Policy Connection
Wheelock In Action
Student Party Leaders Debate
On Monday, October 27, 2008 at 4 PM, Wheelock will be hosting a debate between student leaders from both the Democratic and the Republican parties. Our goal in holding this debate is to raise political awareness and energy on our campus while giving students an opportunity to analyze the differences and similarities between the positions of the two major parties.
President Jackie Jenkins-Scott co-chairs two local and state programs:
On July 25, 2008, Governor Deval Patrick released Ready for 21st Century Success: The New Promise of Public Education. The report is based on the recommendations of the Commonwealth Readiness Project, a nine-month, state-wide effort co-chaired by Wheelock President Jackie Jenkins-Scott. Ready for 21st Century Success outlines the challenges and goals of our public education system and details an “action agenda for establishing universal excellence over the next decade.”
Mayor's School Readiness Action Planning Team
Thrive in Five: Boston’s New School Readiness Roadmap
During the past year, Boston’s 65-member School Readiness Action Planning Team (“the APT”), co-chaired by President Jenkins-Scott and Children’s Hospital Chief Operating Officer Sandra Fenwick, met regularly to develop a Birth to Five School Readiness Initiative. Led, by the City of Boston and United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley and the APT’s work was informed by a diverse group of 35 parents, grandparents, and guardians from all Boston neighborhoods, called “the Parents APT.” Together they brought into the process an additional 300 Boston leaders and residents and funders through focus groups and meetings. Learn more...
The Winter Policy Talks at Wheelock College were implemented in 2006 in efforts to convene interested individuals, policymakers, stakeholders and community leaders in a facilitated dialogue and learning opportunity about critical policy issues affecting children and families.
The first year, 2006, over 225 people from very diverse backgrounds were convened to learn about and discuss: language development; assessment; the lack of physical education in the schools; and best practices in family support. In 2007 a more in-depth conversation took place with over 300 people on the prevention of the achievement gap focusing on research, promising practices and action.
The 2008 Winter Policy Talks focused on the Supreme Court cases of Parents Involved In Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 and Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education. The Court ruled 5-4 to limit the use of race in school integration plans. The June 2007 decision fomented nation-wide concern among school administrations regarding the constitutionality of their own desegregation policies.
Annual Community Dialogue on Early Education and Care
2008’s Dialogue is titled New Realities, New Initiatives. This year we thought big. We looked at evolving strategic plans for a 10-year state education initiative with significant investments in early childhood, beginning prenatally. We learned about Boston’s new Thrive by Five Initiative and Springfield’s implementation of universal pre-kindergarten for three- and four-year-olds. We talked about the Department of Early Education and Care’s plans for new opportunities to improve quality and associated compensation, and the work force development task force efforts currently underway, cosponsored with the Schott Foundation for public education and be United Way of Massachusetts Bay. We examined strategies for ensuring that there are sufficient funds in the state’s budget to support vital early education and care efforts.
