January 2005

Educating Small

More than 600 educators gather at Fanny Lou Hamer Freedom High School in the Bronx for the third annual Small Schools Conference, organized by the National Academy for Excellent Teaching (NAfET), Teachers College, and its executive director, Douglas Wood (left). The event is funded by Gerry and Lilo Leeds, whose $10 million grant helped establish NAfET.

Jodie Lane Fund Created

A $1 million endowed scholarship is established at Teachers College to honor the memory of Jodie Lane, a TC doctoral student who was electrocuted in January 2004 while walking her dogs in New York City's East Village. The Fund will support a scholarship, fellowship or research project for one or more master or doctoral students in Clinical Psychology at Teachers College.

March 2005

Evaluating School Leadership Programs

"Educating School Leaders," a report by Teachers College President Arthur Levine, finds serious flaws in most of America's preparation programs for principals, superintendents and other education leaders. The report is the first in a four-part series by Levine known as The Education Schools Project.

April 2005

Strengthening the Board

The College adds three new members to its Board of Trustees: Abby O'Neill, Chairman, Rockefeller & Co. Inc.; Dailey Pattee, TC alumna and Psychotherapist, Department of Psychiatry, Inpatient Units, New York Presbyterian Hospital; and Jay Urwitz, Partner, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, and legislative advocate for educational and non-profit institutions. A fourth new member, Eduardo J. Marti, President of Queensborough Community College, joins the Board later in the year.

Putting Great Teachers Where They're Needed

A report by a special commission of the New York City Council, co-chaired by TC President Levine, calls for improving teacher quality in the City's public schools through a combination of financial incentives for all teachers, more rigorous teacher assessment, smaller classes and greater accountability. The commission was created to recommend priority uses for anticipated new funding from New York's decade-long school finance litigation.

May 2005

Education Behind Bars

The Teachers College Student Press Initiative (SPI) publishes Killing the Sky: Oral Histories from Horizon Academy, Rikers Island, an anthology of transcribed and edited essays by six young men at the New York City correctional facility's on-site school. Directed by TC instructor Erick Gordon and sponsored by Professor Ruth Vinz through TC's Morse Center for the Professional Education of Teachers, SPI typically works with middle and high school students in traditional classrooms to produce themed anthologies of writings. Killing the Sky was created with the support of the New York City Department of Corrections and Department of Education.

Medalists Honored at 2005 Convocation

At its 2005 master's degree ceremonies, the College presents its Medal for Distinguished Service to:

Actress Ruby Dee and the late actor Ossie Davis, both civil rights activists, with their daughter, TC alumna Hasna Muhammad, receiving the award for her father;

New York City Councilman Robert Jackson and attorney Michael Rebell, co-founders of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, which has won billions of dollars of additional funding for New York City schools;

Gary Orfield, Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and co-founder and Director of the Harvard Civil Rights Project;

Psychologist Jerome Bruner, co-founder with Jean Piaget of the field of cognitive psychology and a principal architect of the federal Head Start program;

Grammy-award winning folk singer Judy Collins (left); and

Historian and journalist Richard Heffner, host of television's longest-running talk show, "The Open Mind."

At its doctoral ceremonies, the College presents its Cleveland E. Dodge Medal - given to non-educators who have made a difference in education - to philanthropist George Weiss (left), founder of the Say Yes to Education inner-city scholarship program.

TC's student speakers are master's graduates Deb Sawch, a former corporate marketing executive, and Carolyn Woods, the first deaf student from Teachers College to be placed in a hearing classroom as a student teacher.

TC Announces First Policy Research Fellows

The College's Office of Policy and Research chose nine outstanding applicants, representing six departments, to receive $6,000 awards for work that will advance educational and social policy on levels ranging from local to international.

June 2005

A Campaign for Equity

The College launches The Campaign for Educational Equity, aimed at overcoming the gap in educational access and achievement between America's most and least advantaged students. Michael A. Rebell (left), former lead counsel and strategist in New York's school finance lawsuit, is named Executive Director, and Laurie M. Tisch, a longtime trustee of the College, is named Board Chair.

A Summer Academy for Principals

The College opens a new Summer Principals Academy under the aegis of the Organization and Leadership Department. Directed by department Chair Craig Richards, the program consists of an intensive six-week semester during each of two summers, combined with an internship and an extended weekend program during the winter months. Graduates earn 32 credits over 14 months, a "building level" certification and either an M.A. or an Ed.M.

