Each of the three months during the summer, the series will focus on a theme relating to What’s Christian About Learning?  Education as a Human Right

 “The Crisis in Education”
 “New Directions and Solutions”
 “Challenges for the Church”

George Stroup, Ph.D., is J.B. Green Professor of Theology at Columbia Theological Seminary.  He is a scholar of the seventeenth-century and John Calvin whose interests are contemporary and constructive theology, including hermeneutics, Christology, and the role of narrative in theology.

JUNE 7 – WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION?
Are there workable strategies to change the high drop-out rates of our public schools and promote achievement at higher levels of learning?  Can our nation afford to leave education to just the professional educators?

Neil Shorthouse is President and Founder of Communities in Schools of Georgia.  He has dedicated his adult life to improving educational opportunities for all children.  Communities in Schools is a nonprofit organization with more than thirty-five years of service to the State of Georgia's public school students. CIS serves as a model for dropout prevention programs and has been replicated throughout the nation.

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JUNE 14 – THE GAP: 19TH CENTURY SCHOOLS FOR 21ST CENTURY KIDS
It is said that if Rip Van Winkle woke up today the one thing he would still recognize is a school.  Despite the presence of some technology, teaching and learning have hardly changed.  But the students in those schools are much changed from previous generations.

Rodger Nishioka, Ph.D., is the Benton Family Associate Professor of Christian Education at Columbia Theological Seminary.  His teaching is directed at equipping religious professionals to be leaders in the educational ministry of the church.  His scholarly work includes the examination of the social and cultural foundations of education with attention to the spiritual formation of youth.

JUNE 21 – DOES TECHNOLOGY PROMISE A NEW KIND OF LEARNING?
A recent international measure of the problem-solving skills of 15-year-olds ranked the United States 25th in math out of 30 industrialized nations and 24th in science.  With no emerging workforce in these disciplines in sight, how will the United States compete against China, India, South Korea and the nations of Europe?

Robert L. Collins, Ph.D., is the President of iLearn, Inc., a Marietta-based software company.  He has led the development of a multimedia system for middle school mathematics instruction that successfully remediates failing students and promotes mastery-based learning.  Bob has served as Head of the Human Resource Group in the Georgia Tech Research Institute and has provided services to business, industry and government in all areas of Human Resource Management and Management Effectiveness.

Gary Rowe is an independent producer and media consultant.  He led the educational division of Turner Broadcasting from 1984 to 1996 and won a George Foster Peabody Award for the creation of a multimedia learning system for CNN.  Currently, he is working on the organization of the Institute for Religion and Communication for the schools of the Atlanta Theological Association.  The work includes the development of a digital learning resource for confirmation in collaboration, in part, with The Quality Group.

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JUNE 28 – SOURCES OF CHANGE:  CHARTER SCHOOLS AND NEW TEACHERS FOR STRUGGLING SCHOOLS
The achievement gap costs money.  Lots of it!  A recent McKinsey & Company study demonstrates that our economy would have produced $1.3 trillion to 2.3 trillion more in wealth if we had matched Finland and South Korea since A Nation at Risk was published in 1983.  Where can we find changes that overcome lagging achievement?

Nina Gilbert, is the Head of School at Ivy Preparatory Academy, Georgia’s first all-girls public charter school located in Norcross.  It served a population of sixth-graders from mostly failing schools in its first year just completed and its students scored among the best of Georgia’s schools in reading and math.  Ivy Prep will add a grade each year until it includes sixth through twelfth grades.  Nina is a former teacher and had to overcome powerful resistance to open Ivy Prep.

Elizabeth Marshall, has completed her first year of teaching second grade at Cleveland Avenue Elementary School in Atlanta.  She is part of the growing workforce recruited by Teach for America dedicated to assisting urban and rural public schools. 

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JULY 5 – IS THE TEXTBOOK DEAD?  THE POWER OF MULTIMEDIA
Are we living in a post Gutenberg world where the power of words alone yields to the power of images and interactive experiences?  Our children already know the answer but few educators seem to recognize the highly mediated, digital future.

Mark E. Weston, Ph.D., is the national education strategist for Dell, Inc.  He previously led the strategic education initiatives group at Apple Computer focused on creating large, policy-driven and funded educational technology initiatives.  He directed intergovernmental affairs for Secretary Lamar Alexander at the U.S. Department of Education, served as minority counsel for the Appropriations Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, directed the education reform program of the National Conference of State Legislatures and has consulted for over forty state legislatures and hundreds of school districts.

Rob Stewart is the President and CEO of The Quality Group.  He co-founded the company in 1992 and has been the driving force behind the TQG's proven leadership at delivering innovative and compelling e-Learning solutions for business, organizations and communities. Rob is a strong advocate for blended learning. He firmly believes that "if the e-Learning does not set-up better human interaction, don't do it!”

JULY 12 – RESURRECTING ATLANTA NEIGHBORHOODS
The Center for Working Families, Inc. fosters programs that feature comprehensive community support to create change.  Its work is based upon research on best practices in workforce development and asset building from across the country. The Community Building Program, for example, nurtures leadership among community residents so that residents become the primary change agents and, consequently, the primary beneficiaries of community transformation. It organizes, supports and funds a variety of training, organizing and engagement activities to meet this goal.

David A. Jackson is President and CEO of The Center for Working Families, Inc.  His background includes work with a global non-profit that deployed information technology to empower low-income people.  He served as Assistant Commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development and Associate Director of The Enterprise Foundation.  He was educated at Georgia State University, the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and the New York Institute of Technology.

