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FOCUS ON
EducationBringing together more than 40
NYU faculty from the social, behav-
ioral, and health sciences, the Insti-
tute of Human Development and
Social Change (IHDSC) studies how
complex social forces, such as
globalization and immigration,
affect human development. The
institute is a joint initiative of the
Steinhardt School, the Robert F.
Wagner Graduate School of Public
Service, the Faculty of Arts and
Sciences, and the Office of the
Provost.
“Both IHDSC and Steinhardt
share a commitment to improving
the lives of children and families
through interdisciplinary research,”
says Steinhardt Dean Mary Brabeck.
“There is enormous potential for the
work of these talented faculty
members from across the University
to shape policy and practice.”
The work of the institute focuses
on a number of areas, with working
groups on interventions in human
development, early childhood
Addressing the huge demand in the
United States for more teachers of
Mandarin Chinese, the Steinhardt
School recently began a working
relationship with East China Normal
University (ECNU)—the NYU part-
ner school in Shanghai. The agree-
ment allows up to 10 Chinese
graduate students per year to study
foreign language education at NYU.
This past June, Steinhardt Dean
Mary Brabeck and Frank Tang, clini-
cal professor of foreign language
education, traveled to Shanghai to
formally execute the commitment
between the two schools.
Four graduates of ECNU are
beginning their graduate studies at
NYU this semester. Upon comple-
tion of three semesters of study, the
students will be prepared to teach
in public and private schools in New
York State. Steinhardt and the
Office of Chinese Language Council
International of the Chinese Ministry
of Education will offer tuition assis-
tance for the students. This is an
important incentive for students
who often cannot afford to attend
American graduate schools. In
China, students in teacher educa-
tion programs attend without pay-
ing tuition.
“This partnership affirms NYU’s
position as a truly global university,”
SPRING 2008
Hailing from Shanghai, new NYU students, from left: Bing Qiu, Li Lin Guo, Dandan Zhu, and Lu Jiang
New Interdisciplinary Institute Studies Children,Families in Context of Changing World
Steinhardt and East China NormalUniversity Forge Partnership Devoted to Language Education
continued on page 7
continued on page 5
IINNSSIIDDEE 2 National Science Foundation Grants 3 Partnering with Public Schools 7 Recycling for Art Education
School Receives $10 Million from Michael and Judy SteinhardtThe Steinhardt School of Culture,
Education, and Human Development
has received a $10 million gift from
Michael and Judy Steinhardt. The
donation matches their $10 million gift
in 2001 when the school was named in
their honor. The combined $20 million
is the largest gift in the history of the
school, which was created in 1890 as
the School of Pedagogy — the first pro-
fessional school established at an
American research university devoted to
the study of teaching and learning and the preparation of educators.
Michael and Judy Steinhardt
2 NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
Karen King Wins NSF Grant to StudyTeachers’ Use of Math Textbooks
The choice of which mathematics textbook works best for middle school
instruction has long been a point of argument among educators.
School district administrators tend to believe that textbook selection is the
overriding factor in improving student outcomes on math tests.
Karen King, associate professor of mathematics edu-
cation at the Steinhardt School, seeks to re-frame the
debate regarding math instruction by focusing instead
on how teachers adapt instructional materials in the
classroom. Recently, she was awarded a $998,955 grant
from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for a
mixed-methods research study of math instruction
within a school district in New Jersey.
“This project seeks to move the discourse surrounding
math textbooks beyond ‘what works?’ toward helping teach-
ers effectively use high quality instructional materials,” says King. “While the
choice of textbook is important, I would argue that it is not nearly as important
as critics or advocates of certain textbooks would have you believe.”
Appiah Delivers Association for Moral Education Keynote at Steinhardt
The National Science Foundation has awarded NYU a $750,000 grant for
the creation of the NYU Noyce Scholarship Program. The program, a joint
collaboration between Steinhardt and the Faculty of Arts and Science, will
prepare 26 new math or science teachers for high-needs secondary schools
over the course of four years.
Available to undergraduate students with an interest in teaching
careers, the program will provide funding for a master’s degree in science
or math education through Steinhardt’s Department of Teaching and
Learning. The program is named after Robert Noyce, a co-founder of
Intel Corporation.
Steinhardt and FAS to Create New Math and Science Scholarship Program
NYU Steinhardt PodcastsVisit www.steinhardt.nyu.edu/podcast to listen to lectures and
presentations from Steinhardt faculty and visiting professors.
