Michele Foster, EdD,Director, UMKC Urban Education Research Center

Dr. Michele Foster, director of UMKC Urban Education Research Center, discusses her recent visit to Cape Town, South Africa,  University of Western Cape. Her journey is chronicled in her blog Michele’s Cape Town South Africa University of Western Cape Visit:  http://universityofwesterncape.blogspot.com/.

Host/producer:  Donna Morrow Wolfe    Co-host/co-producer:  Joseph Jackson

The UMKC School of Education formally launched its Urban Education Research Center on October 29, 2013, at the Atterbury Student Success Center on the UMKC campus.

The Center is directed by Michele Foster, Ed.D. It conducts cutting-edge research and analysis, develops data-rich approaches, and disseminates this information with the goal of promoting excellent schooling and improving the lives, opportunities and communities of urban residents throughout the United States, with a focus on the Greater Kansas City community.

UMKC Chancellor Leo E. Morton called the Center “a place where the hope and promise of urban education are respected and advanced.”

Wanda J. Blanchett, Ph.D., School of Education Dean and Ewing Marion Kauffman/Missouri Endowed Chair for Teacher Education, described the Center as “a think tank to address some of our country’s most perplexing urban education issues.”

The status quo is no longer working for students, particularly students of color and those in urban communities. Blanchett stressed that, “as the School of Education nears its 60th anniversary, we have come to understand that we must better coach our educators and mental health professionals to provide culturally-appropriate instruction and services, and validate and build upon the knowledge and life experiences all children bring into our schools.

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