Wheelock Educational Policy Center

Spring 2025 Ed Policy Seminar Series
2025-01-28 15:00 - 2025-04-15 17:00 (America/New_York) | 610 Commonwealth Avenue Room 101 Boston, MA 02215, 610 Commonwealth Avenue Room 101, Boston, MA, 02215, United States
WHEELOCK EDUCATIONAL POLICY CENTER SPRING SEMINAR 2025

Boston University’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies and The Wheelock Educational Policy Center are excited to host three leading scholars this spring for a Ed Policy Seminar Series. Given growing interest in our local community and increased prominence of presenters, we’re happy to open this speaker series to individuals outside of the BU faculty and students typically in attendance.
All are welcome. The seminar series is geared towards an academic audience and will include detailed and technical discussion about methods used in the research, in addition to the policy context and implications.
Register for one or all. Events are in-person. Reception to follow. Space is limited, please RSVP.
If you require parking or other logistics support, please email the Wheelock Policy team.

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Constance Lindsay (University of North Carolina): Tuesday, January 28th, 3:00pm - 4:30pm
Bio: Constance Lindsay earned a doctorate in human development and social policy from Northwestern University, where she was an Institute of Education Sciences’ predoctoral fellow. Since leaving Northwestern, Lindsay has worked in education policy in various contexts, applying her research training in traditional studies and in creating and evaluating new systems and policies regarding teachers. Lindsay’s areas of expertise include teacher quality and diversity, analyzing and closing racial achievement gaps, and adolescent development. Her work has been published in such journals as Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis and Social Science Research. Lindsay received a bachelor’s degree in economics from Duke University and master’s degree in public policy from Georgetown University. Before doctoral study at Northwestern, she was a Presidential Management Fellow at the US Department of Education. Constance Lindsay’s research focuses on policies and practices to close racial achievement gaps in education. Currently, her main focus is on teacher diversity and how to obtain a high quality, diverse educator workforce.
Topic: How Teachers Learn Racial Competency: Through Peers and in Context
Abstract: The US teaching force remains disproportionately white while the student body grows more diverse. It is therefore important to understand how and under what conditions white teachers learn racial competency. This study applies a mixed-methods approach investigate the hypothesis that Black peers improve white teachers’ effectiveness when teaching Black students. The quantitative portion of this study relies on longitudinal data from North Carolina to show that having a Black same-grade peer significantly improves the achievement and reduces the suspension rates of white teachers’ Black students. These effects are persistent over time and largest for novice teachers, which suggests that the mechanism at play is peer learning. Qualitative evidence from open-ended interviews of North Carolina public school teachers reaffirms these findings, and uncovers sources of learning for teachers and contextual factors that moderate these findings.

Mark Chin (Vanderbilt University): Tuesday, April 15th, 3:00pm - 4:30pm
I am an Assistant Professor of Education Policy and Inequality in the Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College.
I study how public education in the U.S. can help combat racial and socioeconomic inequality. In my research, I draw on the economics of education, psychology, and sociology literatures and use rigorous quantitative methodology to identify the causal impacts of different policies, programs, and interventions in schools on students’ outcomes. My current projects focus on school integration, school choice, racial bias in education, and how schools support the development of antiracist youth.
I received my Ph.D. in Education with a concentration in Education Policy and Program Evaluation from Harvard University in 2022.

