• Literacy for understanding and as a tool for promoting social justice.
• Standardized testing and learner-centered alternatives.
• Inclusive education as a center of school renewal: models, strategies, issues.
• Critical teaching to promote social justice
• Interdisciplinary & thematic instruction for engagement to real community issues.
• Positive strategies for dealing with conflict and providing emotional support to children.

• Constructivist & authentic teaching practices.
• Connecting learning to the community.
• School takeovers in Chicago, Detroit, New York, & Denver.
• The political and social context of good schooing: implications for social action and advocacy.
• Building a culture of community in schools to promote learning.
• Parent leadership and partnerships for good schooling.
• Organizing to support good schooling and resist control and oppression.
  

Candee Basford Success for All Students, Ohio.

Grace Lee Boggs. Eastside Detroit activist. Living for Change & Conditions of Peace: An Inquiry.

Gerald Coles, Educational consultant and author of The Learning Mystique, Reading Lessons.

Randi Douglas, Northwest Regional Educational Lab, previous Director of Detroit Storyliving.

Carol Edelsky, University of Arizona.

Janice Fialka. Consultant on professional -parent partnerships & author of It matters: Lessons from my son.

Rich Gibson, Wayne State University. Co-founder of the Rouge Forum and the Whole Schooling Consortium.

Debra Goodman, Rutger's University.

William Henderson, Principal, O'Hearn Elementary School, Boston.

Liz Keefe, University of New Mexico.

Kim McCullom Clark, Millersville University.

Bill Mullen, Youngstown State University.

Mary O'Brien, Activist public citizen and parent.

Celia Oyler, Teacher's College, New York.

Gerry Oglan, Wayne State University, President, Whole Language Umbrella, and author of Parents Learning, and Whole Language Classrooms.

Michael Peterson, Wayne State University, Co-founder of the Whole Schooling Consortium, & author Teaching in the Inclusive School (in press).

Wayne Ross, SUNY Binghamton, Editor, Teaching and Research in Social Studies, Co-founder of the Rouge Forum, & author of Democratic Social Education: Social Studies for Social Change.

Pamela Rossi, University of New Mexico.

Diane Ryndak, University of Florida. Curriculum Content For Students With Moderate & Severe Disabilities In Inclusive Settings.

George Schmidt, Editor. Substance.

Karen Selby, Kalamazoo College

Kathi Tarrant, Wayne State University.

Denny Taylor, Educational consultant and author. Beginning to Read & the Spin Doctors of Science, Many Families, Many Literacies.

Richard Villa. Educational consultant and author. Creating an Inclusive School & Restructuring for Caring and Effective Education.

Kevin Vinson, Loyola University.

Connie Weaver, Professor, Western Michigan University. Creating Support for Effective Literacy Education.

Josh White Jr. Nationally recognized folk-singer, Detroit Storyliving.

9:00 - 10: 30 ALFIE KOHN

THE DEADLY EFFECT OF TOUGHER STANDARDS

PLENARY SESSION

The main effect "of the drive for so-called higher standards in schools is that the children are too busy to think," said John Holt in 1959. Today, an ill-informed version of school reform has been embraced by politicians, corporate executives, and journalists, all demanding "accountability," which turns out to be a euphemism for more control over what happens in classrooms by people who are not in classrooms. The results: superb educators get tired or fired, and the intellectual life is squeezed out of schools as they are turned into giant test-prep centers. Alfie Kohn, author of THE SCHOOLS OUR CHILDREN DESERVE, explains the difference between authentic challenge and a mindless "harder is better" mentality, as well as the difference between standards as guidelines for better teaching and standards as rigid (and often ridiculous) lists of facts students must know. The latter is described in this session not as a reality to be coped with but as a political movement that can be opposed -- by people who understand how children actually learn.

Randi Douglas of the Northwest Regional Educational Lab and Josh White Jr., renowned folk singer.

We will together see the future of our schools. It is 10 years from now and we have made terrific gains for inclusive and progressive education . Bad stuff has been beat back and good practices are in schools. What do we see looking back? We will record our ideas and share the themes across the entire conference group. These will help us organize our action planning groups based on these ideas. A powerful start!!

