Quality Education Conference Engages Critical
Reform Issues
On June 5th and 6th, 2006, at the National Access Network's
sixth annual conference, Wendy Puriefoy, president of
the Public Education Network, and Rachel Tompkins, president
of the Rural School and Community Trust, welcomed participants
as their organizations co-sponsored the conference,
“Schools for Our Future: Ensuring Quality Education
for All Children.” The conference was also
co-sponsored by the Education Law Center, which invited
Monday's luncheon speaker, retired New Jersey Supreme
Court Justice Gary
Stein. On Monday, Wendy Puriefoy welcomed participants
with a challenge to reinvigorate “the habit of
quality public education” across the nation. In
fact, the very status of our society as free and democratic
depends upon educating youth as citizens, she stated.
In order to accomplish the needed reforms, she emphasized
the need to reach legislators through constituents and
the importance of public engagement.
Rachel Tompkins welcomed the audience at the start
of the second day. She reminded participants that advocates
must be effective and well-organized to create school
reform. While she cautioned that the same solutions
do not apply everywhere, she encouraged rural advocates
and urbanites to partner for real change.
During the two days, participants from 38 states and
the District of Columbia gathered in Washington, D.C.
and engaged in exciting discussions about real-world
successes, holding public officials accountable, communications
strategies, quality education as a civil right, and
more. To learn more about specific sessions, see Partnerships
Between Litigators and Organizers, Debating
NCLB Reauthorization, and Exploring
the Right to Education, Keys to Success, After-School,
and Teaching Quality.
Michael Rebell, executive director of The Campaign
for Educational Equity at Teachers College, opened the
conference with remarks on “Comprehensive
Educational Equity: Framing an Agenda for Success in
Challenging Times.” He encouraged the
audience to continue to be a driving force for implementing
standards-based reform and ensuring that hard-won funding
is well-spent for student achievement. Most of all,
he reminded participants to clarify and broadcast the
message that all students can learn and have a right
to equal access to comprehensive educational opportunity.
The morning concluded with the traditional Round-up
from the States, led by National Access Network
director Molly Hunter. A representative from each of
38 states and the District of Columbia shared the main
events in her state the past year.
The conference emphasized communications in a plenary
session, “Strengthening Communications
to Increase Our Effectiveness,” on strengthening
both communications with external audiences and communications
linkages with other groups inside the Access Network
for greater collective influence. Josh Ulibarri, of
Lake Research Partners, shared data from focus groups
on how the public views public education and what kind
of language works best.
David Sassoon, an independent communications consultant,
addressed the need for intra-network communications
and the untapped potential of network members’
working together for amplifying and improving our individual
efforts. Sassoon recommended that network members consider
using a popular digital medium called “blogs”
as a way of communicating with one another on a regular
basis, finding new audiences for our stories, and generating
buzz about our cause.
Kip Voytek, senior vice president of Interaction Design
at R/GA, gave conference participants a live tour of
the “blogosphere” and demystified this medium
for those new to it. Voytek discussed the advantages
of this new medium, the most important of which is that
it is a tool for “talking to people where they’re
at” by creating a means of dialogue, rather than
a barrage of information. Sassoon and Voytek recommend
that Access Network members take advantage of blogging
to start build the movement.
Prepared on June 14, 2006
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