On October 1, 2010, the School of Education formally opens the Frontier Center for Urban Education. Dr. Shirley Sommers, Assistant Professor of Social and Psychological Foundations of Education, will serve as its first director. The Center will serve as an umbrella organization for the many urban education inititaives currently emanating from the School of Education. In so doing, the Center will be able to provide support for these existing initiatives as well as support the development of new initiatives.
The primary purpose for the Center is to highlight the work of teachers and students in urban classrooms. It is my hope that in so far as it will participate in analysis and discussion of educational policy, the Center's focus will be on how best to create the optimal classroom and school conditions for transformative teaching. Moreover, I hope the Center is able to provide an alternative to the ubiquitous view that "academic achievement" can be defined and measured by narrow accountability schemes and I hope the Center encourages a discussion about what should be the social purposes for public schooling today.
Here's a link to the Frontier Center for Urban Urban Education's Mission Statement, developed by the Center's Advisory Board (including Dr. Sommers, Dr. Laura Jones, Dr. Brian Bailey, Dr. Rasheeda Ahmad, and Jackie Bryant, Director of Teacher Opportunity Collaboratives) is as follows:
Download MISSION STATEMENT - Urban Center
And a link to some of the Center's activities planned for the 2010-2011 academic year:
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