Tribune were among the first to mental psychology, the hierarchical industry survey sponsored by the detailed. In sum, it requires that appoint education editors. Fred M. nature of math itself, history and gender John S. and James L. Knight Foun- schools be judged on how well all of Hechinger, who served in that studies all had to be considered. The dation revealed that the news indus- their students learn, regardless of the capacity of both papers and after

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whom the Hechinger Institute is do I come across solid explorations specialties, requiring deep knowl- course. All journalists, specialists or named, was among the journalists of teaching and learning. What does edge of the domain. not, have to find ways to make their who founded the Education Writers good teaching look like? What Many of the journalists who spe- stories compelling through rich Association (EWA) in 1947, in should school leaders be doing to cialize in those fields studied them description, strong characters, jar- order “to improve the reporting of raise student achievement? What in college or took specialized report- gon-free language and drama. So, education to the public.” really lies behind the achievement ing classes in journalism school. attention to good writing and Today, many newspapers have gap? How can testing help focus the But it’s rare for education writers to reporting, and investments in pro- education editors and cadres of efforts of schools as well as students? have formally studied education. fessional development to hone those reporters covering schools, particu- Is the perceived problem of a lack of And as far as I’ve been able to deter- skills, will remain paramount. larly those seeking to boost circula- discipline in schools as bad in reality mine, no journalism schools today Newspaper managers have an tion in the suburbs. But, as a wise as it is in the minds of school critics? have classes that deal specifically in important contribution to make. editor told me once, there’s a big dif- How is the growing phenomenon of all you’d have to know to write in- They can recognize the value of sub- ference between covering schools school choice playing out for stu- depth stories about teaching and ject matter knowledge and promote and covering education. Many dents? How can it be that 28% of learning or the other central com- journalists who work to develop it so newspapers require their school college freshmen overall and 42% of ponents of schooling. So, it would that the education beat is no longer reporters to churn out multiple sto- those who enroll in community col- be useful if journalism schools, per- considered an entry-level or dead- ries each week, a process that results leges have to take remedial classes? haps in conjunction with education end job. Rather than pulling the in superficial articles about school Are suburban schools as good as schools, offered such classes. education writer into whatever story board conflicts and other quick fea- they’re touted to be? Are they good Some might contend that educa- is breaking, they can turn elsewhere. tures that provide little context to for all students or only the elite tion is not a bona fide field and that They also can give reporters time to help readers understand how schools headed for top colleges? journalists should stay as far from the get into schools, to really see what’s work or the pressures they face. Yet In general, what I don’t see in jargon-riddled halls of education happening, rather than having to it is just such stories that explain the education writing is the authorita- schools as possible. Having taken rely on the arid, generalized descrip- complex environment of schools tiveness that comes from having a some education classes myself, I do tions of experts. that readers most want, according to vast amount of knowledge. Lacking not agree. But even if it were true, I Newspaper owners, publishers work done by Public Agenda, the that firm base of knowledge, many would argue that education journal- and top editors play a role as well. nonpartisan polling organization. stories seem naïve and built on the ists need to at least have a working They can pressure journalism schools Steve Farkas, Public Agenda’s fragile architecture of pat, superfi- knowledge of the competing peda- to develop the necessary courses. director of research, says the public cial quotes from educators or critics gogical theories that struggle for When they hire an education editor wants help in evaluating the per- who point to a need for “more dominance in education. They need or reporter, they can demand that the formance of schools and teachers money” or “smaller classes” or pri- to know something about history so person have the requisite set of skills and is far less interested in school vate school vouchers and a crack- as to understand the recurring cycles or experience. They can give promi- board politics and personalities. A down on troublemakers as decep- of change that keep the school nent play to education coverage and recent Public Agenda survey found tively quick solutions to complex wheels spinning but not moving for- make a commitment to invest in that a plurality of Americans say that problems. For example, a story ward. They need to know about the ongoing training. education is the community issue about testing might quote an advo- rapidly changing demographics of It was just over 20 years ago that about which they most want to cate and a critic contradicting one the school-age population. They the U.S. was galvanized by A Nation know more. another, with one saying it is a nor- need to know about cognition, moti- at Risk, a report produced by the Are reporters up to that task? mal part of the learning process and vation, human development, linguis- National Commission on Excellence Some are. As I monitor coverage the other calling it a crime. Such tics, and the interaction between in Education that warned the across the country, I see heartening stories reduce the complexities of poverty and learning. The list is long. nation’s future was in jeopardy examples of stories laying out com- schooling to a he-said, she-said con- And as we push our schools to better because of the mediocrity of its plex issues in compelling ways. flict that skates along the surface of serve an ever more diverse group of schools. The impact of that report, Another recent story in The Wash- the issue. They do nothing to fur- students, it gets longer all the time. which touched off waves of reform ington Post sensitively explored the ther the public’s understanding or In addition to formal classes, that continue to wash over the dilemma of whether profoundly dis- create pressure for improvement. training seminars, such as those schools, was surely due, in large abled students should be schooled in offered by Hechinger or EWA, can measure, to attention from the press. regular classrooms. The Chicago Tri- Knowledge and Change make a difference. We have good If the No Child Left Behind legisla- bune explored the nitty-gritty of There’s a lot that could be done to evidence that writers and editors tion is to deliver on its promise of state testing plans to uncover a wide- improve education journalism. But who attend these professional events improved educational outcomes for spread statistical practice that lessens what it all adds up to is writing tend to stay on the beat longer. They all kids, the press must again con- the pressure to improve. The Wall about education has to become a feel respected as professionals, tribute to the process by doing Street Journal has examined the true specialty, much as covering sci- develop pride in their own expertise its job of monitoring progress, admissions practices of elite colleges. ence, business, sports, the arts or and want to use it on the job. spotlighting problems, explaining But there’s a lot I don’t see. Rarely technology are all considered to be Knowledge alone isn’t enough, of research, and celebrating success. ■

