So I didnt learn personal skills from him. I like to think that he taught me how to think. These are the words that Professor Edmund W. Gordon stated in a recent interview when talking about his mentor Dr. W. E. B. DuBois. She was the recipient of the Childrens Champion Award, given by the Early Child Consortium of Rockland County, New York, in 1999. This meant a rethinking of topics such as pedagogy and the diversity and plurality of human subjects that education and social policy are supposed to be responsive to; a retooled conceptualization of the necessity of guided human development in order to enable the possibilities of human agency; a reconceptualizing of equity that is not synonymous with the necessary equality of educational opportunities, but rather equity as a particular focus on social justice and pedagogical conditions; a cultural psychological focus on experience, identity, and pluralism and their implications for human learning and development; a move from compensatory to supplementary to comprehensive conceptions of education that understands education not as that which is particular to the place of schooling but rather as a social process that is ubiquitous to being human; and, with a greater focus in more recent years on the evaluation and assessment not of education but for education. He has been awarded honorary degrees from Yale University, Yeshiva University, Brown University, and most recently Morehouse College. Gordon Commission on the Future of Assessment in Education. So I need to talk to them. We'd been talking over supper one night and he says, "Gordon, I don't want to back away one iota from my turn-of-the-20th-century position, that the problem of the century would be the problems. From 2011 through 2013, Gordon chaired the Educational Testing Services Gordon Commission on the Future of Assessment in Education, which issued a landmark report that called on the nation to reconceptualize the purposes of educational assessmentsby developing tools that integrate assessment and classroom instruction, respond to the growing diversity of society, and harness the power of digital technology. We reviewed the challenges and opportunities of assessment for English language learners through Kenji Hakutaswork. Wed been talking over supper one night and he says, Gordon, I dont want to back away one iota from my turn-of-the-20th-century position, that the problem of the century would be the problems of the color line. Emeritus Sentence Examples. The climate crisis is the most complex challenge mankind has ever faced. A: If you think I belong in the group and the society, then you are kind of concerned with whats happening with me. In asking us to reimagine how and what we assess in education, Dr. Gordon was challenging us to think beyond the learning that takes place in school and expand our view of what it will mean to be an educated person in the mid-21st-century. Gordon has stated that while he believes Head Start has been a success from a government standpoint, the program could have been much more than it is today. His colleagues and he viewed the project as not only a child development project, but also a project to influence and improve the lives of families and communities. We have an extensive variety of listings for both academic and non-academic positions at postsecondary institutions. His most recent publication,Human Variance and Assessment for Learning, co-edited with Eleanor Armour-Thomas, Cynthia McCallister, and A. The Gordon Paradigm represents a shift in research on the education and human development of marginalized groups and the socially constituted other or different. Before most knew what an achievement gap was, Dr. Edmund W. Gordon was working to eliminate it. Professor Gordon L. Clark is the former Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment with cross-appointments in the Sad Business School and the School of Geography and the Environment at Oxford University and is an Emeritus Fellow at St Edmund Hall. He has published 18 books and is an emeritus professor at not one, but two Ivy League schools Yale University and Teachers College at Columbia. And if I had to, Id put the cap on the top. Claude Baker; Jeffrey Hass (electronic and computer music) Eugene O'Brien; Du Bois as the mentors that influenced him throughout his studies. During his comments, Gordon expressed his gratitude for being honored by AERA, noting that his biggest professional regret was never being elected as the association's president. Insights and reporting on the people behind the news, At 100 years old, Edmund Gordon thinks the key to schooling starts at home, Why settling the Dominion lawsuit is so imperative for Fox News, Dominion v. Fox trial delayed for settlement talks, people familiar with the matter say, The Dominion vs. Fox defamation case is finally going to trial. [20], In 2017, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Homepage. Meanings. Barack Obama is the emeritus President of the United States. Returning to the quote that I started with: I like to think that he taught me how to think. I opened my remarks this afternoon with