Boston 101 Lecture Series

To add your name to our Boston 101 e-mailing list for a reminder about the next Boston 101 lecture or changes and additions to the lecture series, please send an email to Polly O'Brien.

Fall 2009 Boston 101 Series

Additional events in the Fall 2009 Boston 101 series will be posted as they are confirmed.

Redrawing the Lines: Accountability and Effectiveness in Increasingly Diverse Police Departments

Wednesday, November 18 at 5:30 p.m.
Bell Hall, 5th floor, Belfer  Building, Corner of JFK and Eliot Streets

Dick Lehr, Author of The Fence: A Police Cover-up Along Boston’s Racial Divide and Professor of Journalism, Boston University
and
Malcolm Sparrow, Professor of Practice of Public Management and Faculty Chair of the Executive Program on Strategic Management of Regulatory and Enforcement Agencies, Harvard Kennedy School and former Detective Chief Inspector, British Police Service
Other speakers TBA

In the past year, officials examining problems in such locales as Milwaukee, Minneapolis, and Maywood, California have all contended that their work was greatly hindered by a police "code of silence" in which officers refused to speak candidly about the misdeeds of their colleagues. How common is this problem and, more importantly, how can it be addressed in ways that do not undermine police officers' ability to do their job in effective and appropriate ways?

Cosponsored by the Taubman Center for State and Local Government, the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, and Harvard’s Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management

Serving Emotionally Disturbed Youth:
Lessons from the Award-Winning Wraparound Milwaukee Program

Tuesday, December 1, 2009, 5:30 p.m.
Malkin Penthouse, 4th floor, Littauer Building, Harvard Kennedy School

Bruce Kamradt, Administrator, Milwaukee Children’s Mental Health Services/Wraparound Milwaukee

Commentary by Julie Wilson, Harry Kahn Senior Lecturer in Social Policy and Director, Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy, Harvard Kennedy School

Wraparound Milwaukee, which won the 2009 Annie E. Casey Innovations Award in Children and Family System Reform, is the first government-operated managed care service designed to treat emotionally disturbed youth in the home setting.  The program, which serves an annual 1,300 youth with diagnosable mental health disorders such as depression, attention deficit disorder, or learning impairments that prevent normal functioning in home, school, or outside community settings attempts to reduce costly and arguably ineffective residential care options by offering a host of individualized treatments that allow youth to stay with their families. Care options and services include tutoring and after school programs, group care, recreation and camp, arts programs, and substance abuse treatment.  In addition, the program encourages family members to play a more active role in the treatment process as members of the care planning team.

Cosponsored by the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance, the Wiener Center for Social Policy, the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, the Taubman Center for State and Local Government and Harvard’s Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management.

Past Events in the 2009 - 2010 Boston 101 Series

Distress Signals: Lessons from the State's Interventions in Springfield and Chelsea

9/14/09

Philip Puccia, Executive Director, Springfield Finance Control Board, 2004 - 2007 and Executive Director, J.P. Morgan Securities Tax Exempt Capital Markets
L. Harry Spence, Receiver, City of Chelsea, 1991 - 1995 and Lecturer, Harvard Graduate School of Education and Harvard Kennedy School

What - if anything - can leaders of the state's fiscally strapped cities and towns learn from the experiences of Chelsea and Springfield? Both cities faced serious financial problems brought on in large part by poor management. In Chelsea - which was governed by a state receiver from 1991 until 1995 - and in Springfield - where a finance control board oversaw key aspects of local government from 2004 until mid-2009 - the state's efforts produced significant improvements in both the performance and funding of local government. Were these particularly unique situations or do the state's interventions offer important and transferable lessons for the state's other fiscally strapped cities and towns?

This event is co-sponsored by The Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston and The Taubman Center for State and Local Government.

Diverse Opinions: Public Safety After the Supreme Court's New Haven Decision

9/23/2009

Edward A. Flynn, Commissioner, Milwaukee Police Department, former Commissioner, Springfield Police Department and former Secretary of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety
Linda Kaboolian, Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School; author of Win-Win Labor Management Collaboration in Education

The U.S. Supreme Court decision in favor of white firemen in New Haven has important implications for hiring and promotion decisions in the nation's police and fire departments. In the wake of that decision, how can public safety agencies in increasingly diverse communities be effective, accountable, and responsive to the sometimes contradictory legal and political constraints on hiring and promotion decisions?

Cosponsored by Harvard’s Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management, The Taubman Center for State and Local Government, and the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston

Inside Urban Charter Schools in Massachusetts:
Where’s the Beef?

