Summit 2014 brought 1,000 leading entrepreneurs, educators, public officials, policy makers, journalists, funders and community members to Burlingame, CA to propel the work of transforming K-12 education.
This year’s Summit was distinguished by a focus on educational equity as a core aspiration of education reform. On the 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, Summit challenged all participants to reflect on Brown’s unfulfilled promise of educational equity for all American children and to act urgently — through all means available — to fulfill it.
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Watch and Share Summit 2014 Sessions!
From Talk to Action: Increasing the Diversity of Education Leadership
John King in Conversation with Joanne Weiss
Crossing Over Jordan: Building Relationships between Communities and Ed Reformers
Transforming Trauma: Promoting Resilience
From STEM to STEAM: Creativity as a Lever for Social Justice
Winning the Fight for Higher Standards
Teaching Literacy in the New World of CCSS
How Disruptive Can We Be: CCSS and the Future of Digital Learning
Re-Imagining Urban School Districts
But How Do We Know What’s Working in Edtech Today?
Please feel free to share and embed any of the Summit 2014 sessions. Browse these and Summit 2013 sessions on Our Vimeo Page.
FROM TALK TO ACTION: INCREASING THE DIVERSITY OF EDUCATION LEADERSHIP
Jim Shelton leads a discussion on the importance of increasing diversity in the leadership ranks of education reform. Acknowledging both opportunities and challenges, as well the progress, and lack of progress, made to date, Jim and panelists sketch out plans for rapidly altering the status quo and invite the audience to take up the challenge.
JOHN KING IN CONVERSATION WITH JOANNE WEISS
Joanne Weiss and John King reflect on his experience advancing the CCSS in New York State.
CROSSING OVER JORDAN: BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN COMMUNITIES AND ED REFORMERS
In the debate over the CCSS, as in other efforts to even the odds for underserved students, education reformers have not won the hearts and minds of the families and communities they seek to serve. Last year’s report from the United Negro College Fund, “Done To Us Not With Us,” presents compelling data suggesting that education reformers share similar aspirations with parents and leaders in underserved communities, but have not built the trust or relationships needed to support true collaboration. In this session, we talk with leaders of faith communities and ed reformers about their efforts to create more honest relationships and explore how we can help build stronger coalitions on behalf of students.
TRANSFORMING TRAUMA: PROMOTING RESILIENCE
As we raise the bar for students in our schools, their need for social and emotional well-being and effective stress management skills increases markedly. Nurturing these skills is both important and challenging for teachers and school leaders working with students who have experienced trauma and toxic stress. In this session, Dr. Joyce Dorado will help us understand the neurobiology of stress and trauma, and how we can use this understanding to promote resilience and school success for all members of a school community. She will share strategies and interventions that can be implemented by teachers, administrators, and other school staff to transform stress and trauma into wellness and resilience.
View the accompanying slideshow on the Summit 2014 website
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FROM STEM TO STEAM: CREATIVITY AS A LEVER FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE
Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) are essential tools for students in the twenty-first century. This session explores the relationship between STEM, creativity and social justice. We discuss how opportunities for creative expression, art and design can be leveraged to engage diverse learners in STEM, helping to develop a new generation of “makers” who are empowered to transform their world.
WINNING THE FIGHT FOR HIGHER STANDARDS
Almost all of the states have adopted more rigorous academic expectations for students. But the standards have come under serious political fire from the right and left. The fight is not substantive it’s political and reformers are often caught in the middle. Join us for a look at the common elements of this battle and lessons — strategy and tactics — for winning the battle for students.
TEACHING LITERACY IN THE NEW WORLD OF CCSS
Raising academic expectations to meet the higher standards of Common Core and college readiness not only requires changes to curriculum, but also a shift in instructional practice. Nowhere is this shift more pronounced than in reading. This session features Doug Lemov, Managing Director at Uncommon Schools and the author of Teach Like a Champion, who discusses the key approaches to elevating the rigor of reading instruction, while showing some of these techniques in action through real-world classroom video. Doug is joined by other practitioners who provide commentary on Doug’s approach, while offering their own perspectives on the challenges of effectively implementing more rigorous instructional strategies at scale.
HOW DISRUPTIVE CAN WE BE: CCSS AND THE FUTURE OF DIGITAL LEARNING
Jacob Schmookler, in Invention and Economic Growth, wrote that “the amount of invention is governed by the extent of the market.” Having common standards in over forty states certainly extends the market for K-12 education tools and systems. But will CCSS really lead to disruptive innovations in teaching and learning? How have developers responded thus far and just how different will schools and classrooms look 3, 5 or 10 years from now? This interactive session provides an opportunity to wrestle with these questions.
RE-IMAGINING URBAN SCHOOL DISTRICTS
For 20 years, charter schools have played an increasingly important role in changing the conversation about what’s possible in public education. Charters have created scalable proof points of excellence in high-need communities and opened new pathways for parental choice and empowerment. Yet for all their success, charter schools are mostly seen as a marginal reform that exists in parallel to the “real” work going on in school districts. Under the direction of visionary leaders in a growing number of places around the country, charter schools are being brought into the center of reform strategies, not just to provide new options for some students, but to transform an entire public education system, based on a diverse portfolio of autonomous school operators. In this session we’ll talk with state and local leaders about their bold efforts to redesign public school systems using a “portfolio approach.”
BUT HOW DO WE KNOW WHAT’S WORKING?
The pace of technology adoption in schools is accelerating like a Formula 1 race car driven by teachers and administrators hungry for products that spur deeper engagement and better results for their students. But how can customers, product developers, and investors figure out what’s working? In this session we talk with entrepreneurs, investors and publishers about the latest ideas for defining efficacy and assessing the impact of education technology on student learning.