Day 1: The Improvement Leader
Keynote:
- Leading for Equity: Three insights from improvement science
Dr. Ash Vasudeva, VP of Strategic Initiatives, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Workshops:
- Conducting an Equity Audit: A Leader's Guide to Caring for Your School Community
To equitably transform any school, particularly those that are underserved and under-resourced, requires approaches that promote community-wide equity and fosters a sense of solidarity. For most schools, equity issues focus primarily on improving school-based outcomes, such as standardized scores, leaving educational leaders with little guidance for how to critically identify and assess policies and processes that impact the entire school community. This workshop will introduce school leaders to the basics of an equity audit process and explain how it can be used to improve conditions and make students, families and staff feel valued.
Dr. Stephanie Timmons-Brown, Assistant Clinical Faculty and Director, Maryland Institute for Minority Achievement and Urban Education, College of Education, University of Maryland College Park
- Plan, Do, Study, Act: Testing High Impact Strategies for Equitable Education for All
In this workshop, you will learn how to use Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) continuous improvement cycles to accelerate your school improvement efforts to reach your ambitious equity-driven aims. This interactive session will include examples, hands-on activities, and time to brainstorm how to integrate PDSA cycles into school improvement.
Dr. Sam Viano, Assistant Professor, College of Education and Human Development, George Mason University
Dr. Paige Whitlock, Secondary Language Arts Coordinator, Fairfax County Public Schools
- Improvement Science and The Problem of Practice: Your Problem Isn’t What You Think It Is
In this session, leaders will be introduced to principles and tools of improvement science and how they are being used to address issues of school improvement and systemic inequity. The session will provide an overview of the purpose of User-Centered Problems of Practice and how to See the System that causes the problems. Leaders will engage in guided practice with the linking of their improvement goals to the underlying problem of practice. Leaders will come away from this session with new tools and resources from which to select change strategies and to drive improvement.
Dr. Jean Snell, Senior Faculty Specialist and Associate Director, Center for Educational Innovation and Improvement, University of Maryland, College Park
Dr. Douglas Anthony, Senior Fellow, Center for Educational Innovation and Improvement, University of Maryland, College Park
- Exploring your Equity Leadership Style
The challenges and demands of educational improvement and equity requires intelligent, effective, compassionate, and resourceful leadership. This workshop will examine several prominent leadership philosophies and give participants an opportunity to reflect on the core leadership philosophies that center their work. In addition, participants will examine and discuss the concept of equity-centered leadership and what it means for them individually and for the systems they serve.
Dr. Kevin Maxwell, Education Consultant and former Superintendent
Dr. Segun Eubanks, Professor of Practice and Director, Center for Educational Innovation and Improvement, University of Maryland, College Park
Day 2: The Equity-Centered Leader
Keynote:
- The Learning Principal: Living Equity-Centered Leadership
Dr. Stephanie Hirsh, Co-Author of The Learning Principal and Managing Director, Hirsh Holdings
Fred Brown, Co-Author of The Learning Principal and Chief Learning Officer of Learning Forward
Superintendents Leadership Panel: Equity and Access
Facilitator: Tiara Booker-Dwyer, Assistant State Superintendent for College and Career Readiness, Maryland State Department of Education
Dr. Monica Goldson, Chief Executive Officer, Prince George’s County Public Schools
Dr. Monifa McKnight, Acting Superintendent, Montgomery County Public Schools
Workshops:
- Decentering the Central Office: How a University Partnership is Helping to Reset the Relationship Between Central Office and Schools through Continuous Improvement
This workshop offers an opportunity to engage and learn with the partnership between a district central office and a university that helped to change the relationship between the central office and schools. The partnership is supporting continuous learning across the system by enabling district leadership to reset its relationship with schools from bureaucratic compliance to support for building-level learning and initiative.
Dr. Tinkhani White, Director of School Improvement, Chesterfield County Public Schools.
Dr. David Eddy-Spicer, Professor of Education, Department of Leadership, Foundations, and Policy. School of Education and Human Development, University of Virginia
- Equity in Practice: Facilitating Intergroup Dialogues
What knowledge do you need about yourself and diversity issues to facilitate an intergroup dialogue? Which skills are most utilized by facilitators? How can you guide participants to share personal and meaningful stories about their deeply-held beliefs and experiences with privilege, oppression and social justice? Intergroup dialogue is a practice students, faculty, staff and administrators can utilize to talk about issues of social justice, power, and oppression with people who are different and have differing views on these issues. Intergroup dialogue is defined, shown in a video, and discussed through research I have conducted and lessons I have learned from over 20 years of teaching and facilitating intergroup dialogues on college campuses. Intergroup dialogue is a particular kind of social justice education that asks participants to: 1) critically examine social practices of privilege and oppression, 2) reflect on what they learn, and 3) act in socially just ways in their everyday lives.
Dr. Bridget Turner-Kelly, Associate Professor, College of Education, University of Maryland, College Park
- Leading Towards Powerful Solutions: Developing a Theory of Improvement
In this session, leaders will be introduced to three core tools of improvement science that can help guide the shift from grappling with challenging problems to leading towards improvement: 1) Setting Aims; 2) Driver Diagram; 3) Theory of Improvement. This session will provide an overview of the purpose of a Theory of Improvement as well as guided practice with a Driver Diagram exercise. Leaders will come away from this session with new resources from which to select change strategies and to drive improvement.
Dr. Jean Snell, Senior Faculty Specialist and Associate Director, Center for Educational Innovation and Improvement, University of Maryland, College Park
Iris Bond-Gill, Program Manager, Center for Educational Innovation and Improvement, University of Maryland, College Park
- Implicit Bias
During this session, participants will deepen their understanding of implicit bias and learn how one's personal and cultural experiences can affect one's ability to lead. Tools will be shared to allow participants to deeply reflect upon issues of bias and how to begin to lead with a focus on equity.
Dr. Shawn Joseph Co-Director, Urban Superintendent Academy and Assistant Professor, Howard University