July 2005

Remembering a TC Trustee

Arthur Zankel, Vice Chair of Teachers College's Board of Trustees, passes away. Zankel, 73, joined the Board in 2001 and initially chaired its Committee on Trustees and served on the Executive and Investment Committees. He supported the TC Education Partnership Zone, personally underwriting TC's Reading Buddies, a program in which TC students read daily with children at four local schools.

In a message to the Teachers College community, President Levine praises Zankel for "his passion for making a difference in the world" and calls his death "a profound loss to all who were touched by his enthusiasm and generosity."

A President's Departure

In his annual State of the College Address, Arthur Levine announces he will step down as the College's President in summer 2006. Levine will become President of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, which awards distinguished graduate fellowships, champions liberal arts education and promotes leadership opportunities among underserved groups.

September 2005

A Better Orientation for New Students

The Offices of Admissions, Enrollment and Student Services conduct an expanded new five-day program called the New Student Experience Orientation, with activities ranging from informational seminars taught by current Teachers College students to a day-long fair on 120th Street.

Shelter From the Storm

TC enrolls, at no charge, four students displaced by Hurricane Katrina.  A researcher, Annie Weiss (left), also takes refuge at the College, joining TC's National Center for Children and Families.

The Elaine Brantley Memorial Award

The Elaine Brantley Memorial Award for Community and Civility is presented during State of the College ceremonies to Chandra Cates (far left), Administrative Assistant in Development and External Affairs, and Orlando Cartagena, Jr. (left), Custodian II in Facilities.

Ackerman Named Next Johnson Professor

TC announces that Arlene Ackerman, the 2004--2005 National Association of Black School Educators' Superintendent of the Year, will join its Education Leadership Faculty as the new Christian A. Johnson Professor of Outstanding Educational Practice in fall 2006. Under Ackerman, San Francisco had the highest student achievement of any urban school district in California. Ackerman will succeed Thomas Sobol, former New York State Commissioner of Education, who has held the endowed appointment since 1995.

CEO&I Names New Executive Director

Ann Armstrong, a veteran provider of education and learning solutions to corporate America, is named Executive Director of TC's Center for Educational Outreach and Innovation. She sets a goal of creating and delivering programs for Fortune 500 companies through TC's infrastructure.

New Leader for the Office of Teacher Education

The College creates a stronger, more centralized Office of Teacher Education. TC alumna A. Lin Goodwin, Associate Professor of Elementary Pre-Service Education, is named the College's first Associate Dean for Teacher Education and School-Based Support.

A Call to Arms

Congressman Charles Rangel and TC President Levine issue a joint call for the creation of greater incentives for highly qualified teachers to work in New York City's most challenging schools. Their message is directed at both the New York City Department of Education and the United Federation of Teachers, who are negotiating a new contract for the City's teachers.

October 2005

First Equity Symposium Held

The Campaign for Education Equity holds its inaugural symposium, "The Social Costs of Inadequate Education." Chaired by faculty member Henry M. Levin, the event spotlights new data showing that America loses hundreds of billions of dollars each year when young people fail to graduate from high school. The two-day event is keynoted by Congressman Charles Rangel.

Bruner Delivers Marx Lecture

Cognitive psychologist and education reformer Jerome Bruner delivers TC's annual Virginia and Leonard Marx Lecture, titling his talk "Educating a Sense of the Possible." At 90, Bruner - still an active faculty member at the New York University School of Law - encourages educators to "cultivate a sense of make-believe in young children so they can first master the art of generating new worlds."

New Teacher Academy Receives Grant From Jones New York In The Classroom

The New Teacher Academy of Teachers College Innovations receives a grant of $350,000 from Jones New York In The Classroom, Inc., a not-for-profit corporation, to support teachers and improve education for children. The grant launches NTA-'"which builds support for, and encourages retention of, new teachers-'"into school districts in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and Prince George's County, Maryland, and funds a continuing program in New York City.

November 2005

TC presents Distinguished Alumni Awards to (in order from left, following Alumni Council President Andre McKenzie) Kathleen D. Morin (M.A., 1977; Ed.M., 1978; Ed.D., 1985), Director of Education for The Raoul Wallenberg Committee of the United States; Robert L. Hilliard (Ph.D., 1959), a leading educator in communications; John F. Fanselow (Ph.D., 1971), President of International Pacific College in New Zealand; and Thomas S. Popkewitz (M.A., 1964), a distinguished scholar of curriculum theory.  Michael Bitz, founding director of the Comic Book Project, and Hawthorne Smith and Adeyinka Akinsulure-Smith, of the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture, receive TC's Early Career Awards.

