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News You Can Use

News You Can Use: Issue 6, Fall 2009

People of Interest

New findings from TC Faculty and Students

TC Alumnus Kevin Jennings named Assistant Deputy Secretary of Education

Published: Thursday, July 02, 2009

TC Alumnus Kevin Jennings named Assistant Deputy Secretary of Education From the Department of Education news releaseKevin Jennings, Assistant Deputy Secretary, Office of Safe & Drug Free School

Kevin Jennings is the founder and former executive director of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), an organization that works to make schools safe for all students, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Prior to his tenure at GLSEN, Jennings served as History Department chair and a history teacher at Concord Academy in Massachusetts and before that as a history teacher at Moses Brown School in Rhode Island. Jennings has also authored six books including Mama's Boy, Preacher's Son: A Memoir which was named a 2007 Book of Honor by the American Library Association and Telling Tales Out of School which was the winner of the 1998 Lambda Literary Award. Jennings received an A.B. in history from Harvard, an M.A. from the Columbia University Teachers College and an M.B.A. from NYU's Stern School of Business.

 
Alumnus John King  Assumes Senior State Education Post

Alumnus John King Assumes Senior State Education Post

John B. King, Managing Director of Uncommon Schools, a nonprofit charter management organization that operates schools in New York and New Jersey, will become the New York State Department of Education's senior deputy commissioner for P-12 education, heading up school reform efforts.  Published: 9/15/2009

Governor Paterson Appoints TC Alumna Jill Iscol to State Commission on National and Community Service

Governor Paterson Appoints TC Alumna Jill Iscol to State Commission on National and Community Service

Merryl Tisch, who earned a doctorate at TC, will be the first woman to hold the position on the panel that sets policy for the state's educational system.  Published: 7/13/2009

New Book Examines the Ideas of TC Philosopher Maxine Greene

New Book Examines the Ideas of TC Philosopher Maxine Greene

Professor John Baldacchino discusses the 'radical philosophies' of a legendary TC scholar.  Published: 3/24/2009

Alumna to Serve as Chancellor of NYS Board of Regents

Alumna to Serve as Chancellor of NYS Board of Regents

Merryl Tisch, who earned a doctorate at TC, will be the first woman to hold the position on the panel that sets policy for the state's educational system.  Published: 3/16/2009

Shaping the Future of Nursing: Elaine Tagliareni, President of National League of Nursing

Shaping the Future of Nursing: Elaine Tagliareni, President of National League of Nursing

TC alumna Elaine Tagliareni, President of the 27,000-member National League of Nursing, is redefining opportunity in the helping profession.  Published: 1/7/2009

Susan Fuhrman Is President-Elect of National Academy of Education

Susan Fuhrman Is President-Elect of National Academy of Education

Susan Fuhrman has been elected the next president of the National Academy of Education (NAED), a post she will hold while continuing to serve as president of Teachers College.  Published: 10/3/2008

Education Pioneers James Comer and Henry Levin

Education Pioneers James Comer and Henry Levin

In Those Who Dared: Five Visionaries Who Changed American Education, published by Teachers College Press (2008), a group of path-breaking education reformers—including two with direct ties to TC—recount their efforts to change the way American schools work.   Published: 1/1/2009

Portia Williams is shaping TC

Portia Williams is shaping TC's international collaborations

Curriculum development projects in India; a growing partnership with the education ministry of Jordan; new collaborations in Africa and Iceland—these are heady times for faculty and students at TC with an international focus. Now there’s yet another exciting development: the appointment of the College’s first Director of International Affairs, Portia Williams.  Published: 6/2/2008

Student Jonathan Gyurko has been Randi Weingarten’s right-hand man

Student Jonathan Gyurko has been Randi Weingarten’s right-hand man

Plenty of TC students have some field work under their belts—but not too many can claim to have formulated education policy and created schools. Jonathan Gyurko, a doctoral student in Politics and Education, is one, having served as the Director of Charter Schools for the New York City Department of Education (DOE) and currently, as a Special Assistant to Randi Weingarten, President of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), advising the union on charter school policies and affairs.  Published: 2/13/2008

Time

Time's Top NYC Principals Are TC Cahn Fellows

Four of five NYC principals honored by Time Warner are TC program alums  Published: 12/12/2007

An Artist Who Keeps Being Discovered TC

An Artist Who Keeps Being Discovered TC's Graeme Sullivan has Genuine Street Cred

Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach, runs the old adage--but not in TC's Department of Arts and Humanities, where Georgia O'Keeffe once honed her craft and where current Department Chair Graeme Sullivan exhorts students and staff to combine theory with practice.  Published: 11/1/2007

James A. Banks Discusses Multiculturalism and Citizenship

James A. Banks Discusses Multiculturalism and Citizenship

James A. Banks -- the Kerry and Linda Killinger Professor of Diversity Studies and Director of the Center for Multicultural Education at the University of Washington -- discusses a multicultural approach to citizenship.  Published: 10/2/2007

A 27-Year-Old TC Grad is Founding Principal of an NYC Public School

A 27-Year-Old TC Grad is Founding Principal of an NYC Public School

For most of the students in the TC Summer Principals Academy, the assignment to design a propopsal for a new school is just an exercise. For Mariela Graham, it resulted in an actual new school -- and a new job.  Published: 6/15/2007

David Kirp on Pre-K as Panacea

David Kirp on Pre-K as Panacea

David L. Kirp, a professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and former newspaper editor, will discussed his widely-touted book, The Sandbox Investment: The Preschool Movement and Kids-First Politics (Harvard University Press, 2007) at TC's Virginia and Leonard Marx Lecture.  Published: 10/26/2007

The Other Dan Brown and His Year in the Blackboard Jungle

The Other Dan Brown and His Year in the Blackboard Jungle

A TC student climbs the best-seller lists with an account of being a first-year teacher in the Bronx.  Published: 12/11/2007

Five Pioneers

Five Pioneers

TC Alums Sarah Ryan, Michael Lowry, Leah Schaefer, Anie Kalayjian and Susan Fuhrman have blazed trails in fields ranging from trauma psychology to sex education.  Published: 6/25/2007 10:44:00 AM

Education Historian Thomas James Is TC

Education Historian Thomas James Is TC's New Provost

After a months-long national search for a new academic dean, Teachers College has named Thomas James -- currently Dean of the School of Education at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill -- as its new Provost, with the accompanying titles of Dean and Vice President for Academic Affairs.  Published: 9/30/2007

Making A Difference At Home

Making A Difference At Home

More than 61 million Americans volunteer in some way - caring for family members, helping friends, assisting at schools, churches and hospitals, usually close to home. For a smaller number, service is a way of life - a full-time job, a calling.  Published: 8/31/2007

The Unorthodox Behaviorist: TC Autism Researcher Doug Greer

The Unorthodox Behaviorist: TC Autism Researcher Doug Greer

Doug Greer has fashioned a teaching approach from the ideas of B.F. Skinner. Now he's testing it to see if it can help close the nation's achievement gap  Published: 4/6/2007

Remembering Albert Ellis, a Giant in American Psychology

Remembering Albert Ellis, a Giant in American Psychology

Albert Ellis, who passed away in July 2007, was one of the towering American figures in psychology. He was the founder of Rational-Emotive Therapy, which offers a more active, direct approach to treating psychological disorders than traditional psychoanalytic models. A biographical sketch by TC Professor Barry Farber.  Published: 7/26/2007

Matthew Pittinsky Founded a Billion-dollar Company, but His Heart is in the Classroom

Matthew Pittinsky Founded a Billion-dollar Company, but His Heart is in the Classroom

TC is a rare atmosphere where someone can be both remarkable and typical, and at first Matthew Pittinsky seems to fit into that mold -- he is passionately devoted to education, excited about the potential research has to improve childrens lives, and toiling at his dissertation for the Sociology in Education program, while experiencing the joys and sleep deprivation of being a new father.  Published: 9/4/2007

Profile of Professor Emeritus and Former NY State Education Commisioner Tom Sobol

Profile of Professor Emeritus and Former NY State Education Commisioner Tom Sobol

When Tom Sobol was superintendent of schools in Scarsdale, New York, there was a guy named Bob who came to all the budget meetings, the classic thorn-in-your-side self-appointed public citizen who haunts town halls across the nation.  Published: 10/10/2007

The  Issue 6, Fall 2009 issue of News You Can Use

Inside
The source for news and events at Teachers College, Columbia University

TC Today
The Alumni Magazine of Teachers College, Columbia University

Annual Report
The Teachers College Annual Report

Peer Review
Video program developed by Rene Cherow O'Leary to explore current themes in education with faculty and staff at Teachers College.


Archives of conferences & Symposium


American Educational Research Association - TC faculty, students and staff have a large presence at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association.
Campaign for Educational Equity Symopsia - Dedicated to promoting equity in excellence in education and overcoming the gap in educational access and achievement between the most and least advantaged groups in this country.