Richard Rothstein
Join us Thursday, April 14, at our CPS Annual Meeting when we honor the extraordinary contributions of researcher and author Richard Rothstein. Don’t miss this rare chance to hear and exchange ideas with the author of Class and Schools: Using Social, Economic and Educational Reform to Close the Black-White Achievement Gap and many other fine books and articles. A research analyst for the Economic Policy Institute and former education columnist for The New York Times, Rothstein’s analysis of education policy and its impact on public school children is unfailingly clear, incisive and based on solid evidence.
Writing in the Washington Post “Answer Sheet” blog, Rothstein said this: Â “Making teacher quality the only centerpiece of a reform campaign distracts our attention from other equally and perhaps more important school areas needing improvement, areas such as leadership, curriculum, and practices of collaboration…. Blaming teachers is easy. These other areas are more difficult to improve. But most important, making teacher quality the focus distracts us from the biggest threat to student achievement in the current age: our unprecedented economic catastrophe and its effect on parents and their children’s ability to gain from higher-quality schools.” We are eager to follow up Diane Ravitch’s powerful and inspiring talk (covered in the last issue of the Backpack and in Boston College Magazine) with a visit from this influential authority on education and social policy. These two leaders are creating the beginnings of a serious national conversation about the future of our public schools and our democracy.
CPS will also give a special lifetime award in honor of the late Sumner Z. Kaplan, as well as Activists for Public Schools awards to Sen. Kenneth Donnelly, Rep. David Sullivan, and the Black Educators Alliance of Massachusetts.
The event will be held Thursday, April 14, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Church on the Hill, 140 Bowdoin St., Boston.
