Dear Colleagues,
The iNACOL Symposium this October 2017 features 200 workshops and sessions organized around the theme: “Personalizing Learning: Equity, Access, Quality.” There are sessions focused on leading-edge school designs for personalized, competency-based education as well as blended and online learning. Experts and practitioners will share the latest research, promising practices and tools for creating powerful, personalized learning experiences for all students and building understanding to catalyze the transformation of K-12 education.
The iNACOL Symposium is October 23-25, 2017 in Orlando, Florida. Register here to attend.
Below are highlights of a few of the 200+ sessions offered at the conference. Browse all Symposium sessions here.
How Districts Innovate: New Small Schools in Cleveland Metropolitan School District
Hear from a panel of district and school leaders from the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD). Panel members will reflect on the district’s portfolio strategy, which includes the design and launch of new high schools through the Opportunity by Design initiative. Moderated by Springpoint, panelists will discuss how the process of creating new small schools drives innovation in the district and leads to approaches like mastery-based learning and community-driven school model design.
- Kristen Kelly, Cleveland Metropolitan School District
- Christine Fowler-Mack, Cleveland Metropolitan School District
- Irene Javier, Cleveland Metropolitan School District
- Tara Drouhard, Cleveland Metropolitan School District
- Darcel Williams, Cleveland Metropolitan School District
- Matthew Pilarski, Springpoint
Unleashing the Most Underutilized Resource in Education: The Learner
It’s easy to get caught up in the hard work of shifting a century-old system out of its traditional ways of operating. Our focus can get lost in the new structures and technology needed to support this transformation. Join Kelly Young, Executive Director of Education Reimagined, and four inspiring learners from across the country who have experienced both traditional and learner-centered learning models to hear their insights into creating environments that unleash their full potential.
- Kelly Young, Education Reimagined
- Jemar Lee, Iowa BIG
- Patricia Coleman, McComb School District
- Keyonna Griffin, McComb School District
- Vanella Tadjuidje, Pike Road Schools
School (Re)Design: Equitable Outcomes through Personalization
Everyone’s talking about personalization and equity, but what does that actually mean for school (re)design? NewSchools will lead a discussion with district and charter school leaders, who are designing for equity through personalization and innovation. Join us to hear practices and lessons learned from practitioners who are achieving equitable outcomes or are designing their schools to get there. Speakers will also share tools and resources they have leveraged to advance their efforts.
- Frances Messano, NewSchools Venture Fund
- Arielle Rittvo Kinder, NewSchools Venture Fund
StorySLAM: Teaching and Learning in New Ways
Students, teachers and principals of competency-based high schools share their experiences in an interactive StorySLAM format used in The Moth’s storytelling show. Focused on the theme of “Teaching and Learning in New Ways,” stories will illuminate the challenges and possibilities of designing competency-based, personalized learning environments. Attendees are welcome to share stories as well. Springpoint, a national organization supporting innovative high schools, will moderate.
- Victoria Crispin, Springpoint
Leveraging the Science of Learning and Development to Build Equitable Learning Environments
Despite efforts to reform our education system, we have a long way to go to ensure that all young people learn and thrive. The Building Equitable Learning Environments (BELE) Network launched in 2016 to merge improvement science, the science of learning and development, and equity in school redesign. In this session, BELE Network Learning Partners will share about this innovative approach and how organizations in the network are leveraging research to advance equity in the schools they support.
- Lindsay Hill, Raikes Foundation
- Kathleen Osta, National Equity Project
- Dave Paunesku, PERTS
- Camille Farrington, University of Chicago Consortium on School Research
Measuring What Matters: Creating A Data Dashboard with Social Emotional Indicators and Measures
Mindsets, Essential Skills and Habits (MESH) are key to student success — but how do we measure them? As we support students to be future leaders and innovators, we know MESH matters, but tracking their progress is much more complex than academics. Join us as we unpack our journey to building a holistic data dashboard that provides teachers and leaders with academic and social-emotional data for our students. Let us help you launch your work towards doing the same.
- Nicole Assisi, Thrive Public Schools
- Daniel Assisi, California Charter Schools Association
- Thiago Batista, Thrive Public Schools
- Dj Cervantes, Transforming Education
- Shelli Kurth, Thrive Public Schools
Think Outside the Bubble: Reimagining Assessment
Reimagining assessment is reimagining what’s possible for learning. What if assessments empowered students to chart their own learning paths, gave teachers tools that respected and enhanced their professional judgement and embraced a richer, deeper definition of student success? Innovative educators from the Assessment for Learning Project will share their experiences doing just this, and will invite participants to identify opportunities in their own contexts to #rethinkassessment.
