National Summit Highlights Progress; SPS Students

Recently, members of my senior team, the president of our local teachers association and I had the opportunity to participate in a U.S. Department of Education (USDE) School Turnaround Summit and Nation Education Association (NEA) Foundation events, February 9-10 in Washington, D.C.

The School Turnaround Summit included School Improvement Grant (SIG) teams from 26 districts across the nation and several state education agencies. The summit was hosted by the USDE new Office of School Turnaround in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education.

The summit provided an opportunity to reflect on our existing educational practices; to learn from other district leaders who have been successful in addressing persistent challenges in turning around their lowest-performing schools; and a chance to stay abreast of some of the latest research, promising practices and tools for practitioners in the work of school turnaround.

In addition to the summit agenda and targeted breakout sessions, there was also team time relative to the unique needs of our respective districts. Finally, the summit provided an opportunity for participating superintendents and union leaders to meet with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan at the White House to discuss challenges, impediments and what’s needed from USDE to support our work in the school turnaround arena.

The NEA events afforded SEA President Tim Collins and I the chance to co-present before the Foundation’s Board on labor-management-community collaborations as it relates to the Springfield Closing the Achievement Gap Grant. This allowed us to highlight our successes and opportunities for improvement as we approach the close of our second year of the grant (i.e., project interventions, union-district collaborations, community partnerships and performance outcomes).

The highlight of our visit to D.C. for me occurred Friday evening at the NEA Foundation's Salute to Excellence in Education Gala, where seven Springfield performing arts students (and their teachers) from Rebecca Johnson Elementary School, the High School of Science and Technology and Central High School got to perform on a national stage.

The genres included dance, instrumental and vocal performances. It was a heartfelt evening to watch our students represent themselves and Springfield so well in showcasing their talents and abilities.