Looking Both Ways Announcement - May 8, 2006
The University's work in and with the New York City school system, including its many partnerships, has grown extensively since Looking Both Ways (LBW) was organized in 1998. The landscape of those partnerships has also changed considerably through the reform efforts of the New York City Department of Education. As Looking Both Ways nears the end of its eighth academic year, The Co-Directors and Associate Dean John Garvey have decided that it is time for the project to take a break and reconsider its services to the University.
As we begin this hiatus, we think it's important to acknowledge with deep gratitude both the University's support for the project at the highest levels and the participation of LBW's many experienced facilitators, without whom the project would not have realized its e xtraordinary success. In large part due to the strength and wisdom of the original conception, we now have the legacy of a tested model of non-hierarchical, cross-institutional professional development of high school and college teachers of writing. This model will be adaptable, we hope, to other projects in Collaborative Programs (College Now, Early College, Middle Grades Initiative, Affiliated High Schools) and in other CUNY settings, as well (for example, "Bridging the Colleges"—a "Faculty Development Seminar for Community and Senior College Faculty, Building Bridges for General Education Across the Curriculum").
Since the first spring seminars in 1999, LBW has worked with and created a network of more than 450 committed teachers— 297 from New York City secondary schools and 159 from CUNY colleges . It also developed 20 experienced facilitators who led 43 seminars of various kinds, including its gateway spring seminar series, its second year inquiry and case study groups, its annual fall colloquia and spring convocations. The seminars produced 4 volumes of teacher research reports, 14 collections of participant materials, and with the Co-Directors, two books: Looking Both Ways: High School and College Teachers Talk about Language and Learning (1999) and Facilitating Collaboration: Issues in High School/College Professional Development (2004). A 20 minute documentary video directed by Brooklyn College Professor Annette Danto, which features the participants and facilitators from two spring seminars, is available as a DVD and will soon be on the LBW Web site for those interested in what LBW professional development looks like in action.
We hope the strength of the LBW model and its values will continue to inform and be of direct and indirect service to the University. We are open to realizing that promise in the future in whatever form it may take. In the meantime, we applaud the many teachers listed in our Directory of Participants 1999 – 2006 [PDF file] who took part in Looking Both Ways and extend our thanks to all of you.
LBW Co-Directors
Stuart Cochran, Director of Research & Evaluation for Collaborative Programs
George Otte, CUNY Director of Instructional Technology & Professor of English and Urban Education, The Graduate Center
Sondra Perl, Professor of English and Urban Education, The Graduate Center & Lehman College
Marcie Wolfe, Executive Director,Institute for Literacy Studies at Lehman College
For more information, visit our Web site at: lookingbothways.cuny.edu/
or call / e-mail: Stuart Cochran at: 646-344-7320 - stuart.cochran@mail.cuny.edu
Download this announcement as a PDF.