The following article summarizes the original event which is listed below the summary.
Michael Rodriguez
UMRA’s April 2021 Forum with Professor Michael Rodriguez, interim dead of the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD), was a provocative and stimulating discussion on disparities in education and how teacher education and preparation can help overcome those disparities.
Rodriguez suggested that educational systems need to both target and tailor strategies to achieve universal educational outcomes for all students. Educational equity will take more than just programs and policies. It is true, he said, that Minnesota has some of the largest achievement gaps in the country. But this need not be the case.
Rodriguez talked about how learning, positive identity, and social confidence are all critical for students to succeed. Using a number of different measures, he found that students who possessed all three of those had significantly greater achievement than students who had none of them. In other words, schools need to do a better job of supporting the whole student, not just the academic achievement of students. Through this explicit and intentional integration of academic, social, and emotional learning, real gains in academic achievement can be made.
Getting schools ready for children
He also emphasized the need to change both the structure and systems as well at our mental models and mindsets. Currently, we work to get children ready for school. But we should be asking, Rodriguez said, Are we getting the schools ready for the children? It is particularly important in this work to address school climate, especially in hiring and supporting teachers of color.
Currently, CEHD is striving towards the goal of educating more students of color by providing alternative pathways and creating more opportunities for students interested in becoming teachers.
It is vital to the future of our nation that we develop and advance both human capital and innovation. This imperative is necessary for all levels of education.
—Laura Coffin Koch, associate professor emerita, CEHD
Preparing education professionals for educational equity
Tue, April 27 2021, 12pm
Michael Rodriguez
Campbell Leadership Chair in Education and Human Development
Event to be held via Zoom.
Minnesota faces deep challenges with educational equity. What are the toughest challenges and where are the signs of hope? When UMRA member and former University President Bob Bruininks was asked whom we should invite to talk with us about education equity, he said, “Get Michael Rodriguez!”
We are proud to have Professor Rodriguez as our featured speaker for the April 27 UMRA Forum at 12 noon. Please register for this Zoom webinar.
Professor Rodriguez has said that the principles of educational equity have been available for decades, yet often are misunderstood or simply ignored. By acknowledging that learning is a social activity, we center the role of the sociocultural context of teaching and learning.
Through explicit and intentional integration of academic, social, and emotional learning, we can make real gains—including newer efforts to employ cultural and linguistic responsive instruction and assessment, according to Rodriguez. All of this has important implications for how we prepare education professionals in the University’s College of Education and Human Development.
Michael Rodriguez, PhD, is a professor of educational psychology and holds the Campbell Leadership Chair in Education and Human Development at the U. He is founding co-director of the Educational Equity Resource Center, and directs the Minnesota Youth Development Research Group. His teaching and research focus is on educational equity, educational testing and assessment, social and emotional learning, and youth development.
Rodriguez has been a partner with the Minneapolis Foundation in a project called Reimagine Minnesota, looking at how to disrupt the patterns of racial and economic inequities in education in our state. To learn more, watch a video recording of an interview of Rodriquez by Minneapolis Foundation President and CEO R. T. Rybak.
Please register and join fellow UMRA members and guests to welcome Michael Rodriguez to the UMRA Forum on Tuesday, April 27.
—Jan Morlock, UMRA president-elect and Program Committee chair
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