Preconferences

Presenters Topic/Title
Harvey Alvy Fighting for Educational Change: Choosing Initiatives of Substance Over Fads
Marilyn George Accreditation
Chris Jansen Enhancing a Leadership Network across-Asia through mentoring
Lee Ann Jung ASSESSMENT, GRADING, & FEEDBACK: a powerful GPS for all learners to succeed
Noel Khng DEVELOPING AN EFFECTIVE EMPLOYEE HANDBOOK
John Littleford Leadership Through Engagement: Becoming Truly Strategic Boards and Heads
Rami Madani Learning Focused Leadership (Tues.)
Adam Olenn BRAND + STORY
Jennifer Sparrow Leading Innovative Change
Ann Straub Intercultural Leadership: Educating for Global Citizenship
James Warnock Feedback: The Engine for Student and Teacher Growth
Kendall Zoller Voices Leading From the Ecotone
International School Leadership Program International School Leadership Program - USF/WSU



Harvey Alvy
Biography: Harvey Alvy served as an international school principal at the American International School in Israel, the American Embassy School in New Delhi, and Singapore American School. He was selected as a NAESP National Distinguished Principal for American Overseas Schools, and is a founding member of the Principals’ Training Center for International Schools. In 2004 Harvey received the Faculty Achievement Award for Teaching Excellence at Eastern Washington University, where he held the William C. Shreeve Endowed Professorship in Educational Leadership. Harvey’s most recent book is Fighting for Change in Your School: How to Avoid Fads and Focus on Substance (ASCD, 2017). He has co-authored, with Pam Robbins, Learning From Lincoln, The Principal’s Companion, The New Principal’s Fieldbook, and If I Only Knew. With Dr. Jane Liu, Harvey co-authored a Mandarin only book The Principal Management Handbook (2007) for Chinese school leaders; Harvey and Jane are presently working on an updated version of that book. He conducts presentations on the principalship, educational fads vs. ideas of substance, and the leadership of Abraham Lincoln.

Topic: Leadership, Curriculum, Professional Development (Wed.)
Title: Fighting for Educational Change: Choosing Initiatives of Substance Over Fads
Description: This preconference workshop by the author of the recent book, Fighting for Change in Your School: How to Avoid Fads and Focus on Substance (ASCD, 2017), will help international school leaders address the fads that undermine both innovative and timeless educational practices. This is a high stakes and urgent challenge that affects student achievement, teacher success, leadership effectiveness, curriculum, fiscal and resource accountability, professional development, and the confidence of international parents in their schools. To meet this challenge workshop participants will examine the book’s six “Red Flag” strategies to avoid harmful fads that educators confront (e.g., overpromising the effect of a new program); and six “Guidelines” to promote reforms of substance in schools (e.g., promoting both innovative and timeless practices). Interactive workshop activities will provide leaders with practical professional development strategies to take home and share with their school colleagues, to assess educational trends and positively impact student and teacher success.

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Marilyn George
Biography: Marilyn George has been the executive vice president of the Accrediting Commission for Schools, Western Association of Schools and Colleges (ACS WASC), since 1987. In addition to her knowledge of international accreditation and ongoing school improvement her areas of expertise are school curriculum/instruction/assessment and professional development. As the executive vice president, her responsibilities for the entire ACS WASC region include: working with international, national and state governments, ACS WASC partner associations, school districts and individual schools in developing and refinement of overall policies, understandings, and detailed procedures; creating/ refining accreditation criteria, materials and processes; developing/ conducting/ facilitating training for all visiting committees/school leaders; training of trainers; supervising and organizing visiting committees and improving related office operations; advising and working with educators and professional associations; and assisting the president with numerous tasks/issues. Prior to joining ACS WASC, she has taught at the K-12 and college levels and has been a professional development specialist, a trainer, a consultant, and a high school district administrator of professional development and state/federal programs. She has given presentations and written articles and other publications in the areas of staff development, mentoring, and accreditation. Her degrees are from Westminster College (B.S.), University of Wisconsin, Madison (M.S.), and University of California Los Angeles, UCLA, (Ed.D.).

