As pre-kindergarten (pre-k) expands across the country, school districts are making choices about where to place pre-k classrooms and developing policies for how families can apply and which children are enrolled. In doing so, districts are pulling policy levers that influence students’ access to pre-k. Research shows that some families have less access to pre-k than others, which contributes to inequitable enrollment within districts. This descriptive study explores whether and how Chicago’s school-based pre-k system was more equitable after the district implemented a set of policies focused on changing access to and enrollment in school-based pre-k. Beginning in 2013, this city launched major policy efforts aimed at enrolling more students from “high-priority” groups (students of color, students speaking a language other than English, and students living in neighborhoods with lower income and higher unemployment), who may be most likely to benefit from pre-k but who have had historically low pre-k enrollment rates and lower school readiness in Chicago. We hypothesize that improvements in geographic access to pre-k may play a key role in the success of these policies by helping to increase enrollment rates within high-priority student groups. We further expect increases in pre-k enrollment among these high-priority student groups to result in more favorable academic outcomes over time.

Maia Connors is Director, Research & Policy Initiatives at Start Early (formerly the Ounce of Prevention). Her research focuses on early childhood care and education policy and systems, and she works to translate findings into policy and practice. Dr. Connors draws on interdisciplinary theory and rigorous quantitative methods to understand how systems improve and how early education policy works as an improvement “intervention” within early childhood settings. Her recent work has explored sources of variation in the impacts of Head Start; identified promising policy levers for improving preschool quality at scale; and informed the decisions of city and state departments of education regarding early childhood school accountability, expansion, and improvement. Dr. Connors received an A.B. in Sociology and Education Studies from Brown University and a Ph.D. in Applied Psychology from New York University.

About Start Early

Start Early (formerly known as the Ounce of Prevention) is a nonprofit public-private partnership advancing quality early learning and care for families with children, before birth through their earliest years, to help close the opportunity gap. For nearly 40 years, Start Early has delivered best-in-class doula, home visiting and Early Head Start and Head Start programs. Bringing expertise in program delivery, research and evaluation, professional development and policy and advocacy, Start Early works in partnership with communities and other experts to drive systemic change so that millions more children, families and educators can thrive. Learn more at www.StartEarly.org.

Please join us for the first Department of Education Annual Brown Alumni Conference on Saturday, March 20, 2021, from 11:00-4:00 PM EST.

The conference will begin with a keynote address by Dr. Eliana Castro (University of Vermont) and will be followed by multiple breakout sessions. An optional closing session begins at 3:30 pm.

Registration will close on Thursday, March 18, 2021 at 5:00 PM EST

In her new book Blaming Teachers,Professor Diana D’Amico Pawlewicz explores how teacher professionalization reforms have developed over time and have undermined teachers’ professional legitimacy. She argues that discourses of blame, where others identify and try to “fix” teachers’ shortcomings, have structured these reforms and they have served to bolster the bureaucratic order of the public schools. In this structured conversation with Professor Tracy Steffes, Professor Pawlewicz will discuss the major arguments of her historical research and its relevance for policy and practice today.

Please join us for a “What I Am Thinking About Now” presentation by Jonathan Collins, an Assistant Professor of Education at Brown University, titled “The Community Decides: Towards A Participatory Theory of Equity-Centered Redistribution.”

Abstract: Can we disrupt the deepening racial equality in the U.S. by empowering the communities of low-income Black and Latinx students? When organizations and governments undergo projects to promote racial equity, they tend to focus on individual-level protections like civil rights or anti-discrimination policies. Far less often have institutions engaged in resource redistribution to promote racial equity. Moreover, the few efforts that we have seen rarely empower members of low-income communities of color to decide how government resources are to be used. But, what if the route to community improvement is through civic empowerment? As a result, Professor Collins offers a new theory for community-level group decision-making in low-income minoritized communities; a theory he calls “Participatory Redistribution” (PR). Building off of the literature in political science on participatory democracy and deliberation, Collins argues that a participatory model of allocating supplemental funds to low-income minoritized public schools should lead to upward shifts in civic and political engagement as well as school and community improvement.

Please register to attend.

“What I Am Thinking About Now” is an on-going informal workshop/seminar series to which faculty and graduate students are invited to present and discuss recently published work and work in progress. All are invited to attend and participate.

Are you a Brown University undergraduate interested in a teaching career? Join faculty from the Master of Arts in Teaching program to learn about the concurrent baccalaureate/MAT degree program in which you will earn your bachelor’s degree (in a concentration relevant to English, social studies, math, engineering or science) and master’s in teaching in 5 years. Registration is required, register here.

Applications are due April 1, 2021.

The MAT program prepares candidates to meet the needs of structurally disadvantaged students and systems in secondary education (grades 7-12) in English, math, science, and social studies, with a yearlong residency in an urban school, personalized coaching, and rigorous and relevant coursework. Applying during your undergraduate years allows teacher education faculty to advise you in content preparation and guide you toward enriching experiences and opportunities working with adolescents. Additionally, students may take two graduate courses toward their master’s degree while in their senior year.

Can’t make the info session but interested in the program? Email [email protected]

Registration is required to attend, register here.

