TCThe Magazine of Teachers College,TODAY Columbia University 125YEARS OF BIG IDEAS Class Will Meet Outside Today / How Smart Can We Get? / Circle Time for Pre-K / Looking Beyond the Frame / Building the Village It Takes / Include Me In / Lost In Translation / Educating the Public about Public Education / Learning from the Rest of the World / Giving Peace Education a Chance / Taking the Pulse of the Community SPRING/SUMMER 2013 DEWEY OR DON’T WE? PRESIDENT’S LETTER When I was a Ph.D. student at TC during the 1970s my advisor Donna Shalala secured a tin shack on the roof of Dodge Hall where all her students would share offices and collaborate. I remember that rooftop shack fondly as a clubhouse where a fascinating mix of people gathered to share ideas and apply them to problems on the ground. I returned to TC as President in 2006 with the memory of that clubhouse – and of the College itself – as a place where brilliant people of all backgrounds and talents could break bread together. Not long afterward, Provost Tom James and I decided to realize that vision by instituting a series of “domain dinners” – gatherings organized around issues such as globalization, policy, and creativity and the imagination – where faculty from all departments could meet, argue, learn and plant the seeds for future collaborations. As you read this special 125th anniversary issue of TC Today, think of it as an extended domain dinner that bridges TC departments and disciplines and reaches across the decades to include the thinkers whose ideas continue to shape our work. At the table you will find our founder, Grace Dodge, earnestly conversing with our current great champion of www.tc.edu/tctoday SPRING/SUMMER 2013 1 supplementary education, Edmund health profoundly influence learning, Gordon. Seated nearby is Patty Smith Hill, academic performance and life chances and who helped found what is now the cannot be treated separately from the National Association for the Education of educational process; and the recognition Young Children (and who co-wrote the that the arts are valuable not only for how song that became “Happy Birthday to they reinforce other subjects but also You”), chatting with Sharon Lynn Kagan, because they are fundamental to the Co-Director of our National Center for development of imagination, empathy and Children and Families, about what it would understanding of the human condition. take to establish a full-fledged early Perhaps the most prominent guest at our childhood education system in this country. virtual dinner is John Dewey, whose name Joining them is Karen Froud, Director of appears in nearly every story in this issue. our Neurocognition and Language Lab, Dewey’s writings are vast and complex, and who is planning a study of the impact of by no means does TC, as either an preschool on the brain development of institution or a collection of individuals, young children. And right next to them, subscribe to his every thought. But the Margaret H’Doubler, who founded the field Deweyan concept that we learn from all of dance education while she was a student that we do – and that learning must at TC, and her fellow alumna Georgia therefore be as broad and rich an O’Keeffe are listening intently as current experience as we can make it – informs our faculty members Judith Burton (Art and work at nearly every level. Art Education) and Hal Abeles (Music In fact, as we stand at the threshold of Education) update them on the state of arts the next great era in education – when a funding in today’s public schools. confluence of new technologies, ideas, Each of you always has a seat at this research findings and educational practices special domain dinner. Membership in the promises to create learning experiences of TC clubhouse includes our 90,000 alumni incomparable richness – the question around the globe who put their TC facing us is: Dewey or don’t we? Do we or education to work every day to make the don’t we want all our children to grow up world a better place – and then bring back with the tools to be educated, empowered, new ideas and perspectives that inform our productive citizens? Do we or don’t we teaching and learning for future generations. want the United States to regain its While that dynamic process of change is standing as the best-educated nation in the continuously at play throughout our world? Do we or don’t we believe that history, the founding principles of TC education not only matters, but matters endure. They include: the need to better most of all? understand how people learn so that we The answer to all of these questions that can provide more effective teaching; the rings loud and clear throughout these pages belief that education really is the world’s is that here at Teachers College, yes, we do. great equalizer, and