Peter C. Murrell, Jr., Founding Dean of Loyola College in Maryland’s School of Education, will present the keynote at “Urban Education in the 21st Century: What’s Holding Us Back Now?,” a Tuesday, Nov. 18 inaugural address and conversation designed to provoke Baltimore’s educational leaders to explore the critical questions necessary to begin a process of collaborative action aimed at effectively confronting the growing crisis in urban education. The event begins at 6 p.m. in McGuire Hall on Loyola’s North Charles Street campus and will be followed by Q&A and a reception. Doors open at 5:15 p.m.

Murrell, who joined Loyola in July, is a nationally known expert in the field of urban education. Formerly the director of the Center for Innovation in Urban Education and Associate Professor at Northeastern University in Boston, Murrell is charged with developing Loyola’s third distinct school, which will be the only School of Education in Maryland with a dedicated focus on the advancement of achievement and development of city children and youth that is based on an analytical framework of identity, race and culture. By extension, Murrell believes, this emphasis in urban education will lead to an improved quality of life for all who live and work in America’s cities.

Murrell’s remarks will address the current state of urban education and launch a conversation regarding the barriers and opportunities for change. The address will explore the issue of why public schools, particularly those in large metropolitan school districts such as Baltimore, are dramatically less successful in educating their populations of African-American and other students of color than they are in serving those students’ middle-class European-American counterparts. The address will examine why, despite decades of educational reform initiatives in our nation’s public school systems, African-American, Latino, Native American and those for whom English is not their first language fall far behind English-speaking, European-Americans on virtually all measures of school achievement. Using as a touchstone the report of the Task Force on the Education of Maryland's African-American Males convened by the Maryland K-16 Leadership Council, an initiative chaired by the University System of Maryland Chancellor William E. Kirwan, former Maryland Acting Secretary of Higher Education John A. Sabatini, Jr. and Maryland State Superintendent of Schools Nancy S. Grasmick, the conversation will explore “what’s holding us back now” and emphasize a call to action.

Murrell holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Carleton College, a master’s degree in experimental cognitive psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a Ph.D. in urban education with a specialization in educational psychology, also from the University of Wisconsin. His research interests include cognition and learning, human development in social and cultural contexts and the social and cultural contexts of urban schooling. Murrell is the author of four books dedicated to the issues of urban education, including his most recent, 2007’s Race, Culture, and Schooling: Identities of Achievement in Multicultural Urban Schools. He has also authored or co-authored dozens of articles and book chapters. He joined the faculty at Northeastern University in 1996 after holding positions at Wheelock College, Alverno College and Marquette University.

This event is free and open to the public, but reservations are required by Friday, Nov. 14. Click here to reserve your seats, or, for more information, call 410-617-5500.