This is the fifth issue of HEC Happenings. For earlier issues, go here

Membership Summit

Peggy Silva, Marjorie Larner, and Josephine Rice look over notes from one of the sessions at the membership summit.

Harmony’s National School Reform Faculty (NSRF) held a Membership Summit in Houston, Texas, on March 19 and 20, 2007.

Regional summits about membership issues had already been held with centers of activity representatives in three regions of the US.

The notes from these discussions were shared during the Center’s Council at the Winter Meeting. The center representatives used a Futures Protocol to express their visions of NSRF as a membership organization and how this change will enable us to meet the needs of students, schools, coaches, centers, and national facilitators.

At the Membership Summit, NSRF representatives from a variety of constituencies refined the artifacts, defining characteristics, communications, and procedures to be included in a Summit Report distributed in time for presentation at the Facilitators Meeting in Indianapolis in May.

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Eleventh Annual National NSRF Winter Meeting A Success

Keynote speaker Linda Christensen and Chris Jones make sure everything is set before her talk.

Every year Harmony’s NSRF holds one large meeting hosted by one of the 36 regional centers. This year’s was held in Seattle, Washington, from January 25 - 27, 2007.

It was a huge success, giving all the participants a chance to share their experiences and build their work upon the wisdom of one another.

Author, editor, educator, and keynote speaker Linda Christensen provided living examples both academic and personal about ending the predictive value of class, race, gender, physical ability, and sexual orientation in the classroom.

The Winter Meeting reception was a time to celebrate the contributions to NSRF work of Deborah Bambino, Daniel Baron, Pedro Bermudez, Steve Bonchek, Lois Butler, Alan Dichter, Faith Dunne, Paula Evans, Camilla Greene, Ted Hall, Frances Hensley, Katy Kelly, Debra Laidley, Josephine Rice, Amy Schuff, Peggy Silva, and Gene Thompson-Grove.

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2nd Annual Research Conference Held

The 2nd Annual Research Conference was held in Seattle, Washington, on January 24, 2007, the day before the Winter Meeting started.

Two timely topics were addressed: (1) how to make the descriptive statistics from the NSRF database more useful and (2) how the participants at the research conference can continue to support their work and learn from each other year-round.

Simply hearing the presentations about NSRF work being done in districts around the country was very valuable. The discussions were even more helpful as they began to dissect key issues of CFG successes and challenges through the honed eyes of researchers.

For the second year, the research conference was as noteworthy for answers as it was for questions raised. How does CFG work connect to a school-wide focus on equitable practice? What are the conditions that sustain and support CFG work? How is CFG work connected to how and what students learn?

A listserv is being created just for researchers to keep this dialogue lively in preparation for next year’s research conference.

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