Carlos Albizu University: 25 Years in Miami
 

Nestled in one of Miami-Dade County fastest growing cities (Doral), sits one of Miami’s best kept secrets—a university that over the last five years has been ranked among the five leading universities conferring doctoral degrees to Hispanics in the U.S.—an institution of higher learning named Carlos Albizu University (CAU). Celebrating its 25th year in Miami, the private, not-for-profit university today offers Bachelors, Masters and Doctoral degrees in psychology, education and business administration to more than 1,000 students from some 40 countries.
 
Founded in 1966 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, CAU’s second campus was established in Miami, Florida in 1980. Originally named “The Miami Institute of Psychology,” it was renamed Carlos Albizu University in 2000, honoring its founder as the South Florida school began to expand into fields beyond psychology.
 
Designed for students of all cultural and ethnic backgrounds, CAU’s programs seek to provide students with a rich exposure to culturally diverse populations through its academic training and applied practicum experiences.
 
During its 25 year history, the fully-accredited, Miami university has gained national notoriety.
 
The National Science Foundation recognized CAU for conferring the fifth highest number of doctoral degrees to Hispanics in 2003, outpacing the accomplishments of all other Florida universities in the same category.
 
The U.S. Department of Education has recognized the CAU Education Program’s ADEPT (Applied Development, Educational and Psychological Theories) curriculum as a Title V National Pilot Program. According to public records, CAU issued more advanced psychology degrees to Hispanics in 2003 than all of Florida’s public universities combined.
 
In 2004, an independent study based on student ratings of quality conducted by researchers at the University of Tulsa ranked CAU’s Master of Science in Industrial and Organizational Psychology program as number three in the nation, and the top ranked I/O program in the Eastern U.S.
 
CAU is one of only two universities in South Florida to offer a graduate level program in Industrial and Organizational Psychology—a growing field that focuses on instructing corporate-based professionals on improving employee productivity and job satisfaction.
 
According to the National Research Council, CAU graduated 19 percent of all Hispanic doctors of psychology in the United States from 1980-1990.
 
The Hispanic Outlook on Higher Education ranked CAU’s Miami Campus among the top 100 universities in two categories: 12th in awarding doctoral degrees to Hispanics, and 86th in awarding master degrees to Hispanics, during the period 2003-04.
 
CAU offers small class sizes and provides flexible schedules to meet the needs of full-time and part-time students, as well as working professionals. The business administration programs are accelerated—allowing upper division undergraduate students to complete their bachelor degrees in only 18 months and graduate students to earn Master of Business Administration degrees in just one year.
 
The University’s Goodman Center for Psychological Services provides doctoral level psychology students with special resources to hone acquired skills, while providing supervised mental health services to the residents of the local community.
 
CAU is fully accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, and licensed by the Florida State Department of Education's Commission for Independent Education. The university’s doctoral program in clinical psychology is accredited by the American Psychological Association.
 
The campus has four main buildings on 18 acres, including classrooms, faculty offices and a mental health clinic.  CAU’s Miami campus offers day and evening classes for full-time students and working professionals, and is located in Doral at 2173 NW 99th Avenue.
 
For more information, call 305-593-1223, ext. 137 or visit www.mia.albizu.edu.

Approximately 44,000 students in 39 chronically low-performing schools have embarked on a journey to academic excellence with Miami-Dade County Public Schools' School Improvement Zone, a program officially launched last January,
 
The School Improvement Zone is the cornerstone of Superintendent Rudolph F. "Rudy" Crew's efforts to reform education in all of Miami-Dade County's public schools and to give all students the quality education they need and deserve.
 
The 39 schools include 19 elementary schools, one K-8 center, 11 middle schools and eight senior high schools. Dr. Irving S. Hamer, Deputy Superintendent of School Improvement, has been appointed to oversee the Zone.
 
Students are receiving intensive support and a special academic program that places a strong emphasis on literacy. They benefit from uniform, high quality teaching materials at every elementary, middle and senior high school. Additionally, special teams of experts known as Student Development Teams help students in grades pre-kindergarten to second, as well as all retained third-graders, boost their reading and writing skills. In the secondary schools, these teams address the needs of students in grades 6 and 9 who are performing two years or more below grade level.
 
To give Zone students more time and opportunities to learn, the school day has been extended by one hour and the current school year by five days. Activities for elementary school students include storytelling, creative writing and computer literacy exercises. Secondary students l have the chance to explore such activities as computer and Internet courses, personal and career development, broadcast communications, intensive reading, intensive math, and multimedia production.
 
A special School Improvement Zone hotline has been established for parents at 305-995-READ (7323). Staff is available to take calls in English, Spanish and Haitian-Creole Monday-Friday from 8am to 4:30pm. Pre-recorded messages provide general information.
 
