Posted on May 11, 2004 at 9:48 a.m.

BIRMINGHAM, AL — Michael J. Froning, Ph.D., dean of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Education, will join nine other national education leaders for a roundtable titled, “Fulfilling the Promise of Brown vs. Board.”

The roundtable will be held 11 a.m. Wednesday, May 12, in the Senate Dirksen Office Building in Washington, D.C. The discussion will focus on the progress made since the historic court decision and what steps remain to close the achievement gap with an examination of the No Child Left Behind Act.

The roundtable will launch the national initiative, Eleanor & Brown, to commemorate both the 50th anniversary of the Brown decision and the human rights legacy of Eleanor Roosevelt. The initiative, created by the National Urban Alliance (NUA), the Eleanor Roosevelt Center and the College Board, is designed to build support for furthering equity in education and eliminating the achievement gap. The NUA, along with U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, will host the roundtable.

Froning has been dean of the UAB School of Education since 2000. He is a member of the Council of Great City Colleges of Education steering committee and the Urban Educator Corps of the Great Cities Universities steering committee.

Other participants will include Eric Cooper, executive director of National Urban Alliance for Effective Education; Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools; Vito DiCesare, superintendent of the Beacon City Schools in New York; Barbara Eason-Watkins, CEO of the Chicago Public Schools; Larry Leverett, superintendent of Greenwich, Connecticut Schools; Jerry Weast, superintendent of the Montgomery County Schools in Maryland; Marion Bolden, Superintendent of Newark, N.J. schools; and Eleanor Roosevelt-Seagraves, the granddaughter of Eleanor Roosevelt.