The California Association of African American Superintendents and Administrators (CAAASA) just wrapped up their annual Statewide Professional Development Summit in San Diego. This year’s theme was “Accelerating Academic Growth for African American & Other Students of Color”. The summit was attended by educators, school support staff, administrators, health professionals, elected officials, non-profit & for profit businesses, parents, students, and community members from around the state and beyond.
State Superintendent, Tom Torlakson addressed the audience on the final day, and spoke on initiatives underway to support student achievement state-wide, especially those centered around students of color. For example, the new Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) and its counterpart Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) designed to give more funding to our neediest students.
Keynote Speaker, Congressman Robert “Bobby” C. Scott (D-Va) the leading democrat on the nations Education & Workforce Committee spoke on ways to save billions of dollars by re-directing financial resources currently spent on incarceration, health issues, environmental concerns, and supporting initiatives such as the Youth Promise Act, early pregnancy prevention, and early childhood education.
White House representative, Dr. Ivory Toldson spoke on the importance of Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCU) and informed attendees that HBCU graduate more black PhD candidates than any other higher learning system in the country.
CA. Assemblymember, Dr. Shirley Weber spoke about the great teaching in the area of organic chemistry, by professors at Xavier University, in addition to her moderating a fantastic panel on College Readiness for Students of Color.
Other such panels, and workshops took place throughout the three day event, where teaching and learning took place for the common purpose of ensuring that black students, and other students of color received an equitable and quality education.
This article does not allow mention of ALL Workshops & Presentations but some covered topics on: Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math (STEAM), Parent/Community Engagement, Mental Health, Research, Early Literacy, Discipline, Funding, Policy & Practices, Town Hall Meetings, Special Education, Gifted Education, Sports, Education Data, English Learners, Career Readiness, and much more.
Special thanks to the sponsors: CA. County Superintendents Educational Services Assn., CA. State PTA, CA. Assn. of Latino Superintendents and Administrators, CA. Head Start Assn., First 5 CA., Center for Leadership and Research, Assn. of CA. School Administrators, CA. Teachers Assn., CA. Educational Technology Professionals Assn., CA. School Boards Assn., and others.
And finally to the CAAASA Planning Committee, and all attendees.
Great job!