this quote, not to center his relationship with Dubois, though clearly important mentor for him intellectually, but more so to what Professor has done for so many of his students and mentees of what has been called the Gordon School or the Gordon Paradigm of Inquiry and Practice. questions sent to directly to your inbox! A: I do wish I knew. Were beginning to understand that, in human intellectual functions, the affective (or the emotional) and the social situations in which problems are engaged are as important as the cognitive processes on which we have been focused. He says that assessment of the future must reconcile these three sense-making processes and how academics deal with this dynamic reality in pedagogy and how assessment opens up years of additional study. Dr. Gordon, on behalf of all the educators in this country, on behalf of Americas children, I want to personally thank you.. Learning and Thriving Across the Lifespan: Building on the E. W. Gordon Legacy on Affirmative Development and Equitable Education for Every Learner, Wednesday, June2& Thursday, June3, 2021. He has served as visiting professor at City College of New York and Harvard. LinkedIn His research includes the advancement of the concepts of "the Achievement Gap",[4][5][6] "Affirmative development of academic ability", and "Supplementary Education", all which focus on improving the quality of academic achievement in diverse learners. 0. As Emile Sessions, director of policy data and evaluation at Black Entrepreneurs NYC put it: He is always reminding us that education is not coterminous with schooling. I carry Dr. Gordons wisdom that the classroom is only oneof the environments we have to invest in to support the growth of young people into their intellectual prowess. Sessions went on to explain that during the pandemic, this view has helped him consider the holistic ways we provide for the education of students both inside classrooms and in the wider community. I would try to equalize it. Edmund Gordonisthe John M. Musser Professor of Psychology, Emeritus at Yale University, Richard March Hoe Professor, Emeritus of Psychology and Education and Founding Director of the Institute of Urban and Minority Education (IUME) at Teachers College, Columbia University. New learning models, tools, and strategies have made it easier to open small, nimble schooling models. His many achievements include: pioneering the street youth worker model in Harlem in response to gang wars; founding (with his wife, the physician Susan Gordon, who passed away in 2016) one of the first comprehensive clinics serving underprivileged children, work that anticipated current efforts such as the Harlem Childrens Zone; participating in initial analysis of the landmark Coleman report; serving as research director for Head Start under President Johnson and helping to write the first Elementary and Secondary Education Act; founding IUME and later serving as TCs Vice President for Academic Affairs and Acting Dean; being named emeritus professor at both TC and Yale University (where he is the John M. Musser Professor of Psychology Emeritus); and holding the position of Senior Scholar in Residence at the College Board. Among his most enduring friendships was with former New York City Mayor David Dinkins, who passed away last year. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. She described him as the most intellectual person [she] has ever met and one the most dedicated human beings she knows. Do you think that Head Start has been successful? But instead of relaxing in his golden years, for the past two, Gordon has been leading The Gordon Commission, a study group of noted scholars with the stated goal of exploring what education assessment will be, and should become, by 2050. Edmund W. Gordon has been one of the leading intellectuals in the field of education for longer than I have been alive. A school that can carry on his Marxist and pragmatist influenced legacy, his will to do what is necessary to be responsive to the variability of human need and development even when it is not what is seemingly popular, and a focus on enabling the marginalized. That model is pretty much the model of my mature work. That question of the meanings of something rather than what something is, what I would argue, was a pragmatist line of inquiry, a concern with the practical application of ideas in a universe thats understood to be always changing. D. has been married to Susan G. Gordon, M.D. He knew he was one of the smartest people in the world and almost had contempt for people who were not. His leadership, guidance and friendship have had a profound impact on generations of his students, colleagues, family, and friends. [25], Edmund Gordon was born in 1921 in the segregated town of Goldsboro, North Carolina. This is the question of the important role of assessment practices for learning across the variability of the human. All of them are not necessarily as useful in learning to be academically proficient. Each of them profoundly influenced him and his scholarship. At a moment while much of the field had been deeply suspicious and critical