Educator and author Howard Kirschenbaum has been appointed Frontier Professor of School, Family and Community Relations at the University of Rochester's Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development.
In this new role, Kirschenbaum will teach about, study, and support partnerships among schools, families, community organizations, and businesses in the Rochester area. "Increasingly, it is being understood that schools cannot do their work in isolation, but must work in real partnership with families and the community," said Kirschenbaum.
This Frontier-sponsored chair at the Warner School was created in 1996 with funding from Frontier Corporation. According to Randal A. Simonetti, vice president of communications: "We are pleased that someone of Dr. Kirschenbaum's caliber has accepted this position. We are confident he will fulfill the goals we set last year when Frontier partnered with the Warner School to create this professorship."
"This position strengthens the Warner School's direction of collaboration and community involvement," said Philip Wexler, dean of the Warner School. "It signals a commitment to partnership with urban educators. We also believe that what we learn and do here will be instructive to communities elsewhere."
In recent months, the Warner School has joined the Partnership for Family Involvement in Education, a national initiative spearheaded by U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley.
"Believing in the importance and necessity of increased family and community participation in the education of children, Frontier and the Warner School have a shared vision around the importance of applying educational research to community projects that can positively affect parent-school initiatives and interaction," stated Frontier President and CEO Joseph P. Clayton.
Kirschenbaum has been an educator for almost 30 years, and has taught graduate courses at universities and colleges, including SUNY Brockport, for the past six years. Most recently, he has worked as a consultant to school districts, nonprofit organizations, and governments in the United States and abroad. He is the author of 22 books, including One Hundred Ways to Enhance Values and Morality in Schools and Youth Settings; Wad-Ja-Get? The Grading Game in American Education; Values Clarification: A Handbook of Practical Strategies for Teachers and Students; and Skills for Living, a high school curriculum used by more than 1 million students.
"I am impressed by the many existing school-community collaborations in the Rochester area and see myself as a resource person and catalyst for enhancing and extending such partnerships," Kirschenbaum said. He also agrees that some of the models and findings from the Rochester experience could have a national impact on educational practice.
Kirschenbaum earned his doctorate in education from Temple University.