June 20, 2008
"Caring Rigor and Rigorous Caring: How Aspire Public Schools is Developing a Cadre of Leaders for their “College for Certain” System of Schools"
Presented by Don Shalvey, CEO and Co-Founder of Aspire Public Schools.

Aspire Public Schools, a non-profit charter management organization, opens and operates public charter schools throughout California with an emphasis on serving low-income communities. Aspire focuses on ensuring urban students receive a high-quality education to prepare them for college.

As of the 2006-2007 school year, Aspire was serving a total of over 6,000 students in grades K-12 at 21 locations throughout California. Aspire plans to open three to four new schools each year and hopes to operate 65 schools by 2015.

Don Shalvey, Founder and CEO of Aspire, will share how Aspire is scaling up their success. In addition to discussing how Aspire serves as a high quality educational organization – bigger than many districts -- Mr. Shalvey will focus on how to build superior school leaders and leadership teams. He will share how Aspire identifies school leaders, how they are selected, developed, and how to instill within them a collective spirit for high performance.

Dr. Shalvey has 40 years of experience in public education and is widely recognized as a leader in public school reform and the charter school movement.

Prior to founding Aspire Public Schools, Dr. Shalvey was the Superintendent of San Carlos School District, where he sponsored the first charter school in California in 1992. The San Carlos Charter Learning Center became a California Distinguished School and has since served as a model for many other charter schools.

In 1998, Dr. Shalvey and entrepreneur Reed Hastings co-founded Californians for Public School Excellence, a grass-roots organization that led to the passage of the Charter Schools Act of 1998, which lifted the cap on the number of charter schools in the state. Dr. Shalvey is a frequent advisor to policy makers, practitioners and authorizers of charter schools across the nation. He currently serves as the Chair of the California Commission for Special Education; he is also a Board member on a number of not-for-profit organizations including: Jobs for the Future (JFF), Ed Source, and the Stanford University School of Education.

His work has been recognized in a variety of national publications and television/radio shows including: The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Newsweek and the Charlie Rose Show and NPR. The prestigious Ashoka Foundation recently recognized Don as a Fellow for his outstanding work as a social entrepreneur. Dr. Shalvey earned a Doctorate of Education in Educational Leadership/Administration from the University of Southern California, a Masters of Education in Counseling and Guidance from Gonzaga University and a B.A. from LaSalle College.

To find out more about Aspire Public Schools, please click here.

May 16, 2008
"So much reform, so little change. What's actually making a difference in improving public education?"
Presented by Charles Payne, professor in the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago.

As Colorado flirts with school reform in pockets around the state, and especially in its urban core, it is becoming increasingly clear that there are striking similarities with other efforts around the country. In order to accelerate effective reforms and avoid ineffective strategies, it is instructive and invaluable to look around the country at the successes and missteps of other urban districts.

Join Dr. Charles Payne, a prominent sociologist, author and social entrepreneur at the University of Chicago, who specializes in urban education and school reform will be joining us to provide an overview of school reform efforts in major cities across the country. Dr. Payne will examine where and how progress is or – in some areas – isn’t being made. He’ll address fundamental questions about obstacles to reform. In doing so, he’ll take a closer look at the relationship between “corporate” and “pre-corporate” governing cultures in our schools and school districts.

Charles M. Payne is a professor in the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago. Dr. Payne’s interests include urban education and school reform, social inequality, social change and modern African American history. He is the author of Getting What We Ask For: The Ambiguity of Success and Failure In Urban Education (1984) and I've Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition in the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement (1995). The latter has won awards from the Southern Regional Council, Choice Magazine, the Simon Wisenthal Center and the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in North America. He is co-author of Debating the Civil Rights Movement (1999) and co-editor of Time Longer Than Rope: A Century of African American Activism, 1850 -1950 (2003).

His most recent books are So Much Reform, So Little Change (in press, Harvard Education Publishing Group) which is concerned with the persistence of failure in urban districts, and an anthology, Teach Freedom: The African American Tradition of Education For Liberation (Teachers College Press), which is concerned with Freedom School-like education. He is the recipient of a Senior Scholar grant from the Spencer Foundation and was a Resident Fellow at the foundation for 2006-7. With the support of the Carnegie Scholar’s Program, he is doing a study of how school reform dialogue in other countries compares to the American situation. His work on urban schools is also supported by an Alphonse Fletcher, Sr. Fellowship for 2007-8. Fletcher fellowships support work that contributes to improving race relations in American society and furthers the broad social goals of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954.

