A number of events exploring important issues in K-12 education will be held this spring on the University of Notre Dame campus as part of the 2011-12 Notre Dame Forum, “Reimagining School: To Nurture the Soul of a Nation.”
A yearlong discussion of the profound and challenging questions that shape the national debate about K-12 education, the Forum features a series of panel presentations, symposia and workshops spanning the entire academic year. Fall events included addresses by notable speakers including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
Spring Forum events will be highlighted by two lectures, beginning with Mike Flanagan, superintendent of public instruction for the state of Michigan, who will present a public address titled “Education Reform-mongering: A Practitioner’s Perspective,” at 9 a.m. Feb. 28 (Tuesday) in the Remick Commons of Carole Sandner Hall on the Notre Dame campus.
A Notre Dame graduate, Flanagan directs the Michigan Department of Education, chairs the State Board of Education and advises the governor and state legislature regarding public education.
Education historian, author and speaker Diane Ravitch will present a lecture titled “Is There a Crisis in Public Education?” at 7 p.m. April 10 (Tuesday) in the McCartan Courtroom of the Notre Dame Law School.
Ravitch, who is also a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., is the author of 10 books, including, most recently, the best-seller “The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education,” and editor of 14 others. She has served in education-related posts in the administrations of Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
A complete list of spring Forum events is available here.
Established by Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., Notre Dame’s president, in 2005, the Notre Dame Forum has brought leading authorities to campus to discuss substantive issues of the day. Past forum topics have included the global marketplace and its impact on the common good, immigration, sustainability, global health and the role of religious faith in a plural world.