Anchor: #january

January 2018

Sustainability In Our Schools

TC hosts its first workshop for New York City Department of Education sustainability coordinators. New York City is the country’s only major municipality to require all public schools to appoint a sustainability coordinator — part of its broader sustainability plan to send zero waste to landfills by 2030. Oren Pizmony-Levy, Assistant Professor of International & Comparative Education, and students Lauren Bowden, Melanie Nethercott, Erika Kessler and Carine Verschueren, have put the city’s data in useable form, assessed the program’s impact and raised key questions about its ultimate goals.

Giving Kids a Voice

This past year saw the founding of the unique Vocal Workshops at TC for teens and pre-teens by Jeanne Goffi-Fynn (Ed.D. ’96), a Singing Voice Specialist who serves as a faculty member in the College’s Music & Music Education Program. The Workshops help young singers take ownership of their voices – and often, of their identities.

Anchor: #february

February

Don’t Cut Our Funding!

Seven TC students advocate for student aid in Albany, New York, rallying with others as part of the New York Student Aid Alliance, organized by the Commission on Independent Colleges & Universities. The TC students tell three legislators and their staff how aid has helped them pursue their careers. 

Anchor: #march

March

Re-Mapping Global Education

Regina Cortina, Professor of Education in TC’s Department of International & Transcultural Studies, chairs the 2018 Comparative & International Education Society (CIES) conference, held in Mexico City and themed “Re-Mapping Global Education: South-North Dialogue.” Cortina begins her term as CIES President.

Sustainable Peace Project

The United Nations reports on its attempt to reorganize itself around sustaining peace rather than crisis management and mitigating war. The UN effort owes much to TC’s Sustainable Peace Project, led by psychologist Peter T. Coleman, which is creating a working model of the dynamics that promote and sustain peaceful societies. In “Half the Peace,” a critique published in the web publication of the International Peace Institute, Coleman argues that the UN effort is hampered by “Hobbesian assumptions” that human groups are inherently selfish and violent, and by scientists’ and policymakers’ focus on preventing what people fear rather than on maximizing their hopes. 

Anchor: #april

April

High Wire Act

The Teachers College interactive Digital Learning Exhibition goes live in the new Smith Learning Theater on the fourth floor of the College’s Gottesman libraries. Curated by Lalitha Vasudevan, Professor of Technology & Education, and students in her Media & Social Change Lab (MASCLab) in collaboration with Steven Goss, Vice Provost of Digital Learning, and the Office of Digital Learning, the exhibition reflects “the range and variation” of how the TC community has “taken up the idea of digital learning.”

TC at AERA

Faculty, students, staff and alumni deliver 376 presentations at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). Amy Stuart Wells, Professor of Sociology & Education, begins her term as AERA President, with a theme of “leveraging educational research in a post-truth society.” David T. Hansen, Weinberg Professor in the Historical & Philosophical Foundations of Education, delivers the keynote lecture for the SIG/Dewey Studies meeting, titled “Educational Justice and the Necessity of Our Philosophical and Civic Traditions.” Janet Miller, Professor of English Education, delivers the 2018 Egon Guba Lecture of AERA’s Qualitative Research Special Interest Group, speaking on “Post-Autobiographical Re-Turnings and Rationalities: Feminist, Curriculum, and Qualitative Inquiries.” Carole Saltz, Director of Teachers College Press, chairs “Dreaming in Greene: Reframing Contemporary Educational Policy, Practice, and Research through Maxine Greene’s Critical Lens,” a special session devoted to the late TC education philosopher. And Susan Fuhrman, in her final year as TC’s President, chairs “Reimagining Education for the Changing Public: From Research to Promising Pedagogy in Racially Diverse Schools,” a featured session, convened by Wells.

Teaching in Trying Times

The conference Teaching in Trying Times: Convening for Change, organized by Social Studies Education Lecturer Erika Kitzmiller and Adele Bruni Ashley, Lecturer in the Teaching of English program, guides teachers helping their students grapple with topics such as school shootings, the fate of young people seeking U.S. citizenship, and political dysfunction. Deborah Meier and Emily Gasoi, authors of These Schools Belong to You and Me: Why We Can’t Afford to Abandon Public Education, keynote the event.