Episodes cover topics such as classroom management,
motivating and engaging students, and global citizenship.
Subscribe to our podcast to receive the latest episodes auto-
matically on your computer or portable audio player.
Kwame Anthony Appiah, Laurence S. Rockefeller
University Professor of Philosophy at Princeton
University, delivered the keynote address at the
32nd annual meeting of the Association for
Moral Education (AME), held at NYU Steinhardt
and titled “Civic Education, Moral Education, and
Democracy in a Global Society.”
Following introductions by Steinhardt Dean
Mary Brabeck, AME President John Snarey, and
NYU President John Sexton, Appiah spoke on
global citizenship to a packed crowd in the
Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. Tracing
the history of cosmopolitanism from ancient
Greece to today’s globalized culture, Appiah
argued that the tenets of cosmopolitanism—tol-
erance, diversity, humility, and commitment to
dialogue—are the very qualities necessary for
good global citizenship. Dean Mary Brabeck, President John Sexton, and Kwame
Anthony Appiah at the AME Conference.
From left: Hirokazu Yoshikawa, Niobe Way, Diane Hughes, and Catherine Tamis-LeMonda
The Steinhardt School Center for
Research on Culture, Development,
and Education (CRCDE) was recent-
ly awarded a $2.5 million grant from
the National Science Foundation
(NSF) for research on how cultural
beliefs and practices in homes and
schools shape different aspects of
child development among predomi-
nantly low-income, ethnically diverse
populations in New York City.
This is the second consecutive
five-year grant from NSF awarded to
four faculty members from the
Department of Applied Psychology:
Catherine Tamis-LeMonda, Diane
Hughes, Niobe Way and Hirokazu
Yoshikawa. Other funding sources
include the William T. Grant Founda-
tion, the National Institutes of Health,
and the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services’ Administration
for Children and Families.
“The Study of Culture, Social
Settings, and Child Development
across School Transitions,” is a
research project that aims to gener-
ate new knowledge on the develop-
mental experiences of children from
diverse ethnic backgrounds, espe-
cially during the transition to pre-
school/elementary school and to
high school. Since the majority of
students entering urban high
schools are Latino, Asian, or African
American, the success or failure of
these populations during these
high-stakes times has long-term
implications for the U.S.
“What we’re finding is that our
research challenges common
stereotypes about ethnic minority
children and families,” says Tamis-
LeMonda. “Since these stereotypes
inform educational, political, and
social institutions, our research has
the potential to both advance sci-
ence and theory on human develop-
ment as well as inform social policy
and educational practices.”
$2.5 Million NSF Grant for Study onChildren's Education and Development
Karen King
STEINHARDT SCHOOL OF CULTURE, EDUCATION, AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 3
Steinhardt’s Adopted School Makes the GradeIn 1999, a team of
Steinhardt School fac-
ulty and administrators
assisted New York
City’s Department of
Education, in creating
the University Neigh-
borhood High School
(UHNS). Located on
Manhattan’s Lower East
Side, the school’s
mission is to provide the community first-class college preparation
for its youth. Every year, 20–30 NYU students serve as tutors and
mentors at the University Neighborhood High School, and many
have gone on to teach there as well. UNHS offers a challenging
academic college preparatory program and students can attend
College Preview courses at NYU. More than 90% of its graduates
go on to college.
Partnership Program Is a Win-Win forBoth High School and College StudentsInspired by the bountiful presence of NYU students in schools,
Steinhardt’s Teacher Education Program launched a unique
Partnership Schools Project. The project, started in 2005, puts NYU
students in 20 secondary schools in three of the city’s poorest
neighborhoods — the Lower East Side, East Harlem, and the South
Bronx. “The prime goal of the Partnership is to provide mutual ben-
efit for both the students who attend these schools and the NYU
students who work with them,” says Steinhardt Professor Joseph
McDonald, who coordinates the effort. “The public school students
gain from having more adults supporting their learning and devel-
opment. The NYU students gain by learning to practice in a richer
and more inter-professional community of practice.”
NYU STUDENTS SERVE NYC PUBLIC SCHOOLS:
• 1,100 NYU students annually serve as classroom literacy
and math tutors through America Reads/America Counts.
• 1,200 Steinhardt student teachers work in New York City
schools in elementary education, the arts, and core high
school subject classes.
• 1,000 students annually participate in Steinhardt’s
Learning Partners Program, a pre-student teaching
internship, offering music lessons, assisting in science
labs, and helping children learn to read.
