
David Hursh
ProfessorTeaching & Curriculum
PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison (curriculum theory and research)
MS, Kansas State University (family and child development)
BS, Kansas State University (social science)
David Hursh is a professor in the teaching and curriculum program.
His recent research and writing reflect three specific areas of interest. First, Hursh situates the current corporate-based education reform effort within the context of the rise and dominance of neoliberal economic policies and high-stakes testing. Over the last 25 years, he has been writing about the politics of testing, focusing on New York State. His most recent book, Opting Out: The Story of the Parents’ Grassroots Movement to Achieve Whole-Child Public Schools, is co-authored with two parents active in the opt-out movement in New York and two Warner School students. He has also co-authored several book chapters and journal articles with the students and co-edited a special issue (due out in fall 2020) of the journal Teachers College Record examining the opt-out movement nationally. He also recently edited a special issue of Policy Futures in Education on “the end of neoliberalism.”
Second, he has worked to design and implement curriculum that promotes a sustainable society. This ranges from reconceptualizing educational goals to include practices that contribute to understanding the physical and social world as a holistic system. This includes not only teaching about energy and water use, but also creating an environment that supports the health of humans and other living things. He has created lessons and taught in classrooms in sub Saharan Africa as well as urban and suburban schools in the United States. He also worked with the Earth Institute at Columbia University from 2011-12 on the Millennium Development Project on attaining the Millennium Development Goals.
Third, in his current project, Hursh is working with fourth- through twelfth-grade teachers on teaching about structural racism in society. Specifically, they are looking at how the communities and schools in the Rochester metropolitan area became segregated and unequal. Teachers and students are learning about how residential redlining, restrictive covenants, and zoning regulations created segregated and unequal communities.
Hursh is responsible for teaching two courses: ED 404 Teaching, Curriculum and Change; and EDU 428 Theory and Practice in Teaching and Learning Social Studies in Elementary School. In the latter course, students take an antiracist approach to teaching history and civics. He occasionally teaches an advanced doctoral seminar, most recently on globalization and education. In his Teaching, Curriculum and Change course, Hursh encourages students to conduct research on past and current issues in education, including the role of venture philanthropists such as Bill Gates, standardized testing, teachers unions, and inequality. His course on elementary social studies supports teachers and teacher candidates in developing curriculum and pedagogy in social studies education. Hursh supports students in raising and answering questions that are personally and politically significant.
He has given presentations on the above topics in the United States and around the globe. He has given addresses at the United Nations, in New Zealand, Australia, Chile, Canada, the United Kingdom, and at numerous international conferences in Europe and North America. For several years he was the associate editor for the Americas for the Journal of Education Policy and has been and still is the associate editor for the journal Policy Futures in Education. In addition to his appointment as a visiting scholar at Columbia University, Hursh has been on the faculty at Swarthmore College, a visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a visiting scholar at the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand and the University of Redlands, Redlands, California, and a research fellow at Bristol University, Bristol, England.
Hursh, D. (2015). The End of Public Schools: The Corporate Reform Agenda to Privatize Education. New York: Routledge.
Hursh, D. (2015). EvenMore of the Same: How Free Market Capitalism Dominates Education. In P. Carr and B. Porfilio (Eds.) The Phenomenon of Obama and the Agenda for Education: Can hope audaciously trump neoliberalism? (2nd edition) Charlotte, NC: Information Publishing.
Hursh, D. (2013). “Raising the Stakes: High-Stakes Testing and the Attack on Public Education in New York.”Journal of Education Policy, 28(5). 574-588. DOI:10.1080/02680939.2012.758829
Hursh, D. (2008). High Stakes Testing and the Decline of Education: The Real Crisis in Education. Lanham, M: Rowman & Littlefield).
Environmental Sustainability
Hursh, D., Henderson, J. & Greenwood, D. (2015). Environmental education in the neoliberal climate. Environmental Education Research 21(3), 299-316.
Henderson, J. A. & Hursh, D. (2014). Economics and education for human flourishing: Wendell Berry and the Oikonomic Alternative to Neoliberalism. Educational Studies. 50(2), 167-186.
Hursh, D. & Martina, C.A.(2011). Teaching Environmental Health to Children: An Interdisciplinary Approach. DortrechtThe Netherlands: Springer Science and Business.