that all human beings But don’t take my word for it. Enter the deserve the same opportunities to learn clubhouse, take your seat at the table and and to achieve their fullest potential; the see for yourself. And by all means, feel free understanding that physical and emotional to join the conversation. susan fuhrman (ph.d. ’77) LOFI STUDIOS LOFI 2 SPRING/SUMMER 2013 www.tc.edu/tctoday CONTENTS Spring/Summer 2013 features MAXIMIZING HUMAN Class Will Meet Outside Today POTENTIAL Revisiting Lawrence Cremin’s vision of education beyond schools 20 How Smart Can We Get? What would a golden age of education really look like? 26 It’s Circle Time for Pre-K The pros and cons of making early childhood education a national priority 32 Looking Beyond the Frame The big picture on providing all kids with meaningful access to the arts 36 Putting Standards to the Test FINAL FINAL During the past 30 years, U.S. education has become increasingly poverty equity standards-driven. Are we getting anywhere? 42 Building the Villagei t takes2.0 There’s no single soluTion To The achievemenT 2.0 gap, buT a loT of soluTions, TogeTher, POVERTY/ jusT mighT do The Trick WHITE Building the Village It Takes 1.5EQUITY The solution to the achievement gap may be many solutions, together 50 By 1 siddharTha miTTer BLACK 0.5 Infographic by Thomas Ng INCLUSION/ 0 spring/summer 2013 www.tc.edu/tctoday www.tc.edu/tctoday spring/summer 2013 Include Me In 50 51 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 TCToday_Spring13_WELL2_1305025.indd 50-51 DIVERSITY5/25/13 8:30 PM Special education students are increasingly being integrated into general education classrooms 58 Lost in Translation The United States is becoming a majority non-white nation. To truly level the playing field, non-whites will need to reclaim and recast their own narratives 64 CIVIC Educating the Public about Public Education ENGAGEMENT AND Former TC faculty member Donna Shalala makes the case for why GEOPOLITICS public schools matter 70 Learning From the Rest of the World In the global classroom, it’s time for the United States to pull up a chair 74 Giving Peace Education a Chance It takes sweat and tears to prevent bloodshed 82 WELLNESS Taking the Pulse of the Community Why promoting public health must be a grassroots effort 88 FRIEND OF TC Tending the House that Dodge Built As a descendant of TC’s founder, Board Co-Chair William Dodge Rueckert takes his family obligations seriously 92 LOFI STUDIOS LOFI Inside cover: Photographs by Heather Van Uxem Lewis 5 @tc TC TODAY 6 News@TC Tke magazine of Teachers College is produced by Celebrating all things 125; responding to Sandy’s devastation; and more the Office of Development and External Affairs at Teachers College, Columbia University. 17 First Editions Suzanne M. Murphy vice president, Though bed-bound, former New York State Commissioner of Education and development & external affairs TC faculty member Tom Sobol celebrates Dewey’s vision of life as education (Ed.M., Organization & Leadership, 1999; M.A., 1996) James L. Gardner associate vice president, 97 alumni news external affairs Clorinda Valenti 98 Alumni Association executive director, external affairs 99 Alumni Events 101 Class Notes TC TODAY staff 104 Alumni Awards Joe Levine 106 In Memoriam senior director, publications Heather Donohue director, operations alumni focus and special projects, external affairs 109 Jeff Glendenning Rebuilding the Social Order creative director Ellen Condliffe Lagemann is the latest in a proud line of TC civic educators Paul Acquaro director, 110 office of the tc web Smiling to Keep Learning (M.A., Instructional Technology, 2004) Saadia Khan is demonstrating that emotions have a major role to play Patricia Lamiell in education director, media relations Matthew Vincent 111 His Assignment: Help Close the Gap associate web editor (M.A., Art and Art Education, 2013) David Johns has spent his life thinking about improving education for African Americans. Now that’s his job at the White House Hua-Chu Yen web development specialist (Ed.D., Art and Art Education, 2009) 112 Progressing Beyond His Comfort Zone Kalena Rosario With World II, life at TC and beyond changed dramatically for administrative assistant Richard Alexander. So, ultimately, did he Rebecca Chad, Heather Smitelli editorial assistants Urania Mylonas TC Testimonials contributing writer Alumni, friends and admirers talk about what the College has Thomas Ng contributing art director meant to the world Pages 48, 49, 62, 63, 81, 87, 96 TC Today, Spring/Summer 2013 Volume 37, Number 2, Copyright 2013 by Teachers College, Columbia University TC Today is published twice per year by Teachers College, Columbia University. Articles may be reprinted with the permission THE JOY OF GIVING of the Office of External Affairs.