12:00 - 1:00 LUNCH
1:00 ­ 2:30 CONCURRENT WORKSHOPS:

THE POSSIBLE FUTURES OF EDUCATION: Linking Inclusive Education to School Reform. Rich Villa, Bayridge Consortium, San Marcos, California.
The future is not certain, it will be determined by the actions that we take today. This presentation focuses upon the past, present, and possible futures of education. The relationship between inclusive education and other progressive reform movements (e.g., Democratic Schooling, Critical Pedagogy, Multicultural Education) will be explored. Reasons for the Intractability of Schools and promising practices also will be highlighted.

ORGANIZING AGAINST STANDARDIZED TESTS: Part I.
Monty Neill and Karen Hartke, FairTest.
In this extended session, we will first review key arguments against "high stakes" standardized testing. We will then discuss how activists have organized around testing in their district or state. Finally, we will analyze what seems to have worked, how and why, and think about shared next steps and ways to strengthen each others' efforts. The workshop will be led by Monty Neill, Executive Director of FairTest, and Karen Hartke, Director of FairTest's Assessment Reform Network. We expect presentations from several other activists to be part of this session.

I HAVE A POEM (SONG, STORY, DANCE, IMAGE) IN MY BODY:Supporting the Literacy Learning and Creative Expression of All Students.
Liz Keefe and Pam Rossi, University of New Mexico.
We will examine how a Dual License Program is preparing teachers to effectively work with all students through the integration of literacy and the arts, assessment, and fieldwork. We'll share the dynamic structure; show examples of students' work; and explore issues of our work in family, community, school, and university contexts.

CONSTRUCTING THE MULTICULTURAL CLASSROOM: Language and Literacy as Acts of Empowerment.
Earlymay Chibende, Robert Carr, and Ojay Johnson, Wayne State University, Department of English.
This transformative brainstorming session will explore the potential of language as an empowering act within the classroom community. Our ethnographic research of multicultural students within the Composition and English as a Second Language classrooms of a Detroit Middle School will launch a group discussion focusing on how teachers can best capitalize upon this potential to address the challenges of multiculturalism within their classrooms. We are hopeful that in addition to yielding myriad classroom practices that will benefit our students, this collaboration will culminate in a student-based pedagogy of linguistic empowerment.

MEETING MANY NEEDS: The Multi-age Model.
Sue Huellmantel, Macarthur Elementary School, Southfield, Michigan and Nancy Creech, multi-age teacher, Roseville Michigan.
The industrial model of placing children into classrooms by grade level implies that children must fit into the box that defines that grade. They are forced into a grade level model defined by birth date, which disregards all we have learned through research about child development and maturation. Most traditional approaches to curriculum are not boy friendly, they require passive filling of worksheets or quietly working in small groups. When students don't quite fit into that box, they are often referred for special education studies, retained or medicated. In this session, two multiage teachers will describe how removing these grade level barriers freed them to provide a more individualized approach. Such a setting has the result of less referrals and a decrease in behavior problems. The atmosphere in the classroom allows for a more relaxed and honest approach to learning, in which realistic expectations are set for and by all children. In this diverse and negotiated learning environment, in which the individual needs of each child are met, there is more personal success and less aggressive behavior. See how a multiage classroom can provide a different approach to learning so that all children can grow and be successful.

GUERILLAS IN THE LIST: Subversive Theatre with Core Democratic Values.
Bill Boyer, Oak Park High School. Oak Park, Michigan.
This presentation will involve participants in understanding and experiencing the use of guerilla theatre to communicate political and social messages related to the 'core democratic values'.

TEACHING ABOUT FASCISM AND THE HOLOCAUST.
Sid Bolkosky and Rich Gibson. Dr Bolkosky is an internationally recognized expert in Holocaust studies. His extensive interviews with Holocaust survivors are memorialized in the U.S. Holocaust Museum. Rich Gibson has published extensively about teaching about fascism. This interactive workshop will explore curricula and methods which interrogate hope and history.

NEGOTIATING DIFFERENCE in the Student/Mentor Relationship: Positive Teaching Strategies for the Service Learning Classroom. ROOM L
Thomas Trimble, Heidi Eichbauer, and Judith Gessi, Department of English, Wayne State University.
Our panel will explore issues of difference, representation and resistance in the context of the service learning classroom. As a group, our presentations will provide three lenses on an after-school program in which predominantly white university graduate students mentored African American middle schoolers in writing related activities. In so doing, we hope to point to positive teaching strategies for dealing with conflict and providing emotional support to children within the scope of the student/mentor relationship.

