CURRY SCHOOL Connections
WINTER 2016
UVA Class Reunions TJ Society, 1956, 1961, 1966, 1971, 1976, 1981 June 2-5 Curry School Luncheon Saturday, June 4 Bavaro Hall Cost: $10 For more information online: alumni.virginia.edu/reunions
Influencing Public Policy And raising visibility for Curry B Y LY N N B E L L
Curry Magazine
Read. Participate. Engage. curry.virginia.edu/magazine
Curry School Connections is edited by Lynn Bell, Director of Alumni Relations, and published by the Curry School of Education, P.O. Box 400268, Charlottesville, VA 22904. Email: lynnbell@virginia.edu curry.virginia.edu/curryconnections
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nce again in 2016 Dean Bob Pianta and Professor Carol Tomlinson have been named among the top 25 education scholars influencing public policy in the country, and a half dozen others made the 200-person list. Influencing public policy has been an explicit goal of Dean Pianta’s from the beginning of his first term as head of our top-ranked education school. “Our work in the academy should engage the public square,” Pianta wrote in an Education Week commentary last year. “To back away would be to cede influence in an even larger effort: to advance the understanding of the American public to make informed decisions about the education of its citizenry.” Pianta came in at No. 20 in the “Rick Hess Straight Up Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings,” published annually by Education Week. The rankings recognize faculty members who “contribute most substantially to public debates about education,” based upon a point system that Hess developed. Dean Pianta has publicly acknowledged that education schools in general have been subjected to withering criticism for their lack of relevance to solving K-12 challenges. “From my perspective, engagement in the public debate not only replaces these misconceptions, it also has the potential to enable real traction on problems of great intransigence,” Pianta said. He added that the relevance of education schools may depend on the capacity of faculty to engage with stakeholders outside our institutional walls. In addition to Pianta’s high visibility in the public square, Carol Tomlinson, William Clay Parrish Jr. Professor and nationally recognized guru of classroom differentiation, was ranked at No. 16 for her influence. —continued on page 2
“FROM MY PERSPECTIVE, ENGAGEMENT IN THE PUBLIC DEBATE ... HAS THE POTENTIAL TO ENABLE REAL TRACTION ON PROBLEMS OF GREAT INTRANSIGENCE.” CURRY CONNEC TIONS • WINTER 2016
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