Leadership for Learning
A Forum for Educators

A Collaboration of
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The Leadership for Learning forum is based in the following premises:
The exercise of leadership is a challenging process. In schools today, change is the standard rather than the exception decision-making opportunities are both more frequent and the results more important, accountability initiatives have created a climate of higher pressure and elevated demand on educators’ time, resources and expertise. School administrators play a pivotal role, focusing the collective energy of faculty and staff on creating opportunities for students in which learning is rigorous, engaging and challenging. Yet, even the best school administrators need on-going access to expertise, professional dialogue and the opportunity to learn and work with experts in the field. In collaboration with the Summit County Educational Service Center and The University of Akron’s Center for Urban and Higher Education a new forum for learning has been developed to meet those ever-changing and always challenging needs.

The Leadership for Learning partnership is a joint initiative promoting leadership development for school superintendents, principals, and aspiring principals. The partnership focuses on professional development opportunities and activities that recognize the complexity of schools and the issues school leaders face. Central to the forum will be a focus on learning, teaching, improving student achievement, school safety, student health and well-being.

The Leadership for Learning forums are designed to provide Summit County District Administrators access to the expertise of educational leaders from across the nation. Designed as true interactive experiences, the forum will invite respected scholars of educational administration to interact with Summit County Service Center staff, The University of Akron faculty and local school leaders in discussion and activities designed to promote the enhancement of school leadership in direct and focused ways.

To date the collaboration has sponsored several events for faculty and staff of the university, Summit County school administrators and Summit County school board members. Among them have been:

• A kick-off event held at the Sheraton Suites in Cuyahoga Falls featuring Dr. Richard Boyd. Dr. Boyd is a UA alumni, former superintendent of the Cleveland Public Schools and currently is on the faculty at Mississippi State. Dr. Boyd’s remarks to the group included his sense of the challenges facing administrators in the coming years including a focus on accountability, outcomes as measures of school quality, greater external involvement in school governance, school choice and the importance of instructional leadership. His presentation was attended by over 50 members of the local education community and set the stage for future events to be sponsored by the collaboration.
  
  
• Our second collaboration included local school board members and presented to them information regarding the up-coming ballot initiative –Issue 12 -- concerning raising a county sales tax to support permanent improvement s for county school buildings. Speakers at this event included Pat Corbett, Superintendent of the Summit County Educational Service Center and several county officials. Over 80 school board members and county superintendents attended.
  
  
• At the August 2002 administrative conference, Dr. Kent Peterson was the featured presenter. Dr. Peterson shared his research on school climate and culture and its relationship to student achievement. Kent D. Peterson is a professor in the Department of Educational Administration at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is founding director of the Vanderbilt Principals Institute and the Principals’ Leadership Institute at Wisconsin. He consults on the design of leadership development and regularly leads seminars on school leadership and culture in the United States and abroad. In addition to the books, he has coauthored with Terrence Deal titled The Shaping of School Culture Fieldbook and Shaping School Culture: The Heart of Leadership, he has published over ninety other studies and articles. Over 120 school administrators attended and the evaluation result as follow.
  
  
• On November 6, 2002, over 200 educators attended a daylong session with Dr. Ron Ferguson. Dr. Ferguson’s remarks and highly interactive session focused on enhancing students’ academic achievement through a research-based initiative called the Tripod Project. The Tripod Project is designed to close the achievement gap. Dr. Ferguson, a researcher from Harvard, has been in the process of collecting data from across the country and the State of Ohio on the achievement gap. His work suggests that by focusing on 3 areas – curriculum/academic content, instructional strategy/pedagogy, as well as the relationship teachers’ form with students—substantial progress can be made toward closing the gap between students who are engaged in school and their leaning and those who are not. He shared results from his research and engaged district teams in the consideration of programs and practices in their districts.
  
  
• On November 12, 2003 , over 150 educators attended an evening dinner engagement with Dr. Helen Bessent Byrd.  Dr. Byrd, who is a Professor of Special Education from Norfolk State University , focused her presentation on ways to create successful learning environment for African American learners with exceptionalities.