Topic: Accreditation (Tues. / Wed. / Sun.)
Title: Accreditation
Description:

Tuesday, October 29, 2019
8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Title: WASC Focus on Learning Accreditation Training

The one-day interactive ACS WASC session will examine the guiding principles and essentials of the Focus on Learning self-study process and the many ways it can be adapted to a school's situation to ensure a meaningful self-study process. The session will provide an opportunity for EARCOS educators to examine strategies inherent in Focus on Learning that support the school's assessment of student learning in relation to schoolwide learner outcomes and academic standards. During the latter part of the session, there will be a panel of EARCOS educators who will share how they adapted the Focus on Learning process for their respective schools, including integration with strategic planning. This session enables participants to become eligible for serving on WASC visiting committees.

Wednesday, October 30, 2019
8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Title: WASC Visiting Committee Chair Training

The session will prepare EARCOS educators to chair a WASC visiting committee after having served several times as a visiting committee member. The chair roles that will be examined are the following: "keeper of the school improvement vision"; coach for the school and the visiting committee members; and an organizer of the visit. Through the dialogue and discussion there will be shared insights and advice from fellow EARCOS educators who have already chaired full, mid-cycle, and other special visits.

(For the past several years we have done a session on Thursday, October 31, 2019, for 1 hour 15 minutes about becoming accredited. CIS joined us last year. It was a conversation with the participants. We always seem to have about 25-30 people.

Title: Becoming Accredited: Essential Elements

The session will address the essential elements that must exist and be operating effectively in a school whose purpose is to move into the accreditation process that focuses on student learning and well-being and ongoing improvement. This includes the following areas: mission, vision, beliefs, governance, administration and organizational issues, staffing, instructional program student support, culture and resources.

Sunday, November 3, 2019
8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Title: WASC: Focus on Learning Visiting Committee Member Training

This session will;
(1) prepare educators to serve on WASC visiting committees, emphasizing the role and responsibilities of a WASC visiting committee member and
(2) examine the guiding principles and essentials of the Focus on Learning process and its adaptability to support ongoing school improvement.

For any questions about the WASC preconference, please email Dr. Marilyn George, at < MGeorge@acswasc.org > OR Sylvia Taylor < staylor@acswasc.org >

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Chris Jansen
Biography: Chris is a senior consultant with Leadership Lab www.leadershiplab.co.nz where he works alongside organisations in the education, health, social services and community sectors in a range of projects. These include design and delivery of leadership development programmes, change management initiatives, organisational capability and strategic planning.

In particular Chris is involved with the Grow Waitaha programme where 150 schools across Greater Christchurch have partnered with Ministry of Education, Ng?i Tahu, and 4 providers over the last 4 years to explore future focussed pedagogy including student agency, collaborative teaching, flexible learning spaces, cultural narratives, authentic curriculum and diverse partnerships. www.growwaitaha.co.nz This process includes individual coaching and mentoring of school leaders, facilitation of collaboration between schools to share innovation, and the curation of successful case studies to benefit the wider public sector.

Chris is a Senior Fellow at the University of Canterbury, where he teaches and supervises leaders studying in the Masters of Business Management and Post Graduate Diploma of Strategic Leadership. Chris is also involved in executive coaching and regularly facilitates workshops and presentations at conferences and with a range of organisations around New Zealand, Australia, the Pacific and Asia. He is currently facilitating leadership programmes with international schools in Singapore, Bangkok and Taiwan. His qualifications include a PhD in Management and Master's degree in Education (Counselling).

Topic: Leadership Mentoring (Wed.)
Title: Enhancing a Leadership Network across-Asia through mentoring
Description: The EARCOS network of school Heads/Principals and aspiring Heads/Principals has an enormous and largely untapped potential to grow its own capacity through the peer to peer sharing of expertise, experience and support. Over the last 3 years EARCOS has piloted a the EARCOS Leadership Mentoring (ELM) programme which involved experienced Heads undertaking an online training programme before being paired with first time Heads around the region. Although the benefits of this process have been excellent for those involved, the numbers participating in this process has been very small.

