Keynote Speakers
Opening Keynote
Will School Reform Improve the Schools?
 Diane Ravitch is an historian and research professor of education at New York University as well as a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. Her best-selling book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education, has made her one of the nation’s most sought after speakers on current issues. An outspoken advocate for public schools, Ravitch will address the current state of American education and the many efforts underway to change it.
Ravitch shares a blog called Bridging Differences with Deborah Meier, hosted by Education Week. She also blogs for Politico.com/arena and the Huffington Post. Her articles have appeared in many newspapers and magazines.
From 1991 to 1993, she was Assistant Secretary of Education and Counselor to Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander in the administration of President George H.W. Bush. She was responsible for the Office of Educational Research and Improvement in the U.S. Department of Education. As Assistant Secretary, she led the federal effort to promote the creation of voluntary state and national academic standards.
From 1997 to 2004, she was a member of the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the federal testing program. She was appointed by the Clinton administration’s Secretary of Education Richard Riley in 1997 and reappointed by him in 2001. From 1995 until 2005, she held the Brown Chair in Education Studies at the Brookings Institution and edited Brookings Papers on Education Policy. Before entering government service, she was Adjunct Professor of History and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Lighting Their Fires
 Rafe Esquith, a 29-year fifth-grade public school teacher from Los Angeles, will share his school’s success story, despite its location in a Central Los Angeles neighborhood plagued by guns, gangs, and violence. His exceptional classroom at Hobart Elementary— known simply as Room 56—is unlike any other in the country.
Esquith’s students are mostly immigrants or children of immigrants, living in poverty, and learning English as a second language. Yet, under his tutelage, they voluntarily come to class at 6:30 in the morning and often stay until five in the afternoon. They also come to school voluntarily on Saturdays and during vacations.
Like all students, they learn math, reading, and science. But they also play Vivaldi, perform Shakespeare, often score in the top 1% on standardized tests, and go on to attend the best universities. They have opened for the Royal Shakespeare Company, and performed at the National Press Club, the United States Supreme Court, the United States Congress, and the Globe Theater in London. They have also been featured on NBC’s The Today Show. Their determination has served as a model for teachers over six continents. Most important of all, Rafe’s students are recognized and celebrated around the world for their outstanding character.
For his near-heroic work, Esquith is the only teacher to be awarded the president’s National Medal of the Arts. He’s also written a bestselling book, Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire, and been featured, along with his students, in the PBS documentary The Hobart Shakespeareans.
Scholastic Book Fairs has generously offered to cosponsor Rafe Esquith’s presentation with NAESP. |
|