Principal/Teacher Partnership
Perry Wiseman, Rodriguez PREP Academy
Right now, our state of education is in chaos with massive layoffs, budget cuts, and accountability inching towards its acme. No matter how unstable the surroundings though, there are still many schools that make significant increases in student achievement year after year. But how? It’s about creating genuine partnerships and nurturing the collective intelligence of your staff. Grade Level: Middle School

M.E.R.I.T. System
Perry Wiseman, Rodriguez PREP Academy
To help educators connect kids to school, the presenters will be sharing an incentive-based system that will have kids popping out of bed each morning, excited about coming to school. In the Meeting Expectations & Realizing Individual Talent (M.E.R.I.T.) system, students earn points and privileges for excellence in academics, behavior, and attendance, along with involvement in extra-curricular activities. Grade Level: K-12

Movement Matters
Perry Wiseman, WiseFoundations
Movement Matters is a unique process that transforms the way we view student data, lending a hand to principals and teachers in the analysis of student performance over time. While making use of multiple tools, Movement Matters catapults the quality of professional dialogue, provides a clear model that helps align decision-making with data, and most of all improves student learning. Grade Level: K-12

Urban (School) Essentials 101
Julius Lockett, Urban (School) Essentials 101
Urban Essentials 101 places achievement within reach by focusing on three influential components: People, Programs, and Posture. A high school assistant principal and former police officer will discuss how this process combines the development of inspirational leaders, authentic relationships, resource alignment, supportive structures, and quality instruction to improve climate and culture, resulting in improved academics and greater staff satisfaction while reducing destructive obstacles. Grade Level: Secondary

PDP Cornell Notes Across All Content Areas
Julie Adams, CLS Professional Development Solutions
Think you know Cornell Notes? Learn from a National Board Certified teacher the most effective way to teach this comprehensive note-taking strategy across all content areas and ability levels. This is one comprehension strategy that your students can't afford to be without! Free handouts! Grade Level: K-12

Content Strategies for ELs, PLCs & RTI
Julie Adams, CLS Professional Development Solutions
Do your students struggle to understand their fiction and non-fiction texts? Learn effective, research-based pre-during-post strategies and how to adapt them to meet the needs of your mixed-ability classes. Adding these methods to your instructional repertoire will cause student engagement and comprehension to skyrocket! Free handouts! Grade Level: K-12

Effective Behavior Management: The Leadership Team
Noah Salzman, I understand.  Tools for Schools
Administrators: Learn how to work with reactive and hostile teacher response styles, eliminate tardies and office referrals, motivate unmotivated students and increase instructional time. You'll leave with a school-wide behavior management plan that will reduce office referrals by 85 percent, an administrative support plan to support teachers, alternatives to home suspension, and a crisis management system. Grade Level: K-12

Effective Behavior Management: The Classroom Plan
Noah Salzman, I understand.  Tools for Schools
Leave with a behavior management plan that reduces negative behavior by 85%. This program establishes a safe and orderly environment that increases learning time and develops positive relationships. Learn how to work with colleagues and parents on a behavior management program that prevents misbehavior and motivates students to succeed. Grade Level: K-12

Fast Facts and Fractions
Brad Fulton, CLS Professional Development Solutions
"Four out of three students struggle with fractions!" See how I helped my all of my intervention students master operations with fractions while learning their multiplication facts as well. A novel way to solve proportions will also be demonstrated. A full, ready-to-teach handout is available. Grade Level: K-8

Early Warning and Intervention Systems Pilot Project
Johannes Troost, California Department of Education
Want to reduce student dropouts and increase graduation rates? Join us and learn about a new, free, research-based Early Warning and Intervention System Pilot project with tools that can help make a difference in your school and district. Grade Level: Secondary

Closing the Gaps of College and Career Readiness
Jay Westover, InnovateED
School accountability is transitioning from student proficiency to student preparedness, and it is imperative that secondary schools close the gaps of college and career readiness. This interactive, hands-on session will provide teachers and administrators with tools and resources for implementing anchor lessons and performance-based assessments essential for re-focusing instructional programs. Participants will understand how professional learning communities and Response to Intervention form the foundation for high-performing school cultures focused on college and career readiness. Grade Level: Secondary

Busting the Myths of Mathematics Instruction
Brad Fulton, CLS Professional Development Solutions
Learn how to overcome the common misconceptions that limit our effectiveness with mathematics instruction – specifically with students who struggle. Simple and practical strategies enable the most reluctant learners to achieve remarkable growth. Brad’s ideas have been classroom-tested through three decades of teaching experience and are supported by testing data. Dozens of pages of classroom-ready handouts are available. Grade Level: Middle School

Understanding Special Education for All Stakeholders
Ellen Gervase, California Teachers Association
Explore current statistics and information regarding special education law (IDEA), including an environmental scan of special education in California, special education issues and teacher rights for special and general educators, standardized assessment options, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act/No Child Left Behind, and the concept of Response to Intervention (RTI) and its impact on general and special educators. Grade Level: K-12

