PEAR - Program in Education, Afterschool & Resiliency

What Matters and What Counts? Expanding What We Value in Schools
Askwith Educaion Forum
May 12, 2010
5:30 - 7:00 pm

“What Matters and What Counts? Expanding What We Value in Schools” aims to stimulate discussion about how we can expand what schools value and accomplish when "what counts" often represents a cramped and narrow conception of education's purposes. Furthermore, since “what matters” in schools is reduced nowadays to what can be counted, the forum will also explore how researchers, policy makers, and educators can promote rigorous, high-quality, assessable, and accountable work in the domains beyond literacy and math instruction: social and emotional wellness, the arts, school climate, moral development, civic engagement, and so forth. In order to foster a truly forward-looking discussion, Steve Seidel, the Patricia Bauman and John Landrum Bryant Lecturer on Arts in Education at HGSE, will moderate a conversation among the three roundtable participants: Kevin Jennings, Assistant Deputy Secretary for Safe and Drug-Free Schools and founder of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN); Beth Gamse, Principal Associate at Abt Associates; and Thabiti Brown, Principal of Codman Academy Charter Public School. Significant audience participation will also be encouraged.

This Askwith Forum is co-planned by the Civic and Moral Education Initiative and Facing History and Ourselves.

Creating the Foundation for Comprehensive School Climate Reform
CSEE's 13th Anual Summer Institute
June 6-8, 2010

Special Keynote Address by Kevin Jennings, Assistant Deputy Secretary of the US Department of Education, Office of Safe & Drug-Free Schools

CSEE is pleased to announce our 13th annual Summer Institute from July 6-8th in New York City! The Institute will provide important research-based school climate and instructional guidelines and resources for school teams and individuals to reflect on current practice and develop new plans to promote healthy and democratically informed schools in general and reduce bully-victim-passive bystander behavior in particular.

A continuous process for measuring and improving school climate that recognizes and supports the whole child and the whole school community.
Recent research and best practices in social, emotional, and civic education and school climate improvement efforts that support effective bully prevention, pro-upstander behavior and academic achievement.
Practical and helpful classroom, school-wide, and school-home-community interventions that support safety, engagement, supportive and respectful relations, and democratically informed communities.

Join communities across the country in celebrating the importance of summer learning on June 21.

Design an event that demonstrates the value of your program and generates more support for summer learning in your community.

* Get parents, community leaders, volunteers, kids, members of the press and others excited about summer learning.
* Showcase the achievements of your program and the young people who participate. Highlight your local partners and invite them to participate.
* Send a strong message about the importance of summer programming––celebrate your accomplishments, and call for support to ensure that summer programs in your community and across the country thrive. Every child should have access to high-quality learning opportunities during the summer months.