The department explores the nature, purpose and design of curricula and the theory and practice of teaching, focusing on social inequalities and children in under-resourced schools. It prepares outstanding educators with intellectual tools to reimagine schools and other educational settings and to ensure that all children receive the kind of education historically reserved for those of privilege. This year:

Vice Dean A. Lin Goodwin led creation of TR@TC2, a federally funded program to prepare teachers who will improve student achievement in the STEM disciplines (see page 2).                

Lucy Calkins, Robinson Professor in Children's Literature and Director of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, delivered a Provost's Series talk on the challenges educators face in implementing the new Common Core State Standards. Calkins is coauthor of the widely read Pathways to the Common Core: Accelerating Achievement.

TC's Provost funded the department to convene this year's Sachs Lecture series, titled "Landscape for Preparing Teacher Educators: Whose Knowledges? What Visions?" Seven visiting scholars will envision a doctoral program for educating teacher educators, which the department plans to create because most people working in the field lack specific preparation.

Curriculum & Teaching alumnus Daniel Foerg- Spittel (M.A. '96), a language arts teacher in the Tenafly, New Jersey, school system for 27 years, was one of four teachers selected to receive the state's Distinguished Secondary School Teaching Award.

TC's National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools and Teaching, co-directed by Jacqueline Ancess, received a $12 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Investing in Innovation (i3) fund to increase access and achievement in the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and math).

Published Wednesday, Mar. 11, 2015