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Harvard Graduate School of Education

The Askwith Education Forum, at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, is endowed through the generosity of Patricia Askwith Kenner and other members of the Askwith family, and acts as a galvanizing force for debate and conversation about education in its narrowest and broadest perspectives. Each year, the Forum welcomes a number of prominent people from diverse fields to speak about issues relevant to education and children. Recent topics have included immigration, values, affirmative action, education reform, and the arts. All of these events are free and open to the public.break

http://www.gse.harvard.edu/askwith

Closing the Nation's Racial Achievement Gaps III

Thu, May 12, 2005

Organized by the Achievement Gap Initiative (AGI) at Harvard University, this is the third in a series of forums addressing Racial Gaps in School Readiness: The Importance of Early Childhood. Public discourse about achievement gaps is typically focused on what happens in schools and classrooms. However, the fact is that racial achievement gaps exist on the first day of kindergarten. The evening's speakers will discuss research evidence on the size of the gaps that exist by kindergarten, research based explanations for those gaps, and some of the implications for policy and practice. This forum will feature Roland Fryer, Economics Department, Harvard University; David Grissmer, senior management scientist, Rand Corporation; and Kathleen McCartney, professor of education and academic dean, Harvard Graduate School of Education.

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Becoming Literate: Baltimore Early Childhood Project

Tue, Mar 8, 2005

Robert Serpell, vice chancellor at the University of Zambia, discusses the results of his five-year study tracing literacy development in pre-kindergarten through third-grade children from low- and middle- income families of European and African heritage in Baltimore. His presentation centers on how the concept of intimate family culture can assist in moving the discussion of educational disadvantage beyond stereotyped accounts of various social addresses. Catherine Snow, the Henry Lee Shattuck professor of Education, will provide an introduction.

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Fragments: Links between Cognitive Science and Education Policy

Thu, Feb 24, 2005

Michael J. Feuer of the National Research Council presents the second in a series of lectures on links between cognitive science and education policy. This lecture focuses on sources of complexity in the American school system and implications for the design of rational models of education policy. Feuer emphasizes the intended and unintended effects of the fragmented system of school governance that exists in the US, the limitations this imposes on the use of existing measurement tools to gauge individual and institutional progress, and the problems that arise from accountability systems that inadvertently create incentives for opportunistic behavior among students, teachers, and school authorities. Given these constraints, Feuer argues for a new approach to understanding the strengths and weaknesses of alternative governance models, defining rational goals for education policy, and setting reasonable expectations for improvement. **Michael J. Feuer** is Executive Director of the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education at the National Research Council of the National Academies.

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"L" is for Literacy: Reading with Children

Wed, Mar 2, 2005

Harvard Graduate School of Education celebrates the work of Dr. Seuss, with a forum to discuss children's literacy, the effects of parent-child and child self-motivated book reading, and child literacy programs. Initially created as a one-day event to celebrate reading, the National Education Association's Read Across America has grown into a nationwide initiative that promotes reading every day of the year and culminates on March 2nd, the birthday of Dr. Seuss.

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What Does Good Work Look Like?

Thu, Mar 3, 2005

Educator Ron Berger lectures on the study and research of student work, and how to improve the work produced by students by giving them models to to base their own works from. **Ron Berger** served as a public school teacher in western Massachusetts for 25 years. He works with the Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound school network, Harvard Project Zero, and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. His new book from Heinemann is An Ethic of Excellence: Building a Culture of Craftsmanship in Schools. This lecture is a part of the John Landrum Bryant Lecture/Performance Series, sponsored by the Arts in Education Program and supported by the Bauman Foundation.

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Framing Education as Art: The Octopus Has a Good Day

Tue, Mar 22, 2005

Lecturing from her book Framing Education as Art: The Octopus Has a Good Day, Jessica Hoffmann Davis, offers suggestions for making non-arts education more connected to and like the arts. This discussion is part of the John Landrum Bryant Lecture/Performance Series, sponsored by the HGSE Arts in Education Program and supported by the Bauman Foundation.

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Back to School: Path to Universal Primary Education

Tue, Mar 13, 2007

Wide Angle producer Pamela Hogan screens her film *Back to School*, and a panel discusses universal primary education. Across the world, more than 100 million children are out of school this year. In the developing world, one in four children drop out before completing four years of education. Nearly one billion adults, one sixth of the world's people, are illiterate. In 2003, producers from New York's Wide Angle world affairs television series traveled to Afghanistan, India, Benin, Brazil, Romania, Kenya, and Japan to film the stories of seven children beginning their first year of formal schooling, some against great odds. Now, three years later, the filmmakers have returned with *Back to School*, a film which revisits these children as they continued, or fell behind, on their paths through elementary school. The speakers in this discussion include David Bloom, Gamble Professor of Economics and Demography, Harvard School of Public Health; Matthew Jukes, assistant professor of education, Harvard Graduate School of Education; and Fernando Reimers, Ford Foundation Professor of International Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education.

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Communities of Color Moving Forward

Fri, Mar 3, 2006

Panelists discuss how they understand and define catastrophe in the context of communities of color. They ask whether catastrophe is a one-time, horrific event that changes a community's daily life or a long-range series of events that consistently undermine a community ability to pursue goals. Is a catastrophic event generated by natural occurrences or human action? Attention is specifically focused on events affecting individuals and communities of color and a community's ability to drive the education of its members.

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PAR: Research in Youth Development

Mon, Apr 17, 2006

This forum focuses on the method and theory of engaging in participatory action research (PAR) approaches in educational settings and on the strategies, values, questions, and processes of PAR in education and youth development. Using examples from their experience, panelists offer diverse points of view on designing, implementing, and writing about PAR; the role of the academic researcher in school or community-based inquiry; the skills needed to conduct this type of research; the desired and actual outcomes of their work; and the special dilemmas and resolutions faced by participatory action researchers.

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School District Reform: Leadership in Uncertain Times

Mon, Apr 24, 2006

This panel, moderated by Robert Peterkin, Francis Keppel Professor of Educational Policy and Administration and director of the Urban Superintendents Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, gives Tom Payzant and Arlene Ackerman, two outstanding Superintendents, an opportunity to share their experiences and reflect on how to improve some of our most challenging districts. Both Tom Payzant and Arlene Ackerman have proven that a superintendent committed to a theory of action can make a difference in some of our nation's most complex districts. Both Payzant and Ackerman have also shattered the "urban myth" that large city superintendents only remain in office for less than three years. Payzant's 10-year tenure in Boston and Ackerman's six-year tenure in San Francisco have been characterized by real change focused on improving teaching and learning in schools. Both superintendents have demonstrated that it is possible to adopt a plan for reform and find the needed talent, resources, and support to make it happen.

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