NEASC2022

Creating your vision of the graduate is exciting and creates the kind of energy that only a new beginning can inspire. But now what? This session will focus on the importance of engaging all stakeholders in moving your vision of the graduate from a lofty goal to an attainable reality that builds future-ready graduates. We will discuss the value of adopting a systems approach with your vision of the graduate at the heart of the work. We will explore some of the most transformative change levers for operationalizing your vision and share examples of how one Connecticut district has continually deepened the work and kept all stakeholders engaged. This session is designed for school or district leaders who either have a vision of the graduate or are in the process of building one. Participation in the workshop will help districts design a systems-based approach to transformation. This session will be especially useful for district teams.

IMPORTANT: Please note that there is an additional fee for this workshop. If you are interested in attending, but did not yet pay, please contact mlarson@neasc.org

One of the root causes in the gap of having a diverse staff representation at all levels is largely due to ineffective recruitment processes. The processes need to be robust in monitoring and evaluating that all outcomes through the recruitment intake cycle is fair and reasonable. The session will explore how to ensure that recruitment systems that are put in place are consistent, inclusive and aligned with the values of the organisation.

1. The Business case of having a diverse representation
2. The value of inclusive recruitment
3. Understanding and managing biases during interviews
4. Evidence and accountability in being fair and inclusive

The workshop will be interactive, with anecdotes, and practice scenarios. All questions will be responded to in a sensitive and understanding manner. Taking into consideration that some of the discussions may be highly emotive, the facilitation style and method will model the concept of respect and dignity.

IMPORTANT: Please note that there is an additional fee for this workshop. If you are interested in attending, but did not yet pay, please contact mlarson@neasc.org

In this interactive workshop, veteran school leader Dr. Andrew Dolloff will present lessons he has learned through 35 years on the front lines of public school leadership and engage participants in self-reflection activities that will provide them with tangible strategies to begin using TODAY as they seek to build trust with their constituents, increase school effectiveness, and improve their own health. Andrew's book, The Trust Imperative, serves as a jumping off point for new and long-serving school leaders at all levels of the organization, and is supplemented by personal anecdotes, research, and attendee participation that will provide each individual with exciting ideas to consider for immediate implementation.

IMPORTANT: Please note that there is an additional fee for this workshop. If you are interested in attending, but did not yet pay, please contact mlarson@neasc.org

Grounded in the Ignatian spirituality values of cura personalis and accompaniment, this session is designed to support educational leaders of all levels (classroom, school and (arch)diocese to explore how they use the “cannonball moment” of the last 2 plus years to renew their way forward in our Catholic Schools. During this 3 hour interactive pre conference session, participants will explore their mission, school culture, and Catholic identity to evaluate how they “care for the whole person” including themselves and their colleagues, with the goal of supporting each child in their school. As explained by the National Standards and Benchmarks for Effective Catholic Schools (NSBECS): “Catholic school education is rooted in the conviction that human beings have a transcendent destiny, and that education for the whole person must form the spiritual, intellectual, physical, psychological, social, moral, aesthetic and religious capacities of each child.” In order to care for the whole child, prioritization of care for the whole adults that serve students is essential.  This session will give participants a chance to reflect on how they care for themselves and their colleagues, in order to holistically educate students.  

IMPORTANT: Please note that there is an additional fee for this workshop. If you are interested in attending, but did not yet pay, please contact mlarson@neasc.org

Welcome to NEASC2022!

QUESTIONS?
If you have any questions about your registration before the conference, please contact us.
During the conference, NEASC staff will be available at the registration desk to assist you in-person.

Join us for a buffet-style luncheon.

WELCOME
We are honored to have Mary Skipper, Superintendent of Boston Public Schools, kick off our conference. Her commitment to the innovative use of data to inform continuous progress, to ensure a student-centered approach to teaching and learning, and to equity of opportunity and access for all students is exemplary of the leadership and dedication to community that will resonate throughout the conference.

Following her welcome, the student choir from the John D. O’Bryant School of Mathematics and Science in Boston will perform.

AWARDS
We are pleased to announce Kam Chohan as this year’s recipient of NEASC’s 1885 Award for Exemplary Service to Education.