The program is just one more step in the improvement of Dade schools. More than three times the number of Miami-Dade County schools raised their state accountability grades in 2005. With the 2005-2006 school year opening, Miami-Dade County Public Schools had completed 98 percent of the 17,928 student stations that it set out to construct.
 
Milestones in 2005
 
The year 2005 was one of exceptional advancement. Some 66 projects providing additional seats were completed. Several schools stand out for having the most significant or interesting projects completed for this school year. Among these are the following: Coral Gables Senior High School - Classroom Building Addition, (830 student stations). This project greatly reduced the overcrowded conditions of the school and permitted the removal of all 14 portable classrooms. It was part of a joint agreement with the City of Coral Gables which committed the School Board to complete this project within the 2004-2005 school year. The $7 million construction project was completed within budget and ahead of schedule.
 
Learning Centers, K-8 Conversions on Key Biscayne (743 student stations). This school was the first school in the District converted to a K-8 Center in 1998, and now has facilities for the middle school component of the K-8 school. The $8.3 million, three-story facility includes ground-level parking below most of the structure to conserve open green space for recreational purposes and to provide much needed parking on-site. It also provides middle school-level art and music suites, a cafetorium, a multi-purpose room, administration areas, and 25 classrooms, including business, computer, foreign language, and technology labs and a science demonstration room.
 
Coral Way Elementary (483 student stations). The completion of this new Middle Learning Center allowed for the conversion of this very successful bilingual school to a K-8 configuration. The new $5.7 million facility provides the full complement of middle school-level spaces.
 
Bob Graham Education Center (483 student stations). This existing elementary school, which had a modular classroom building built for the 2004-2005 school year to accommodate the sixth grade, now has the full complement of middle school facilities for the full conversion to a K-8 configuration. The $6 million addition provides art and music suites, a cafetorium, a science demo classroom, business and technology labs, administration areas, general-purpose classrooms and a physical education covered area.
 
Poinciana Park Elementary (76 student stations). This $3.2 million project provides much needed facilities for this 50-year-old school and creates a greatly enhanced appearance.
 
North Miami Beach Senior High School - Modular Classroom Bldg., (600 student stations). This is the first of the multi-story modular classroom buildings, which will be repeated at more than 20 other planned locations. This $5 million facility provides 24 classrooms with a covered walkway connector.
 
School Improvement
 
Eighty-five of 317 schools in Miami-Dade County improved their letter grades, including nine schools that erased a failing grade. Only 26 schools saw their grades fall, and only two schools dropped to an F. In reporting school grades, the Florida Department of Education includes both charter schools and alternative schools in its results for Miami-Dade. Sixteen schools in all received an F, but 11 of those schools were alternative schools that were graded for the first time this year. None of the county’s middle schools or K-8 centers received an F, and the number of senior high schools receiving an F dropped to three from four in 2004.
 
Most schools maintained their grades despite being held accountable for the first time this year for learning gains among students with limited English proficiency (LEP) or with special needs. Miami-Dade County has the highest percentage of special education and LEP students of any school system in Florida.
 
In addition, the score students were expected to reach on the writing section of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) rose in the spring of 2005.
 
Nonetheless, more than half of the county’s schools earned a grade of A or B for the second year in a row. Nearly half - 46 percent - have earned an A or B for three consecutive years.
 
Fifteen of the 39 schools that have extended school days and school year and that receive additional support as part of the School Improvement Zone raised their letter grades, including seven of the Zone’s 11 middle schools. The Zone schools were selected this fall based on chronic poor academic performance for at least three years across schools in a neighborhood.
 
Among STELLAR schools - an initiative targeting schools whose recent gains were seen as fragile - 15 of the 28 schools improved their state grades.

Dr. Rudy Crew: Making a Difference
in Change, Choices and Courage

Dr. Rudolph F. "Rudy" Crew became Superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools on July 1, 2004, following a nationwide search by the nation's fourth-largest school district. That choice has marked a major advancement for the school system. Dr. Crew has defined three priorities for the school district: eliminating low-performing schools, increasing academic achievement for all students and bringing cost-efficiency to the district's construction and business practices.
 
In August, 2004, the superintendent presented to the School Board a set of 22 specific, measurable targets for implementing his three priorities: boosting the number of students promoted to 4th grade and graduating from high school, spurring more schools to raise their state accountability grades, and speeding up the construction and repair of schools.
 
Prior to his inaugural opening of schools, Dr. Crew addressed principals and other school administrators and asked them to embrace three C's he considered essential to moving Miami-Dade County Public Schools forward: change, choices and courage. He asked administrators to accept the notion of change and the concept of taking back the high ground of good performance. He also asked administrators to make good choices, always keeping the best interest of students at heart, as well as to work with staff to build their capacity and to model professionalism in their daily lives. Finally, Dr. Crew asked school leaders to have courage to do the work in the years ahead, "It's about the courage to lead, to know when to say no, to be totally ethical, to be honorable in your intentions, to say what you mean and mean what you say, to me and to others in this organization."
 
