Publications: TC Today
The Alumni Magazine of Teachers College, Columbia University
Volume 30, No. 2 ♦ 2/2006
A Campus for a Pioneer
On December 15th, TC dedicated its offices at the Theresa Towers, on the corner of Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard and 125th Street, as the new Edmund W. Gordon Campus. The event, which celebrated TC's Professor Emeritus of Psychology, also marked the work of the TC Education Zone Partnership, the College's network of partnerships with the New York City school system in Regions 9 and 10, which encompass Northern Manhattan and parts of the Bronx.
Published: 4/13/2006A Contract With America('s Parents)
This past fall's inaugural Symposium on Educational Equity at TC showed just how much America's education achievement gap results from causes outside the classroom.
Published: 4/13/2006Ackerman to Join TC Faculty
Arlene Ackerman, superintendent of the San Francisco Unified School District, will join TC's Education Leadership Faculty next fall as the new Christian A. Johnson Professor of Outstanding Educational Practice. She will direct the Inquiry Program, TC's largest doctoral program, and its longstanding Superintendent's Work Conference.
Published: 4/13/2006All Right, Be That Way
It's official: Being a narcissistic pain in the neck can be good for your health.
Published: 4/13/2006Anthropology in the Classroom
When studying kids in school, go deep, a primer advises In the children's book Madlenka, by Peter Sis, a little girl learns about the subjective nature of meaning when she tells the various denizens of her city block--each of whom hails from a different part of the world--about her loose tooth. Each responds differently, bringing a unique cultural perspective to bear.
Published: 4/13/2006Cowin Center Work Proceeds
An answer to an old TC problem: Where to hold a really big conference? Anything under 200 people fits nicely in Milbank Chapel. Smaller events can be accommodated in Grace Dodge 179. But for major events, the only option at TC has long been Horace Mann Auditorium, where-- among other drawbacks-- people seated in the rear of the balcony were unable to see the stage.
Published: 4/13/2006Equity by the Numbers
A two-day symposium at TC documented the costs of educational inequity--economic and otherwise. Did you know that: -A high school dropout earns about $260,000 less over a lifetime than a high school graduate and pays about $60,000 less in taxes? And that annual losses exceed $50 billion in federal and state income taxes for all 23 million U. S. high school dropouts, ages 18 to 67? Increasing the high school completion rate by just one percent for all men ages 20 to 60 would save the U. S. up to $1.4 billion per year in reduced costs from crime? And that a one-year increase in average years of schooling for dropouts would reduce murder and assault by almost 30 percent, motor vehicle thefts by about 20 percent, arson by 13 percent and burglary and larceny by about six percent?
Published: 4/13/2006Generating New Worlds
Imagination and its uses in teaching were the theme of this year's Virginia and Leonard Marx lecture, delivered in October by Jerome Bruner at Columbia's Alfred Lerner Hall.
Published: 4/13/2006
Houston We Have Contact
By way of a computer-controlled robot and other space- age stuff, inner-city kids are learning about math, science, techno-farming and respect.
Published: 4/13/2006How to Succeed in Business and Life
For Elliot and Roslyn Jaffe, corporate success starts in the classroom As business people, Elliot and Roslyn Jaffe believe education is the key to America's economic future. As philanthropists, they've made that idea their mantra-- and channeled much of their efforts into supporting programs at Teachers College.
Published: 4/13/2006Levine to Head Wilson Foundation
Departing TC President Arthur Levine announced in December that he will become the sixth president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, effective September 2006.
Published: 4/13/2006Never Mind the Rhetoric
What's real in the debate over privatization in education Public or private? Vouchers and charter schools or higher taxes and investment in the public schools? However you define the issues, it's been one of the most polarizing debates in the field of education over the past several years.
Published: 4/13/2006
Oldest Living TC Alum Tells All
Most TC alumni remember their first day at Teachers College. The excitement of learning from some of the top names in education, the confusion of finding your way through labyrinthine hallways, the admonition from the Students' Executive Council that "students are to wear hats when they go to Columbia, or to the parks."
Published: 4/13/2006Storm-Tossed
New Orleans students take refuge at TC Leaving New Orleans on the eve of Hurricane Katrina, Samantha Morrison packed light. The Ph. D. candidate in Education and Psychology at Tulane says the school's website predicted the hurricane would only delay classes by a day. She set out first for Baton Rouge and then for Atlanta to wait out the storm at the home of a friend's brother.
Published: 4/13/2006The Past is Prologue: Students Old and Young Embody Our Heritage
Dear Friend, The current issue of TC Today is about continuity and change. It t ells the story of a persistent and consistent commitment to educational equity by Teachers College that spans more than a century--a dedication that provided the rationale for creating the College and continues today through our Campaign for Educational Equity.
Published: 4/13/2006The Social Costs of Inadequate Education
Some findings: - America loses $192 billion-'" 1.6 % of GDP -'" in combined income and tax revenue losses with each cohort of 18-year-olds who never complete high school. Increasing the educational attainment of that cohort by one year would recoup nearly half those losses.
Published: 4/13/2006Tisch Honored by Dewey Circle
The Teachers College John Dewey Circle gathered in October for dinner in the lobby of the American Folk Art Museum to honor its newest members and recognize one special Dewey Circle member for her leadership role.
Published: 4/13/2006Verna Francis: A TC Alumna Has Brought Out the Best in People
Verna Francis was one of the last audience members to approach the microphone at TC's two-day symposium on educational equity back in October, but her words drew applause from the remaining crowd. "We must not refer to our African American and Hispanic children as -'at risk' and -'disadvantaged,'" cautioned Francis, 74, a TC alumna. "The very terms are demoralizing to teachers, to parents and to the children. Children need to be told they can achieve anything they want to achieve."
Published: 4/13/2006Walking the Talk
Not long ago, people studied a language in high school, learned grammar, read some literature and then forgot it all.
Published: 4/13/2006