• 500 Steinhardt students intern in New York City public
schools in nutrition, counseling, speech therapy.
occupational therapy, and the creative arts therapies.
Next fall, Steinhardt and the
American Ballet Theatre (ABT) will
offer a master’s degree in dance
education with a concentration in
ballet pedagogy. The 36-point
master’s degree program, offered
through Steinhardt’s Department of
Music and Performing Arts
Professions, will prepare graduates
to teach in studios, conservatories,
public schools, and higher educa-
tion institutions. In addition to
course work that includes classes
on performance, teaching dance,
and dance history, students will
take part in fieldwork at the
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School
at the American Ballet Theatre as
well as at ABT’s Educational
Outreach programs.
“This academic partnership
between NYU Steinhardt and
American Ballet Theatre is just one
example of the kinds of partner-
ships Steinhardt is forging with cul-
tural and educational organizations
throughout New York City,” said
Dean Mary Brabeck.
Dance EducationPartners withAmerican BalletTheatre
At the ballet: the Steinhardt/ABT dance
education program is the only program of
its kind in the country.
PH
OT
O B
Y G
EN
E S
CH
IAV
ON
E
In 2001, the Steinhardt School
established the Ph.D. in Education
and Jewish Studies, the first doctor-
al training program in Jewish edu-
cation at an American research
university. The mission of the pro-
gram is to prepare researchers and
practitioners for leadership posi-
tions in a wide range of Jewish edu-
cational settings. Students receive
broad preparation in learning theo-
ry, research methods, educational
administration, as well as curriculum
development.
“The program is special because
it is helping meet the pressing need
for highly qualified leaders in
Jewish education by preparing stu-
dents at the doctoral level for key
positions in virtually every educa-
tional setting in the American
Jewish community,” says Mary
Brabeck, dean of the Steinhardt
School. Graduates of the program
have earned highly competitive
positions in the academic world and
in educational settings within the
Jewish community.
Revolution in Jewish EducationBegins at NYU Steinhardt
IN AND OF THE COMMUNITY:
Richard Arum Helps Create New ResearchPartnership for New York City SchoolsRecognizing the need for educators and policymak-
ers to have access to strong evidence-based research
on educational issues, the New York City Department
of Education has endorsed the creation of a non-par-
tisan research consortium that will study what
works—and what doesn’t—in public schools. The
group has been formally named the Research
Partnership for New York City Schools.
Richard Arum, professor in the Department of
Humanities and Social Sciences in the Professions, has been instrumental in
forming the group through his work as project
Richard Arum
continued on page 8
4 NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
Teachers studied the Hudson River
in a professional development pro-
gram offered by Steinhardt’s
Wallerstein Collaborative for Urban
Environmental Education.
The Hudson River Summer
Program, an interdisciplinary course
for elementary through college
teachers of all fields, introduced
teachers to the history, geology,
and ecology of the Hudson River
estuary. Funded by the New York
City Environmental Fund and
directed by Mary Leou, clinical
assistant professor in the
Department of Teaching and
Learning, the program gave teach-
ers an opportunity to acquire the
knowledge and skills needed to
implement ecological studies in
their classrooms.
“Our program is unique because
we use the environment as a con-
text for learning while providing
teachers with a direct experience
with nature. The process is transfor-
mative and carries over into class-
room practice,” says Leou, director
of the Wallerstein Collaborative.
“We also continue to work with
participants by creating long-term
partnerships in the schools where
they teach, thus developing a
community of learners engaged in
studying and caring for the local
environment.”
Teachers who participated
expressed the importance of train-
ing through hands-on experience.
Amanda Ferris from the Brooklyn
School for Collaborative Studies
(MS 448) found the experience
gave her tools for “incorporating
real-world meaningful experiences”
into her classroom. “I feel better
prepared to help my students,
many of them struggling learners,
understand, be inspired by, and find
alternative resources for some of
the academic work they will be
tackling in the year ahead.”
A Class for Teacherson EnvironmentalEducation
Steinhardt higher education student, Abby Berenson, reads to Josephine, a student at the
Nellmapius Primary School in Mamelodi, South Africa.
South Africa is a destination for
Steinhardt students studying social
transformation and educational
reform. A summer program created
by clinical professor Teboho Moja of
the Department of Administration,
Leadership and Technology offers
graduate students a chance to use
theory and practical skills acquired
at Washington Square and apply
them to studies abroad.
