School of Education marks centennial of service
The School of Education will celebrate a two-day Centennial Marathon conference June 13-14 to mark a century of preparing educators.
Leading national and international educators will gather at the Murray D. Lincoln Campus Center for the events, which are all open to the public. Conference organizers anticipate that several hundred alumni, faculty, friends, students and staff will attend.
The campus’ long history of preparing educators dates back to 1907, when Massachusetts Agricultural College established a new program to prepare teachers of agriculture. The School of Education was established five decades later, as a response to the urgent need for teachers after World War II.
“Celebrating 100 years of preparing educators at UMass Amherst is an incredible opportunity for the School of Education community to come together and honor the school’s legacy,” says Christine B. McCormick, dean of the School of Education. “We take great pride in the fact that, not only have we endured and grown through a century of incredible change, we have prospered as a forward-thinking institution that continues to build its broad-based community of scholars while strengthening public education.”
The nationally ranked School of Education has more than 23,000 alumni in the United States and in 103 countries throughout the world. The school’s Center for International Education (CIE) will host its own milestone event during the festivities with a 40th reunion June 12-15 and a reunion banquet on June 14. CIE member Cynthia Shepard Perry, who served as U.S. Ambassador to Sierra Leone (1986-89) and Burundi (1989-93), is among the alumni planning to attend.
Others coming to the weekend events will include former School of Education dean Dwight W. Allen, who served the school from 1968-76. Allen, who recently retired from a professorship at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., is the co-author, with entertainer William H. Cosby, Jr. (a School of Education alumnus) of “American Schools: The 100 Billion Dollar Challenge.”
Former School of Education deans Marilyn J. Haring (who served from 1988-91), and Bailey W. Jackson (1991-2002), will join Allen among the list of notable leaders. Also on the roster will be alumni such as Dorothy Firman, co-author, with fellow alumnus Jack Canfield, of “Chicken Soup for the Mother & Daughter Soul”; Rudolph F. Crew, superintendent of the Miami-Dade County public schools and former chancellor of New York City’s board of education; Pat Crosson, professor emeritus of Education and chair of the Greenfield Community College board of trustees; Evan Dobelle, president of Westfield State College, and Steven M. Gluckstern, CEO of the Ajax Group and noted philanthropist.
Centennial events will kick off Friday, June 13 with registration at noon. Presentations by faculty, alumni and students will take place from 1 to 4 p.m. A host of departmental receptions, open to all participants, will follow at 4 p.m. The celebration dinner on Friday at 6 p.m. will feature former deans, distinguished alumni, and the first School of Education Awards of Distinction presentation. The marathon continues Saturday with breakfast at 8 a.m. and presentations from 9 a.m. to noon.
Topics of the more than 90 presentations include “Teachers Talk: Work with Immigrant Children and Their Families,” “Interdisciplinary Scientific Research to Understand How People Learn to be Scientists,” “Decision Making with Progress Monitoring Data: Considerations in Determining Instructional Effectiveness,” “Sharing in the Capacity of Building an Afghanistan Educational System,” and “The Misfits – an Example for Using Multicultural Adolescent Literature to Address Social Problems in Schools.”
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Event details
June 5, 2008.
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