View Pre-Conference Activity Logistics
For participants interested in a deep learning experience, several activities will be offered as day-long sessions on Thursday, November 6th. These pre-conference activities are optional and require separate registration from the general conference. The cost is $155 for CES National affiliates and $170 for non-affiliates. Capacity for each session is limited, and registration is on a first-paid, first-served basis (pre-conference selections are not confirmed until payment has been received). Breakfast and lunch will be provided.
School Visit Options
Day-long Workshop Options
School visits provide participants a unique opportunity to observe compelling examples of CES practice and to participate in conversations that explore essential questions of CES philosophy. Host schools will engage visitors in a variety of activities, including tours, classroom visits, staff fishbowl activities, student and teacher interviews, and dialoging sessions in which participants will have a chance to offer feedback and share observations and questions. The following are host schools. CES provides transportation to and from schools. Buses depart between 6:30 & 7:30am.
New Technology High School
T H I S S C H O O L V I S I T I S S O L D O U T
New Technology High School (NTHS), in Charlotte, North Carolina, is one of three autonomous small schools created in 2006 through the conversion of Garinger High School. Modeled after New Technology High School in Napa, California, NTHS prepares students for the 21st century, implementing a student-centered project- and problem-based learning methodology to increase relevance and rigor. With an infusion of technology as a tool for communicating, collaborating, and learning, courses and curriculum connect learning to other subject areas and to the post-high school world.
The Renaissance School at Olympic
T H I S S C H O O L V I S I T I S S O L D O U T
The Renaissance School at Olympic, in Charlotte, North Carolina, encourages students to become active and responsible citizens by focusing on social issues, the arts, humanities, and cultural awareness. Opened as a CES school in 2006 as one of five autonomous schools that resulted from the conversion of Charlotte’s Olympic High School, Renaissance enrolls 400 students in grades 9-12. As they support students into college, the school’s staff members create and maintain positive personal relationships with their students and each other.
Greenville Technical Charter High School
T H I S S C H O O L V I S I T I S S O L D O U T
Greenville Technical Charter High School (GTCHS) in Greenville, South Carolina, is an early college/middle high school located on the Greenville Technical College campus. GTCHS is a small school that provides a strong core academic program enhanced by extensive higher education opportunities, personalized learning, and strong family engagement. A majority of graduates complete their senior year with at least 15 hours of transferable college credits from Greenville Technical College, and some receive an Associate in Arts or Science degree from the college along with their South Carolina High Diploma. The graduation rate for the class of 2008 was 98%; 100% of the class plans to attend a two- or four-year college or university.
The School of International Studies and Global Economics at Olympic
T H I S S C H O O L V I S I T I S S O L D O U T
The School of International Studies and Global Economics (ISGE) at Olympic, in Charlotte, North Carolina, challenges students to be self-directed and intellectually engaged in a rigorous and collaborative academic community as they prepare for service and leadership in the 21st century global society. The school utilizes an interdisciplinary, project-based, authentic learning environment that encourages all students to reach their maximum potential through the development and application of their individual academic strengths and talents. A result of the 2006 conversion of Charlotte’s Olympic High School, ISGE enrolls nearly 400 students in grades 9-12. ISGE's Laboratory Classroom Experience provides a context for digging into questions about learning and instruction. Led by a facilitator, participants pre-brief with the host teacher, observe a 90-minute class, and debrief together, exploring the craft of teaching, examining best practices, and considering the implications for their own work.
Focus on Powerful Teaching and Learning
Facilitated by Marty Krovetz and Dennis Chaconas, former Superintendent in Oakland
In this era of No Child Left Behind, it is more important than ever that we teach with the CES Common Principles at the heart of our work. However, this will not happen when teachers teach to long lists of content standards or use scripted lessons. Learn how educators can agree on a short list of “power standards,” develop curriculum maps that allow for depth over breadth, create formative assessments, develop strategies for appropriate interventions so that every student masters these standards, and use strategies such as “Understanding By Design” and differentiated instruction as powerful instructional and assessment tools.
Young Men of Color: Promoting Diversity and Student Achievement
Facilitated by faculty from Fenway High School, Boston Day and Evening Academy, and High School for Recording Arts
This workshop focuses on the issues confronting young Black and Latino males and their performance in school, including social, environmental, and psychological issues that influence identity. Participants discuss strategies to improve student achievement with these populations both from the research perspective and in practice. With educators from Fenway High School in Boston, Boston Day and Evening Academy, and High School for the Recording Arts in Minneapolis, participants will confront stereotypes and step out of their comfort zones.
How to Become Friends with Influential People: Education Advocacy
Facilitated by Beth Glenn, policy and outreach director at the Forum for Education and Democracy and Sam Chaltain, National Director at the Forum for Education and Democracy
A public policy think tank, the Forum for Education and Democracy advocates educational policies at the state and federal levels that are consistent with the work of Essential schools. Learn how educators can move from creating change in their schools to affecting education policy at the district, state, and national levels. This session, led by Forum policy and outreach director Beth Glenn, and featuring advocates from around the country, covers ways to assess your community's support for public education, engage family members more deeply, and draw in other adults to be advocates for schools. With a particular focus on the Forum's pillars of equity and community accountability, the workshop provides strategies, tools and exercises for bringing practitioners' voices and communities' visions to policymakers at the state and national levels.
