Endeavor: A High School Integrated Learning Model Featuring the Habits of Mind
Terry Duty, Principal; and Barry Fountain, Leif Heins, and Bill Weis, Teachers, Tahoma Senior High School, Maple Valley, Washington

Endeavor is an integrated program that weaves the content of sophomore science, social students, and language arts together to enrich the relevance and rigor of learning for students. This session will share how the Habits of Mind, Tahoma School District 21st Century Thinking Skills, and content all serve as integrating concepts throughout the year. This integrated learning program is based on the Gates small learning community research and uses the International Center’s Learning Criteria to Support 21st Century Learners from the to scaffold student learning.

Creating a Brain Compatible Classroom
Linda L. Jordan, Associate, The Center for Effective Learning, Federal Way, Washington, and Associate Professor, Hope College, Holland, Michigan

This presentation will focus on current brain research as it applies to creating a brain compatible classroom. As scientists and researchers are discovering more about the brain and how it works, educators can use these findings to inform their teaching. Participants in this session will learn how to apply some of these findings by using the nine bodybrain compatible elements developed by The Center for Effective Learning and used in classrooms and districts around the country.

Helping New Teachers Succeed in Your School
Donna Hunter and Amy Cowin, Teachers, Riverton High School, Riverton, Utah

The Riverton High Teacher’s Academy harvests new teachers for Riverton High in the Jordan School District every year. This three-year-old program is designed to help provisional teachers and teachers new to the building grow in their chosen profession by coordinating mentoring efforts, providing training on good teaching practice and the school’s culture and climate, and nurturing professional relationships. The methods used to cultivate new teachers can easily be transplanted to any school.

Leading for Secondary School Redesign
Dr. Molly Howard, Principal, Jefferson County High School, Louisville, Georgia

In this presentation, the National Association of Secondary School Principals’ 2008 Principal of the Year will describe how she led her school to become high-achieving. Jefferson County High School surpassed the state and national graduation rates, despite its 80% poverty rate. This session will spotlight the unique role of the principal in raising achievement and the lessons that were learned along the way.

Supporting Struggling Math Students Through Problem- and Project-Based Learning
Dan Schab, Teacher, Williamston High School, Williamston, Michigan

All educators face the challenge to teach students with a wide range of academic skills and motivation effectively. Participants will learn how to use problem-based and project-based learning to reach all types of learners. The presenter will share exciting projects and problems from his mathematics classroom which feature real-world connections. Participants will walk away with ideas they can incorporate into their classrooms next fall.            

Fostering Student Aspirations — Middle School’s Journey
Ronald Rix, Principal, and Eileen Jachym, Assistant Principal, North Middle School, Westfield, Massachusetts

When students have high aspirations, they have the ability to dream about the future and take steps to reach those goals. Partnering with the Quaglia Institute for Student Aspirations (QISA), North Middle School administers the My Voice Survey annually and integrates the data into school improvement efforts. This session will describe how the school is providing students with a challenging education and creating a learning environment that fosters students’ self-worth, active engagement, and sense of purpose. In doing so, students have become more active participants in their education in order to reach their goals.

The Road to Rigor and Relevance
Mary Bruno, Director, Career, Technical and Community Education, Volusia County Schools, Florida

This session will describe how focusing on the Rigor/Relevance Framework was used to achieve student success on state FCAT exams in Florida. Providing extensive professional development, setting learning targets, and studying the data have led to significant reading and math gains for students in Volusia County. The presentation will use career and technical education examples of creating rigorous and targeted curriculum projects and maps. Evidence of increased core academic learning gains and improved student and teacher engagement in CTE courses using this new curriculum and career academies models will be shared.

The Power of “Artful Learning” in Grades K-8
Michelle Burrows, Magnet Coordinator, Douglas Creative Arts & Science Elementary School, Raleigh, North Carolina, and Consultant, International Center for Leadership in Education

Students can achieve deeper levels of learning and higher levels of thinking when teachers create arts-integrated lessons. “Artful learning” combines English language arts, social studies, science or math objectives with drama, dance, visual arts or music objectives to create arts-integrated lessons that will get your students learning and thinking at higher levels. This session will demonstrate how easy it is to integrate the arts into any curriculum.
 