Consequently, this pre-conference workshop has been designed on request from the EARCOS executive to create an opportunity to review and refresh the EARCOS mentoring programme with a desire to greatly increase the scale of this programme. In this workshop we will explore and glean the strengths from the current EARCOS mentoring material, while co-designing a more agile and immediate process of peer to peer mentoring that allows both rigour but also acknowledges the expertise that experienced leaders have. We will also explore several configurations of mentoring including both a) more experienced to less experienced Heads/Principals (ie a supervisor or coaching style of model) to b) a peer to peer model where the support is mutual between pairs or small groups of leaders. We will also co-design how ongoing support and learning can be provided for the mentoring process.

Participants in this pre-conference workshop is invited from those potentially interested in being involved in any aspects of mentoring described above. This could include experienced and new Heads, Principals, Deputy or Associate Principals - in fact any current or aspiring senior leader. We intend offering the opportunity for forming these mentoring partnerships for those who are interested by the end of the EARCOS Leadership Conference.

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Lee Ann Jung
Biography: Lee Ann Jung is an educator, author, and consultant specializing in the areas of inclusion and assessment and grading for students with disabilities. She provides support internationally to schools on inclusion, standards-based grading, and intervention planning and progress monitoring. Jung has worked in the special education field since 1994 and has served in the roles of teacher, administrator, consultant, and professor and director of international school partnerships at the University of Kentucky. Jung has written several books and more than 40 articles on the topics of inclusion, assessment and grading, and educating students with disabilities. She is currently a clinical professor at San Diego State University, where she developed the International Inclusive Leadership Program, which is a 5-course program that prepares leaders, general educators, learning support educators, counselors, and other school personnel to lead teams in designing and delivering effective accommodations, modifications, and interventions within general education settings.

Topic: Assessment, Inclusiveness (Wed.)
Title: ASSESSMENT, GRADING, & FEEDBACK: a powerful GPS for all learners to succeed
Description: Is your school interested in making a move to standards-based learning and grading? Whether you are just beginning the conversation or are well on your way, you will gain important guidance for implementation. Learn about common missteps and how to avoid them. Meet and collaborate with others on the journey. In this session, we will take a look at our classroom assessment practices and ask the question, “How can we measure what really matters most to students?” We will revisit guiding principles of mastery learning and explore ways to use new paradigms, including principles of standards-based learning and grading, to make classroom assessment more meaningful for students and streamlined for teachers. We will consider the measurement issues in traditional assessment and grading that are causing problems with long-term student engagement and motivation and explore alternatives. See one school’s standards-based report card and learn about their journey toward supporting deep learning that prepares students for lifelong success.

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Noel Khng
Biography: Noel Khng has more than 20 years' experience in the Human Resources field working for the Shell Group of Companies. He has taken on roles as a generalist as well as specialist roles in Recruitment, Staff Administration, Industrial Relations, HR Information Systems and Learning and Development.

He also worked as the Group HR Manager for Mewah International Inc., one of the largest palm oil refiners and traders in the world, headquartered in Singapore with 3 refineries in Malaysia and marketing offices in China, Australia, Russia, Rumania, Poland, Brazil and Argentina. Leading a team of 28 HR professionals, he was charged with setting the overall direction for HR policies and practices across the Mewah Group.

By way of academic achievements, Noel holds a Master's of Science (UK) majoring in HRM and a Diploma in Industrial Relations. He also successfully completed the Advanced Certificate in Training and Assessment (ACTA).

Topic: Business Managers' (EARASBO) Precon (Wed.)
Title: DEVELOPING AN EFFECTIVE EMPLOYEE HANDBOOK
Description: Introduction:
An employee handbook is a collation of an organisation's Human Resource policies, procedures, terms of conditions of employment, working conditions, and code of conduct that guide employees' behaviour in the organisation.

The objectives of an employee handbook include providing:
- Employees with a working guide to the understanding of the day-to-day administration of human resource policies and practices
- A general summary description of the company's HR policies
- Information on employee benefits, and - Expected code of conduct.