Using Formal Inquiry to Develop Shared Responsibility for Equitable Student Achievement
Facilitated by Greg Peters, San Francisco Coalition of Essential Small Schools
Participants spend the day working with Greg Peters, director of the CES Affiliate Center San Francisco Coalition of Essential Small Schools (SF-CESS), learning a model for Data Based Inquiry by working through a formal cycle of inquiry using actual student achievement and experience data from the larger CES network. At the end of the day, participants formulate recommendations and challenges to the CES network to be shared during the Fall Forum and posted on the SF-CESS website. Participants consider how they can use formal structures for looking at data in order to better understand the equity and achievement issues in their own local contexts and inform a year-long inquiry and related professional development plan.
Project Based Learning for the 21st Century: New Rigor, New Skills
Facilitated by staff from the Buck Institute for Education
The Buck Institute for Education (BIE) focuses solely on project-based learning in secondary schools. BIE provides professional development, trains and supports school coaches, develops curriculum materials, and conducts research. This workshop combines hands-on activities, interactive presentation, discussion, and opportunities for participants to begin generating ideas for projects and plan school-wide and systemic support.
Beyond the Lab: Making Science Relevant for the 21st Century Learner
Facilitated by Marcy Raymond, Metro High School, Lisa Karlich, School of the future, and faculty from Charlotte’s School of Biotechnology, Health, and Public Administration
This session is designed to help educators serve students who want a personalized and extraordinary learning experience that prepares them for a connected world where science is vitally important. Participants in this session deepen their understanding of how science can be taught effectively in alignment with CES principles, clarify pedagogical beliefs and align instructional practice, and think critically about realistic change and implementation models. Participants learn about a whole-school, cross-curriculum and project-based learning initiative focused on scientific concepts and then, later, attend a public demonstration of learning presented by students from Charlotte’s School of Biotechnology, Health, and Public Administration (SBHPA) at the Discovery Place Museum. Marcy Raymond, principal of Metro High School in Columbus, OH, Lisa Karlich, science teacher at New York City’s School of the Future, and SBHPA educators facilitate this session.
Less Is More: A National Elementary Slice Pre-Conference
Facilitated by Laura Baker, principal of the Greenfield Center School, Roc Bonchek, head of the Harmony School, Nancy Fenton, Assistant Director of Michigan CES, and Mary Helen Spiri, director of Chesapeake CES
Four directors of CES Affiliate Centers invite elementary educators from across the national network to learn from student and adult work collected during the spring of 2008 in the first “National Slice,” an effort to collect and disseminate a body of work that illustrates the promise of progressive education. The Slice captures the dynamic thinking and diverse work of a broad range of CES elementary schools and serves to introduce, refine, and strengthen the work of CES. Participants offer critical feedback and engage in structured conversations that delve deeply into the power of “less is more” in elementary schools. Participants may elect to engage actively in broader publishing of Slice artifacts to further this important conversation.
Coaching for Educational Equity
Facilitated by Victor Cary, LaShawn Route-Chatmon, and Lisa Lasky of CES Affiliate Center Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools (BayCES)
How does one develop the basic will, knowledge, skill, and emotional intelligence to coach effectively for educational equity? At the Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools (BayCES), we believe that powerful and effective coaching begins from the inside-out. The work of creating equitable and excellent schools is fundamentally about changing ourselves, and, thereby our relationships with others. Coaching from the inside-out helps to build our alliances across difference, harnesses the power of our diversity and informs a “movement model” of social change. Participants explore the idea of coaching stances, beliefs, values, and practices through essential questions (What beliefs and values do I hold most prominently as I do my work as an educator? How do these beliefs and values show up in my practice? What skills do I need to know and be able to use to coach for educational equity?). Participants also consider the worth of using a coaching for educational equity framework to increase the possibility of school transformation and student achievement. While this pre-conference session assumes no prior knowledge of coaching theory or practice, it is also appropriate for participants with coaching experience.
The Critical Skills Classroom
Facilitated by Peter Eppig, chair of Antioch University New England's Education Department, and Laura Thomas, director the Antioch Center for School Renewal, CES Affiliate Center in New Hampshire
Trying to figure out how to turn the CES Common Principles into learning experiences? Want to turn your existing curriculum into engaging, rigorous, hands-on activities that adhere to curriculum requirements? Looking for a cohesive approach to instruction that aligns your beliefs with your practices? Join Peter Eppig, Chair of Antioch University New England's Education Department, and Laura Thomas, Director of the Antioch Center for School Renewal, for a peek into a Critical Skills Classroom. Participants learn how to re-envision existing curriculum, create learning activities that target both higher-order skills and content knowledge, connect your subject matter with real-world problems in the field, and build classroom communities in which the students work as hard as the teachers