Prologue: I’d like to thank Dean Bill Henk for inviting me to blog about a terrific project on which we collaborated. On Tuesday, the College of Education, the Office of the Provost’s Social Entrepreneurship Initiative, and the MU Law School sponsored a conference entitled “Urban Education Innovation and Reform Programs: High Success for High-Need Kids.” The event began with an engaging talk by Raj Vinnakota, Marquette’s 2010 Social Entrepreneur in Residence and the founder of The SEED Foundation (Schools for Educational Evolution and Development), and its nationally acclaimed boarding schools. A panel with local urban innovators and reformers next discussed their pathways to high success with high-needs students here in Milwaukee.

Over the lunch hour, National Teacher of the Year Rafe Esquith talked about his experience working with inner-city kids in Los Angeles, and some of his fifth grade students — the Hobart Shakespeareans — performed Shakespearean scenes and a couple of rock n’ roll songs. And, in the evening, Rafe and the Hobart Shakespeareans spoke to, and performed for, an audience of education students, faculty, local educators, and interested community members (thanks to all of those at the College of Education for making the evening such a great success). Cross posted at the Marquette Educator >>