Speaker bios
–Paul Reville, Former Massachusetts Secretary of Education, The Harvard Gazette, April 10, 2020
It is time to rethink learning for our students amid COVID-19 and beyond!
Join CEC live for a series of engaging conversations developed in a virtual learning space for school and district leaders, school board members, teachers, and classified staff from across the country. Let’s come together to reflect on what we’ve learned during these months of remote learning and consider the challenges that we must address as we plan for a new year of learning with the ongoing impact from COVID-19.
THIS SYMPOSIUM IS DESIGNED TO SUPPORT PARTICIPATING LABOR-MANAGEMENT COLLABORATIVE TEAMS THROUGH:
RELEVANT AND URGENT TOPICS
With the unprecedented impact COVID-19 is having on our schools, the response that our school communities plan and implement is critical! As we all adjust to our new normal it is clear that we will need to focus on the social, emotional, physical and academic needs of students. Participants will have opportunities to examine issues and options to consider in rethinking learning for our students, families and communities.
PERSONALIZED LEARNING EXPERIENCES
Select the learning strands that are most relevant for you. Each 75-minute session will provide insight into policy and program changes and opportunities that may impact your schools amid the COVID-19 crisis.
STRENGTHENING RELATIONSHIPS
Engage in professional learning opportunities that facilitate conversations and sharing with professional colleagues in your own school community as well as across the country.
RESOURCE LIBRARY
Access articles, guidebooks, planning documents and other resources to inform your planning as you rethink how learning will occur for students in this COVID-19 environment.
SHARED EXPERIENCES
Learn from colleagues across the country as they share examples of collaborative efforts to engage stakeholders, address equity and encourage distributive leadership toward improving conditions for teaching and learning.
TEAM DEBRIEF & PLANNING OPPORTUNITIES
Engage in conversations with colleagues as you examine critical issues that must be addressed in rethinking student learning as a new school year begins.
LMC SYMPOSIUM LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES INCLUDE:
Keynote Sessions
Each morning of the symposium, we will have an opening keynote session. State, national and international education leaders will provide emerging frameworks, guiding principles and blueprints to guide the decisions, preparations and actions as education leaders, community leaders and public officials work to reopen schools across the country.
Confirmed Keynote Speakers Include:
Expert Panel from the National Labor-Management Partnership (NLMP)
This keynote session will feature a panel of experts from the collaborative work of the NLMP, a coalition of leaders representing the School Superintendent’s Association (AASA), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the National Education Association (NEA), and the National School Board Association (NSBA). Panelists will discuss the newly released joint document, Collaborating in a Crisis, and provide an overview of their 2018 Call To Action – which urges us all to usher in a new era in education – “one characterized by professional respect, unity, and collaboration toward student-centered outcomes”.
Panelists will also discuss the need for district administrators, unions/education associations, and other community stakeholders to work together toward mutual goals to support all students. “The COVID-19 crisis demands that stakeholders focus on a shared goal of successfully reopening our school buildings. It therefore offers opportunities to develop meaningful and lasting partnerships, even among entities that have not yet built a history of trust.”
David Edwards, PhD, is General Secretary of Education International (EI) a federation of 32 million teachers and other educators affiliated with unions and associations in 173 countries globally. Prior to joining EI, Dr. Edwards was an Associate Director at the National Education Association of the United States. He has worked as an Education Specialist at the Organization of American States and began his career as a public high school teacher.
A Pennsylvania native, Edwards is fluent in Spanish and German and is conversant in French. His doctorate in Educational Policy and Leadership is from the University of Maryland. Dr. Edwards, his wife and their three children live in Brussels.
Dr. Edwards will provide an overview of the state of education in countries across the globe, addressing issues that we are all concerned about as we reopen schools during this pandemic, including: school funding crisis, health and wellbeing, digital and socio-economic inequities, remote learning challenges and political unrest that all impact student learning.
ELECTIVE LEARNING STRANDS
Participants will be able to select and register for specific learning strands that will feature a series of three sessions – one each day of the symposium. The sessions in these learning strands are designed to assist educators as they develop plans to reopen schools during this pandemic.
Each learning strand will provide participants opportunities to explore relevant topics, examine policies and practices, and engage in virtual conversations to guide school and district leaders as they work collectively to reopen our schools in ways that address the academic, social and emotional learning needs through a lens of equity.
Learning Strands Include:
- STRENGTHENING SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING FOR ALL
While much uncertainty surrounds how and when school will reopen, it is evident that addressing the social and emotional learning needs of students and adults will be critical to reengaging students, supporting adults, rebuilding relationships and creating a foundation for academic learning. School leaders will need to reach out to multiple school and community members to co-design supportive learning environments where all students and adults feel safe and secure, and can heal and thrive academically, socially and emotionally.
- REIMAGINING LEARNING: A STUDENT-CENTERED APPROACH
School closures have exposed the socio-economic and digital inequities which significantly impact how and which students learn. Now is the time to consider developing learning experiences that provide relevant, rigorous and personalized learning for each individual student in ways that engage, challenge and support all students going forward. These sessions will both challenge and inspire participants to think creatively and strategically as they begin to reimagine learning for all students during COVID-19 and beyond.
- SEEK FIRST TO UNDERSTAND – COVID-19 LESSONS LEARNED FROM STUDENTS AND PARENTS
This session will explore the importance of reaching out to students and parents to understand what we have learned about educating students during this pandemic. Participants will be introduced to frameworks to help them understand the various levels of student and parent engagement. This session will also showcase tools and strategies to assist school and district teams to engage students and parents as they develop plans to reopen schools in ways that provide relevant and engaging learning opportunities for all students.
- STRENGTHENING RELATIONSHIPS AND COLLABORATIVE PARTNERSHIPS
As the world faces a global public health crisis unlike anything we’ve seen in modern times, schools and communities are forced to address challenging issues on a daily, if not hourly, basis. This pandemic health crisis presents us all with an urgent, common problem to solve and a shared responsibility to reopen our schools in ways that protect the health and well-being of adults and students alike and ensure academic equity for all students. These sessions provide opportunities to strengthen relationships, engage in team building activities and consider establishing critical collaborative leadership structures and processes that will provide a strong foundation for creative, flexible problem-solving through these unprecedented times.
- NAVIGATING CHANGE – AN INTEREST BASED APPROACH:
There is such significant, rapid change happening around us due to COVID-19 and our world of education is at the epi-center of this change. School, district, state and community leaders will be challenged to work together to address critical issues that impact the health, safety and equitable learning conditions for all students and adults. Reopening our schools will require flexibility and creative problem-solving to ensure the health and safety of both students and adults as well as address the learning needs of all students. This learning strand will provide participants with critical foundations and tools for navigating required changes as a collaborative organization. Each session provides either simulations or discussions of processes and practices that can be applied in a variety of change conversations in a school district.
- ADVANCING EDUCATIONAL EQUITY:
Social upheavals of all sorts, from natural disasters to social unrest to pandemics tend to illuminate and magnify long-festering inequities. COVID 19 has had that effect on our schools and school systems. Participants who join this learning strand will engage in conversations that investigate and examine the inequitable systems, practices and policies revealed by the current crisis, consider the value of using partnerships and coalitions to address these inequities and use those collaborations to rethink/reimagine a more human, more equitable way to educate all students.