2:45 ­ 4:00 CONCURRENT WORKSHOPS

THE GRIM FUTURE OF READING EDUCATION AND THE USE OF SCIENCE IN CREATING IT.
Gerald Coles.
The recently published report of the National Reading Panel, claiming to be the summation of the most valid scientific reading research, is the newest weapon employed to create legislative and policy mandates that require skills-emphasis, scripted, top-down, do-as-you're told reading education. This talk will evaluate the science contained in the report and argue that the research does not provide evidence for the best way to promote literacy, but does encourage teaching that will fail millions of children and damage the thinking of millions more. Both these outcomes, the talk will contend, hurt children and teachers, but work quite well for those who hold power and control policy in the nation.

ORGANIZING AGAINST STANDARDIZED TESTING: Part II.
Monty Neill and Karen Hartke, FairTest.
In this extended session, continued from above, we will first review key arguments against "high stakes" standardized testing. We will then discuss how activists have organized around testing in their district or state. Finally, we will analyze what seems to have worked, how and why, and think about shared next steps and ways to strengthen each others' efforts. The workshop will be led by Monty Neill, Executive Director of FairTest, and Karen Hartke, Director of FairTest's Assessment Reform Network. We expect presentations from several other activists to be part of this session.

DEMOCRACY AND EMPOWERMENT: NASHVILLE STUDENT SIT-INS OF THE 1960's.
Randi Douglas and Josh White Jr. Bring your imagination and jump into this historic example of the power of student participation in the democratic system. Together, we experience the major questions asked, problems considered, and steps taken by the "Fisk 500," who furthered an initiative for Civil Rights that spread to one hundred cities across the South in less than six months. Detroit Storyliving is a project of the Detroit Historical Museum, dedicated to engaging students in participatory democracy through virtual experience ­ using multiple intelligence pathways (mime, music, enactment, questioning, etc.). Josh White, Jr. and Randi Douglas, your tour guides for this session, developed the Detroit Storyliving program.

BUILDING COMMUNITIES THAT INCLUDE ALL CHILDREN.
Mishael Hittie, MacArthur Elementary School, Southfield, Michigan.
In the three years that I have taught, I have learned many techniques at building a classroom into a working community of learners. I have learned ways to draw on children's strengths to overcome their weaknesses. I have learned ways to help very difficult children thrive in a classroom environment. I teach my children to rely on each other and to help each other through using class meetings, circles of support, peer experts, goal setting, and peer tutoring. I think building a community that includes all of the student is one of the most important skills to have and is often overlooked. Without a strong community, the academic lessons that we teach will have a much harder time of reaching students. There are too many other things going on.

SCHOOLS WITH BARS: Youngstown's Reeducation.
Bill Mullen, Youngstown State University.
This presentation will engage a discussion of the nexus of public school default and prison construction and local efforts to address the problem.

INCLUSIVE EDUCATION: A Cultural Force For Change.
Candee Basford, Child Advocacy Center of Cincinnati, Ohio and Barbara McKenzie, Ohio S.A.F.E.
What if each student in a neighborhood community had access to and attended the same public school that all the other students in that neighborhood attended? What if each student was given the same opportunities to select and participate in courses and activities? What if continuing education, career choices and other future plans were based on the dreams and interests of the individual and not on a test or an ability level? We believe that real educational reform can occur only when everyone belongs. Daily, we travel on our paths toward that vision. Join us as we share stories of our journeys and what we have learned along the way.

VOICES FROM THE TEACHING TRENCHES: Kalamazoo College Students Share Their Initial Research into Teaching
Sean Gordon, Chika Hampton, and Karen Selby.
The purpose of this proposal is to share the research of two student teaching interns. The first is Sean Gordon whose work with secondary students led him to focus upon one student to develop a case study. This study looks at issues of inclusion, labeling, and the teaching interns struggle to suggest that we need to look beyond the labels at providing all students with the opportunity to be taught in a way that maximizes the way the learner builds meaning. Chika Hampton's research is a pivotal look at what needs to be done by secondary schools to provide all learners a safe environment.