TC Unleashed

“Unleashing,” a 21-piece multimedia art installation inspired by Maxine Greene, occupies the College’s corridors, stairwells, common areas and open spaces. Directed by Richard Jochum, Associate Professor of Art & Art Education, the exhibition features works by 28 international artists, including Rafel Lozano-Hemmer, Bernd Oppl, Marion Wilson and Cathy Lebowitz.

Rethinking Failure

TC launches the interdisciplinary Education for Persistence and Innovation Center (EPIC) to study failure across a wide variety of disciplines and test theories about its use as a catalyst for innovation and success. EPIC is directed by Xiaodong Lin-Siegler, Professor of Cognitive Studies, and initially funded by Weiming Education Limited, a leading provider of private schools in China; the Alvin I. & Peggy S. Brown Family Charitable Foundation; the National Science Foundation; and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. TC also presents its inaugural EPIC Achievement Award to education philanthropist James S.C. Chao, founder of Foremost Group, a leading global shipping and transportation company. Later in the year, The Yu Panglin Charitable Trust announces a $3 million gift to EPIC, making TC the first institution outside of China to receive a donation from the Foundation, which was established by the late Chinese real estate magnate Yu Panglin.

Festival for the Future

TC’s 10th annual Academic Festival, “X,” draws more than 1,000 alumni, friends and prospective students. Keynote speaker Eric Liu, founder of Citizen University, receives the President’s Medal of Excellence. The College presents its Distinguished Alumni Award to groundbreaking neurological physiotherapist Louise Ada (M.A. ’84); civil rights activist Sybil Jordan Hampton (Ed.D. ’91); bilingual speech/language pathologist Gabriela Simon-Cereijido (M.S. ’00); and Etta Kralovec (Ed.D. ’89, M.Ed. ’85), co-author of The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits LearningBradford Manning (M.A. ’10), co-founder of Two Blind Brothers which creates clothing designed for the sight impaired, and “transgressive” educator Thabo Msibi (M.Ed. ’08), Dean and Head of School at South Africa’s University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), receive the College’s Early Career Awards. James Jones, Director of the University of Delaware’s Center for the Study of Diversity, receives TC’s Morton Deutsch Award for Social JusticeKathryn Hill (Ed.D. ’18) receives TC’s Shirley Chisholm Dissertation Award. Science Education doctoral student Lisa McDonald receives the best poster prize, earning a tuition credit for “The Role of Children’s Racial Identity and its Impact on Science Education,” while Art & Art Education master’s degree student C.J. Reilly receives the People’s Choice Award for his poster on “STEAM-Powered Food Security.”

Innovating in Teacher Development

Teachers College and King’s College London launch the Center for Innovation in Teacher Education and Development (CITED) to develop an innovative program of research in teacher education; offer knowledge exchange and development activities; establish joint education programs; and facilitate mobility of faculty and students to enhance teacher education research and teaching. CITED’s Founding Co-Directors are TC’s Mariana Souto-Manning, Professor of Early Childhood Education, and Viv Ellis, Professor of Educational Leadership & Teacher Development at King’s College London’s School of Education, Communication & Society. The Center was collaboratively imagined and set in motion by Ellis and A. Lin Goodwin, TC’s Vice Dean and Evenden Professor of Education.

Building Knowledge about Black Education

Sonya Douglass Horsford, Associate Professor of Education Leadership and Senior Research Associate at TC’s Institute for Urban and Minority Education, will serve as project director for the Black Education Research Collective (BERC) with colleagues including: Mark Gooden (Education Leadership), Michelle Knight-Manuel (Curriculum & Teaching), Felicia Moore Mensah (Science Education), and Erica Walker (Mathematics Education). The goal of BERC is to generate cross-disciplinary research and dialogue related to the education and leadership of African-descendant people. The Collective will provide a research base from which students and early career scholars can get a better understanding and educational foundations of the history of Black or African-American education, and/or the ways in which race has operated — and continues to do so — in American society and schools.

