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Harvard Graduate School of Education

The Askwith Education Forum, at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, is endowed through the generosity of Patricia Askwith Kenner and other members of the Askwith family, and acts as a galvanizing force for debate and conversation about education in its narrowest and broadest perspectives. Each year, the Forum welcomes a number of prominent people from diverse fields to speak about issues relevant to education and children. Recent topics have included immigration, values, affirmative action, education reform, and the arts. All of these events are free and open to the public.break

http://www.gse.harvard.edu/askwith

Closing the Nation's Racial Achievement Gaps III

Thu, May 12, 2005

Organized by the Achievement Gap Initiative (AGI) at Harvard University, this is the third in a series of forums addressing Racial Gaps in School Readiness: The Importance of Early Childhood. Public discourse about achievement gaps is typically focused on what happens in schools and classrooms. However, the fact is that racial achievement gaps exist on the first day of kindergarten. The evening's speakers will discuss research evidence on the size of the gaps that exist by kindergarten, research based explanations for those gaps, and some of the implications for policy and practice. This forum will feature Roland Fryer, Economics Department, Harvard University; David Grissmer, senior management scientist, Rand Corporation; and Kathleen McCartney, professor of education and academic dean, Harvard Graduate School of Education.

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What Does Good Work Look Like?

Thu, Mar 3, 2005

Educator Ron Berger lectures on the study and research of student work, and how to improve the work produced by students by giving them models to to base their own works from. **Ron Berger** served as a public school teacher in western Massachusetts for 25 years. He works with the Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound school network, Harvard Project Zero, and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. His new book from Heinemann is An Ethic of Excellence: Building a Culture of Craftsmanship in Schools. This lecture is a part of the John Landrum Bryant Lecture/Performance Series, sponsored by the Arts in Education Program and supported by the Bauman Foundation.

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Adequate and Equitable School Funding

Tue, Nov 16, 2004

This discussion addresses the question of adequate and equitable school funding, an issue that has been debated and extensively litigated in Massachusetts and other states across the nation for many years. Panelists include *Sacramento Bee* education columnist Peter Schrag. Schrag presents findings from his latest book, *Final Test: The Battle for Adequacy in America's Schools*; Michael Rebell, executive director of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, successful plaintiffs in the New York state suit to secure adequate resources for students in New York City; and Robert Costrell, chief economist for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the Executive Office for Administration and Finance. The panel is moderated by Robert Schwartz, Harvard Graduate School of Education lecturer on education, and former president of Achieve, Inc., an independent, bipartisan, nonprofit organization created by governors and corporate leaders to help states improve their schools.

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Education Reform in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Thu, Feb 10, 2005

Helen Ladd and Edward Fiske speak about their recent book, *Elusive Equity: Education Reform in Post-Apartheid South Africa*, which tells the story of South Africa's efforts to fashion a racially equitable state education system out of the ashes of apartheid. Fiske and Ladd describe and evaluate the policy strategies that South Africa pursued in its quest for racial equity. They draw on previously unpublished data, interviews with key officials, and visits to dozens of schools to describe the changes made in school finance, teacher assignment policies, governance, curriculum, higher education, and other areas.

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Technology as a Force for Education Reform

Thu, Oct 2, 2003

Milton Chen, executive director of the George Lucas Educational Foundation, and 2003 HGSE Visiting Technology Fellow, discusses technology as a force for systemic change and its implications for K-12 teaching and learning including professional development and classroom modeling.

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Louis Menand: Pragmatism's Three Moments

Thu, Feb 12, 2004

Louis Menand lectures on pragmatism, a distinctly American philosophy based on experience and experiment rather than fixed principles. Louis Menand, professor of English and American literature and language in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University and a member of the Harvard Graduate School of Education faculty, is the author of *The Metaphysical Club* (2001), an exploration of American pragmatism that examines the transformation of American intellectual thought from 1865 to 1919 and explores the development of the pragmatism philosophy.

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W.B. Yeats: The Arch-Poet

Wed, Dec 10, 2003

Roy Foster speaks about the final volume in his acclaimed biography W.B. Yeats, A Life, Volume II: The Arch-Poet 1915-1939. **Roy Foster**is the Carroll professor of Irish history at the University of Oxford and a fellow of Hartford College. He is author of numerous books including Charles Stewart Parnell and Lord Randolph Churchill: A Political Life.

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18,190 Days: Brown v. Board of Education

Fri, Mar 5, 2004

On the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, this panel discussion considers the topic "18,190 Days of (de)Segregation: How Far Have We Come?" with Angelo Ancheta, Mitchell Chang, Vanessa Siddle Walker, and Charles Willie.

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Civil Rights Movement Series

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Liberal and Conservative Theories on Urban School Change

Mon, Mar 15, 2004

Charles Payne of Duke University, and author of *I've Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Movement* discusses "A Curse on Both Their Houses: Liberal and Conservative Theories of Urban School Change."

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Inventing a Nation: Washington, Adams, Jefferson

Thu, Nov 20, 2003

In "Inventing a Nation: Washington, Adams, Jefferson", author Gore Vidal takes readers to a time when America's founding fathers fought and worked to create a new country. Among Vidal's revelations: Benjamin Franklin believed the Constitution was flawed and predicted it eventually would fail; that the Revolution was kept alive only by the force of Washington's personality and "the cleverness of our diplomats" (including Franklin, Jefferson and Adams) in convincing France to come to America's aid.

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