TEACHING ABOUT FASCISM AND THE HOLOCAUST.
Sid Bolkosky and Rich Gibson.

4:00 - 5:00 ORGANIZING FOR ACTION

We will break into groups for sharing regarding ideas brought about by the day's experience and suggestions for ways we may organize for action and work in schools.

9:00 ­ 10:15 CONCURRENT WORKSHOPS

FROM APARTHEID EDUCATION TO INCLUSIVE EDUCATION: The challenges of transformation.. ROOM C
Sigamoney Naicker, South Africa.
This presentation makes specific reference to the complex challenge of the paradigm shift from special education to inclusive education. It suggests that paradigms include people's thinking, perceptions, evaluative judgements and, crucially, practices. Further, that special education and apartheid education were characterized by particular theories, assumptions, models and practices. The challenge is to move towards a different set of human rights based theories, assumptions, models and practices through a clear understanding of the limitations of the old within a human rights framework. This presentation will be contextualised within diverse racial and class context in a new transforming democratic South Africa.

CHILDREN'S MIRACLE NEEDED TO SOLVE SCHOOL CRISIS.
Grace Lee Boggs. Detroit, Michigan.
Just as we had to create a movement in the 50s and 60s to challenge segregated schools, we now need a movement to challenge the concept of schools as mainly training centers for jobs in the corporate structure. To build this movement we need to engage our children from K-12 in community building activities with the same audacity with which the civil rights movement engaged them in desegregation activities. We also need to revisit John Dewey in order to get a sense of how to prepare young people for democratic citizenship by linking education to the communities and the daily lives of children.

UNLEASH THE POWER OF VOLUNTEERS TO BUILD SCHOOL COMMUNITIES.
Randi Douglas, Northwest Regional Educational Lab.
Volunteer programs across the country are boosting student achievement, engaging students in vital service learning, providing powerful mentoring relationships, supporting school curriculum, and, most important, bringing community members from all generations into a productive collaboration with school efforts. Learn about how to plug into national resources, find funding and create a powerful volunteer support system for your whole schooling enterprise. Randi Douglas, from Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, works with volunteer programs in education across the nation as part of a contract with the Corporation for National Service.

LEARNING TO TEACH INCLUSIVELY.
Shannon Blaney, Britt Hamre, Celia Oyler, Janice Payne, and Shoshanna Reissm, Teacher' s College, New York, New York.
Our work in New York City is organized through a collaborative we have name The Think Tank on Unified and Equitable Education. As student teachers, doctoral researchers, school-based inclusion facilitators, and university-based teacher educators, we will present the work we have been doing on designing accessible instruction. First we will describe some of the interpretations that preservice teachers have regarding what makes for accessible, inclusive, multilevel instruction. Next we will present the specific aspects the student teachers have found most essential in their journey towards designing instruction for all learners. Finally, we will relate the particular issues inservice teachers face as they move from being self-contained special education teachers to Methods and Resource Teachers who facilitate accessible instruction for all learners in general education classrooms.

ENGAGING IN THE DEMOCRATIZATION OF SCHOOL CHANGE: Creating Assessment that Honors the Whole Child.
Anna Liedberg Miron, Bryce Dickey and Karen Selby.
We are a team of parents whose children share an urban school. Together we have struggled to suggest that urban district and school work together to develop an assessment plan which will create in our children a lifelong love a learning. We questioned practices which started in kindergarten with MEAP driven assessment. This will be a non-conventional presentation which invites dialogue towards empowering parents as advocates for all children.

STANDARDIZATION, IMAGE, AND POWER: IMPLICATIONS FOR CONTEMPORARY SCHOOL REFORM.
Kevin D. Vinson, Loyola College in Maryland; E. Wayne Ross, SUNY-Binghamton; Steve Fleury, Lemoyne College; David Hursh, University of Rochester.
In this session the presenters offer a critical perspective on standards-based educational reform (SBER)-especially mandated high-stakes testing-and its significance for contemporary schooling. Drawing on the work of theorists such as John Dewey and Michel Foucault, as well as upon recent, relevant empirical data, this work seeks to provide insights into the dangers of pedagogical standardization, particularly in terms of democracy, social justice, and authenticity. Pursuing the threats posed by the current Left-Right pro-standards consensus, the presenters seek to decon-struct the mechanisms by which an elite alliance-including corporate leaders, govern-ment offi-cials, teachers' unions, and policymakers-aim to establish, legitimate, and man-age/regulate/con-trol the conditions and contexts of public knowledge for the promotion of pri-vate and domi-nant interests. This session concludes with a discussion of the implications of this critique for current educational reform.