Anchor: #may

May

Ending Gun Violence

Sonali Rajan, Assistant Professor of Health Education, is named to a multidisciplinary group of researchers and policy makers who will pursue research and share and analyze data aimed at developing and testing solutions to the gun violence epidemic. Spearheaded by the governors of five states and Puerto Rico, the coalition was created by States for Gun Safety, an alliance formed following the mass school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

Freeing Up Creativity for Kids in Detention

TC’s Center for the Professional Education of Teachers (CPET) is honored by District 79, an alternative city school district, as an “Exemplary Partner” for its work with East River Academy, a New York City public school serving young people at the city’s Rikers Island detention facility. CPET, founded by Ruth Vinz, Enid & Lester Morse Professor in Teacher Education, and directed by Roberta Lenger Kang, provides professional and curriculum development to East River Academy, including annual publication of students’ poems and essays through CPET’s Student Press Initiative.

All TC’s a Stage

The 2017–18 Performing Arts Series of TC’s Office of School & Community Partnerships features on-campus performances attended by 650 K–12 students. The series includes an original children’s opera created and performed by Manhattan School of Music students, and an interactive performance by a jazz trio made up of Columbia University alumni.

The Cahn Fellows Go National

TC’s Cahn Fellows Program for Distinguished Principals rolls out its national expansion plan. The cohort includes 64 participants from five cities in its prestigious year-long professional development and networking program aimed at recognizing and retaining high performing principals in leadership positions. 

Convocation 2018

Some 2,200 graduates participate in TC’s 2018 Convocation at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Four recipients of the Teachers College Medal for Distinguished Service address the theme of research: Helene Gayle, a globally recognized public health expert and CEO of the Chicago Community Trust; Columbia University psychologist Walter Mischel, whose “marshmallow studies” launched a new focus on impulse control in young children; Eric Holder, the first African American to serve as U.S. Attorney General and Chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee; and the Columbia Journalism School’s Jelani Cobb, a 2018 Pulitzer Prize finalist for his columns in The New Yorker. The student speakers are master’s degree graduates Amanda Najib (Elementary Inclusive Education); Wale Oluwabusayomi Okerayi (Counseling & Clinical Psychology); and Nathan Shields Mullen (International Educational Development).

Anchor: #june

June

How Data Can Guide Schools

TC hosts the nation’s first major conference on education leadership data analytics (ELDA), an emerging field that reveals patterns in the work of individuals or even entire classrooms or districts over time, predicts problematic long-term outcomes, and helps school leaders and teachers intervene. Led by Alex Bowers, TC Associate Professor of Educational Leadership, the conference unites the ELDA research community with school leaders and teachers.

A Different Kind of Health Screen

The Digital Health Promotion Executive Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C., co-led by John Allegrante, Professor of Health Education, convenes academic researchers, leaders from the health and technology industries (including Google, Facebook, Tumblr, P2 Health and Koko) and leaders from the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Summit explores social media’s role in disease prevention, child and adolescent development, and the opioid crisis.

The Fast Track to Interactive Learning

TC hosts the annual Subway Summit on Cognition & Education Research, featuring presentations on interactive learning by students and faculty from four New York City universities — Fordham University, New York University, The City University of New York Graduate Center, and TC. The Summit is chaired by John Black, Cleveland E. Dodge Professor of Telecommunications & Education and Director of the College’s Institute for Learning Technologies, and Cathy Chase, Assistant Professor of Cognitive Studies, and features keynotes by Robert Siegler, TC’s new Jacob H. Schiff Foundations Professor of Psychology & Education, and Michelene (Micki) Chi, a cognitive and educational scientist at Arizona State University.

The Fuhrman Years: Concluding a Successful Presidency

Susan H. Fuhrman concludes her 12-year presidency of Teachers College. On her watch, the College increased both outgoing proposals for externally funded research and sponsored program expenditures (to over $50 million annually) by 40 percent; created a new Department of Education Policy & Social Analysis; created a new Office of School & Community Partnerships and a pre-K–8 public school, the Teachers College Community School (anchoring a larger network of partnerships with local schools); hired more than 70 new faculty members; and conducted the largest-ever Campaign for a graduate school of education.

