Education policy in Brazil and the United States will be the topic of an all-day event at Vanderbilt University April 26 that will kick off a new collaboration between Vanderbilt and the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
The event will take place April 26 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Room 104 of the Home Economics Building at Peabody. It is co-sponsored by Peabody College, the Vanderbilt International Office, the Center for Latin American Studies and the University of Sao Paulo.
Speakers will include faculty from the University of Sao Paulo and the Peabody Department of Leadership, Policy and Organizations. Topics include, “Understanding Black-White Test Score Gaps in Another America,” “Innovations and Dilemmas in Education Policy in Brazil and the United States,” “Discrimination Goes to School,” and “Pay for Performance: The Bonus System for Sao Paulo’s Teachers.”
The event is the first in what will be a series of collaborations between Vanderbilt and the University of Sao Paulo on education research. A second event is being planned in upcoming months at the University of Sao Paulo.
“Brazil and the United States have federal education systems with many similar problems and dilemmas— achievement gaps between rich and poor, black and white, north and south, city and country; inefficiencies at both higher education and K-12 levels; problems of overlapping governance; curricular quality; dropouts and repetition; and urban ghettos where students appear to lack a desire to learn,” Stephen Heyneman, professor of international education policy and leader of the new collaboration, said. “Both have high ambitions to overcome inherited impediments and improve efficiency, quality and equity and hence improve prospects for economic growth. In spite of these many similarities, the collaboration in education policy research is in its infancy. The goal of this collaboration is to bring researchers from Vanderbilt and the University of Sao Paulo together to share what they have learned about both challenges and innovations in their own countries.”
For more information:
Peabody College: peabody.vanderbilt.edu
University of Sao Paulo: www.usp.br/
Center for Latin American Studies: www.vanderbilt.edu/clas/
Vanderbilt International Office: www.vanderbilt.edu/vio
Media contact: Melanie Moran, (615) 322-NEWS
melanie.moran@vanderbilt.edu