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National
Educator Program Facilitating school improvement through leadership, professional development and research |
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National Educator Program |
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NEP BREAKING NEWSNEP Names Eight "Schools of Promise" - May 7, 2008 The National Educator Program named eight schools as exemplary sites for preparation and groundwork in the transition from traditional schools to career academies, SLCs and freshmen academies. The NEP will provide schools with one of two designations. A School of Promise has made significant progress in at least two of the 5 Keys for Successful Career Academies. This is a temporary designation. A school being named a School of Promise has three years to complete the transition and achieve NEP's highest honor of Beacon School. An NEP Beacon School has mastered all of the 5 Keys for Successful Career Academies and is in a state of continual improvement and innovation. These designations are designed to acknowledge the hard work and progress of educators, as well as identify outstanding sites to look for design examples, data, and site visits. This year the first eight Schools of Promise have been named. In alphabetical order, they are: Ben Lomond High School Ogden, Utah (Career Academies ) Carl Wunsche High School Spring, Texas (Career Academies) Dekaney High School Spring, Texas (Freshmen Academy and Career Academies) Foley High School Baldwin, Alabama (Freshmen Academy) McKay High School Salem, Oregon (Freshmen Academy and Career Academies) Morton Freshmen Center Cicero, Illinois (Freshmen Academy) Ogden High School Ogden, Utah (Career Academies) Samuel J. Tilden High School Cultural Academy for the Arts & Sciences Brooklyn, New York (Career Academies and NEP Lab School) Each of these schools received a certificate of their achievement, a 3' x 8' full color banner for their school, and a press release to notify the community and local media of their success. Congratulations to the teachers, administrators and students of these schools. The NEP is looking to honor more schools and we have yet to name our first Beacon School. If you are interested in seeing how your school's progress can be measured, look for the NEP's 5 Keys for Successful Career Academies and call 303-288-5777 for application information. The application, review process and award are free of charge. Get your designation and let your light shine!
OTHER NEP NEWS ALERTS Las Vegas Conference is Sold Out Connie Majka Named Las Vegas Conference Chair Las Vegas Hosts 6th Annual SLC Success Conference Chattanooga Named Site of 2007 SLC Success Conference Oregon Student Success Conference Hits Its Mark Needs Assessment Revisions Completed Hillsborough County Schools Contract with NEP for SLC Conference Boston Conference Hotel Sold Out Career Academy <1000 Initiative NEP Takes Action in Hurrican Katrina's Wake NEP Opts to Wait on "National Standards" for Career Academies Las Vegas Conference is Sold Out - March 10, 2008
Connie Majka Named Las Vegas Conference Chair - September 20, 2007
Las Vegas Hosts 6th Annual SLC Success Conference - July 11, 2007
are included. Be updated regularly as details develop by going to the Las Vegas conference web page and signing up. The hotel will fill up quickly, so the sooner you make your reservations after the hotel is announced, the more likely you will get your whole team at the same site. Make your SLC a "winner" in Las Vegas with the NEP! NEP's New Home is Denver - June 15, 2007 The National Educator Program announces commencement of operations from its new base in Denver, Colorado. The move facilitates the growing number of career academy and SLC clients in western states such as California, Oregon and Utah, while remaining centrally located to continue serving clients in Illinois, Texas, Virginia, Alabama and Florida. The NEP's financial office that handles bookings, invoicing and billing will remain on the East Coast in Madison, Georgia. (Performance Learning Systems' main offices in Cadiz, KY and Allentown, PA also remain the same.) Throughout the remainder of the 2007 calendar year, this page will provide updates on special events for Colorado and other western states to celebrate the arrival of the NEP and Performance Learning Systems. NEP Celebrates Ten Years - January 2, 2007
Chattanooga Named Site of 2007 SLC Success Conference - November 20, 2006 The National Educator Program announces Chattanooga, Tennessee as the site for the 5th annual SLC Success Conference. The main focus this year will be on sustainability. Patterned after its conferences in Boston and Los Angeles last year, the NEP will structure concurrent sessions to focus on leadership, classroom success, and reports from successful schools. The dates are April 26 - 28, 2007. This year will be unique because of the inclusion of the "Superintendent Summit" which is a panel of leaders from districts showing long term success or early promise. Leaders will address policy issues funding hurdles and long term sustainability. Read more details on this important national event on the NEP's Conferences page. Oregon Student Success Conference Hits Its Mark - October 11, 2006
conference “game plan” and select sessions, then boarded school busses for the short trip to the Salem Conference Center in this state capital town. By the time they made their way to the grand ballroom for the general session, a pumped up pep rally-like atmosphere had taken over. Each high school contingent of educators cheered as their school names were called out.
