Featured Session Titles
Making CTE the Centerpiece of School Success
Leadership for the Components of School Excellence
Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships and the Human Brain
400,000 Voices: It’s Time to Listen
The Human Brain - Our Incredible Learning Machine
How to Meet Proficiency Requirements While Providing a Well-Rounded Education
CTE Opportunities Through Centers of Excellence
Nurturing Positive Relationships
Leading for Change – Enabling Others To Do What They Think They Can’t Do
The Adolescent Literacy Crisis: Actions We Must Take to Achieve Success
Effective Management Techniques for Every Classroom
Rap, Rhythm & Rhyme: Rebuilding the Writing Foundation K-8
Partnerships for Education Reform
Inspiring Instructional Innovation
Breaking the Literacy Failure Cycle: A Focus on Literacy and Technology
Beyond Drill and Practice: Developing Automatic Recall of Math Facts for All Students
Leadership: The Key to Successful School Reform
Creating Artists of Learning: Lessons from The School of the Future
Career and Technical Education in the Global Economy Panel Discussion
Session Descriptions and Speakers
Twenty-first Century Learners
Dr. Willard R. Daggett, President, International Center for Leadership in Education
The skills, knowledge, and attitudes that 21st century learners bring to our schools and the skills, knowledge, and attitudes they will need to be successful in the technological, globally driven world in which they will live and work have changed dramatically. Dr. Daggett will lay out how both sets of challenges must be met if we are to successfully prepare our students for their future rather than their past.
Making CTE the Centerpiece of School Success
Dr. Willard R. Daggett, President, International Center for Leadership in Education
For career and technical education, the next few years will be “the best of times” or “the worst of times.” The last decade has presented great challenges for CTE, brought about principally by No Child Left Behind coupled with dramatic changes in the workplace. Dr. Daggett will describe how outstanding CTE programs have responded to the challenges by preparing students very well for academic and workplace success. Respond correctly and CTE becomes a centerpiece of successful schools. Respond incorrectly and CTE fades away.
Leadership for the Components of School Excellence
Dr. Willard R. Daggett, President, International Center for Leadership in Education
For schools to be successful, their leaders must be successful. Building on the 8 components of school excellence that Dr. Daggett presented in his opening keynote, he will lay out the role of school leadership teams in providing the structure, support, and guidance for each component. He will also share the nation’s most successful practices in school leadership.
Educating the Whole Child
Raymond J. McNulty, Senior Vice President, International Center for Leadership in Education
Session Description to Come
The First Days of School
Dr. Harry Wong, Education Expert and Author
Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships and the Human Brain
Dr. Paul D. Nussbaum, Clinical Neuropsychologist and Adjunct Associate Professor Neurological Surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and Keynote Presenter, International Center for Leadership in Education.
To date little has been done to explore how the rigor-relevance-relationship model of learning is explained by human brain function. Using an information processing system perspective, this presentation will begin to explain the underlying neuroanatomical relationship to RRR. Dr. Nussbaum will help participants better understand the basics of the brain, how brain function can be used to shape learning and education, and how to promote a healthy brain across the lifespan. This talk underscores the integration of education and learning into health and highlights the long-term positive health benefits from lifelong learning.
400,000 Voices: It’s Time to Listen
Dr. Russell Quaglia, President/Founder, Quaglia Institute for Student Aspirations, Portland, Maine, and Keynote Presenter, International Center for Leadership in Education.
Teachers play a critical role in fostering an environment in which all students can reach their fullest potential. Dr. Quaglia will discuss the eight conditions that affect student aspirations and how teachers can promote self-worth, active engagement, and purpose in all students. Discussion will center on data from 400,000 students and 20,000 faculty who took the My Voice© Aspirations Surveys.
The Human Brain - Our Incredible Learning Machine
Susan Kovalik, Susan Kovalik, Founder, The Center for Effective Learning, Federal Way, Washington
Every day, our experiences can enhance, stifle, or diminish our intellectual, social, and emotional capacity. Thirty years of neuroscience has given us insight into the physiological functioning of how the brain orchestrates every action. This session will provide guidelines for creating the conditions for powerful learning, based on the Five Principles That Guide Effective Classroom Practice: intelligence is a function of experience, emotion is the gatekeeper to performance, the brain is a parallel processor, all learning depends on pattern detection and program building, and personality affects learning and performance.