Spring 2024 BU Wheelock Ed Policy Speaker Series: Li Feng (Texas State University)
2024-04-30 15:00 - 16:30 (America/New_York) | 610 Commonwealth Avenue Room 101 Boston, MA 02215, 610 Commonwealth Avenue Room 101, Boston, MA, 02215, United States
The Impact of STEM Teacher Scholarship on Local Teacher Shortage and Student Outcomes

Broad consensus exists on the need to train, place, and retain high-quality teachers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects throughout the nation’s public schools, particularly in high-need districts (President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, 2010). Yet, we need to know more about the STEM teacher workforce in these districts and how to ensure equal access to quality teachers.
One of the longest-running STEM teacher scholarship for the past 20 years is the Robert Noyce scholarship program funded by the National Science Foundation. The Noyce program aims to alleviate the chronic staffing problems among STEM teachers in high-need school districts. Through both sponsoring interdisciplinary teachers training programs and sponsoring individual students in STEM majors to become teachers in disadvantaged settings, the program aims to increase the flow of high-quality STEM teachers into the high-need districts where their talents are needed the most. We investigate the estimated impact of proximity to the Noyce program on the overall STEM teacher workforce in high-need districts and their student outcomes. Our main research question is what is the estimated impact of proximity to the Noyce program on the STEM teacher workforce in high-need school districts?
More About Li Feng:
Li Feng is a Professor of Economics at Texas State University’s Department of Finance and Economics. During 2016-2017, she served as a Visiting Scholar in the Center for Education Policy Analysis at Stanford University and a Visiting Fellow in the Brown Center on Education Policy Program at the Brookings Institution.
Feng’s research interests include the economics of education, labor economics, and health economics. Specifically, her work examines education policy issues related to teachers such as the relationship between teacher quality (value-added) and student outcomes, the nexus of school accountability and teacher labor market, the connection between classroom characteristics and teacher mobility, and the role of Collective Bargaining Agreements in the distribution of teachers across schools.

Spring 2024 BU Wheelock Ed Policy Speaker Series: Daphna Bassok (University of Virginia)
2024-04-09 15:00 - 16:30 (America/New_York) | 610 Commonwealth Avenue Room 101 Boston, MA 02215, 610 Commonwealth Avenue Room 101, Boston, MA, 02215, United States
Building a More Stable and Supported Early Childhood Teacher Workforce: Lessons from a Decade-Long Research Policy Partnership

The early childhood education (ECE) workforce in the United States faces persistent challenges, including low wages and high turnover rates. These conditions detrimentally affect young children during a critical phase of their development and they are disruptive for working families and for the economy. It is now more widely acknowledged that addressing staffing challenges in ECE is essential. At the same time there is very little systematic data available to understand staffing challenges in ECE, track improvements, and test whether policies aimed to support early educators actually work. This talk will describe how through a decade-long research-policy partnership between researchers and policy partners in the Louisiana and Virginia Departments of Education, we tried to iteratively improve ECE workforce data, evaluation, and policy. I will share examples of partnered studies– both descriptive and experimental– which have improved our understanding of turnover among this large diverse workforce and informed policies to better support them.
Daphna Bassok is a Professor of Education and Public Policy at the University of Virginia and the Associate Director of EdPolicyWorks. She works closely with early childhood policy makers at both the Virginia and Louisiana Departments of Education on research aimed to inform efforts to build more cohesive, higher quality, early childhood education systems. Bassok’s research addresses early childhood education policy, with a focus on efforts to improve early childhood systems at scale. She is particularly interested in policies aimed at supporting the early childhood workforce and is currently leading a multi-year evaluation of Virginia’s Federal Preschool Development Grant Birth-5 initiative.

AEFP 49th Annual Conference
2024-03-14 08:00 - 2024-03-16 13:15 (America/New_York) | Marriott Baltimore Waterfront, 700 Aliceanna St., Baltimore, MD, 21202, United States
WEPC is attending this year’s Association for Education Finance and Policy (AEFP) 2024 Conference in Baltimore. This conference will bring together researchers, students, policymakers, practitioners, and others interested in education finance and policy to share and learn about research spanning from early childhood education to long-term postsecondary outcomes. In addition to several faculty presentations selected for inclusion in the agenda, most of our WEPC-affiliated colleagues and several of our policy partners will be in attendance.
Below are the WEPC-affiliated presentations currently on the agenda:

In Pursuit of Greatness: Bold Strategies to Grow a Strong and Diverse Educator Workforce
2024-02-28 16:00 (America/New_York) | Zoom
Event Summary
On February 29th, Boston University’s Wheelock Educational Policy Center, Latinos for Education, and MassINC hosted a virtual event for the public release of the report: “In Pursuit of Greatness: Bold Strategies to Grow a Strong and Diverse Workforce.” A panel of experts from each organization discussed the Commonwealth’s progress over the last decade in diversifying the educator workforce and bold strategies to tackle the issues of today for a successful tomorrow.

