Rather than typing a traditional final paper to be read only by their professor, students in the Cities Suburbs and Schools seminar compose web-essays, which blend textual narrative and digital evidence for a public audience that includes invited guest evaluators. All readers are encouraged to comment, especially in response to our criteria:
- Does the web-essay present a compelling argument or story about a significant aspect of cities, suburbs, and schools? Does it inspire the reader to think in new ways?
- Are the claims supported with appropriate evidence and is the reasoning well developed? Is counter-evidence fully considered?
- Does it make effective use of web-essay format by integrating narrative text with appropriate digital elements (such as maps, charts, photos, videos, links)?
- Is the web-essay organized and well written?
- Does it include sufficient background for audiences unfamiliar with the topic?
- Does it cite all sources in an appropriate format that future readers may find?
Fall 2012 seminar web-essays:
Guest evaluators: Wesleyan students from SOCL 419: Education Policy in the US
- Are All Magnet Schools Created Equal? Brigit Rioual, Nicole Sagullo
- Does buying a home also buy you entrance into a school? Kerry McCarthy
- Hartford: the Poster Child for Portfolio-Based School Reform By Genevieve Uslander and Hollyn Cote
- Is There Hope for Hartford? The Inclusive Zoning Policy of Montgomery County Has Had Dramatic Impacts on the Educational System Amanda Gurren and Mary Daly
- School Desegregation in Hartford: Insight from a Florida Girl Richelle Benjamin
- The Missing Link: The Connection between Housing and School Policy in the Sheff v. O’Neill Case Victoria Smith Ellison
- What’s Space Got to Do With it? How School Environment Influences Learning Jorell Diaz and Pauline Lake
Fall 2011 seminar web-essays:
Guest evaluators: Claudia Dresser ’10 and Devlin Hughes ’09
Desegregated Schools within Segregated Classrooms: The Reality of Racialized Tracking at Magnet Schools, by Pornpat Pootinath and Nathan Walsh
Housing in Greater Hartford: Does it Affect Education?, by Booker Evans and Carlos Velazquez
A Step-by-Step Guide for Parents: School Choice Shouldn’t be this Complicated, by Ashley Ardinger and Courtney Chaloff
The Sheff Shift: Where Does Higher Student Achievement Fit into the Sheff v. O’Neill Remedy?, by Shanese Caton
Is Open Choice an Effective Program in Providing an Equal Educational Opportunity to Hartford Students?, by Bryan Garrett-Farb
The Middle Ground between Voluntary and Mandatory Desegregation, by Karina Torres
How the No Child Left Behind Act Widened Achievement Gaps in the Greater Hartford Region, by Daniel Luke
Prospect Ave, A Game of Inches: Educational Opportunity Between Hartford and West Hartford, by Bobby Moore Jr.
School Choice: The Child’s Perspective on High School Education, by Jessica Schlundt and Louise Balsmeyer
To Bus or Not to Bus? The Choice of a Hartford Student, by Hannah Malenfant and Candace Baker
Success within Segregation: Jumoke Academy Exposes the Limits of Integration as an Educational Benchmark, by Fionnuala Darby Hudgens and Mary Morr