INTERVENTION-BASED ASSESSMENT: A Collaborative Problem Solving Approach to Supporting All Learners.

Martin Oppenheimer and Seena Skelton
This presentation will describe a collaborative problem-solving process to assess educational needs, develop interventions, and make educational decisions to assist any learner having difficulty in school. Based on 8 years of experience, presenters will describe how make data driven decisions without relying on norm-referenced tests. Participants will learn about the five components of the problem solving process and the four levels of interventions and will have the opportunity to practice come of the components using sample situations. This process is designed to support serving learners in inclusive educational settings.

TEACHING ABOUT FASCISM AND THE HOLOCAUST. Sid Bolkosky and Rich Gibson.

10:30 ­ 11:45 CONCURRENT WORKSHOPS

THE STANDARDIZATION OF CURRICULUM AND TESTS IN CHICAGO. Totalitarian "liberalism" and "The New School Order" are teaming up to destroy democracy and diversity in urban public schools. It could happen to you, too!
George and Sharon Schmidt of Substance, This session will offer an interactive presentation on the struggle over punitive testing in Chicago. Materials will include 'World', a sample of the tests at the center of a million dollar Chicago political struggle, video clips, and a presentation with questions and answers.

SCHOOL REFORM THAT INCLUDES ALL: One district's systemic school reform that supports the inclusion of students with severe disabilities.
Diane Lea Ryndak, University of Florida and Terri Ward, University of Central Florida.
This presentation will describe one school district's efforts at systemic reform that supports the inclusion of students with severe disabilities, from focusing initially on best practices for students with disabilities in general education settings, to recognizing the importance of school community and district community in the ownership of reform efforts. Discussion will include: a) the roles of constituents within each community (i.e., each school; district), including parents, general educators, special educators, administrators, and student support personnel, as well as the roles of critical friends who are external to the district; b) the sequence of school- and district-level activities completed by the schools and district, and the outcomes that resulted from those activities; c) stories of both successes and the unexpected pitfalls; and d) efforts planned for continuing reform. While addressing school reform efforts, this presentation focuses on reform efforts that emphasize the rights of students with severe disabilities to be full, participating, and valued members of their school communities.

WALK THE TALK: Establishing a Democratic Classroom to Teach Social Studies Methods for the Elementary Grades.
Julie Weber, SUNY Binghamton, New York.
This presentation will discuss a course based on the definition of democracy as "the peaceful resolution of public conflicts." We used the book, "Getting To Yes" developed by the Harvard Negotiation Project, as the basis for exploring and examining peaceful conflict resolution strategies. Another part of the course had the students examine and discuss their own assumptions and attitudes about "Freedom" "Equality" "Justice" and Nonviolence." I consider these ideals the philosophical foundations for democratic living. In trying to implement the ideal of a democratic classroom, the students decided attendance policy, (there was none!) and assigned point values for assignments. (Wisely, they divided the points about equally among the various assignments.) I used peer assessment to aid me in grading. To deal with the issue of assignments turned in late, I created a class Supreme Court, whose members were voted to the position by the whole class, to hear the excuses and make the decisions about penalties. These are just a few of the positions and experiences I would like to share with my colleagues.

REPRESENTATIONS: Supporting ESL Learning for Korean Parents.
Myungsook Lee. Pennsylvania State University.
The purpose of this study was to investigate Korean immigrant parents' supporting practices of ESL learning for their young children in the United States and to identify the factors that may influence their supporting practices. Integrating quantitative and qualitative research methods was a useful way for obtaining a substantial picture of Korean immigrant parents' supporting practices of their children's ESL learning.