View complete Descriptions

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John Littleford
Biography: John Littleford served as teacher, trustee and head of school for over 25 years. For the past 28 years he has been a consultant to over 5000 independent and international schools. His clients also include corporations, foundations, universities and a range of other non-profit organizations. Mr. Littleford's areas of expertise include: board governance, strategic planning, executive and faculty compensation and evaluation; executive searches; marketing strategies including admissions; fund raising, managing change; school climate; institutional and financial audits; and team building. His widely read landmark book, "Faculty Salary Systems in Independent Schools" was published by the National Association of Independent Schools for 20 years. John Littleford speaks and leads workshops at Conferences all over the world. Littleford & Associates' Newsletter is published four times a year and is widely read by 25,000 trustees and school and not for profit leaders.

Topic: Leadership Through Partnership (LtP) (Wed. / Thurs.)
Title: Leadership Through Engagement: Becoming Truly Strategic Boards and Heads
Description:

Audience: Experienced and New Heads, Chairs, Board Officers and Committee Chairs of International School Boards
Wednesday, 8:30 - 12:00

This session will examine the broad range of board governance practices from policy governance to generative governance. Which governance protocols are the healthiest leading to the most strategic school work?

The session begins Wednesday and continues Thursday morning when a cohort of new attendees will be integrated into a program focusing on head search, transition and succession, i.e., how to ensure that searches produce long-term leaders who leave a lasting legacy.

Part I Significant Takeaways:

1. How to ensure truly "healthy" boards with the right players in the room with appropriate terms of office
2. The EIGHT key roles of the crucial governance/policy/nominating committee in board selection, training, discipline and development
3. The three key partnerships: head/chair; head/board; chair/board
4. The qualities most needed in a board chair and how to spot them?
5. Best and worst practice for head evaluation, chair evaluation and board evaluation
6. The "terms" of engagement of the board with parents, staff, alumni and others and managing constituent communication

Part II: 13:00 to 16:30
Leadership Through Engagement: Difficult Issues, Tough Conversations and Creative Solutions

1. How to change the statistics on head turnover
2. Understanding your type of school: Are you an international school or an independent school and the importance of this distinction for board governance and community expectations
3. How to build a powerful culture of charitable giving in international school cultures
4. "Boundary issues" in school communities and how that affects board oversight of the Head
5. The three key factors in achieving and maintaining long term financial sustainability

Thursday, 10:00 to 12:30
Leadership Through Engagement: Search and Transition and Ensuring the Legacy of the Head

1. Healthy search protocols including appropriate engagement of the community in the search
3. Forming and guiding the search committee
2. Managing internal candidates
4. The Importance of a transition committee and a transition plan
5. What should an "entry plan" for a new head look like?
6. "Rules of the Road" for heads in their first, second and third years

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Rami Madani
Biography: Rami Madani is the Head of the International School of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Prior to that he worked in schools in Yemen, UK, Zambia, and India, serving students and faculty at all school levels. He has taught subjects ranging from Mathematics to Music to Theory of Knowledge. He has served as a secondary school principal, director of learning, dean of students, and department head in various international schools. Rami has designed a variety of professional development and training programs. In addition, he is an IB Diploma consultant and is passionate about aligning a school's systems with its mission, and ensuring that teaching and learning is the focus of what schools do. Rami presents at conferences and works with schools on areas related to strategic planning, leadership, growth & evaluation, curriculum, assessment and instruction. His primary focus is on nurturing minds, empowering educators, refining systems and tools to support student holistic growth.

Topic: Leadership (Tues.)
Title: Learning Focused Leadership (Tues.)
Description: Leaders are always on stage, the choices we make are about which stage to be on, and what impact we chose to have on the people we lead. This is an advanced pre-conference session will focus on four key components for educational leaders. Vision: How can we increase our ability to influence and inspire others and, when required, manage our positional authority effectively? Learning: How do we enhance our ability to observe confidently and give insightful, learning-focused feedback? Culture: There is much more to school culture than striving to be positive, respectful, and professional. What does a transformative school culture mean and how do we cultivate it? Facilitation: A leader’s capability to facilitate impactful learning-focussed meetings and conversations can profoundly impact how participants feel about their purpose and work. The workshop will suggest strategies that promote self-reflection and helps us see how leadership is, at its core, very personal.

