2012 Hathaway Brown Education Innovation Summit

Few problems in American society are as vexing and pressing as how to fix the American public education system. The problems are well known even if the solutions remain elusive: over-crowded classes, over-burdened teachers, under-resourced schools, and a history of conflicting agendas and priorities. Lost within this knot are the threads of independent schools, which, historically, have invested time, idealism and money into helping schools and students in the public sector.

The question, now, is how independent schools can prioritize these efforts given the confusion in the school reform movement and the substantial tugs that most independent schools feel to prepare their own students for success in college and beyond. In the video above, featured speaker and noted author Paul Tough speaks with HB's Head of School Bill Crist about the importance of teaching resilience and other non-cognitive character traits. Tough's new book is titled How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character.

In partnership with the Edward E. Ford Foundation, Hathaway Brown presents the third annual Education Innovation Summit. Everybody's Children: Independent Schools, Educational Reform, and the Future of Teaching will take place October 4-5, 2012. We will explore these important topics through a variety of lectures, presentations, and workshops. Open to teachers and administrators from independent, public, private, parochial, and charter schools across the country, HB's Education Innovation Summit 2012 aims to raise and answer questions about how to improve education across the spectrum for the good of all America's children. More information here; register here.

Featured Speakers

Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Thomas Friedman of the New York Times will deliver the keynote address. And noted education author Paul Tough will discuss his new book How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character (September 2012). Here, Paul Tough talks to Hathaway Brown Head of School Bill Christ about the importance of resilience and how great teachers support character growth.





Other Summit Speakers

  • Carl Ackerman - Punahou School
  • Eliza Alexander, Jack Davies, Brenda Profit-Jews & Marjo Talbott - Maret School
  • Co Barry, Mike Davis & Bill Wolf-Tinsman - Colorado Academy
  • Patrick Bassett - National Association of Independent Schools
  • Gene Batiste - National Association of Independent Schools
  • Caroline Blatti - Hutchison School
  • Jim Bologna, Eryn Hoffman, Peggy Procter & Larisa Showalter - Windward School
  • Caroline Borrow - Hathaway Brown School
  • Michael Buescher - Hathaway Brown School
  • Michael Brosnan - Independent School magazine
  • Beth Casey - Middle Grades Partnership
  • Natalie Celeste & Camille Seals - Aspire, Hathaway Brown School
  • Rob DeBlois - Urban Collaborative Accelerated Program
  • Michelle Del Toro - Department of Public Health and Research, The Cleveland Clinic
  • Linda Darling-Hammond - Stanford University School of Education
  • David Drinkwater & Jacqueline Smethurst - Wingspan Partnerships
  • Blake Eldridge & Jason Robinson - The Lawrenceville School
  • Karin Elliott - National Partnership for Educational Access
  • Holly Fidler - North Star Collaborative, Laurel School
  • Ted Fish - Gardner Carney Leadership Institute
  • Eric Gordon - Cleveland Metropolitan School District
  • Elizabeth Green - GothamSchools
  • Shelly Greenwood - Latin School of Chicago
  • Robert Hallett - Edward E. Ford Foundation
  • Lee Hart - High Jump
  • Eryn Hoffman - Windward School
  • Sharon Sobol Jordan - Center for Families and Children
  • Pearl Rock Kane - Klingenstein Leadership Center, Teachers College Columbia University
  • Bill Kitson - United Way of Greater Cleveland
  • Eric Sheninger - New Milford High School
  • Terry Lipford - REACH, University School
  • Russ Mitchell - WKYC - NBC News
  • Jon Moser - finalsite
  • Dan Moulthrop - The Civic Commons
  • Anu Partanen - Finnish Journalist
  • Robert Paymer - St. Paul's School
  • Andrea Perry - Garrison Forest School
  • Monyka Price - City of Cleveland
  • Neil Quinn - The Oswald Companies
  • David Quolke - Cleveland Teachers Union
  • Whitney Ransome & Tom Wilcox - The Middle Grades Partnership
  • Shelly Saltzman - Citizens Leadership Academy
  • Camille Seals - Aspire, Hathaway Brown
  • Jim Shelton - Office of Non-Public Education, U.S. Department of Education
  • Lorna Smith - Horizons National
  • Catherine Steiner-Adair - Clinical Psychologist
  • Nina Turner - Ohio State Senator
  • Helen Williams - The Cleveland Foundation

The 2011 Summit

After the successful inaugural summit in 2010, the 2011 Summit Sustainability Through Strength used the Appreciative Inquiry method of positive change to drive conversation around the future of schools. In small groups and plenary sessions, teachers, administrators and thought leaders discussed the assets at the center of their work and discovered how new ways framing conversations and questions can open up previously unreachable opportunities.

Must Reads for #hbsummit12

Cleveland Cooperates on School Overhaul
September 28, 2012 http://online.wsj.com

The Republican governor of Ohio, the Democratic mayor of Cleveland and the local teachers union have united to overhaul how teachers are hired, fired and paid, a rare example of cooperation in education that some critics warn could still face challenges in the implementation. The overhaul, signed into law by Gov.

The Psych Approach
September 28, 2012 http://www.nytimes.com

In the 1990s, Vincent Felitti and Robert Anda conducted a study on adverse childhood experiences. They asked 17,000 mostly white, mostly upscale patients enrolled in a Kaiser H.M.O. to describe whether they had experienced any of 10 categories of childhood trauma.

New Rules
September 09, 2012 http://www.nytimes.com

I JUST arrived in Shanghai, but I'm thinking about Estonia and wondering about something Presidents Clinton and Obama have been saying. Wired magazine reported last week that public schools in Estonia are establishing a program for teaching first graders - and kids in all other grades - how to do computer programming.

'Children Succeed' With Character, Not Test Scores : NPR
September 05, 2012 http://www.npr.org

Author Paul Tough says parents should focus less on SAT and IQ scores, and more on fostering grit, curiosity and character in their kids. He argues that attachment is important in the first few years, but parents need to know when to step back and let their kids learn through trial and error.

The High Cost of Low Teacher Salaries
July 18, 2012 http://www.nytimes.com

WHEN we don't get the results we want in our military endeavors, we don't blame the soldiers. We don't say, "It's these lazy soldiers and their bloated benefits plans! That's why we haven't done better in Afghanistan!" No, if the results aren't there, we blame the planners.

What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success
July 18, 2012 http://www.theatlantic.com

Sergey Ivanov/Flickr Everyone agrees the United States needs to improve its education system dramatically, but how? One of the hottest trends in education reform lately is looking at the stunning success of the West's reigning education superpower, Finland. Trouble is, when it comes to the lessons that Finnish schools have to offer, most of the discussion seems to be missing the point.