Top Minds in Education to Speak at Vision 2020 Conference
Top education speakers from across the nation will deliver keynote addresses at the State Department of Education’s Vision 2020 summer conference, June 12-15 at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City.
“We’re hoping that all educators and parents in the state will come to hear the wealth of knowledge offered at the Vision 2020 conference,” State Superintendent Janet Barresi said. “The speakers we have lined up represent some of the brightest minds in education and some of the most forward-thinking ideas for everyone interested in education.”
Speakers will address convention goers during general sessions each day from 9 to 10:45 a.m. and during lunch from 12 to 1:30 p.m. Registration for the conference, including all professional development sessions, is free. Lunch can be purchased for $8.
Parent Night is from 6 to 7:45 p.m. June 11, with breakout sessions on topics such as college and career planning, ACE for parents, Career Tech, job profiling, parental involvement, childhood mental illness issues, understanding your child and the cyber world, and drug abuse. The night is free for all parents or caregivers.
For more information or to register now for Vision 2020, go here.
The lineup of speakers includes:
Dr. Willard R. Daggett, Founder and Chairman of the International Center for Leadership in Education in Rexford, N.Y., will speak during the general session from 9 to 10:45 a.m. Tuesday, June 12.
Daggett is known worldwide for his efforts to move preK-12 education systems towards more rigorous and relevant skills and knowledge for all students. He is the creator of the Rigor/Relevance Framework, a practical planning and instructional tool that is used in schools throughout the United States.
Dr. Adolph Brown, aka "The World's Greatest Edu-tainer," and mathematics educator Dr. Cathy Seeley will speak during the lunch session, from 12 to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 12.
Brown, is an internationally renowned master educator and a recognized authority in the fields of educational excellence and leadership development.
Seeley has been a middle school and high school mathematics teacher, K-12 district coordinator and K- 12 State Director of Mathematics for Texas. She is the author of Faster Isn’t Smarter—Messages About Math, Teaching, and Learning in the 21st Century and is a Senior Fellow at the Charles A. Dana Center at The University of Texas, where she currently leads a project to develop prototype assessment tasks for the PARCC mathematics assessment program supporting the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics.
Dr. Joseph S. Renzulli, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Connecticut and director of the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented, will speak during the General Session from 9 to 10:45 a.m. Wednesday, June 13.
Renzulli’s research has focused on the identification and development of creativity and giftedness in young people, and on curricular and organizational models for differentiated learning environments that contribute to total school improvement. A focus of his work has been on applying the pedagogy of gifted education to the improvement of learning for all students. His most recent work is a computer-based assessment of student strengths integrated with an Internet-based search engine that matches highly challenging enrichment activities and resources to individual student profiles.
Dr. Larry Tihen and Ben Robinson will speak during lunch, from 12 to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 13.
Tihen is the recently retired superintendent for Lee County School District in Florida. He is the primary author of the Florida Reading Model, and was the first recipient of the Florida Literacy Leader of the Year Award from the Florida Department of Education. Tihen has served on many state committees, including those for the design of Educational Leadership and Teacher Certification Assessments. He was also a collaborator on the Literacy Essentials and Reading Network for the state of Florida.
Robinson is owner and president of Sentry One LLC, an aerospace industry consulting company specializing in a wide spectrum of expertise from military command and control operations to the growth and sustainment of American aerospace through future investments in workforce and business development and leadership. Robinson is an Executive-in-Residence with Oklahoma Career Technology Center, and he teaches aerospace courses for Oklahoma State University as an adjunct professor.
Ron Clark will speak during the General Session from 9 to 10:45 a.m. Thursday, June 14.
Known to many as "America's Educator," Clark is the 2000 Disney American Teacher of the Year, a two-time New York Times Bestselling author, the subject of a television movie and the founder of The Ron Clark Academy. Clark pioneered innovative projects in rural North Carolina working with minority students in a low wealth area. He’s also worked in Harlem, N.Y., and with inner-city students in Atlanta. His highly effective programs garnered national attention and led to a White House invitation to be honored by the President of the United States.
Dr. William E. (Bill) White, Karen Chenoweth and Jay Martin will speak during lunch, from 12 to 1:30 p.m. Thursday, June 14.
White is the Royce R. & Kathryn M. Baker Vice President of Productions, Publications, and Learning Ventures for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. He leads the foundation’s education media programs including www.history.org, book publishing, audio and video production, the Teacher Development initiative, the Emmy-winning Electronic Field Trip series, and an extensive media-publishing program that provides lesson plans, primary sources, activity kits, and interactive resources for K-12 classrooms.
Chenoweth, a writer-in-residence at The Education Trust, recently co-authored, with Ed Trust’s director of research Christina Theokas, Getting it Done: Leading Academic Success in Unexpected Schools, a careful study of the beliefs and practices of effective leaders of high-poverty and high-minority schools.
Through his unconventional journey as a career inventor and entrepreneur, Jay Martin mentors and equips innovators of all types in how to leverage their ideas and bring them to fruition. Martin has launched numerous businesses based on his own innovations; including helping create the nation’s largest prosthetics research and development company. He and his ideas have been featured on TED, The History Channel, The Discovery Channel, Popular Science, the Smithsonian Institute, and many others.
Ray McNulty will speak during the General Session from 9 to 10:45 a.m. Friday, June 15.
McNulty is President of the International Center for Leadership in Education, having previously served as Senior Vice President. Prior to joining the International Center, he was a senior fellow at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he worked with leading educators from around the country on improving our nation's high schools. McNulty also is a past president of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD).
John Wolf, Anna Shults and Trevor Packer will speak during lunch, from 12 to 1:30 p.m. Friday, June 15.
Wolf currently serves as a literacy specialist at the Indiana Department of Education. He has served the state in the areas of Early Childhood, Reading First, Title I and Special Education.
Shults currently serves as a Literacy Specialist at the Indiana Department of Education, overseeing the state’s reading initiatives. Previously, she taught for thirteen years in a high-performing elementary school outside of Indianapolis and was recognized as Indiana’s Teacher of the Year in 2007.
Packer, Senior Vice President of AP and College Readiness, is responsible for leading, developing and managing the College Board's Advanced Placement Program and associated College Readiness (K-12) programs and services. This involves providing executive direction for all programs, activities, products and services related to helping students prepare for and be successful in college.
