Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Thursday Interview: The Personalized High School

Join me Thursday, October 7h, for a live and interactive FutureofEducation.com interview with Joseph DiMartino and Denise Wolk on their book, The Personalized High School:  Making Learning Count for Adolescents.

Date: Thursday, October 7th, 2010
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern / 12am (next day) GMT (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Elluminate. Log in at http://tr.im/futureofed. The Elluminate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Elluminate, please visit http://www.elluminate.com/support. Recordings of the session will be posted within a day of the event at the event page.
Event and Recording Pagehttp://www.learncentral.org/event/106858

Denise Wolk is Director of Publications and Communications and Senior Program Associate with Educators for Social Responsibility. In her dual role at ESR she oversees production of publications and marketing/communications strategies as well as providing direct professional development services on whole school reform, classroom management, school climate and culture, and advisory development
and implementation.

Prior to joining ESR, Wolk served as a program associate with The Education Alliance at Brown University where she served on the core work group with the National Association of Secondary School Principals to write Breaking Ranks II: Strategies for Leading High School Reform (NASSP 2004), and Breaking Ranks in the Middle (NASSP 2007). While at Brown she also contributed to Changing Systems to Personalize Learning: Discover the Power of Advisories (LAB, 2003). Wolk also served as a research assistant in the landmark mapping project to track high school reform efforts nationwide commissioned by the National High School Alliance in 2000.

Joe DiMartino is president of the Center for Secondary School Redesign, Inc. CSSR is recognized as a national leader in providing technical assistance in the redesign of middle and high schools. The TA offered by CSSR is unique in that in addition to best practices in education it incorporates the best thinking on organizational development and change in all sorts of organizations. CSSR provides TA services to all levels of
schooling including the national, regional, state and local educational agencies. Prior to the founding of CSSR, he served for nine years as director of the Secondary School Redesign program of the Education Alliance at Brown University.

Joe has been recognized as the expert on high school redesign for ASCD in its professional development resource PDINFocus that features online media, tools, and resources for powerful professional development. Joe is currently serving on the strategic advisory board of the.News at MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, as well as the Practitioner Wisdom Group of the Association For Career and Technical Education. He has recently
been named to the Board of Directors of the National Career Academy Coalition, In addition to writing numerous published articles, Joe has co-authored two books: Personalizing the High School Experience for Each Student, and the Facilitator’s Guide for High Schools at Work: Creating Student Centered Learning, both published by Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. He also co-edited
Personalized Learning: Preparing High School Students to Create their Futures, published by Rowman Littlefield and The Personalized High School: Making Learning Count for Adolescents published by Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA in July 2010. In addition The CSSR approach to leading change led to the joint creation with NASSP of Breaking Ranks a Field Guide to Leading Change.

From 2002 through 2005, Joe served as chair of the steering committee of the National High School Alliance. He also served as co-chair of the National Task Force on the High School and the Breaking Ranks 2 Commission of the National Association of Secondary School Principals. In this role, Joe directed the creation of Breaking Ranks 2: Strategies for Leading High School Reform. He also served on both the National Urban Task Force and the Breaking Ranks in the Middle Commission of the National Association of Secondary School Principals. In 2006 he was awarded the Distinguished Service to Education Award by the National Association of Secondary School Principals, and was named a DiFelice Scholar by Salem (MA) State University in 2007.

The Personalized High School: Making Learning Count for AdolescentsThe Personalized High School:  The National High School Alliance developed six Call to Action principles—personalized learning environments; academic engagement for all students; empowered educators; responsive and accountable leaders; engaged community and youth; and an integrated system of curriculum, instruction, and assessments aligned to high standards with supports for teaching and learning. Drawing on these proven principles, The Personalized High School offers a series of first-hand accounts for implementing effective high school reform. The authors take an in-depth look at how a diverse array of schools from across the country have crafted programs to create more effective learning experiences for students, with insights on the challenges faced, lessons learned, and what this means for any educator contemplating implementing similar reforms.

The chapters are written by veteran educators who have worked in these innovative schools, and illustrate how the Call to Action principles provide practical examples for developing personalized learning plans, student portfolios and student-led conferences; creating professional learning communities for teachers; and implementing authentic assessments that empower students to demonstrate what they know and are able to do far beyond high-stakes standardized tests. Many of the chapters include vignettes written by students who have benefited from the innovative practices at the schools they have attended, providing testimony for the power of engaging students to take responsibility for their own learning. The Personalized High School is a powerful resource for teachers, administrators, district and state education officials, and community members to use in their journey to high school reform.