Anchor: #july

July

A New Era Begins

Thomas Bailey, a leading authority on community colleges, takes office as Teachers College’s 11th President. A 27-year faculty member who is also the College’s George & Abby O’Neill Professor of Economics & Education, Bailey is the founding director of TC’s Community College Research Center. He chaired the Obama administration’s Committee on Measures of Student Success and has direct­ed three TC-based, U.S. Department of Education-fund­ed national centers. 

Reimagining Education III

TC hosts its third annual Reimagining Education Institute, which equips teachers to engage the nation’s increasingly diverse student population. Directed by Amy Stuart Wells, Professor of Sociology & Education, the Institute draws 350-plus educators from 24 states and six countries. Keynote speaker Angela Valenzuela, Professor of Educational Leadership & Policy at the University of Texas–Austin College of Education, describes immersion of historically disadvantaged fourth-graders in a curriculum steeped in Mexican-American and Tejano culture.

Anchor: #august

August

An Education Visionary

Trustee Emeritus John Klingenstein passes away at 89. TC’s most generous donor ever, Klingenstein served on TC’s board from 1979 through 2014 and established TC’s Klingenstein Center for Independent School Leadership, regarded as the nation’s preeminent program for private school leadership training. In 1992, he received TC’s Cleveland E. Dodge Medal for Distinguished Service to Education.

A Multilingual Pioneer

Professor Emerita María Torres-Guzmán, a pioneer in multilingual and multicultural education, passes away at age 67. Torres-Guzmán argued that culture is embedded in language and that children learn best when they are allowed to think, read and speak in their native tongue as well as in English. She created one of the nation’s first teacher education programs in bilingual education, focused attention on how local and global forces combine to affect decisions to include or exclude different languages, and led collaborations with local public schools to create a model culture based on dual-language instruction. In 2011, she received the American Educational Research Association’s Bilingual Education SIG Lifetime Achievement Award.

Anchor: #september

September

Welcoming New Faculty

Seven new faculty members join TC:

Her Focus Was on Her Students

The College mourns L. Lee Knefelkamp, Professor Emerita of Psychology & Education. She is credited with bringing the first wave of student development theory to the student affairs profession and shifting the field from service provision to a focus on transforming college campuses into developmental communities. Knefelkamp spearheaded a national initiative by the Association of American Colleges & Universities to reshape 21st-century liberal arts education. With psychologist W. Warner Burke, she helped create TC’s Eisenhower Leader Development Program (EDLP), a master’s degree program in social-organizational psychology for officers at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Expanding TCCS

The Teachers College Community School (TCCS) acquires a second building to accommodate its growing population and grades. TCCS now has a lower school (Pre-K–2) and an upper school (3–8). Also, TCCS student test results on the New York State ELA and Math exams surpassed community, city and state averages.

Strengthening a Powerful Partnership

Continuing its ongoing collaboration with Teachers College, the Lemann Foundation commits generous support to launch two major multi-year research endeavors designed to catalyze change across the Brazilian educational landscape. One is a study of countrywide implementation efforts of Brazil’s newly approved learning standards, led by Douglas Ready, Associate Professor of Education & Public Policy and Director of the TC arm of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education. The other is a study of classroom practices based in Brazil, led by Mariana Souto-Manning, Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education. These projects will ultimately raise the bar for educational research based in practical application, and build capacity nationwide in vital areas of policy analysis, curriculum development, and translating policy into implementation.

Since the launch of our partnership, the Lemann Fellowship Fund at TC has invested in 12 master’s degree students (and engaged with an additional two honorary students) who share a passion for creating and leading social change in Brazil. TC’s Lemann Fellows are steadily growing the community of Brazilian scholars who seek evidence-based solutions to educational issues. The Fellowship was expanded in 2018 to facilitate a seamless translation of the Foundation’s desire to address Brazil’s most pressing development challenges by supporting a cadre of leaders who have both theoretical training and hands-on practical knowledge of their field.

