The following speakers have been confirmed for the African American Students in Urban Schools: Critical Issues & Solutions for Achievement Conference:
Keynote Speakers
Donna Y. Ford, Ph.D.
Session Title: Closing Opportunities Gap in Education: Addressing the Twin Evils of Special Education and Gifted Education
Ivory A. Toldson, Ph.D.
Session Title coming soon
Session Speakers
Deidre Houston, Ph.D.
Session Title: Culturally Responsive Teaching Spectrum: A Guide for Learning and Classroom Management
This interactive session engages educators in interactive classroom scenarios about Culturally Responsive Teaching and Classroom Management. Session includes focused conversations on classroom implementation and completion of Culturally Responsive Teaching and Classroom Management Guide.
Dexter Floyd
Session Title: The 12 Must Do's for Creating a Culturally Relevant Classroom for Students of Color
The presentation shares practical strategies for engaging and supporting students of color in rigorous courses leading to college readiness and success in a global society. Through the work of Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID), we have experienced great success in helping to close the opportunity and expectation gaps of our students of color with many of these hands on, practical strategies. Participants will learn how AVID Center is using professional development in Culturally Relevant Teaching strategies as a means to address beliefs, biases, and expectations of educators. Participants will be able to enhance their lesson plans and classrooms in order to specifically address the need and achievement of ALL students.
Stephen Hancock, Ph.D.
Session Title: The Ideal Student: Teaching to Empower Urban Success
This session is an interactive workshop designed to engage participants in understanding how personal perception can impact learning outcomes. In addition the workshop will provide Culturally Relevant Teaching strategies to help teachers support student success.
Lamont A. Flowers, Ph.D.
Session Title: Utilizing Data to Support African American Student Achievement in Urban Schools
This interactive session will consist of hands-on activities designed to provide teachers with helpful statistical tools that can be utilized to explore student achievement issues in the classroom.
James L. Moore, III, Ph.D.
Session Title: Promoting Academic Achievement and Resiliency among Urban African American Males
In popular and scientific publications, the research literature is replete with information on school outcomes for African American male students. On a consistent basis, African American males disengage academically and underachieve in public schools. Numerous theories have been offered to explain these negative school outcomes. These explanations can be placed in the following categories: school factors, family factors, community factors, and personal factors. For this particular session, the presenter explains the ways in which these factors influence African American male students' school outcomes. The presenter presents both counseling and teaching strategies for countering these negative influences.
Cheryl Turner and Ayana Allen, Ph.D.
Session Title: Pursuing Extraordinary Outcomes for African American Students
Sugar Creek Charter School in Charlotte, North Carolina is a K-8 school that serves 900 students, 882 of whom are African American. Ninety-three percent of students at Sugar Creek qualify for free and reduced lunch, yet Sugar Creek is a North Carolina School of Distinction. Eighty percent of students are performing at or above grade level in reading and math compared to the state average of forty-nine percent for K-8 African American students. This success has not always been the case. Five years ago, only forty-three percent of Sugar Creek’s students were proficient. This session explores the process used to transform a school from deficient to one that is pursuing and achieving extraordinary outcomes for all students.
Julie Landsman
Session Title: African American Students/Urban Teachers: Ways to Create a Classroom that Empowers All Of Us
This session will focus on Curriculum, Pedagogy and Reflection as well as Community, Parents and Re-envisioning…two ways of providing CPR to our public schools. We will discuss what we teach, how we teach and how we take from our day- to- day interactions with students, information for the next day’s work. We will also discuss how to bring parents, community workers, artists and others into our school buildings where they can provide visual and immediate examples of successful black professionals for all students. After teaching for 25 years in Minneapolis, Julie Landsman offers practical suggestions for engaging African American students in their education and for supporting these students and their families in their efforts toward graduation and beyond. She believes that too often the “experts” who speak to teachers have had no experience in the every day work of the classroom. Her experience emphasizes the importance of hope and a willingness to be open to truly working toward equity for African American students in practical and relevant ways right now.
Chance W. Lewis, Ph.D.
Session Title: Common Core Standards, Culturally Relevant Teaching, Classroom Management and African American Students: Strategies for Educators
This powerful interactive session will provide classroom teachers with culturally relevant teaching strategies tied to common core standards that will assist in improving the academic achievement of African American students in K-12 educational settings. Additionally, attendees will be provided with interactive exercises to support the main ideas presented in this session.
Panel Facilitator
Jerlando F.L. Jackson, Ph.D.
Panel Title #1: Building a Bridge for Success Between PK-12 and Higher Education: The PEOPLE Program at the University of Wisconsin
Pre-College Enrichment Opportunity Program for Learning Excellence (PEOPLE) Program administered by the Division of Diversity, Equity, and Educational Achievement at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is an approach to building pathways to colleges for underrepresented groups. The mission of the program is to help students successfully make each transition from middle school to high school and from high school to college. Approximately 1,300 students currently participate in the PEOPLE Program ranging from second grade through undergraduate college level. PEOPLE is a pre-college pipeline for students of color and low-income students, most of whom are the first in their families to potentially attend college.
Panel Title #2: What Works for African American Students in Urban Schools: Lessons from the Field
This panel session will highlight the best practices from successful administrators who have demonstrated that African American students can achieve high outcomes in urban schools. Panelists will provide recommendations for immediate changes that can be made to promote academic achievement in schools across the country.