Dr. Crew is a lifelong educator whose career has spanned from the classroom to the chancellorship of the nation's largest school district, New York City Public Schools, where he served from 1995-1999. He began his administrative career as principal of San Antonio High School in Claremont, California. Along his way to Miami, his career took him to Boston, Sacramento and Washington state.
 
During his 25 years as an educator, Dr. Crew has served as an administrator, a teacher, a college professor, and coordinator of special programs and staff development. Throughout his career, he has dedicated his talents and his energies to ensuring a quality education for children of all backgrounds. His work to close the student achievement gap - both nationwide and in districts in which he has served - includes the design and implementation of innovative after-school and Saturday programs, mandatory summer school, literacy campaigns, and an extended school day and school year to enable low-achieving students to catch up with their high-achieving peers.
 
As chancellor of New York City Public Schools, Dr. Crew led a number of reforms, including adoption of curriculum standards for all schools, elimination of tenure for principals, and school-based budgeting. He was instrumental in closing failing schools and replacing failing educators. He established the Math and Science Institute, an after-school and Saturday program to help poor black and Latino students boost their academic performance. He created a Superintendents and Principals' Institute (a forerunner of the Institute for K-12 Leadership) to cultivate and nurture school leadership. Dr. Crew's guiding principle in his work as an educator has always been to provide the means by which all students can achieve high standards.
 
Dr. Crew's ability to connect with youth has made him a popular figure among students in the classrooms he visits in the course of his work. A believer in participatory teaching, he enjoys interacting with students and sharing in their challenges and their successes. He has long believed in passing on to others the opportunities that have been afforded him throughout his childhood and his adult life. He credits his father, whom he describes as both a stern taskmaster and a strong role model, with encouraging him to excel. Dr. Crew was the first male in his family to go to college, and he was among the first black students to integrate his undergraduate alma mater, Babson College.
 
Dr. Crew serves on numerous boards, including the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the New York Philharmonicand the Washington Association of Black School Educators. He is a recipient of many awards, including the NAACP Educational Leadership Award, the Arthur Ashe Leadership Award, and the Association of California School Administrators Administrator of the Year Award.
 
PHOTO IDS
1. Dr. Rudolph F. “Rudy” Crew

Johnson & Wales Grows in Enrollment,
Courses Offered

Looking at Johnson & Wales University’s Florida Campus today, one can hardly see the traces of what used to be a vacant hospital building.  It’s also hard to imagine that the bustling campus of more than 2,400 students and nearly 200 faculty and staff members started out with only 81 full-time students, 20 part-timers and offered one course of study when it opened in 1992.
 
The improvements that have been made over the years are part of a plan for growth that began to develop shortly after the University purchased the vacant North Miami General Hospital.
 
“I wanted to see all remnants of the hospital eliminated,” Florida Campus President Donald McGregor said about the strides he wanted to take to turn the building into a school. “So we stripped every stick and pipe from the first floor.”
 
The University’s next purchase was a medical office building next door that would be used for office space. Nearby apartment buildings were also bought and renovated to provide student residence halls. Today the serene, terra-cotta-painted Florida Campus consists of eleven buildings, which includes seven student residence halls, an academic building, recreation facilities and university center.
 
Growth at the Florida Campus does not only consist of its physical development, but the variety of educational opportunities it offers. Today degrees are granted from the College of Culinary Arts, College of Business, which was added in 1995, and The Hospitality College, added one year later.
 
Students can earn an associate and bachelor’s degree in accounting; business administration; criminal justice; fashion merchandising; food and beverage management; food service management; hospitality management; hotel management; management; marketing; restaurant management; sports/entertainment/event management; and travel tourism management. These courses are available in addition to the original degree offerings in culinary arts and baking and pastry arts.
 
Along with an increasingly varied curriculum, came a diverse student body. In 1992, students tended to be local and older than the traditional college student. Today the campus boasts students from 50 countries and 43 states. Approximately 56 percent are from Florida. More than 20 percent of the student body is Hispanic and 34 percent are African American.
 
“When we first started out, a lot of people couldn’t visualize what we would be today,” said Barry Vogel, director of administration. “But some of us had a vision of what the campus could be, and we’ve been fulfilling that vision ever since.”
 
Johnson & Wales still has a vision for the campus which is outlined in a ten year plan for future progress. The University presented the plan to the North Miami City Council. It involves building a full-service college campus complete with landscaped commons, walkways and formal entrances to the eight-block area around the University between Northeast 123rd and 130th Streets. A landscaped commons and amphitheater are also included.
 