People Management to Improve Student Achievement
Donald Evans, Compton Unified School District
Learn from an educator with 23 years of urban school and district administration experience how site leaders can overcome the micro-politics present at any site and get adult stakeholders on board to improve student achievement. Discover how leaders' self-efficacy can combine with useful strategies to move from power dynamics to a student-centered culture that includes teachers, parents and district-level staff. Grade Level: K-12

Closing the AYP and API Achievement Gaps
Sam Buenrostro, Centennial High School
Centennial is one of four California high schools recognized as a National Model Professional Learning Community School. The majority of our students come from ethnic and socio-economically diverse communities. Centennial students continue to excel academically despite the school’s fluctuating enrollment and changing demographics. This presentation will focus on Centennial’s efforts to close academic achievement gaps between historically underserved subgroups. Grade Level: High School

Sustaining a PLC, Targeted Instruction and Interventions
Sam Buenrostro, Centennial High School
Centennial is one of four California high schools recognized as a National Model Professional Learning Community School. Department teams develop essential learning standards, pacing guides, best practice lessons, formative assessments and more. Come examine key practices utilized by the science department in improving student achievement and review strategic interventions aimed at improving AYP scores. Grade Level: High School

Walk-Throughs to Improve Instruction
Carole Carlson, Dartmouth Middle School
The walk-through has tremendous potential to help principals and teachers add to their repertoire of instructional strategies, to analyze the success of school-wide initiatives, and to identify areas for staff development. The process can assist instructional leaders in coaching and mentoring staff. Learn how this School to Watch strengthened instruction by implementing walk-throughs followed by instructional conversations to provide ongoing, embedded and individualized staff development. Grade Level: K-12

Differentiating Instruction through Cooperative Groupwork
Sharon Oved, CLS Professional Development Solutions
Come enjoy an interactive session geared toward all grade levels and any content area, special ed included. Find out how to differentiate instruction by having students work together to learn from one another and share their strengths. These "kid-tested, teacher approved" activities are easy to implement, need little to no resources, and will leave you eager to begin school in the fall! Grade Level: K-12

Organizing Schools So Every Child Is Known
Tim Schugt, Tincher Preparatory School
Find out why U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recently chose to visit Tincher Preparatory School - an urban K-8 School to Watch serving a low-income, diverse student population - to see their successful program in action. Learn about Tincher's grade-level and vertical teaming; articulation meetings to share instructional strategies for specific students; cross-age tutoring for differentiation; English Language Learner, gifted, reading and pre-K autism programs; and more. Time provided for questions and answers. Grade Level: K-8

Interest-Based Learning and Individualized Mentoring
Tim Schugt, Tincher Preparatory School
Explore two programs that have made a difference in achievement at Tincher Preparatory School. Hear from the school's facilitator and a district teacher of the year how an online curricular resource that ties to students' interests, learning styles and ability levels helps elementary students excel. Discover how the free-to-implement Buddies Program matches a staff member with a struggling middle-grades student for quality one-to-one mentoring time to discuss grades, plan for high school and beyond, and offer the support and high expectations that all young adolescents need to succeed. Grade Level: K-8

The Granger Model: Academic Success through RTI, Attendance and Behavior
Robert Bleisch, Mar Vista High School
See how a model developed at Granger Junior High School brought significant academic success for the site’s diverse, low-income, high-English Learner student population, resulting in recognition as a state and national School to Watch and successful replication in two other secondary schools in the district. The Granger model combines student attendance and behavior systems with a unique Response to Intervention system grounded in the “failure is not an option” philosophy, the principles of intervention (DuFour, Reeves), and a folder system that identifies students needing mandatory, daily, extended-day instructional time. This model can help your high-poverty, urban school exit Program Improvement the very first year! Grade Level: Secondary

How a High-Poverty, Urban High School Exited Program Improvement
Lee Romero, Montgomery Senior High School
Montgomery Senior High School is located near the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego County and serves a student population that is 83% Hispanic, 32% English Language Learner, 42% Fluent English Proficient, and 72% qualified for Free and Reduced Price Lunch. Hear from the principal and a fellow administrator how the staff worked together to facilitate an 85-Point API gain in 2010, bringing the school out of Program Improvement and helping students achieve a brighter future. Grade Level: High School

Sustaining Amazing Achievement with At-Risk Students
Sue Kaiser, Hacienda La Puente Unified School District
Learn how the four quadrants of school improvement (structure, process, content and theory) can bring about sustained elementary-level change. The student population at Kwis Elementary School is 95% Hispanic and 65% qualified for free and reduced price lunch. Collectively the staff and students have conquered low achievement by moving the API score from 497 to over 800! Come and see how this Title I Achieving, California Distinguished School has sustained growth for over a decade - and get ideas for implementation at your site. Grade Level: Elementary School

Conquering Reading Comprehension in the Elementary School
Sue Kaiser, Hacienda La Puente Unified School District
Come hear from a school principal and district administrator how students at one elementary school increased their CST proficiency by 10% in one year. In this energetic presentation, you'll receive the structure for teaching reading comprehension on a daily basis, explicitly and directly, so all students can read to understand. Gain the information you need to implement this model at your school! Grade Level: Elementary School