The Center for Urban Education

Abstract

A new social scientific and educational research organization has been created that is pertinent to sociologists of education. It is the Center for Urban Education (33 W. 42 Street, New York City, New York, 10036), an independent non-profit corporation formed in 1965 under a charter from the New York State Board of Regents. The Center conducts research and development work on the problems of urban education. Its fundamental aim is to contribute knowledge to the strengthening, improvement, and reconstruction of educational services of all kinds and at all levels within urban society. The Center took form out of a proposal by Albert H. Bowker (Chancellor of The City University of New York, former President of the American Statistical Association, and Director of the Center for Urban Education) to seven other higher educational institutions in New York City to join together to create an organization with the resources commensurate to the task of addressing the problems of urban education. The institutions, including The City University, were Bank Street College of Education, Columbia Universty, Fordham University, New York Medical College, New York University, Teachers College of Columbia University, and Yeshiva University. Early in 1965, funds from the Carnegie Corporation, the Field Foundation, the New World Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation enabled a group, of about 70 public school teachers and administrators, social scientists and university scholars to meet to outline objectives. In September, 1965, the United States Office of Education awarded the Center a contract to finance a research and development program for at least the first school year. The Center conducts most of its program within communities and school systems located in the New York urban area that extends roughly