Grading Systems that Work and Get Students to Work
Dr. Katherine Weigel, Principal, Atlantic Community High School, Delray Beach, Florida

Student grading systems are one of the most time honored, untouchable traditions in school. Making changes in grading are controversial and difficult, and as a result avoided. Yet, maintaining a grading system with a sole purpose of reporting the average percentage of correctly recalled test questions is a significant obstacle to students’ engaging in rigorous and relevant work. This session will help participants reflect on the purposes of grading, discover grading practices from model schools, and make changes that result in increased student engagement and achievement.

Community Engagement for Urban Schools
Ruth Hall, Supervisor of Special Projects and Programs, Hillsborough County Public Schools, Tampa, Florida

Urban schools enroll 24% of all public school students, 35% of poor students, and 43% of minority students. Urban education is challenged by numerous problems, including the consequences of poverty — poor health, inadequate housing, high crime rates, and substance abuse. These circumstances create a challenging environment in which non-traditional means are necessary in order to survive. This session will focus on how an urban district successfully implemented community-based after-school extended-learning programs as an additional safety net for at-risk students.

Contextual Teaching and Learning
Teemus Warner, Coordinator of Professional Development and Career Pathways Liaison, Center for Occupational Research and Development (CORD), and Sandra Harwell, Program Director, Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE)

No matter how we organize schools, what happens in the classroom is the key to successful change. Using strategies that present content within meaningful contexts is critical to improving student performance. Contextual teaching gives educators at all levels the opportunity to encourage students to use their experiences and prior learning to solve problems and find answers. Teaching contextually helps students to REACT—Relate, Experience, Apply, Cooperate, and Transfer. This session will provide examples of each of these proven strategies.

Designing a 9th Grade Academy at Atlantic Community High School
Dr. Kathleen Weigel, Principal, Atlantic Community High School, Delray Beach, Florida

A major component of restructuring Atlantic Community High School for rigor and relevance was the implementation of a 9th grade academy. Atlantic administrators and teachers will share their experiences. The presenters will discuss how they “operationalized” the 9th grade academy, including teacher recruitment and training, paperwork and processes developed, the data that supports their conclusions, and surprises, as well as what interested schools should avoid in their 9th grade academies.

The Power of Collaborative Technologies
Tom Welch, Consultant, International Center for Leadership in Education

Starting this fall, the National Virtual Learning Magnet for Space Science and Mathematics, under the auspices of the Council of Chief State School Officers and NASA, will offer non-Carnegie, performance-based credits; formative and summative national assessments; a content repository model for curriculum development; increased student responsibility and incentives; ties to postsecondary institutions; and links to the business/professional community. This session will describe how this enterprise can be a perfect fit for schools, districts, and states that are ready to move to the next level of “causing learning.” Other cutting-edge uses of technology, such as online gaming for learning core content, will be discussed

Information Technology: A Grade 9-16 Accelerated Program with Postsecondary Credit Option
Beth Cueni, Teacher, Madison High School, Madison, Ohio

Designed as part of a Replicable Model Tech Prep grant, this pilot program recruited 9th graders interested in Information Technology to finish the required secondary IT curriculum. In their junior and senior years, students enrolled in Lakeland Community College courses via distance and online learning. Integral to the program were the creation of Inquiry Based Learning units which involved two business partners. Participating students can graduate with both a high school diploma and 30 hours of core IT coursework toward an Associate’s degree. This program, located at Madison High School in Ohio, will be replicated at two additional school districts in 2008-09. 

Co-Teaching Principles and Instructional Applications
Lawrence Gloeckler, Executive Director, Special Education Institute, and Patty Laney, Director of Special Education Services, Carthage R9 School District, Carthage, Missouri

Evidence shows that co-teaching is an effective method for meeting the needs of special education populations. This presentation will explain the principles of co-teaching and describe instructional applications. Usable models of co-teaching for instruction will be shared. In addition, the requirements for a successful co-teaching initiative at the district level will be presented.

Data Structures to Guide Whole School/District Change
Cheryl Dyer, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, Bridgewater-Raritan Regional School District, Somerset County, New Jersey and Consultant, International Center for Leadership in Education
 
In 2007, when the presenter joined the Bridgewater-Raritan Regional School District, the district was not making sufficient or efficient use of available data either to analyze existing programs or to inform decisions that would better serve the 9,100 students in the district. This presentation will outline the ways in which data was used to develop a Five-Year Curriculum Renewal Plan, to evaluate existing programs, and to begin the process of moving the district from an acceptance of the status quo toward a model of success. The session will also highlight the development of a program to improve language arts literacy achievement at all levels that resulted from data analysis, research, and goal setting.