Are you a Brown University undergraduate interested in a teaching career? Join faculty from the Master of Arts in Teaching program to learn about the concurrent baccalaureate/MAT degree program in which you will earn your bachelor’s degree (in a concentration relevant to English, social studies, math, engineering or science) and master’s in teaching in 5 years.

Apply during your junior year. Applications are due April 1, 2021.

The MAT program prepares candidates to meet the needs of structurally disadvantaged students and systems in secondary education (grades 7-12) in English, math, science, and social studies, with a yearlong residency in an urban school, personalized coaching, and rigorous and relevant coursework. Applying during your undergraduate years allows teacher education faculty to advise you in content preparation and guide you toward enriching experiences and opportunities working with adolescents. Additionally, students may take two graduate courses toward their master’s degree while in their senior year.

Can’t make the info session but interested in the program? Email [email protected].

Registration required to attend.  Register here.

Discover how the one-year Urban Education Policy master’s program empowers students to understand, develop, and promote policies that improve educational outcomes for urban students everywhere. 

What sets the UEP program apart?

• A small, highly select cohort of diverse graduate students
• Combines intensive coursework, 9-month internship experience, and personalized coaching
• Internships coincide with academic courses that build relevant knowledge and skills
• Recently revised curriculum that pays special attention to race, class, community, and inequality in the context of urban education

Meet current students and faculty and learn about distinguishing features of the program, research projects led by UEP faculty, the scope of work during the program’s internship placement, and where program alums work and the impact of their work following graduation. Applications for the 2021-2022 Academic Year are due January 18, 2021.

Join faculty and current students from the one-year Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program that equips future teachers with the tools required to fill the most pressing needs of urban secondary school classrooms in the United States. The MAT program prepares candidates to meet the needs of structurally disadvantaged students and systems in secondary education (grades 7-12) in English, math, science, and social studies, with a yearlong residency in an urban school, personalized coaching, and rigorous and relevant coursework. Registration is required, please register here.

Program features include:

• Small cohort size that enables powerful community-building
• Specializations in secondary English Language Arts, History/Social Studies, Math, and Science
• An immersive summer experience teaching local students, plus a one-year residency in a Providence district or charter school
• Culturally responsive teaching that promotes authentic engagement and academic rigor among diverse students
• Generous merit and need-based scholarships up to the full cost of tuition, living stipends, health fees and insurance

Meet current students and faculty to learn about the program for the 2021-2022 academic year! Applications due January 18, 2021.

This will be the last info session of the year. Can’t make it? Email [email protected] with any questions you may have.

Registration is required to attend. Register here.

Since taking office in January 2017, the Trump administration has taken unprecedented action to undercut domestic policies through executive action, including in education. Given the circumstances and outcome of the 2020 presidential election, are there any implications for education?

Join Kenneth Wong, Professor of Education Policy, in conversation with Jonathan Collins, Assistant Professor of Education, on Wong’s recent book, Trump, the Administrative Presidency, and Federalism, and what the country can expect in education once President-elect Joe Biden takes office in 2021.

Registration is required. Register here.

Do you have questions about Brown University’s Urban Education Policy graduate program? Are you interested in having an informal conversation with students from the program, as well as other applicants?

We are here and happy to help! Come join Jeanette and Janelle, two current UEP students to get your questions answered and to network with us and other potential applicants!

When?
Wednesday, December 9th, 2020

Where?
Zoom
*The Zoom link will be sent by the end of the day on Tuesday, 12/8 to the email you registered with!*

Applications for the UEP program are due January 18, 2021.

Registration is required. Register here.

The COVID-19 pandemic has widened existing racial and socioeconomic educational inequities. In this panel discussion, three experts in educational policy and practice panel discuss one possible policy intervention that could help to address these growing gaps: tutoring. Research shows that tutoring is among the most effective educational interventions ever to be empirically tested. Private tutoring is a $47 billion dollar industry in the United States and has been much more available to affluent families, a dynamic that has increased, and increased inequality, during the pandemic. The panelists will consider what we know from the research about tutoring, how tutoring might be imagined as a policy intervention at scale to reduce inequality and improve student outcomes, and some efforts underway to implement tutoring programs as an equity reform, including the TMS/Brown Tutoring Initiative.

Panelists:
Matthew Kraft, Associate Professor of Education and Economics
Susanna Loeb, Professor of Education, Professor of International and Public Affairs, and Director of Annenberg Institute
Soljane Martinez, Education Coordinator, Annenberg Institute

Moderated by Carrie Nordlund, Associate Director, Annenberg Institute

Registration is required to attend. Register here.

Join us for a conversation inspired by Hilary Levey Friedman’s new book, Here She Is: The Complicated Reign of the Beauty Pageant in America, where we will cover the role of beauty pageants in higher education, and how they can power social mobility for some women. We will also cover why Miss USA just happened in person (November 9th), when so many other similar events were not held in 2020, and how pageantry and politics intersect beyond Donald Trump. Q&A will follow. 

Hilary Levey Friedman is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Education, and the author of Here She Is and Playing to Win: Raising Children in a Competitive Culture. Her research focuses on beauty pageants, childhood and parenting, competitive afterschool activities, and popular culture. 

