Last modified: Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Issues in Education Seminar for Reporters
Agenda
8:30 a.m. -- Registration and continental breakfast
9 a.m. -- Welcome: Robert Osgood
Robert Osgood is associate professor of Educational Foundations and chair of Graduate Studies for the Indiana University School of Education at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). He earned his Ph.D. in education at Claremont Graduate University in California. Since beginning his service to IUPUI in 1994, he has engaged in a wide range of academic and administrative initiatives. In addition, he has taken a leadership role in the development of service-learning and the integration of liberal arts into the School of Education curriculum. His research focuses on the history of special education programs in the public schools of the United States, and he has authored For 'Children Who Vary from the Normal Type': Special Education in Boston 1838-1930 as well as the recently published The History of Inclusion in the United States (Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 2005). His next book, tentatively entitled The Lives of Children in Special Education: A Struggle for Equality in American Schools, will be published this fall by Greenwood-Preager Press.
9:15 a.m. -- CEEP Legislative update: Education topics in the upcoming session -- evaluating charter schools, rollout of full-day kindergarten, the school funding formula and high school reform.
Terry Spradlin will discuss important information regarding the upcoming legislative session and education policy issues. Spradlin is associate director for education policy at the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy in the Indiana University School of Education. Spradlin is a manager for the center's policy-related projects, with an emphasis on P-16 projects. In addition to daily oversight of a range of policy projects, he takes a lead in pursuit of external funding to support these activities. Spradlin regularly interacts with state policymakers and other educational leaders on behalf of the center.
Before joining CEEP, Spradlin served as the legislative and policy analyst with the Indiana Department of Education. He represented the department in legislative matters and developed the department's K-12 education policy agenda. He coordinated information between state legislators and the department as well as conducted policy research on key issues. Spradlin regularly communicated with the public and members of the press about K-12 education issues. Spradlin earned a Bachelor of Science in Public Affairs and a Master of Public Affairs from Indiana University.
10:15 a.m. -- Break
10:30 a.m. -- Decatur Township: How IU and one Indiana school district is implementing small learning communities
This presentation will be given by Kurt Richter from Indiana University and Don Stinson, superintendent of the Metropolitan School District of Decatur Township. Richter is a doctoral candidate in the Instructional SystemsTechnology Department at IU. He is a co-facilitator of the Decatur Journey Toward Excellence and expects to continue work in the field of systemic change upon completion of his degree. Richter is completing his dissertation on the interaction between learning and decision making on the Decatur Leadership Team.
Stinson is a 1968 graduate of Decatur Central High School. He returned as superintendent to his home school corporation in 2000. In five years, he has led the school corporation through an ongoing systemic change process and an adoption of a focus on excellence that produced a variety of positive results. The results include improving the graduation rate, high stakes test results and attendance rates. Other innovations led by Stinson include a new charter school named Challenger Learning Center, local business partnerships and the creation of the Goodwin Community Center. The Decatur Discovery Academy is a small, non-traditional high school using the expeditionary learning national model. The MSD of Decatur Township was awarded a Gates Foundation Grant through CELL in support of the effort with the Mayor of Indianapolis granting a charter allowing Decatur to be the organizer of the school. This unique arrangement is the first with a public school corporation serving as the organizer.
Current efforts include the reinvention of the corporation's schools into small learning communities. This process includes the reconstruction of Decatur Central High School to support the reform model.
Stinson was named the 2005 Indiana Superintendent of the Year. He is known for using a collaborative leadership style to bring a focus on improving learning for all students.
11:30 a.m. -- Catered Lunch
12:30 p.m. -- IU School of Education announcement
Gerardo Gonzalez is University Dean of the School of Education. He will announce a new partnership the IU School of Education will initiate this year and will provide background and insight into this new initiative. In July, 2000, Gonzalez became University Dean of Indiana University's School of Education. As University Dean, he directs administrative and budgetary activities on the Bloomington and Indianapolis campuses and provides direction to schools and departments of education on the six regional campuses of IU. Under his leadership, the IU School of Education has continued to build upon its reputation as one of the nation's finest schools of education. For the ninth consecutive year, the school is among the top 20 of U.S. schools of education as listed by U.S. News and World Report's "America's Best Graduate Schools, 2008."
1:45 p.m. -- New tech high schools: What they are, what they mean and how Indiana is trying to make them happen.
Catherine Gray is a clinical faculty member of the School of Education, spending the past three years as director of the Office of Professional Development and now associate director of the Center for Research and P-16 Collaboration. Her primary responsibilities are to develop and support partnerships between the university and high need K-12 schools around the state. Prior to coming to the School of Education, she served as assistant director of the Office of Community Outreach and Partnerships in Service-Learning at IU, after teaching for 10 years in Indiana public schools.
2:30 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. -- Closing remarks: Chuck Carney, director of communications and media relations, IU Indiana University School of Education
