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‘I think that there is no higher calling’: 2024 McGraw Prize in Education winners see the impact of their work

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At the 2024 Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education Nov. 13 celebration, from left, Jody Lewen, Harold McGraw III, Penn GSE Dean Katharine Strunk, Robert Lerman, Edmund W. Gordon, and GSE Vice Dean of Innovative Programs and Partnerships Michael Golden. 

Edmund W. Gordon — the architect of the Head Start program, an educator who challenged outdated ideas about how to teach and assess learners of all ages, a mentor who counseled generations of education leaders — has dedicated most of his 103 years to transforming education. 

In accepting the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education on Nov. 13 at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City, he laid out the stakes for his life’s work and that of his fellow honorees, Robert Lerman and Jody Lewen. 

“I think that there is no higher calling than that of helping in the cultivation of human intellective competence and character,” Gordon said. “The human brain is perhaps the finest expression of matter known to mankind. What else in the entire universe appears capable, on proper stimulation, of producing human thought? What other than the cultivated human brain seems capable of converting mere conceptions into reality?”

Gordon, Lerman, and Lewen were recognized with the 2024 McGraw Prize in Education for their groundbreaking work in helping learners cultivate their minds and improve their lives. Gordon, the Pre-K–12 winner, was praised for his decades of service, which continues. Lerman, the Lifelong Learning winner, has pushed Americans to rethink how we prepare people for careers. And Lewen, the Higher Education winner, is at the forefront of a new movement in prison education. 

Based at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, the McGraw Prize is the most prestigious prize in education. Each winner receives a Prize sculpture and $50,000 and is honored at a celebration in New York City. Gordon, Lerman, and Lewen join a distinguished list of more than 100 teachers, professors, superintendents, university presidents, nonprofit leaders, entrepreneurs, and public officials who have shaped the education landscape.

Harold McGraw III, former chairman, CEO and president of The McGraw-Hill Companies, said this year’s winners represent educators everywhere who are doing remarkable work and overcoming obstacles to deliver quality education to children and adults everywhere. 

The awardees were submitted for consideration by their peers. Winners were then selected during three rounds of judging, including a final round by an independent panel of esteemed leaders in the field. Nominations for the 2025 McGraw Prize in Pre-K–12 learning, higher education, and lifelong learning are now open. 

“Your extraordinary work truly enriches the legacy of the McGraw Prize and speaks to our hopes for the future of education,” said Penn GSE Dean Katharine Strunk. “It is no exaggeration to say that, through your pioneering efforts and steadfast commitment, you haven’t just met the moment for education — you’ve made the moment.”

Lerman, co-founder of Apprenticeships for America and a fellow at the Urban Institute, has extended learning opportunities to those who want to tackle postsecondary pursuits through experiential learning and alternative pathways. 

In accepting his award, he gave a history lesson. When Lerman first started studying apprenticeships in the 1980s, he was skeptical, seeing them as restricting entry into jobs. But over time, he came to see that they engaged students in the context of real work far better than an “academic only” approach. 

“I believe that apprenticeships at scale can change the nature of work for many Americans, raising their earnings but also pride in their occupational expertise,” Lerman said. “With the self-esteem that comes with accomplishment, more Americans would feel good about themselves and the country.”

Noting that surveys routinely show the public believes higher education needs to align more closely with career development and employers want better-prepared workers, Lerman called for greatly expanding apprenticeship programs. 

“I’ve proposed three key steps to scaling up apprenticeships: One, tackle the toughest part — convincing employers to dive in. Let’s provide financial incentives to organizations that sell employers on apprenticeship and implement programs but pay only for new apprenticeships,” Lerman said. “Two, establish credible occupational standards to ensure apprentices reach high levels of competency in their fields. And three, fund quality instruction for the classroom portion of apprenticeships.”

Lewen recognized the power of higher education in prison soon after she began volunteering as an instructor at a college program at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center. Her experience inspired her to become the founder and president of what became Mount Tamalpais College, an accredited independent institution offering hundreds of incarcerated individuals access to a liberal arts associate degree, as well as intensive college preparatory programs, and student support services.

