- Ray Loeschner Honored with Alumni Award
- Senior Starts Global Volunteerism Conference
- NU-TEACH Posts High Teacher Retention Rates
- Two Events Debate Universal Preschool
- MPES Welcomes New Cohort
Ray Loeschner Honored with Alumni Award
Ray B. Loeschner (MA/MS57, PhD62), former president of Olivet College and a distinguished leader in higher education, is the recipient of the 2006 Northwestern University Alumni Association Alumni Merit Award for the School of Education and Social Policy. The ceremony to honor Northwestern's alumni award winners was held April 1. Loeschner served as president of Olivet College for seven years starting in 1970 and later became president of Ohio Northern University. Previously, he held posts in higher education at Eastern Michigan University, Augustana College and Washburn University. During the 1980s Loeschner was chief administrative officer with the C.S. Mott Foundation in Flint and started Loeschner Enterprises, Inc.
Alumni merit awards are presented for high achievements in a profession or field of endeavor.
Mary Nelson (BS67), Mark Nelson, Dean Penelope Peterson, Jim Nelson, Nancy Loeschner and SESP Alumni Award winner Ray Loeschner attend the Northwestern football game at Michigan State on October 22.
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Senior Starts Global Volunteerism Conference
With an eye to increasing numbers of students going abroad and volunteering, SESP senior Jon Marino co-directed the first International Youth Volunteerism Summit, which took place on campus from February 23 to 26. After returning from studies abroad, Marino and senior Nathaniel Whittemore initiated the four-day Summit as a way to "maximize the potential" of young people seeking to engage in global problem solving. Sixty-five student delegates selected from more than 500 applicants represented 30 American universities and 20 countries. Also attending were representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and social entrepreneurs.
The conference brought the student delegates together with representatives from 30 organizations including Rotary International, College Corps, Global Youth Partnership for Africa and Global Youth Action Network who provided practical information about international engagement and helped students develop their project ideas. Skills workshops, panel discussions and speakers covered nine domains: health, education, gender, economic empowerment, youth, refugees in conflict, Internet and technology, creative arts and media, networking and civic and social development.
"The overriding message I've taken from my work in social policy is to think seriously, deeply and critically about what it means to be engaged," says Marino. He credits faculty member Jody Kretzmann, who led a workshop at the Summit, with helping him "move beyond doing good to doing good well."
The School of Education and Social Policy provided start-up funding and room locations to help support the Summit.
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NU-TEACH Posts High Teacher Retention Rates
 NU-TEACH Director Sylvia Smith-DeMuth Photo by Ben Shapiro |
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A new study by the Golden Apple Foundation found a retention rate among NU-TEACH-trained teachers that greatly exceeds the averages. NU-TEACH, SESP's selective program for alternative certification, prepares highly qualified career changers to become teachers in high-need areas. For teachers trained through the NU-TEACH program, the three-year retention rate was 79 percent between 1998 and 2004. This contrasts with the national average for three-year teacher retention of 54 percent - and 24 percent in high-poverty areas. NU-TEACH was founded in 1998 with the goal of creating educational opportunity for students in Chicago Public Schools and since its inception has trained 232 teachers. SESP's partners in the NU-TEACH program are the Golden Apple Foundation, Inner-City Teaching Corps and Chicago Public Schools. |
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Two Events Debate Universal Preschool
With all the talk of leaving no child behind, there is considerable evidence that many children start school behind - and that those who start behind remain behind. With this in mind, the November 16 Inquiry Series dialogue, sponsored periodically by SESP and the Inner-City Teaching Corps, centered on early childhood education for all.
In addition, a SESP event held at the Eleanor R. Baldwin House at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton on February 2 addressed the same topic with "Are We Leaving Our Children Behind in First Grade?" David Lawrence Jr., president of the Early Childhood Initiative Foundation, and SESP professor Lindsay Chase-Lansdale spoke at both events.
Lawrence spearheaded the pioneering Florida initiative that offers pre-kindergarten for all four-year-olds in the state on a voluntary basis. His effort got signatures of 722,000 Florida residents in support of state-funded pre-kindergarten for all children. "I am trying to build a movement. We need to get folks working toward a central vision of what's good for all children," he says. "Florida is a good example of what can be done and ought to be done."
SESP human development and social policy professor Lindsay Chase-Lansdale provided a research perspective on universal pre-kindergarten. "We have extensive knowledge that informs us kindergarten is too late," she said, explaining that there is an "enormous disparity" when children enter school. Chase-Lansdale says, "The earlier children begin to learn, the more successful they are."
(Front row) President Henry Bienen, Leigh Bienen, Eleanor Baldwin (MS66 and Northwestern Alumni Regent), Florida Atlantic University President Frank Brogan, Courtney Brogan, David Lawrence of the Early Childhood Initiative Foundation, (back row) Dean Penelope Peterson and SESP professor Lindsay Chase-Lansdale at the Florida alumni event
Photo by Tom Craig
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MPES Welcomes New Cohort
Developing scholars to conduct reliable research on pressing issues in education is the goal of the Multidisciplinary Program in Education Sciences (MPES) program. This innovative program recently expanded by adding a new cohort of young doctoral students. They are Julie Colhoun, Gregory Dam, Lori Delale-O'Connor, Jonathan Gemus, David Miele, Heather Norbury and Jennifer Stephan.
This innovative interdisciplinary doctoral training program began in 2004, funded by a training grant from the Institute for Education Sciences in Washington, D.C. Faculty from SESP and the psychology, sociology, economics and statistics departments in Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences created the program.
MPES fellows Heather Norbury, Lori Delale-O'Connor, Julie Colhoun, David Miele, Jennifer Stephan, and Jonathan Gemus
Photo by Mark Swindle
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