Education Commons^™

An Open Letter To Governor-Elect Mcauliffe, Thomas J. Shields

School of Professional and Continuing Studies Faculty Publications

Almost every governor elected in recent memory has recognized how critical education is to the economic and social welfare of our commonwealth. Each has come into office ready to put his personal stamp on Virginia's educational system. However, we believe the time has come for our state's chief executive to realize that our current system is no longer functioning in an equitable manner, particularly for children who are at or below the poverty line.

Increasing Diversity In The City Schools: Unexplored Paths Of Opportunity, Genevieve Siegel-Hawley, Kimberly M. Bridges, Thomas J. Shields, John V. Moeser, Renee Hill

School of Professional and Continuing Studies Faculty Publications

In its school rezoning and closure process from May 6 - June 3, 2013, the Richmond School Board voted to close 3 schools and change 14 elementary school zones despite opposition that overwhelmingly outweighed support at both public hearings. Though there were a wide range of concerns cited, including the rushed timeline, lack of transparency and absence of clear criteria for closing and rezoning these schools, many stakeholders expressed particular disapproval related to the potential increase in racial isolation that would result from the plan, formally known as Option C.

While regional efforts to promote school diversity—a central theme of …

Compensation Research Summer Camp, Kevin F. Hallock

Economics Faculty Publications

This summer, the Institute for Compensation Studies at Cornell's ILR School hosted its first Emerging Scholars Conference, which the author affectionately calls Comp Camp. Their conference, funded in part by WorldatWork, hosted a dozen junior scholars, three PhD students, a few senior scholars and some leaders from the practical world (including some from WorldatWork). They convened experts from fields like sociology, psychology, economics, industrial relations and business on the Cornell campus in Ithaca, NY, for robust discussions of several as-yet-unpublished research studies. The conference had three interesting papers on gender by scholars from three fields using data from three countries. …

Worn Down And Worn Out, Irene Carney, Thomas J. Shields

School of Professional and Continuing Studies Faculty Publications

Exposure to early adversity, particularly dire poverty, can powerfully shape the life course of a young person. As a city and region, we continually choose whether we’ll commit ourselves to an alternative course.

Where Would Hip Hop Be Without Colleges And Universities?, Erik Nielson

School of Professional and Continuing Studies Faculty Publications

Institutions of higher education have played a critical role in ensuring that hip hop music remains fluid and vibrant.

Promote Equity, Excellence In Our Region's Schools, Thomas J. Shields

School of Professional and Continuing Studies Faculty Publications

In a region that loves history, public anniversaries offer an opportunity to reflect on events that have shaped our collective present. This spring brings just such an occasion; it has been 40 years since the U.S. Supreme court halted a federal court order mandating the consolidation of the Richmond public school district with the Chesterfield and Henrico districts. This action locked in city and suburban school boundaries - and associated inequities - that still exist.

Introducing Computer Science In An Integrated Science Course, Barry Lawson, Doug Szajda, Lewis Barnett Iii

Department of Math & Statistics Faculty Publications

This paper describes our implementation and experience of incorporating computer science concepts into a team-taught, first-year interdisciplinary course for prospective science majors at the University of Richmond. The course integrates essential concepts from each of five STEM disciplines: biology, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, and physics. Including computer science in this course faces three primary challenges: few of the students have any CS background; the time devoted to CS instruction is reduced compared to a traditional introductory CS course; and the spirit of the course requires the CS material to be highly integrated with the other disciplines. Here we discuss our …

A More-Radical Online Revolution, Edward L. Ayers

History Faculty Publications

Whatever the discipline, the new online world must find ways to help create new knowledge. Online education cannot run indefinitely, as it does now, on borrowed intellectual capital, disseminating what we already know. Higher education takes its energy, its purpose, from a charged circuit between teaching and research, between sharing knowledge and making knowledge. New forms of teaching must be able to generate new ideas.

Racial Justice, Hegemony, And Bias Incidents In U.S. Higher Education, Glyn Hughes

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Formal administrative protocols for responding to bias incidents are now the norm in higher education. This article considers these developments by posing critical questions about racial justice work on campus, identifying key features of an under-acknowledged institutional racism, and contributing to discussions about ways that diversity and social justice efforts often reproduce rather than challenge systemic inequities.

Credit/Skills Recovery Pilot Project: Documentation Report For The Boston Public Schools, Terry Grobe, Bedelia N. Richards, Cheryl Almeida

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

In support of Boston Superintendent Carol Johnson’s Acceleration Agenda and call for “graduation for all,” the Boston Public Schools launched a pilot Credit/Skills Recovery Program in the summer of 2008. The pilot targeted a population of young people—18 years and older— who were one to four courses short of graduation and sought to help them gain needed credits to graduate and build career and college success skills. An analysis conducted by BPS with the Parthenon Group had identified this group—youth who are “old and close to graduation”—as being at high risk of dropping out of high school. To reach this …

Education And Literacy, Carol Summers

History Faculty Publications

Loram's definition of education as planned by the powerful for the social construction of useful and 'good' Africans, along with his implicit concerns about bad or disruptive literate individuals, represented the views of many educationists during the colonial era. Such views, moreover, survived the end of colonial rule, re-emerging at the centre of shifting debates over how educational institutions and pedagogies should either persist or be challenged. Social utility defined education, not its specific content in reading, arithmetic, religious faith, business, or gardening. Struggles over educational planning were less over whether it was a form of social control than over …