1,000 teachers, administrators, and district staff were provided a slate of thirty-one sessions from which to choose. Experts from nine states provided breakouts examining the dynamics of
High schools from other parts of the country also made presentations on their achievements and challenges. Presenters included Steve Barkley, Billie Donegan, Steve Mintner, Steve Sassaman, Rick Stiggins and Wayne Zako. "The speakers were dynamic," one teacher said, "and gave us information that we can take back to our schools and implement immediately."
The following day, district leaders and the NEP planned next steps to maximize improvement. Salem-Keizer schools are in their second year of a five year federal grant for the implementation of small learning communities. Last year three of their schools and the district each went through The Initial Needs Assessment (TINA) with the NEP. This conference was one component of their five year strategic plan, but was also much broader than SLCs. Focusing on increasing student success and achievement, all Salem-Keizer high schools attended (whether they were implementing SLCs or not) in order to benefit their students. "This event was an exceptional milestone in our transition to more meaningful and more rigorous learning for high school students," said Assistant Superintendent Glen Gelbrich. "The feedback from our schools was enthusiastic and accompanied by an insatiable thirst for more." Salem Photo Album. Needs Assessment Revisions Completed - August 7, 2006 This week the National Educator Program announced revisions are complete on The Initial Needs Assessment (TINA) and The Ongoing Yearly Assessment (TONYA). The in-depth assessments were created by the NEP four years ago to assist schools implementing career academies and small learning communities. TINA helps schools identify:
TONYA is an ongoing follow-up. It revisits all of the above to determine intermediate progress and allow for changes in the long term plan.
The new revisions will better enable schools and districts to use the assessments even if they use a non-NEP affiliated evaluator. “Many districts feel pressured to use a USDOE-affiliated evaluator, but still want technical assistance from experts who have been working with academies for decades – not just the last five years,” said NEP director Mark A. Thompson. “These new revisions make it easy for them to do that.”
Hillsborough County Schools Contract with NEP for SLC Conference - May 2, 2006 For the second year in a row, the Hillsborough County School Board in Florida approved a contract with the National Educator Program to provide an SLC Success Conference for their teachers and administrators. "The teachers were so excited with it last year," said Carole Swinehart of the Hillsborough County Schools district office. "They wanted it again this year because they got so much useful information last time." Modeled after the other conferences the NEP provides nationwide, the Hillsborough Conference provides three strands based on Leadership, Classroom Strategies, and reports from the Field. It allows the local schools access to nationally known experts on career academies and small learning communities. "It really gave our SLCs a boost last year!" explained Hillsborough Schools' Lizanne Ippolito. "It gave our SLCs some additional momentum." The conference will be held in Tampa, Florida on June 1 - 2, 2006. It is open only to Hillsborough County educators. The city of Tampa is home to the main office of the National Educator Program. Boston Conference Hotel Sold Out
Career Academy <1000 Initiative - March 21, 2006 Now in their fourth decade, career academies are a time and research-tested model of school improvement. Despite this success there are few, if any models of successful design and implementation for high schools with an enrollment of less than 1,000 students. Even the United States Department of Education left these schools shut out of any opportunity for funding through Small Learning Community grants. The National Educator Program is currently working with the Baldwin County School District on the Gulf coast of Alabama to implement a model career academy that can be accessed and replicated by small high schools across the United States. To this end, the NEP and Baldwin County have been working to get a federal earmark and secure funding from community sources to implement, study and evaluate this initiative. NEP Takes Action In Hurricane Katrina's Wake
Even in the face of their own struggles, Baldwin County redirected district funds to accept additional students as teachers coped with larger classes. The National Educator Program promptly donated two days of training time. "One of the first places funding is taken from is training," said NEP Administrative Coordinator Lorene Malanowski. "That's why we donated the time because teachers still deserve to have access to professional development." Baldwin County opted to use the two days having their high school teachers and administrators assess the progress of their newly-implemented ninth grade transition academies. The NEP selected Baldwin County for the donation because of their long-standing relationship. The two entities have worked over the last three years on design and implementation of their career academies. "Baldwin County and the NEP go back a ways," Malanowski said. "When trouble hits, we take care of our own." NEP Opts to Wait on "National Standards" for Career Academies -December 2, 2005 The National Educator Program announces it is withholding endorsement of the recently proposed Career Academy National Standards of Practice. Endorsed by several agencies a year ago, it was decided by the NEP and it's partners to wait until the standards are revised and then revisit the issue. "I speak for the majority of our partners, staff, and subcontracted academy experts when I say we think the standards are about 85% of where they need to be," said NEP Director Mark A. Thompson. "We would like them to be at 90-95% before we attach the NEP's name to it. Even so, everyone who worked on it deserves congratulations. This is a powerful first step." |
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