Heading the Center is Henry M. Levin, a nationally recognized expert in education economics. Levin, who is currently a faculty member at Stanford University, is accepting an endowed chair at Teachers College and will join the TC faculty in the fall.

Experts from across the nation are coming to the conference to share their views about such key issues as the legal status of vouchers, criteria for evaluating voucher experiments, designing contracts for charter schools, assessing the growth and potential of charter schools and the impact of vouchers and privatization on the poor.

The Center builds on the team of experts already on the faculty of Teachers College:

• Associate Professor Jay Heubert was a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department. He has litigated federal cases involving educational testing, special education and desegregation among other areas. He is also the editor of a new book from Yale University Press, Law and School Reform.

• Associate Professor Pearl Kane is noted for her leadership of the Klingenstein Center on Independent School Education. The Klingenstein Center is the outstanding national center for the preparation of private school leaders. She is the author of Independent Schools, Independent Speakers. She has also done numerous studies on charter schools.

• Professor Levin is a specialist in the economics of education and human resources. He has published 14 books and nearly 300 articles on these and related topics. His works include: Cost Effectiveness Analysis: A Primer, Public Dollars for Private Schools: The Case for Tuition Tax Credits, Making Schools Work, The Educationally Disadvantaged: A National Crisis and The Limits of Educational Reform.

• Professor Gary Natriello is a national authority on research in the sociology of education and at-risk populations. He is also the co-author of From Cashbox to Classroom: The Struggle for Fiscal Reform and Educational Change in New Jersey. The book has been praised as "the most extensive and intensive study of local impact of school finance reform in history" by Professor Michael W. Kirst of Stanford University.

• Professor Craig Richards is the only school finance expert who has published an analysis of privatization contracts. His scholarly interests include institutional incentives, performance accountability systems and strategic management. He is also the author of Risky Business: Private Management of Public Schools.

  
  If you would like to attend or to receive a copy of the agenda, please contact Dana Taylor at (212) 678-8417.
  

Published Wednesday, Apr. 17, 2002