Social Studies
Hursh, D. & Ross, E.W. (Eds.) (2000). Democratic Social Education: Social Studies for Social Change. London: Falmer.
YouTube Videos:
Keynote address: New York State as a cautionary tale (2014). New Zealand union of primary teachers and administrators. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hW4vZGsLiL4
University of Rochester Meliora Address (2013): High-stakes testing and the decline of teaching. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIQu2Hh_YkI
Publications Available on the Web:
The End of Public Schools: The Corporate Reform Agenda to Privatize Education (Mercedes Schneider Book Review)
In the News
- 9/18/2020Hursh’s Book on New York State’s Opt-Out Movement Receives a 2020 AESA Critics’ Choice Book Award
- 3/11/2020Opting Out: Book Talk and Signing with David Hursh in Brockport
- 3/07/2020Opting Out: Book Talk and Signing with David Hursh in Rochester
- 2/26/2020David Hursh on Opting Out of Standardized Tests on WSHU Public Radio
- 2/20/2020David Hursh Discusses Opting Out Book on FOX Rochester
- 2/06/2020New Book Focuses on the Success of New York State’s Opt-Out Movement
- 1/07/2020Diane Ravitch's Blog Features David Hursh's New Book
- 10/26/2019David Hursh Writes about Reforming the City School District in the Democrat & Chronicle
- 4/04/2019Warner School Takes Part in the 2019 AERA Annual Meeting in Toronto
- 10/10/2018Wednesday Lunch Talk - Resisting High-Stakes Testing: Lessons from the Opt-Out Movement
- 9/13/2018David Hursh on Standardized Tests on WHEC-TV
- 4/09/2018David Hursh Coauthors Democrat & Chronicle Guest Essay on Alternatives to High-Stakes Testing
- 12/05/2017Forum on the Regents and the Research: Creating Great Schools and Students Through Research-Based Policies & Practices
- 8/01/2017David Hursh Discusses Neoliberalism on WXXI
- 8/29/2016David Hursh Talks Independent Schools on WXXI
- 4/27/2016Wednesday Lunch Hour - Resisting the Politics of Privatization in Education: The Results from an Activist Scholars Meeting in New York City
- 4/05/2016Q&A Feature with David Hursh in Currents: The End of Public Schools?
- 3/23/2016Wednesday Lunch Hour - A Community Conversation about the Opt-Out Movement and Testing in New York
- 2/27/2016Labor Lyceum Event: Saving Public Schools From Privateers (Featuring David Hursh)
- 2/03/2016David Hursh Contributes to the Charter Schools Discussion on WXXI Connections
- 12/21/2015David Hursh on the "End of Public Education" on New York NOW
- 11/10/2015New Book Aims to Reassert the “Public” in Public Education
- 4/08/2015Wednesday Lunch Hour — Andrew Cuomo and the Attack on Public Schools
- 3/17/2015UR Warner School Professor, Alumnus Honored with Guest Editor Post for Environmental Education Journal
- 7/31/2014Sharing the Experience of School Reforms Overseas
- 7/31/2014David Hursh on Teacher Tenure in Democrat & Chronicle
- 6/19/2014David Hursh on State Assessments
- 6/17/2014Follow the Money: How Education Policy is Made in New York. A Dialogue. (Presented by David Hursh)
- 6/11/2014David Hursh Discusses the Money Behind the Common Core on WXXI's Connections
- 4/03/2014David Hursh Delivers MEL Talk on High-Stakes Testing and the Teaching Profession
- 3/13/2014David Hursh Featured on Education Historian Diane Ravitch's Blog
- 8/11/2013David Hursh on Common Core Test Scores in Democrat and Chronicle
- 6/14/2013David Hursh Talks School Rankings on WXXI's Need to Know Rochester
- 5/24/2013David Hursh, Warner Students on Saving Teaching on WXXI
- 4/24/2013Larson, Hursh on the Teaching Profession in City Newspaper
- 3/13/2013Education for Environmental Health and Sustainability in Developing Countries with David Hursh
- 12/04/2012Hursh Comments on RCSD Plan to Add 300 Hours to School Year on 13WHAM
- 10/17/2012The Failure of Corporate School Reform: Chicago and Beyond
