General Session Speakers

June 17: Differentiation in Practice

Sandra Williams Page
Professional Consultant, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD); Former central office administrator and teacher

Teaching embraces a continuous improvement model of professional growth. What new ideas can we employ to better practice instruction and attend to learners' varying needs in our classrooms? This presentation will look, in part, at when it is best to focus on students' preferred learning styles and interests, and when it is better to prepare for a range of readiness levels.

Sandra Williams Page has worked for over a decade with differentiated instruction as a teacher, a central office administrator, and now, a full-time educational consultant. In those roles, she and instructional leaders at the school and district levels have offered professional training, developed curriculum and instructional strategies, and used administrative monitoring tools to effect changes toward serving diverse learners in regular classrooms.

Page serves as a professional consultant with ASCD and presents to groups across the country. She wrote the chapter on using literature circles in the ASCD book “Differentiation in Practice: A Resource Guide for Differentiating Curriculum, Grades K–5.” Her Educational Leadership article described how gifted students were being served by differentiation in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.

June 18: There is No Magic Dust: The Real Work of School Reform

Dr. Anthony Muhammad
President, New Frontier 21; Former principal, assistant principal and teacher

In this era of accountability, many schools are searching for ways to improve their performance.

This presentation will focus on the critical issues in school reform including school culture, pedagogy and organizational habits. Participants will learn about research-based methods that help us to prepare our school culture for change and the tools that we need for success once we embrace change.

Dr. Muhammad is the founder and president of New Frontier 21, an organization dedicated to providing educators in urban and rural schools with the kind of professional development necessary to become high performing schools.

He has done extensive research on the subject of effective urban education, and has presented his findings in North America and the United Kingdom. Dr. Muhammad has authored and co-authored several articles published in national educational magazines. He earned his bachelors, masters and doctorate degrees from Michigan State University.