Recap of NewSchools Summit 2019
By Debbie Veney, Director of Policy and Communications
What a day! We officially opened NewSchools Summit in our hometown of Oakland to an audience of nearly 1,300 educators, nonprofit leaders, policy makers, advocates and thought leaders. In the morning, everyone was buzzing and the energy was palpable. Throughout the day, sessions on topics ranging from Next Generation Accountability Systems to What Do Teachers Really Want from Ed Tech were lively, engaging and sometimes peppered with spirited debate.
NewSchools Summit is an annual invitation-only gathering for education leaders who bring important and diverse perspectives in PreK-12 education innovation.
If you were unable to attend Summit this year, many sessions were broadcast on Facebook Live, so you can still watch the sessions and join in on the conversation. Or check out our Twitter feed where participants are still providing real-time comments about what they learned.
In the opening plenary, Oakland native Mayor Libby Schaaf gave us a warm welcome. She then reminded us about the importance of education to her — both personally and in her role as the leader of our city. “I experienced educational inequities first-hand,” said Mayor Schaaf when reflecting on the schools she attended as a child. Her signature program, Oakland Promise, provides every newborn in Oakland a $500 savings account for college. And in just the third year of the pilot, they are seeing a 93 percent persistence rate among college students.
Our CEO Stacey Childress gave opening remarks that set the tone for this day of sharing, learning, growing, challenging ourselves and doing even more to reimagine learning. She reminded us about the power of including different perspectives in our work. “Our differences can be our strength,” she said. Further, she implored us all to remember that what’s most important about a public school is how well it serves students, rather than whether it is authorized to operate within the school district or independent of the school district.
Summit attendees also heard the powerful voices of Oakland high school students Erin Simmons and Jayden Cummings. These student leaders are part of Energy Converters, a local nonprofit that supports student advocates and teaches them to use their voices to make the education system work better for them, their goals and their peers.
We closed out the first session of the morning with an engaging panel moderated by former Chicago Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard, and including district leaders Sonja Santelises of Baltimore City, Lewis Ferebee of Washington, D.C. and Pedro Martinez of San Antonio. The session was aptly titled “District Leaders to Watch.” This group spoke passionately about their commitment to equity and high achievement, and the many challenges they face daily in serving the complex needs of students and families in their communities.
In place of a lunch plenary, we opened up the mic for several attendees to share their visions for reimagining education. Topics included subjects like faith-based activism, transparency in education, closing the achievement gap, the Oakland teacher strike and curriculum development. These brief talks were so inspiring, and brought a fresh perspective to Summit programming.
We closed out the day with a final plenary on Millennial Teachers of Color. Moderated by educator and author Mary Dilworth, this younger generation of educators talked candidly about why they decided to enter the profession, why they decided to stay, what challenges them and what keeps them going.
In a few weeks, we will post videos of all the sessions on www.newschools.org. But, until then, please enjoy the highlight clip above.
