Our Work: Hot Lunch

If you were unable to attend the Hot Lunch and would like to see what you missed, please find the links to videos and power point presentations in each month's presentation description!

May 21 , 2010
"Rocketship Hybrid School Model - Half The Teachers and Twice the Pay"
Presented by John Danner, Co-Founder and CEO, Rocketship Education

Four years ago, Rocketship pioneered a new public school model, the hybrid. Hybrid schools combine online learning on campus with traditional classroom-based learning. This allows hybrid schools to individualize learning for every student in the school. Because online learning time does not require teachers, Rocketship also saves $500K per school per year in salary costs. This savings is reinvested in school quality, allowing Rocketship's flagship school to significantly outperform not just surrounding schools, but to become the #1 low-income elementary school in San Jose, #3 in all of California, and with a 925 API, outperform surrounding high-income districts like Palo Alto Unified, outperforming non-low-income students in the state by over 50 API points. Rocketship opens its third school in the Fall and will have 10 school in San Jose in the next three years. The school savings also allows Rocketship to open new schools including building its own facilities without additional philanthropic support once it reaches five schools in a city. Responding to President Obama's challenge to turn around the nation's 5000+ failing schools, Rocketship is beginning its national expansion and Denver is high on its list of possible cities. This presentation will discuss the Rocketship hybrid model in detail and explore its implications.

Before starting Rocketship, John served as a teacher in the Nashville public school system for three years, the last two as a second-grade teacher of students with limited English proficiency. In 2000, John co-founded Sacred Heart Nativity School, a private Catholic middle school for at-risk Latino boys in San Jose. From 2001-2005, John served as the Chairman of the Charter School Resource Center of Tennessee, working for the successful passage of Tennessee's charter school law in 2002 and assisting the subsequent establishment of 12 charter schools in Tennessee. John served as a founding director of KIPP Academy Nashville, a charter middle school in Nashville. Prior to his work in education, John founded and served as CEO of NetGravity, an Internet advertising software company. John took NetGravity public and sold the company to Doubleclick in October of 1999. John holds a Bachelor's and Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and a Master's Degree in Education Policy from Vanderbilt University. John is an Ashoka Fellow and a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute and a Director of Dreambox Learning.

April 30 , 2010
"Why I Changed My Mind About School Reform"
Diane Ravitch, Research Professor of Education at New York University

Diane Ravitch was for many years a proponent of choice, accountability, and merit pay as levers of school reform. In her new book, Ravitch says that these strategies are not working and will not produce the quantum improvement in education that is needed.

Diane Ravitch is Research Professor of Education at New York University and author of the best-selling book "The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education."

She was Assistant Secretary of Education in charge of research in the administration of President George H. W. Bush and was appointed to two terms on the National Assessment Governing Board by the Clinton administration.

March 19 , 2010
"A Global and National Perspective on the Future of Education"
Presented by Susan Patrick, President and CEO,
International Association for K12 Online Learning (iNACOL),

What does a world-class education look like? The advent of widespread technologies is changing what students need to know and learn in the 21st century to be prepared for a global, information-based society. Learn about the current and future trends for providing a world-class education for today's students. Online learning is expanding options for educational opportunities. New trends in online and blended learning will be examined and case studies from around the world will be presented.

Susan Patrick is the President and CEO of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning. INACOL is the professional association for advocacy and research in K-12 online learning, publishing national quality standards and best practices.

Susan previously served as the Director of the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education and published the National Education Technology Plan in 2005.

In 2008, eSchool News named Susan Patrick one of the top 10 national education leaders who "have had a profound impact on educational technology" in the past decade for her work at INACOL and at the U.S. Department of Education.

Prior, Patrick worked in Arizona on government technology policy and legislation under Governor Hull. She received the 2001 Governor's Spirit of Excellence Award.

Patrick holds a master's degree from the Annenberg School for Communication at USC and a bachelor's degree from the Colorado College. She was the first woman to play in the men's intramural football league in college

Click here for more information about iNACOL

February 19 , 2010
"Ed Reform Imperative: Where we are and what we need to do"
Presented by Eva Moskowitz, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Sucess Charter Network

Eva Moskowitz, a Harlem native and mother of three, is Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Success Charter Network, which runs four charter schools in Harlem. In August 2006, Moskowitz founded Harlem Success Academy, hailed by NYC Schools Chancellor Joel Klein as "one of the best charter schools in the country," and cited by NYC Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg for its "amazing performance." Moskowitz opened three more charter schools in August 2008 and plans to open 40 over the next decade.

A former New York City Council Member and Chair of the Council's Education Committee, Moskowitz held over 100 oversight hearings; no aspect of education Ð from toilet paper to teacher quality Ð was too insignificant or too controversial to be explored. She remains a forceful advocate for education, but has now returned to her roots in teaching to implement all she learned while visiting hundreds of New York City's 1,300 public and charter schools. After completing her B.A. at the University of Pennsylvania and her Ph.D. in American History at Johns Hopkins University, Ms. Moskowitz was a history professor and taught civics at Prep for Prep, a program for gifted minority students

Click here to see a video of Moskowitz's presentation at the "More From Our Schools" speaker series, on February 18, 2010 at Montbello High School.

