Athens, Ga. – Marilyn Cochran-Smith, a national expert on teaching and educational research, will be the keynote speaker at the University of Georgia College of Education’s fifth annual State of Education Conference Sept. 20 at the UGA Hotel and Conference Center at the Georgia Center.
Georgia State School Superintendent John Barge will be the luncheon speaker, and Gregory Miller, chief economist for SunTrust Bank, will address an afternoon session. Andrew Rotherham, a national educational reform advocate, will be the keynote speaker the morning of Sept. 21.
The two-day event also will feature more than a dozen UGA faculty members and other experts presenting and discussing trends and issues related to P-16 education in nine breakout sessions on such topics as:
· Race to the Top-An Update
· Evaluating Teachers in the Era of Standardization
· Can School Diversity Still be a Goal for Districts?
· Emerging Education Policies Affecting K-12 Education in Georgia
· The Governor’s Education Priorities
· Early Childhood Learning
· Teacher Evaluation Growth Models in Connection with Compensation
· Closing the Achievement Gap in Georgia
· State Education Finance Study Commission-Updates and Recommendations
Cochran-Smith is the Cawthorne Professor of Teacher Education for Urban Schools and director of the doctoral program in curriculum and instruction in the Lynch School of Education at Boston College. She will deliver her lecture, titled “Teacher Education at a Crossroads: Challenges and Opportunities,” at 9 a.m. in Mahler Auditorium.
Cochran-Smith is an elected member of the National Academy of Education and a former president of the American Educational Research Association. She is co-editor of Studying Teacher Education: The Report of the AERA Panel on Research and Teacher Education and a co-editor of the Third Handbook of Research on Teacher Education.
She is a member of the National Research Council’s committee on teacher preparation in the U.S. and was the first C.J. Koh Endowed Chair at the National Institute of Education in Singapore. Cochran-Smith was editor of the Journal of Teacher Education from 2000-2006. She has written nine books, four of which have won national awards, and more than 150 articles, chapters and editorials. Her most recent book is Inquiry as Stance: Practitioner Research for the Next Generation, which was co-authored with Susan Lytle in 2009.
Barge (Ed.D. ’04), who earned his doctorate in educational leadership from UGA, was elected state school superintendent in November 2010. Previously, he served as the director of secondary curriculum and instruction with the Bartow County School System from 2005-2010. He also served as the state director of career, technical and agriculture education for the Georgia Department of Education from 2003-2004. He served as the opening principal of Chestatee High School in Hall County from June 2001-2004.
Earlier in his career, Barge served as a high school English teacher, middle school Spanish teacher, assistant principal and principal. He was recognized as a STAR teacher in 1996 and as Georgia’s Assistant Principal of the Year in 2000. He received the Berry College Alumni Association’s Distinguished Achievement Award in 2005.
Miller has been a practicing economist, forecaster and college teacher for more than 30 years.As SunTrust Bank’s chief economist, he forecasts the national economy-particularly its effect on interest rates. He sits on committees charged with interest rate setting, corporate investment and benefits policy. He also advises corporate and bank boards of directors as well as SunTrust clients. Miller represents SunTrust in business media, including CNBC News, Bloomberg News, the Wall Street Journal and many local news media platforms.Miller will deliver an afternoon address titled “The Case of the Disappearing Recovery” at 3:45 p.m. in Mahler Auditorium.
Rotherham is co-founder and partner of Bellwether Education, a non-profit organization working to improve educational outcomes for all students, and a writer of the blog Eduwonk. He writes regularly for a variety of national publications, including U.S. News & World Report. He previously served in the White House as special assistant to the president for domestic policy during the Clinton administration and is a former member of the Virginia Board of Education. Rotherham will be the keynote speaker at 8:30 a.m. in Mahler Auditorium and address “What to Expect from Washington in 2013.”
The UGA College of Education initiated the conference five years ago as an opportunity to bring together teachers, teacher educators, elected officials, civic and business leaders and concerned citizens to learn more about the top education issues facing the state. The conference is open to the public. The registration fee is $125 for the full conference, which includes conference materials, refreshment breaks, the luncheon on Sept. 21 and parking passes. The deadline to register is Sept. 17.
To register online, see:
www.georgiacenter.uga.edu/uga-hotel/conferences-events/register/state-of-education-ga.
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