Superintendents and top district officials from around the country will gather in New Orleans from Thursday through Saturday for their annual education conference.
They will dive into myriad topics, including developing strong principals, what to expect from state education policy this year, leveraging social media for professional development and community engagement, using data to improve schools, managing district finance, and preparing educators for the implementation of the new national K-12 education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act.
The National Conference on Education, put on by the AASA, the School Superintendents Association, will also feature sessions on female superintendents as part of an initiative to support women who may want to lead school districts. There will also be a session on U.S. and China cooperation in the K-12 arena.
The association will also its 2017 National Superintendent of the Year. This year’s four finalists are:
- Stewart McDonald, Kodiak Island Borough schools, Kodiak, Alaska;
- Barbara Jenkins, Orange County schools, Orlando, Fla.;
- James Merrill, Wake County schools, Cary, N.C.;
- Matthew Utterback, North Clackamas School District, Milwaukie, Ore.
The association will also honor former U.S. Secretary of Education John King Jr. with its 2017 Effie H. Jones Humanitarian Award. The award is named after a former AASA associate director and district leader and honors leadership in educational equity and excellence.
You can follow the conference on Twitter, with the hashtag #NCE17, and on the AASA’s conference daily bulletin.