On November 3, 2023, the University of Pittsburgh Center for Urban Education (CUE) hosted a dedication ceremony for the Sharon and Alan Lesgold Room, a library space within CUE’s office on the fourth floor of Wesley W. Posvar Hall. The $50,000 naming gift was made in 2021, but the dedication was delayed by the pandemic.
During the dedication ceremony, the Lesgolds were recognized for their many years of generosity and service to the University of Pittsburgh School of Education and CUE. Alan Lesgold served as the inaugural Renée and Richard Goldman Dean of the Pitt School of Education. During his tenure from 2000-2016, he helped create, establish, and grow the School’s Center for Urban Education, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Additionally, Alan Lesgold was a member of the Pitt faculty for more than 45 years.
"The Center for Urban Education is grateful to the Lesgolds for their generosity and support of our mission,” said CUE Executive Director T. Elon Dancy II. “It is symbolic that they chose to name the CUE study and library as we have learned over the years that collective study is a central practice in forging transformed educational futures."
As dean, Alan Lesgold became focused on the struggles of urban education from a real-world perspective. In the 2016-2017 issue of PittEd Magazine, he reflected on his thinking around urban education during the time of CUE’s founding.
“I knew we needed to have a center with an urban education focus. [...] We have a remarkable separation in the forms of schooling by race and economic level. If you ask anybody what should happen in a school, and they walk into a top private school, a lot of those things are happening. Then you go into our public schools, and even though teachers are trying very hard, a variety of circumstances together result in schools that seem a little bit like prisons.”
As new challenges in education emerge, the Lesgolds believe in CUE’s vital work to ensure all children are prepared for a lifetime of continual learning and adapting to a changing world.
“In the age of artificial intelligence, we are challenged to assure that we know not only how to teach, but also what to teach,” said Alan Lesgold. “We ask the scholars of the Center for Urban Education to focus not only on the past and present injustices that are barriers to Students of Color, but also on assuring that the goal for the future is real equity that takes account of a future in which people and machines will collaborate in productive activity and daily life."
In addition to the Lesgolds’ gift to name the library space, they have made several other donations to improve urban education and support math initiatives. These philanthropic commitments are inspired by the Lesgolds’ passion for improving education and Sharon's passion for mathematics. She previously worked at Pitt’s Learning Research & Development Center and Carnegie Mellon University’s Pittsburgh Advanced Cognitive Tutor Center.
The Lesgolds have generously given to CUE’s MathUp Connections program (formerly Ready to Learn) and the CUE general fund, and established the Urban Educator Endowment, which aids in the recruitment, support, and retention of students planning to teach in urban settings. Additionally, they dedicated a portion of their estate to the School of Education and recently established the Lesgold Family Scholarship for students in Pitt Education’s undergraduate teacher education program focused on Math and STEM Education.