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Adam Olenn
Biography: As founder of Rustle & Spark there are two things Adam loves most about this business: One is when clients say "finally, somebody gets us!" The other is putting talented people in situations that let their gifts shine. With 25 years of branding marketing and story-based communications experience for companies like Mercedes-Benz, Kellogg’s, Haagen-Dazs, Berklee College of Music, and Moses Brown School-and many more-Adam loves few things more than applying familiar principles to a new industry.

Topic: Admissions, Marketing, Communications (Wed.)
Title: BRAND + STORY
Description: Good marketing comes down to knowing who you are and communicating that clearly and with emotional resonance. We'll begin the day with a seminar on what branding is–and what it isn't–so we have a shared understanding and vocabulary for what it is, how it works, and why we need it. After a short break, we'll talk through each other's brand identities to understand where the real points of differentiation are and how to leverage them. After lunch, we'll settle back in with a guided writing exercise, followed by a seminar on storytelling. We'll then apply the principles from the seminar to our writing exercises until each one is a powerful marketing and recruiting tool. Finally, we'll review those principles in their simplest form so we can go home and coach colleagues, volunteers, and board members to tell their own powerful and moving stories in support of our schools.

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Jennifer Sparrow
Biography: Jennifer Sparrow serves as the deputy superintendent of Singapore American School (SAS) and has previously had the roles of MS humanities teacher, director of assessment and educational data, and executive director of teaching and learning. In addition to her work at SAS, Jennifer has facilitated over ten EARCOS regional workshops and dozens of EARCOS leadership pre-conference and conference sessions on the topics of quality assessment, use of data, and change leadership. Jennifer is also an Associate Presenter in the areas of assessment and professional learning communities for Solution Tree. She received her doctorate from the University of Southern California in organizational change and leadership with a focus on leadership strategies to successfully scale (spread) innovation across a system.

Topic: Curriculum (Wed.)
Title: Leading Innovative Change
Description: Schools regularly implement high-impact, innovative practices to better serve their students. School leaders play an important role in ensuring these practices are found across all classrooms instead of just a few. Although there are many resources to support school leadership and additional resources to explain how innovation scales (spreads) across a system, the intersection of the two is not commonly unpacked. This pre-conference will focus on a set of research-based leadership strategies that can help school leaders successfully scale innovative practices throughout their system. While theory will be explained using examples of how these strategies have worked in practice, the majority of the session will be focused on application. Participants should bring a change they are trying to implement in their context to use as a case study throughout the session.

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Ann Straub
Biography: Ann Straub is an International Advisor for the Council of International Schools (CIS). She is a Qualified Administrator for the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) and trains teachers and educational leaders who are strategically focused on developing intercultural competency and global citizens, intercultural leadership, and intercultural learning to promote diversity and inclusion. Ann was previously the Director of Curriculum and Staff Development at the International School of Bangkok and a trainer for the Principals' Training Center. She trains teachers and administrators in the United States and internationally who are strategically focused on developing intercultural competency and global citizens. Ann currently resides in Middlebury, VT with her husband Peter and their new Westie puppy, Daks.

Topic: Intercultural Leadership (Wed.)
Title: Intercultural Leadership: Educating for Global Citizenship
Description: What is your school's definition of global citizenship? How is this put into practice and measured? The words "global citizenship" often appear in school's guiding statements, but what this looks like and how to accomplish this is often frustratingly vague with a "hit or miss" approach prevailing. This requires a leader who understands what is meant by intercultural leadership and strives to develop intercultural competence. In this interactive workshop, we will refer to research on intercultural leadership, reflect on our own leadership traits, and look at a school's institutional responsibility toward the development of global citizens and how this can be operationalized in a practical sense. By discussing international school case studies, listening to an experienced school leader focused on global citizenship, and seeing successful school examples, participants will gain a much clearer picture of where their school is on this journey with subsequent steps in mind.