Join faculty and current students from the one-year Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program that equips future teachers with the tools required to fill the most pressing needs of urban secondary school classrooms in the United States. The MAT program prepares candidates to meet the needs of structurally disadvantaged students and systems in secondary education (grades 7-12) in English, math, science, and social studies, with a yearlong residency in an urban school, personalized coaching, and rigorous and relevant coursework. Registration is required, please register here.

Program features include:

• Small cohort size that enables powerful community-building
• Specializations in secondary English Language Arts, History/Social Studies, Math, and Science
• An immersive summer experience teaching local students, plus a one-year residency in a Providence district or charter school
• Culturally responsive teaching that promotes authentic engagement and academic rigor among diverse students
• Generous merit and need-based scholarships up to the full cost of tuition, living stipends, health fees and insurance

Meet current students and faculty to learn about the program for the 2021-2022 academic year! Applications due January 18, 2021.

Can’t make this info session? One more session will be held on Thursday, December 10 from 7-8pm. 

Join faculty and current students from the one-year Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program that equips future teachers with the tools required to fill the most pressing needs of urban secondary school classrooms in the United States. The MAT program prepares candidates to meet the needs of structurally disadvantaged students and systems in secondary education (grades 7-12) in English, math, science, and social studies, with a yearlong residency in an urban school, personalized coaching, and rigorous and relevant coursework. Registration is required, please register here.

Program features include:

• Small cohort size that enables powerful community-building
• Specializations in secondary English Language Arts, History/Social Studies, Math, and Science
• An immersive summer experience teaching local students, plus a one-year residency in a Providence district or charter school
• Culturally responsive teaching that promotes authentic engagement and academic rigor among diverse students
• Generous merit and need-based scholarships up to the full cost of tuition, living stipends, health fees and insurance

Meet current students and faculty to learn about the program for the 2021-2022 academic year! Applications due January 18, 2021.

Can’t make this info session? Two more sessions will be held on Tuesday, November 17 and Thursday, December 10 from 7-8pm.

Register to attend. Register here.

Black Lives Matter protests erupting in cities across the nation have renewed calls to not only reform school discipline policies and abolish school police, but also present an urgent need to understand how we arrived at this moment. This talk argues that federal-level policymakers have played a key role in promoting school discipline policies and punishment practices that continue to perpetuate racial inequality, particularly in the nation’s urban schools. This talk will shed light on how 1980s federal policymakers used “A Nation at Risk,” arguably the most influential educational policy document in the post-civil rights era, to embark on a campaign to restore order and discipline –the effects of which not only helped to rescind but also criminalize civil rights victories. Q&A will follow.

Mahasan Chaney is a Research Fellow in Race & Ethnicity at Brown University. Her research agenda looks broadly at the historic nexus between education, race and social policy.

Tickets will be released here on September 9. The event will be held via Zoom. You must register for a ticket to receive the link.

The Education DUG welcomes you back to school and invites you to join an introductory Zoom event on Tuesday, September 22nd from 3-4pm. Learn about the Education Studies concentration, meet the DUG leaders, and ask any questions about the concentration! Professor Matthew Kraft, Director of Undergraduate Studies, will be joining us as well. We look forward to meeting prospective concentrators and reuniting with current concentrators! Zoom link here.

*Open to undergraduate students

Are you a Brown University undergraduate interested in a teaching career? Join faculty from the Master of Arts in Teaching program to learn about the concurrent baccalaureate/MAT degree program in which you will earn your bachelor’s degree (in a concentration relevant to English, social studies, math, engineering or science) and master’s in teaching in 5 years. Registration is required, register here.

Apply during your junior year. Applications are due October 1, 2020.

The MAT program prepares candidates to meet the needs of structurally disadvantaged students and systems in secondary education (grades 7-12) in English, math, science, and social studies, with a yearlong residency in an urban school, personalized coaching, and rigorous and relevant coursework. Applying during your undergraduate years allows teacher education faculty to advise you in content preparation and guide you toward enriching experiences and opportunities working with adolescents. Additionally, students may take two graduate courses toward their master’s degree while in their senior year.

Can’t make the info session but interested in the program? Email [email protected].

Join President Christina H. Paxson in conversation with Sonja Santelises Ed.D. ’89, CEO of Baltimore City Public Schools, and Shalinee Sharma ’99, Co-Founder and CEO of Zearn, as they discuss K-12 education in the time of COVID-19.

April 24, 2020 at 4:00 p.m.

Register at:  https://communityconversationspaxsoneducation.eventbrite.com

Please note:

Attendees will have the option to submit questions upon registering, as well as to the moderator during the event.

Livestream will also be available.

For questions about this event, please write to [email protected].

Edit: Effective March 11, 2020, all Brown University-sponsored, in-person direct service community engagement has been suspended. In addition, multiple Swearer Center events have been canceled or postponed. A full list of event and program changes can be found online here. These decisions have been made in the interest of protecting the health and well-being of our multiple communities.

The Engaged Scholars Program (ESP) enables students who are passionate about communities and the challenges they face to design courses of study and action as part of their concentration requirements. Students who complete the program receive an academic transcript designation as Engaged Scholars.

Join us for an information session at the Swearer Center (2 Stimson Avenue), Room 120.

