Immigrant community college presidents are working to ensure the unpleasant, even frightening experiences of their younger years are not replicated among the current student body. Immigrant leaders interviewed by "Community College Journal"--Dr. Steady Moono, president of SUNY Schenectady County Community College; Dr. Lin Zhou, president…

In response to a paper calling for the re-engagement of agricultural education with the sciences and science education, this essay is supportive but argues to proceed with caution: one that at first does no harm. I offer a supplementary lens and story of change at Cornell University as a cautionary and motivational tale. I concur with the authors…

During the 2013 New York City mayoral race, the coalition A+ NYC--made up of community organizers, social service and advocacy groups, and other citywide and statewide groups--set out to ground the education conversation in research and proven practices. In a campaign called PS 2013, A+ NYC brought together education experts and practitioners as…

This essay is an attempt to come to terms with the Young Lords' popular liberation rhetoric in the church offensive. Building from Michael Calvin McGee's observation that ""the people" are more process than phenomenon," I explore the ways in which the Young Lords' craft "the people's repertory of convictions" from…

The Center for an Urban Future (CUF) released a report last November asserting that, with a six-year graduation rate of 28 percent, City University of New York (CUNY) community colleges "should be doing much better." The report declared graduation rates "lackluster" and criticized community colleges for "not yet delivering…

"Cross-disciplinary" has become a buzzword in academia. Here the authors offer a student-based perspective on the benefits of cross-disciplinary discussion, based on their experience in New York University's Graduate Forum. Founded ten years ago by Catharine Stimpson, then dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Science (GSAS), the forum…

Some of the students in this author's developmental writing class are, to their own surprise, brilliant storytellers. They simply trust the tale, not the teller. If they tell a ghost story, they do not pretend, for instance, to believe in ghosts or zombies or duppies; they actually do. And so when they write faithfully, the reader sees what they…

This paper tells the remarkable and compelling story of Leonard Covello, a ground breaking progressive educator who worked tirelessly to shape public education in New York City during the first half of the 20th century. Covello was the founding principal of Benjamin Franklin High School (BFHS) in East Harlem in the 1930s. The author invites…

One might think that a global financial crisis would be no time for college and university presidents to think expansively. Hunkering down is the more natural reaction to a threat of the magnitude that the economy continues to present. But expansive thought is exactly what higher education leaders need right now--not necessarily the kind that…

This article discusses academic freedom that is currently under threat at many public two-year schools, which serve almost one-half of the nation's first-year college students. The growing reliance on part-time faculty exacerbates the problem, with many adjuncts feeling muzzled for fear of losing their jobs. The problem of academic freedom at…

Although a vibrant literature on the social justice advantages of writing service-learning programs has existed for many years, the focus has tended to be on specific projects and courses, often accompanied by an understandable suspicion that entrenched institutions like universities have interests inimical to radical social change. As a result,…

The concept of the school as community encompasses two distinct relationships: the school/extended community and the internal school community. As social needs and conditions change, so does the school role in the community. Topics covered in this book include benefits of collaboration between the external community and the school, the creation of…

Helping school crime victims past their indignation and sense of vulnerability has presented New York school officials a challenge tantamount to crime prevention. Discussed are effects of victimization as well as social support, effective help, and support programs for victims. (SI)

A presentation by Walter Gilliam (2007) at the First Annual Leadership Symposium on pre-kindergarten education in the United States outlined the explosion across the 50 states in enrollment and public spending for pre-kindergarten programs (including Head Start). Although the majority of these programs are in public schools, most states rely on a…

A growing body of literature on community gardening, watershed restoration, and similar "civic ecology" practices suggests avenues for integrating social and ecological outcomes in urban natural resources management. In this paper, we argue that an environmental education programme in which learning is situated in civic ecology practices…