Thank You for Making the TALAS Leadership Summit a Success!
We are incredibly grateful to everyone who participated in and supported the Leadership Summit. Your contributions helped create an inspiring and impactful event filled with passionate educators sharing best practices and powerful experiences.
We truly learned from the very best.
Summit Recap:
311 registered attendees
21 generous sponsors
35 dynamic presentations, including three 90-minute Special Sessions
Book signing by a featured author who led two engaging sessions
2 powerful keynote speakers
Representation from State & Chapter Board Officers
Insightful panel discussion with superintendents and executive cabinet members
Student performances
Networking dinner
Vendor Exhibit Hall
Exciting raffles and giveaways
It was a jam-packed weekend that celebrated leadership and underscored the importance of advocating for yourself and using your voice to make a difference.
Mark your calendar for the next Summit: June 22 & 23 in Central Texas
Five Ways High-Performing Schools Use Data to Help Students Succeed
Across the country, most teachers do not have the resources or the training to make informed decisions driven by data. In a 2020 poll from the Data Quality Campaign, only 31% of educators strongly agreed that they had access to the student data they needed, and 46% said they did not receive training or resources about how to assess student learning and progress.
And yet, systematic and regular use of data is at the heart of successful schools. In a recent series from Education Reform Now, we surveyed 53 principals, assistant principals and superintendents across Colorado, Massachusetts, Texas and Georgia to understand the strategies central to the success of their high-performing, high-poverty spotlight schools. Despite a wide range of geographies and school models, all of them agreed: Data is key.
Chromebooks or Cellphones: Which Are the Bigger Classroom Distraction?
The vast majority of school districts in the United States now provide school-issued laptops and tablets to students. But many educators now say the devices have become major classroom distractions.
Classroom learning devices—such as Chromebooks and iPads—have become a major source of distraction, cutting into instructional time, a recent EdWeek Research Center survey shows.
“Giving some students a device is like asking an alcoholic to hold a drink—it’s just too tempting,” said a high school teacher from Minnesota in the open-response section of the survey.
Texas bill to overhaul STAAR test clears the House but faces a skeptical Senate
The Texas House has approved a bill that would eliminate STAAR, the high-stakes standardized test that the state and school districts use to monitor student learning and teacher performance.
“What this does is remove testing from being the center of gravity for the year the way that it is now,” state Rep. Diego Bernal, D-San Antonio, said on the House floor this week. “The days of teaching to the test, if this passes, are over. What we’ve done here is create something that is much more of a tool than a test.”
House Bill 4, which overhauls standardized testing in Texas public schools, got a near unanimous vote in the House on Tuesday, but faces a tough road in the Senate. The upper chamber has its own idea for what an overhaul of the standardized test, and the school rating system largely based on that test’s results, should look like.
Why Mattering Matters
ering is fuel. People thrive when they feel they matter. When they don’t, they withdraw, disengage, and disappear.
“To someone who doesn’t believe they matter, it’s hard for anything to matter.” —Zach Mercurio
Our need to matter is human. We search for significance, from infancy to death. At work, mattering impacts motivation, loyalty, and well-being. It doesn’t come from perks, programs, or paychecks.
3-2-1: On thinking like a scientist, how to stand out from the crowd, and what wisdom looks like
I.
“Worrying about the future is like watching a leaf fall and trying to predict where it will land. Stop trying to guess where the wind will blow and get to work.”
II.
“Treat failure like a scientist.
Each attempt is an experiment. Each mistake is a clue.
You’re not failing. You’re refining.”