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Dean
Deborah Shanley: Brooklyn College School of Education
By
Sybil Maimin
Deborah
A. Shanley, Dean of the School of Education at Brooklyn College,
is in an enviable position. She works on a campus that has just
been voted “most beautiful” in the country by The Princeton Review
and creates and oversees programs in education that have the support
of the political power elite from Bush to Bloomberg. At Brooklyn
since 1998, she was previously Dean of the School of Liberal Arts
and Education at Medgar Evers College, CUNY, where she was an
 activist
dean and an admired advocate of building working bridges between
diverse constituencies in the college and the community. Energetic,
open-minded, and creative, she is no ivory tower academic, emphasizing
instead that, “to be an effective dean, I have to be out there.”
And “out there” she is, looking at policy and exemplary practices
as she meets with principals, superintendents and teachers and
creates opportunities for these leaders to confer with faculty
and administrators of the School of Education through such avenues
as monthly meetings of the Teacher Education Advisory Panel. She
has hosted principals on campus to share concerns and challenges
and help determine “how we can do better at what we both do.”
She is determined to find “what works” and to align programs accordingly.
Dean Shanley stresses the importance of partnerships, whether
within departments or between departments in the school, as well
as between the college and the community. Many programs in the
School of Education are based on collaborations. For example,
the Brooklyn Transition Center brings District 75 students to
campus where they are trained for independence, given appropriate
jobs around the school, and nurtured. Their presence provides
an inclusive practice model. The College Now project,
a partnership between Brooklyn College and 10 local high schools,
interfaces high school curriulum with the college theater department
by, for example, providing a high school English class the opportunity
to see a play they are studying, produced and performed by Brooklyn
College. The Brooklyn College Academy, a campus high school in
the alternative high school division, gives 11th and 12th graders
access to college facilities and courses. “Learning Communities”
have been formed in districts 19 and 23 by teams of faculty who
link up with principals and superintendents. Partnerships with
the Lincoln Center Institute and the American Museum of Natural
History introduce best practices in incorporating the arts and
sciences into the classroom. The range of partners keeps growing.
Dr. Shanley “thinks deeply about the partnerships” to help bridge
gaps between theory and practice. “You cannot develop teachers
in isolation,” she explains.
Brooklyn College produces the second largest number of teachers
in New York City (Queens College trains the most). Degrees are
given in early childhood, elementary, middle school and adolescence
education, with extentions avaliable in bilingual and special
education, as well as in literacy. Dr. Shanley is a strong advocate
of “blending” programs. Special Ed and General Ed should be blended
with specialized courses tagged on as needed. “Don’t separate
professionals into boxes,” she advises. As mandated by the state,
students must take 30 credits in a subject major and far fewer,
perhaps 12 credits, in pedagogy. This will provide an essential
“knowledge base” for teaching to the New Standards. Pairing courses,
such as methods and materials of teaching social studies together
with a content English course, is a unique initiative at Brooklyn
designed to give depth. Under a recent law, the Commissioner’s
Regulation for Registration of Curriculum in Teacher Education,
students must spend 100 hours of documented time doing various
tasks in schools before becoming practice teachers. Set to go
into effect in September 2004, the requirement is already in place
at Brooklyn. The graduate program prepares principals, psychologists,
guidance counselors, and special educators. To earn a masters
degree, 18 credits are taken in a content area and 12 in pedagogy.
A Teaching Fellows program prepares people from other professions
to teach in New York City underperforming schools. Underwritten
by the Board of Education, the program leads to a Masters Degree.
Many of the education programs at Brooklyn College can be found
at other CUNY campuses. The strength of Brooklyn, explains Dean
Shanley, is its core curriculum and the quality of the arts and
sciences departments and their strong relationships with the School
of Education. In addition, the depth of its collaborations and
partnerships is unique and “goes beyond lip service.” Graduates
are encouraged to stay in touch with the school, which offers
ongoing support and help as well as workshops, conferences, and
round tables. Looking to the future, she hopes the education department
will be recognized as a strong resource that schools in Brooklyn
will turn to, a vital “cog in the borough.”#
Education
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