April 18, 2008
"Realizing Education Opportunity For All"
Presented by Wendy Kopp, CEO and Founder of Teach for America.

This year, 25,000 of our nation's recent college graduates competed to join Teach For America to address the disparities in educational outcomes that persist in our nation across socioeconomic and racial lines. Wendy Kopp, who proposed Teach For America's creation in 1989 in her undergraduate senior thesis, will join us to explain what is driving these young leaders to channel their energy in this direction. She will explain what Teach For America has learned about the problem of educational inequity and what it will take to solve it, and will give us a window into the organization's strategy for building an unstoppable movement to ensure that one day, all children in our country have the opportunity to attain an excellent education.

In her senior thesis as an undergraduate student at Princeton University, Wendy Kopp outlined a plan to recruit outstanding recent college graduates to teach for two years in America's neediest urban and rural schools. Upon graduation, she founded Teach For America, a national corps that would have an important impact on the nation's education system, putting a dent in the lingering problem of educational inequality. She has spent the past 18 years developing the corps into a prestigious, highly regarded program that attracts some of the nation's brightest young men and women.

Today, 5,000 corps members reach approximately 440,000 students in low-income communities across the country. They join more than 12,000 Teach For America alumni who are assuming significant leadership roles in education and social reform. These alumni are running some of the most acclaimed schools in low-income areas, advising governors and senators on education policy, and marshalling the resources of companies and law firms toward education reform.

Kopp holds honorary doctorate degrees from Mount Holyoke College, Rhodes College, Pace University, Mercy College, Smith College, Princeton University, Connecticut College, and Drew University. She is the author of One Day, All Children: The Unlikely Triumph of Teach For America and What I Learned Along the Way, and is the youngest person and the first woman to receive Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson Award, the highest honor the school confers on its undergraduate alumni. In 2006, she was named one of America's Best Leaders by U.S. News and World Report.

Click here to read a March 27 press release from The Urban Institute about Teach for America

March 21, 2008
"Beating the Odds: How Are Schools Serving High Needs Students Getting Results? Can Their Success Be Replicated In A Quality Way?"
Presented by Mike Feinberg, Co-Founder of Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) Foundation and the Superintendent of KIPP Houston (6 middle schools, 2 early childhood and elementary schools and one high school)

Nationally, the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) Schools are known as exemplary charter schools. KIPP is a national network of free, open-enrollment, college-preparatory public schools with a track record of preparing students in underserved communities for success in college and in life. There are currently 57 KIPP schools in 17 states and the District of Columbia serving over 14,000 students (Colorado has one KIPP middle school in Denver – KIPP Sunshine Peak Academy). These schools serve largely low-income and minority students in some of the nation’s toughest urban centers. KIPP students “consistently outperform their counterparts in traditional public schools on standardized tests, and more than 80 percent of KIPP students from the 2004-2005 classes are enrolled in four-year colleges” (US News and World Report).

Because of their outstanding success, KIPP has been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show, CBS 60 Minutes, ABC World News Tonight, and in The New York Times, Houston Chronicle, Washington Post, and more.

What is the formula for their success? How do these schools have such remarkable student achievement results? Can this success be replicated in a way that continues to produce high quality schools? What are the barriers and opportunities to ensure high quality growth? Why aren’t more schools in the public system working to adopt these practices and principles to better serve the neediest kids?

Mike Feinberg discussed KIPP’s success to date and the opportunity for ongoing replication and success across the country. Please join us to consider how these issues apply to Colorado schools.

February 22, 2008
"Are Teachers Underpaid? Are Merit Pay Prgrams Effective? Teacher Salaries and Pay Systems Examined"
Presented by Jay P. Greene, Ph.D., Endowed Chair and Head of the Department of Education Reform, Univeristy of Arkansas

Consider this: on average teachers make $34.05 per hour, which the Bureau of Labor statistics shows to be 36% more than white-collar workers and 11% more than technical workers, according to a Wall Street Journal commentary by Dr. Jay Greene. (see link to article below)

What about merit pay for educators--is it a help or a hindrance? Supporters argue merit pay programs encourage teachers to be more innovative, work harder, and result greater job satisfaction. Opponents say such programs negatively increase competition among teachers and in the school environment, and result in greater neglect of low-performing students. Despite the passionate arguments made by merit pay supporters and opponents alike, little is known about the actual impacts of merit pay programs on students or teachers because rigorous evaluations are rare.

Dr. Greene will discuss these issues and the recently released report Year Two Evaluation of the Achievement Challenge Pilot Project in the Little Rock Public School District (see link below)- a review of the teacher and staff pay-for-performance program used for three years within the Little Rock School District. The report details the effect on students' scores and the staffs' evaluation of the program.