“We need to foster a culture within ourselves and within our institutions that allows people to literally break ranks. Stepping up and modeling unapologetic bridge-building is the essence of leadership,” Lewen said. “Innovation is not just about strategies, solutions, or practices, it’s about what we’re willing to question, what taboos we are willing to violate, and what risks we’re prepared to take — for the public good. We urgently need a revolution of both courage and imagination in ourselves, in our institutions, and in our society. My deepest thanks to all of you for lighting the way.” 

Mount Tamalpais provides comprehensive individualized academic advising and support, particularly for students with learning challenges. Despite not receiving any state or federal funding, the college charges no fees or tuition, and all school supplies and textbooks are provided free of charge.

Lewen is also a co-founder of the Alliance for Higher Education in Prison, a national network supporting education for incarcerated students. She serves as a trusted advisor to policymakers and has provided consulting to dozens of prison education programs nationwide. 

Gordon — a distinguished emeritus professor at Yale University and the Teachers College, Columbia University, and director emeritus of the Gordon Institute for Advanced Study at the Teachers College — was an early champion of supplemental education in its many forms. 

He served as the original director of research and evaluation for the Head Start program under President Lyndon Johnson. In that role, he emphasized that each student deserves sufficient opportunities and support to thrive academically and developmentally.

Throughout his career, his work has significantly influenced education policy, advocating for reforms that address systemic inequities and promote social justice in schools. His insights have informed the development of instructional strategies, curriculum materials, and teacher training programs aimed at fostering inclusive learning environments.

Gordon’s influence continues to shape the education policy and research landscape. In accepting his McGraw Prize, Gordon said he was fortunate to have the opportunity to have a life in education. 

“When we think of our profession as being responsible for the deliberate cultivation of intellective competence and character,” Gordon said. “It is not difficult to understand why I feel that it is such an honor for me to be thought of as one who has done education well.”

Featured Winners

Jody Lewen

Dr. Jody Lewen, an inspiring educator and visionary leader, has dedicated over two decades to transforming higher education in prisons.

Learn More about 2024 Prize Winner Jody Lewen

Edmund W. Gordon

Dr. Edmund W. Gordon, a luminary in education, has dedicated over six decades to transforming pre-K–12 education through his visionary leadership, pathbreaking scholarship, and profound commitment to promoting equity and access to quality education for all students.

Learn More about 2024 Prize Winner Edmund W. Gordon

Dr. Robert Lerman

Learn More about 2024 Prize Winner Robert Lerman

Attribution: This article originally appeared in Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education

Photo courtesy of Penn Graduate School of Education, McGraw Prize in Education

Community Dialogs: COVID-19 Vaccination and the Incarcerated Community

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California has acted quickly to make the COVID-19 vaccine available to prison staff and residents. However, some people are reluctant or refusing to take the vaccine, citing concerns over its safety and a lack of trust between incarcerated people and communities of color with health care providers.

On February 25, we hosted a panel discussion that explored the legal, public health, and media efforts to protect the health of California’s incarcerated community and provide accurate information.

Featuring:

  • Juleen Lam, Assistant Professor, Department of Health Sciences, CSU East Bay; Faculty, Mount Tamalpais College
  • Michael Bien, Founding Partner, Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld LLP
  • Joseph Hancock, Mount Tamalpais College Alumnus; Site Support Specialist, Family Bridges
  • Dr. Leah Rorvig, Director of Health Education, AMEND, Zuckerberg SF General Hospital
  • Nigel Poor, Co-creator and Co-host, Ear Hustle Podcast; Professor of Photography, CSU Sacramento

A recording of the event is available below.

Community Dialogs to Launch on December 1

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We’re excited to announce Community Dialogs, a public education program offering events on topics related to mass incarceration and higher education. Events will feature guest speakers including students, our local community, and national experts; film and book discussion groups featuring Mount Tamalpais College faculty; and online workshops free of charge.

