NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Narrowing the achievement gap among America’s
schoolchildren-a key domestic issue for this year’s presidential
candidates-will be the subject of a lecture Thursday, Feb. 19, at
Vanderbilt University.
The lecture, "Federal Educational Policy as an Anti-poverty
Strategy," is scheduled for 4:10 p.m. in the Moore Room at the
Vanderbilt University Law School. The talk is free and open to the
public.
Vanderbilt University professor Kenneth Wong, noted scholar of
school finance and federal education policy, will discuss the federal
government’s role in improving educational opportunities for children
of poverty and children of color-from Title I of 1965’s Elementary and
Secondary Education Act to President George W. Bush’s oft-debated No
Child Left Behind Act. He will also address the changing politics and
future policy implications for school accountability and anti-poverty
issues.
Since the 1960s, the federal government through a grants-in-aid
system has promoted racial integration, protected the educational
rights of the handicapped, assisted non-native English learners and
provided resources to at-risk children, according to Wong.
The No Child Left Behind Act took a significant step in sharpening
the focus on school performance and narrowing the achievement gap among
racial and income groups, he says.
Wong is a professor of public policy and education at Vanderbilt’s
Peabody College of education and human development, as well as
professor of political science and associate director of the Peabody
Center for Education Policy at Vanderbilt.
His talk is presented as part of Vanderbilt’s lecture series "Race
& Wealth Disparities in 21st Century America," co-sponsored by The
Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities at Vanderbilt and the
Vanderbilt University Law School.
Media contact: Princine Lewis, (615) 322-NEWS
Princine.l.lewis@vanderbilt.edu