The deadline to declare for ESP April 1. For more information please contact us at [email protected] or visit swearer.brown.edu/esp

This event has been postponed until further notice. Please join the CSREA email list to receive updates on our future events.

Seth Andrew ’00 graduated from the NYC public schools and went on to study education at Brown and Harvard. An accidental year teaching in Korea taught him that most of what he had learned in college and grad school was dead wrong–and he’s spent the last 20 years trying to fix it. As a special education teacher, principal, superintendent, and founder of the Democracy Prep Public School network, Seth has always focused on building and turning around schools for disenfranchised communities around the world in Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Washington DC, Nevada, Louisiana, and Texas as well as Liberia, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and India. The success of Democracy Builders earned him a role in President Obama’s White House as Senior Advisor, focused on education and civic technology. Seth is now working to launch a hybrid “charter college” using world-class technology for primarily first-generation college students.

Hilary Levey Friedman, Visiting Assistant Professor of Education, will moderate the Q&A portion. 

Co-sponsored by the Department of Education and Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs 

Seth Andrew ’00 is a serial entrepreneur & CEO who leads Democracy Builders, a social sector studio that has launched more than $1b in enterprises that are changing the face of education, democracy, and technology around the world. He started his career as a special education teacher in South Korea and Massachusetts but is best known as the founder, teacher, principal, and superintendent of Democracy Prep, a network of 25+ public charter schools that was started in 2005 in Harlem, NY. From 2013-2016, Andrew served as a senior advisor and superintendent-in-residence at the U.S. Department of Education, and was a senior advisor to the U.S. Chief Technology Officer at the White House during the Obama administration. 

Join Andrew for a conversation on life after Brown, his career trajectory, and his experience in technology and education. Lunch will be served.

Registration is required and limited to 25 students. Register here.

Are you a Brown undergraduate interested in a teaching career? Join faculty from the Master of Arts in Teaching program to learn about the new concurrent baccalaureate/MAT degree program in which you can earn your bachelor’s degree (in a concentration relevant to English, social studies, math, engineering or science) and master’s in teaching in 5 years. Registration is required, register here.

Apply during your junior year. Applications are due April 1, 2020. The MAT program prepares candidates to meet the needs of structurally disadvantaged students and systems in secondary education (grades 7-12) in English, math, science, and social studies, with a yearlong residency in an urban school, personalized coaching, and rigorous and relevant coursework. Applying during your undergraduate years allows teacher education faculty to advise you in content preparation and guide you toward enriching experiences and opportunities working with youths.

Can’t make the info session but interested in the program? Email [email protected]

The Engaged Scholars Program (ESP) enables students who are passionate about communities and the challenges they face to design courses of study and action as part of their concentration requirements. Students who complete the program receive an academic transcript designation as Engaged Scholars.

Join us for an information session at the Swearer Center (2 Stimson Avenue), Room 120.

The deadline to declare for ESP April 1. For more information please contact us at [email protected] or visit swearer.brown.edu/esp

In support of our community’s continued health, if you are not feeling well for any reason, please consider staying home rather than attending the event. For up-to-date information, including campus travel restrictions, please visit the University’s COVID-19 Updates website at covid.brown.edu.

NYT Education Reporter discusses her coverage of college admission, segregation/integration, and her path from Brown. Susanna Loeb, director of the Annenberg Institute, will lead the conversation with Dana Goldstein.

Co-sponsored by the Annenberg Institute

Join the Education DUG for their series Pizza with a Prof. These informal dinners offer a space for students and professors to get to know each other outside of the classroom. Assistant Professor of Education David Rangel uses a sociological perspective to understand processes that generate social inequality, with emphasis on the Latino experience in the United States. His current work uses social and cultural capital theories and mixed-methods research to study sources of inequality.

Sponsored by the Education Studies DUG

“Rare for the genre, See You Yesterday imagines time travel as a way to correct a societal wrong, to undo evil of a more on-the-ground variety: Its protagonists, teenage science whizzes Claudette/CJ (Eden Duncan-Smith) and Sebastian (Dante Crichlow), build a time machine to try to stop CJ’s brother from being shot by police.” — Wired Magazine

Join film director Stefon Bristol for a screening of his film See You Yesterday, followed by a Q&A session, with Stephon Alexander, Professor of Physics, Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve, Associate Professor of Sociology, and moderated by Jonathan Collins, Assistant Professor of Education. The film, produced by Spike Lee, focuses on two teenaged science prodigies who spend their time working on their recent invention: backpacks that enable time travel. When one of their older brothers is killed, they put their unfinished project to the test in an effort to save him.

Brooklyn-born, Long Island-bred, Stefon Bristol is writing his own success story as a fresh face with a creative voice in the indie film world. Bristol is an award-winning filmmaker whose first feature film, See You Yesterday, has received two Independent Spirit Award nominations, Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay with Fredrica Bailey. He is currently working on his second feature film.

