Michael Rebell | Mini Moments With Big Thinkers

Over the past several decades, lawsuits have compelled dozens of states to provide more money to less wealthy school districts.By establishing clear targets for students' knowledge and skills, the education standards movement was critically important to these lawsuits, says TC's Michael Rebell, who lead the plaintiffs to victory in New York. That's because standards enabled schools to quantify the resources they needed to help each student succeed.

Attorney Michael Rebell, Professor Law and Educational Practice at Teachers College and Columbia Law School and Director of TC's Campaign for Educational Equity, has played a lead role in two landmark cases that have helped improve educational opportunities for millions of poor and disabled students.Rebell, a member of TC's Department of Education Policy and Social Analysis (EPSA), was co-counsel for the plaintiffs in CFE v. New York, a school funding "adequacy" lawsuit that ultimately compelled New York State to provide billions of additional dollars to New York City schools. He also litigated Jose P. v Mills, which compelled New York State's Department of Education to obey federal laws that require provision of appropriate evaluation, placement and services to all students with disabilities. He also is also a member of the national Equity and Excellence Commission that prepared a report, For Each and Every Child: A Strategy for Education Equity and Excellence, which was presented to the Secretary of Education and the Congress.

Rebell is the author of Courts and Kids: Pursuing Educational Equity Through the State Courts ( University of Chicago Press, 2009);  NCLB at the Crossroads: Reexamining the Federal Effort to Close the Achievement  Gap ( with Jessica R. Wolff; Teachers College Press, 2009); Moving Every Child Ahead: From NCLB Hype to Meaningful Educational Opportunity (with Jessica  R. Wolff; Teachers College Press, 2008; and Equality and Education (with Arthur R. Block; Princeton University Press, 1985).

To learn more about Michael Rebell, read:

• Michael Rebell: "Nation at Risk" Gave Us Standards Movement (www.tc.edu; National Public Radio)
• A Blueprint for Closing the Gap (www.tc.edu; Yahoo Canada)
• Michael Rebell Publishes New Article on Judicial Responses to Budget Cuts (www.tc.edu)
• What It Takes To Level The Playing Field (www.tc.edu)
• Educational Budget Cuts: Unconscionable - And Unconstitutional (The Huffington Post)
• A Campaign for Equity: Across the State (TC Annual Report, 2004)

Premiered on 5/20/2013