"What Matters & What Counts in Education?
Discussion Series
The What Matters & What Counts in Education series is a new breakfast-time event sponsored by Facing History and Ourselves, The Colorado Legacy Foundation, and The Donnell-Kay Foundation.
The 2011-2012 Season of What Matters & What Counts will be held at Gates Hall in the Denver Botanic Gardens, 7:30 am – 9:00, with breakfast and a presentation.
When: September 27, October 25 & November 29, 2011; February 28, March 27 & April 24, 2012
Click through to our blog for the latest information on who’s coming to speak, how to register, photos & presentations!
Invitations are sent about 3 weeks ahead of each event.
Here’s the idea: What would we focus on if we had the opportunity to redefine what providing a “great” education means? Ensuring that our students are well-prepared for life beyond high school? Do they have the requisite skills and knowledge to make moral and ethical decisions? Are they well prepared to be positive contributors to their community? Do we want them to be well-versed in the arts and music? Do they need to know what it means to live in a global society and economy whose future is dependent on their actions? How do we move beyond an accountability system that is focused exclusively on test scores?
For the 2011-2012 Season, we hope to address creative and innovative ideas in policy, humanities, technology, the arts and other areas of education that may balance out the effects of a standards-based accountability system.
Previous speakers included: Peter Levine, head of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University; Theodore Hershberg, Professor of Public Policy and History and Director of the Center for Greater Philadelphia at the University of Pennsylvania, on a new approach to professional development; and Rassan Salandy, Vice President for External Affairs for The Posse Foundation, on college access and workforce development in a multicultural society.
With the current national focus on accountability and the use of test scores to determine success or failure for students, educators and schools, there is a growing sentiment that somehow we have lost our way and forgotten what teaching and education are for and about. There is a widely held belief that we are simply “teaching to the test,” producing students who can memorize and regurgitate what they have memorized but who are less able to think critically and be thoughtful and creative.
We have seen our society change dramatically over the past several years. Our education system, however, has not kept up. The time is now to develop a more expansive view of “What Matters & What Counts” in public education, to really prepare our students for success in life and result in a workforce that will keep our country on the forefront of global leadership.
Questions? Contact Carmelita Galicia-Munoz.