View the movie trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MVRWQ1PnMo&t=1s

Co-sponsored by the Education Department, BCSC Black Heritage Series, The Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America (CSREA), the Physics Department, the Department of Modern Culture and Media and the Malcolm S. Forbes Center for Culture and Media Studies, and the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy

Brooklyn-born, Long Island-bred, Stefon Bristol is writing his own success story as a fresh face with a creative voice in the indie film world. Bristol is an award-winning filmmaker whose first feature film, See You Yesterday, has received two Independent Spirit Award nominations, Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay with Fredrica Bailey. He is currently working on his second feature film.

Join Bristol for a small-group conversation on his career trajectory, the importance of creating films that reflect society, and more. Registration is required, and limited to 25 students. Register here.

A screening of See You Yesterday and panel discussion with Bristol, Stephon Alexander (Physics), and Jonathan Collins (Education) will take place later this day, 6:30-8:30 p.m., and is open to the public. More details can be found here.

Please join us for a “What I Am Thinking About Now” presentation by Jayanti Owens, Mary Tefft and John Hazen White, Sr. Assistant Professor of Sociology and International & Public Affairs at Brown University. Her talk is titled, “What Drives Racial/Ethnic Disparities in School Discipline?”

Are Black and Latinx students suspended and expelled from school at higher rates than White students because of their greater exposure to punitive schools (“racialized sorting”) or because they are perceived and/or treated more harshly for identical misbehavior in the same types of schools (“differential behavior perceptions” and “differential treatment/support,” respectively)? This article disentangles these three key mechanisms of racial disparities in school discipline by combining school administrative data with an online video vignette experiment with 1,000 teachers across the U.S. As front-line actors, teacher-respondents provide both textual and quantitative reports of a randomly-assigned student’s misbehavior and their decisions on whether to instigate school intervention. I find that racialized school sorting plays the largest role: if White students were to equally attend disadvantaged and minority schools, they would experience similarly high rates of school discipline as Black and Latinx students. Differential behavior perceptions and differential treatment/support also gain some empirical support.

RSVP: [email protected]. Snacks and caffeine will be provided.

“What I Am Thinking About Now” is an on-going informal workshop/seminar series to which faculty and graduate students are invited to present and discuss recently published work and work in progress. All are invited to attend and participate.

Please join us for a “What I Am Thinking About Now” presentation by Jin Li, Professor of Education and Human Development at Brown University, and Yoko Yamamoto, Visiting Assistant Professor of Education at Brown University. The title of their talk is, “When Silence is No Longer Golden: Low-income Chinese American Preschoolers’ Beliefs About Learning and their Achievement.”

Research in child development and education consistently places Asian American children at the higher achievement end. However, most of this research is on middle-class children; very little research exists on low-income children. Their research followed 300 preschool children starting at 4 from three backgrounds: middle-class European American (EA) and both middle-class (MCA) and low-income Chinese American (LCA). To elicit their learning beliefs, we engaged each child in completing two stories with one showing a hard-working bird learning and succeeding how to fly and another depicting a bear trying to learn how to catch fish but giving up after failure. Children were also tested for their achievement in math, reading, and oral expression. We found that LCA children are behind their EA and MCA peers in developing learning beliefs (both EA mind-based and East-Asian virtue-based). LCA children are also behind their middle-class peers in math and reading achievement. Most striking is their significantly lower oral expression. In a culture that places a high premium on verbal skills, LCAs are severely disadvantaged. Implications for education policy and practice will be discussed.

RSVP: [email protected]. Snacks and caffeine will be provided.

“What I Am Thinking About Now” is an on-going informal workshop/seminar series to which faculty and graduate students are invited to present and discuss recently published work and work in progress. All are invited to attend and participate.

Have you heard? The Education Studies concentration has been revamped! Late last year, we introduced changes to the undergraduate program.

Current concentrators – come learn what the new concentration means for you and how can you take advantage of it!

Students looking to learn more – come hear all the details and meet other ES students!

Please join us Thursday, 1/30, at 8 pm in the Education Department (164 Angell Street, 2nd floor) to learn about the changes. Dessert will be served!

Learn how the one-year Master of Arts in Teaching program equips future teachers with the tools required to fill the most pressing needs of urban secondary school classrooms in the United States. Registration is required, please register here.

Program features include:

• Small cohort size that enables powerful community-building
• Specializations in secondary English Language Arts, History/Social Studies, Math, and Science
• An immersive 4-week summer experience teaching local students, plus a 1- year residency in a Providence district or charter school
• Culturally responsive teaching that promotes authentic engagement and academic rigor among diverse students
• Generous merit and need-based scholarships up to the full cost of tuition, living stipends, health fees and insurance

Meet current students and faculty to learn about the redesigned program for the 2020-2021 academic year!

Are you a Brown undergraduate concentrating in a STEM field? Join faculty and students from the Master of Arts in Teaching program to learn how you can become a secondary teacher (grades 7-12) in the STEM field in one year, and how you can get full tuition and support in the form of loan forgiveness through the Urban Education Fellowship for the degree. Registration is required, please register here.

Program features include:

• Small cohort size that enables powerful community-building
• Specializations in secondary English Language Arts, History/Social Studies, Math, and Science
• An immersive 4-week summer experience teaching local students, plus a 1- year residency in a Providence district or charter school
• Culturally responsive teaching that promotes authentic engagement and academic rigor among diverse students
• Generous merit and need-based scholarships up to the full cost of tuition, living stipends, health fees and insurance

Meet current students and faculty to learn about the redesigned program for the 2020-2021 academic year!

