F or C hildren AROUND THE WORLD Opening Session ASCD Virtual Conference 2012

A. Wade Boykin, Professor and Director, Graduate Program, Department of Psychology, Howard University Gabriel Rshaid, Principal, St. Andrew’s Scots School, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Board Member ASCD Yong Zhao, Presidential Chair and Associate Dean for Global Education, College of Education, University of Oregon Molly McCloskey, Managing Director, Whole Child Initiative, ASCD Expert Panel

Where we are… Personal perspectives on Where are we (country or system) educationally? Is it child centric? How have we got here? Are on the right track? Where we could be… Panel reactions on current educational debates and reform efforts Where we should be going… Personal summaries on What is our Collective Call? What should our Actions be?

Where are we (country or system) educationally? Is it child centric? How have we got here? Are on the right track? Where we are… Personal perspectives

Current educational debates and reform efforts Where we could be… Panel reactions

And a very important shift as we move from last year’s meeting to this year, is a clear emphasis on the importance of thinking clearly about the skills that matter… about beyond basic skills [and] the importance of cultivating imagination, critical thinking, compassion, empathy, civic and political efficacy, ingenuity, inventiveness. Fernando Reimers, ISTP, March , International Summit on the Teaching Profession QUOTES CURRENT ISSUES

There are a lot of people in the United States who will say no [to international models being transferable to the US]. They have a very long list of reasons why the United States is an exception to almost everything. And they are all wrong. We don’t have any choice but to learn from these other countries. Marc S. Tucker, President and CEO of the National Center on Education and the Economy, Sept, 2011 QUOTES LEARNING FROM OTHERS

QUOTES EDUCATION REFORM The latest infection sweeping schools, according to Finnish education reformer Pasi Sahlberg, [and which Finland has remained uninfected] is the GERM virus, the Global Education Reform Movement. The symptoms - universal testing, like the national literacy and numeracy tests; increasing school choice; and competition - are affecting schools throughout much of the English-speaking world, from England and the US to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa… Pasi Sahlberg, Director General of Centre for International Mobility and Cooperation, Finland, March 2012

The fact is that given the challenges we face, education doesn't need to be reformed -- it needs to be transformed. The key to this transformation is not to standardize education, but to personalize it, to build achievement on discovering the individual talents of each child, to put students in an environment where they want to learn and where they can naturally discover their true passions. Ken Robinson, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything QUOTES EDUCATIONAL TRANSFORMATION

If decisions about education policy and practice started by asking what works for the child, how would resources—time, space, and human—be arrayed to ensure each child’s success? If the student were truly at the center of the system, what could we achieve? Dr. Gene Carter, Executive Director, ASCD QUOTES THE WORLD CHILD

What is our Collective Call? What should our Actions be? Where we should be going… Personal summaries

A. Wade Boykin, Professor and Director, Graduate Program, Department of Psychology, Howard University Gabriel Rshaid, Principal, St. Andrew’s Scots School, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Board Member ASCD Yong Zhao, Presidential Chair and Associate Dean for Global Education, College of Education, University of Oregon Molly McCloskey, Managing Director, Whole Child Initiative, ASCD Expert Panel