Center for Urban Education
Director: Barbara Radner, Ph.D.

Telephone: 773/325-7170
Fax: 77/325-4321
Email: Barbara Radner
For more info, contact: Alicia Jakymiw
Web site: http://teacher.depaul.edu


DePaul's Center for Urban Education works to improve Chicago Public Schools through programs that involve teachers and parents in school-wide and inter-school development work. These programs were begun in the Center for Economic Education, and economic education continues to be an emphasis of the work of the Center. The Center's projects relate learning in school to the development of the community and to the development of the students' abilities to succeed in careers.

In 1990, through funding from AT&T, the Center expanded to become the Center for Urban Education. Investment by Citibank, Continental Bank/Bank of America, DeWitt Wallace/Reader's Digest, the Joyce Foundation, Kraft General Foods, The National Endowment for the Humanities, the Polk Bros. Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education, have enabled the Center to establish a substantial "infrastructure" to support Chicago public school progress. Currently the Center provides comprehensive support for improved instruction in a network of 30 Chicago public elementary and high schools. The Center is vitally connected to these Chicago schools and their communities.

Update: Current Projects/Activities
The Center is working with a network of elementary schools on improving curriculum in grades 4-8.  The project, funded by the Polk Bros. Foundation, is  two-year initiative to support increased understanding of the core curriculum in social studies through the application of strategies of reading, writing, and illustration. 

Through funding by the Institute of Education Sciences, US Department of Education, the Center is conducting a three-year research study on effective ways to increase student math achievement through teacher education.  The project includes four graduate level courses for teachers, three in math and one in formative evaluation, as well as on-site implementation support at the participating schools. 

In collaboration with the Chicago Public Schools, the Center is providing ongoing development to Parent Leaders who are facilitating parent workshops in Chicago elementary and high schools.  This initiative emphasizes parent leadership for literacy progress.

In partnership with the Terra Foundation for American Arts, the Center is working with high school and middle school teachers to develop curricula to integrate the interpretation of American art in the curriculum in English, social studies, and art.  The project is in the second of a three-year process to build model lessons to integrate American art to enrich the curriculum.