Last week the College of Education hosted Dr. Theresa Perry, professor of Africana Studies and Education at Simmons College in Boston, as our Thompson Lecture Series speaker. Dr. Perry enjoys a well earned reputation as one of the foremost voices for the education of African American students. In addition to the public lecture last Thursday, she spent considerable time meeting with students and faculty in the College to discuss her ideas even more deeply. As a follow-up, longtime colleague and friend, our own Dr. Bob Lowe, reflects on Dr. Perry’s visit and the implications of her message in the post that follows. — BH
By Bob Lowe, Chair and Professor, Department of Educational Policy & Leadership — Reform meant to redress racial inequality in the United States currently focuses almost exclusively on educational accountability. It does so through increasingly intrusive government regulation as represented by a profusion of standardized assessments and, foremost, by the stipulations of the No Child Left Behind Act. Alternatively and paradoxically, it does so by pursuing deregulation through voucher and charter schools that seek to shift accountability from the government to parents. Continue reading ‘Putting “Education” Back Into Educational Reform: The Vision of Theresa Perry’
