Curry School Education Research Lectureship Series Kicks Off This Week

September 20, 2010 — The University of Virginia's Curry School of Education kicks off its Education Research Lectureship Series on Sept. 24 with a talk on "The Widening Academic Achievement Gap Between the Rich and the Poor: New Evidence and Possible Explanations."

Sean Reardon, associate professor of education and sociology at Stanford University, will present the talk in the Curry Library and Innovation Commons space on the third floor of Ruffner Hall. His recent research investigates the relationships among income inequality, residential and school segregation patterns, and academic achievement gaps.

On Oct. 22, Sue Dynarski, associate professor of education and public policy at the University of Michigan, will share her research findings on "Who Benefits from KIPP," or the Knowledge is Power Program, used by charter schools. The program's features include a long school day, an extended school year, selective teacher hiring, strict behavior norms and a focus on traditional reading and math skills, said Dynarski, who is also a faculty research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and has been a visiting fellow at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and Princeton University. She is also an editor of The Journal of Labor Economics and Education Finance and Policy.

"Information and Employee Evaluation: Evidence from a Randomized Intervention in Public Schools" is the topic of a lecture on Nov. 12 by Jonah Rockoff, the Sidney Taurel Associate Professor of Business at the Columbia Graduate School of Business and a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

On Dec. 3, Mark Greenberg, the Bennett Endowed Chair in Prevention Research in Penn State's College of Health and Human Development, will discuss "Current and Future Challenges in School-Based Prevention." Greenberg is the director of the Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Human Development. He is a senior investigator on numerous national and international research projects, including Fast Track, PROSPER, The Family Life Project, REDI and PATHS to Success. One of his current interests is how to help nurture awareness and compassion in our society. 
    
All of the talks are free and open to the public and will be held from 11 a.m. to noon in the Grand Hall of Bavaro Hall unless otherwise noted. No registration is required, and parking is available at the Central Grounds Parking Garage.

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