SPECIAL EDITION Fall Conference • Top Urban Educator, p.2 • Immigration Issues, p. 3 • Conference Pictorial, p.9 • Ballot Results, p.10 The Nation’s Voice for Urban Education November/December 2008 Vol. 17, No. 8 www.cgcs.org New President Focus of Town Hall Meeting HOUSTON—Urban school leaders hosting the Council conference, called voiced their thoughts on “An Urban Edu- for national standards to measure school cation Agenda for the New President,” performance. “We can’t have a federal ac- the topic of a national town hall meeting countability system without national stan- held in conjunction with the Council of dards,” he stressed. the Great City Schools’ 52nd Annual Fall Lisa Graham Keegan, senior education Conference, Oct. 22-26, in Texas’ largest adviser to Sen. John McCain’s campaign, Letter to New President city. (View Town Hall Meeting) said that McCain does not believe in im- A packed ballroom of educators heard plementing mandatory national standards. HOUSTON—The Council of the from a panel that included education advis- Jonathan Schnur, who represented then- Great City Schools issued an Open Let- ers of the two presidential candidates, who Senator and now President-elect Barack ter to the Next President of the United faced off in a lively 90-minute discussion Obama, noted that Obama wants more States at its Fall Conference here. The moderated by noted journalist Dan Rather, consistency around high standards, and letter, featured in its entirety on page 6, global correspondent and managing editor wants to work with states and the federal reaches out to President-elect Barack of Dan Rather Reports on HDNet. government to create quality assessments, Obama to focus on the challenges fac- Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra of but without mandating national standards. ing urban schools. the Houston Independent School District, Town Hall continued on page 4 Gates Foundation Gives Council $3.7-Million Grant The Council of the Great City Schools has received a grant of $3.7 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant is aimed at improving student per- formance in reading, mathematics and sci- ence as part of the Council’s initiative to accelerate academic gains in the nation’s big-city schools. The three-year project will assist ur- ban school districts in their efforts to raise standards, improve academic performance, close racial and economic achievement Moderator Dan Rather, left, listens as panelists Jonathan Schnur, Obama campaign adviser, Houston Schools Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra, Chicago Schools CEO Arne Duncan and Anchorage school board member Crystal Kennedy share their views gaps, increase graduation rates and im- at the Council of the Great City Schools’ town hall meeting. Gates Foundation continued on page 3 INSIDE THE COUNCIL NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2008 Austin Superintendent Wins Top Council Award HOUSTON—In 1999, Pascal For- “Urban public schools are the gione was hired as the superintendent foundation of our nation and of Texas’ Austin Independent School public schools are the greatest District. Under his nine years of lead- invention of our nation,” said ership, the district has seen an upward Forgione. “Thank you, and I am trend in academic achievement, a re- humbled by it.” turn to fiscal stability, three successful As the recipient of the award, bond elections, and improved commu- Forgione receives a $10,000 col- nity support for the district. lege scholarship, which he can As a result, Forgione was presented present to a 2008 graduate of with the Richard R. Green Award at his choice in the Austin school Austin Superintendent Pascal Forgione holds his $10,000 oversize check after the Council of the Great City Schools’ system or from his high school winning the Richard R. Green Award and is congratulated by Boston Schools 52nd Annual Fall Conference. alma mater. Superintendent Carol Johnson, ARAMARK’s Dennis Maple and Voyager’s Sponsored by the Council, ARA- Carolyn Getridge. MARK Education and Voyager Ex- Award Beneficiary panded Learning, the award is present- ed annually to the nation’s top urban When Basheer Jones was a student in Barbara Byrd-Bennett, who at the time educator in memory of Green, who led the Cleveland school system, he and his was the superintendent of the Cleve- the Minneapolis and New York City family lived in a homeless shelter for a land school district. Byrd-Bennett was public school systems. while. Yet, he not only managed to gradu- named the recipient of the Green Award Upon accepting his award, Forgione ate from high school and receive a degree in 2001. recalled that when he worked for the from Morehouse College, but he currently At the 2008 Richard R. Green cer- Connecticut Department of Educa- hosts his own radio talk show at the age emony, Jones expressed his appreciation tion he used to watch Richard Green of 24. with a heartfelt speech that received a and never forgot the leadership he dis- Jones was able to attend Morehouse as played. a result of a scholarship he received from Austin Superintendent continued on page11 Executive Director Editor Associate Editor