The new plans assume enrollment will grow to 4,000 in the next 10 years. And if all goes as anticipated, 1,735 dorm beds, 46 classrooms and nearly 2,000 parking spaces will be available by 2015 to accommodate them.
 
The Florida Campus is one of four Johnson & Wales University’s campuses. Other campuses are located in Providence, R.I., Denver, Colo. and Charlotte, N.C.
 
Johnson & Wales was founded in 1914 by Gertrude Johnson and Mary Wales to educate students in business. In 1973, the culinary and hospitality programs were added. Today, more than 16,000 students are enrolled university-wide.

WLRN—Public Radio/Television:
Combines Telecommunications, Education

Public broadcasting has come a long way in South Florida. Just look at WLRN.
 
WLRN Radio signed on the air in 1948 as a non-profit, non-commercial broadcast station licensed to the School Board of Dade County. Since then, WLRN has grown steadily to become an integral part of the community.
 
Today, WLRN continues to provide quality public radio and television programming and services to a combined average weekly audience of nearly 500,000 households in South Florida from Palm Beach to Key West.
 
A new phase has begun in WLRN’s evolution with the addition of a new digital television channel to compliment existing broadcast services, satellite uplink facilities and wireless cable. These newly acquired technologies give WLRN the capability of sending and receiving programs anywhere in North and Central America.  In addition, WLRN is involved in the production of television series and specials for national distribution There is also the opportunity to break new ground in the educational telecommunications field by using the station’s new technology and production facilities for distance learning services such as professional in-service training programs, college tele-courses, two-way video teleconferencing and much more. In addition, WLRN is producing television series and specials for national and international distribution, according to Station Manager John LaBonia.
 
“WLRN has come a long way in a short time, and it is the people of South Florida who have been the key to this growth,” LaBonia said, in praising the volunteer Friends of WLRN and the station’s Community Advisory Board.
 
WLRN Public Radio   91.3 FM
 
WLRN Radio is the oldest FM station in South Florida and a National Public Radio (NPR) member station. WLRN allows viewers to keep abreast of world events through Topical Currents, South Florida Arts Beat, and NPR’s Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Talk of the Nation. 
 
The WLRN Radio Reading Service has proven to be an invaluable resource for the visually and print handicapped. Twenty-four hours a day, this unique service provides vital news, information, and literary enrichment for those who are not able to read for themselves. The service is broadcast over a private frequency, which is heard on special receivers provided to listeners without cost. Volunteers make this effort possible by giving off their time to read newspapers, periodicals, and books.
 
WLRN Public Television    Channel 17
 
Reflecting the interests, attitudes, and lifestyles of South Floridians through a wide variety of local and national productions is what sets apart WLRN -17, a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member station.
 
Viewers also can count on WLRN-17 to deliver programs like Artstreet, WLRN Perspectives, Celebrate South Florida, Terezin: Resistance and Revival; and critically acclaimed PBS series like American Experience, NOVA, and Great Performances.  WLRN’s commitment to children all day has made it one of the select stations in the nation to carry Ready to Learn, a combination of award-winning children’s programming and locally targeted outreach services created to help children start school ready to learn.  Channel 17’s locally produced Spanish language programming line-up has been addressing the needs of Hispanic audiences every Sunday evening for 15 years.
 
WLRN Instructional Television Services
 
WLRN’s Instructional Television (ITV) Department provides instructional programming and technical support to all the public schools in Miami-Dade County. This department provides a wide range of video resources and services that enrich the educational environment of the classroom serving more than 360,000 students district-wide.
 
There are twenty channels of ITFS (Instructional Television Fixed Service) providing students and teachers with a host of video choices such as the NASA Channel, the Florida Education Channel, and a video-on-demand service called Teacher’s Choice.  This on-demand service allows teachers to access, at their convenience, 660 educational video titles.
 
WLRN also manages a Video & Film Library, which is a lending library that makes available for loan, videos that support all phases of educational instruction throughout Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS).  Borrowing privileges are extended at no charge to all M-DCPS administrators, teachers and staff.  The Library has over 7,000 titles -- ordered through the Internet.
 
In the area of continuing education, WLRN provides a wide range of Distance Learning services and training opportunities that focus mainly on teacher professional development. With PBS TeacherLine, teachers can receive Master Plan Points and free professional training by registering for online courses.
 
WLRN also offers professional development workshops through the nationally recognized Annenberg/CPBChannel.  Programming is distributed to all the district public schools via ITFS. 
 
The WLRN ITV department also manages the Ready To Learn Service, which is part of a national PBS initiative to help children start school ready to learn. This combines award-winning PBS children’s television programs with a variety of community outreach efforts to help children build learning skills.