My Trip to D.C.

The Milken National Education Conference was terrific! It was one of the best experiences of my life. The Foundation spared no expense in bringing educators from all over the country together. We had presentations about reforming No Child Left Behind, improving teacher training, and more. Margaret Spellings, the Secretary of Education, was even a luncheon speaker. I also had the opportunity to chat with Senator Nelson and Congressman Osborne.

The main idea of conference came from research on classrooms. The biggest single factor besides family and home life affecting student achievement is the effectiveness of the teacher. The Milken Foundation is very interested in reforming education and focuses on recruiting and keeping quality teachers. In fact, they have developed the Teacher Advancement Program. It is somewhat controversial because there is a performance pay component, but the pay is based on many factors. In the program, teachers work together in teams to look at individual students and how to raise achievement (much like Learning Communities). There are dozens of schools using the Teacher Advancement Program, especially in Minnesota and Louisiana.

I also heard a lot about how to improve the NCLB act. It will be up for reauthorization and I was encouraged that even the Secretary of Education is open to changing parts of the law.

The best part of the conference was meeting award winners from across the country. They were all surprised in different ways. These teachers were all so inspiring to me and was humbled to be among such great educators.

I have a few of the photos from last week in an online photo gallery. You can even see my tuxedo.
http://homepage.mac.com/vincent/PhotoAlbum9.html

I'm sorry I missed the final class, but this experience was well worth it!