As part of the City’s centennial celebration, the New York University School of Education’s Center for the Study of American Culture and Education will bring together a select group of public school leaders, scholars and journalists to examine the 100-year history of the NYC Board of Education. Entitled A Century of Public Schooling in New York City: Promises, Problems and Prospects, 1898-1998, the conference will offer a variety of perspectives on the school system’s 100-year effort to educate the City’s children and to provide social cohesion among the five boroughs. Issues to be addressed include school governance, immigration, technology and the lives of teachers.
The conference was organized by NYU Professor of History and Education Ellen Condliffe Lagemann. It will be held from 8:30 am to 6:30 pm on Saturday, April 25, 1998, on the 7th Floor of NYU’s Main Building at 100 Washington Square East in Manhattan. The schedule of speakers is as follows:
9:00 - 10:30 am: A Century of Schooling in New York (3 Perspectives) Ellen Condliffe Lagemann, NYU Professor of History and Education Stephen F. Brumberg, Brooklyn College Professor of Education Diane Ravitch, NYU School of Education Research Professor
10:45 - 12:00 pm: Panel Discussion on School Governance in NYC Jacques Steinberg, New York Times Education Reporter (moderator) David C. Hammack, Case Western Reserve University Professor of History Anthony Alvarado, Community School District 2 Superintendent Randi Weingarten, United Federation of Teachers President
12:00 - 1:30 pm: Lunch Presentation Herbert Kohl, Open Society Institute Senior Fellow
1:30 - 3:00 pm: Concurrent Panels
Technology and Schools Noel Kriftcher, Polytechnic University Center for Technology and Educational Alliances (moderator) Neil Postman, NYU Professor of Media Ecology Sue Bastian, Teaching Matters President Madeline Lacovara, Classroom, Inc. Executive Director
Immigrants and Schooling in NYC Norm Fruchter, Director of NYU Institute for Education and Social Policy (moderator) Hasia Diner, NYU Professor of Jewish History John Kuo Wei Tchen, Director of NYU Asian/Pacific/American Studies Program Stevie Lacey-Pendleton, Staten Island Advance Columnist Pedro Pedraza, Director of the Hunter College Center for Puerto Rican Studies
3:00 - 5:00 pm: Panel Discussion on the Lives of Teachers Maxine Green, Teachers College Professor Emerita of Philosophy and Education (moderator) Sharon Henry, Abraham Lincoln High School Dean of Students Joan Jarvis, Retired NYC High School Principal Jessica Siegel, Educator and Journalist David Harris, Teacher at NYC Children’s Workshop School
Professor Lagemann said, “Formed in 1898, the initial mission of the New York City Board of Education was to help create a common city out of disparate peoples and to reshape a largely immigrant student population into model American citizens. This conference will reflect on the schools’ promises and problems, examine responses to those challenges and look to the future to try to understand how public schools can change to better serve the City.”
NYU School of Education Dean Ann Marcus said, “We are delighted to sponsor this meeting, which celebrates100 years of public accomplishments by looking at some of the most critical questions that challenge educators and the many constituencies that are dedicated to public education. Many of these issues embrace the intersection between public policy and teaching and learning. It is that intersection the challenges that it poses and the opportunities that it presents which occupies so much of our interest here.”
This conference is sponsored by the NYU School of Education and its Center for the Study of American Culture, the New York Council for the Humanities, the Lucius N. Littauer Foundation and the John L. Weinberg Foundation.