The countdown to SXSW EDU starts now with PanelPicker Voting, open until August 18th! The Learning Accelerator and our partners are featured in seven submissions detailed below. Please vote for these proposals to bring our voices to Austin next year.
Reimagining Research Together: New Measures for New Models
As systems implement innovative learning models, they face a unique challenge: how do they know if it “works”? While policymakers and funders continue to require traditional assessments, researchers recognize that these approaches are insufficient for evaluating new learning environments, resulting in a square peg in a round hole paradox. This panel of researchers will share knowledge, insights, and strategies for understanding and measuring student learning within innovative learning environments that may not be time-bound, in-person, or directly related to discrete academic outcomes.
Speakers:
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- Beth Holland, Managing Director of Research, Measurement, & Policy, The Learning Accelerator (TLA)
- Jilliam Joe, Research Director, Aurora Institute
- Jason Atwood, Director, Research & Learning, NewSchools Venture Fund
- Kate Place, Senior Researcher, Mathematica
Learning Acceleration for All: Scaling Core Innovations
Leaders from TLA’s Accelerating Adoption Network will share insights from scaling high-quality, virtually-supported learning acceleration strategies that are creating durable change to instruction, including an AI-powered teacher assistant, virtual PBL for microschools, and a cognitive assessment tool for personalizing instruction. Learn how these innovations are scaling to new contexts to accelerate learning for students traditionally furthest from opportunity. Gain practical insights on implementation, including overcoming challenges across new contexts and creating lasting impact at scale.
Speakers:
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- Jeffrey Imrich, CEO & Co-Founder, Rock by Rock
- Neomia Hagans Flores, Director, UK Next Generation Scholars, University of Kentucky
- Nancy Weinstein, CEO, MindPrint Learning
- Dacia Toll, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Coursemojo
Empowering School Teams to Develop AI Instructional Practices
What if school teams led the conversation about the future of learning and AI? Learn how aligning school leadership, instructional strategy, and educator practice can power AI-enabled instructional best practices to improve student outcomes & accelerate instructional improvement. Join the School Teams AI Collaborative, a national network of schools fostering environments where educators can explore AI by learning from success and refining practices. See an instructional ecosystem where school leaders and teachers work to align support, structures, and resources for the responsible & effective use of AI.
Speakers:
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- Beth Rabbitt, CEO, The Learning Accelerator
- Chong-Hao Fu, CEO, Leading Educators
- Simone Wright, Chief Academics Officer, Denver Public Schools
- Patrick Gittisriboongul, Asst. Superintendent, Technology & Innovation, Lynwood Unified School District
10 Years Later: Personalized Learning at a Crossroads?
What happened to the promise of Personalized Learning? Join TLA, Aurora Institute, and LEAP Innovations for an honest deep dive covering where the personalized learning “movement” sits today – almost 10 years post the height of national investment. What have we learned? Where are we headed? Join us for a candid reflection on where we are in advancing more personalized models, checking in on the current state, and wondering about opportunities for what’s next.
Speakers:
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- Beth Rabbitt, Chief Executive Officer, The Learning Accelerator
- Virgel Hammonds, Chief Executive Officer, Aurora Institute
- Scott Frauenheim, Chief Executive Officer, Leap Innovations
Enough Talk! Let’s Play With AI
There’s been much big dreaming (and some worrying) about what AI will mean for the future of education. But amid the chatter, many entrepreneurial educators are already using it to shift possibilities for instruction and engagement in real ways!
This rotation workshop—which includes a teacher from the School Teams AI Collaborative—will help attendees learn how to leverage promising practices emerging from action research with real educators. These could include using AI in writing, teaching students to create their own chatbots, and differentiating support plans. Let’s play!
Speakers:
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- Albert Kim, Managing Director of Innovation, Leading Educators
- Jin-Soo Huh, Partner, The Learning Accelerator
- Zachary Kennelly, High School Teacher/AI Pilot Lead, DSST Public Schools
Innovating Education: Real World Learning & Career Pathways
Schools and systems need concrete strategies to re-engage students and families and make good on the promise of school. This panel delves into innovative approaches that make learning more relevant and engaging by sharing innovative approaches that introduce students to future careers and develop durables skills that will serve tham beyond graduation. Panelists will share examples including programs that expose students to diverse career pathways; combine human-centered design, entrepreneurship, and engineering; and give students opportunities to apply their learning to real-world challenges.
Speakers:
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- Beth Holland, Managing Director of Research, Measurement, & Policy, The Learning Accelerator
- Jax Chaudhry, Executive Director, Project Invent
- David Miyashiro, Superintendent, Cajon Valley Union School District
The Case for Ecosystem Entrepreneurship
To make the dramatic systems change needed to serve kids, we need both social and ecosystem entrepreneurs. The former build radically different and better enterprises in the present, but are subject to developing new models or mechanisms within constraints. The latter build new ecosystem-level capabilities and systems to create new markets and rules, changing how the market operates as a collective for the future. Join four pioneering organization leaders for a candid conversation discussing that tension, highlighting the strategic tradeoffs and differing capabilities in entrepreneurship.
Speakers:
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- Beth Rabbitt, Chief Executive Officer, The Learning Accelerator
- Kim Smith, Founder and CEO, LearnerStudio
- Auditi Chakravarty, Chief Executive Officer, Advanced Education Research and Development Fund (AERDF)
- Leona Christy, Founder and CEO, Catalyst:Ed
Voting ends on Sunday, August 18, 2024.
