September 1997
Campus Educators in the Vanguard "It's all about not putting kids in boxes. Looking around the room, you saw creativity, innovation, and enthusiasm for the teaching and learning process. No one was saying 'We've found the answer,' but everyone is looking to improve and change."
Janice Magno
Center for Social Development and Education
On June 11, the Vanguard Showcase, held at UMass Boston for a second year, capped another year of exceptional, hands-on educational work in the Boston
Public Schools (BPS) by members of the Vanguard Partnership.
The Partnership, an alliance between the Boston Public Schools and thirteen area colleges and universities, was established in 1993, prompted by the Massachusetts Education Reform Law. The objective of the partnership is to find ways to include students with special needs in regular classrooms, and at the same time improve teaching and learning for all students. Twenty-four partnerships created displays for the Showcase highlighting ways to accomplish this goal.
"We see different schools doing different things," said Janice Magno, Coordinator of Professional Development at the Center for Social Development and Education (CSDE), who oversees the Center's partnerships with eight Boston Public Schools. "One school may focus on a multiple intelligences curriculum, another on flexible grouping strategies, for example."
Magno says that what binds all the efforts are sound pedagogy, best practices, and a program tailored to fit the school and its students. In addition to CSDE's partnership work, the Graduate College of Education's Professor Glenn Mitchell of the Special Education Program oversees a partnership with Hyde Park High School.
On hand to offer his congratulations was BPS Superintendent Thomas Payzant, who told 125 participants that he appreciated their willingness to share best practices. "Being chosen twice to host the Vanguard Showcase is a real honor," says Karen Cote, who coordinated the Vanguard Showcase for the CSDE. "It shows our special relationship with the Boston Public Schools that they look to us to pull the event together."