Introduction
Funded by a grant from the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence (CCEE) and made possible by the California Association of African-American Superintendents and Administrators (CAAASA), The CAAASA Equity in Action Report documents the conclusions of a two-year study among county and district superintendents across California.
The white paper details the important need to cultivate the social and emotional learning skills of the state’s African American students when working to improve these students’ broader academic success. In addition to correlating the connection between these two types of learning skills, the document also shares evidence-based approaches making a positive difference in schools with the aim of sharing these practices as broadly as possible.
In June 2019, members of the professional learning network that drafted this report will present its findings in a one-time online symposium developed by NCEE and CAAASA with support from ExtendedSession. This live conversation will introduce the study to educators, school leaders, and teachers from across California, and from across the country. Attendees will learn about the aims of the professional learning group and the white paper that resulted, and they will have the chance to meet and talk with its authors. The session will be hosted by Pedro A. Noguera, the critically acclaimed scholar, speaker, and committed activist whose own academic work centers on education, social justice, and public policy.
The result: A one-time online symposium allows the white paper’s authors to share their study with their own school leaders more effectively, and that also enables people interested in the document’s findings to hear directly from its authors, and to share their own ideas and ask their own questions about the conclusions the study recommends.
As a result of this online engagement, NCEE and CAAASA will further establish and extend a common set of strategies and approaches among the educators they serve. In addition, the marketing and communications that announce this online session will also significantly extend the network of professional learners who can be made aware of the study, broadening the eventual audience to include educators everywhere who are equally committed to making an immediate difference in their schools and their classrooms.
Registration for this free online symposium is currently underway. The live session will be recorded and—together with the white paper itself—immediately archived for later access across California and across the United States.
Case Study
The Equity in Action Report Symposium
Introducing a white paper in ways that spread the word and cultivate ongoing engagement
AGENDA
We’re helping the NCEE and CAAASA to introduce The CAAASA Equity in Action Report in ways that build a larger audience for its findings and that give this audience an engaged role in the document’s rollout and dissemination.
In advance of the one-time online symposium we developed a shared session agenda among the county and district superintendents, even drafting small set of shared elements that will present their findings and shape their comments during the event. We helped the session host, Pedro Noguera, to preface comments about his own research and experience in advance of this broader conversation.
COMMUNICATIONS
With the agenda set, we developed the digital communications campaign that enabled the white paper’s sponsors to present the study and the experience that informed it to each organization’s existing membership; to educators across California; and to a new, nationwide collection of school leaders and educators who share the same commitment to social justice.
Once drafted, we helped share these materials across both organizations’ networks—and among the district- and county-based school systems that the participating superintendents represent. And, we helped introduce the symposium to a new set of potential attendees via social media.
PLATFORM
We provided the digital conference platform upon which the one-day symposium was presented.
Our ExtendedSession Online Conference platform made it easy to register attendees and to enroll them in advance of the live session.
Once the conference began, we managed the presentation of each contributing presenter, provided a live session facilitator, and also prepared the video archive of the full conversation so that education leaders and teachers who missed the live session could easily view what they’d missed—all on their own schedule.
COMMUNITY
Throughout, we made it possible to expand the audience of education leaders and teachers invited to make use of The CAAASA Equity in Action Report, extending this learning network well beyond the group with direct access to the authors of this important document.
In the weeks preceding the symposium, participants will be invited to rank key questions that would ensure that conversation met their own school and classroom needs, and were even invited to submit questions of their own. After the session, we will follow up with a quick digital survey provided additional perspective on the immediate and longer-term interests of those who took part live.