10/14/09


Katherine K. Merseth, Senior Lecturer and Director of Teacher Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education

What factors contribute to the success of five high-performing urban charter schools serving predominately low-income, minority youth in Massachusetts? Using an analytic framework grounded in nonprofit management and effective schools literature, Merseth finds that these schools excel along the organizational dimensions of structure, systems, human resource strategies, culture and clarity of mission—functions executed with remarkable coherence. However, this consistency of organizational features is less pronounced within individual classrooms with respect to instructional activities. Nonetheless, organizational factors appear to trump the variability in instruction, enabling several of these schools to gain 100% proficiency on the challenging Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System with several of these schools scoring at the top of all high schools in the state. However, SAT scores for these same students hover below the national and state mean. This raises several questions including whether these ‘No Excuses’ schools will be able to realize their mission to prepare students to succeed in college and beyond.

This event is co-sponsored by the Program on Education Policy and Governance, the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston.

Building the Road to Recovery:
Using Transparency and Other Tools to Ensure Federal Aid Creates Jobs and Lays a Foundation for Economic Growth

10/19/09

Jeffrey Simon, Director, Massachusetts Office of Infrastructure Investment
Commentary by Archon Fung, Ford Foundation Professor of Democracy and Citizenship and Co-Director, Transparency Policy Project, Harvard Kennedy School and
Pam Wilmot, Executive Director, Common Cause Massachusetts

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act gives the state several billion dollars to create jobs now and to lay the foundation for long-term economic growth. How can the small team of state officials overseeing these efforts ensure that the money is spent quickly, efficiently, and wisely? Are there ways to harness new technologies and approaches, such as increased transparency, to accomplish all these important goals?

This event is co-sponsored by The Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, The Joint Center for Housing Studies, and The Taubman Center for State and Local Government.

Powerpoint presentation used by Jeffrey Simon

Beyond the Beer Summit:
Understanding the Role of Race in American Policing

Thursday, October 29 at 3:00 p.m.
Ames Courtroom, Austin Hall, Harvard Law School, 1515 Massachusetts Ave.

Chief Anthony Batts, Oakland Police Department
Professor Tracey Meares, Walton Hale Hamilton Professor of Law, Yale Law School
Professor Christopher Stone, Guggenheim Professor of the Practice of Criminal Justice, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
Professor Ronald Sullivan, Director, Harvard Criminal Justice Institute, Harvard Law School

Although the controversy that erupted last summer after a Cambridge police officer arrested Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates has died down, the reactions to that incident showed that many issues and problems still need to be addressed.

Cosponsored by the Harvard Criminal Justice Institute, Harvard Law School, Harvard’s Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management, and the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston.

Fast Track to the Future:
The New Vision for High-Speed Rail

10/30/2009

Polly Trottenberg, Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy, U.S. Department of Transportation
Karen Rae, Deputy Administrator, Federal Railroad Administration
Commentary by Jose Gómez-Ibáñez, Bok Professor of Urban Policy and Planning, Harvard Kennedy School and Graduate School of Design

Contending that the development of high-speed rail service would reduce traffic congestion, cut dependence on foreign oil and improve the environment, the Obama administration last April launched an aggressive effort to help develop such service in up to 10 corridors across the country.  Seeking to create a federal/state partnership similar to the ones that spurred the development of a national highway system and a national aviation system in the latter half of the 20th century, the federal government is offering about $8 billion to support the development of high-speed rail in congested corridors of 100-to-600 miles in length across the country.  In response, states and localities, however, have submitted requests for more than $100 billion in funding for new high-speed rail projects.  How will the federal government choose among these projects, what is that funding likely to achieve, and how can the commitment to new high-speed rail lines be sustained?


This event is co-sponsored by The Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston and The Taubman Center for State and Local Government.

Remaking Cities: How Jane Jacobs' Battles with Robert Moses Reshaped New York and Changed City Planning

11/2/2009

Anthony Flint, Author of Wrestling with Moses
Commentary by Alan Altshuler, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor and Ruth and Frank Stanton Professor in Urban Policy and Planning, Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Graduate School of Design and

Moderated by Edward Glaeser, Director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston and the Taubman Center for State and Local Government

For urbanists and others, the battle between Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs was the great titanic struggle of the twentieth century. Jacobs is the secular saint of street life, representing a humane approach to urban planning grounded in the messy interactions of the neighborhood. Moses is the icon of infrastructure established by power, the physical reconstruction of cities with great bridges and wide expressways and tall apartment buildings. The actual projects that fueled their acrimony may now be curiosities of urban history, but the ideological conflict embodied by Jacobs and Moses continues to rage in every growing city in the world.

Cosponsored by the Taubman Center for State and Local Government and the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston

To add your name to our Boston 101 e-mailing list for a reminder about the next Boston 101 lecture or suggestions for the lecture series, please send an email to Polly O'Brien.