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James Warnock
Biography: James Warnock is a consultant with the Boston-based consulting firm Research for Better Teaching and has over 30 years of experience in education. His consulting work centers on instructional leadership, classroom instruction, supporting schools and districts in developing standards-based supervision/ evaluation systems and working with principals of underperforming schools. He has provided technical assistance to schools in Russia as part of a U.S. Department of State Community Connections program and has conducted teacher training in Australia. For fifteen years Jim directed the Sino-American Seminar on Educational Leadership for the University of Vermont's Asian Studies Outreach Program and has traveled and worked extensively throughout China. Recent and current clients include the Buffalo (NY) Public Schools, the KIPP School Leadership Program, Socorro ISD in El Paso TX, the University Liggett School, the Michigan State University sponsored Michigan Fellowship of Instructional Leaders, Fresno (CA) Unified School District and the Ministry of Education in Singapore. Prior to working with Research for Better Teaching, Jim was Assistant Superintendent of Schools for the city of Burlington, Vermont, and has also served as a secondary principal, K-12 staff developer and teacher. He is a co-author of The Skillful Leader II: Confronting Conditions that Undermine Learning (2008) and completed his undergraduate and graduate work at Brown University and the University of Vermont. Jim is the father of two grown children and lives with his wife, Carol, in Lincoln, Vermont.

Topic: Supervision and Evaluation (Wed.)
Title: Feedback: The Engine for Student and Teacher Growth
Description: This practical, interactive presentation will focus on the critical role feedback plays in promoting both student and teacher growth. Drawing from our work at Research for Better Teaching, participants will first develop a common definition of feedback and then identify what must be in place both in classroom instruction and in teacher supervision in order for feedback to be possible. Video analysis of classroom instruction and teacher conferencing will be utilized to highlight key concepts and promote participant discussion and reflection.

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Kendall Zoller
Biography: Kendall Zoller, EdD, is an author, educator, researcher, and international presenter in communicative intelligence, presentation and facilitation skills, leadership and adaptive schools. He is co-author of Voices Leading From the Ecotone (2019) and The Choreography of Presenting: The 7 Essential Abilities of Effective Presenters (Corwin Press, 2010). Kendall is president of Sierra Training Associates and graduate faculty at California State University, Dominguez Hills and The University of Maine. He has authored over three dozen reviewed book chapters and journal articles on topics of communication, community, and leadership for educators and law enforcement. His work on leadership and presentation skills takes him to schools, districts, universities, state agencies, and corporations across the United States, Canada, Europe, China, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Europe. His lectures, presentations, and paper presentations include the campuses of Harvard, UC Berkeley, St. Anselm College, Boston University, University of Chicago, and Loyola University Maryland. Kendall has a doctorate in Educational Leadership a Masters in Educational Management. Kendall can be reached at kvzollerci@gmail.com

Topic: Leadership (Wed.)
Title: Voices Leading From the Ecotone
Description: Using case studies from their most recent book, Voices Leading from the Ecotone, participants work through a leadership model designed to disrupt systems. Disruptions of creativity and innovation that challenge values and beliefs. The narratives are primarily practical in nature and drawn from school leaders at the highest needs schools in a large urban school district in the southwestern United States. Every day they grapple with social justice and equity: poverty, gangs, violence, racial tension, disability, and LGBTQ issues. Each narrative highlights a leader’s struggles, challenges, and the “a-ha” moments that help the school move forward.

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International School Leadership Program - USF/WSU
The International School Leadership Program (ISLP) program is a collaborative effort between the University of San Francisco and Washington State University. It is designed for educators in the East Asia Regional Council of Schools (EARCOS). For more information please contact Dr. Walt Gmelch at whgmelch@usfca.edu OR visit the ISLP website click here

 

 

 

 

 

Updated Thursday, May 23, 2019 8:56 AM