2010: The Year in review

2010: The Year in review

The College hosts the U.S. Secretary of Education, provides humanitarian aid to Haiti, analyzes the impact of federal stimulus dollars, honors the Prime Minister of Namibia, welcomes four new trustees and focuses on literacy issues in older children.

Covering the period of September 1, 2009 through August 31, 2010

September 2009
Buoyed by a six percent increase in applications and its lowest percentage increase in tuition in decades, TC welcomes an entering class of more than 1,800—its largest since the mid-1970s.

The College names John Allegrante, Professor of Health Education, to
the newly created position of Deputy Provost, focusing on academic initiatives.

October
Inaugurating the College’s Phyllis L. Kossoff Lecture, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan praises TC but calls for an overhaul of most teacher preparation programs to help close the achievement gap between minority and white students, improve graduation rates and prepare more students for college and the workplace.

November
Speaking in Milbank Chapel, Merryl Tisch, Chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents, and David Steiner, the state’s Commissioner of Education, outline their ideas for changing teacher certification and evaluation.

TC’s Macy Gallery hosts “Conversations Across Cultures,” a symposium on new ways to approach art. Faculty members Judith Burton and Olga Hubard and two TC students curate an accompanying exhibit, ”Cross-Cultural Conversations in the Arts–Bridging Discourses.”

December
John Fischer, who served as President of the College from 1962–1974 passes away at age 99. He came to national attention through his enforcement of desegregation as the superintendent of Baltimore city schools, and was subsequently appointed Dean of Teachers College in 1959.

“Visions in New York City, an exhibition of short films and videos at Macy Gallery, is selected for inclusion at the eighth annual Art Basel-Miami Verge Fair. Curated by world renowned artist Maurizio Pellegrin, “Visions” features several pieces by TC students, alumni and faculty.

January 2010
The TC community responds to the earthquake in Haiti by pitching in to a drive mounted by the Vice President’s Office for Diversity and Community Affairs to collect supplies. Several alumni participate in on-the-ground rescue efforts. The TC Student Senate raises money for relief efforts for Haiti by selling tee-shirts.

February
Teachers College signs a memorandum of understanding with Turkey’s Bahcesehir University to foster a wide-ranging collaboration that includes assisting the Istanbul-based institution in establishing a school of education. TC’s Francisco Rivera-Batiz, Professor of Economics and Education, will develop a jointly administered center on education and economic development.

Teachers College receives a three-year, $2.45 million grant from the Peter G. Peterson Foundation to develop a comprehensive curriculum about the fiscal challenges that face the nation. The curriculum, developed by a team led by faculty member Anand Marri, will be distributed free of charge to every high school in the country (see story, page 26).

TC’s Campaign for Educational Equity convenes the first major national symposium to analyze the impact of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA), through which the U.S. Department of Education is distributing $100 billion to states to promote innovation and equity in public schools. The bottom-line finding: the money is being used primarily to plug budget gaps.

March
Peter Groff, Director of the U.S. Department of Education’s Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, keynotes “Write the Vision: Make it Clear,” a day-long conference on the role of the faith-based community in closing the education achievement gap, hosted by TC’s Vice President’s Office for Diversity and Community Affairs and the College’s Black Student Network.

Charles Basch, Richard March Hoe Professor of Health Education, presents the findings of “Healthier Students are Better Learners,” his new meta-study focusing on seven health risks that disproportionately impair the academic performance of urban minority youth.

The Vice President’s Office for Diversity and Community Affairs presents “Education and the Hip-Hop Generation,” a panel on the intersection of the hip-hop cultural movement and urban education. Three African-American male faculty members speak: Christopher Emdin, Assistant Professor of Science Education; Marc Lamont Hill, Associate Professor of English Education; and Thurman Bridges, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in Curriculum and Teaching.

The College hosts the National Conference of State Legislatures’ annual National Education Seminar. The event is co-sponsored by the National Center for Postsecondary Research at Teachers College and includes presentations by several TC faculty members.

