Inquiry Series Features Renaissance 2010
At the most recent Inquiry Series dialogue, Chicago Public Schools chief Arne Duncan presented an overview of Renaissance 2010, Mayor Daley's controversial initiative for replacing Chicago's most troubled public schools with 100 new, smaller schools over the next five years. The March 1 event was co-sponsored by the School of Education and Social Policy (SESP) and Inner-City Teaching Corps. Duncan predicted rebirth through Renaissance 2010, which lets charter, contract and performance schools compete for the right to create schools. "I think we have an educational and moral obligation to step in and do something now and not lose another generation to the streets," he said. Learning sciences professor Louis Gomez served as discussant and kicked off a question-and-answer session. "The Chicago Public Schools has to learn to be a learning organization," he noted, adding, "We need to keep our eyes on the prize, which is teaching and learning."
SESP Students Hear Supreme Court Arguments
 Students attended Supreme Court arguments with instructor Cindy Conlon (far right) and met with attorney David Friedman (center). PHOTO BY KRIS VERA |
Students who took SESP's Legal Aspects of Education class in the fall had a memorable follow-up at the Supreme Court this spring. Along with instructor Cindy Conlon, several students heard oral arguments before the Supreme Court on two controversial cases they studied in class.
Justice John Paul Stevens sponsored the students to attend the Supreme Court session on March 2 when it was considering two cases about the constitutionality of displaying the 10 Commandments on public property.
"What makes the trip an especially valuable educational experience is the fact that my students studied these two cases last fall, conducted a simulated Supreme Court argument of both cases and also had the opportunity to speak with attorneys from both sides of the cases," Conlon says.
Labor Director Honored with Alumni Award
Shinae Chun (MA71), director of the Women's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor, received the School's Merit Award at the Alumni Awards Presentation on April 9. Alumni Merit Awards honor high achievements in a profession or field of endeavor.Throughout her career, Chun has shaped policy in leadership roles in state and federal government. Since 1999, Chun has led the Women's Bureau, which seeks to improve working conditions for women. Before that, she headed the Illinois Department of Labor and Illinois Department of Financial Institutions, 2005and she was first to serve as special assistant to the governor for Asian American affairs.
Larry Hedges to Join Faculty
In September, Larry V. Hedges will become Board of Trustees Professor with appointments in the Department of Statistics, the Institute for Policy Research and SESP. He comes to Northwestern from a 25-year career at the University of Chicago.Hedges is well known for developing statistical methods for research in education, social sciences and policy studies. His work addresses the social distribution of test scores, their changes over time, and their relation to schooling and other social processes. His research provides important information about schooling and how characteristics of individuals and their environments affect academic achievement.
A member of the National Academy of Education, Hedges has co-authored two definitive books, Statistical Methods for Meta-Analysis and The Handbook of Research Synthesis. He received his BA from the University of California at San Diego in mathematics, his MA from Stanford University in statistics and his PhD from Stanford in mathematical methods in educational research.
Web Site Innovation Expands
Since web sites with thousands of pages - many involving complex layers of logic - are increasingly difficult for a single webmaster to keep current, SESP has added a content management system (CMS) that allows many people to update content in a simple way. This CMS was originally developed for the School of Communication.SESP webmaster Mark Swindle says, "We tapped into the programming talent on campus - and worldwide through the 'open source' community - to build a streamlined, customized system." Swindle also expanded the system to create a "digital portfolio" function, which simplifies teacher certification at SESP by managing exchanges among students, reviewers and school administrators.
BOOK RECOMMENDATION BY DEAN PETERSON
The Mind at Work: Valuing the Intelligence of the American Worker
by Mike Rose, Professor of Education at UCLA (Penguin Group, 2004)
This book describes the thought processes, technical skills and social values that permeate the physical work of Americans - from waitresses to carpenters, hairstylists to welders. Raising questions about the nature of intelligence and the biases in American culture, Rose brings to life the intellectual demands of common work.
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