READ THE REPORT

Spring 2024 BU Wheelock Ed Policy Speaker Series: David DeMatthews (UT Austin)
2024-02-13 15:00 - 16:30 (America/New_York) | 610 Commonwealth Avenue Room 101 Boston, MA 02215, 610 Commonwealth Avenue Room 101, Boston, MA, 02215, United States

UPDATED SPEAKER! Fall 2023 BU Wheelock Ed Policy Speaker Series: Christopher Campos (University of Chicago)
2023-12-05 15:00 - 16:30 (America/New_York) | 610 Commonwealth Avenue Room 101 Boston, MA 02215, 610 Commonwealth Avenue Room 101, Boston, MA, 02215, United States
Christopher Campos is an assistant professor of economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where he currently focuses on research on the economics of education. He is also a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Talk Title: Social Interactions and Preferences for Schools: Experimental Evidence from Los Angeles
This paper studies how parents’ preferences for schools are affected by information about school and peer quality and how social interactions mediate changes in demand. I design an information intervention that cross-randomizes whether parents receive information about school quality (school value-added) and peer quality. Using a spillover design that varies the saturation of information across schools, I also randomize parents’ proximity to other parents with similar information. I find that the information leads to changes in parental preferences toward higher value-added schools, and this occurs when both parents and their neighbors receive information. These results imply substantial information spillovers. I complement this evidence with survey data on the distribution of beliefs over school and peer quality and conclude that the direct and spillover effects of my experiment come primarily from changes in parental preferences rather than an updating of parental beliefs in response to information. These findings show that when parents are informed about school and peer quality, their social interactions lead to changes in preferences in a way that rewards more effective schools.

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Fall 2023 BU Wheelock Ed Policy Speaker Series: Adai Tefera (University of Arizona)
2023-11-07 15:00 - 16:30 (America/New_York) | 610 Commonwealth Avenue Room 101 Boston, MA 02215, 610 Commonwealth Avenue Room 101, Boston, MA, 02215, United States
This seminar session co-hosted with BU Wheelock Special Education Department
Dr. Tefera (she/her) is an associate professor of special education. Her interdisciplinary scholarship examines how educational policies aimed at improving equity among students at the intersections of race, disability, language, and other social categories are enacted, interrupted, and resisted by students, families, educators, and leaders. Her recent work explores how historical, sociocultural, and spatial contexts mediate how educators and leaders respond to and understand citations for racial disproportionality in the identification, placement, and discipline of students with disabilities. Her work has been included in journals such as American Educational Research Journal, Review of Research in Education, Sociology of Education, and Teachers College Record. She is also the recipient of the American Educational Research Association, Division G (Social Context of Education) Early Career Award.
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Fall 2023 BU Wheelock Ed Policy Speaker Series: Adela Soliz (Vanderbilt University) Presents "What Is the Effect of Institution-Level Articulation Policies on Community College to University Transfer?"
2023-09-26 15:00 - 16:30 (America/New_York) | 610 Commonwealth Avenue Room 101 Boston, MA 02215, 610 Commonwealth Avenue Room 101, Boston, MA, 02215, United States
Talk title: “What is the Effect of Institution-Level Articulation Policies on Community College to University Transfer?”
Abstract: Community colleges enroll more undergraduates than any other sector of higher education, and many students start at these institutions with the goal of eventually earning a bachelor’s degree. However, few actually manage to do so. Our study makes use of variation in the timing of the development of institutional partnerships across community colleges to estimate the causal effects of these policies on students’ academic outcomes. Our findings have implications for policy makers and college administrators who seek to improve vertical transfer rates and fulfill the promise of four-year college access for students starting at community colleges.

