Partnership with Lemann Foundation will train a new generation of policy leaders, tech innovators and entrepreneurs to transform education in Brazil.
CONTACT: Amy Yuen, Stanford University
School of Education/External Relations, (650) 724-9440, amy.yuen@stanford.edu
COMMENT: Paulo Blikstein, Assistant
Professor of Education, Stanford University School of Education, (847)
571-4538, paulob@stanford.edu
Denis Mizne, Executive Director, Lemann Foundation, 55-11-3897-9672, Denis.Mizne@fundacaolemann.org.br
RELEVANT URL: http://lemanncenter.stanford.edu
STANFORD, CA
– In a concerted effort to significantly improve public
education in Brazil
in the next decade, Stanford University School of Education has launched a new
center on campus aimed at developing new approaches to improve learning in
Brazilian public schools. Named the Lemann
Center for Educational Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Brazil, the
Center will create new educational opportunities inside and outside of the
classroom, particularly for Brazil’s low-income students.
The Center is a ten-year partnership between Stanford
and the Lemann Foundation, a nonprofit organization that aims to improve the
quality of public education in Brazil.
Program activities will predominantly take place on the Stanford campus, with
additional exchanges, seminars, and research to take place in Brazil.
“We want to train a new generation
of educational researchers and practitioners in Brazil, and encourage innovative
policies that will help our emerging country define our own education system,” said Denis Mizne, executive director of the Lemann Foundation. “We chose to partner with Stanford University because of its
proximity to Silicon Valley and its demonstrated ability to inspire
interdisciplinary solutions to complex, global problems.”
(l-r) Eric Bettinger, David Plank, Paulo Blikstein, Martin Carnoy
In addition to training educational researchers and
practitioners, the Center will train Brazilian policymakers, technology innovators,
and entrepreneurs to improve access and quality in the educational system in Brazil, which
has become one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. The Center aims
to attract the best and brightest of Brazil’s graduates and professionals from a range of top-ranked fields,
including engineering, economics, applied mathematics, and business.
“The Stanford School of Education
is known for producing leaders who are shaping research and practice around the
world, and we are thrilled to build on our global involvement in education,” said Co-principal Investigator Martin Carnoy, the Vida Jacks
Professor of Education. “We view the Center’s three areas of focus—education policy, technological
innovation, and entrepreneurship—as crucial components to sustaining lasting educational reform in a
country as large and diverse as Brazil.”
Major initiatives of the new Center include:
Graduate training:
Fellowships will be offered annually
to
students
from Brazil admitted to the School of Education's
master’s and doctoral programs and through Stanford's joint MA/MBA program
between the Graduate Business School
and the School of Education. Students will be trained
to play key roles in Brazil
in the areas of educational policy, learning design, and educational
entrepreneurship.
Hosting visiting
researchers and professionals: The Center will invite visiting educational researchers and
innovators from Brazil
to attend seminars and to work with Stanford faculty and Lemann Fellowship
students.
Researching
Innovative Approaches to Educational Change: The Center's
four lead faculty—Eric Bettinger, Paulo Blikstein, Martin Carnoy, and David
Plank—will work with Lemann Fellows, visiting researchers and professionals, and
other Stanford faculty and students to produce and disseminate research on
educational policy, technological innovation, measurement, and entrepreneurial
projects related to improving Brazilian education.
Implementing
an Educational Think Tank in Brazil: The Center
will create a counterpart policy research dissemination organization in Brazil, with the goal of increasing the impact
of academic policy research in education policy debates in Brasilia and/or state capitals. This
Brazil-based organization will draw on the expertise of Brazilian and other
education policy scholars.
Supporting Teacher
Education in Brazil: The Center
will work with the Stanford Teacher Education Program to train teams of teacher
educators in highly effective, innovative methods for preparing high quality
teachers in the context of the Brazilian university system.
“Creating this center has been my
dream and a goal for years,” said Co-principal Investigator Paulo Blikstein, assistant professor
of education and director of Stanford’s Transformative Learning
Technologies Lab. “As a Brazilian-born scholar, I am
excited about our partnership with the Lemann Foundation to improve education,
especially among the disadvantaged. We need the best minds in the country
thinking about how to improve learning in Brazilian public schools.
“Through this center, we are
putting together technological innovation and large-scale policy change in a
way that has never been done before, and we are scaling up cutting-edge
educational innovation. Every country should be doing this in today’s knowledge economy. We cannot settle for the ‘basics’ anymore,” added Blikstein.
“We hope to
make a real and positive impact on education in Brazil
through this exciting new partnership with the Lemann Foundation,” said Claude Steele, the I. James Quillen Dean
of the School of Education. “I know we will have a
lively exchange with Brazilian colleagues and practitioners, and I am equally
hopeful that this new work will enrich our research and teaching. The Lemann Center
will sharpen our ability to prepare our graduates to live and work in an
increasingly international context.”
Established in 2002, the
Lemann Foundation is a nonprofit organization working to improve the quality of
public education in Brazil.
The foundation provides
outstanding opportunities to talented youth to build a more productive and
equitable country. The Lemann
Center for Educational
Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Brazil
is another initiative of the Lemann Foundation to help develop qualified human
capital in the country and accelerate social change in Brazil.
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