Adult educators and those seeking to learn more about the field need turn no further than ACSA’s Leadership Summit, to be held Nov. 3-5 in Sacramento.
The Leadership Summit, “Rock Solid Leadership. Right Time. Right Now,” features a strand dedicated exclusively to adult educators. The strand, which is essentially a “conference within a conference,” consists of a special pre-conference workshop and sessions focusing on the issues affecting adult education today, such as planning for the future, 21st century skills, state legislation and funding.
The pre-conference event, Adult Education 101, is designed for both new and veteran adult education administrators. The full-day training, held Nov. 2, will help attendees discover the critical issues, timelines and factors that ensure success for administrators of adult education.
Joyce Lude, director of adult education/principal of Roseville Adult School and ACSA’s 2010 Adult Education Administrator of the Year, said in prior years ACSA’s adult education professional learning event was held as a separate conference. But it made sense to combine that event with the quality sessions held at the annual Leadership Summit.
“Although it was a wonderful opportunity to focus on adult education, there has been growing interest in dovetailing sessions specific to adult education topics with the powerful leadership events held at the Leadership Summit,” she said.
Integrating adult education into the Leadership Summit gives adult educators the opportunity to participate as part of a larger learning and networking experience.
“Successful adult education programs have become more integrated into all aspects of a school district: intervention, improving graduation rates, supporting the educational needs of parents/families of the children in the district, and transition to post-secondary education and training,” Lude said.
“As adult education programs change and plan for the future, it is important to see where and how they will serve their districts and community. This conference and the adult education strand will work toward achieving this goal.”
Lude said highlights include sessions to help administrators plan for the future so they can develop relevant programs to link with their local labor markets, support the K-12 educational system and build relationships with legislators. Other sessions focus on strategic planning, which is critical in this time of increasing budget cuts.
“As school finance continues to tighten up, strategic planning to use the limited resources is more important than ever,” she said.
Being honored this year during the Leadership Summit is ACSA’s 2011 Adult Education Administrator of the Year, Dawn Buboltz, principal in Chaffey Joint Union HSD. Buboltz will be honored along with all of ACSA’s Administrators of the Year during an awards ceremony and dinner, Friday, Nov. 5.
For more information on the adult education strand and registration materials click here.