Adela Soliz is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education and Public Policy, in the Dept. of Leadership, Policy & Organizations at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College. Dr. Soliz’s research focuses on policies affecting student success at public community colleges. Most of her research uses large state administrative or national datasets and econometric methods to estimate causal effects of policies and program participation on community college students’ outcomes. She is interested in issues related to college affordability, the development of vocational education at community colleges, and transfer and articulation between two and four-year institutions. Before coming to Vanderbilt, Professor Soliz was a fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Brown Center on Education Policy. Soliz holds a doctorate in Quantitative Policy Analysis in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Before going to HGSE, Soliz taught developmental English at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, as well as ESL, GED, and citizenship classes in non-profits supporting immigrant populations around New York City. She received her B.A. in Anthropology from Reed College.
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Ed Policy Spring Seminar Series
2023-04-12 12:30 - 2023-05-03 14:00 (America/New_York)
Register Now

Register for one or all. Events are in-person. Lunch provided. Space limited. Reserve your spot now.
Boston University’s Department of Educational Leaderhsip and Policy Studies and The Wheelock Educational Policy Center are excited to host three leading scholars this spring for a Ed Policy Seminar Series. Given growing interest in our local community and increased prominence of presenters, we’re happy to open this speaker series to individuals outside of the BU faculty and students typically in attendance.
All are welcome. The seminar series is geared towards an academic audience and will include detailed and technical discussion about methods used in the research, in addition to the policy context and implications.
Specific talk titles will be shared a week in advance with registered attendees. Confirmed speakers include:
Katharine Strunk (Michgan State University): February 28th 12:30 – 2:00pm
LOCATION: Boston University, Questrom School of Business, 4th Floor, 595 Commonwealth Ave, Boston MA 02215
Katharine O. Strunk is a professor of education policy and, by courtesy, economics, and the Clifford E. Erickson Distinguished Chair in Education and the faculty director of the Michigan State University Education Policy Innovation Collaborative (EPIC). She is also the immediate past-president of the Association for Education Finance and Policy (AEFP). Strunk’s current research through EPIC is focused on working with local and state education agencies on studies that will help them inform policy and practice. Rooted in the fields of economics and public policy, Strunk’s work centers on structures that are central to state and district operations and policy and the ways these structures affect policymakers’ decisions and outcomes. Her research examines teacher labor markets, school and district improvement and accountability policies, and efforts to improve student achievement. Follow her @KatharineStrunk and @epicedpolicy.
Jim Wyckoff (University of Virgina): April 18th 12:30 – 2:00pm
Jim Wyckoff is the Curry Memorial Professor of Education and Policy. He is the former director of the Center for Education Policy and Workforce Competitiveness at the University of Virginia. He has published widely on issues of teacher labor markets, teacher preparation, recruitment, assessment and retention. In this work he has collaborated with policymakers in New York City, New York State and most recently the District of Columbia.
Currently, he is examining how teacher assessment and evaluation systems influence the quality of teaching, especially in traditionally low performing classrooms. He is a member of the editorial board of Education Finance and Policy. He has served on four National Research Council panels examining issues in teacher preparation, and the school lunch program, was the president of the Association for Education Finance and Policy, and served on the Policy Council for the Association of Public Policy Analysis and Management. He has a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Tom Dee (Stanford University): May 2nd 12:30 – 2:00pm
Thomas S. Dee, Ph.D., is the Barnett Family Professor at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education (GSE), a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) and the Faculty Director of the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities. His research focuses largely on the use of quantitative methods to inform contemporary issues of public policy and practice. The Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) awarded his collaborative research the Raymond Vernon Memorial Award in 2015 and again in 2019. He currently serves on the editorial boards of the American Educational Research Journal, the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, and Education Finance and Policy.
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WEPC @ AEFP 2023
2023-03-23 - 2023-03-26
WEPC is thrilled to be participating in this year’s Association for Education Finance and Policy (AEFP) 2023 Conference. In addition to a number of faculty and student presentations that were selected for inclusion in the agenda, most of our WEPC affiliated colleagues and a number of our policy partners will be in attendance. For those of you that are also attending, we’d love to connect with you while there. Feel free to reach out to wheelockpolicy@bu.edu in advance, stop by our table near registration or find one of us while there.
Below are the WEPC-affiliated presentations currently on the agenda:

