Is Public Education Doomed?

Event Details

PBS World Channel National Broadcast: Virginia-February 14 , 2016/Nationally-February 17, 2016

The Prize: Who's in Charge of America's Schools?  by Dale Russakoff first serialized in The New Yorker, is the story of how New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and now-U.S. Corey Booker joined together in a public-private partnership to transform the failing urban public schools of Newark, N.J.—and utterly failed.

Dale Russakoff spent twenty-eight years as a reporter for the Washington Post, covering politics, education, social policy, and other topics. From 1994 to 2008, she served in the Post’s New York Bureau, which included covering the NYC metropolitan area, including Newark, N.J. She grew up in Birmingham, Alabama and credits her parents with encouraging her to question the politics of the world around her, particularly the racial segregation and inequity in her own hometown. Photo Credit: Sarah Weiser

Dr. Robert Pianta, is the Dean of the Curry School of Education, Novartis US Foundation Professor of Education, and Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia.  He is also founding director of the Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning.  Pianta's research and policy interests focus on the measurement and production of effective teaching in classrooms from preschool to high school.  Pianta has authored more than 200 scholarly papers and several influential books related to teaching and the intersection of education and human development.  He is past Editor of The Journal of School Psychology and incoming associate editor for the new journal AERA Open. Pianta consults regularly with foundations as well as state and Federal agencies including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the William T. Grant Foundation, and the U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services.