Events

Is there a way for education and economic policy to escape from the paralyzing dynamic of political polarization that has confounded progress on so many issues?

A robust and vibrant public square is an essential foundation of democracy. It is the place where the important public issues of the day are subject to free and open debate, and our ideas of what is in the public interest take shape.

In an era of growing racial and class segregation in American education, what must be done to provide every student with a genuine opportunity to learn?

Co-sponsored with the American Federation of Teachers and held the second Wednesday of every month during the school year, this series is designed to engender lively and informative conversations on important educational issues. We invite speakers with diverse perspectives.

How do we teach discipline and maintain order, while protecting against the effects of persistent, unconscious biases? How do we ensure that schools are warm, welcoming, fair, and effective in the treatment of all students?

Teaching and learning are not primarily individual accomplishments but rather social endeavors that are best achieved and improved through trusting relationships and teamwork. Yet, most policies focus on improving the individual capacities of teachers. What is to be gained from approaches that strike a balance between human and social capital?

There is concern that, as the U.S. population and student body is growing more racially and ethically diverse, the teacher workforce does not yet reflect this diversity. In fact, diversity should go beyond having more black and brown teachers in front of students. Diversity is also about equipping all teachers (regardless of race) to work with heterogeneous classrooms and diverse schools. Watch the video.

Elected officials seeking to diminish the pensions of public sector employees have argued that they are responding to a fiscal crisis. Is this crisis real or contrived?

The basic provisions of Title I have barely changed in 50 years, and neither has the persistent inequality of educational opportunities offered to poor children. What more should Congress do?

This conference examines new thinking and new initiatives in labor organizing, viewing them critically in the light of ongoing union imperatives of cultivating member activism and involvement, fostering democratic self-governance and building the collective power of working people.

The emergence of the global knowledge economy has revolutionized the nature of work in America – for the worse.

After Bob Herbert filed his last New York Times opinion column in 2011, he set off on a journey across the country to report on Americans who were being left behind. The portraits of those he encountered fuel his new book, Losing Our Way.

This panel will examine the terrain of teacher compensation from a number of different perspectives, offering their recommendations on what a good compensation policy would entail.

From a variety of different perspectives, our panel will address two vital questions: What are the systemic causes of this mismatch of educational resources and educational need? What policies could be adopted to remedy this mismatch, and attract experienced, accomplished teachers into schools with high educational need?

This book follows the author through his coming-of-age story, beginning as a naïve young man growing up in the drug-tainted, community-centered projects of the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and continuing through his struggles to mature and give back through a career teaching middle school math.

Twelve years after the passage of No Child Left Behind and five years into Race to the Top, America finds itself in a ‘test and punish’ system of school accountability that poorly serves the nation and its students.

Sponsored by the Albert Shanker Institute and the American Federation of Teachers, this conversation series is designed to engender lively and informative discussions on important educational issues.

In April, approximately 40,000 workers struck the footwear manufacturing facilities operated by Yue Yuen Industrial, a global supplier of shoes for brands such as Adidas and Nike.

As we mark the sixtieth anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the promise of that historic decision remains unfulfilled. Watch the Conversation.

The American ideal of “public education” has historically included a robust and complex conception of what it meant for education to be “public.”

Since the 1995 introduction of the TIMSS studies and the 2000 start of the PISA assessments, much ink has been spilled on where U.S. students stand vis-à-vis their international counterparts

How do we ensure that all schools are warm, welcoming, fair, and effective in the treatment of all students? How do we maintain safety and order, while protecting against the effects of the persistent, unconscious biases that plaugue our society?

Studies and reports that diagnose the health of American teacher education and prescribe remedies for its ills have turned into a cottage industry in recent years. There is little consensus, however, on the condition of the patient, much less on the regimen of treatment the patient should undergo.

How do we ensure that our schools become vehicles for escaping poverty and constructing meaningful, productive lives as democratic citizens, and not the starting point of an institutional arrangement that ends in mass incarceration?