Tinasbeen

Busy month!

Sorry about the long delay - things at the Institute have been keeping me very busy.

My documentary project continues to go well - quite a few students have signed up, and we're going to be heading to the New Jersey Historical Society next week for a workshop on primary sources and archives, as well as an introduction to the Society's collection of documents and photos of the riots and of schools and students in Newark. I took a quick preliminary look there this afternoon, and I think our visit should be a lot of fun. It looks like we may also be making connections with an art installation about the riots being planned at Aljira, a contemporary art gallery here in Newark - www.aljira.org - and with Rutgers' Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies: www.cornwall.rutgers.edu .

The planning for the community forum series on education reform is also moving forward. Last week we were invited by the Rutgers - Newark Teacher Education program to co-sponsor a grant application that would expand and fund the project for three years and add a strong focus on teacher education and new teacher induction - very exciting.

And this week we had a fantastic meeting with about a dozen education leaders in Newark, including the president of the Newark Teachers Union- www.ntuaft.com, representatives from the Superintendent's Office and Mayor's Office, a member of the Newark School Advisory Board (which replaced the School Board when the district came under state control about a decade ago), a representative from the Victoria Foundation - www.victoriafoundation.org - which funds lots of education projects in Newark, and a great range of faculty members from campus. Everyone was enthusiastic about the project and had great ideas about what topics we should focus on, what should come out of the project, and how the very diverse constituencies around the table could work together.

What was most exciting for me was the enthusiasm around including historical context in all of the events for the project - it looks like we'll even do at least one session in which the history of education in the city is the primary focus. As a historian of education, it's just great for me to see that school policy-makers, practioners, and others outside of the field think that history can and should be an important part of what they do. I just hope this project can live up to their expectations!

posted by Tina @ 8:16 PM