Michael Casserly Henry Duvall Tonya Harris [email protected] [email protected] Council officers A newsletter published by the Council of the Great City Schools, representing 66 of the nation’s largest urban public school districts. Chair William Isler Albuquerque Chicago East Baton Rouge Louisville Oklahoma City St. Louis Board Member, Pittsburgh Anchorage Christina Fort Worth Memphis Omaha St. Paul Chair-elect Atlanta Cincinnati Fresno Miami-Dade Orange Co. Salt Lake City Carol Johnson Austin Clark Co. Greensboro Milwaukee Palm Beach San Diego Superintendent, Boston Baltimore Cleveland Houston Minneapolis Philadelphia San Francisco Birmingham Columbus Indianapolis Nashville Pittsburgh Seattle Secretary-Treasurer Boston Dallas Jackson Newark Portland Shreveport Dilafruz Williams Broward Co. Dayton Jacksonville New Orleans Providence Tampa Board Member, Portland, Ore. Buffalo Denver Kansas City New York City Richmond Toledo Charleston Des Moines Long Beach Norfolk Rochester Washington DC Charlotte Detroit Los Angeles Oakland Sacramento Wichita All news items should be submitted to: Urban Educator Council of the Great City Schools 1301 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Suite 702 • Washington, DC 20004 (202) 393-2427 • (202) 393-2400 (fax) 2 | URBAN EDUCATOR URBAN EDUCATOR | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2008 INSIDE THE COUNCIL Gates Foundation continued from page 1 prove student preparation for college and employment. Titled Improving Standards and Data Use in the Great City Schools, the project will analyze urban school achievement on the National Assessment of Educational Prog- ress, examining alignment between NAEP frameworks and relevant state standards in urban districts participating in the Trial Urban District Assessment of NAEP. It will also investigate factors shaping NAEP results, such as family, school and economic variables, as well as instructional progress to determine why some urban dis- Dallas Superintendent Michael Hinojosa, Los Angeles school board member Yolie Flores Aguilar, San Francisco Superintendent tricts show faster gains than others. Carlos Garcia, research associate Maria Castaneda and Seattle Schools board member Cheryl Chow discuss immigration issues at the Council of the Great City Schools’ Fall Conference. The second part of the research project will zero in on the use of data in instruc- tional improvements. It will investigate Urban School Leaders Discuss Immigration Issues best practices in how quarterly or bench- mark assessment data are used to inform instruction and target resources, and it will HOUSTON—In the United States, sences from school, aggressive behavior, or lay the groundwork for better urban dis- there are approximately five million chil- changing sleep patterns and appetites be- trict tracking of secondary school student dren with at least one undocumented par- cause their attachments to caregivers have progress. ent and a number of these children may been broken. “We will explore two important levers attend schools in urban districts. Carlos Garcia, superintendent of the for change: raising achievement in core The question of what happens to these San Francisco Unified School District, said subjects through a focus on standards and children if their parents are detained by that since 1989 San Francisco has been des- instruction, and using student data to iden- immigration officials was the topic of a ignated as a sanctuary city for immigrants. tify student needs and target support where special session held at the Council of the The school district has put in place a policy it’s most needed,” says Council Executive Great City Schools’ 52nd Annual Fall Con- that forbids principals from allowing im- Director Michael Casserly. ference and moderated by Maria Hinojosa, migration officials to enter a school. The Council will be assisted in the re- PBS senior correspondent. “Kids deserve an education and the best search project by the American Institutes According to Rose Maria Castaneda, a thing we can offer kids is an education,” for Research. The research that will be done research associate at the Urban Institute, said Garcia, who stressed that he would go follows efforts over the last several years by the Immigration and Customs Enforce- to jail to prevent ICE from entering one of the Council to boost student achievement ment Office (ICE) has stepped up its -im his campuses. in the nation’s urban schools, which have migration enforcement efforts through Michael Hinojosa, the superintendent resulted in measurable academic gains. workplace raids. of Dallas Unified School District, said that “Thanks to the Bill & Melinda Gates She cited statistics that one out of every in the absence of parents schools must take Foundation, we can now expand our efforts two people who are detained by ICE leave responsibility for children. to improve student outcomes dramatically, a child at home, with two-thirds of the He said that superintendents know their which are linked to the foundation’s goal of children younger than 10 and one-third school systems must take responsibility for ensuring that every student graduates from younger than 5.