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CARNEGIE a footnote to

Spring 2004 C ARNEGIE C ORPORATION OF N EW YORK 437 Madison Avenue New York, New York 10022 Phone: (212) 371-3200 Fax: (212) 754-4073 n 19th century America, Andrew Carnegie Web site: www.carnegie.org

« not only built the formidable American steel EE SISCO

Vice President, Public Affairs: industry, but he dedicated the fortune he AIM Susan Robinson King I Editor; Director, Publications amassed to cultural, educational and scientific and Public Affairs: Eleanor Lerman institutions for “the improvement of mankind.” Associate Editor; Photo Editor: Aimée Sisco Chief Staff Writer: Michael deCourcy Hinds His heirs are Carnegie Corporation of New York, Left to right, front row: Mary Miller Foundation Roundup Editor: Grace Walters which continues his grantmaking, and 21 other Thomson; Linda Thorell Hills; William Gordon Coordinator, Public Affairs and Thomson; Louise Thomson Suggett. Left to Media Relations: Ambika Kapur organizations that he founded and endowed. Researcher: Ronald Sexton Married later in life, in 1887, to Louise right, back row: Sandra Thorell Hersman; Cover Photo: AP/Wide World Photos/Sasa Kralj Whitfield, the daughter of a wealthy merchant in Lennart Miller Thorell; Pamela Morrison Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philan- Finlay Evans; Kenneth Brinton Miller. thropic foundation created by Andrew Carnegie in New York, he had only one daughter, Margaret, 1911 to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding among the people of born in 1897. Mr. Carnegie’s belief was that children should earn their place in the world, not inherit it, so the United States. Subsequently, its charter was after his death, he left no monetary bequests to his family. In his will, he wrote, “Having years ago made amended to permit the use of funds for the same purposes in certain countries that are or have been provision for my wife beyond her desires and ample enough to enable her to provide for our beloved members of the British overseas Commonwealth. daughter, Margaret, and being unable to judge at present what provision for our daughter will best pro- The goal of the Carnegie Reporter is to be a hub of ideas and a forum for dialogue about the work mote her happiness, I leave to her mother the duty of providing for her as her mother deems best. A of foundations. mother’s love will be the best guide.” Board of Trustees Helene L. Kaplan, Chairman Louise and Margaret were both enthusiastic philanthropists, serving on the Corporation board. But at Martin L. Leibowitz, Vice Chairman Margaret’s death, the foundation’s connection to the family ended. Recently, the extended Carnegie fam- Vartan Gregorian, Ex officio Bruce Alberts ily—the fourth and fifth generations—had a reunion in New York and visited various Carnegie institu- Geoffrey T. Boisi tions to learn more about their relative, his spirit of giving and their heritage. Fiona Druckenmiller James B. Hunt, Jr. Sixteen Carnegie descendents visited Carnegie Corporation of New York, including Linda Thorell Sam Nunn Olara A. Otunnu Hills. “Grandpa ‘Naigie’ would be astounded at his legacy of family,” she says today. “He was grandfather William A. Owens to four, great-grandfather to fifteen, great-great grandfather to thirty-one. … All of us grew up with a very Thomas R. Pickering Richard W. Riley low-key approach to our heritage, knowing that who we were and became was very much up to each of us Raymond W. Smith individually, and not a reflection of to whom we were related. Most of our friends have never known our family background.” Linda’s friends, however, have always been impressed by the large and elegant dining table that graces her suburban Colorado home, which is no surprise: it once graced the Carnegie mansion on Fifth Avenue, now home to the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. Some of the younger generation bear a striking resemblance to their famous ancestor and are very proud to ©2004 Carnegie Corporation of New York. All rights be a part of his family. As one great-granddaughter said, “He had an incredible vision of what his philanthropy in photographs, illustrations, artworks and other should do. We just hope that he can appreciate, in his eternity, what his money has helped to accomplish.” graphic materials are reserved to Carnegie Corporation of New York and/or the copyright holders (licensors).

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