GROWING LEARNING COMMUNITIES : Critical Components of a Student-centered Learning Process.
Thomas J. Neuville, Millersville University. Pennsylvania.
People increase their desire to achieve and learn when they are: (1)understood as individuals, (2) interact in democratic educational practices, and (3) engage in mutually beneficial relationships. These needs are fulfilled when professional attitudes and behaviors promote focused-learning that capitalizes on the world of the individual, depends on mutual relationships, and gives meaningful opportunities for contribution to the learning process design. No school education plan or individual program plan can be successful without these components. This interactive, researched based workshop demonstrates these principles. In essence the students said, "let me contribute in important ways and I will learn multiple new skills" whereas the teachers said "learn multiple new skills and you will be important someday". This fundamental difference, the meaning of the three themes and its application in real communities is explored through a highly participatory process.

THE ART OF TEACHING: The importance of risk taking and experimentation in building a successful classroom.
Elly Cole, Center for Artistry in Teaching, Washington, D.C.
The best teachers are problem solvers, risk takers, and critical thinkers, who can elicit and nurture the same qualities in their students. Students learn the most when teachers make learning challenging, meaningful, and rigorous for students. The session will be 100% participatory. Participants will rejuvenate themselves as educators and experience hands-on activities that demonstrate a professional development process designed to change teachers, attitudes toward teaching and learning.

YOU KNOW WHAT 4H IS, BUT WHAT ABOUT 4E's: Using Electives to Engage All Students Equitably.
Laura and Peter Finley, Kalamazoo, Michigan.
The presentation will provide attendees with knowledge regarding current research on actively engaging students and critical thinking. Attendees will participate in an exhibition on the popular culture of the 1960's and in a game that will engage all in a review of key events of the decade. Attendees will receive materials regarding other thought provoking and engaging activities that are ideal for elective courses. Finally, attendees will be presented with a model for Michigan's Career Pathways plan that involves electives and will make students more employable.

TEACHING ABOUT FASCISM AND THE HOLOCAUST.
Sid Bolkosky and Rich Gibson.

11:45 ­ 1:00 LUNCH

1:00 - 2:30 Norm Kunc

DO ALL KIDS BELONG IN ALL CLASSES: Equity or Excellence in Education

PLENARY SESSION

There is increasing pressure being placed on school districts to include children with physical or mental disabilities in regular classes in their neighborhood schools. Although this may be a noble gesture, there is some question as to whether inclusive education will jeopardize the quality of education for regular students. Norman Kunc examines this dilemma in detail and asks whether inclusive education is a fair practice especially when many students are preparing to enter a highly competitive and sophisticated workplace.

2:45 - 4:00 CONCURRENT WORKSHOPS

BUILDING AN INCLUSIVE URBAN SCHOOL: The Experience of the O'Hearn School in Boston.
Bill Henderson, Principal.
The O'Hearn is a small, urban elementary school serving children from diverse ethnic, linguistic, and ability backgrounds. The O'Hearn has gained natinal recognition as an excellent inclusive school. Students who are involved in regular education, students who have mild, moderate, and severe disabilities, and students considered talented and gifted learn together and from each other. Teachers and support staff team to work with all children in integrated classrooms. This presentation will describe the experience and learnings of the O'Hearn Elementary School that has implications for all educators.

"LEARNING DISABILITIES": Still Braining the Victim, Still the "Learning Mystique"
Gerry Coles.
Millions of children continue to be diagnosed as "learning disabled," and research continues to maintain that the condition is due to a brain "glitch." This talk will discuss the validity of the recent research that uses new and complicated technologies; the role of the media in promoting the diagnosis and research; the instruction linked to the explanation; criticism of the diagnosis that seems to bond the left and the right; and alternative policy, politics and instruction for helping children with learning difficulties and for preventing the problems in the first place.

THE DANCE OF PARTNERSHIP: WHY DO MY FEET HURT? Strengthening the Parent-Professional Partnership.
Janice Fialka, Huntington Woods, Michigan.
We will discuss the dimensions that complicate this important working alliance and offer suggestions and insights about ways to strengthen the relationship.

WHAT THE LENS DOES TO THE IMAGE--AND MORE.
Carole Edelsky, Arizona State University.
This presentation focuses on how beliefs about the nature of reading are tied to positions on tests and testing policies and to agendas for educational reform (whether conservative or progressive). The point will be developed that a belief in separate 'skills' of reading--far and away the most commonly held belief--entwined with a reliance on testing those separate skills does several kinds of damage: it damages how learners and teachers are viewed; it engenders policies and practices that damage poor kids' chances for a good education; and, when held by progressives, it damages agendas for change that are concerned with justice and equity.