January 22, 2010
"Can Low-income Students Achieve at the Same Level As Their More Affluent Peers? The Answer is YES!"
Presented by Chris Barbic, Founder & Head of School, YES Prep Public Schools

YES Prep Public Schools serves 3,500 students across seven 6-12 grade schools in the Houston area. YES Prep has been ranked as the best public school in Houston by Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, and the Houston Chronicle.

Founded over a decade ago in 1998, YES Prep has graduated nine senior classes with more than 450 alumni. Every year, 100 percent of YES Prep's graduating seniors have been accepted into four-year colleges, including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Rice, and Stanford. More than 90% of YES Prep students are first-generation college-bound, 80% are economically disadvantaged, and 96% are Hispanic or African-American.

Chris Barbic, founder and CEO, shared YES Prep's work, lessons learned, and how YES Prep has successfully managed its growth as a charter management organization for over a decade. Barbic also shared how YES Prep can serve as a model for other CMOs and traditional school districts around the country. Click here for more information on YES.

Christopher Barbic is currently the Founder and Head of Schools of YES Prep Public Schools, a charter management organization that exists to increase the number of low-income Houstonians who graduate from a four-year college prepared to compete in the global marketplace AND committed to improving disadvantaged communities.

Chris graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1992, with a bachelor's degree in both English and Human Development. Upon graduation, he joined Teach For America and taught for six years in Houston ISD. In 1995, Chris was named Houston ISD's Outstanding Young Educator, an award given to Houston ISD's best teacher under the age of 29.

In 1998, Chris founded YES Prep, an open enrollment charter school for grades 6th-12th. Students at YES Prep are required to gain acceptance into a four-year college or university in order to receive a high-school diploma. YES Prep has grown to seven campuses serving 3,500 students and is in the process of creating a public school system in Houston serving 10,000 students on 13 campuses. When YES Prep reaches this point it will prepares the most low-income students for college-graduation than any other public school system in the city.

YES Prep has earned a number of awards. The Southeast campus has been named a Top 100 public school for the last four years in both Newsweek and US News and World Report and has been named the Best Public School in Houston by the Houston Chronicle. The North Central campus was just named a National Blue Ribbon School by the Department of Education, one of only 26 in Texas and 300 nationally. YES Prep has also been featured in the Houston Chronicle, Washington Post, the Houston Press, KTRK-TV (ABC), ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, KHOU-TV (NBC), and KTRH Radio.

Chris was appointed to President Bush's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans in 2001, received The Gleitsman Foundation's 2004 Citizen Activist Award (former recipients include Ralph Nader and Vice-President Al Gore), and he received the 2006 Vanderbilt University Distinguished Alumnus award, the youngest Vanderbilt alum to receive it. This year, Chris was named as one of Houston's 40 Under 40 by the Houston Business Journal. This award is given to the 40 most influential Houstonians under the age of 40.

November 20 , 2009
"When there's a will there's a way: Confronting the truth to stop failing our kids"
Presented by Dr. Howard Fuller, Founder & Director, Institute for the Transformation of Learning, Marquette University

Howard Fuller's career includes many years in both public service positions and the field of education. Dr. Fuller is a Distinguished Professor of Education and Founder/Director of the Institute for the Transformation of Learning at Marquette University. The mission of the Institute is to support exemplary education options that transform learning for children, while empowering families, particularly low-income families, to choose the best options for their children.

Immediately before his appointment at Marquette University, Dr. Fuller served as the Superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools June 1991 - June 1995. Dr. Fuller became nationally known for his unending support for fundamental educational reform.

His prior positions included: Director of the Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services, 1988 -1991; Dean of General Education at the Milwaukee Area Technical College, 1986 - 1988; Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Employment Relations, 1983 - 1986; and Associate Director of the Educational Opportunity Program at Marquette University, 1979 - 1983. He was also a Senior Fellow with the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University, 1995 - 1997.

Dr. Fuller received his B.S. degree in Sociology from Carroll College in Waukesha, Wisconsin in 1962; M.S.A. degree in Social Administration from Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio in 1964; and his Ph.D. in Sociological Foundations of Education from Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1986.

He has received numerous awards and recognition over the years, including four Honorary Doctorate Degrees: Doctorate of Humane Letters from Carroll College in 1987; Doctorate of Laws from Marian College, Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin in 1992; Doctorate of Business and Economics from Milwaukee School of Engineering in 1995; Doctorate of Humane Letters from Edgewood College, Madison, Wisconsin.

He is the Chair of the Board of the Black Alliance for Educational Options; the Chair of the Board of the Wisconsin Municipalities Private School Finance Commission; the Chair of the Board of the Alliance for Choices in Education in Milwaukee; the Chair of the Board of CEO Leadership Academy; the Chair of the Board of Quest-Milwaukee. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Transcenter for Youth; the Johnson Foundation; the Joyce Foundation; School Choice Wisconsin; Advocates for School Choice; the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools; The Charter School Review Committee for the City of Milwaukee; the Wisconsin United for Health Foundation, Inc.

