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June 2007 > Events
POME Colloquium Offers Stimulating Debut
Goodwin Liu Jeannie Oakes Kathryn Baron
Policy, Organization, Measurement and Evaluation faculty organizers Dan Perlstein, Bruce Fuller and Mark Wilson, aided by student area representatives Laurie Mireles and Leah Walker, launched a successful Colloquium series of 14 engaging events in 2006–07.
The most contentious session in the series was the appearance of Sandy Kress, a former education adviser to President Bush and a lead figure in the creation of the No Child Left Behind Act. He defended the legislation in front of a jam-packed audience in Tolman Hall room 2515 on March 6. The Meet the Press–style panel discussion also included Boalt Hall School of Law Professor Goodwin Liu, National Public Radio/KQED FM reporter Kathryn Baron and Mireles. A lively question-and-answer session followed opening remarks, with most of audience and panel members expressing frustration with the accountability features of the legislation, currently being considered for reauthorization in Congress.
Another well attended talk was given by UCLA’s Jeannie Oakes, Presidential Professor in Educational Equity and Director of the University of California’s All Campus Consortium on Research for Diversity and Institute for Democracy, Education & Access. Oakes discussed the low college participation rates of California's African American, Latino and American Indian students, and the K–12 school conditions that help explain them. With the audience, she discussed a variety of policy recommendations for removing the educational roadblocks that unfairly impede these students.
Mark Rashid, Chair of UC Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools (BOARS) and a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Davis, and GSE professor David Stern, who is UC Berkeley’s representative on the committee, gave the final presentation of the term. Stern offered an overview of UC systemwide eligibilty and campus selection procedures as well as their shortcomings. Rashid highlighted the admissions proposal that was unanimously approved by BOARS.
This proposal, which will eventually require passage by UC’s Board of Regents to take effect, eliminates the use of the statewide eligibility index to guarantee admission, and instead, offers a guarantee to review the entire application of any student above a basic threshold (e.g. meeting a-g requirements), and encourages such students to apply. The proposal continues guaranteed admission only for Eligibility in the Local Context students (the top 4 percent of students in each participating California high school class).
Lisa Chavez, the academic coordinator for UC Berkeley’s Center for Latino Policy Research, rounded out the Spring Semester program with a talk entitled “Preparing for Transfer: Latinos in California Community Colleges.”
Fall Semester speakers were Annette Lareau, Professor of Sociology at University of Maryland; Anthony Bryk, professor of Organizational Studies in Education and Business at Stanford University; Marshall Smith, Director of the Education Program at The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation; Samuel Lucas, professor of Sociology at UC Berkeley; Edith Ng, a lecturer in UC Berkeley’s Peace and Conflict Studies; Carla Trujillo, director of UC Berkeley’s Graduate Diversity Program; and GSE professor Norton Grubb.
Plans for next year’s Colloquium are underway when the entire series will focus on different aspects of the No Child Left Behind Act.
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