The first event is scheduled for Tuesday, December 1, 6:30pm-7:45pm, and will feature the premiere screening of With This Knowledge, a short documentary series following two former students on their reentry journey. Film subjects Sumit Lal and Sajad Shakoor, and filmmaker R.J. Lozada will discuss the film, facilitated by Aly Tamboura.

Please RSVP here.

Student Juan Moreno Haines on COVID-19 Inside San Quentin

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Prison University Project student and Senior Editor of the San Quentin News Juan Moreno Haines has emerged as a voice of the incarcerated experience during the COVID-19 crisis. His published pieces collected below reflect what’s happening inside San Quentin in real time.

Please note that the Prison University Project became Mount Tamalpais College in September 2020.

Inside San Quentin, Inmates Go To College

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Correction officials in California see San Quentin State Prison, once a notoriously violent place, as a model for reform at a time when the state’s prison system is in crisis. It’s under a U.S. Supreme Court order to reduce its overcrowded facilities and continues to cut rehabilitation programs for lack of money.

San Quentin’s model is centered around some 3,000 community volunteers who conduct about 70 inmate programs, ranging from self-awareness groups, to veteran activities, literacy classes and even the opportunity to go to college because of a program called the Prison University Project.

Educating Prisoners

The Prison University Project is the only on-site, degree-granting college program in the state’s prison system. There are well over 100 teacher volunteers from schools such as UC-Berkeley, Stanford and San Francisco State. They go through three security checks to get into the prison. And then they hold classes in a nondescript trailer overlooking the prison’s baseball field.

Phillip Senegal (left) and valedictorian Felix Lucero earned associate of arts degrees in 2009 at a ceremony in San Quentin state prison, where they are inmates. The college program is an extension of Patten University in Oakland, Calif.
Prison University Project

The program started in 1996 with two volunteer instructors. The program grew. But in 2000, its part-time coordinator quit. One of the volunteers, UC-Berkeley graduate student Jody Lewen, thought if nobody took the program over, it would fold. So she agreed to do it, thinking it would only be temporary. That turned into a full-time commitment.

Lewen decided she had to create an independent non-profit to raise funds to keep the program strong and stable. The project operates with no state or federal funds.

Today, 320 inmates are enrolled in the college program that could earn them an associate’s degree granted through a partnership between the Prison University Project and Patten University, based in Oakland, Calif. Two of this year’s five graduates have been paroled.

There are often tough questions for Lewen about the program, like whether it’s fair that people in prison have access to higher education when others do not.

“I completely understand,” she says. “But that’s not an argument against educating prisoners. It’s an argument in favor of universal access to higher education.”

Lewen feels she is helping to make up for the educational shortfall and hopefully, having a profound effect on the lives of these inmates.

Chris Deragon was still a high school senior when he committed a robbery and was an accessory to murder. He has served 15 years and won’t be eligible for parole for another seven. Deragon says taking college level courses has changed him in ways he couldn’t have anticipated.

“We’re in prison, so we’re trapped in this bubble. And there’s no way to expand outside of the bubble. And this allows you to do that,” Deragon says. “I have a professor from Berkeley teaching me how to grow my mind, how to read something and actually understand it. It helps me immensely as an individual and hopefully one day when I get out of prison, as a member of society.”

Bobby Evans Jr., graduated from San Quentin’s Prison University Project 5 years ago. Evans is shown here on graduation day with (back row, from left) son DeMario Porter, nephew Kelsey Evans, (front row, left) daughter Angelique Evans and son Preston Porter.
Courtesy of Heather Rowley

Bobby Evans Jr., graduated from San Quentin’s Prison University Project 5 years ago. Evans is shown here on graduation day with (back row, from left) son DeMario Porter, nephew Kelsey Evans, (front row, left) daughter Angelique Evans and son Preston Porter.Courtesy of Heather Rowley

Does that mean he’s only doing this so he can get out?

“I understand that point of view. Most people believe that I’m being punished and that I shouldn’t have the right to an education. But at the same time, if I’m released onto the street and I’m not educated, then you’re just releasing another criminal,” he says.