Day 2 (Virtual) - BU Wheelock Spring Forum: Examining how teacher workforce policies shape an equity-centered education
2022-04-01 09:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York)
Teachers are undeniably key to student success, but their daily, individual decisions and actions are inextricably shaped by a much larger system of decisions at the national, state and district level. Whether deciding to become a teacher in the first place, choosing which school to teach at, how to spend time once in the classroom, or whether to stay at all – each of these questions is influenced by a broader context of policies governing the educator workforce. But now more than ever, particularly with the pandemic-era strain being felt in our classrooms, it is critical that we ask: are our teacher workforce policies disrupting or perpetuating the persistent, systemic inequities plaguing the U.S. education system?
This Spring (March 31st and April 1st) join Boston University’s Wheelock College of Education and Human Development and the Wheelock Educational Policy Center for the 2022 Wheelock Spring Forum where we will discuss the ways that policy-relevant, partner-driven research can enhance our understanding of how various policies impact the diversity and quality of the teacher workforce. During the two-day event, we will engage with current students, BU Wheelock alumni, faculty researchers as well as national and state education leaders to examine the research and policy implications in two key areas:

Shortages, shifts, and stability in the Massachusetts educator workforce amidst the COVID-19 pandemic

Workforce policies & the understudied impact on teachers serving English learners and students with disabilities

The program will balance research highlights from the BU Wheelock community, in-depth conversations with teachers and policymakers about possible implications and commentary from a network of national leaders.
Some featured speakers throughout the event include:

Roberto Rodriguez, Assistant Secretary for Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development at the U.S. Department of Education
Kate Walsh, President, National Council on Teacher Quality
Juliana Urtubey, 2021 National Teacher of the Year and Special Education teacher from Las Vegas, Nevada
Jeff Riley, Massachusetts Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education
Jessica Tang, President, Boston Teachers Union

…with more announced soon!
Full details at: https://wheelockpolicycenter.org/spring-forum-event/

Day 1 (In-Person) 2022 BU Wheelock Spring Forum: Examining how teacher workforce policies shape an equity-centered education
2022-03-31 16:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York)

Charting a Course: Navigating towards influential pandemic-era data and research insights
2021-11-04 10:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York)
Event Summary

In the 18-months since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers affiliated with Boston University’s Wheelock Educational Policy Center have been working to provide perspective on the implications and opportunities caused by this unprecedented disruption to our educational systems. Now, as we enter the 2021-22 academic year, we’re looking ahead and want to engage in a proactive discussion about how data and research can keep pace with the efforts to build back better. Join the Wheelock Educational Policy Center and our collaborators and education leaders from across the country for a discussion about the insights we’ve collected thus far, and more importantly, the ones we’ll need moving forward to disrupt persistent inequities experienced by our kids.