How to Meet Proficiency Requirements While Providing a Well-Rounded Education
Jim Warford, Executive Director, Florida Association of School Administrators, and Keynote Presenter, International Center for Leadership in Education.
Mr. Warford will share lessons learned as Florida’s K12 Chancellor while leading that state’s historic gains in student achievement. He will trace the evolution of accountability from the Continuous Improvement Model, through the International Center’s Learning Criteria and show how it is possible for students to meet state proficiency requirements and for schools to ensure that a complete education does not get lost in the rush to teach to the test.
CTE Opportunities Through Centers of ExcellenceDr. Clayton M. Wilcox, Superintendent, Pinellas County School System, Florida
Building strong relationships and providing rigorous and relevant coursework are fundamental to keeping students in school and offering a high-quality education. In the Pinellas County School System, engaging CTE experiences are made available to students within a meaningful community context. This session will explore the district’s journey to create Centers of Excellence, where students earn industry-based certifications, standard diplomas, and eligibility for scholarship dollars to attend postsecondary education.
Nurturing Positive Relationships
William R. McNeal, Jr., Executive Director, North Carolina Association of School Administrators, and Keynote Presenter, International Center for Leadership in Education.
This session will provide a blueprint for developing the positive relationships that make relevant instruction and rigorous learning possible for all students. Engaging students in rigorous learning is more likely when they sense that teachers, parents, and other students actually care about how well they do. In order to attain the lofty expectations set by many schools, learners must be supported in a manner that genuinely validates their efforts. Small learning communities, advisories, and mentoring programs are effective tools for developing supportive adult-student relationships. The reward is a more engaged learners who are willing to invest in challenging work.
Leading for Change – Enabling Others To Do What They Think They Can’t Do
Dr. Susan Szachowicz, Principal, Brockton High School, Massachusetts, and Keynote Presenter, International Center for Leadership in Education.
A leader is often viewed by others as the person with the answers, but often the leader is plagued by questions: Where do I begin? How do I get the faculty to buy into change and what do I do about the resistant group? Do I have the courage to take an unpopular action when it’s the right thing to do? How can we sustain improvement? This presentation will offer a roadmap for leading a school improvement effort that includes building a leadership team, using data to guide the process, keeping the student at the center of all decision-making, planning for and monitoring the implementation, assessing the results, and institutionalizing the changes so that they are the heart and soul of the school.
The Adolescent Literacy Crisis: Actions We Must Take to Achieve Success.
Dr. Ernie Fleishman, Senior Vice President, Scholastic Inc., and Keynote Presenter, International Center for Leadership in Education.
Dr. Fleishman has worked with students, teachers, and administrators across the country to improve literacy schoolwide and districtwide. Prior to joining Scholastic, he worked on these issues as a school superintendent. This presentation will not only describe the challenges we face, but also and more importantly, define the strategies we must use to succeed with our most challenged adolescent readers. The focus will be on successful, research-based practice, schoolwide strategies, and the infrastructure required to sustain improvement.
Effective Management Techniques for Every Classroom
Chelonnda Seroyer, Teacher, Bob Jones High School, Madison, Alabama
This presentation will present a step-by-step guide through Ms. Seroyer’s first day procedures and discuss how Dr. Harry Wong's book, The First Days of School: How to Become an Effective Teacher, saved her life in the classroom. She will also give a personal account of her journey into the teaching field by discussing everything from student teaching experiences to her current classroom “happenings.” This presentation will provide practical management techniques to turn a classroom into a stress-free place that both teacher and students will enjoy.
Rap, Rhythm & Rhyme: Rebuilding the Writing Foundation K-8
Erik Cork, Founder, International Write Now, Missouri City, Texas
This presentation will model student-centered techniques with enthusiasm and passion. The instructional strategies presented will empower the entire student body to organize their thoughts systematically and communicate them effectively on paper. Music, memory enhancing movements, and complete audience participation make this lively workshop a perfect marriage, combining youthful student interest with state and parental expectations in the content area of English language arts.
Partnerships for Education Reform
Debra Mills, Vice President of Partnerships, Center for Occupational Research and Development (CORD)
It takes a community to implement education reform through a Career Pathways system. This session will explain why reform efforts must engage the community and how they should include secondary and postsecondary institutions, employers, parents, chambers of commerce and economic development entities, and community and faith-based organizations. Participants will learn how to take existing partnerships and empower them to lead the cause of education reform.
Inspiring Instructional Innovation
Louis Martinez, Executive Director Secondary Education, Ysleta Independent School System, and Senior Consultant, International Center for Leadership in Education
Breaking the Literacy Failure Cycle: A Focus on Literacy and Technology
Dr. Ted S. Hasselbring, Professor, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
Too many students are entering middle and high schools with such deficit literacy skills that they are unable to participate in grade-level learning. It has been noted that students with low-literacy skills quickly fall into a cycle of failure, which often results in their dropping out of school. In this presentation, Dr. Hasselbring will examine how technology has been used to break this "failure cycle" and help students become literate. He also will describe why these technology innovations are successful with struggling readers.
Beyond Drill and Practice: Developing Automatic Recall of Math Facts for All Students
Dr. Ted S. Hasselbring, Professor, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
On March 13, the National Mathematics Advisory Panel released a report entitled, "Foundations for Success." The report urges that students "develop automatic recall of addition and related subtraction facts, and of multiplication and related division facts" in order to free up mental resources to address more complex math. In this session, Dr. Hasselbring will discuss how to use technology to go beyond drill and practice and develop high rates of recall in all students, including those with special needs and those at-risk for school failure. Dr. Hasselbring's research in this area is grounded in what is known about human learning and the role of technology.
Leadership: The Key to Successful School Reform
Dr. James Causby, Executive Director, North Carolina Association of School Administrators, Raleigh, North Carolina, and Senior Consultant, International Center for Leadership in Education
Changing demographics, personnel shortages, funding issues, and the achievement gap are just some of the challenges that school leaders will face in the next few years. This presentation will focus on the importance of leadership at the school and district levels in successfully reforming America’s schools. Strategies for staying focused on the mission and dealing successfully with these leadership challenges will be discussed. Dr. Causby will equip participants to think beyond how tough the job will be and instead focus on the great successes that can be achieved.
Career Pathways/Clusters
Dr. Richard C. Hinckley, President and CEO and Carol Jurgens, Senior Consultant, Center for Occupational Research and Development (CORD)
A Career Pathways system offers great promise in helping students succeed by providing “roadmaps” that include high academic skills and technical skills, thus making education rigorous and relevant. Education organized around Career Pathways emphasizes multiple entry and exit points without duplication or penalty and can be a catalyst for changing the culture of community, connecting education to local area economic development efforts, and facilitating students’ preparation for postsecondary education and careers through comprehensive student guidance and career planning.
Creating Artists of Learning: Lessons from The School of the Future
Dr. Sam Houston, President and CEO, North Carolina Science, Mathematics and Technology Education Center; Mary J. Cullinane, Director, Innovation and Business Development, Microsoft Corporation; and Stacey Rainey, Academic Program Manager, Partners in Learning, Microsoft Corporation
Session Description to Come
Career and Technical Education in the Global Economy Panel Discussion
Janet Bray, Moderator; Dr. Clayton Wilcox, Dr. Richard C. Hinckley, and Tom Schultz, Panelists
As the country evolves into a technologically based, globally driven society, the academic skills needed for the workplace are higher than and different from what was required in the past. Evidence shows that career and technical education is playing a central role in meeting the needs of the workplace and in fostering individual economic prosperity. The panelists will provide an overview of how the workplace is changing and how the nation’s most successful schools are helping all students to develop the necessary skills. Various models of CTE will be discussed.