Please join us to consider how these issues apply to Colorado schools, including Denver public schools' ProComp Program.

For additional information, please click on the links below:

Year Two Evaluation of the Achievement Challenge Pilot
Project in the Little Rock Public School District

Is $34.06 Per Hour 'Underpaid'? - Wall Street Journal, Feb. 2, 2007

January 25, 2008
"Reclaiming Charter Schools Through Teacher-Led Reform"
Presented by Randi Weingarten, President of the United Federation of Teachers

When the teachers union in the nation’s largest urban school district founded two union-operated charter schools, it caught the attention of many. In the face of a top-down and micro-managing bureaucracy, New York City’s United Federation of Teachers (UFT) chartered its own course to demonstrate that educators must to be at the forefront of reform. In the process, the UFT reclaimed—and is advocating—the original vision of charter schools as professional and accountable teacher-led laboratories of innovation.

As President of the United Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten has started a national dialogue about the future of the charter school movement. In the process, she reinvigorated the pragmatic notion that people—and not structures—make the critical difference in the lives of children. In addition to the UFT’s two schools, the union represents educators in other New York City charters and these schools consistently rank among the state’s best. Moreover, the UFT has forged a landmark partnership with Green Dot Public Schools to open a school in the Bronx. In all of these efforts, the UFT seeks to develop school-specific arrangements that promote educators’ ability to innovate and exercise professional judgment in return for a guarantee of basic fairness in the workplace.

For additional information, please click on the links below:

United Federation of Teachers
Chartering Educational Excellence: Why Teachers Matter Most
It’s Time to Take the Politics Out of Charter Schools
A Unique Partnership for a New School Year

November 16, 2007
"Creating High Performing School Districts: A Portfolio Approach"
Presented by John Ayers, Vice President for Strategic Partnerships for the National Association of Charter School Authorizers

Around the country, school management structures are changing. As districts shift toward granting schools more autonomy, district managers must balance between granting flexibility to schools while also defining clear outcome expectations.

John Ayers will address the emerging notion of portfolio management as an advanced strategy by districts that hope to capture the energy of new schools to improve the overall system.

District managers are increasingly asked to think and behave like portfolio managers in the private sector - assessing risk, making decisions based on careful data analysis, evaluating bottom line results and building entrepreneurial practices and a bias for action to motivate the entire organization to progress.

For more information about the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA), go to http://www.qualitycharters.org

October 18, 2007
"Maximizing Student Achievement: How Can High-Quality Data Systems Help?"
Presented by Mark Schneider, Commissioner for the National Center for Education Statistics

How do state and district leaders create quality data systems that help advance student achievement? Join Mark Schneider, Commissioner for the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), as he looks at academic trends and educational best practices nation-wide, and reviews the just-released Nation's Report Card. Commissioner Schneider will reflect on the report's findings, including national trends in student performance over time, and how Colorado's students are performing.

He will also discuss recent NCES studies including teacher compensation, longitudinal growth of students, and changes in data gathering practices that may affect current policies. NCES is one of four centers of the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education. It is the primary agent that collects and analyzes education-related data.

Commissioner Schneider was confirmed by the Senate in October 2005 and will serve for the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) until June 20, 2009. When not serving as commissioner, Dr. Schneider is distinguished professor of political science at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. His articles on urban politics and public policy have appeared in major political science, sociology, and policy journals. His 1989 book, The Competitive City, won special recognition for its theoretical contribution to the study of urban politics.

Click to view Mr. Schneider's Hot Lunch presentation "New Direction in NCES Data Collection".

September 21, 2007
"Educational Environments That Keep Kids In School"
Presented by David Domenici, co-founder of See Forever

How do we create educational environments that keep kids in school? David Domenici and his team have created three campuses in some of the toughest neighborhoods in Washington D.C. where they have succeeded in sending over 80% of graduates to college or postsecondary school. He is now engaged in a second school that will serve at-risk youth in the DC juvenile justice system. Mr. Domenici will talk about his experiences in creating these schools and provide suggestions for Colorado.

More information about See Forever and the Maya Angelou Public Charter School is available at www.seeforever.org.

Mr. Domenici is a co-founder of See Forever. He now serves as Chair of the See Forever Board of Directors and is a founding Board member of the Maya Angelou Public Charter School Board. He served as the Executive Director of See Forever until July 2006 and the school's principal from its founding until June 2002. More background on Mr. Domenici is available here.