Click here to see a video of Fuller's presentation at the "More From Our Schools" speaker series, on November 18, 2009 at Manual High School.

October 16 , 2009
"Turning Around Locke High School: Opportunities and Challenges"
Presented by Cristina De Jesus, Chief Academic Officer, Green Dot Public Schools and Kelly Hurley, in charge of Locke Conversion, Green Dot Public Schools

Cristina de Jesus is Green Dot's Chief Academic Officer. She currently oversees all academic programs, curriculum development, training programs for administrators and teachers, human resources, operations, and security. She previously served for two years as VPt of Curriculum and Instruction, and for four years as the founding principal at Ënimo Inglewood Charter High School, Green Dot's second school. Prior to joining Green Dot, Cristina was an English and History teacher for seven years in the Santa Monica/Malibu School District. While in Santa Monica, she earned National Board Certification in Early Adolescent/English Language Arts. She has earned a Masters of Education, a Masters of Education Administration, and recently earned her doctorate in Educational Leadership from UCLA.

Kelly Hurley began his career in the Long Beach Unified School District as a teacher in the fall of 1985. After twelve years serving as a teacher, counselor, and assistant principal, he was promoted to a position as a principal in the fall of 1997. He served as a middle and high school principal for ten years. During this time, Kelly was asked to take over two schools (one middle and one high school) where a toxic culture caused an extreme divide between staff and administration. The expectation from the superintendent was to heal the culture and climate of each campus, and to then improve student achievement. In the spring of 2007, Kelly became part of Green Dot Public Schools in Los Angeles. He was given the "charge" to oversee the transformation of Locke High School - a failing high school in the Los Angeles Unified School District. His role as a cluster director for Green Dot is to mentor principals and assistant principals, as well as ensure the success of each of the eight schools in the new Locke Family of Schools.

Alain Leroy Locke Senior High School was opened in 1967 in response to the Watts' riots. The school was created to provide families in South Los Angeles a safe and secure place of learning. Its focus was to have a comprehensive program to guarantee the intellectual, moral, social, emotional and physical development of all students.

While the school was initially a source of pride for the community, its recent years were marked by poor academic performance, violence, and gang activity. By 2006, Locke was considered one of L.A.'s most troubled and chronically under-performing public high schools, having send only 5% of its entering ninth graders to four-year colleges and universities.

In 2007, community leaders and Locke High School staff came together with Green Dot to petition the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to give operational control of the school to Green Dot. The on September 11, 2007, LAUSD made history when they voted to give Green Dot operational control of Locke High School- this is the first time that an outside organization will operate a traditional district school.

In fall of 2008, Locke reopened as eight small college-prep academies known as the Locke Family of High Schools. Five of the schools are housed on the main campus, with three schools located on satellite campuses. Animo Locke ACE Academy, a career tech educational school focusing on architecture, construction, and engineering, will open as the ninth independent school in fall 2009.

To see Green Dot's presentation, click here.
To link to a podcast of Green Dot's complete talk in Denver on Friday, click here.
To link to an interview by Nancy Mitchell, EdNewsColorado.org, click here.
To link to a short video of Green Dot's presentation to area educators, click here.

September 18 , 2009
"Creating and Sustaining a Portfolio of High-Performing, Distinctive Schools of Choice"
Presented by Steven Adamowski, Superintendent, Hartford's System of Schools

Steven Adamowski has been a successful educator and school reformer for nearly 35 years. Dr. Steven J. Adamowski took over as Superintendent of Hartford Public Schools on November 27, 2006.

Dr. Adamowski has, since then, engineered one of the most comprehensive urban school district overhauls in the country. He has introduced an all-choice system of high performing schools, reduced the number of middle schools and has created smaller career-oriented academies within the city's underperforming high schools.

Prior to Hartford, Dr. Adamowski was with the American Institutes for Research as Senior Fellow. As a successful school reformer, he has extensive experience in raising student achievement through school and district redesign. Dr. Adamowski's work is focused on assisting school districts to improve their effectiveness as standards-based, performance driven systems of schools. Prior to joining AIR, Dr. Adamowski served as Superintendent/CEO of the Cincinnati, Ohio Public Schools where he led a massive redesign and decentralization of this urban system to produce dramatic gains in student outcomes. During his term as superintendent, Cincinnati gained national recognition for its school accountability system, use of weighted, student-based budgeting, alignment of teacher evaluation and compensation, improvement of early literacy, and redesign of high schools.

Steven Adamowski previously served as Associate Secretary of Education in Delaware where he played a key role in the development of Delaware's content standards, assessments and accountability plan, and the state's subsequent improvement in educational attainment as measured by NAEP scores. He gained a national perspective on school improvement as a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute where he led implementation of the Modern Red Schoolhouse, a Ôbreak the mold' design of the New American Schools Development Corporation. He has served as a public school teacher, principal, and superintendent in five states.

To see Adamowski's presentation about reforms in Hartford, click here.
To link to a short video of Adamowski's presentation to area educators, click here.
To link to a podcast of Adamowski's complete talk in Denver on Friday, click here.
To link to an interview by Nancy Mitchell, EdNewsColorado.org, click here.