Manhattanville Launches Changing Suburbs Institute 

On June 1, Manhattanville College’s School of Education launched a new initiative – the Changing Suburbs Institute (CSI) – to focus on the challenges of educating Hispanic students in Westchester County school districts. Nationally, the Hispanic population continues to face obstacles in educating its youth, especially in urban areas. CSI is attempting to tackle these obstacles in an area that is often over looked – the suburbs. 

Educators from various local school districts participated in the special collaborative educational forum held in Reid Castle. Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano was a special guest at the launch and offered his endorsement of the program which will identify key issues involved in educating Hispanic children and examine the impact of educating a diverse student body on teachers and administrators. The information gathered will be accessed and used to develop ideas to promote educational opportunities for Hispanic students.

“CSI or the Changing Suburbs Institute will ultimately be a place at Manhattanville that offers to school districts and the community – resources, program development, and professional development to teachers, administrators and to teacher education programs, “ explained Shelley Wepner, dean of Manhattanville’s School of Education. “It will conduct and disseminate research, and maintain a network of individuals and institutions that are working on finding solutions to the challenges of educating Hispanic students in the changing suburbs.”

A changing suburban school district is defined as one that has experienced an increase of at least five percent in the number of Hispanic students attending school in the last four years (from 1999-2000 to 2003-2004). Districts identified in Westchester County as changing suburban school districts are the following: Elmsford (16.3%), Greenburgh (8.3%), New Rochelle (7%), Ossining (10%), Peekskill (10.5%), Port Chester – Rye (10.8%), Tuckahoe (5.1%), and White Plains (7.1%). 

Dr. David Berliner, Regents’ professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Arizona State University and co-author of The Manufactured Crisis: Myths, Fraud and the Attack on America’s Public Schools, delivered his keynote address on “The Society We Need, The Schools We Need, The Classrooms We Need and The Assessments We Need to Help Students, Particularly Poor Students and English Language Learners, Achieve Better in School.” Berliner spoke about how poverty in America is hurting the US educational system. He equated poverty in America to a 600 pound gorilla invading the room, "no politicians want to deal with it," he said. “This is a rich nation, it doesn’t have to be this way. This is not to say that poverty is an excuse, but less poverty will help students get where they need to be.”

Luncheon speaker Harry Phillips, 3rd, Regent for the 9th Judicial District for the New York Board of Regents, stressed the importance of taking risks in order to help students learn. If everything seems comfortable then you are probably not doing enough, he said.

The forum concluded with a panel discussion with Dr. Eileen Santiago, principal of the Edison Community School in the Port Chester school district; Dr. Timothy Connors, superintendent of the White Plains school district; Dr. Larry Leverett, superintendent of Greenwich public schools; and Estee Lopez, director of instructional services for New Rochelle schools.

View a photo gallery from the CSI Educational Forum.

Read about CSI in The Journal News.