Good Fellowship in the Community

The Arthur Zankel Urban Fellowship program expands from 50 fellows to 60 fellows. TC student fellows are now providing services to underserved youth at over 20 sites across New York City.

Here to Serve: Welcoming the O’Neill Fellows

TC welcomes its first cohort of Abby M. O’Neill Teaching Fellows. Created by a $10 million gift from O’Neill — a longtime Trustee who died in spring 2017 — the Fellowships support outstanding TC students committed to teaching in New York City. Each Fellow receives $40,000 in tuition assistance. O’Neill sought to make TC affordable to New York City-bound teachers by relieving them of debt and giving them the financial freedom to serve the city’s children.

And Now the Future Is Here: Concluding TC’s Campaign

Teachers College closes the books on Where the Future Comes First, the largest Campaign ever conducted by a graduate school of education. The Campaign raised $345 million, including $116 million in support for student scholarships; supported faculty programs through the creation of multidisciplinary centers, academic programs and initiatives; and harnessed the power of productive faculty-sponsored research. It financed upgrades to TC’s historic campus, bolstered TC’s unrestricted financial flexibility through the Annual Fund and created an academic seed fund for new initiatives for the here and now. The Campaign also created record alumni engagement and participation.

Families at the Border

The Office of the Vice President for Diversity and Community Affairs holds a Constitution Day discussion, “Family Separations and Detention at the Border: Legal Asylum Risks,” featuring Mary Mendenhall, Associate Professor of Practice in the International & Transcultural Studies Department, and Eleanor Acer, Director of Human Rights First’s Refugee Protection Program.

Eating Local

CulinArt, TC’s food and beverage services vendor, begins a partnership with The Common Market, a nonprofit, mission-driven distributor of local, sustainable foods, to provide the College with monthly deliveries of in-season, locally sourced food. TC, which launched the field of nutrition education and helped launch the “eat local” movement, is The Common Market’s first university account in New York.

Toasting to Success

More than 200 alumni, students, faculty, staff and friends join President Thomas Bailey and Board Chair Bill Rueckert to toast a record year of giving at the Celebration of the Teachers College Annual Fund, at Tavern on the Green in New York City’s Central Park. A record 900 alumni and friends made first-time Fund donations this past fiscal year. The Class of 2018 made the first-ever class gift totaling over $5,000. Nearly 2,000 Maxine Greene Society members (donors for three or more consecutive years) extended their support. 

Anchor: #october

October

Sustainability for School Parents

Working with the New York City Department of Education’s Office of Sustainability and the District 3 Green Schools Group, the Teachers College Working Group on Environmental & Sustainability Education holds an open house for parents interested in creating environmental sustainability in their schools.

From Poets to Pediatricians: The Work of Education

TC hosts “The Work of Education,” its third annual conference on anthropology and education. Chaired by Hervé Varenne, Professor of Anthropology & Education, this year’s event broadly defines “the work of education” to include “parents struggling with infants (and their own parents, pediatricians, etc.) . . . the elderly (and their children, neighbors, etc.) figuring out who does what in the crowd treating them — and who is to pay for them,” and even “poets reading to their audience.” 

Using Their Outside Voices

The Teachers College Reading & Writing Project hosts “Raise Your Voice,” a weekend workshop in writing poetry, narrative writing and the spoken word for 94 young social justice activists from local schools and those in neighboring communities. “Raise Your Voice” is supported by the Rowland & Sylvia Schaefer Family Foundation, co-directed by TC Trustee Marla Schaefer.

Another Success for Focusing on Failure

The Yu Panglin Charitable Trust announces a $3 million gift to TC’s Education for Persistence and Innovation Center. The College is the first institution outside of China to receive a donation from the Foundation, which was established by the late Chinese real estate magnate Yu Panglin, who donated his entire $10 billion estate to philanthropic causes.

What’s Really Needed to Secure America

Louis Klarevas, author of Rampage Nation: Securing America from Mass Shootings, gives a book talk co-sponsored by the TC Gun Violence Prevention Working Group and the Media & Social Change Lab, and supported by the Office of the Provost.