December 2005

Gordon Campus Dedicated

TC dedicates its offices at the former Hotel Theresa Towers in Harlem as the new Edmund W. Gordon Campus. Gordon is Richard March Hoe Professor Emeritus of Psychology and founder of TC's Institute for Urban and Minority Education, as well as Special Advisor to The Campaign for Educational Equity. A faculty resolution names him "an esteemed colleague, superb scholar, man of vision," and a plaque in his honor is placed in Main Hall.

Farewell to a Dynamic Dean

Darlyne Bailey, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of TC, announced in May 2006 that she was leaving Teachers College to seek new challenges.

"A big part of who I am today came together here," said Bailey, who will become Dean of the new College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) at the University of Minnesota.

Since arriving at TC in January 2002 from Cleveland's Case Western Reserve University, where she had been Dean of the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Bailey spearheaded the creation of the TC Education Zone Partnership, an umbrella of the College's many collaborations with the New York City public school system, and the establishment of TC's new Edmund W. Gordon Campus in Harlem's former Hotel Theresa. She also worked to build what she terms "a service community" within TC. That effort included the hiring of Don Martin as the College's first Associate Dean for Enrollment and Student Services; restructuring and refocusing the Office of Teacher Education and School-based Support, under new Associate Dean A. Lin Goodwin; and establishing the Office of Accreditation and Assessment, headed by TC alumna Sasha Gribovskaya. Bailey is also proud that TC's Gottesman Libraries, under Professor Gary Natriello, is "now back at the heart of the College."

Most recently, Bailey also took steps to revitalize the Center for Educational Outreach and Innovation, TC's hub for providing continuing education and professional development to both traditional and non-traditional markets, by bringing CEO&I a new Executive Director, Ann Armstrong.

"Darlyne is like sunshine - warm, sparkling, and full of energy - she is a woman of values and vision who gets the job done," says Professor Sharon Lynn Kagan, Associate Dean for Policy and Director of the Office of Policy and Research. "Minnesota is lucky to get her; their gain is our loss."

Research in 2005

The following were some of the diverse research contributions by TC faculty in 2005:

A study conducted by George Bonanno, Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology, and doctoral students Courtney Rennicke and Sharon Decal, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, found that people who have proven most personally resilient after experiencing crises such as attacks on the World Trade Center are more likely to be those who, in day-to-day interactions, are difficult to get along with.

When arts learning is part of the school curriculum through collaborative in-school arts partnerships, children think more effectively and creatively and become more engaged in their work. That was the conclusion of a federally-funded, multi-year study conducted for ArtsConnection, a leading arts-in-education organization, by Rob Horowitz, Associate Director of the Center for Arts Education at TC. Horowitz presented the findings at a national symposium in New York City.

Thomas Bailey, George and Abby O'Neill Professor of Economics and Education and Director of TC's Center for Community College Research, and his colleagues Katherine Hughes, Melinda Mecur Karp and Baranda Fermin, released "Pathways to College Access and Success," a study of programs in which struggling high school students take college or college-level courses.  The study identified aspects of dual enrollment courses that participating students and teachers felt were most helpful. Next, CCCR will try to assess the impact of dual enrollment on rates of high school graduation and retention in college.

Backed by a $150,000 grant from the Spencer Foundation, TC's John Black, Cleveland E. Dodge Professor of Telecommunications and Education, and Professor Charles Kinzer, coordinator of the Programs in Communication, Computing and Technology in Education, opened the EGGPLANT Video Games Research Laboratory. The acronym stands for Educational Games Group: Play, Literacies, Avatars, Narrative and Technology. The lab looks at the cultural impact of video games and seeks to harness their technology for educational purposes.

In a four-year analysis of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study-Repeat (TIMSS-R) - a comparative assessment of math performance by eighth graders worldwide - James Corter, Associate Professor of Statistics and Education; Kikumi Tatsuoka, Distinguished Research Professor; and a group of other TC faculty and students were able to tease out the varying "sub-skills" of students from different countries.  An overall finding: students with a positive "math self-concept" do better, as do students whose autonomy in the classroom has been actively supported.

Published Wednesday, Sep. 20, 2006