“On an annual basis Steinhardt
sends approximately 450 students
to study abroad sites in Latin
America, Europe, Asia, and Africa
during January intersession and
summer session,” said Helen Kelly,
director of the Office of Special
Programs, who coordinates the
school’s study abroad programs.
Moja, a South African who
served as special advisor to South
Africa’s Minister of Education, now
lives in New York City. She sees her
native country as a place where
“there have been great achieve-
ments in a short period of time.”
Since it started eight years ago,
more than 110 students from
Steinhardt, Stern, and Gallatin have
visited cities and rural villages to
meet people who are grappling
with reform issues on a daily basis.
Moja believes that many of the
issues people face in South Africa
are universal and she encourages
her students to compare what they
see in the South African classrooms
to classrooms in the United States.
Colleen Larson, an associate pro-
fessor in educational leadership in
Steinhardt’s Department of Admin-
istration Leadership and Technology,
serves as the students’ research
guide. She has helped students
structure their research on AIDS in
the schools, leadership in higher
education and K-12 schools, racial
equity in education and employ-
ment, as well as financial and gender
issues in education.
“One of the true strengths of
this study abroad program is
Professor Moja’s connections to key
policy makers and government offi-
cials in the country,” Larson says.
“Because of these connections, we
are able to link students to people
in South Africa who not only share
their concerns, but who are playing
a critical role in shaping South
Africa’s future.”
Students describe the South
African study abroad experience as
one in which they were able to ‘give
something back’ to those less fortu-
nate. Abby Berenson, a student in
Moja’s program, described a spon-
taneous act of charity from NYU
students who pooled their pocket
money to pay the Nellmapius
Primary School’s phone bill.
SUMMER IN SOUTH AFRICA:
STUDY ABROAD GIVES STUDENTS WEALTH OF EXPERIENCE
Cynthia Womersley, an elementary teacher at
P.S. 3 in Manhattan, observes heron nesting
sites during an Audubon Eco-Tour.
Metro Center Receives $3.1 Million Grant toCreate Bilingual Education CenterThe Metropolitan Center for Urban Education has received a five-year,
$3.1 million grant from the New York State Education Department Office of
Bilingual Education to establish and operate a state-wide Spanish-language
Bilingual Education Technical Assistance Center (BTAC). Through the efforts of
the BTAC, the Metro Center will be able to provide comprehensive academic
support services to schools in New York City, as well as serve the needs of the
growing population of English-language learners in the public schools.
John Patrick Shanley (MA ’77), who won
an academy award in 1987 for his screenplay
for Moonstruck, was awarded a Tony Award,
a Pulitzer Prize, and a New York City Drama
Critics’ Circle Award for his Broadway play,
Doubt.
A graduate of Steinhardt’s program in
educational theatre, Shanley told the
Associated Press that he started writing plays
at NYU that were produced professionally for
the first time while he was a student.
High Honors for John Patrick Shanley
PH
OT
O B
Y M
ON
IQU
E C
AR
BO
NI
Joe Salvatore understands the
importance of keeping
Shakespeare alive for his stu-
dents. So when the teacher in
Steinhardt’s educational theatre
program received an NYU
Curriculum Development
Challenge Fund Grant to incor-
porate a high school youth
ensemble into the program’s
Shakespeare Initiative, he was
ecstatic.
“I think it’s important that our
educational theatre students
understand how to read, act, and
teach Shakespeare, and what
better way to learn than by
working with high school stu-
dents?” Salvatore said.
Salvatore, who is a director
and dramaturge, was inspired to
create the ensemble after teach-
ing the Shakespeare theatre
course and inviting young peo-
ple into the class to work with
his students. The experience
gave Salvatore’s students a
chance to experiment with
coaching techniques that were
discussed in classroom.
Salvatore and his graduate
students auditioned 30 high
school students for the youth
ensemble and cast 14 of them in
the production. The group
rehearsed once a week for three
hours, and often participated in
Salvatore’s graduate level
Shakespeare courses.
“Working with Shakespeare is
like working with a second lan-
guage,” Salvatore said. “People
think that Shakespeare’s lan-
guage is hard, but I like to say
that that the ear and the mouth
have to recalibrate to it.” If an
average high school perform-
ance takes eight weeks of
rehearsal, Salvatore’s students
were told to prepare for twelve
to sixteen weeks of practice.
Like learning a foreign language,
Shakespeare requires immersion.
