Major progress in raising achievement and narrowing gaps will require excellent school districts, not just a few exemplary schools. The June 2008 conference was a two-day workshop focused on the practical challenges of raising achievement levels and narrowing gaps in whole school districts. Presentations and discussions distilled lessons from research and practice for superintendents, school boards, district level administrators, civic leaders and others. Speakers were experts who have studied or implemented school or district improvement efforts and who, based on their work, can contrast and compare alternative approaches.

Each speaker was asked to do three things: (1) draw key lessons from their own work; (2) respond to a set of conference themes; and (3) suggest some specific types of tools that need to be created or more widely disseminated (e.g., templates, protocols, blueprints for organizational structures).

Following the conference, AGI staff and consultants will distill conference themes and work with partners to disseminate ideas and follow through on some of the ideas that emerge from the workshop. Some of the latter will be tailored to specific school districts that agree to be demonstration sites. Like all AGI conference presentations in the past, presentation materials and videos from the conference will be posted for the general public on the AGI web site.

AGENDA

PAST CONFERENCES

2007

2006