- 9/24/2012WXXI's Innovation Conversation: Middle School Moment
- 6/15/2012David Hursh Interviewed by Education Radio
- 3/27/2012David Hursh Profiled in Democrat and Chronicle
- 2/08/2012Focus on Education in the Developing World
- 11/16/2011New Book Shows Environmental Health Belongs in the Classroom
- 8/10/2011Warner Professor Discusses Education Issues on WXXI
- 7/14/2011Revamping Health Education Curriculum in Uganda
- 5/11/2011Hursh Discusses Education, Environment on WXXI
- 4/28/2011WXXI 1370 Presents Environmental Sustainability, Ecology, and Higher Education
- 3/22/2011Environmental Education, Biological Diversity, and Resilience: Lessons from East Africa
- 12/16/2010David Hursh Talks Education Reform on WXXI's 1370 Connection
- 10/04/2010Hursh Discusses Education Issues on WXXI
- 9/17/2010Teaching. Learning. Giving: A Lesson in Education, Health, and Sustainability in Makindye, Uganda
- 9/13/2010Warner Helps Rochester City School Teachers Enhance History Lessons
- 8/18/2010Warner Professor Weighs in on Education Issues on Radio Show
- 7/27/2010Democrat and Chronicle Column Focuses on Professor's Global Sustainability Efforts
- 6/30/2010Hursh in Vancouver Observer on Neoliberalism and Public Schools
- 6/07/2010Warner Professor Shares Uganda Experience on WXXI
- 5/13/2010New Interdisciplinary Curriculum Enables Schools to Pioneer Global Environmental Sustainability Efforts
- 5/04/2010Hursh Quoted in ABC News Story on Mayoral Control
- 2/17/2010Democrat and Chronicle Shares Professor's Critique of Mayoral Control
- 2/01/2010Professor Will Discuss Changes to NCLB on WXXI
- 1/29/2010Hursh Discusses Mayoral Control of Rochester Schools on YNN Rochester
- 12/28/2009Hursh Discusses Mayoral Control of City Schools on WXXI 1370 Connection
- 12/02/2009Hursh Featured in the News on Sustainability Education
- 11/15/2009No Child at the Nextstage at the Geva Theatre Center
- 9/10/2009Hursh Quoted in Parenting Magazine on High-Stakes Testing
- 8/28/2009Warner Professor Will Discuss Issues in Education Policy on Radio Program
- 3/05/2009Hursh Talks to WXXI About President Obama's Education Policy
- 1/30/2009Hursh Authors Chapter in Landmark Handbook on Social Justice
- 10/31/2008Hursh Quoted in Democrat and Chronicle on Mock Election
- 10/15/2008Wednesday Lunch Hour
- 8/07/2008Hursh Featured in Democrat and Chronicle on Curriculum-Free Schools
- 4/08/2008Warner Professor Leads Community Discussion on High-Stakes Testing
- 4/01/2008University of Rochester Conference Examines Effects of a Globalizing World
- 3/01/2008Hursh Releases Book on High-Stakes Testing; Signing and Reading Set for March 1
- 2/21/2008Hursh Talks to WXXI about High-Stakes Testing
- 7/02/2007WXXI-TV Interviews Hursh on No Child Left Behind
- 5/01/2006Hursh Co-Authors New Book on Contemporary Schooling
- 3/27/2006Author Jonathan Kozol to Speak in Rochester
- 11/01/2005Hursh Quoted in City
- 11/13/2003Impact of High-Stakes Testing to be Explored in Public Lecture
Courses
EDU428 Theory and Practice in Teaching and Learning Social Studies in Elementary School
ED404 Teaching, Curriculum, and Change
ED532 Action Research Methods (1 credit)
ED554 Action Research Dissertation Seminar I
ED555 Action Research Dissertation Seminar II
ED551A Teaching & Curriculum Doctoral Cohort Seminar 1A
ED551B Teaching & Curriculum Doctoral Cohort Seminar 1B
ED551C Teaching & Curriculum Doctoral Cohort Seminar 1C
ED552A Teaching & Curriculum Doctoral Cohort Seminar 2A
ED552C Teaching & Curriculum Doctoral Cohort Seminar 2C
ED553 Teaching & Curriculum Dissertation Proposal Seminar
ED552B Teaching & Curriculum Doctoral Cohort Seminar 2B
EDE531 Globalization, Education and Societies
EDE532 Dewey, Democracy, and Globalization
EDE436 Diversity and Equity in Education