Community-wide Education Summit To Promote Fundamental Change

On March 11 and 12, a Community-wide Summit for Educational Change will take place. Will this be another talk session with inspiring words but short on follow-through and action? Over our dead bodies. Everyone interested in inclusive, collaborative, real education reform efforts in the Rochester City School District will have an opportunity to contribute to the development of a realistic, focused plan. <!--break--> We believe the Community-wide Summit for Educational Change is a valuable contribution toward meeting some of the most important human rights challenges we have ever seen. Nothing short of a mass movement with sustained, energetic commitment from large numbers of affected RCSD families, allied with teachers and school communities, will achieve the radical changes required to rescue and repair urban public education. We welcome Adelaide L. Sanford, vice chancellor emeritus of the state Board of Regents, to Rochester as a featured summit participant, along with distinguished RIT professor of public policy and former Rochester Mayor William A. Johnson Jr., and William Cala, former RCSD interim superintendent. Sanford is known internationally for leading community-driven and Afrocentric education initiatives in New York City and for her commitment to improving schools labeled as low-achieving. The two-day summit will emphasize focused working sessions organized around eight principles. We aim to eliminate racism and establish cultural equity in schools; establish relevant and broad-based parent, student and community involvement; demand measurable accountability for all stakeholders; increase local control and reject further attempts to privatize public schools; produce broad-based civic and political engagement among students; reform standardized testing; implement effective and proven approaches, including early childhood education; and eliminate devastating effects of concentrated poverty. Participants will be asked to identify areas of interest and collaborate intensively with others. Each group will propose two short-term and two long-term goals for improving education in city schools. The summit takes place from 4:30 to 8 p.m. March 11 at East High School, featuring Sanford, Johnson and a dinner reception. The summit moves to the Rochester Plaza Hotel at 8:30 a.m. March 12, where the day will be devoted extensively to collaborative working groups. All events are free. For more information and to register, go to http://communityeducationtaskforce.rocus.org/ or call (585) 317-2367. Mary Adams, a registered nurse, and Howard Eagle, retired teacher, are parent members of the Community Education Task Force.

<p>On March 11 and 12, a Community-wide Summit for Educational Change will take place. Will this be another talk session with inspiring words but short on follow-through and action? Over our dead bodies.</p> <p>Everyone interested in inclusive, collaborative, real education reform efforts in the Rochester City School District will have an opportunity to contribute to the development of a realistic, focused plan.</p> <!--break--><p>We believe the Community-wide Summit for Educational Change is a valuable contribution toward meeting some of the most important human rights challenges we have ever seen. Nothing short of a mass movement with sustained, energetic commitment from large numbers of affected RCSD families, allied with teachers and school communities, will achieve the radical changes required to rescue and repair urban public education.</p> <p>We welcome Adelaide L. Sanford, vice chancellor emeritus of the state Board of Regents, to Rochester as a featured summit participant, along with distinguished RIT professor of public policy and former Rochester Mayor William A. Johnson Jr., and William Cala, former RCSD interim superintendent. Sanford is known internationally for leading community-driven and Afrocentric education initiatives in New York City and for her commitment to improving schools labeled as low-achieving.</p> <p>The two-day summit will emphasize focused working sessions organized around eight principles. We aim to eliminate racism and establish cultural equity in schools; establish relevant and broad-based parent, student and community involvement; demand measurable accountability for all stakeholders; increase local control and reject further attempts to privatize public schools; produce broad-based civic and political engagement among students; reform standardized testing; implement effective and proven approaches, including early childhood education; and eliminate devastating effects of concentrated poverty.</p> <p>Participants will be asked to identify areas of interest and collaborate intensively with others. Each group will propose two short-term and two long-term goals for improving education in city schools.</p> <p>The summit takes place from 4:30 to 8 p.m. March 11 at East High School, featuring Sanford, Johnson and a dinner reception.<br /> The summit moves to the Rochester Plaza Hotel at 8:30 a.m. March 12, where the day will be devoted extensively to collaborative working groups.</p> <p>All events are free. For more information and to register, go to <a href="http://communityeducationtaskforce.rocus.org/">http://communityeducationtaskforce.rocus.org/</a> or call (585) 317-2367.<br /> Mary Adams, a registered nurse, and Howard Eagle, retired teacher, are parent members of the Community Education Task Force.</p>