The one-time grant from the
university helped to provide props
and costumes for the ensemble,
lunches for long Saturday
rehearsals, and a $100 stipend for
each high school student.
Why are teachers so passion-
ate about Shakespeare?
“Shakespeare’s not going
away,” Salvatore, said. “His plays
are in high school and college
curricula across the country.
There is something about the
humanity in those plays that
makes us look at ourselves and
question the choices that we
make.
“Therefore, we need to pro-
vide artists and teachers with
the proper training to teach the
plays as theatre in performance
rather than only as pieces of
English literature.”
THE ARTS IN EDUCATION:
Students Learn How to Teach Shakespeare
STEINHARDT SCHOOL OF CULTURE, EDUCATION, AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 5
A recent Steinhardt policy
breakfast, “Do Gender Differences in
Academic Achievement Really
Exist?” brought together Marcia C.
Linn, professor of development and
cognition in the Graduate School of
Education at the University of
California, Berkeley, and Joshua
Aronson, associate professor of
applied psychology, who has
researched extensively the role of
stereotypes, self-esteem, and moti-
vation in learning and performance.
Following an introduction by
Steinhardt Dean Mary Brabeck, who
cited the reemergence of the belief
in significant statistical differences
in how the different genders learn,
Linn walked the audience of policy-
makers, researchers, and educators
through current research, which
shows few, if any, differences in
achievement attributable to gender.
Aronson complemented Linn’s pres-
entation with a discussion of his
own study of stereotype threat,
which he and others have defined as
the psychological discomfort that
arises in a testing situation when an
individual of a particular minority
group becomes aware that his or
her performance on the test may
confirm an established negative
reputation for that group. Aronson’s
research shows that performance
is heavily influenced by mindset,
which suggests that differences in
intelligence or problem-solving
cannot simply be attributed to
gender or race, but to cultural and
personal ideas about gender, race,
and intelligence.
NYU Honors Dorothy Height,Steinhardt Alumna, Civil Rights ActivistIn the summer of 1929, Dorothy Height arrived at
Barnard College out of breath and late for an
appointment with the dean of admissions. She
had been accepted to the college, but at that
meeting Height was told that Barnard’s “two
Negro” quota was filled. Later that afternoon
Height took her acceptance letter and high school
transcript down to Washington Square and met
with the School of Education’s Dean Schaeffer.
She was admitted to NYU that evening. “A girl
who makes these kinds of grades doesn’t need
an application to enroll at NYU,” Schaeffer said.
“A ray of hope crept into my heart,” Height wrote
In her memoir Open Wide the Freedom Gates. “From that day forward I have
loved every brick of that university.”
Steinhardt’s Joshua Aronson, left, and Dean
Mary Brabeck, right, welcome Marcia Linn to
the gender and education policy breakfast.
Joe Salvatore created a youth ensemble
of public high school students to help
show his educational theatre students
how to teach Shakespeare.
education and policy, and family processes in cross-cultural contexts. The
institute also provides seed money for faculty for multidisciplinary research
on human development and the role of changing social contexts.
“In an increasingly complex world, children, youth, and families face
developmental challenges that span a wide range of economic and social
contexts,” says Cybele Raver, director of IHDSC and associate professor of
applied psychology at Steinhardt. “The institute recognizes that a multidis-
ciplinary approach is necessary to tackle these complex issues.”
New Interdisciplinary Institute continued from page 1
Dorothy Height (BS ’33; MA ’35;
HON ’75), received the NYU
Alumni Association’s Eugene J.
Keogh Award for Distinguished
Public Service.
Steinhardt Launches Policy Series onGender and Education
6 NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
Preparing America’s Teachers: A HistoryBy James Fraser (Teachers College Press)
James Fraser, professor of educational history, Department of
Humanities and Social Sciences in the Professions, offers an
historical account of how American teachers have been trained in
the United States.
Preparing America’s Teachers, which covers the history of
teacher education from the American Revolution to the present,
highlights a constant dilemma facing the training of our educators:
cries for reform.
“In virtually every generation from the early
1800s to the dawn of the 21st century, there
have been many urgent voices calling for far
reaching reform in the preparation of the
nation’s teachers and many reforms designed
specifically to respond to the critiques raised,”
Fraser writes.
Fraser was motivated to write the book, in
part, to inform current debate and decision-
making on American teacher education.