Positive Behavior Support at Keppen Elementary School
Terry Dangerfield, Principal, Donna Sprague, Teacher, Keppen Elementary School, Lincoln Park, Michigan

This presentation will feature a working model of a schoolwide Positive Behavior Support (PBS) plan. Topics will include needs assessment, planning, implementing, and philosophy. Participants will leave with an understanding of how PBS can improve school climate while reducing behavioral incidents. Data from Keppen Elementary School will be shared. 

Leading Change with Data
Dr. Robert Sommers, CEO, Butler Technology and Career Development Schools, Fairchild Township, Ohio

This presentation will focus on leadership skill sets and approaches that have proved successful at improving student and organizational performance with the use of data. Successful methods of leading change with data will be shared.

Using Technology to Raise Math Proficiency in Hillsborough County Public Schools
Danni Greenberg, District Resource Teacher, Hillsborough County Public Schools, Tampa, Florida

The challenge in differentiating instruction in math is keeping all students engaged and on task. Through I CAN Learn® Education Systems, math teachers in Hillsborough County have the ability to provide real-time data-driven instruction in their classrooms, which allows them to identify and focus on struggling students without holding back the rest of the class. This session will address how Hillsborough County successfully implemented the innovative I CAN Learn® program to improve math instruction at middle and high schools throughout the district, with data to support success.

Navigating the Minefield of High School Conversion
Dr. Wilfredo T. Laboy, Superintendent, and Dr. Thomas Sharkey, Lawrence High School Campus Headmaster, Lawrence Public Schools, Lawrence, Massachusetts

Veteran teachers, iron-clad collective bargaining units, and entrenched school cultures and norms are the anchors of secondary educational practice across the nation. It is generally acknowledged that it is easier to start a charter high school, grow a small high, and develop schools within schools than to convert a comprehensive public high school. This presentation is the story of Lawrence Public Schools’ successful efforts to navigate the minefield of public secondary education. This session will describe how school schedules, daily instructional practices, and traditional educational beliefs all are changing now that the process has begun.

Creating a New Reality for the Instruction of Special Education Students
Denise Litterio, Director of Special Education, Hamtramck Middle School, and Dr. Pat Drake, Special Education Data Consultant, Wayne RESA, Michigan

Hamtramck, a small community surrounded by Detroit, is characterized by high mobility, many refugee/immigrant families, and the plethora of urban school challenges. For students with disabilities, the expectation had been, "Our students can't do that. This session will describe a data mining process in which teachers were guided through individual student state assessment findings. The process helped them see that many students were almost proficient as well as which content standards were taught in their special education classrooms. Teachers realized what they needed to teach, the resources available, and best instructional delivery practices. A new reality has been shaped for students, who are now engaged in more rigorous, relevant, and interactive learning and are showing what they can do.

Westwood Middle School — A READ 180 Platinum Performer
Dr. Beth LeClear, Principal, and Gail Billingsly, Teacher, Westwood Middle School, Alachua County, FL

Westwood Middle School is a growing school in a diverse socioeconomic community. In 2001–2002, it faced the challenges of developing new strategies to reach its struggling students and of demonstrating achievement on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT). The leadership realized that the school needed a comprehensive intervention with a unified approach to address the reading needs of the lowest quartile of students. The school chose Scholastic’s READ 180, which uses an adaptive instructional tool. This session will describe how the successful implementation of READ 180 led to desired results.

Bell Multicultural High School — A READ 180 Platinum Performer
Maria Tukeva, Principal, and Jacqueline M. Vialpando, Teacher, Bell Multicultural High School, Washington, D.C.

Bell Multicultural High School embraces the philosophy of whole-school reform and has set high standards for the principal, teachers and students. When Bell failed to make AYP in 2004-05 due to students’ low reading achievement, a renewed focus on school-wide literacy efforts, as well as intense interventions for students who needed extra help, was necessary. Scholastic’s READ 180 reading intervention program, which uses an adaptive instructional tool, was determined to be most effective with the majority of the students who needed intense instruction. This session will describe how Bell has successfully incorporated READ 180 into its literacy plan and is achieving dramatic improvement in reading scores.

Breaux Bridge, Louisiana
description to come

Fremont, California
description to come

How to Create a High-Performing Middle School
presenter and description to come

*Preliminary list of confirmed presenters