Barbara Sizemore, dean of DePaul University's School of Education and nationally recognized educational leader, will mark her 50th year in education this month. In celebration of that anniversary and to raise funds for scholarships, DePaul will host a "Roast and Toast" fundraiser in May.

The dinner begins with a reception at 6 p.m., May 9, in the International Ballroom of the Fairmont Hotel, 200 N. Columbus Drive, Chicago.

Proceeds from the $75 per person dinner will go towards a scholarship fund to promote cultural diversity at DePaul's School of Education.

Sizemore, who will retire from DePaul next year, began

teaching in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) in 1947, and remained in Chicago until 1972. In 1973 she was named superintendent of schools in Washington, D.C. In 1975 Sizemore joined the University of Pittsburgh as a professor and later was named chairman in that school's Department of Black Community Education Research and Development where she worked within the Pittsburgh School System. She left the University of Pittsburgh to become the dean of DePaul's School of Education in 1992.

Her association with DePaul has led her back to where she began--to CPS, where she and Paul Vallas, the system's chief executive officer, have formed an alliance to work for its improvement.

Under her direction, DePaul's School of Education has prospered. It has continued to work with troubled Chicago schools through its Center for Urban Education and has expanded its initiatives with The School Achievement Structure, which Sizemore introduced. Both programs send teaching professionals into the schools to train teachers and principals on practical and effective methods of instructing their pupils.

Sizemore received her bachelor's and master's degree from Northwestern University in 1947 and 1954, respectively, and her doctorate from the University of Chicago in 1979.

Among the honors and awards she has received are four honorary doctorates from Delaware State College at Dover; Central State University, Xenia, Ohio; Baltimore College of the Bible, Baltimore; and Niagara University, Niagara, N.Y. She has also received the Northwestern University Merit Award, United Nations Association Human Rights Award, Presidential Award from the National Council of Black Studies for Community Service, the Promotion of Black Studies and Scholarship award and the Racial Justice Award from the YWCA.

She is the author of "The Ruptured Diamond: The Politics of the Decentralization of the District of Columbia Public Schools," published by the University Press of America in 1981, and has also written 20 chapters in books and 19 journal articles.

Sizemore has been or currently serves as a consultant to more than 100 agencies, colleges, public school systems, organizations, institutions and state departments of education.

For more information or for dinner reservations contact Monica Jefferson at 773/325-7541. To schedule an interview with Sizemore call Verneda Lamb at 773/325-7541.