CRSS Alumni Institute

CRSS was pleased to hold its first annual Alumni Institute at the Red Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, September 25-27. Over 50 board members and superintendents attended.  The institute featured best practice presentations by district teams on major reform initiatives.

· Gwinnett County Public Schools, Prince George’s County Public Schools, and Hartford Public Schools presented their powerful theories of action for change.

· The Long Beach Unified School District described its innovative academic and career success program, which is creating a seamless path for students into the local community college and state university.

· The Fresno Unified School District showed how a board constituent service policy can be broadened into a district wide, comprehensive customer service program.

· Two districts, Gwinnett County Public Schools and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS), unveiled major reform policies: Gwinnett, staff development and academic accountability (its now legendary Results-Based Evaluation System); and CMS, a data dashboard policy transformed into a comprehensive district wide academic performance management system.

This short blurb cannot capture the complexity and power of the presentations or the depth of reform knowledge demonstrated by board members as they described their boards’ reform leadership and close collaboration between their boards, superintendents, and senior staff.

Of course, it would not be a CRSS event without case studies.  We had four: Seattle, Pinellas County, Denver, and Miami-Dade.

Matching the inspiration and stimulation of the best practice presentations and case studies was the provocative insights on education reform in America from the panel of national experts: Michael Casserly, Dan Katzir, Mike Moses, Rod Paige, and Vicki Phillips.  They provided pithy answers to deep questions.  Participants will never forget Vicki’s “myths we need to abandon,” and Michael’s ‘top ten decrees if he were Education Czar.”

No doubt, the most memorable event of the institute was Roy Romer’s luncheon address.  Speaking without notes, directly from the heart, and with a wide range of stories as illustrations, he described the core issues we face and critical steps we must take to bring high performance to America’s public schools.

As far as we know, CRSS alumni left Las Vegas, their heads bursting with new ideas, their hearts overflowing with new passion for the work, and their wallets not much the worse for wear.