KEYNOTE
Even pre-pandemic, many people were working harder than ever to get ahead in the workplace, while feeling disengaged and questioning their purpose and calling. Covid-19 amplified these struggles, especially in education. It’s estimated that as much as 44% of educators are considering leaving the profession altogether. This reflects a more global crisis: more than half of workers suffer from burnout and 80% say the pandemic has taken a personal toll. In response, millions have quit their jobs in what has been dubbed the Great Resignation.

Dr. Belle Liang and Timothy Klein, LCSW devote their careers both to training educators and to cutting through the daily pressures to show a better way, a framework, and a set of questions to help educators reclaim their “true north”: the intrinsically motivating and noble aspirations that drew them to the field of education in the first place.

Liang and Klein will reveal the real cause of the educator burnout crisis. Here’s a hint: it’s not the long hours or the demands from students and parents. It’s the emotional exhaustion that arises from a sense of powerlessness and meaninglessness. Thankfully, there is hope. When we tap into the science of purpose, research shows it makes educators more engaged in their work, more resilient in the face of daily stressors, and more likely to education work as their calling.

In this highly interactive talk, school leaders will learn why we don’t have to do “more” to better support our teachers and ourselves. Instead, we must create the space to reflect and reconnect to why we came to education in the first place. In doing so, not only will this change educators' personal experience, it will change the culture and climate of the school as well.

Join two educators as they share their award-winning work on purpose and belonging. They will show how what’s good for educators is also good for students. They will unpack the science of purpose and share why purpose-driven students are more engaged in school, are more successful in college, and more likely to be thriving in their careers and lives.

Educators and administrators will come away with evidence-based best practices and tangible strategies they can immediately implement in their schools. Liang and Klein will show every school leader how to transform their schools, and their teachers by tapping into the power of purpose-belong informed education.

This session is proudly supported by Jostens 

You’re charged with the excellence of the education of your school and everything that entails  - but the buck doesn’t stop with you. You’re responsible for the success of your students and teachers, but you report to people who may have goals that don’t support your pedagogical responsibilities. It’s a precarious but not uncommon situation. Carrie Wilson and Angela Pohlen have over 25 years of combined leadership experience in various models of independent schools addressing these very issues. Whether you answer to a pastor, a superintendent, an advisory board, a governing board, an executive director, or any combination thereof, this presentation will provide attendees with some tried and true best practices to establish and maintain effective working relationships with them all. Resilient leadership starts with removing the “best intended” obstacles to that leadership!

This session is proudly supported by Advancement Courses.

This session will explore the state of higher education as we head into 2023 and beyond. Is higher education experiencing an evolution or a revolution? Join New England Commission on Higher Education President, Dr. Larry Schall, who will share insights on insights on higher education across New England and the country including shifting demographics, admissions changes, and the implications for high schools as they prepare their students for graduation.

Students representing the following NEASC Accredited schools developed and will lead this panel discussion:
St. Raphael Academy, Pawtucket, Rhode Island
Nipmuc Regional High School, Upton, Massachusetts
Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School, Rochester, Massachusetts
Miss Porter's School, Farmington, Connecticut

The long game of systems-change work is critical to advancing learner-centered education, but how might leaders develop a roadmap for helping their communities navigate change with resiliency? In this session, we will introduce a new framework that draws on the learning sciences to leverage educators’ mental models, motivations, and moves. We’ll share action-focused strategies and a suite of resources leaders can use to shift their own and colleagues’ practices to facilitate equitable, learner-centered, competency-based education.

This session is based on our newly released CompetencyWorks report, “Teachers Making the Shift to Equitable, Learner-Centered Education: Harnessing Mental Models, Motivations, and Moves.”

Description to come...

Join the staff of the NEASC Commission on Independent Schools for updates, Q&A, and conversation. We look forward to connecting with you in person!

Join the staff of the NEASC Commission on International Education for updates, Q&A, and conversation. We look forward to connecting with you in person!

Join the staff of the NEASC Commission on Public Schools for updates, Q&A, and conversation. We look forward to connecting with you in person!

Join us for conversation and connection.
Appetizers and beverages will be served.
Entertainment will be provided by local musicians, the Takeru Saito Trio.

This session is proudly supported by TIAA

Good morning and welcome to Day 2 of the conference. We hope you'll join us for a breakfast buffet and start your day in good company!

