UB to Present Talk On Options And Alternatives In Education

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Graduate School of Education at the University at Buffalo will present the first lecture of the Herbert and Anita Foster Lecture Series, entitled "Can We Accelerate the Education of all Students?: Treating At-Risk Students as Gifted or Talented," at 4 p.m. on March 31 in the Center for Tomorrow on the UB North (Amherst) Campus.

The theme of the lecture series is "Options and Alternatives in Education."

The inaugural lecture will be given by Henry M. Levin, professor of higher education and affiliated professor of economics at Stanford University.

The talk will be free and open to the public.

Levin is a specialist in the economics of education and conceived a program designed to accelerate the learning of disadvantaged children to bring them into the educational mainstream before they finish elementary school. Currently, more than 1,000 elementary and middle schools in 40 states are breaking the vicious cycle of poor performance and reduced expectations by employing the tools and training provided by Levin's Stanford-based reform program.

His research focuses on the education of disadvantaged children, economics of education, educational finance, cost-effective approaches to evaluation and economics of worker participation.

In 1991, The New York Times named Levin one of nine national educational figures "leading the way" with his work in field.

This is the first of three annual lectures funded by the Fosters. Herbert Foster, UB professor emeritus, joined the UB education faculty in 1967, where he pursued interests in special education, urban economics and alternatives to traditional classroom education until he retired in 1995.

Anita Foster, who earned her doctorate from UB in reading education and was an adjunct assistant professor in the UB Department of Learning and Instruction, also was a teacher and reading specialist in the Williamsville Central School District for 25 years. She retired in 1994.