As a member of the National Education Task Force, a Congressional Advisory Committee to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, I have drawn on the intellectual resources of Center associates like Dr. Julian Vasquez-Heilig, Dr. Stephanie Cawthon, and Madlene Hamilton, in order to offer recommendations for the re-authorization of No Child Left Behind.  These will be compiled into a prioritized set of recommendations that will go to the speaker in April.

Other highlights include our highly successful inaugural convening of over one hundred grassroots and professional education leaders in Texas to discuss from a P16 perspective both the crisis and current policy solutions in our state with regard to students’ under-preparedness for higher education.  Sidebar links will direct you to my analytical summary of that convening.  This convening was coupled with presentations on the crisis of college access for African Americans and Latina/os in Texas and the nation by former Harvard University Professor Gary Orfield who has just become a member of the College of Education faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles.

This Spring (April 19-20), together with Dean Douglas Dempster of the College of Fine Arts, we are co-sponsoring a K-16 Arts Education Summit to which all are welcome.  Our plan is to gather a statewide audience in order to address such important topics as arts integration in the schools, access to arts education in our public schools, cognition and the arts, and the status of arts education policy in Texas. 

We are very pleased and honored to have Harvard University Professor Ellen Winner with us on these two days.  The title of her Texas Faces the Future Distinguished Lecture presentation is “The Aims of Arts Education.”  On the following morning, she will present on “Exemplary Arts Education Programs.”  Other highlights will be a luncheon keynote by Dr. Melissa Rivera from City University of New York, Hunter College and an afternoon presentation by Michael Kimmelman, chief arts critic for the New York Times.

With what promises to be a stimulating gathering, we hope to encourage greater interest in arts education research and policy formation.  Both events are completely open to the public but please rsvp as seating may be limited.

Other news is that TCEP Associate Dr. Pat Somers in Educational Administration and myself have both received Fulbright Scholarships for next year. Dr. Patricia Somers was chosen for the Fulbright New Century Scholars Program and will  research how educational reforms in Brazil have affected access and equity in higher education.  She will be stationed at the Pontifica Universidade de Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, Brazil. I will be affiliated with the University of Guanajuato in Guanajuato, Mexico.  My research examines binational relations between the U.S. and Mexico at federal and state levels to provide educational and other forms of aid to immigrants. 

Dr. Pedro Reyes in Educational Administration has graciously agreed to be the interim Center director.  Among other things during my absence, TCEP will sponsor a convening on Health Education Policy in Texas.  As we all know, there are myriad health issues affecting children and youth in our schools.  Senator Jane Nelson (R-Lewisville), for example, filed a bill on February 8, 2007, that would mandate for students in kindergarten through eighth grade at least 30 minutes a day of “moderate or vigorous” physical activity.  We hope to further this and many other important conversations in a constructive, policy-focused manner.  Thank you for your visiting our website.  Please call or visit us at SZB 518 if you are ever on campus.  We may also be reached either at 512-471-7055 or via e-mail at “Texas Center for Education Policy (TCEP)” TCEP@teachnet.edb.utexas.edu.