Gottlieb is in his second year of the PhD program in Education andJewish Studies and specializes in Digital Media and Games for Learning in Educational Communication and Technology. His CCAR Journal article on Digital Media and Jewish Community was recently ranked in the Top 10 Downloads for 2011 from the Berman Jewish Policy Archive.
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In an interview with City Limits magazine, Corcoran points out that the city's plan to release the scores of approximately 12,000 teachers ignores the vast majority of teachers, since value-added scores are only calculated for teachers with more than 2 years of teaching history, for teachers of math and reading, and for teachers in grades 4 through 8.
Value-added scoring, a technique developed by economists at Columbia University, assesses teachers based on the gains their students make on standardized tests over time. Corcoran's own research in collaboration with the Annenberg Institute for School Reform has demonstrated that value-added scoring can be markedly inconsistent. Teachers who rank in the top percentile one year may find themselves ranked in the bottom the next.
The problem, as Corcoran sees it, is that the methods have been developed by researchers with no education experience.
"Economists and statisticians devised the value-added method, advised by policy experts with law and business backgrounds," he told City Limits. "Cognitive development experts have not been part of this process since day one."
To read the entire City Limits article, click here.
]]>Divided over Devotion: The History of the Struggle over Prayer in
Schools and Where We Go from Here, review of
Bruce J. Dierenfield. Battle over School Prayer: How Engel v. Vitale
Changed America. Landmark Law Cases and American Society Series.
Lawrence University Press of Kansas, 2007. 240 pp. $15.95 (paper),
ISBN 978-0-7006-1526-1.
Janet is in the Education and Jewish Studies doctoral program in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences. Her academic interests include the teaching of religion in the secondary school history classroom setting.
Comparing Obama to John F. Kennedy, who was famously profiled by historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Zimmerman writes "We need a president who can compose himself and put aside his feelings."
According to Zimmerman, the trends of "confession, celebrity, and cynicism ... threaten to bury our politics in a shallow, superficial gauze. And we should laud President Obama - not lambaste him - for trying to resist them."
To read the entire commentary, click here.
]]>From questioning the separation of church and state to defending the superiority of American capitalism, the new standards are a reaction to what the Texas Board found was a liberal slant to most history books used in schools.
While Zimmerman agrees that most textbooks do present a liberal telling of American history, by focusing on protest movements for equality and the role of the goverment to advance social justice, he argues that the new Texas standards will simply bias history texts towards conservatism.
His solution: present kids with multiple points of view of history and let them decide for themselves.
He writes, "Instead of bickering about the 'correct' version of the past, the Texas school board should decree that every high school history class use both [liberal and conservative] texts. That would teach students that Americans disagree -- vehemently -- about the making and the meaning of their nation. And it would require the kids to sort out the differences on their own."
]]>"In today's increasingly globalized world," he writes, "our children need more exposure to different people and cultures, not less."
Although he recognizes that the hiring of foreign teachers alone will not solve critical shortages in science and math educations, Zimmerman notes that foreign teachers can help students in innumerable ways.
"As more and more countries outpace the United States in science and math, these teachers might help up catch up. Best of all, though, they can also teach our kids something new and important about the larger world."
To read Professor Zimmerman's entire opinion article, click here.
]]>Zimmerman notes that "the idea that there should be state-supported education was, although not unique to the United States, in many ways distinct to it. By 1850 there was a greater fraction of elementary school-age kids going to school in our country than in any other on earth."
Despite their many deficiencies (which include lack of heat and lack of proper training for teachers), one-room schoolhouses were communal institutions, often the only public building in a community, providing truly democratic spaces for functions like debates and voting.
To listen to the segment, produced by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, click below.
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Writing in The New York Times, book critic Dwight Garner calls Michael and Elizabeth Norman's Tears in the Darkness "authoritative history" and "a narrative achievement."
Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and its Aftermath, is the extraordinary story of America's worst military defeat told from the shifting point of view of three cultures: American, Japanese, and Filipino. Until the Japanese surrendered in August 1945, the Filipino and American prisoners of war on the tiny Philipine peninsula of Bataan suffered an ordeal of unparalleled cruelty and savagery: forty-one months of captivity, starvation rations, dehydration, hard labor, deadly disease, and torture.
Juxtaposed against the sobering tale of the Death March and its aftermath is the story of Ben Steele, a young 22 year old Montana cowboy who wanted to see the world and serve his country.
To read the full New York Times review of Tears in the Darkness, click here.
To read an interview with Michael and Elizabeth Norman, click here.
Elizabeth Norman is a professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences in the Professions at NYU Steinhardt.
]]>IREX, an international non-profit organization in Washington, DC, is offering an exciting international travel grant opportunity for US secondary level teachers through the Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program (TEA). This program is funded by the U.S. Department of State.
IREX is recruiting for the U.S. teachers reciprocal visit component of the program. The applicants we are seeking are U.S. secondary-level teachers of English or the social sciences to participate in a two-week professional exchange program in one of the following countries: Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Colombia, El Salvador, Georgia, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Nicaragua, Senegal, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Ukraine.