Full Bios for Panelists and Presenters

Event Recordings

Miss a portion of the event? Catch up on all of the conversations by visiting our YouTube page or use any of the links below to watch one specifically.
Opening Session & Keynote: Featured presentation by Heather Krause, Data Scientist & Founder of We All Count, sharing essential advice on ways to ensure that equity is truly centered throughout every aspect of the research endeavor.
Teacher-Focused Breakout: Research highlighting changes in the teacher workforce and the ways teacher used their time in the early days of the pandemic. Discussion with The Teacher Collaborative’s CEO, Salem Public Schools’ Superintendent, Colorado’s Commissioner of Education and the Director of the Project on the Next Generation of Teachers.
Student-Centered Breakout: Research highlighting patterns in student enrollment and bullying in the context of COVID-19 closures. Discussion with Vice President of EdVestors, Kentucky’s Commissioner of Education, the President of the National Parents Union and Boston’s Chief Equity Officer.
Closing Session: Big picture discussion with Massachusetts Secretary of Education, Founder & CEO of Latinos for Education, the 2020 MA Teacher of the Year and a leader with the state superintendents’ association, moderated by BU Wheelock’s dean.

Watch Here

Research Shared During the Event

Featured research included:

COVID-19 and the Composition of the Massachusetts Teacher Workforce presented by Dr. Olivia Chi
Teacher Time Use and Affect during the pandemic, presented by Dr. Nathan Jones
How the pandemic affected choices about school enrollment, presented by Dr. Tareena Musaddiq & Dr. Andrew Bacher Hicks
Changes in bullying during the pandemic, presented by Dr. Jennifer Grief-Green & Dr. Joshua Goodman

Feedback on this event? Email us at wheelockpolicy@bu.edu. Not already on our mailing list and want to be the first to hear about our upcoming events or research releases? Sign up .

The Wheelock Educational Policy Center (WEPC) conducts and disseminates rigorous, policy-relevant research in partnership with local, state, and federal policymakers and stakeholders to improve educational opportunities and holistic outcomes for traditionally marginalized students.

Teacher Diversity is Teacher Quality: An Evidence and Action Event Series
2021-06-22 15:00 - 16:00 UTC
Event Summary
On June 22nd-24th Boston University’s Wheelock Educational Policy Center, Latinos for Education and The Education Trust hosted a virtual event series exploring the research and policy recommendations that could improve the quality of our teaching workforce for all kids in the state. The series featured three events. Summaries of each, along with links to the webinar recording and additional resources are shared below.

A new book, “Teacher Diversity and Student Success: Why Racial Representation Matters in the Classroom” makes clear the necessity and opportunity of recruiting and supporting individuals of color in the teaching profession. But will Massachusetts meet the moment and take action to pass the Educator Diversity Act?
During the event, we heard from two of the book’s authors as well as Massachusetts advocates, educators and policymakers. Featured speakers include:
Book Authors:

Seth Gershenson, Associate professor of Public Policy in the School of Public Affairs at American University
Constance Lindsay, Assistant professor of Education Leadership in the School of Education at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Panel (including Book Authors):

Moderator: Chairman Frank Moran, Representative for the 17th Essex District
Amanda Fernandez, CEO and Co-Founder of Latinos for Education
Dr Noemi Custodia Lora, Northern Essex Community College, Vice President

Deep Dive Sessions
As an extension of the main event on June 22nd, we invited participants to dig in with us a little further to explore specific facets of the research and policies shaping the experiences of individuals of color entering and staying in the teaching profession. Each of the sessions below paired research insights alongside voices and perspectives of current educators of color. They were brief (just 30 minutes!) but insightful and action-focused.

Racial Diversity in the Teacher Pipeline: Evidence from Massachusetts

June 23rd 2:30-3:00pm
Researchers Melanie Rucinski and Joshua Goodman shared findings from their analysis examining the racial composition at each step of the Massachusetts educator pipeline and two MA educators part of the InSPIRED Fellowship program (Dr. Sana Shaikh and Ms. Atiera Horne) shared about their own experience entering the profession and recruiting others to it. Moderated by Eleonora Villegas-Reimers, Chair for Teaching and Learning at Boston University.