The info session will also be livestreamed. Registration is required for both in-person attendance and digital participation. Please register here.

Discover how the one-year Urban Education Policy master’s program empowers students to understand, develop, and promote policies that improve educational outcomes for urban students everywhere.

What sets the UEP program apart?

• A small, highly select cohort of diverse graduate students
• Combines intensive coursework, 9-month internship experience, and personalized coaching
• Internships coincide with academic courses that build relevant knowledge and skills
• Recently revised curriculum that pays special attention to race, class, community, and inequality in the context of urban education

Meet current students and faculty and learn about distinguishing features of the program, research projects led by UEP faculty, the scope of work during the program’s internship placement, and where program alums work and the impact of their work following graduation.

Join the Education DUG for a new series called Pizza with a Prof. They’re informal dinners that offer a space for students and professors to get to know each other outside of the classroom. Kicking off the series will be Professor Andrea Flores, Assistant Professor of Education. 

Learn how the one-year Master of Arts in Teaching program equips future teachers with the tools required to fill the most pressing needs of urban secondary school classrooms in the United States. Registration is required, please register here.

Program features include:

• Small cohort size that enables powerful community-building
• Specializations in secondary English Language Arts, History/Social Studies, Mat, and Science
• An immersive 4-week summer experience teaching local students, plus a 1- year residency in a Providence district or charter school
• Culturally responsive teaching that promotes authentic engagement and academic rigor among diverse students
• Generous merit and need-based scholarships up to the full cost of tuition, living stipends, health fees and insurance

Meet current students and faculty to learn about the redesigned program for the 2020-2021 academic year!

International Education Week (IEW), November 18th-23rd, 2019, is a nationally-recognized week that celebrates different cultures, as well as the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide. Please join us at the GBC for our annual IEW events.

Discover how the one-year Urban Education Policy master’s program empowers students to understand, develop, and promote policies that improve educational outcomes for urban students everywhere.

What sets the UEP program apart?

• A small, highly select cohort of diverse graduate students
• Combines intensive coursework, 9-month internship experience, and personalized coaching
• Internships coincide with academic courses that build relevant knowledge and skills
• Recently revised curriculum that pays special attention to race, class, community, and inequality in the context of urban education

Meet current students and faculty and learn about distinguishing features of the program, research projects led by UEP faculty, the scope of work during the program’s internship placement, and where program alums work and the impact of their work following graduation.

Plus learn about the benefits for 5th-Year UEP students, such as application fee waived, no GRE scores required, and a 1 course load reduction (8 classes instead of 9)! Registration is requested. Please register here.

Learn how the one-year Master of Arts in Teaching program equips future teachers with the tools required to fill the most pressing needs of urban secondary school classrooms in the United States.

Program features include:

• Small cohort size that enables powerful community-building
• Specializations in secondary English Language Arts, History/Social Studies, Mat, and Science
• An immersive 4-week summer experience teaching local students, plus a 1- year residency in a Providence district or charter school
• Culturally responsive teaching that promotes authentic engagement and academic rigor among diverse students
• Generous merit and need-based scholarships up to the full cost of tuition, living stipends, health fees and insurance

Meet current students and faculty to learn about the redesigned program for the 2020-2021 academic year (please note the redesigned program is currently under review by the Rhode Island Department of Education and Brown will offer admissions for the next academic year only after RIDE has approved the new program).

Registration is required. Please register here.

This workshop is a review and discussion of the distressing report about the Providence Public School District by the John Hopkins Institute for Education Policy. The results of this report led to the state takeover of the district. 

Students will have the opportunity to hear an overview of the report and then will break into smaller groups to hear from Providence public school parents, students, teachers, administrators, and community partners who will share their feedback about the report and the most productive way for Brown to contribute to long term, sustainable impact in the K-12 schools. Confirmed guests as of 10/2 include:

Zack Mezera, Director of Providence Student Union
Melissa Emidy, Director of Inspiring Minds
Chris Monschauer ’18, Hope High School math teacher
Brent Kermen, Principal of D’Abate Elementary School
Christine Wilshire Alves, Rhode Island School for Progressive Education
Soljane Martinez, Annenberg Institute
Sarah Leibel, Brown Education Department

Registration is encouraged. Please register here. 

Discover how the one-year Urban Education Policy master’s program empowers students to understand, develop, and promote policies that improve educational outcomes for urban students everywhere. 

What sets the UEP program apart?

• A small, highly select cohort of diverse graduate students
• Combines intensive coursework, 9-month internship experience, and personalized coaching
• Internships coincide with academic courses that build relevant knowledge and skills
• Recently revised curriculum that pays special attention to race, class, community, and inequality in the context of urban education

Meet current students and faculty and learn about distinguishing features of the program, research projects led by UEP faculty, the scope of work during the program’s internship placement, and where program alums work and the impact of their work following graduation.

The info session will also be livestreamed. Registration is required for both in-person attendance and digital participation. Please register here.

[email protected] invites you to our first interdisciplinary conversation on migration research in theory and practice with Susan Bibler Coutin, Professor of Criminology, Law and Society, and Anthropology, University of California—Irvine.

