Andy Hargreaves has said that American policy on educational reform is unsustainable and that short-term performance targets borrowed from business will produce the "spectacular and calamitous failure" of similar educational reform attempts in England, his country of origin. If we're just "making small adjustments to insane systems" as Hargreaves believes, what can we do differently? His thought-provoking keynote may inspire you to take action.

Hargreaves is the Thomas More Brennan Chair in Education at the Lynch School of Education at Boston College in Massachusetts. The mission of the Thomas More Brennan Chair is to promote social justice and connect education theory and practice. He has written and spoken extensively about teacher development, the culture of school and the sustainability of education improvement. He is the author of Changing Teachers, Changing Times, for which he received the 1995 American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education Outstanding Writing Award. His Teaching in the Knowledge Society received outstanding book awards from the American Educational Research Association and the American Libraries Association. His most recent book, co-authored with Dean Fink, is Sustainable Leadership.

Keynote Presentation (Friday AM)
The battle for real learning: Sustainable-leadership vs. standardization (2.4 Mb .ppt)

Workshop Presentation (Friday AM)
Sustaining outstanding leadership (3.0 Mb .ppt)

School boards are between the proverbial "rock and a hard place" -- with NCLB on one side and a challenged and frustrated faculty on the other. It's very important now to serve as charismatic leaders who will help our teachers and administrators push their students to new standards of excellence.

Leadership skills that foster success -- enthusiasm, focus, positive problem-solving and optimism -- are the very attributes that disappear under constant pressure and high stress.

"Who we are may be as important as what we know," says Murray Banks. His presentation blends humor, incredible visuals and wonderful school stories to highlight the point that our style of leadership is critical to faculty and student performance (as well as our own).

Banks moved from teaching children in the public schools to teaching university students, and now teaches fellow educators. He has been Vermont's Teacher of the Year for health and physical education and received national recognition as an outstanding educator. He is a four-time national triathlon champion. Understandably, performance is second nature to Banks, whose focus has long been on world-class performance.

Let him lead you to new levels of classroom and leadership performance. A passionate teacher, Banks has also been a coach, a director of extracurricular activities, a class advisor, a field-trip leader and a creator of innovative teaching techniques.

Keynote/Workshop Presentation (Saturday AM)
Performance under pressure: Leading with passion and style (38.8 Mb .ppt) (large file)
Keynote Handout (181kb )
Workshop Handout (32kb )

A Handy Guide to Education in the 21st Century (3.2 Mb .ppt)