SCHOLAR-ADMINISTRATOR NAMED DIRECTOR OF EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH AND EXTENSION AT TEACHERS COLLEGE

Peter W. Cookson, Jr., Has Served as Associate Provost, Associate Dean at Adelphi University

Peter W. Cookson, Jr., one of the nation's leading experts on school reform and the school-choice issue, who has served as an educational administrator and educator for the last two decades, has been named Director of Educational Outreach and Extension at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Dr. Cookson, who is now the associate provost at Adelphi University, will take over his duties at Teachers College officially on May 1.

The Director of Educational Outreach and Extension is a new position established by the Trustees of Teachers College to initiate a greater integration of new distance-learning technologies into the institution's extended education programs and to enrich a variety of the College's activities, including continuing professional education and the College's summer sessions.

The Teachers College thrust in educational outreach and extension will be designed to reach not only individuals who are teachers and administrators in schools but also others who are involved in the making of education policy--including members of state legislatures and their aides, members of the education press, corporation and foundation executives, college and university administrators, and leaders in parental organizations.

In his new position, Dr. Cookson will identify major issues in education for both professional and public debate and will serve as a liaison between the College and the New York City Public Schools.

He will also serve as Dean of the Teachers College Summer School.

"Peter Cookson is uniquely qualified to lead our program in educational outreach," President Levine said. "His work as an administrator, professor and scholar is widely regarded throughout the nation. He is an innovator both in thought and in action."

"I am completely committed to creating the best educational outreach program in the United States," Dr. Cookson said. "I look forward to working closely with Arthur Levine, my colleagues at Teachers College and the larger educational community in developing new, innovative, bold and educationally powerful programs and learning opportunities."

Many of Dr. Cookson's recent publications have involved the controversial issues of school choice and vouchers. He is the author of School Choice and the Struggle for the Soul of American Education, published by Yale University Press, and coauthor of Choosing Schools: Vouchers and American Education, published by American University Press. He is also the coeditor of Transforming Schools: The Reconstruction of American Education (with Barbara Schneider) and The Encyclopedia of the Sociology of Education, (with Alan R. Sadovnik and David Levinson), both published by Garland Press.

His new book, forthcoming from Yale University Press, is The New Educational Policy Elite.

Dr. Cookson's other books include Preparing for Power: America's Elite Boarding Schools and Making Sense of Society (both coauthored with Caroline Hodges Persell), Exploring Education (coauthored with Alan R. Sadovnik and Susan Semel) and The International Handbook of Educational Reform (coedited with Sadovnik and Semel).

Dr. Cookson began his career as a public school teacher at the elementary and high school levels. He later taught English in Rome and served as a teacher, assistant headmaster and dean of students of the Berkshire Country Day School in Lenox, Massachusetts.

He was the headmaster on the movie set of Lord of the Flies when the film was being made in the West Indies.

He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in American history in 1966, his Master of Arts degree in American and European intellectual history in 1968, and his Ph.D. in the sociology of education in 1981, all from New York University.

He also earned a Certificate of Advanced Study in administration, planning and social policy from Harvard University.

Dr. Cookson joined the Adelphi University faculty in 1989. He was named assistant dean of the University's School of Education in January, 1991, and associate dean in September, 1991.

He became associate provost of the university in August, 1994.

In addition to his faculty position at Adelphi, Dr. Cookson has taught as an adjunct faculty member at Teachers College, Manhattan College, the University of Massachusetts and Queens College of the City University of New York.

He has received many grants to support his research, including the Spencer Foundation Grant to Young Scholars in 1977, the Elmgrant Travel Grant in Great Britain in 1983 and a Tel Aviv University Travel and Research Grant in 1984.

As an American Sociological Association Congressional Fellow, Dr. Cookson served as a staff member on the education unit of the U.S. Senate's Labor and Human Resources Committee, which was then chaired by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.

Teachers College is a graduate school devoted to education across the lifespan and both in and out of the classroom. An affiliate of Columbia University, the College is financially and legally independent. Some 4,500 students are currently enrolled, studying for both master's and doctoral degrees. In the 1996 survey conducted by the editors of U.S. News & World Report, Teachers College was listed as the number-one graduate school of education in the nation.

Published Tuesday, Sep. 18, 2001