Re/membering: Histories of Violence, Survival, and Solidarity
in Relation to Central America Migration to the U.S.

The recent arrivals of Central Americans seeking to enter the United States have been construed as an immigration issue. What if these arrivals were instead understood as bearing histories of violence in which the United States is implicated?

To explore this question, this talk draws on the authors’ engaged fieldwork with Central American immigrants and their allies from the 1980s to the present. It suggests that current conditions forcing Central Americans to the United States are deeply rooted in past political, economic and legal violence. In particular, exclusionary policies have displaced individuals, families, and communities, who in turn have become enclosed within national or other spaces. Sanctuaries and caravans have emerged as a means of challenging spatial necropolitics.

In this talk, DiPrete draws on systematic analysis of cross-national data from the U.S., Germany, and France to ask: does learning occupation-specific skills enhance one’s labor market outcomes? Is it beneficial to have an educational degree that is linked to only one or a small set of occupations? DiPrete argues that, because there is a great deal of variation in the strength of the education-labor market link across Western societies, the answers to these questions are highly dependent on how strongly linked the education system is to the labor market. Amid rising income inequality, an institutional environment that promotes strong school-to-work pathways appears to be an effective strategy for providing workers with secure, well-paying jobs.

https://watson.brown.edu/events/2019/thomas-diprete-how-much-does-schooling-pay-school-work-linkages-comparative-context

The Walter and Leonore Annenberg Professor in Education Policy and Director of the Brown University Urban Education Policy Program Kenneth Wong will present, “Federalism and Education: Cross National Lessons.”

Federalism as a system of decentralized governance has played a central role in charting educational progress in many countries. With an evolving balance between centralization and decentralization, federalism is designed to promote accountability standards without tempering regional and local preferences. Federalism facilitates negotiations both vertically between the central authority and local entities as well as horizontally among diverse interests. Innovative educational practices are often validated by a few local entities prior to scaling up to the national level. Federalism encourages a certain degree of competition at the local and regional level.

Given these critical issues in federalism and education, this presentation examines ongoing challenges and policy strategies in ten countries, namely Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States. These case studies, recently published in an edited volume, aim to examine how countries with federal systems govern, finance, and assure quality in their educational systems spanning from early childhood to secondary school graduation. Particular attention is given to functional division between governmental layers of the federal system as well as mechanisms of intergovernmental cooperation both vertically and horizontally. The presentation aims to draw out education policy lessons across the ten federal systems.

There is growing interest in producing research that directly informs policy and practice in order to advance equity in education. This talk will highlight current efforts, recurring challenges, and possible solutions.

Ruth Turley’s work aims to improve the connection between education research and policy/practice. In 2011, she founded the Houston Education Research Consortium (HERC), a research-practice partnership between Rice University and 10 Houston-area school districts, representing almost 750,000 students. HERC’s research agenda is jointly developed with district leaders, and research findings are shared directly with decision-makers, with the ultimate goal of improving educational equity. In 2015, Dr. Turley founded the National Network of Education Research-Practice Partnerships (NNERPP), which supports, develops, and connects RPPs throughout the country. There are currently 30 member partnerships representing cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco. To date, she has raised over $25M in research grants for this work. Dr. Turley has served in various elected and appointed positions in national associations such as the American Educational Research Association, the American Sociological Association, and the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness. She also served on the Texas State Board of Education’s Long-Range Plan for Public Education Steering Committee. She completed her undergraduate work at Stanford University (1996) and her graduate work at Harvard University (1999, 2001). She was a first-generation college student, originally from Laredo, Texas.

In her presentation,“Improving STEM Teacher Professional Development and Curriculum: A Meta-Analysis,” Annenberg Institute Post-doctoral Fellow Kathleen Lynch will present a meta-analysis of preK-12 STEM instructional improvement programs, seeking to understand what content, formats, and activities lead to stronger student outcomes. This work is particularly timely, as the Every Student Succeeds Act requires that districts receiving Title I funds must adopt “evidence-based interventions,” including programs and strategies proven to be effective in raising student achievement. Open to the public, light refreshments served.

Scott Warren is the Chief Executive Officer of Generation Citizen. He co-founded the organization at Brown University with fellow student Anna Ninan during their senior year in 2009, and has worked the last seven years to build up GC’s programming and work to expand action civics throughout the country.

Scott is joined in discussion by Jonathan Collins, Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow in Political Science.

Scott Warren’s new book, Generation Citizen: The Power of Youth in Our Politics details his political awakening alongside stories of how young people have always been the instruments of political change. Generation Citizen is a practical guide, providing concrete steps to jumpstart an engagement with politics and rekindle our love of democracy. Through interviews with students and historical portraits of young people who have enacted great political change - from the civil rights movement to the election of Ronald Reagan to #BlackLivesMatter and the Parkland students’ standing up to gun violence - Generation Citizen shows that time and again, it is the young people who lead the way to change.

Dario Valles, Postdoctoral Research Associate in Race & Ethnicity at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International & Public Affairs and Center for the Study of Race & Ethnicity in America (CSREA), will present “Necesidades Especiales: Intimate Interventions, Early Education and the New Majority” as part of the Education Department Spring 2019 Speaker Series.

