Acclaimed authors to examine education issues

“Our Children: Are Public Schools Giving Them a Fair
Shake?” is sponsored by Rice’s Center for Education,
where all three authors conducted their research.

Angela Valenzuela, associate professor of education and
of Mexican-American studies at The University of Texas at
Austin, is the author of “Subtractive Schooling: U.S.-Mexican
Youth and the Politics of Caring” (State University
of New York Press, 2000), which won the prestigious “Outstanding
Book Award 2000” from the American Educational Research
Association. She also taught at Rice University and the
University of Houston.

Valenzuela’s talk, “Subtractive Schooling,”
will focus on how forms of schooling that undervalue young
Latinos’ language and culture can be detrimental to
learning.

Linda McNeil is professor of education and co-director of
the Rice University Center for Education, which specializes
in teacher development and research. Her book, “Contradictions
of School Reform: Educational Costs of Standardized Testing”
(Routledge, 2000), which was based on more than 15 years
of research on Texas schools, has garnered national media
attention. McNeil has taught at the Harvard Graduate School
of Education and has been a visiting scholar at the Stanford
University School of Education. She has served as the vice
president of the Curriculum Studies Division of the American
Educational Research Association and is the editor of the
“Social and Institutional Analysis” section of
the American Education Research Journal.

McNeil’s talk, “Standardized Tests: Who Pays the
Price?,” will center on the way high-stakes tests are
driving many students out of school and reducing the quality
of education for those who remain.

Elnora Harcombe is the author of “Science Teaching/Science
Learning” (Teachers College Press, 2001), which is
based on her work as director of the Center for Education’s
Model Science Lab. The Model Science Lab has twice received
the Governor’s Exemplary School/University Partnership
Award, sponsored by the Texas Alliance for Science, Technology
and Mathematics Education.

Harcombe, who is a research scientist, has taught science
at all levels — elementary, secondary and university.

Her talk, “The Teacher: The Key to Powerful Learning,”
will demonstrate how powerful teaching and learning occur
in classrooms where teachers are passionate about their
subject and communicate deep knowledge of their subject
matter to students.

The Hazel G. Creekmore Memorial Symposium and Curriculum
Collection was established in 1993 by a gift from the Houston
Endowment Inc. to the Center for Education to honor Hazel
Creekmore, a Rice alumna and longtime Houston teacher.

The symposium is free and open to the public. A reception
and book-signing will follow the program.