Temple University is bringing back its master’s in urban education program, which it ended under much criticism in 2020

Temple University in 2020 eliminated its master’s in urban education program, prompting an outcry from some within and outside the North Philadelphia-based school that it was wrongly de-emphasizing a topic that deserved more attention.

When Monika Williams Shealey became dean of Temple’s College of Education and Human Development last July, it didn’t take her long to realize that the critics had a point. Everywhere she went, she said, people asked her how Temple could do that.

“It was like this knucklehead kind of thing,” she said. “I said, ‘What’s going on here? That program is coming back.’”

» READ MORE: Faculty, alumni criticize Temple’s decision to end its master’s in urban education

And back, it is.

Temple is accepting applications for a revamped master’s in urban education program — which will include an online version to reach students globally, enhance community involvement and create a network of learners among students and alumni — that will start this fall. And it’s planning to restart a doctorate in the subject in 2025.

Faculty welcomed the news.

“It felt validating,” said Maia Cucchiara, associate professor of urban education. “What we went through just felt so arbitrary.”

It’s one of several moves Shealey has made as she works to heal old rifts in the college that developed under former dean Gregory M. Anderson, who had led the school for nine years. The elimination of the urban education program was just one problem faculty cited under Anderson’s leadership.

» READ MORE: Prompted by complaints, Temple taps law firm to probe education college leadership

About four years ago, roughly half of the 70 full-time faculty in the college signed a letter raising issues about Anderson’s leadership. They said faculty were “deeply concerned about faculty members’ loss of voice in our own college, and about a growing climate of fear, mistrust, and intimidation.”

An outside investigation into the complaints commissioned by Temple found no violation of law or policy by the dean or anyone else, the university said at the time, but that there was a need to improve the culture and environment in the college. Anderson stepped down two years ago.

» READ MORE: Temple University’s education dean, subject of faculty complaints, will step down in May

Of the decision to eliminate its urban education program, the college said at the time that it had infused urban education offerings across departments and programs, broadening access to those perspectives, and that the school remained committed to the subject.

But critics said the move signaled a lessening of the commitment to urban districts, such as Philadelphia, where many alumni of the program work.

“Having that cut out was like having the heart cut out of the college,” said Lori Shorr, an associate professor of urban education and policy. “Almost every faculty member who comes to Temple to be in the education department comes to Temple because of their commitment to urban education.”

The program isn’t just for educators or those who want to be educators, but for anyone interested in learning more about urban districts, how they work, and how to make them better, the dean said. Shorr noted one graduate who runs the Monkey & the Elephant coffee shop that employs former foster youth; another works at a social impact organization in Atlanta.

Benjamin Herold, a journalist and author, who completed the program in 2003, said it offers real-world applications and interactions with people on the front lines in the schools.

“Whatever successes I’ve had were largely attributable to what I learned at Temple,” said Herold, an adjunct professor at Temple who recently released his first book, Disillusioned: Five Families and the Unraveling of America’s Suburbs. “It really shaped my career, almost totally.”

After he graduated, he worked on a documentary film, First Person, chronicling six Philadelphia high school students as they tried to navigate the public school system through graduation and into college. The film won awards at the 2008 Philadelphia Film Festival. He also wrote for the Philadelphia Public School Notebook and Education Week.

The new master’s program, which was redesigned by nine faculty members including Shorr and Cucchiara, will look more closely at solutions to problems confronting urban schools, not just the injustices, Shorr said.

There also will be a focus on the positives of urban schools and partnerships with the community, she said. She has co-taught a class on school and community partnerships with Sylvia Simms, a former member of the Philadelphia School Reform Commission who had been a bus attendant in the district for years and had worked in a special education classroom.

“We’re going to do a lot more of that, looking at how to bridge the divide with the community,” she said.

Shealey meanwhile has been working to bridge the divide within the college. She started her tenure by asking every staff member to meet with her individually and answer three questions: What’s working? What’s not? And what are the most pressing issues facing the college? She shared the overarching themes, which included the need to improve communication from the dean’s office and build trust, at a collegewide meeting.

“Despite faculty and staff telling me they still feel hurt, pain and for some of them trauma from the last few years, they decided they wanted to dream about our future,” Shealey said. “They wanted to move forward.”

Furthering its commitment to urban education, the college has started a scholarship in memory of Constance E. Clayton, a former Philadelphia School District superintendent, the first Black and first female leader of the system. Her sorority, Delta Sigma Theta, has committed $50,000, which the university matched, and her estate also will be contributing, Shealey said.

“I think she would be happy to know we’re supporting the next generation of teachers to go back into the district,” she said.