This year's conference includes three panels and are interactive events. The panelists will begin the
dialogue, but hope that you will jump in to ask questions and add your
own perspectives. The three panels will be:
Teacher Leadership: Obstacles and Strategies
This panel is hosted by five outstanding teacher leaders, Joan Gilbert,
Laura Harnish, Ana Lopez, Cheryl Pilatowski, and Kathryn Show, from five
different Local Systemic Change Projects. They will each critically
reflect on successes and challenges that they have encountered and engage in an interactive dialogue with you around issues of teacher leadership.
The Role of Superintendents in Systemic Reform:
This panel will be hosted by three superintendents, Michael
Klentschy,Superintendent of of the El Centro School District in El Centro,
California, Patricia Maruca, Superintendent of the Holtville Unified School
District, and Pamela Short-Powell the Interim Superintendent for the
Oklahoma City Public Schools. They will address issues such as: the
superintendent's role in enabling reform, dealing with competing reforms,
the role that superintendents play in getting principals involved in the
reform effort, strategies that work for getting new superintendents
on-board when your project experiences administrative turnover, and
obstacles faced and strategies employed by superintendents when trying to
sustain a reform effort. Superintendent buy-in has been an inhibitor
mentioned by many projects. These superintendents look forward to hearing
your issues and brainstorming with you on creative strategies and
solutions.
The Legacies of the LSCs:
Please read a most thoughtful article written by Mark St. John exploring
the legacies of the LSCs. Join Mark in thinking about how your LSC grant
has changed your district, and to what extent one can hope that these
changes will remain in place after the grant has ended. What lessons have
the LSC projects learned about sustaining systemic reform that can inform
other NSF initiatives such as the MSP program?