A Classroom Observer Like Me: Effects of Race & Gender-Matches in Teacher Observations

June 24th 3:30-4:00pm
Researcher Olivia Chi shared findings from a study that examines whether teachers receive higher classroom observation scores as a result of sharing race or gender with their observers. Educators from the Massachusetts Teacher and Principal Advisory Cabinets, Sara Marie Jette and Steven Moguel, who have been discussing a re-envisioned approach to evaluation in the state, shared their reactions and experiences. Moderated by Stefany Tomlinson, Assistant Director for Instructional Support at the MA Dept. of Elementary and Secondary Education

Take Action Resources

MTEL Alternative Pilot
The MA Dept. of Elementary and Secondary Education has launched a three-year pilot to implement and study alternative ways to assess candidate knowledge for purposes of entry into the workforce. You can read more about this effort and sign up to receive more regular updates from DESE here.

Online Platform for Teaching and Informed Calibration (OPTIC)
In an effort to improve evaluators observations of teacher practice, The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has built a tool to provide educators the opportunity to calibrate their understanding of effective instructional practice and high quality feedback. OPTIC is being used by district leadership teams and preparation providers across the state. Recently, the state released a collection of resources explicitly targeting culturally responsive practice in observations.

Use the link above to easily communicate with your State Representative and State Senator and ask them to support the Educator Diversity Act, HD.3641/SD.2208: An Act Relative to Educator Diversity.

ACT NOW

The Urban/Suburban Educational Divide: Racial Inequities and Shifting Landscapes
2021-05-19 16:00 - 17:00 UTC
View Event Recording

Schools in urban and suburban locations can vary immensely in quality, increasing the importance of where we send our kids to school. But why are some schools better than others? How has America’s notion of a good school deepened educational and racial inequities? Join the Boston University Initiative on Cities (IOC) and the BU Wheelock Educational Policy Center (WEPC) for a discussion of efforts to ensure students have access to a great education, and why integration efforts to close the urban-suburban divide leave some students caught in between, while others are stuck on one side.
Featuring:

John Rury, Professor Emeritus, University of Kansas School of Education and Human Sciences; and author of Creating the Suburban School Advantage: Race, Localism, and Inequality in an American Metropolis
Milly Arbaje-Thomas, President & CEO, Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO)
Cliff Chuang, Senior Associate Commissioner for Educational Options at the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

View Event Recording

Interested in some additional context and relevant policymaking happening right now around this topic? Below is an excerpt from an April 2021 Boston Globe Editorial Board call to action.

In Massachusetts, we tend to think of school segregation as something that happened 50 years ago in Boston — if we think of it at all.
But racial segregation is still a serious problem in this state. And by some measures, it’s getting worse. In the last decade alone, the number of “intensely segregated” nonwhite schools — that is, schools with student populations that are at least 90 percent students of color — has grown by more than one-third, according to research from the Beyond Test Scores Project and the Center for Education and Civil Rights.
And while Boston hosts plenty of these racially isolated schools, they’ve also become fixtures in old industrial cities like Lynn, Lawrence, Chelsea, Brockton, and Springfield.
Decades of research show the costs of segregation are enormous. Academic performance suffers. Adult earnings, too. And students of all races miss out on vital opportunities to prepare for life in an increasingly multicultural society.
But responsibility for desegregation does not lie with urban school systems alone……

Read Full Editorial

Inquiry with Influence: Realizing the Potential of Research-Supported Policymaking with the New Wheelock Educational Policy Center
2021-02-23 13:00 - 14:30 UTC | Zoom
BU Wheelock officially launched the new Wheelock Educational Policy Center (WEPC) as part of a commitment to transforming systems that impact learning for a thriving and just future. Watch the webinar to learn about WEPC’s approach to rigorous, policy-relevant research and to meet the WEPC-affiliated faculty driving a research agenda aimed to improve opportunities and holistic outcomes for traditionally marginalized students.

View Event Recording