Early education for children plays a critical role in narrowing the US racial achievement gap according to mounting evidence. Central, Mexican-American migrant and Black family childcare providers labor at the front lines of preparing for success an emerging majority-minority generation. Drawing from more than three years of ethnography among early educators in California, Valles elucidates home-based caregivers’ everyday practices to mitigate intersecting inequalities that children with necesidades especiales (special needs) and Black and Latinx youth more broadly experience, drawing the analytic gaze towards providers’ cross-cultural intimate interventions as an inclusive early education model designated for the new racial majority.

Join us for this Speaker Series lecture with lunch served! Brown University Education Department Adjunct Lecturer Emily Rosenzweig will present, “Harnessing the Power of Motivation to Promote Math and Science Learning.”

LEARN, TEACH, LEAD. Earn a Master of Arts in Teaching degree and teacher certification in secondary English, history/social studies, or science (biology, chemistry, or physics). Join us at our MAT information session on 12/8 to learn about the program directly from faculty, staff, current students, and alumni.  Please RSVP at https://tinyurl.com/mat-information today!

Become an education change agent! Stay at Brown for a 5th year and earn your master’s in Urban Education Policy. Join us at our 12/6 Brown UEP information session to learn about Brown’s one-year graduate program directly from UEP faculty, staff, and current students. Please RSVP at the below link.

Join the Education Department for this Speaker Series lecture by Brown University Postdoctoral Research Associate Leigh Wedenoja, “Second Time’s the Charm? How Repeated Student-Teacher Matches Contribute to Cognitive and Non-cognitive Achievement”

There is increasing research on the importance of the student-teacher relationship to student achievement. Recent work has found that elementary students who have the same teacher two years in a row perform better on math exams and surveys of parents and teachers support these types of “looping” classrooms. However, the mechanisms through which a repeat teacher improves performance, especially in middle and high school, is less understood. This talk expands the literature in two ways. First, it estimates the effect of teachers on non-cognitive outcomes: attendance, truancy, and disciplinary incidents. Second, it estimates the effect of having a repeat teacher in middle and high school. We find that having a repeat teacher improves both reading and math scores across all grades and that it decreases absences and truancy in high school. The results are robust to controlling for quality and experience of the repeat teacher. We believe this is evidence that repeat student-teacher matches in middle and high school contribute to students’ engagement in school as even a single repeat teacher improves attendance for all classes.

LEARN, TEACH, LEAD. Earn teacher certification in secondary English, history/social studies, or science (biology, chemistry, or physics) in one year! Through the 5th-year Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program, you will also receive a master’s degree. Through the Undergraduate Teacher Education Program (UTEP), earn secondary certification along with your undergraduate degree. Join us for an information session on Thursday, October 25th from 12-1pm at 340 Brook Street, Dewey Conference Room (2nd floor). Pizza will be provided. Please RSVP at http://tinyurl.com/mat-utep-info.

Become an education change agent in one year! Attend our info session to hear from Brown faculty, staff, current students and alumni of the Urban Education Policy master’s program. Light refreshments served. Please RSVP here. 

Join the Education Department for our second Fall 2018 Speaker Series lecture! Brown University Presidential Diversity Postdoctoral Fellow Lindsey Jones will present “Education and Incarceration in the Lives of Marginalized Black Girls: A Historical Perspective,” examining the case of an early-20th-century juvenile reformatory for delinquent African American girls to argue that a historical perspective can both enrich our understanding of black girls’ experiences of criminalization and enable more effective advocacy on behalf of this vulnerable population. Light lunch served. 

Join the Education Department on 9/20 from 12-1 p.m. for a Speaker Series lecture by Cornell University’s Kendra Bischoff. Dr. Bischoff will present “The Racial Composition of Neighborhoods and Local Schools: The Role of Diversity, Inequality, and School Choice.” In an education system that draws students from residentially-based attendance zones, schools are local institutions that reflect the racial composition of their surrounding communities. However, with opportunities to opt-out of the zoned public school system, the social and economic contexts of neighborhoods may affect the demographic link between neighborhoods and their public neighborhood schools. Using spatial data on school attendance zones, Dr. Bischoff estimates the associations between the racial composition of elementary schools and their local neighborhoods, and investigating how neighborhood factors shape the loose or tight demographic coupling of these parallel social contexts.

LEARN, TEACH, LEAD. Earn teacher certification in secondary English, history/social studies, or science (biology, chemistry, or physics). Through the 5th-year Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program, you will also receive a master’s degree. Through the Undergraduate Teacher Education Program (UTEP), earn secondary certification along with your undergraduate degree. Join us for an information session to learn more. Pizza provided!

Please RSVP at http://tinyurl.com/mat-utep-info

Join us for an informal gathering. Meet the professional staff of the LGBTQ Center, mingle with incoming and existing graduate students and learn about varying resources available on campus. All master’s, doctoral and medical students are welcome. Wine and dessert will be served; non-alcoholic options available. Families and children are welcome.

When: Friday, August 31st from 4:30 - 5:30 pm

Where: Kasper Multipurpose Room (lower level of the Robert Campus Center)