The 14th Annual Holmes Partnership Conference

Closing the Achievement Gap: Continuing the Work

Jan. 28-30, 2010
Francis Marion Hotel
Charleston, SC

Welcome

A Message From The Holmes Partnership® President . . .

Welcome to the 2010 Holmes Partnership® Annual Conference “Closing the Achievement Gap: Continuing the Work.” Our conference will take place January 28-30 at the Francis Marion Hotel in historic downtown Charleston, S.C. We have a dynamic set of rich thought-provoking experiences planned for all conference attendees! Highlights of our conference include featured keynoters Pedro Noguera, Terry Peterson, Jennifer Murphy, and Melissa Watson.

Pedro Noguera is the Peter L. Agnew Professor of Education at New York University. He holds tenured faculty appointments in the departments of Teaching and Learning, and Humanities and Social Sciences at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Development and in the Department of Sociology at New York University. He is also the Executive Director of the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education and the co-Director of the Institute for the Study of Globalization and Education in Metropolitan Settings (IGEMS). In 2008, Noguera was appointed by New York Governor David Patterson to serve on the State University of New York Board of Trustees.

Noguera has held tenured faculty appoints at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and at the University of California, Berkeley. He has published over one hundred and fifty research articles, monographs and research reports on topics such as urban school reform, conditions that promote student achievement, youth violence, the potential impact of school choice and vouchers on urban public schools, and race and ethnic relations in American society. His work has appeared in several major research journals and many are available online at inmotionmagazine.com. He is the author of The Imperatives of Power: Political Change and the Social Basis of Regime Support in Grenada (Peter Lang Publishers, 1997), City Schools and the American Dream (Teachers College Press 2003), Unfinished Business: Closing the Achievement Gap in Our Nation’s Schools (Josey Bass, 2006) City Kids, City Teachers with Bill Ayers and Greg Michie (New Press 2008), and his most recent book is The Trouble With Black Boys…and Other Reflections on Race, Equity and the Future of Public Education (Wiley and Sons, 2008). Noguera has also appeared as a regular commentator on educational issues on CNN, National Public Radio, and other national news outlets.

Terry Peterson is one of only a “handful” of people in America who has ever been the top deputy to an “education” governor for eight years and the top deputy to the United States Secretary of Education for eight years. In those senior executive positions, Terry helped develop and enact numerous education policies and funding streams. For example, at the federal level: the 21st Century Community Learning Centers, E-rate, GEAR-UP, Advanced Placement expansion, and teacher quality and technology programs; and at the state level: early childhood education initiatives; a statewide teacher recruitment center; school, principal and teacher incentive pay programs; innovation funds for teachers and schools; new education accountability systems; and the arts in the basic curriculum. Nationally, he also helped co-found the Arts Education Partnership, the Pathways to College Network, and the Partnership for Family Involvement in Education. Terry now helps local, state and national leaders develop strategies, policies and partnerships, to expand learning opportunities and to increase student and school success. He is a senior fellow at the College of Charleston. Terry chairs the national Afterschool Alliance and serves on leadership committees of the national Alliance for Excellence in Education; the National Association of School Boards; the Coalition for Community Schools, Foundations, Inc, and the National Center for Summer Learning at John Hopkins University. On behalf of low-income students and schools suing their state for more adequate and equitable education resources, he was asked to be the closing expert witness in three statewide school finance trials. He has worked internationally in Argentina, Mongolia, Brazil, Northern Ireland, and Ireland. He has a Bachelor’s in chemistry and education from the University of Wisconsin and a Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina with an emphasis in educational research. He started out his career as a teacher in Wisconsin and South Carolina and as a Peace Corps volunteer in Brazil.

All three of our featured keynote sessions are sure to both challenge and inspire us as we join together at the annual conference to tackle difficult issues associated with closing the achievement gap! In addition to our outstanding keynote speakers, through August 31, 2009, we are accepting proposals for concurrent sessions. For more information, go to http://conferences.dce.ufl.edu/Holmes/default.aspx?page=533 or click on Call for Proposals. Submit your presentation for consideration today to become a part of this outstanding conference program!

We look forward to seeing you and hearing your presentations in January, and most importantly, continuing crucial dialogue about ways we can join with one another to close the achievement gap!

Best Wishes!

Catherine Emihovich, Ph.D.

President, National Holmes Partnership®

Dean, College of Education, University of Florida