“Teacher educators and their critics talk of
decline without remembering that it is only in
the last half century that teachers were required to have a bac-
calaureate degree,” he notes. “They talk of the importance of test-
ing teachers and changing the process of licensure without any
sense of the history of teacher testing and licensing, which has
gone on in some form in this country since at least the 1830s, not
always with happy results.”
Faculty & Alumni Books
Student outcomes — including
graduation and dropout rates —
at small (under 500 students) and
medium size (between 501 and
1500 students) high schools in New
York City are better than the city-
wide average for all schools,
according to a new report by the
NYU Institute for Education and
Social Policy (IESP).
The study also found that there
is no difference in these outcomes
between small and medium size
schools, suggesting that optimal
high school size may be larger than
previously thought.
“While the findings reinforce
what prior research has shown
regarding the positive influence of
small schools on student outcomes,
these new data demonstrate that
the previous definition of small
might, in fact, be too strict,” said
Amy Schwartz, director of IESP.
“Our findings support other
research that suggests that the
optimal high school size may be
600 to 900 students.”
A joint initiative of the Stein-
hardt School of Culture, Education,
and Human Development and the
Robert F. Wagner Graduate School
of Public Service, IESP explored the
development of small high schools
in New York City for a 10-year time
period. Funded by New Visions for
Public Schools, the report is signifi-
cant in that it is the first long-term
study of the wave of small school
openings in the city between 1994
and 1998.
The redesign of American high
schools, including an increased
focus on creating smaller schools
and smaller learning communities,
has been a key strategy for reform-
ing public schools in urban districts
across the country. Because most
studies on small high schools are
able to use only one or two years
of data, it is particularly important
to assess how these schools do
over longer periods of time, and
whether initial achievement gains
are maintained.
“These findings provide impor-
tant insights on how new small
urban high schools are established
and supported, and will help in the
development of mechanisms to
assist new small high schools after
their initial development period,”
said Meryle Weinstein, co-project
director of the study.
Study Proves Optimal High School Size May Be Larger Than Previously Thought
McWayne and Melzi Receive Grant to Study Latino Families’Involvement in Children’s Learning
Assistant professor Christine
McWayne and associate profes-
sor Gigliana Melzi of the
Department of Applied
Psychology have received a
grant of $143,500 from the
National Institute of Health to
study Latino family involvement
and children’s school readiness.
The pair have designed a pilot
study to conduct an investigation
of the specific and unique ways that Latino families support children’s
school readiness through their involvement. The knowledge gained from
the study has the potential to inform the design of culturally responsive
family involvement programs within New York City’s Child Care and
Head Start systems, and would also have implications for early childhood
programs serving Latino families and children across the nation.
Christine McWayne and Gigliana Melzi
Teacher Man Frank McCourt Visits NYU“I came from behind my desk and made the first sound of my teaching
career: Hey. Four years of higher education at New York University and
all I could think of was Hey. I said it again. Hey. They ignored me.”
— Frank McCourt (’57, HON ’00), in Teacher Man
Frank McCourt
became a teacher on
a morning in 1958
when a fight broke
out, a sandwich was
hurled in anger, and
he ate it.
The Pulitzer
Prize-winning author
and Mary Brabeck,
dean of the
Steinhardt School, enjoyed a conversation about Teacher Man,
McCourt’s memoir about his 30-year teaching career in New York
City’s public high schools. The bestselling author of Angela’s Ashes
and ’Tis, McCourt answered questions and signed copies of his
books during Alumni Reunion Weekend.
STEINHARDT SCHOOL OF CULTURE, EDUCATION, AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 7
Arts Education Alumna Harriet TaubBrings Recycling into the Classroom
“We were green when it wasn’t
sexy or cool to think about reuse
and waste reduction,” says alumna
Harriet Taub (BS ’76). A graduate of
Steinhardt’s arts education pro-
gram, Taub is the director of
Materials for the Arts (MFTA). As
director, she oversees the largest
reuse program in New York City; its
mission is to keep valuable items
from entering landfills. In 2006,
Taub estimates that MFTA kept 751
tons of material out of the waste
stream and put them into the hands
of artists and educators. We spoke
with Taub recently about her work.
How did your education prepare
you for what you do?
Going to NYU and living in New
York City in the ’70s was an adven-
turous educational experience.
Things were not nearly as expensive
then as they are now, but even so,
we went looking for “finds” on
garbage night to decorate our
apartments and also to use in our
artwork. I student-taught in
Chinatown, and remember telling
my students that the entire city was
a museum filled with wonderful tex-
tures, colors, and patterns. We used
the richness of the outdoors to sup-
plement the work in the classroom.
