Conference Details
Thursday, February 9
Conference Registration 9:00 A.M.–7:00 P.M.
(Lunch not provided, so eat before arriving!)
Preconference Sessions 1:00–5:00 P.M.
Evening entertainment possibilities:
- Palm Springs Village Fest, 6:00–10:00 P.M.
- Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, last car at 9:45 P.M.
- The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies,
Historic Plaza Theatre. This is a truly great show!
Friday, February 10
Conference Registration 6:30 A.M.–4:30 P.M.
Breakfast/KEYNOTE 7:45–9:15 A.M.
DIANA OXLEY, Senior Program Advisor—Smaller Learning Communities Project,
The Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory
Building School-wide Support for Effective Small Learning Community Practice
What are the best practices for Smaller Learning Communities (SLC)? How do we strengthen the focus on teaching and learning? How do we rethink how all staff members are deployed, how special needs programs are organized and how instructional time is scheduled? This thought provoking keynote will include examples from successful SLCs.
Session A 9:30–10:30 A.M.
Session AB 9:30 A.M.–NOON
Session B 11:00 A.M.–NOON
Lunch NOON–12:30 P.M.
KEYNOTE 12:30–1:45 P.M.
RICK SMITH, Author, Trainer, Education Consultant
Nine key approaches for motivating reluctant learners
International education consultant and former continuation high school teacher Rick Smith will share humorous, practical, and inspiring stories and strategies for motivating our unmotivated students.
Session C 2:15–3:15 P.M.
Professional Learning Networks 3:30–4:30 P.M.
Cyber Café 4:30–5:30 P.M.
Evening entertainment possibilities:
- Dine at one of the many fine and fun restaurants located downtown.
- Shopping!
Saturday, February 11
Session D 8:00–9:00 A.M.
Session DE 8:00–10:15 A.M.
Session E 9:15–10:15 A.M.
BRUNCH KEYNOTE 10:30 A.M.–NOON
RUSSLYNN ALI, Executive Director, Education Trust-West
Raising the Roof on California High Schools
California’s poor and minority students and English language learners consistently lag far behind their peers, both in terms of performance results on multiple measures and in terms of the support and resources provided to these students. The achievement gaps that currently exist are not inevitable. We will examine the factors that contribute to the persistence of achievement gaps and discuss the policies and practices that can be implemented to counteract the factors believed to contribute to the achievement gap. Data and research on what successful schools and districts are doing to raise the achievement of all their students and narrow the achievement gaps for their underperforming students will be presented.