Educationally based school athletic programs play a valuable role in preparing young people for the world. These programs help students develop social and emotional skills including team-work, dedication, goal orientation, and resilience; just to name a few. Increasingly, however, school athletic programs are facing challenges. These challenges include poor sportsmanship, hazing, and a win-first perspective not compatible with educationally based programs. Join Bob Baldwin, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association; John Cabral, Superintendent of Schools, Taunton, MA; Glen Lungarini, Executive Director of the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference; and Karissa Niehoff, Executive Director of the National Federation of State High School Associations as they discuss the challenges facing schools and how Standards can be used to support school leaderships in developing and maintaining quality school athletic programs.

Imagine a school in which learners determine the time and pace of their learning: a learner-centered environment where students personalize their educational goals and make meaningful decisions about their learning experiences. In Louisenlund’s IB World School students collaborate weekly with their faculty mentors to design a personalized schedule that meets their own learning needs. This session will introduce participants to best practices in place in a learning community committed to student agency and metacognitive competence. Participants will brainstorm further ideas for transforming their schools into learning communities in which students can design their own story.

One challenge facing school leaders is the balance between uniformity/standardization of practices and promoting individual freedom/innovation. This can be particularly vexing when it comes to instructional practices where there is recognition that there are identified best practices but we also acknowledge the importance of individualized instruction and the benefits of instructional innovation.  This session will provide a look at the organizational concept of loose tight coupling and how it can be used as a leadership lens and lever to establish a dynamic balance that fosters fidelity to essential or best practices while supporting individualization and innovation. Participants will be given the opportunity to work with peers on using the concept to address issues in their own school.

You have engaged your stakeholders and developed a Vision of the Graduate (VOG) which includes transferable skills, knowledge, understandings, and dispositions. You have socialized the outcomes and created the poster to hang on the walls throughout the district. You have brought together your leadership team to monitor progress on implementation, prepare professional learning offerings, and align learnings to a strategic plan. And questions remain.

How can we bring the VOG off the poster on the walls and bring it into our classrooms?
Join Manchester School District, LiFT Learning, and CBE Solutions for a session focused on how schools and districts can activate and operationalize their vision of a graduate with portfolios that capture all types of learning. Participants will walk away with strategies, technology recommendations, and “step 1” action items to successfully operationalize your VOG.

This session will focus on the most important things leaders can do to cultivate a culture of evidence-informed decision-making in their schools. This includes identifying research priorities and how to spot good (and bad) survey design. Strategies to engage with survey data along with other forms of evidence, to facilitate discussions with teams, and to create and follow through with action plans were provided.
 
A version of this session was presented as a NEASC Forum earlier in 2022.

Rising school head, the Reverend Michael Spencer, will moderate a panel discussion with five heads of school who combined have more than 100 years of experience leading schools. They will reflect on lessons learned, wisdom gained, and what is to come for aspiring/new school leaders.

This interactive session will introduce a framework for transformational teacher-leadership grounded in mission, collaboration, and inquiry to build and sustain educator and school leader pipelines across sectors and school types. Highlighting successful teacher-leadership programs and examples across U.S. school contexts, participants will then reflect on their current structures to support pipelines and teacher-leadership. Participants will review and discuss tools and resources to revitalize efforts to create sustainable opportunities for resilient teacher-leadership and school leader formation. This engaging session will center participant reflection, discussion, and planning to utilize the knowledge and resources to create a concrete action plan to lead the transformational change needed across our schools and systems.

In many situations, these biases are a normal, healthy aspect of our cognitive ability. But there are other times when biases can cause us to act in ways that undermine our personal/professional values and goals.​

Without realizing it, we can have biases that either favor those who match our own identity, or the identity that is most culturally privileged.​

In this talk, Harvard Professor of Education Ebony N. Bridwell-Mitchell will share research-based insights about why schools so often fall back on the institutional status quo even when it disserves far too many students and reinforces historical inequities. She will also share what it takes to encourage greater innovation and improvement in schools and how doing so calls on educators to reimagine their work by thinking in braver, bolder, brighter ways about what is possible for students and schools to accomplish.

This session is proudly supported by SMMA