HGSE in the Media

January 2008

Teachers Advised to 'Get Real' on Race
"'When should educators be race-conscious, and when should they be colorblind?' [Associate Professor Mica] Pollock said in an interview this month. 'I realized this was a can of worms nobody could address individually.'" (Education Week, 1/30/08, Registration required)

Preschool Priorities
"Research from Harvard University's Center on the Developing Child finds that high-quality early-learning programs combine 'highly skilled staff; small class sizes and high adult-to-child ratios; a language-rich environment; age-appropriate curricula and stimulating materials in a safe physical setting; warm, responsive interactions between staff and children; and high and consistent levels of child participation.'" (Education Week, 1/25/08, Registration required)

The NYC Teacher Experiment Revisited
"In September, an academic experiment headed by two very talented researchers, Jonah Rockoff (Columbia Business School) and Tom Kane (Harvard Grad School of Ed), was announced. It was presented as an experiment intended to generate academic knowledge, not to inform human resources decisions in real time." (Education Week, 1/24/08, Registration required)

Stress on Babies May Cause Brain Damage
"'This is not just about other people's children. It's about our country's economic viability,' Dr. Jack P. Shonkoff, a Harvard professor of child health and development told Connecticut educators and policymakers last week at the Early Childhood Summit called the 'First 1,000 Days.'" (The News Times, 1/20/08)

Researchers' Assessment of NCLB Shows Need for Improvement
"Three researchers from Harvard - Michael Kieffer, Nonie Lesaux, and Catherine Snow - revealed what needs to be done in terms of adequately assessing English-language learners." (Diverse Issues in Higher Education, 1/17/08)

Drive On to Improve Evaluation Systems for Teachers
"Thomas J. Kane, an economist at Harvard University's Graduate School of Education who has looked at the relationship between principals' observations of teacher effectiveness and teacher effectiveness as measured by student test-score gains, said it was high time districts turned their attention to evaluation, which he characterized as 'their most potent tool' for improving teacher quality." (Education Week, 1/16/08, Registration required)

Pediatrician: Life's Tracks Set By Age 3
"'Things are happening early on in the lives of young children that are either going to set a strong foundation for high economic achievement and high economic productivity ... or can build a foundation that's going to be the beginning of failure, of school failure and economic dependence and criminal behavior,' said [Jack] Shonkoff, a professor of child health and development and founder of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University." (Hartford Courant, 1/16/08, Paid registration required)

Teacher Pays Tribute to Black History through Mural at High School
"Part of Parker's thesis is the implementation of his three-part 'Young Masters Among Us' program, which includes apprenticeship, in-depth studies of master artists, and a critical thinking component in association with Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education." (Cambridge Chronicle, 1/16/08)

New book from Civil Rights Project takes aim at No Child Left Behind
"'We know far too little about how to hold schools accountable for improving student performance,' says Harvard University testing [Professor] Daniel Koretz, who argues in the book that the entire NCLB accountability system is not based on hard evidence." (UCLA Newsroom, 1/14/08)

The Early Bird Gets the Bad Grade
"According to Paul Reville, a professor of education policy at Harvard and chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Education, 'Trying to cram everything our 21st-century students need into a 19th-century six-and-a-half-hour day just isn't working.' He says that children learn more at a less frantic pace, and that lengthening the school day would help 'close the achievement gap between disadvantaged students and their better-off peers.'"
(The New York Times, 1/14/08)

Archdiocese Names School Superintendent
"Mary Grassa O'Neill was named secretary of education and superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of Boston, the archdiocese announced Friday." (Boston Business Journal, 1/11/08)

Working Conditions Trump Pay
"'Teachers today know they have many more options,' says Susan Moore Johnson, an education professor at Harvard University's graduate school of education. 'Often, they've chosen teaching because it means more [to them] and they want to work with young people. If conditions preclude their success in these classrooms, they're much more likely to leave than their predecessors.'" (Education Week, 1/10/08, Registration required)