April
TC holds its second annual Academic Festival, themed “Leadership: Defining the Next Decade.” The event is highlighted by the first-ever presentation of the College’s President’s Medal for Excellence, to Prime Minister Nahas Angula of Namibia (Ed.M.,’79), architect of that nation’s education system, and Ulysses Byas (M.A.,’52), who fought for better resources for black public schools in the pre-integration American South. TC also honors Trustee Joyce Cowin with the dedication of the Cowin Conference Center and presents its Distinguished Alumni Award to the Reverend Lesley George Anderson (Ed.D.,’87), President of the United Theological Seminary of the West Indies; Raphael M. Ortiz (Ed.D.,’82), Founder of El Museo del Barrio; Viola Vaughn (Ed.D.,’84), Founder of 10,000 Girls in Senegal, West Africa; and Vivian Ota Wang, (Ph.D.,’95), National Institutes of Health Agency Representative of the National Science and Technology Council. Luis Rios, Jr. (M.Phil.,’01), Consultant at the California Department of Education working on family literacy programs, receives TC’s Early Career Award.

Tim Page, renowned music critic and author, keynotes TC’s annual “Mind and Body in Autism” conference, sponsored by the Center for Opportunities and Outcomes for People with Disabilities in collaboration with the College’s Leonard and Frances Blackman Lecture Series. Temple Grandin, whose journey with autism inspired a recent HBO movie, participates via conference call.

May
Teachers College Trustee Cory Booker is elected to a second term as Mayor of Newark, New Jersey.

An independent study of New York City public school records finds that principals who participate in the TC Cahn Fellows Program improve student performance and the learning environment at their schools. Schools led by Cahn Fellows out-perform peer institutions in student ELA and math scores, attendance, graduation rates, school environment surveys and DOE Quality Review.

Immigrant students in New York City public schools gather in the Cowin Center to read from their oral histories, recently published by TC’s Student Press Initiative in the five-volume anthology Speaking Worlds.

TC welcomes its first cohort of Teaching Residents@Teachers College (TR@TC). Funded by a $9.75 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the program enables residents to apprentice with experienced teachers at high-needs schools and earn a master’s degree. Graduates commit to teach for three additional years in a New York City public school.

At its 2010 Convocation ceremonies, the College presents its Medal for Distinguished Service to Gail Collins, New York Times columnist; film director Spike Lee; and alumnus Richard Mills, former Commissioner of Education for the State of New York. Jill Biden, community college educator and wife of U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden, speaks at the doctoral ceremony.

June
Four new Trustees join TC’s Board: psychologist Nancy Rauch Douzinas, President of the Rauch Foundation; Martha Berman Lipp, former owner and operator of Merchants Travel Inc.; Leslie Morse Nelson, President of Nelson-Giroux, Inc., an interior design and consulting firm, and daughter of Trustee Emeritus Enid (“Dinny”) Morse; and Milbrey “Missie” Rennie Taylor, a strategic and media consultant who has spent more than 30 years in the television news business. Departing from the Board are Marjorie Hart (named Trustee Emeritus) and Jan Krukowski.

Teachers College receives two AmeriCorps grants from the Corporation for National and Community Service. The National Educational Award supports a total of 93 Professional Corps members to teach full-time in high-need public schools in New York City and around the country. The National Direct Recovery Grant funds a volunteer program to place 28 TC graduate students in volunteer positions with education initiatives in northern Manhattan.

July
Trustee Eduardo Martí is appointed to the newly created post of Vice Chancellor for Community Colleges by the Board of Trustees of The City University of New York.

Some 150 science and social studies teachers attend a conference at TC focusing on “content area literacy,” a teaching strategy in which adolescents struggling with literacy acquire reading and writing skills by working
with more difficult texts that relate to their interests.

August
A group of 150 Upper Manhattan school principals meet at TC with Anthony W. Miller, Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer of the U.S. Department of Education. The meeting is co-sponsored by Congressman Charles Rangel.


Published Wednesday, May. 11, 2011

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