SEDL Hosts Regional Forum on School Improvement
With the federal government providing millions of dollars in grant money to help states turn around their persistently lowest-achieving schools, state education leaders are busy planning how best to help these schools. This topic was the focus of the regional forum “Turning Around Low-Achieving Schools: A Blueprint for Reform.” held at SEDL Headquarters in Austin, Texas, on July 21–22.

	L to R: Carl Harris and Kandace Jones of the U.S. Department of Education, SEDL president and CEO Wes Hoover, and Elaine Allensworth of the Consortium on Chicago School Research.

State-level education leaders from six states—Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas—met with education experts and national officials to discuss effective practices and policies for improving schools and to learn more about the U.S. Department of Education’s A Blueprint for Reform: The Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Two officials from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE) provided an overview of the Blueprint, which outlines President Barack Obama’s proposal for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and sets forth standards for transforming U.S. K–12 public education into a world-class system.

“State leaders at the forum had the chance to hear from and network with researchers, practitioners, and U.S. Department of Education officials on the latest thinking around improving low-achieving schools and education in general,” said Robin Jarvis, director of the Southeast Comprehensive Center. The Southeast Comprehensive Center and Texas Comprehensive Center, both housed at SEDL, co-hosted the regional forum.

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Visit the Regional Forum site.

Pictured at top, L to R: Turnaround school practitioner panelists, Annesa Thompson, superintendent, Marked Tree School District in Marked Tree, Arkansas; Celina Estrada-Thomas, principal, Bastrop High School, Bastrop, Texas; Tony Recasner, president, FirstLine Schools, New Orleans, Louisiana; and Rayne Martin, chief of innovation, Louisiana Department of Education.