Where does MFTA get materials?
We get our donations from busi-
nesses and individuals in the New
York City metropolitan region. Right
now we have seats from a Walter
Reade theater. A number of small
New York City theater groups are in
line to outfit their spaces with
them. The items that we’re general-
ly in need of, and cannot get
enough of, are beads, trim and
notions, paper, props, household
items, and stationery supplies.
What’s the best part of your job?
I’m most proud of our education
program at MFTA, which is funded
through our not-for-profit partner,
Friends of Materials for the Arts.
Here we are able to focus our philos-
ophy on the importance of reuse in
arts education and train educators
how to best use the materials found
in our warehouse. After our program,
teachers take a brand new skill set
back to their classrooms.
For more information about volunteer
opportunities, to donate items, or to learn
more, go to www.mfta.org.
Harriet Taub (BS ’76), director of Materials
for the Arts, works with NYU through
Project Outreach, an annual volunteer day
for students.
THE NYU STEINHARDT MISSION
NYU Steinhardt advances knowledge, creativity, and innovation at the
crossroads of human learning, culture, development, and well-being.
Through rigorous research and education, both within and across
disciplines, the School's faculty and students evaluate and redefine
processes, practices, and policies in their respective fields and, from a
global as well as community perspective, lead in an ever-changing world.
NYU Steinhardt Signs Agreement with Mexican Government
In the first alliance of its kind, New York
University and the Steinhardt School inaugurat-
ed Plazas Comunitarias (Community Town
Squares) with a bi-national agreement signed by
the Mexican government and NYU.
Plazas Comunitarias is an adult and youth
education, workforce development, and lifelong
learning initiative developed by Mexico’s
National Institute for Adult Education.
The Plazas Comunitarias initiative — a $4 million donation of resources
to New York City and State — will make available Spanish language multi-
media, technology-enhanced instructional materials, and computer training,
free of charge, to Spanish-speakers throughout New York City.
“It is my hope that Plazas Comunitarias is but a first step toward a wider
initiative to provide all Spanish-speaking New Yorkers with the resources
they need to succeed in our great city,” said Mayor Bloomberg, who attend-
ed the signing.
Steinhardt and ECNU Forge PartnershipDevoted to Language Education
said Brabeck. “And it is a great fit
for Steinhardt. Teaching is a profes-
sion that enjoys great esteem in
China, and ECNU and Steinhardt are
committed to sharing the highest
academic standards.”
The partnership also fits with the
New York City Department of
Education’s (DOE) Partnership for
Teacher Excellence program with
NYU and CUNY to attract qualified
teachers in high-need areas, said
Brabeck. The DOE recruits new
teachers from around the world, but
often the transition to New York
City schools is jarring. Foreign
teachers often experience culture
shock when beginning to work in
New York City schools.
“With this new Steinhardt model,
the Chinese students will be
immersed in the culture of New
York City schools even before they
begin teaching,” said Brabeck.
continued from page 1
Food Studies Faculty Propose aGreenhouse of Their Own
Jennifer Berg, director of the grad-
uate program in food studies, and
Joy Santiofer, adjunct faculty mem-
ber, Department of Nutrition, Food
Studies and Public Health, are the
recipients of an NYU Sustainability
Fund Grant for their proposal “Grow,
Cook, Eat, Learn,” a self-contained
sustainable food system and urban
agricultural working laboratory.
The proposal was submitted in
response to a campus-wide propos-
al request for innovative, effective
and feasible projects that could
help the University reduce negative
environmental impacts and raise
awareness of the importance of its
sustainability agenda.
Their proposed rooftop or
ground-level greenhouse/garden
would serve as a microcosm of the
entire food production cycle, incor-
porating harvesting, cooking, nutri-
tion, consumption, waste, and
composting into a working labora-
tory for the Department of
Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public
Health. Berg and Santiofer plan to
use the lab for undergraduate
research and are creating a K-5
agricultural science curriculum for
the public school community.
Steinhardt Grad Aims to ImproveLives of NYC Public SchoolchildrenFor Arlean Wells, a Ph.D. recipient
from the Program in Educational
Leadership in the Steinhardt School,
her dissertation was not “just a
research project.” It gave her the
chance to better understand a
formative childhood experience:
being held back in third grade.