of the dominant use and social consequences of assessment, specifically in a policy context of accountability testing, where standardized testing have been the driving neoliberal mechanism of curriculum, teaching, learning, and the context and culture of schooling. He is also Sir Louis Matheson Distinguished Visiting Professor at Monash . Your contributions helps The CEJJES institute a 501(c)(3) cultural, educational, and research Institute to improve the educational and social conditions for all disenfranchised people. (53) D. , an emeritus research scientist at the University of Michigan's . . Du Bois, and Dr. Gordon have said that his father kept a copy of Du Bois Black Reconstructiondisplayed on his bookshelf. So lets stop doing the accounting and lets start doing the developing. June 13th marks the 100th birthday of Dr. Edmund W. Gordon, Teachers College's Richard March Hoe Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Education and Founding Director of the Institute for Urban and Minority Education, recently renamed the Edmund W. Gordon Institute for Urban and Minority Education. We see these ideas materialized throughout Edmund W. Gordons life and career. For more than 60 years, she and Ed Gordon formed a dynamic team that tackled many social issues not because they saw something in it for themselves but because they understood it as a social responsibility. Soon after, Kennedy was assassinated and Lyndon Johnson became president. Currently, Professor Gordon is the Senior Scholar and Advisor to the President of the College Board where he developed and co-chaired the Taskforce on Minority High Achievement. Professor Emeritus Edmund Gordon Edmund W. Gordon Jr. is TC's Richard March Hoe Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Education, and founder of the College's Institute for Urban and Minority Education. A: Id put that moratorium on the wide use of standardized educational achievement tests, giving the industry two charges. And Im wondering if you recall how you handled that criticism. Today, many educators point to Dr. Gordon as their own inspiration and mentor, and ground their work in the Gordon Paradigm on Research and Practice. Preeminent Scholar Edmund Gordon to Be Named Honorary President of the American Educational Research Association Today Share For Immediate Release: April 12, 2021 Contact: Tony Pals, tpals@aera.net (202) 238-3235 Tong Wu, twu@aera.net (202) 238-3233 We share stories that highlight best practices, lessons learned and next-gen teaching practice. 2023 Cox Matthews and Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. [1], Professor Gordon's career spans professional practice, minister, clinical and counseling psychologist, research scientist, author, editor, and professor. They thought it would reinforce stereotypes. It was from him that I first learned to pay attention to context. My father was a physician in the segregated South. has been an urgent focus on the future of assessment in education. We often look at students of color from low-income backgrounds with a deficit lens, without acknowledging the wealth of experiences and potential they bring to us, said Jean-Claude Brizard, CEO of Digital Promise. In 2006, Edmund W. and Susan G. Gordon were inducted into the Rockland County Civil Rights Hall of Fame. Twitter He is an elected fellow of the American Psychological Association, American Society of Psychological Science, and American Association for Orthopsychiatry, and a life member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The field, and our school, have much to learn from Dr. Gordons work on assessments that are fair and beneficial to students. Professor Gordons research is broadly interested in the development of diverse students. A perfectionist, her father puts huge amounts of thought and energy into everything he does, and usually excels at it.. Dr. Edmund Gordon, who is 100 years old, is widely regarded as thepremier Black psychologist of his generation. A: Well, I didnt learn much about being a humane person from him. How concerned are you with this and what do you think we can do to try to address it going forward into next year? A Soliloquy on Viewing the Life of Professor Edmund W. Gordon from the First Decade of His Second Century, Dr. Were covering what edleaders and educators can do about it. [9], Gordon received his bachelor's degree in Zoology and Social Ethics in Divinity from Howard University, a Master of Arts degree in Social Psychology from American University, and the Doctor of Education degree in child development and guidance from Teachers College, Columbia University. But she kept after me on my diet, she made me eat the proper things, she was very insistent on the exercise, and she was sharp as a whip. I think we need to get back to improving and universalizing high-quality developmental experiences for kids who are raised in stable, well-resourced families. Welcome To The Dr. Edmund W. Gordon Archives housed at the University of Texas, Benson Latin American Collection | Texas Archival Resources. If you back me in the corner, Ill be an economic determinist. Together they