ATE 2012 Summer Conference in Boston

Pre-Conference workshops will be offered on Friday, August 3 and Saturday, August 4. Click here for additional information. Sign up for the workshops when you register.

ANDREA WHITTAKER

"Balancing the Tensions - High Stakes Accountability and Program Inquiry in Teacher Education"

Teacher preparation is the latest target of stakeholders who call for increased accountability for university-based programs while endorsing quick fix alternative certification pathways, Given the external demands of accountability and the pressure to demonstrate that quality preparation supports student learning, we are faced with challenging questions. How do we define quality teaching and learning? Why is it essential that we have consistent, comparable measures of teaching quality? How can we demonstrate that candidates are ready to teach all learners and to thrive in the profession over time? How can performance-based measures of teaching help to improve teacher preparation? How can programs avoid merely complying with assessment mandates and maintain their identities, values and commitments?

Andrea Whittaker is Director, Teacher Performance Assessment at Stanford University. She is a Board Member at RAFT, Resource Area for Teaching, and is on the Board of Directors and President Elect of the California Council on Teacher Education. She was formerly a Professor at San Jose State University, on the Adjunct Faculty at University of California Santa Cruz, and on the Adjunct Faculty at San Jose State University.

NEL NODDINGS

"What Does It Mean to Educate the Whole Child?" We'll discuss strategies by which teachers can make connections across the disciplines and to life itself.
General Session & Lunch
Sunday, 12:15
Fireside Chat after presentation

Nel Noddings is Lee L. Jacks Professor of Education, Emerita, at Stanford University. She is a past president of the National Academy of Education, the Philosophy of Education Society and the John Dewey Society. In addition to seventeen books—among them, Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education, Women and Evil, The Challenge to Care in Schools, Educating for Intelligent Belief or Unbelief, and Philosophy of Education—she is the author of more than 200 articles and chapters on various topics ranging from the ethics of care to mathematical problem solving. Her latest books are Happiness and Education, Educating Citizens for Global Awareness, Critical Lessons: What Our Schools Should Teach, When School Reform Goes Wrong, and The Maternal Factor: Two Paths to Morality. Her work has so far been translated into 12 languages.

Noddings spent fifteen years as a teacher, administrator, and curriculum supervisor in public schools; she served as a mathematics department chairperson in New Jersey and as Director of the Laboratory Schools at the University of Chicago. At Stanford, she received the Award for Teaching Excellence three times. She also served as Associate Dean and as Acting Dean at Stanford for four years.

She is a Laureate member of Kappa Delta Pi, and holds a number of awards, among them the Anne Rowe Award for contributions to the education of women (Harvard University); the Willystine Goodsell Award for contributions to the education of women (AERA); Medal for Distinguished Service, Teachers College Columbia U.; Lifetime Achievement Award from AERA (Division B); the Award for Distinguished Leadership in Education, Rutgers University; and honorary doctorates from Columbia College; Montclair State University; Queen’s University, Canada; Lewis and Clark College; and Manhattan College.

Biographical chapters and film accounts: Anna Neumann and Penelope Peterson, eds., Learning from our Lives; Joy Palmer, ed., Fifty Modern Thinkers on Education; Leonard Waks, ed., Leaders in Philosophy of Education. Film interviews: “Feminist Philosophy in North America,” available at U. Kentucky; also National Academy interview at http://insidetheacademy.asu.edu.

Ronald F. Ferguson’s teaching, consulting and research over more than three decades have focused on reducing economic and educational disparities. He is the creator of the Tripod Project for School Improvement, the faculty co-chair and director of the Achievement Gap Initiative (AGI) at Harvard University and faculty co-director of the Pathways to Prosperity Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

His recent work has attracted wide attention. The Gates Foundation project on Measuring Effective Teaching (MET) reported in 2010, that student perceptions of teaching using Dr. Ferguson’s Tripod Project survey tools help to predict learning gains in public school classrooms. His report, How High Schools Become Exemplary (2010, available at www.agi.harvard.edu), was featured in September 2010 on the front-page of the New York Times. Another report, “Pathways to Prosperity (2011),” has added fuel to the national debate on how to help all youth, not just the college-bound, transition successfully from school to work. His most recent book Toward Excellence with Equity: An emerging vision for closing the achievement gap, was published by Harvard Education Press in 2008. He has been happily married for 33 years and is the father of two sons.

HIGHLIGHT
Town hall meeting with ATE President Ann Shelly and Immediate Past President Jim Alouf to discuss ATE's Strategic Planning Process will be held on Tuesday followed by the President’s brunch.

AFRICAN AMERICAN MEETING HOUSE (Monday, August 6)

The African Meeting House and Abiel Smith School on Beacon Hill, both built in the early 1800's, are two of the Museum of African American History's most valuable assets. These buildings remain a showcase of black community organization and enduring testimony to black craftsmanship.

This ticketed event will be held on Monday, August 6. The bus will depart the hotel at 4:30 p.m. and arrive back at the hotel at 8:00. For additional information, click here.

There is also an additional option for those who would like to walk the Black Heritage Trail. If you choose to walk the trail, you will need to be at the Museum of African American History by 2:30 with transportation on your own. You will ride the bus back to arrive at the hotel at 8:00 p.m. Please note that you must pre-register for the walk since a list of names must be provided to the park service by the firm deadline of June 30.

The Black Heritage Trail® is a walking tour that explores the history of Boston's 19th century African American community. Between 1800 and 1900, most of the African Americans who lived in the city lived in the West End, between Pinckney and Cambridge Streets, and between Joy and Charles Streets, a neighborhood now called the North Slope of Beacon Hill. You can sign up for the walking tour when you register for the evening event.

MINNESOTA TWINS at BOSTON RED SOX (Friday, August 3)

A limited number of tickets are available at $60 each for purchase for Friday, August 3rd (Grandstand 4, rows 9-12). Transportation to Fenway Park is on your own. Mark the registration form or click here to send an email to check for availability and reserve tickets.

Subcommittee Chairs

Program: Sandy Brownscombe and David Byrd
Special Events: Cathy Pearman and Christie McIntyre
Newcomers: Linda Fisher
Local Arrangements Chairs: Marilyn Nicholas and Tammie Brown