Eligible applicants must be:
Secondary-level (middle or high school), full-time teachers with five or more years of classroom experience in disciplines including English as a Foreign Language, English Language or Literature, and the Social Sciences (including social studies, civics, and history); U.S. citizenship; and ability to travel in April, 2010.
The program is fully funded and provides: visa support; round-trip domestic airfare, lodging and meals to attend the TEA U.S. Conference; round-trip airfare from the U.S. to the assigned country; emergency medical insurance; as well as lodging and a daily stipend in host country.
The TEA U.S. teacher application is available for download at our website: www.irex.org.
]]>Early application is crucial for the fullest consideration. Visit our financial aid section to see a full listing of options and to learn how to apply for financial aid.
Selected opportuntities include:
21st Century Scholarships are offered to full-time, newly admitted master's applicants showing the greatest potential and who show the strongest fit with the vision and mission of NYU Steinhardt. Applicants must meet all application deadlines (admission and FAFSA) for automatic consideration. No scholarship application required.
Steinhardt Graduate Scholarships are offered to full-time master's students who are academically talented and show a need for financial assistance. Applicants must meet all application deadlines (admission and FAFSA) for automatic consideration. No scholarship application required.
The New York University Opportunity Fellowship is awarded on a highly competitive basis to newly admitted students from underrepresented groups (African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans) who exhibit strong academic ability. Several scholarships are offered each fall to those intending to pursue full-time study. A completed scholarship application, separate from the admission application and FAFSA, must be submitted by March 1 (only available for the fall semester) to the Office of Graduate Admissions. Click here for the application and instructions.
The Deans Opportunity Scholarship is a competitive award for newly admitted master's and advanced certificate students from underrepresented groups (African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans) who intend to pursue full-time study. A completed scholarship application, separate from the admission application and FAFSA, must be submitted by March 1 for the fall/summer and November 1 for the spring to the Office of Graduate Admissions. Click here for the application and instructions.
The Health Professions Opportunity Scholarship is designed to assist newly admitted full-time graduate students from historically underrepresented groups (African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans) enrolled in any of the following health-related areas: physical or occupational therapy, community and international health, health education, nutrition, and speech pathology. A completed scholarship application, separate from the admission application and FAFSA, must be submitted by March 1 for the fall and November 1 for the spring to the Office of Graduate Admissions. Click here for the application and instructions.
All applicants to Ph.D. and Ed.D programs who meet the December 1 application deadline are considered for fellowships, assistantships, and scholarships. There are no scholarship applications required. To learn more about doctoral funding, please visit our Financial Aid Page.
]]>"Last time I checked," he writes, "universities were supposed to challenge students' biases and preconceived opinions"
To counter the pro-Obama bias expressed by students and many faculty, Zimmerman suggests ways in which teachers can use the hotly contested campaign to infuse "political energy" into the classroom. Teachers, he writes, can bring in outsider speakers to discuss opposing viewpoints, or give assignments that challenge student's preconceived notions.
He looks to Barack Obama himself for inspiration. Obama, Zimmerman reminds us, "taught law for 12 years at the University of Chicago, where he developed a reputation for rigorous open-mindedness. He challenged everyone, especially the students who agreed with him."
To read the full USA Today article, click here.
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"We're deeply grateful to the Jim Joseph Foundation for this exceptional grant," said Mary Brabeck, dean of NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. "The Foundation's generosity will allow us to recruit and train even more students, to further strengthen our programs, and to inspire a new generation of men and women to devote their lives to teaching and learning."
"We are proud to be associated with NYU in supporting these programs," said Alvin Levitt, the Foundation's board president. "The Jim Joseph Foundation believes that NYU's outstanding Education and Jewish Studies faculty and graduate student community provide an ideal setting in which this kind of training for future Jewish educational leaders can take place."
Graduate students benefiting from the Foundation's grant support will be named Jim Joseph Foundation Fellows. The graduate students will be selected from the following programs:
Additionally, the Foundation's grant will include funding for program administration and will allow for the hiring of adjunct faculty members in both NYU Steinhart and Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies.
"The Graduate School of Arts and Science (GSAS) is deeply grateful to the Jim Joseph Foundation for enabling this historic development in Jewish education," said Catharine Stimpson, dean of NYU's GSAS.
"Our graduate students in education and Jewish studies are geographically diverse and come from every sector of the highly diversified Jewish world: Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Zionist, cultural, and secular," said Robert Chazan, co-director, with Professor Harold Wechsler, of the Education and Jewish Studies programs. "What's common among them is the desire to assume leadership positions in Jewish educational enterprises. The excellent programs in education and Jewish studies and Hebrew and Judaic studies represent a real breakthrough in the training of the next generation of Jewish leaders."
"The Jim Joseph Foundation believes ardently in the importance of Jewish educators and their critical role in ensuring a vibrant Jewish future," said Chip Edelsberg, executive director of the Foundation. "We are confident this significant investment in NYU supporting these degree programs will produce future Jewish educational leaders."
Students interested in learning more about the programs should consult http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/humsocsci/jewish. Reporters wishing to speak with faculty or deans related to NYU's programs in education and Jewish studies should contact Tim Farrell, NYU Office of Public Affairs, at 212.998.6797.
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