had four children, nine grandchildren (including Jessica Gordon Nembhard[28]) and seven great-grandchildren. Please submit the following information and you will be given a link to download our free guide: Quick Start Guide to Place-Based Professional Learning. On a warm September morning in 2016, a group of respected education leaders, including the chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, the former assistant secretary for civil rights for President Obamas Department of Education, and the founder of Harlem Childrens Zone, gathered in a crowded auditorium for a naming and groundbreaking ceremony for the flagship facility that would soon house the new Edmund W. Gordon Brooklyn Laboratory High Schoolin downtown Brooklyn. In honoring Gordon, Harper was joined by Kenji Hakuta, Lee J. Jacks Professor of Education Emeritus at Stanford University, who led a brief conversation with Gordon, and four former AERA presidents: Linda Darling Hammond, President and CEO of the Learning Policy Institute and a former TC faculty member; Carol D. Lee, Professor Emeritus in the School of Education and Social Policy and in . Produced in conjunction with TCs Department of Development and External Affairs, the Mini-Moments are airing throughout 2013. From the first time I met him at Yale University, I was impressed not only by his towering intellect but his warmth, compassion, and humanity. Distinguished professor educational psychology City University of . This is a paradigm shift from traditional testing practices of dominate education policy; that is, a shift from the testing of static being of student capabilities to the assessment of student becoming in learning processes; from score generalities for decision making toward more detailed processual information to enable teaching and learning. Providing the conceptual leadership for the group has probably been the most challenging intellectual experience of my life, says Gordon. He is the author of more than 200 articles and over 20 books. The fundamental problem is the diversity. Gordon stated that getting this job had as much to do with his doctoral studies as it did affirmative action. Facebook Dr. Gordon is a role model and an exemplary human being., Dr. Gordon cites his happy marriageto his wife, Dr. Susan G. Gordon, as the crowning achievement of his life. As a paradigm shift, this meant the needed work of rethinking how we have understood many areas of educational theory, research methods, and policy. Whats most dazzling to me is that even as he enters his second century on this earth, Ed continues to reflect and write, provoke and inspire, and thus shape the fundamental debates about equity and opportunity, education and development, and, above all, social justice in our society. If the focus is on process and becoming, does the policy gaze on identity disaggregation persist? He received his bachelors degree in Zoology and Social Ethics in Divinity from Howard University, a Master of Arts degree in Social Psychology from American University, and the Doctor of Education degree in child development and guidance from Teachers College, Columbia University. Gordon's scholarship has focused on the development of students who were African-American, ethnic minorities, and of low socioeconomic status who triumphed over significant odds to become better achievers. Throughout, Dr. Gordon insisted that the measurement sciences can and should be of greater service to teaching and learning,and that developments from science and technology will both demand and enable progress. In 1879 he left Chicago and became pastor of the church of the Messiah in New York city, and in 1903 he became pastor emeritus. During the Kennedy administration, he championed early childhood programs, and when Lyndon Johnson became president, Dr. Gordon was tasked with evaluating the Head Start program. He stressed the point that if you didn't know the context and the history and know what other ways of looking at this thing were like, he said you don't know it. Michael Schwartzkopf; Composition Professor Emeritus. They come from a very privileged family in fact, a history of privilege of Black people. In sum, in the naming of this school, it becomes an heir of the Gordon Paradigm and inherits the social responsibility and pedagogical tradition of teaching others how to think like Professor Edmund W. Gordon has done for so many of us. I have asked several colleagues and friends to share a few words about Edmund W. Gordon and their relationship with him. During his career, Dr. Gordon has examined outcomes for children of color and those from low-income families, and the importance of public education to support human rights-based and equity-centered affirmative development for all. They wanted to see Dr. Gordons kids move ahead, because they thought we belonged. 2018, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027. . Even though she was no longer a teacher at our school, I still called the emeritus professor by her title. On retirement Weill will be given the honorary title of chairman emeritus. What would be your prescription for that arena today?