ORGANIZING TO RESIST THE TESTS.
Susan Harman, Richmond Public Schools, Richmond, California.
I will briefly describe our process of organizing in CA, moderate a discussion of how others can do so, and present and solicit authentic replacements for the tests. I think the testing/standards behemoth is the greatest threat to progressive education today, and we need to resist this corporate/governmental takeover of our communities in every way possible.

RE-THINKING THE LITERACY CURRICULUM: Providing Points of Entry and Authentic Engagement for Each and Every Student.
Kathi Tarrant-Parks, Wayne State University and Adrian James, Howe Elementary School, Detroit Public Schools. and Julie Dishon, Woodhaven-Brownstown School District.
This session challenges many of the underlying assumptions that teachers hold about literacy curriculum and instruction for students with learning disabilities (LD) and how those assumptions limit the opportunities for students with LD to connect with literacy in meaningful ways. The session will highlight critical features of inclusive literacy, and will provide several examples of how teachers can create a literacy community in the classroom that supports and propels all learners. A special focus in the session will be devoted to exploring a more integrated approach to literacy instruction that emphasizes meaningful and holistic activity, strategic learning and higher order thinking, and working within students' zones of proximal development.

LEARNING TO STAND STILL: Supporting Individuals with Puzzling Behavior.
Norman Kunc., Axis Consultation & Training Ltd., British Columbia.
As teachers begin to understand the underlying functions of puzzling behaviors, they often find that they are more effective in helping individuals choose different ways of acting. This workshop explores seven covert functions of behavior: Lack of Knowledge, Communication, Equalization of Power, Hidden Benefit, Survival Strategy, Cultural/Familial Norms, and Biochemical Factors. The participants will also be given a series of questions which can assist teachers in identifying the particular function of a given behavior. The presentation will also outline how problem-solving techniques can be used to uncover creative ways of responding to the individuals.

TEACHING ABOUT FASCISM AND THE HOLOCAUST.
Sid Bolkosky and Rich Gibson.

4:00 ­ 5:00 ORGANIZING FOR ACTION:

We will break into groups for sharing regarding ideas brought about by the day's experience and suggestions for ways we may organize for action and work in schools.

9:00 ­ 10:30 Pat Shannon

PROMISES MADE, PROMISES BROKEN:
Teaching and Testing in the 20th Century

PLENARY SESSION

Shannon traces conservative, neo-conservative, neo-liberal, and liberal promises that schooling will help all citizens reap the benefits of the American Dream by examining the ways in which the poor are treated. Using stories of families struggling during the longest economic boom in American history, he demonstrates the limits of those promises and points toward a different direction - the possibilities of radical democratic schooling. He offers three examples of how this schooling might operate.

10:30 ­ 11:45 CONCURRENT WORKSHOPS

PHONICS AS A POLITICAL ISSUE: The Conservative Hoax.
Connie Weaver, Western Michigan University.
Presidential contender George Bush claims that phonics is "a conservative issue." Why and how has the teaching of phonics become a political issue? How has the unwarranted discrediting of reading instruction in the public schools become a cornerstone of the campaign to destroy public education? What about the "bad science" that underlies the claims about teaching phonemic awareness and phonics first? And what are some ideas for dealing with political intervention in teaching methodology?

AN INCLUSION MISSIONARY'S TRUE TALE An Education Adventure on the Faraway Island of Borneo.
Chris Robert Horrocks.
Following the six phases of the classic hero's journey I will describe my three year involvement with the Ministry of Education in the Sultanate of Brunei, 1996-1999. This session will be a simple narrative and is often the case with storytelling I am not really sure what the listeners will take away.After toil and trouble, some success and some failure the story teller discovers again that even on a far-away isle, we teach who we are, our strength comes from resiliency, one act of courage can change things, what sustains is a value base.

