Source: Marcia Hornung, 785-539-8763, hornung@k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Katie Mayes, 785-532-6415, kmayes@k-state.edu

Thursday, March 26, 2009

EDUCATOR, REFORMER AND K-STATE ALUM TO DELIVER LOU DOUGLAS LECTURE APRIL 7

MANHATTAN -- David Hursh, a Kansas State University alumnus and author of books calling for educational reform, will deliver this year's first Lou Douglas Lecture on Public Issues at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 7, in the K-State Student Union's Forum Hall.

In "The Failure and Promise of Education Reform: From High-Stakes Testing to Education for a Socially Just World," Hursh will address what he describes as the negative effects of high-stakes testing, how recent reforms fit into the movement to privatize education and suggest what might be done to create the schools he says are needed. Hursh's most recent book is "High Stakes-Testing and the Decline of Teaching and Learning: The Real Crisis in Education."

Hursh started his education career in 1969 as a staff member at UFM Community Learning Center in Manhattan. After receiving his bachelor's and master's degrees from K-State, he began teaching at the elementary level, including at the Living-Learning School in Manhattan from 1975 to 1980. He went on to receive his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in curriculum theory and research. For the last two decades he has been a professor of education at the University of Rochester, where he researches and writes about the politics of education reform, and is creating curricula on how to develop an environmentally sustainable world.

The Lou Douglas Lecture Series honors Douglas, a distinguished professor of political science at K-State from 1949 until 1977, who was widely known for his power to inspire students, faculty and citizens to instigate change. He also was one of the founders of UFM Community Learning Center. After his death in 1979 the organization began a lecture series to honor him. More information about the lecture series is available at http://www.tryufm.org