Columbia Teachers College Lends Harlem a Hand

Posted on July 1, 2008
Filed Under News, The Daily Prereq | By Jessica Gross

The New York City public school system is a notorious underperformer (a 2002 report found just 70 percent of students complete high school, steady since the early 1990s). In recent years, organizations from Teach For America and New York City Teaching Fellows to the government (or NYC Dept. of Education’s Chancellor Joel I. Klein) have tried cleaning up NYC’s educational mess. The newest member of the team: Columbia University Teachers College. Armed with $5 million from the GE Foundation, the Teachers College will focus on curriculum development and after-school programs at 10 Harlem schools, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Despite huge math and reading gains during Chancellor Klein’s term, NYC teachers aren’t pleased with his leadership, especially the increased focus on testing. Hopefully, the Teachers College’s methodology will appeal more to the Harlem schools than did the mounds of score reports. The key to winning the United Federation of Teachers’ approval is educating “the whole child”. So as long as the Teachers College keeps it holistic, the partnership should work.

  • Share/Save/Bookmark

Comments

Leave a Reply




Security Code: