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Keynote and Featured Speakers
The Nation’s Most Innovative Education Leaders |
A National Model of Urban School District Success Alberto Carvalho, Superintendent, Miami-Dade County Public Schools The Miami-Dade County Public Schools, under Superintendent Alberto Carvalho’s leadership, has become a national model for successfully meeting the complex problems facing urban school districts throughout the nation. In this session, Mr. Carvalho will describe the challenges the district has faced and how these challenges have successfully been met. Great lessons have been learned that can help all districts in the country deal with their most complex issues. |
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Changing Attitudes, Changing Expectations, Changing Lives: College for ALL Dr. Susan Szachowicz, Principal, Brockton High School, Massachusetts The culture and learning environment of a school can determine a student’s success or failure. Is every student being challenged to set high expectations and achieve high standards? Does the school community believe that college should be the goal for all students? This session will describe the journey of a large urban high school, with many students who are the first in their families to graduate, that changed from having many academic tracks, which limited students’ achievements, to a focus on college readiness for all. The result is a school culture with a faculty unwilling to give up on any student, significant gains in performance for all students, and impressive results for the school. |
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Creating a Culture of Excellence: Relationships Matters William R. McNeal, Jr., Executive Director, North Carolina Association of School Administrators, Raleigh, North Carolina This session will provide a blueprint for focusing on the culture of a district or school, because the culture dictates “how we do things around here” and significantly influences improvement efforts. No one can change a district or school culture alone, but educators can provide a form of leadership that invites others to join as observers of the old and architects of the new. Engaging students in rigorous and relevant learning activities is more likely when they sense that administrators, teachers, parents, and others truly care about them and their success. Fostering inclusive relationships is the first step of a collective vision. Collegiality, high expectations, trust, caring, ethical behavior, courage, and open communications are a few of the by-products. |
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Developing a World-Class Assessment System that Supports High Quality Learning Sue Gendron, Senior Fellow, International Center for Leadership in Education President Obama has charged the nation's governors and state education department chiefs to develop standards and assessments that do more than simply measure whether students can fill in the correct bubble on a test. States should also be focusing on whether students possess 21st century skills, such as problem solving and critical thinking, entrepreneurship, and creativity. More than 30 states have joined the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium to design, field test, and implement a comprehensive assessment system by 2014. In this session, participants will learn how they can influence, participate in, and prepare students for this new system. |
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Educating Our 21st Century Media Snackers: A Pathway to Higher Student Achievement John Kuglin, Associate Dean (retired), University of Montana, and Senior Educational Consultant, Kuglin Consulting, Highlands Ranch, Colorado Today’s students are enticed daily with a buffet of technology treats: social networks, microblogs, and a plethora of “Web 2.0” tools. Even more exciting, this buffet is being served up through computing devices that are smaller, better connected, and cost less than ever before. Creating motivating learning environments is a formidable task for educators. This presentation will explore how such innovations as mobile devices, cloud computing, georeferencing, the Personal Web, and semantic-aware applications will impact learning significantly in the coming years. Schools and districts can do more with less when existing resources are combined with new cost-effective technologies. |
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Every Legacy Started with a Blank Page Larry Powell, Superintendent, Fresno County Schools, Fresno, California There is a tremendous difference between building a legacy and leaving one. Building a legacy is hard work and active. Leaving a legacy is historical, the feel-good write-up after the work is done. This session will focus on building a legacy, which involves planning, focus, intention, and design. Every undertaking is a new book with blank pages. These pages are filled with stories of successes and failures, triumphs and heartbreaks, things that work and things that didn’t. Successful legacy builders learn from the mistakes and simply repeat them fewer times than others. True legacy builders also understand that each new chapter starts with a blank page and offers another opportunity to rebuild their legacy. |
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From Stressed Out to Stress Hardy: Strategies to Manage Pressure and Burnout Dr. Robert Brooks, Faculty, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts Many demands are placed on educators. Stress and burnout in the field of education are not unusual. In this presentation, Dr. Robert Brooks will describe a framework with specific strategies for reinforcing stress hardiness in ourselves and our colleagues. These strategies will help to lessen feelings of burnout and maximize our effectiveness as educators. |
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Game Changed — Moving from Seat Time (Carnegie Units) to Mastery Fred Bramante, Member, New Hampshire State Board of Education, Portsmouth, N.H. This presentation will articulate the paradigm shift that is happening in public education. Currently, our outdated 20th century model is based on time as the constant (e.g., 180 days, grade levels, clocks and bells) with achievement as the variable (A’s, B’s, C’s, D’s, F’s). In this century, the model must shift to time as the variable and achievement (mastery of required competencies) as the constant. This session will highlight the milestone changes in the New Hampshire State regulations, especially the significance of removing the Carnegie Unit, as well as work Mr. Bramante has done with other state agencies. |
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How Gender Differences and Mirror Neurons Impact Student Learning Susan Kovalik, Founder, The Center for Effective Learning, Federal Way, Washington The session will describe how to orchestrate a classroom that acknowledges and supports the gender differences in how students learn. The power of mirror neurons on how teachers teach will also be explored. Process time and an action plan for taking this information back to the classroom will be the goal of this presentation. |
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How Successful Schools Use Comprehensive Literacy Strategies to Improve Adolescent Reading Dr. Ernie Fleishman, Senior Vice President (retired), Scholastic Inc. Dr. Ernie Fleishman has assisted students, teachers, and administrators across the country to raise literacy achievement schoolwide and district wide. Prior to joining Scholastic, he worked on these issues as a superintendent of schools and director of instruction. This session will describe best practices from schools that have been successful in raising reading achievement for adolescent learners. These strategies focus on assessment, content, staff development, and reading across the curriculum. For his work in improving literacy, Dr. Fleishman recently was elected into the Educational Publishers Hall of Fame. |
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Rap, Rhythm, And Rhyme: Rebuilding the Elementary Writing Foundation Erik Cork, Founder, International Write Now, Missouri City, Texas This session will demonstrate how to empower students to organize their thoughts systematically and communicate them effectively on paper. Lively learning strategies will be demonstrated, including music, laughter, and mnemonic devices. These are teachable techniques for educators who are absolutely serious about reaching each and every one of their students and keeping them motivated, actively involved and eagerly engaged. This presentation will help participants plant, enrich, and reinforce some of the healthiest language arts seeds and practices year-round. |
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STEM – Strategies That Engage the Mind Dr. Sam Houston, President and Chief Executive Officer, North Carolina Science, Math, and Technology Education Center, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics, but more science plus more math delivered in the traditional way does not equal an effective STEM program. A better definition for the acronym is Strategies That Engage the Mind. That is the result that STEM programs should strive to achieve. Programs that support students in being innovative and thoughtful are needed, along with training for teachers to deliver integrated strategies. This session will explore how to create conditions that breed creativity, including putting students into unknown and uncomfortable experiences that will help lead them to become productive citizens of tomorrow. |
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Strategies and Tools to Help Raise Graduation Rates and Lower the Dropout Rate Franklin Schargel, President, Schargel Consulting Group Today, more than one-third of our students never graduate, which increases their likelihood of imprisonment, single parenthood, poverty, and use of alcohol and drugs. Yet the demands of NCLB inevitably increase the likelihood of students leaving school prior to graduation. Using the 15 effective strategies that I developed with the National Dropout Prevention Center and best practices created by some of America’s outstanding schools and programs, participants will not only learn what to do, but also how to aid at-risk youth to graduate. The strategies have been recognized by the National Education Goals Panel and the U.S. Department of Education as the most “effective strategies to help solve our school dropout problem.” |
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Struggling Learners Can Achieve in Quadrant D of the Rigor/Relevance Framework®
Lin Kuzmich, Senior Consultant, International Center for Leadership in Education What are the roadblocks for struggling learners at your school? We know that rigor and relevance in learning practices increase achievement, yet teachers report they have to teach in Quadrant A (low rigor/low relevance) because they have so many struggling students. All students achieve more when they are provided with learning experiences in Quadrant D (high rigor/high relevance). This session will describe key strategies that scaffold rigor and relevance for all learners and significantly increase memory, critical thinking skills, creative problem solving, and adaptation. Learn tips that help all learners achieve in the D Quadrant. |