THERE IS NO 'TYPICAL' KID, NOR ARE THERE 'AVERAGE' TEACHERS. Thirty years of teaching truly diverse kids in Chicago's public schools: A reflection on Realities and Possibilities.
George Schmidt.
Between 1969 and 1999 George Schmidt taught full-time in 17 of Chicago's most difficult high schools and upper grade centers, most of them in the heart of the city's ghettos and barrios. In this presentation, he will discuss experiences in the classroom, linking anecdotes from teaching success and failure to the broader political and social issues that shook America during those years but left most classrooms and schools in "The Other America" as bad as ever or worse.

INTELLECTUAL TERRORISM: Confronting Belief and Unbelief in Teacher Education.
Richard Pipan and Janis Grant, Oakland University.
As departmental colleagues and longtime collaborators on curriculum development for teacher education, we are continually struck by the rejection of scientific theory in favor of religious belief among elementary education undergraduates. How does one promote intellectual rigor, analytical evaluation, open mindedness, even curiosity among those who "know" otherwise in the face of disconfirming evidence? We wonder if progressive thought is promoted or inhibited by direct investigation of conceptions of cosmology, metaphysics, religious (and non-religious) belief? ": What understandings and beliefs are public educators bringing to their professional practice? And are some beliefs pernicious to the progressive possibility? Numbers of questions coalesce around these concerns: How do we value and respect the belief systems of our students, soon-to-be teachers, when they conflict with our own? We intend to offer very brief selections from critical texts, engage participants in rather free-wheeling discussion of the interplay between belief, faith, unbelief and progressive educational change.

THE ROLE OF STORYTELLING IN SCHOOLS
Craig Roney, Wayne State University, Detroit.
Participants will be exposed to told stories which exemplify the value of storytelling in the classroom. Concepts to be exposed will include the following:
1. Story is the major means by which humans make sense of the world.
2. Human intelligence can be used wisely or foolishly.
3. Stories humanize humans.
4. Stories serve as a constant reminder of past history and as a basis for future decisions.
5. Storytelling is "democratic" in that it requires active participation by everyone involved.

ACADEMIC ACCESS IN THE INCLUSIVE CLASSROOM.
Paula Kluth, Syracuse University.
While many students with disabilities are based in inclusive classrooms in this country, many are being denied access to challenging academic work and educational opportunities. In this session, ideological and pragmatic ways of increasing academic access for all learners in our schools will be explored. Some of the topics that will be discussed include giving students with disabilities access to literacy experiences, cultivating academic access through the arts, and equity issues in the teaching of mathematics. Other groups of students that have been denied academic access will be discussed as well, including students of color, students labeled "at risk", students in vocational tracks, and students in both rural and urban schools.

FAMILY LITERACY: Connecting Classrooms and Homes in a Democratic Community
Karen Selby, Kalamazoo College
It was Denny Taylor who suggested that for literacy learning to be rich, it needed to be viewed as a family activity. Is this true for the literacy activities which you send home with your students? Or, do your assignments tend to suggest that students should go home and work with autonomy? The purpose of this presentation is to give teachers tools for developing a literacy rich partnership with parents and children that builds on the strengths families bring to our classrooms. Participants will be given examples of family literacy activities which can be folded into your social studies curriculum from kindergarten through high school. Strategies including family-school journals, reading aloud beyond traditional boundaries, and all-means-all will be demonstrated. Participants will take with the a richer understanding of how they can plan to include their families in their classroom.

12:00 LUNCH

1:00 - 2:00 BUILDING A MOVEMENT & ORGANIZING FOR SCHOOL RENEWAL
Community Arts Auditorium, Plenary Session

A panel will lead a discussion of the challenges and opportunities facing progressive educators as we seek to build better schools for all children and to resist the destructive and oppressive trends in schooling and society. This will aid in synthesizing key themes of the week and in setting goals for our final organizing sessions.

2:00 - 3:00 ORGANIZING FOR ACTION: Jigsaw Groups

3:00 ­ 4:00 BUILDING OUR STORY: Towards the Future.

Randi Douglas, Facilitator.
We will again experience the future as we see good things happening through the eyes of a child who has benefited from our work. As we share across groups we will sense the power of our movement for child, family, and community-centered schooling.

5:00 ­ 7:00 STEERING COMMITTEE WORKING DINNER.

We will organize a Steering Committee who will commit to work to facilitate the plans developed in organizing sessions at the conference. All who want to participate are invited. We will further plans for implementation and action at a dinner in Detroit.