Date Posted: March 27, 2009

Professor Noguera's appointment to this newly endowed professorship is in recognition of his national and international stature as a sociologist and scholar and of his deep commitment to the field of education.

As you may know, Pedro Noguera is a professor in our departments of Teaching and Learning and Humanities and Social Sciences in the Professions. He serves as the executive director of the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education and the co-director of the Institute for the Study of Globalization and Education in Metropolitan Settings.

Dr. Noguera has published and spoken widely on such topics as urban school reform, conditions that promote student achievement, youth violence, the potential impact of school choice and vouchers on urban public schools, and race and ethnic relations in American society.

He is the author and editor of The Trouble With Black Boys and Other Reflections on Race, Equity and the Future of Public Education (Wiley and Sons, 2008), City Kids, City Teachers with Bill Ayers and Greg Michie (New Press 2008), Unfinished Business: Closing the Achievement Gap in Our Nation's Schools (Josey Bass, 2006), and City Schools and the American Dream (Teachers College Press 2003). In a recent video, www.steinhardt.nyu.edu/videos/pedro_noguera Dr. Noguera speaks about the forces that sometimes prevent schools from providing children with equitable outcomes.

In 2008, New York Governor David Paterson appointed Dr. Noguera to serve on the State University of New York Board of Trustees. He has served as a member of the US Public Health Service Centers for Disease Control Taskforce on Youth Violence, the Chair of the Committee on Ethics in Research and Human Rights for the American Educational Research Association, and on numerous advisory boards to local and national education and youth organizations. He has served as an advisor and engaged in collaborative research with several large urban school districts throughout the United States. Dr. Noguera has held tenured faculty appointments at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and at the University of California, Berkeley.

The Peter L. Agnew Foundation endowed the Professor of Education chair to honor Dr. Peter Agnew, a renowned business education professor at NYU, who prepared the elite for business leadership from the 1920s through the 1950s. The Foundation has supported NYU and the Steinhardt School for over twenty-five years, contributing to a business education fund, scholarships, and a memorial lecture, all in Agnew's name. A committee of senior faculty advised me on Dr. Noguera's selection for this prestigious appointment.