Annenberg Institute for School Reform

Regional briefing on national public engagement report set for April 21

The Annenberg Institute for School Reform will sponsor a regional briefing for area educators, parents, policy-makers and media on April 21. The briefing, which will describe findings of a national study on public engagement in public education, will feature representatives from several organizations in southern New England cited in the groundbreaking study.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The concept of public engagement for public education will be discussed at a seminar and briefing for regional educators, parents and policy-makers on Tuesday, April 21, from 9 to 11:30 a.m. on the Brown University campus. The event, sponsored by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, will be in Leung Gallery, on the second floor of Faunce House on The College Green. It is open to the media.

The regional briefing comes on the heels of the March 19 release of "Reasons for Hope, Voices for Change," the Institute's report on the first-ever national study on the practice of public engagement for public education. The Institute released its report in Washington, D.C., during a briefing for media, national education and policy leaders, Congressional staff and the Department of Education. Over the next two months, the Institute will sponsor a series of regional seminars to increase the understanding and national discussion about how public engagement can effect change in a community's schools. The Providence seminar is the first of such seminars.

Representatives from a few of the organizations in southern New England cited in the report will attend the briefing, as will the Institute researchers who conducted the study. They will review the report's findings and discuss with seminar's participants the role and practice of public engagement in education and school reform.

"Public engagement is a core ingredient of democracy, a central tenant of community," Brown University President E. Gordon Gee told the Washington, D.C., audience March 19. "Public engagement is also about optimism ... about seeing our schools as worthy community assets that we must collectively commit to improving."