Anchor: #november

November

A Survivor Who Thrived

Olivia Hooker (M.A. ’47), the last survivor of the infamous Tulsa race massacre of 1921 and the first-active duty African-American woman to serve in the U.S. Coast Guard, dies at 103. Hooker served as Professor of Psychology at Fordham University, retiring in 1985. She founded a division of the American Psychological Association focused on individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities, her areas of specialization. She received TC’s Distinguished Alumni award in 2016.

Macy Gallery: Art Beyond the Bounds

TC’s Macy Gallery exhibits the local installment of the third annual 2018 No-Boundaries International Art Exhibitions sponsored by Columbia University’s Global Centers. The exhibition features 150 artworks by children in grades K–12 from 15 countries, including 52 by kids from the New York City area and across the United States. This year’s theme, “One Tree, One City,” explores the bond between cities, trees and nature through art. The No-Boundaries Committee was founded in 2015 by Baitong Yan, then a student at Teachers College.

Addressing Veterans' Needs

Working through TC’s Resilience Center for Veterans & FamiliesLena Verdeli, Associate Professor of Psychology & Education and Director of the Global Mental Health Lab, begins testing a three-session form of interpersonal therapy (IPT-3) to address veterans’ needs and priorities. Delivered at TC’s Dean Hope Center for Educational and Psychological Services, IPT-3 promotes veteran engagement by addressing issues of adjustment to civilian life rather than mental disorders.

Taking Civic Action for Civic Engagement

A lawsuit filed on behalf of 14 Rhode Island public school students and their parents by Michael Rebell, Professor of Law & Educational Practice and Executive Director of TC’s Center for Educational Equity, charges that diminished access to civic education threatens the democratic ideals set out by the Founding Fathers. The suit, Cook v. Raimondo, cites the finding that 50 percent of American adults are unable to identify the three branches of U.S. government. The suit could ultimately establish public education as a Constitutional right on par with due process and freedom of speech.

The Diaspora On Screen

The African Diaspora International Film Festival (ADIFF) opens its 26th season in New York City. ADIFF NY 2018 screens 61 films from 40 countries including 27 world, U.S. and New York premieres, with many showings at TC. ADIFF, which features independent Afrocentric films from all over the world, was founded and is run by the husband-and-wife team of former TC faculty member Reinaldo Barroso-Spech and former TC budget director Diarah N’Daw-Spech, and is co-sponsored by TC’s Office of the Vice President for Diversity and Community Affairs.  

Anchor: #december

December

Opening Flourishes: Celebrating a President

Inaugurated as Teachers College’s 11th President, Thomas Bailey calls on TC to better marshal its resources to “build smarter, more productive, and more just societies.” Success is imperative, he tells nearly 1,000 alumni, students, faculty and friends, “first, because our nation and our world need our knowledge, expertise, and graduates more urgently than ever before, and second, because we face many challenges as an institution.” Bailey’s inauguration caps a week that includes musical performances by students and faculty, an academic symposium on research and practice, and the 2018 Phyllis L. Kossoff Lecture on Education & Policy, delivered by New York City Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza.

Hate, in the Crosshairs

TC hosts “Anti-Semitism Today: Why are Hate Crimes on the Rise in the U.S.?” a symposium organized by Harriet Jackson, a staff member in TC’s Office of External Affairs. With a record jump in reported incidents — from 1,267 in 2016 to 1,986 in 2017 — TC President Thomas Bailey asserts that TC’s core mission is to “gather the best scholars to understand the causes and remedies.” Opening speaker David Harris, CEO of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), calls on the nation to address the hate fostered on social media sites. TC’s Associate Professor of Higher & Postsecondary Education Noah Drezner leads a panel discussion among Stephanie Merkrebs, New York/New Jersey Regional Director of Anti-Defamation League Campus Affairs & Special Projects; Kevin Feinberg (M.A. ’93), Senior New York Region Program Director of non-profit Facing History and Ourselves; and Mehnaz Afridi, Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Director of the Holocaust, Genocide and Interfaith Education Center at Manhattan College. The event is sponsored by TC’s Office of Diversity & Community Affairs in partnership with the Columbia Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies and The International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism.