Closing the Achievement Gap: What Are We Learning and What Do We Need to Do?

The International Center for Leadership in Education is involved with several research projects focused on what exactly happens in the schools and classrooms of highly successful high schools. The work has centered on schools with challenging demographics yet high student achievement for all subgroups. This session will provide an overview of the research results taken from proven and promising schools. In addition, Ray McNulty will discuss why we need to reinvent our education system. He will share the research that supports the Rigor/Relevance Framework™ and the importance of moving to application-based instruction as a means of raising student achievement.

Essential Learnings from School Reinvention

This session will share some of the most essential learnings related to school reinvention. These are the findings and consequences that have been learned the hard way but provide the best return on investment. What to do when a school or district is just beginning this work? What makes the changes sustainable? What key strategies are important to improve literacy? Come prepared for some blinding flashes of the obvious and some “so that’s why it didn’t work” moments.

Innovation, Leadership and Rules: Dilemmas Faced in Education

Educators are asked to reinvent their schools, but how do we reinvent an education system that is bound by rules, regulations, and procedures over which we have little control? Could the task be more challenging? Schools may want to do something innovative but lack the resources to do it or the rules won’t allow it! These are just a few of the dilemmas we face in education. In this session, Ray McNulty will share leadership lessons learned from successful schools and strategies to build leadership and innovation into the system, schools, and classrooms. Ray will also share the Learning Criteria to Support Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships, which was developed by the International Center for Leadership in Education as a tool for creating a comprehensive and sustainable school improvement plan or for assessing the breadth and depth of an existing plan.

Leadership Skills for the 21st Century

How do we create a new education system when we cannot envision it? How can we be innovative and develop new programs and services while facing extensive regulations and severe budget constraints? These are just a few of the dilemmas we face in education. In this session, Ray McNulty will share five new leadership lessons and a set of strategies to build innovation and leadership density into education systems, schools, and classrooms.

Everyone’s Got the Message that We Need to Change, So Now What?

This session will share some practical tactics, actions, and steps that have evolved from work over the last five years in reinventing schools. Ray McNulty has been involved in a number of change efforts from urban to rural and district to school-based. Getting the school improvement process started and keeping it moving are collaborative efforts that pose some interesting challenges. This session will provide some solutions.

Literacy Integration

This presentation will focus on the role of integrating strong literacy skill development into restructuring strategies for secondary education. During this session, Mr. McNulty will discuss the importance of literacy improvement as a fundamental aspect of all sustained school reinvention initiatives. Participants will be inspired to capitalize on the opportunities presented as they pertain to their own roles in providing a more rigorous and relevant education for all students.

Future Trends and Challenges in Education

The future is being shaped by four mega trends – globalization, demographics, technology, and changing values/attitudes. Ray McNulty will explore these trends and their impact on what students need to know and be able to do. In addition he will discuss why we need to reinvent our education system, share lessons learned in school reform, and describe the research that supports the Rigor/Relevance Framework™ and the importance of moving to application-based instruction as a means of raising student achievement. He will conclude by discussing the challenges we will face in the new conceptual age that lies ahead and the impact on students, schools, and society if we do not prepare students adequately for this changing world.

Reinventing the Education System

It is hard to disagree with the intent of No Child Left Behind — to give every student as rigorous and relevant an educational experience as possible. Districts and schools can move forward on implementation by using data to focus on the most essential learning and by providing multiple pathways for students to acquire the academic skills and knowledge they need, not only to pass the tests, but also to succeed in post-school opportunities. This presentation will discuss why we need to reinvent our education system, share lessons learned in high school reform, and describe the research that supports the Rigor/Relevance Framework™ and the importance of moving to application-based instruction as a means of raising student achievement.

Promising to Proven: Lessons Learned

For more than three years, the International Center for Leadership in Education’s Successful Practices Network has been involved with a research project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to look at what exactly happens in the schools and classrooms of highly successful high schools? This work has centered on schools with challenging demographics and very high student achievement for all sub groups. This session will provide participants with a review of the research results taken from more than 35 proven and promising high schools. Participants will also learn about the four criteria used to evaluate proven schools and the specific characteristics that appear to be commonly found in high performing schools.

Why Aren’t We There Yet? What Will It Take?

We are constantly seeking to improve our schools and our results in an imperfect world. Why then is change so difficult and often met with resistance? What about the need to create a strong and stable environment for our students – are change and stability in conflict? This presentation will offer some thoughts and hopes on how we can help our children achieve their dreams.

Creating New Traditions in Education Leadership

Ray McNulty will explore a series of new leadership traditions that harness the collected genius of the people in an organization while creating a positive impact on students. He will share eight attributes of leadership and how to measure their impact on an education system.

Using the Learning Criteria to Support Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships

The International Center for Leadership in Education has developed a number of tools for aid school improvement over the last 15 years. All of these tools help to build up an education system, school, and/or classroom for breakthrough performance. The Learning Criteria to Support Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships is a free resource initially developed to identify high performing schools. It has grown to become a tool to broaden the ways schools measure results, monitor school improvement initiatives and data, and communicate with the community. This session will share the theory behind the Learning Criteria, what it is, and how it can contribute to the school improvement planning process.

Participation Gap

The achievement gap continues to challenge educators despite significant efforts specifically designed to improve the performance of each and every student in our schools. As we try to close and eliminate the achievement gap, we must not forget that academic performance is linked to the whole child. It has been said that in order to touch the mind, you must first touch the heart. It is impossible for schools to close the achievement gap until they ensure that there is not a participation gap. Participation entails students being connected to their learning environment and having a desire to be at school, a hunger to learn, and a willingness to participate actively in the learning process. Participation is comprised of three components: personal worth, active engagement, and purpose. Closing the gap is the first step in improving the achievement of all students.

Please note that all presentations are tailored to meet the needs of the audience.