The changing face of education dominated the stellar keynote speeches at the 2009 ACSA Leadership Summit, Nov. 5-7 in Sacramento.
Welcoming attendees to the summit during the First General Session on Thursday was ACSA President Chuck Weis, who said the theme of the event, “Leadership for a Changing World,” means all educators must approach their work in new ways.
“You may have heard that education creates the future. But it’s time for the future to recreate education,” he said. “It’s about dealing with a different world. It’s about dealing with a different economy and its about dealing with a different student.”
ACSA Executive Director Bob Wells said there are many changes in store for education in the coming year, from Race to the Top funding to the election and race for a new superintendent of public instruction, including candidate Larry Aceves, former ACSA president.
“There are an awful lot of things that give us hope,” Wells said. “ACSA is playing an important role in listening to you and rolling your voices into one.”
Also speaking was California Secretary of Education Glen Thomas, who extolled the work of the state’s educational leaders.
“Life is full of challenges. Life is not linear. But without those challenges, you wouldn’t need leaders. Leaders are the ones who step up, take responsibility and move the ball forward,” he said.
Thursday’s General Session speaker was Sir Ken Robinson, former educator and internationally recognized leader in the development of creativity, innovation and human resources. Robinson presented “Leading a Culture of Innovation,” focusing on what it takes to prepare students for a new world.
“The principle of leadership in a time of change is affecting everyone on Earth,” he said. “I personally believe educators are on the front lines of this shift.”
Robinson agreed with Thomas’ assertion that life is not linear, and said the problem is that the education system today is.
“Life is not linear, but education is; …change is not linear or incremental, change is dynamic and exponential,” he said. “We’re living in a time of revolution…all of this has happened in a heartbeat of human history.”
Robinson said what this revolution means to educators is a change in thinking.
“We have to think differently about what we’re capable of,” he said. “We can’t meet the future with this system. We must radically transform into something else.”
For too long, Robinson said, educators have focused solely on college readiness. While rigorous curriculum certainly is important, it can often exclude intelligence of the creative, innovative sort.
“We’ve drawn a line in the sand between academics and vocational education,” he said. “We’ve become obsessed with getting people into college…this leads to a great waste of human talent.”
The key, Robinson said, is to disenthrall. Too many people, including educators, are enthralled by ideas that keep them engaged but are no longer valid. For example, the one-size-fits-all mentality.
“We’ve produced a system that celebrates standardization and conformity,” he said. “This conformist society takes away individuality and creativity.”
In order to progress, these ideas must be abandoned and new ones established. This must be done on a systemic level.
“I believe we have to encourage creativity. In order to do that we have to encourage a culture of innovation,” he said.
Unfortunately, the system has created generations of individuals who believe they have no talents and have no creativity. Like intelligence, these traits can be nurtured.
“We’re all inherently creative,” Robinson said. “The question is not how creative are you, but how are you creative?”
ACSA Vice President Alice Petrossian welcomed attendees to the Summit’s Second General Session, held Friday, Nov. 6. She encouraged attendees to remain strong and reminded them that ACSA is still working hard behind the scenes.
“May you be the kind of leaders the state of California needs in this time of crisis,” she said. “And ACSA has our backs.”
Also speaking during the Second General Session was state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell. He called the current education budget situation shameful and embarrassing, and said it does nothing but harm the future not only of students, but of the state as a whole.
“If you want to invest in the future, invest in education. If you don’t, you shortchange the future,” he said.
However, O’Connell was optimistic that educational leaders can rise to the challenge and overcome these obstacles.
“We must continue to work to improve our education delivery system,” O’Connell said. “If we continue to work hard, we continue to work smart and we continue to work together, the best is yet to come for public education.”
Friday’s keynote speaker was Rudy Crew, former head of New York public schools and Miami-Dade County public schools, who discussed “The Education Conversation We Must Have – Schooling, Globalization and Urban America.”
Crew said it is imperative that educators take a close look at where, exactly, they are leading their students as they enter the real world.
“What public schools need now more than ever is someone to stand up and define the landscape ahead,” he said.
Crew said the relationship between globalization and urbanization is multi-faceted. Graduation is one thing, but college, career and global readiness is a separate issue altogether.
“The question is, how do you paint the picture of what that looks like?” he said, adding that it is the school leader who must be the “artist.” “You can’t change them overnight, but you can change the landscape on which they do what they do.”
He said the education system today is suffering from narrow bandwidth – a narrow curriculum focus that prevents real, in-depth learning.
“We’ve watered it down so much that not only do kids not get it, we don’t get it,” he said.
With all the focus on language arts, math, science and social studies, the benefits of the arts has been overlooked. Arts is essential for mastering core subjects, but its benefits are often ignored.
“It’s more than loving and appreciating the arts, it’s a pathway of how the brain works, it’s a strategy to obtain higher levels of cognition,” Crew said.
With the prevalence of charter schools, parents have a choice. As in any business, education should provide parents with what they want for their children.
“We need to start treating parents as consumers and as people whose vote counts as far as what they want and need in their own schools,” Crew said. “Like it or not, parents have a myriad of choices. Parents don’t have to come to your store if they don’t like what you’re selling.”
The Saturday, Nov. 7 General Session opened with president-elect Bob Noyes recognizing the military veterans in the audience.
He reminded ACSA members that school administrators are “tough, yet kind,” and it is their resiliency that will ensure success as the country moves to redefine public education.
Saturday’s keynote speaker, Thelma Meléndez de Santa Ana, understands that challenge for the future. As the new U.S. assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education, Meléndez is playing a key role in the reauthorization of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
“My passion always has been in helping ensure all students succeed,” Meléndez said.
As the U.S. Department of Education has conducted tours of the country, inviting input on ESEA from thousands of parents, students and educators, Meléndez said a common theme to all discussions is that people everywhere hold the belief that education is the economic salvation for America.
She called the work being done on federal education reform a “watershed moment for schools around the country; for the children we serve and the children we will serve in the future.
“This is the time for public education to step up and do what needs to be done,” she said.
Meléndez touched on a number of issues at the forefront of education reform, including creating common core standards, transforming chronically underperforming schools, and ensuring successful teachers.
She told her own story of entering school as an English learner and facing roadblocks to her dreams as she progressed toward graduation. She cited strong teachers, coaches and mentors on her journey who helped her reach her potential.
“Each child entrusted to us has a dream for the future,” Meléndez said. “This effort isn’t created at the federal level; it’s created here, by those of you in the audience.
“It’s important that all students – not just students who have been successful, but all students – are successful. I ask for your help to truly transform American education.”