04 Feb Is Public Education Dead?
David L. Kirp (Public Policy, UC Berkeley)
Wednesday, February 4, 2015 / 12:00 PM
McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB
Renowned education author David Kirp speaks about higher education and his bestselling book, Improbable Scholars; The Rebirth of a Great American School System and a Strategy for America’s Schools. The book tells the story of the year Prof. Kirp spent in schools in Union City, NJ, where he had gone to uncover the answer to an educational mystery: why was this poor, majority-immigrant school district performing as well academically as wealthier, suburban counterparts? Kirp did not find quick fixes, charter schools or rigid compliance with a testing regimen, but a teacher-driven, student-oriented collaborative method that continues to produce remarkable results against the odds. At UCSB, he summarizes some of the lessons of Union City’s non-corporate approach to schools and discusses their relevance to universities today. Author of the widely admired analysis of corporate trends in higher education, Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line, Kirp also writes about the relationship between teaching and technology, as in his recent New York Times op-ed, “Teaching Is Not a Business.”
Sponsored by the Dept. of English, the School of Education, the Investigative Humanities Project, and the IHC.
Website: http://ihum.innovate.ucsb.edu