UEI Director Sara Ray Stoelinga wins prestigious University of Chicago Quantrell Award for undergraduate teaching
Sara Ray Stoelinga, the recently appointed Sara Liston Spurlark Director of the Urban Education Institute, has won the University of Chicago’s most prestigious undergraduate teaching award. Each year, based on student nominations, the Quantrell Award honors faculty members for outstanding teaching at the College.
“Most of us gather our impressions about urban public education from the headlines," says Stoelinga. "I want my students to consider different viewpoints, and really understand the history and complexity of urban school reform.”
Herself an alumna of the College and a PhD graduate of the University’s Department of Sociology, Stoelinga encourages her students to use their intellectual curiosity to explore and question assumptions about urban communities and schools.
Her students appreciate her efforts. Third-year sociology major Kiara Nerenberg has taken four classes with Stoelinga. “She does a really phenomenal job of integrating very deep UChicago theory with real-world policy implications,” says Nerenberg.
As the Sara Liston Spurlark Director of UEI—an institute with nearly 500 employees and a $50 million operating budget—Stoelinga oversees the development of teachers, rigorous applied research, the operation of school campuses, and the distribution of models and systems to improve schools nationally. This spring Stoelinga also taught one of the University’s first massive open online courses, a free MOOC focused on the history of American education reform and policy for participants from around the globe.
“UEI’s mission is about changing the odds for young people growing up in poverty," Stoelinga says. "Educating ourselves about urban schools and communities—challenging our own assumptions, asking deep questions, and learning from successful models of schooling—is a critical aspect of improving outcomes and life trajectories for children growing up in urban America.”
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