Partners in Pressing for Reforms in Education | Teachers College Columbia University

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Partners in Pressing for Reforms in Education

The corporate community is increasingly counting on Teachers College to provide the across-the-board, down-the-line practices and policies central to preparing individuals capable of good thinking and strong performance.

The corporate community is increasingly counting on Teachers College to provide the across-the-board, down-the-line practices and policies central to preparing individuals capable of good thinking and strong performance.

 

A Consistent Record of Support
With a steady focus on college-corporate relations, Teachers College has enjoyed consistent support from the corporate community reaching as much as $1 million a year. It is from this base that Teachers College established a goal of more than $5 million in corporate giving over the course of the Campaign.

With a record of innovative approaches to seemingly intractable problems, Teachers College has the opportunity to forge new partnerships with members of the corporate community to stand together in making headway with reform initiatives.

Matching Interests
What has attracted current contributions is a recognition that a number of Teachers College programs match both the corporate sector's immediate and long-term interests. Illustrative of that match are the relationships that Teachers College has built with AT&T, Chase Manhattan Foundation, the GE Fund, J.M. Huber Corporation, Merrill Lynch, Metropolitan Life Foundation, J.P. Morgan & Company, Inc., Jos. E. Seagram & Sons, Inc.

For example, since 1989, Chase has underwritten activities of the Peace Corps Fellows/Associates Program providing tuition support in the amount of $200,000 for former volunteers committed to teaching in urban schools for two years. The program has proved so successful that it has been accepted as a model nationally for encouraging a new breed of teacher to bring people-to-people experiences into underachieving public schools.

Supported by a $2.5 million grant over five years from the J.M. Huber Corporation, Teachers College has established the J.M. Huber Institute for Learning in Organizations under the co-direction of Victoria J. Marsick and Martha A. Gephart, faculty in the Department of Organization and Leadership. The focus of the new institute is "transformative learning that helps people and organizations make deep, basic shifts in thinking and practice that can lead to dramatic organizational and personal gains." The Institute will partner with corporations, schools, and the nonprofit sector to help people and organizations put in place learning strategies that promote innovation and change.

A $400,000 grant was received from AT&T to the Center for Educational Outreach and Innovation (CEO&I) to develop the New Standards Initiative. CEO&I is to provide the content, arrange for the collaboration of documentary producers and select consultants to produce a video on standards for distribution nationally to the public schools.

The Positive Choices Youth Anti-Violence Initiative at Teachers College has been funded with $190,000 since 1997 by the MetLife Foundation. The Initiative is designed to empower, promote and support youth anti-violence programs in schools and communities in New York City and throughout the nation.

Since 1997, Jos. E. Seagram & Son, Inc. has underwritten the Learning from Mentors Classroom project with a $250,000 grant to connect reading specialists and support personnel from Teachers College with classroom teachers in five schools to improve the reading abilities of students in grades K-8. The mentor schools also serve as test sites to measure teacher development, watching for progress and alert for regression. The mentor program is an extension of Professor Lucy McCormick Calkins' internationally renowned Reading and Writing Project in which teachers serve as mentors and coaches for children.

The GE Fund has provided $150,000 since 1997 to support a Learning Through the Arts study, the Center for Educational Outreach and Innovation (CEO&I) and the Superintendents Work Conference. The Learning Through the Arts study, conducted by the Center for Arts Education Research under the direction of Professors Judith Burton and Harold F. Abeles, explores the role of arts education in facilitating learning and accentuating critical thinking. CEO&I is developing fiscally responsible models of institutional change and practice to benefit undergraduate education and the quality of faculty work-life in colleges and universities through its Higher Education Institute. The Superintendents Work Conference, operating annually for over 50 years, brings superintendents together to discuss crucial issues in the management of public school districts.

 

Major Support from Corporations

$1 million plus
JM Huber Corporation

$500,000 to $999,999
Anonymous

$250,000 to $499,999 Joseph E. Seagram & Sons, Inc.
AT&T Foundation
JP Morgan & Co., Inc.
Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.

$100,000 to $249,999 Philip Morris, Inc.
Bell South Foundation
Metropolitan Life Foundation
Chase Manhattan Foundation
Morgan Guaranty Trust Co.

$50,000 to $99,999
Hearst Foundation

$20,000 to $49,999
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
NY Times Company Foundation
WKBJ Partnership Foundation
March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation

$10,000 to $19,999
CBS Foundation
Chase Manhattan Bank, NA

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Published Tuesday, Sep. 18, 2001

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