Brown University News Bureau

The Brown University News Bureau

1996-1997 index

Distributed January 10, 1997
Contact: Tracie Sweeney

Annenberg Institute to host 400 educators at national colloquium

Coaches, teachers, principals and others will examine student work, peer coaching, professional portfolio development and school and district leadership as vehicles for whole school change. Participants in the national colloquium, Jan. 16-18, 1997, in Providence, R.I., come from reform networks affiliated with the Annenberg Institute's National School Reform Faculty.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- More than 400 educators from around the country will gather at the Westin Hotel in Providence Jan. 16-18 for a national colloquium sponsored by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University. Participants, from 33 states, are coaches, teachers, principals, superintendents and representatives from national school reform networks affiliated with the National School Reform Faculty (NSRF), a program at the Institute that focuses on the changing role of teaching and leadership as critical components of school restructuring and improved student learning.

Participants will spend three days in intensive sessions examining student work, peer coaching, professional portfolio development and school and district leadership as vehicles for whole school change. "The colloquium serves as part of a continuing process of growth and development for NSRF," said Paula Evans, director of professional development. "This effort is focused at the `core' of school change. Colleagues are coming to Providence to critique and support each other's work, all in the name of increasing student achievement."

While in Providence participants will work with a variety of national leaders in school reform, including Anthony Alvarado, superintendent of District 2 in New York City; Ted Sizer, professor emeritus of education at Brown University and founder of the Coalition of Essential Schools; Howard Fuller, director, Institute for the Transformation of Learning at Marquette University in Milwaukee; and Wendy Puriefoy, executive director of the Public Education Network in Washington, D.C. Most of the sessions will review case studies of current work in schools and districts affiliated with school reform networks across the country, including Yale's School Development Project, the Annenberg Challenge, the Coalition of Essential Schools, and the Carnegie Middle Schools Project.

The National School Reform Faculty, in its second year, includes more than 1,800 teachers and principals across the country in nearly 200 sites. The January colloquium and summer leadership institutes are important parts of the professional development of NSRF participants, who will increase in number to nearly 2,700 by late 1997.

The Annenberg Institute for School Reform promotes and advocates the serious redesign of American schooling. It is named after its benefactor, Ambassador Walter Annenberg. The Institute has three principal focuses for its work in school reform: rethinking educational accountability, developing school and teacher capacity for whole school change, and public engagement.

For more information, contact Paula Evans or Sara Tortora (401) 863-1487, or Jeffrey Kimpton (401) 863-7975 at the Annenberg Institute.

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