July 5th at the NEA RA

Mike Huckabee, Arkansas Governor addresses the NEA RA

Guilford County ESP Donna Stepp

NCAE Delegates react to Obana's speech.

Barak Obana addresses the delegates

July 1st at the NEA RA

President Eddie Davis and Vice President Sheri Strickland


NCAE places first in the per delegate average for PAC contributions



E Jameel Williams, Vance County Delegates, gives his candidate speech in his run for ESP At Large on the NEA Board of Directors




Katherine Woody displays the Leadership position on a standing rule amendment presented the delegation.





NCAE Delegates take a stand during the NEA RA.






NEA President Reg Weaver

Conference Going Well

NCAE Leaders and Friends,

As evidenced here at the 20th annual meeting of the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement, many of the hot topics of school reform are being debated all over the world (including North Carolina).

Here in Portoroz, Slovenia, university professors, officials from national ministries of education, representatives of trans national agencies, school accreditation agents, and classroom teachers are presenting papers, lectures, and panels. Following each presentation, rigorous debate and collaborative dialogue ensue. These debates and dialogues continue during coffee breaks, over meals, and at the designated hotel area for adult beverages.

All of the participants have one unifying goal: TO CREATE MORE EFFECTIVE AND EFFICIENT PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN EACH NATION IN AT EACH SCHOOL.

Below are some of the topics of the sessions that I have attended:

Learning to Improve or Improving Learning: The Dilemma of Teacher Continuing Professional Development
led by Dr. Judyth Sachs, Macquarie University in Australia
(lots of direct connections to teacher led professional development, as opposed to top-down administrator imposed professional development)

School Leadership and Accountability - Moving Beyond Standardization of Practice
led by Dr. Jorunn Moller, University of Oslo in Norway
(once again, dialogue about quality and lock-step professional development that requires teachers to be saddled to a seat, rather than being able to make professional decisions about workshops)

What Kind of Future for Professionalism
led by Dr. Ian Stronach, Manchester Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom

Oooops! Others are waiting to use this computer. I will share another set of info later in the day

Eddie Davis
NCAE President

Second Day at Educational Conference in Slovenia

NCAE Leaders and Friends,

Thank you for the warm comments and expressions for safe travels that have been extended by so many of you. Please forgive anz tzpos. The kezboard that I am using in the hotel business center has the ¨y¨in the space where mz fingers expect the ¨z¨ to be. There are other differences in the kezboard, in order to accommodate the diacritical marks that are necessary in some European languages.

Before the official beginning of the 20th annual meeting of the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement on Wednesday, January 3, 2007, more than 100 of the participants walked to schools in Piran and Portorož.

I went to Gimnayija Piran, which is an academic high school. In addition to this type of secondary school, Slovenia also offers vocational high schools. The students are very fluent in English because they have been studying this language since the third or fourth year of their elementary schools. Most of these students also have the ability to communicate in Italian and German, along with English and their native Slovene.

Clothing and hair styles are typical to what we might find in many suburban American high schools. As one might expect in a central European nation, there was very little visible racial diversity. However, there is a great deal of diversity of other sorts, including income.

Below, please visit the website for the school.

http://www.gpiran.si

English is the language of the conference. There are no translation equipment, because the vast majority of the participants are English speakers. In some cases, there is polite whispering when a colleague had difficulty with an accent. (Perhaps they are having such difficulty with my Eastern North Carolina twang.)

As I mentioned yesterday, the topics are very germane to the issues in North Carolina and across the U.S.

Since accountability is the central focus of the conference, ¨No Child Left Behind¨ is often mentioned. There are many questions posed to the Americans about today´s shift in political leadership in the U.S. Congress and the potential for changes in NCLB.

Most of the participants are officials from the education ministries or national departments of education. Lots of university researchers and professors are here. There are very few classroom teachers.

Again, here is an outline of the workshops and plenary sessions and info on Slovenia.

http://www.icsei2007.si/?id=32
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/slovenia

The food is very good. Dinner on Wednesday evening was highlighted by an entree of ¨monk fish.¨ The small pub in which we dined had a steady flow of eclectic music, including the ¨timely¨ playing of James Brown´s Papa´s Got A Brand New Bag. Prices are reasonable, but the dollar is taking a beating when exchanged for the Euro.

Good night. More details from the conference on tomorrow.

NCAE President in Slovenia

To: NCAE Leaders and Friends

From: Eddie Davis, NCAE President

Date: Wednesday, January 3, 2007

As I mentioned to you in a holiday e-mail, I recently was asked to attend an education conference, sponsored by the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement. This conference is being held in Portorož, Slovenia.

The trip from Raleigh-Durham to Washington ... to Frankfurt, Germany ... to Portorož went very smoothly. It was a long set of plane rides, but I was safe, warm, and well-fed throughout the journey.

I am 6 hours ahead of your time, but I will try to keep you posted on the events of the conference via a daily ¨blog¨ that will be posted via Leaderline and the NCAE Website.

The conference theme is PROFESSIONAL CHALLENGES FOR SCHOOL EFFECTIVENESS AND IMPROVEMENT IN THE ERA OF ACCOUNTABILITY. This is the 20th annual world conference of ICSEI. Many of the papers, workshops, and plenary sessions will revolve around topics that are extremely relevant to the emerging educational issues of the day in North Carolina.

I was recommended for this conference by NEA President Reg Weaver and the NEA Office of International Relations.

Public school educators, university professors, policymakers, and school reform advocates are in attendance.

Stay tuned.

Eddie Davis
NCAE President