- Tony Siddall, Next Generation Learning Challenges
- Ross Lipstein, Summit Public Schools
- Shannon King, Fairfax County Public Schools
- Alec Barron, Del Lago Academy, Escondido Unified High School District
Community-Led Strategy to Implement ESSA in New Mexico
Through the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) outreach, New Mexicans created a vision for public education in their state. Videos, reports, toolkits and dialogues supported the community-led recommendations to improve standards, assessments and accountability. Experience aspects of our engagement strategy, including deep listening and reflecting on home-grown assets, to inform your local work encouraging local and state education agencies to be responsive to students, families and educators.
- Ian Esquibel, Learning Alliance New Mexico
Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, Assistive Technology, Virtual Reality and More: How Will Emerging Technologies Impact our Classrooms?
Are new technologies just big words or do they represent far-reaching changes to how we learn? Technology leaders have a responsibility to their institutions to find out. The CIO of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium will lead an interactive discussion among participants. Together, we will evaluate the basic principles of specific emerging technologies, consider how they will impact our institutions, and learn how to apply the same evaluation process as we consider other innovations.
- Brandt Redd, Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium
An Expanded Definition of Student Success: The Future of Assessment in High School
Assessment can offer us keen insight and help our students drive their own learning. Hear from 3 XQ Super Schools about the future of assessment in high school, from new measures for AP to understanding the new SAT, to driving change with a unified set of competencies called the XQ Learner Goals. Assessment can only work when it serves, informs and enhances instruction, and these award winning leaders will share their vision for what’s next.
- Erin Mote, InnovateEDU
- Anthony Barela, Vista Unified School District
- Stacy Kane, Washington Leadership Academy
Designing the School of the Future, Today
This session will focus on how to implement a “best practice” approach to teaching through “next practice” systems. Highlights include how to use technology to drive personalized learning, student engagement, blended classrooms, prescribed learning, student collaboration, critical thinking and much more. Buddy will be assisted by his 14-year-old daughter in driving home what it looks like through the first-hand perspective of a student. Bring your tough questions and be ready to dream together.
- Buddy Berry, Eminence Independent Schools
- Brooke Berry, Eminence Independent Schools
Growing Quality Online Courses and Joining Forces to Create Better Blooms: Findings from the Field
Ever wonder how online courses do when put under a rigorous review by your peers? Together we are making a difference in the quality of online courses for students. We’ll examine trends from Quality Matters Official K-12 Course Reviews. Looking at data from home-grown district-developed and 3rd-party courses, we’ll see which areas of course design schools, districts and providers have worked to continuously improve, which areas have shown the most growth, and which areas always meet standards.
- Christine Voelker, Quality Matters
We hope to see you at the iNACOL Symposium in Orlando. Register here today, book your hotel here, and contact us with any questions.
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About the iNACOL Symposium
The iNACOL Symposium is the premier learning conference for those advancing powerful, personalized, learner-centered experiences and shaping the future of K-12 competency-based, blended and online learning. On October 23-25, 2017, iNACOL’s annual conference will bring together more than 3,000 experts and educational leaders exploring the leading edge of powerful, personalized learning in K-12 education from across the United States and around the world, including leading practitioners and educators, policymakers, researchers and innovators from throughout the field. Attendees will find invaluable networking opportunities; access to expertise, analysis, the latest trends and research; and thought-provoking interactive sessions for leaders shaping the future of education. The Symposium includes hundreds of engaging interactive sessions, with tags to guide attendees toward highly relevant professional learning opportunities. Learn more on the iNACOL Symposium website.
About iNACOL
The mission of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) is to catalyze the transformation of K-12 education policy and practice to advance powerful, personalized, learner-centered experiences through competency-based, blended and online learning. iNACOL is a non-profit organization focusing on research, developing policy for student-centered education to ensure equity and access, developing quality standards for emerging learning models using competency-based, blended and online education, and supporting the ongoing professional development of school and district leaders for new learning models. Visit our website, like us on Facebook, connect with us on LinkedIn and follow us on Twitter. |