Her dissertation, “The Third-
Grade Retention Policy in New
York City: A Case Study of ‘The
Left Back Group,’” analyzed the
retention policy under the Michael
Bloomberg administration, but
was inspired by her own experi-
ence as a New York City public
school child during the 1980s and
90s. Her confidence and self-
esteem were hurt by being
retained; few, if any, support sys-
tems were available. She fears that
poor children and children of color
continue to be negatively affected
by the policy.
“Too many kids who look like
me are not making it through the
public school system,” says Wells,
who is African American.
Wells’s research focuses on a
cohort of students who repeated
the third grade and were taught as
a distinct class, rather than dis-
persed into regular classrooms.
This provided Wells with a research
opportunity to compare the
group’s third- and fourth-grade
academic achievement. She found
that any achievement gains of the
repeated third-grade year were lost
during the fourth grade.
“Her study captures the per-
spectives of administrators, teach-
ers, and, perhaps, most
importantly, children who are being
affected by these reforms,” said her
advisor, associate professor Colleen
Larson of Steinhardt’s Department
of Administration, Leadership, and
Accepting a Steinhardt Distinguished Alumni
Award, children’s book author Judy Blume
(BS ’61) told undergraduates that she hung
her diploma over her washing machine, taking
inspiration while doing laundry, raising young
children, and commuting to NYU where she
learned that her strength was writing “stories
about real kids in the real world.”
Office of the Dean | Joseph and Violet Pless Hall | 82 Washington Square East
New York, NY 10003 | www.steinhardt.nyu.edu
EEddiittoorr Debra Weinstein | Brady Galan, photographer | Timothy Farrell,
contributing writer
For more information, email [email protected]
Technology. “These stories and
the findings of this study need to
be read by policy makers and
educators who truly care about
children.”
While earning her Ph.D., Wells
taught K-3 special education in
public schools in New York. She
also worked with Steinhardt’s
Metropolitan Center for Urban
Education, first as a tutor and
later as a project associate, help-
ing to recruit and train tutors to
work in public schools.
Creating opportunities for New
York’s underprivileged school-
children is her greatest passion.
Last year Wells organized a con-
ference at NYU for local high
school students for whom college
might seem an impossible goal.
She brought 60 students from
four local schools to visit NYU and
participate in workshops on
choosing and applying to college.
The event culminated with a bus
trip to Howard University in
Washington, D.C.
Arum Creates New Research Partnership
Judy Blume AddressesSteinhardt Graduates
director of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), an independent,
non-profit group that focuses research on important public issues. Arum
and his SSRC collaborator Abby Larson brought together two dozen edu-
cational researchers from across the city who drafted a concept paper
and an action plan for the initiative. A governance board has also been
created with prominent education leaders.
continued from page 1
Arlean Wells
NYU’s Steinhardt School and
College of Arts and Science (CAS)
will collaborate on “Molecules and
Minds: Optimizing Simulations for
Chemistry Education,” a $1.1 million,
three-year grant awarded by the
U.S. Department of Education to
develop effective chemistry simula-
tions for a broad range of high
school students, including under-
served and underachieving learners.
The grant blends expertise from
three Steinhardt departments and
from CAS. Principal investigator
Jan Plass, associate professor in
the Department of Administration,
Leadership and Technology, will
work with Steinhardt’s assistant
professors Bruce Homer of Applied
Psychology and Catherine Milne of
Teaching and Learning, along with
Trace Jordan, assistant director of
the core curriculum in CAS. Under
the grant, the group will enhance
the computer simulations used in
chemistry education to make them
more interactive and exploratory,
as compared to current models
which are often fairly abstract and
hard to manipulate.
“We have a real problem
attracting people to degrees in the
sciences nationwide,” says Jan
Plass. “We want to design educa-
tional tools for a broader audience,
so that more students can benefit
from them and even learn to enjoy
the sciences.”
Homer, whose work focuses on
cognitive development and the
symbolic understandings of chil-
dren, says, “I see our work on this
grant as an intersection between
basic and applied research.”
The team, along with NYU stu-
dents, will take their enhanced
models into the classrooms of New
York City public high schools.
“In this study, we’ll take a theory
of learning and use it in representa-
tions that we think will be educa-
tionally useful and then take them to
the schools,” says Milne. “Then we’ll
see if what we think is useful actual-
ly works in school settings. That’s
what is so exciting to me.”
NYU Faculty Receive $1.1 Million Grant to Improve Chemistry Education