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Brain-Behavior Fundamentals for a Healthy School: Communication, Emotion, and Relationships Dr. Paul D. Nussbaum, Clinical Neuropsychologist and Adjunct Associate Professor Neurological Surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Dr. Paul Nussbaum has worked with the International Center to connect the basics of brain structure and function to aspects of learning and to rigor, relevance, and relationships. Building on this foundation, Dr. Nussbaum will provide an overview of the relationship of brain structure to learning and emotion and highlight factors such as gender that can influence human interaction. A core understanding of the basics of brain and behavior can translate into better teaching and learning experiences, thus enhancing the educational process. |
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The Challenge of College and Career Readiness Dr. David Conley, Professor of Educational Policy and Leadership, University of Oregon US schools must change dramatically if this nation is to keep pace with the myriad economic and social challenges it faces. A key change is to get many more students ready for college and careers. This session will draw from College and Career Ready: Helping All Students Succeed Beyond High School to present a four-dimension model of college and career readiness. Dr. Conley, the author of the book, will give examples of schools that do a better-than-expected job of preparing students for college, explain seven key principles schools can seek to implement, and review practical steps schools can take to prepare more students for college and careers. |
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The Digital Promise: Transforming Learning with Technology Sue Gendron, Senior Fellow, International Center for Leadership in Education This presentation will describe how Maine's investment in technology, infrastructure, and professional development to support its focus on rigorous, relevant content and assessments has positioned the state to address each of ARRA’s four reform goals. Maine's Learning Technology Initiative has modernized learning environments to meet the needs of 21st century learners. The session will share innovative strategies to enhance learning for all students. |
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The Power of Mindsets for School Success Dr. Robert Brooks, Faculty, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts In this presentation, Dr. Robert Brooks will highlight the importance of relationships in creating effective learning environments. He will describe the mindsets of professionals who promote and students who thrive in such settings — settings in which motivation, learning, and resilience are nurtured. |
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Tired of Test, Test … and Then Test Some More? Jim Warford, Executive Director, Florida Association of School Administrators, Tallahassee, Florida Student success can, and should be, measured by more than a single test. This session will describe how the International Center and Successful Practices Network are helping schools all over the country to use the Learning Criteria to Support 21st Century Learners to provide broader measures of achievement. The presentation will use Prezi, a web-based presentation application and storytelling tool that uses a single canvas instead of traditional slides. |
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Why the Rigor/Relevance Framework is Key to Educator Survival Jim Warford, Executive Director, Florida Association of School Administrators, Tallahassee, Florida This presentation will demonstrate how mental models often determine who survives… and who does not, and why the Rigor/ Relevance Framework is the key to understanding instruction in the 21st century. This interactive session will be a Prezi presentation. Prezi is a web-based presentation application and storytelling tool that uses a single canvas instead of traditional slides. |
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Your Miraculous Brain and How to Keep it Healthy Dr. Paul D. Nussbaum, Clinical Neuropsychologist and Adjunct Associate Professor Neurological Surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Emerging research reveals that the brain is even more powerful than we ever knew. Everyone should learn about the basics of the two-to-four pound miracle that sits in their skull. From this understanding, people can adopt a proactive and lifelong lifestyle that promotes brain health. Teachers and other education professionals need to apply the basics of the human brain in building a culture of brain health in their school and in crafting curriculum and stimuli that shape students’ brains for a lifetime of enrichment. This session will describe the basics of the human brain, discuss brain-behavior relationships, and underscore the interface between brain health and education. |
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Dr. Willard R. Daggett Chief Executive Officer International Center for Leadership in Education |
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Raymond J. McNulty President International Center for Leadership in Education |
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Kenneth Wesson Education Consultant Neuroscience Featured Post-Conference Speaker |