Maryland Institute for Minority Achievement and Urban Education Celebrates Fifth Anniversary;
Guest Speakers to Participate in Provost's Conversation on
Diversity, Democracy and Higher Education Series and Colloquium Presentations

"This year's colloquium series provides an opportunity for a formal recognition of the founding of the Minority Institute," said Martin L. Johnson, Associate Dean for Urban and Minority Education and director of MIMAUE. This special year will be marked by the presence of distinctive speakers who were sought to represent the impact of the Institute within the university and its value in increasing the focus of college research on helping the state and nation to improve urban schools and minority achievement.

In addition to participation in the colloquium series, each guest scholar will participate in the Provost's Conversations on Diversity, Democracy, and Higher Education series as part of the year-long commemoration of the University of Maryland's 150th Anniversary. In this forum, the presenters will speak to "the role a university can have in helping to improve curriculum organization in urban school, leadership, and teaching," said Johnson. "It is important to understand how the climate in schools impacts learning and the motivation to learn."

The Provost's Conversation presentations are held from noon to 1:30 p.m. in the Nyumburu Cultural Center, Multipurpose Room on the same dates as the MIMAUE colloquium presentation: Feb. 9, Feb. 22, March 29, and April 19.

"Three of our four presenters have been involved with MIMAUE from its beginning, serving on the Institute's External Advisory Committee," Johnson said. "They have all followed the history of the Institute, are very knowledgeable of the structure and practices in urban schools, and are outstanding leaders in their own right."

Topics being covered by the speakers will include reports on research in urban education, challenges on teaching in urban schools, and preparing student teachers to work in environments with diverse students. Colloquium presentations will be from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. in 0220 Benjamin Building on Feb. 9, Feb. 22, March 29, and April 19. The Provost's series and the MIMAUE Colloquium presentations are free and open to all students, faculty, staff, members of the campus community, the educational community at large and the public.

Speakers' presentation date, times, locations and topics:

Founded in 2001, the Maryland Institute for Minority Achievement and Urban Education links the faculty and resources of the nationally ranked College of Education with area school districts to support a unified, research-based approach to working with individual school districts to address the minority achievement gap and issues in urban education. Comprehensive initiatives are developed in partnership with local administrators and teachers to target at real-world problems.

The Institute taps into the extensive intellectual capital of the College of Education and focuses faculty research and outreach to support teachers and administrators. The goals of the Institute are to:

• Develop large-scale research programs to evaluate, implement and improve promising practices for increasing student achievement and improving urban schools
• Provide outreach services to help schools identify, implement and evaluate strategies to improve student achievement
• Disseminate research-proven best practices across the nation
• Provide a structure to involve faculty from other colleges and campuses, including historically black institutions, in research collaboration and coordinated research-based K-12 outreach

Through a process of collaborative school reform, the Institute works with schools and teachers to build robust educational climates that support high achievement. Efforts to date have included programs to develop innovative strategies to increase achievement, along with professional development to improve teachers' knowledge and skills and administrators' school management proficiency.

The Maryland Institute for Minority Achievement and Urban Education is an integral component of the research and outreach mission of the University of Maryland College of Education, which ranks 22nd among the top colleges of education in the most recent survey by U.S. News & World Report for 2006. Offering undergraduate, master's and doctoral degrees, the College of Education provides research- and practice-oriented programs through its six departments: Counseling and Personnel Services, Curriculum and Instruction, Education Policy and Leadership, Human Development, Measurement, Statistics and Evaluation, and Special Education.