JULY 19 – HARD TIMES AND CENTRAL'S OAC: THE RECESSION, JOBS, AND EDUCATION FOR CHANGE
As the information economy accelerates, more and more citizens are at risk of unemployment or underemployment.  For many years Central has supported efforts to assist otherwise nearly invisible people jeopardized by low educational attainment, systemic poverty, homelessness, addiction or incarceration.

Chuck Bowen was named executive director of the Central Outreach and Advocacy Center in January of 2007. He is a graduate of the University of South Carolina and has been a business owner and lobbyist, as well as many years of managing nonprofits.  Since joining the OAC, several new programs providing case management for its guests have been implemented including the Main Frame and Exodus Journey.  The number of guests served by the OAC has almost doubled since Chuck joined the OAC.

JULY 26 – STUDENTS AT RISK: GEORGIA AT RISK
The social costs of failing students add up to a huge tax on the community.  The so-called “schools to prison pipeline” is a well-worn path for far too many youth.  Do these young people fail school or do schools fail them?

Mary Nix Hollowell, Ph.D., is an associate professor of education at Clayton State University and a former public school science teacher.  She has been a member of Central Presbyterian Church since birth and is the granddaughter of Dr. James McDowell Richards.  Mary will share her experiences with aggressive and chronically-disruptive students from her forthcoming book The Forgotten Room: Inside a Public Alternative School for At-Risk Youth (in press at Lexington Books).  She will also discuss the results of art and writing therapy with this population.

Theresa Brower, MSW, is deputy director of the Georgia Appleseed Center for Law and Justice.  Its mission:  to listen to the unheard voices of the poor, the children, the marginalized; to uncover and end the injustices that we would not endure ourselves; to win the battles for our constituency in the courts of public opinion or in the halls of justice that no one else is willing or able to fight.

AUGUST 2 – CENTRAL’S CDC:  WHERE IMAGINATION AND LEARNING MEET
Central’s Child Development Center is a model for how a church can advance a prototype for child development that is parent-inclusive and serves its neighborhood with compassion and relevance.  The CDC celebrates the racial, ethnic, religious and socioeconomic diversity of Atlanta in a nurturing environment.

AUGUST 9 – NEW DIRECTIONS:  WHAT IT TAKES TO REFORM PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Since 2002, graduation rates for Atlanta Public Schools have risen from 39 percent to 71 percent.  Strong leadership and community support can turn around previously failing urban schools and reverse the legacies of discrimination and segregation.

Dr. Beverly L. Hall became the 15th appointed superintendent of the Atlanta Public Schools (APS) on July 1, 1999, and promised to transform the district into a world-class school system. In addition to setting an aggressive reform agenda to accelerate student achievement, Dr. Hall has worked actively with the community to gain support for public education in the city of Atlanta.  In February, 2009, Dr. Hall was named National Superintendent of the Year by the American Association of School Administrators, one of the nation’s highest awards for educational achievement.

Pat Willis is the executive director of VOICES for Georgia’s Children, a statewide organization that supports research, communication, and advocacy for issues related to children and families. She became the first director of VOICES in August 2003 after achieving over 30 years of accomplishments in the corporate sector, the public sector and in volunteer service.  During 20 years at BellSouth Corporation, she was the founding director and subsequent president of the BellSouth Foundation, an endowed trust devoted to improving education in the Southeast and Latin America.

AUGUST 16 – EDUCATION AND THE PRESBYTERIAN CALL TO SERVICE
Service to others is a trait that is part of the vitality of Presbyterianism.  This is one family’s experience in answering a call to engage with education in collaboration with others.  It is service that arises from concern, not obligation, and models a spiritual journey others may follow. 

Brad Bryant, serves on the Georgia State Board of Education representing the Fourth Congressional District.  He has served as President of the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE), Southern Director and Governmental Affairs Committee Member for NASBE.  Prior to his appointment to the State Board of Education in 2003, he served for twelve years as a member of the DeKalb County Board of Education and seven years as its Chair.  He is a past President of the Georgia School Boards Association (GSBA) and was President of the National School Boards Association Southern Region.  He has also served on the Governor’s Office of Education Accountability Report Card Committee, The Georgia Closing the Gap Commission and the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education.  He is an attorney, a member of the State Bar of Georgia and an elder in the Rehoboth Presbyterian Church.

Katherine Bryant, daughter of Brad and Kay Bryant, is a teacher and volunteer with Young Adult Volunteers of PCUSA, working in India.  She is spending time this summer working with sustainweb.org in London.

AUGUST 23 – THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION AS A HUMAN RIGHT: TWO VIEWS
Increasingly, a good education is defined as a commitment to lifelong learning.  What are the measures of a Christian’s encounter with faith that mark a path to lifelong learning about God?

Brian Blount, Ph.D., is President of Union Theological Seminary & Presbyterian School of Christian Education.  He assumed the presidency of Union-PSCE in 2007, after 15 years as professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary.  Earlier, he served as pastor of the Carver Memorial Presbyterian Church in Newport News, Virginia.  Blount’s research has focused on the Gospel of Mark, cultural studies and hermeneutics, and the Book of Revelation. His published books include Cultural Interpretation: Reorienting New Testament Criticism (Fortress, 1995); Go Preach! Mark’s Kingdom Message and the Black Church Today (Orbis, 1998).  He is associate editor of the New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible (Abingdon) and General Editor for True To Our Native Land:  An African American New Testament Commentary (Fortress).

AUGUST 30 – DON’T JUST SIT THERE!  AN OPEN FORUM.
The concluding session of Summer Studies 2009 invites Central members to discuss the preceding presentations and focus on ways that Central may become productively engaged in addressing education issues with creativity and impact.  The discussion will be moderated by Central members Kathy Ashe, State Representative for House District 56, and Amy Mast, Director, Georgia Alliance of Education Agency Heads.