‘A Safer Place’

Scott Kernan, who manages day-to-day operations at California’s 33 adult prisons, says the college classes and other programs are important not only for the inmates. “You give them something meaningful to do, something they are engaged in, something that is exercising their mind, then it becomes a safer place for staff,” Kernan says.

If inmates are idle, he says, there’s a much higher chance of violence.

San Quentin certainly experiences the violence. In May, there was a riot in a wing of the prison dedicated to the short-term inmates awaiting transfers to other state facilities. They don’t have access to the college or other programs. But the general population is encouraged to participate. Among that group, which numbers around 1,800, there are far fewer incidents.

Bobby Evans Jr., who is not eligible for parole until 2020, earned his degree at San Quentin five years ago and now tutors other inmates.

“I’ve seen guys transfer in from other high-level prisons and they come in with that mask,” says Evans, who says he came in with that hardened attitude, too. He says it takes time for new arrivals, even those not in the college program, to get used to the calmer atmosphere at San Quentin.

“In a couple of weeks they start opening up, because it’s different,” he says. “The racial tension is less. We start valuing things, and we don’t want to destroy them. And so it’s a life-changing thing.”

The program may be helping to change attitudes inside the prison, but there are no rigorous studies yet that show, for example, if the program helps lower the state’s high recidivism rates. The evidence of the program’s success is largely anecdotal — and reaches outside the prison walls.

A Father’s Lesson

Desiree Lucero is 17. Her father, Felix Lucero, went to prison when she was just a year old.

She sits in the kitchen of her grandmother’s home in Stockton, Calif., about 90 miles east of San Quentin. “I guess you could say that he ‘found’ himself in prison,” she says, “because now he’s a smartypants.”

Desiree Lucero, 17, is inspired to go to college by her father, Felix, shown wearing the graduation cap and gown in the framed photo. Felix earned his Associate’s Degree from San Quentin’s college program in 2009. He has been incarcerated since Desiree was a year old.
Cindy Carpien

Felix Lucero, 32, was the first juvenile from his county to be tried as an adult for his part in a gang-related murder. Lucero’s eyes flash as he talks about his transformation after he arrived at San Quentin.

“I’d just come from old Folsom, around two years [in] lock down. I’m just kinda learning how to re-socialize and then boom! I’m in this classroom that has teacher aides, people discussing Sartre and different philosophers,” Lucero says.

Lucero says going to school changed his relationship with his daughter. “The more I learned stuff, the more I wanted to give it to her.”

“And he’d talk about a book I should read,” Desiree says. “He wants me to read Life of Pi. I’d like that. I’m not a straight-A student, and I had my downfall in high school. I figure I can still do what I want to do. Look what he did.”

Desiree is setting her sights on community college, perhaps becoming a nurse, inspired by her father’s graduation — as valedictorian — two years ago. “He’s gotten so far from where he started — a 16-year-old boy. It’s like watching him grow in a way. He’s watching me grow, but I’m watching him grow, too,” she says.

Felix Lucero is eligible for parole next year. There are no guarantees he’ll be released and fewer guarantees that he can find work as an ex-con.

Breaking The Cycle

But Lucero and other student inmatesmay have taken an important step, says program director Lewen. They are helping break a disturbing intergenerational cycle.

“Undereducation, poverty, unemployment, crime, incarceration — that goes on and on for generations,” Lewen says. “Our students’ kids have a 50-percent likelihood of going to prison.”

Even if its success is hard to quantify, one thing is certain. Not long ago, California spent about a billion dollars on rehabilitation programs, but that budget has been slashed by 60 percent. Lewen knows that state prison officials are looking to her model.

“They are in an increasingly desperate situation, and they are now finally, after all of these years turning to us and saying ‘How can we help you?'” Lewen says.

Just this year, Lewen was allowed to increase the number of classes offered a semester from 12 to 20. Still, the big question is, can the program be replicated elsewhere in the state? Or, will the Prison University Project remain, as Stanford criminologist Joan Petersilia describes it, “A little gem amidst a system that seems totally out of control.”

Attribution: This article originally appeared in NPR on June 20, 2011. Read Story

Please note that the Prison University Project became Mount Tamalpais College in September 2020.