You are invited to join other NBRS Ceremony attendees to an informal interactive opportunity. The purpose of this session is to provide participants a “quick” opportunity to meet and exchange information with other educators from across the country who are interested in the same topic (Think Speed Dating).

Café tables will be hosted by volunteer NBRS awardees and they will facilitate lively discussions of strategies and practices used with regards to the topic area. You will have an opportunity to meet, greet, and share ideas for up to three rounds of different topics. These are discussion sessions and not presentations.
 

Potential Table Topics Presented Separately by Elementary and Secondary School Levels

Arts Education	Innovations in Rural Education	Social Emotional Learning
College and Career Readiness	Innovative Approaches to Personalized Learning	STEM/STEAM Innovations
Data-Based Decision-Making	Interventions	Student Centered Instruction
Dual Language Programs	Partnerships	Student Engagement and Motivation
Extended Learning Opportunities	Personalized Learning	Student Leadership
Family Engagement	Professional Culture	Supporting Multi-Lingual Learners
Health and Wellness	School Structures to Optimize Teacher Planning	Whole Student Approaches

Back to top of page

The Office of Non-Public Education will provide an overview of their work and information about several federal education programs available to private school students. The Council for American Private Education will also discuss their history and role in the National Blue Ribbon Schools Program. There will be time for a discussion with private school leaders regarding the impact of the National Blue Ribbon School award over time.

Presenters from Office of Non-Public Education: Maureen Dowling, Director, Pamela Allen, Isadora Binder, Jenay Morrisey

Presenter from Council for American Private Education: Michael Schuttloffel, Executive Director

The Office of Non-Public Education (ONPE) fosters maximum participation of nonpublic schools in Federal education programs and initiatives. ONPE advocates within the U.S. Department of Education (Department) on behalf of students, their teachers, and their families in nonpublic schools (including religious, independent, and nonsectarian schools as well as home schools). ONPE provides advice and guidance on all matters affecting nonpublic education and the participation of private school students and teachers in Federal education programs and initiatives. The ONPE provides information and technical assistance to nonpublic school officials, parents, and representatives of State and local educational agencies regarding equitable participation in Department programs and initiatives.

The Council for American Private Education (CAPE) is a coalition of national organizations and state affiliates serving private elementary and secondary schools. There are over 33,000 private schools in America with more than five million students. CAPE member organizations represent more than 80 percent of private school enrollment nationwide.

Back to top of page

Betsy DeVos serves as the 11th U.S. Secretary of Education. She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on February 7, 2017 after being nominated by President Donald J. Trump.

Secretary DeVos has been involved in education policy for nearly three decades as an advocate for children and a voice for parents. She is especially passionate about reforms that help underserved children gain access to a quality education.

DeVos’ interest in education was sparked at an early age by her mother, a public school teacher. It grew when she sent her own children to school and was confronted with the reality that not every child in America is granted an equal opportunity to receive a great education. DeVos saw firsthand the work leaders in her hometown were doing to increase educational opportunities for students and choices for parents, and she has been involved in the fight to provide better educational options across the nation ever since.

For 15 years, DeVos served as an in-school mentor for at-risk children in the Grand Rapids (Michigan) Public Schools. Her interactions there with students, families and teachers, according to DeVos, “changed my life and my perspective about education forever.”

A leader in the movement to empower parents, DeVos has worked to support the creation of new educational choices for students in 25 states and the District of Columbia.

DeVos is a graduate of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. She has been married for 40 years to entrepreneur, philanthropist and community activist Dick DeVos, and together they have four children and eight grandchildren.

Back to top of page

Nathaniel Tinbite, a senior at John F. Kennedy High School (JFK), is the 42nd student member of the Montgomery County Public Schools Board of Education. Mr. Tinbite is a member of the Board of Education’s Strategic Planning Committee and the Policy Management Committee. He previously served as the President of the Montgomery County Student Government Association, leading the district’s 163,000 students to fight for English Language Learner program funding and frank classroom discussions on implicit bias.

Mr. Tinbite is also one of the founding members of Montgomery County Students for Change, an advocacy organization that, in 2018, led a 5k+ student walkout to the steps of the U.S. Capital to protest gun violence. He also stood on the stage of the national March for Our Lives in Washington, DC.

Earlier this year, he co-led a districtwide high school voter registration drive that registered 3k+ high school students in four weeks. Mr. Tinbite worked in Maryland’s State legislature to pass a law mandating at least one voter registration drive in every Maryland high school annually.

For more information about Nate Tinbite, please visit: https://www.natetinbite.com/.

Back to top of page

Dr. L. Earl Franks, National Association of Elementary School Principals

Dr. L. Earl Franks, CAE, is the Executive Director of the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP). NAESP’s mission is to lead in the advocacy and support for elementary and middle-level principals and other education leaders in their commitment to all children.

Previously Dr. Ranks was Executive Director of the Council for Leaders in Alabama Schools (CLAS). He pioneered the advanced credential program, Certified Instructional Leader (CIL), for principals and other school/district leaders. Franks has broad experience in public education by working with districts from top to bottom. From 1999 to 2009, Franks was a principal of a pre-K-through-12 school serving 1,000+ students. Franks has a doctorate in Educational Leadership from Samford University, and a Master of Science in Education, Bachelor of Music Education, and Educational Specialist degrees from Troy University.

Franks is a multiple Paul Harris Fellow with Major Donor distinction from Rotary International. He received the Certified Association Executive (CAE) credential from the CAE Commission of ASAE, the Center for Association Leadership.
 

Stephanie Auditore, Association for Middle Level Education

Stephanie Auditore is the Chief Executive Officer of the Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE). A non-profit membership organization, AMLE members include teachers, principals, counselors, professors, researchers, and others focused on the education of 10- to 15-year-olds. www.amle.org Auditore officially assumed the role in June 2019, following the retirement of Dr. William Waidelich, who served AMLE for the last eight years.

A seasoned professional association leader, Auditore recently led a team at the American College of Cardiology (ACC), charged with designing the member experience throughout their career span. Prior to the ACC, Auditore led the membership department at the American Psychiatric Association, where she implemented new programs and created long-term industry partnerships that grew the association to a 14-year membership high. Auditore began her associations career at the American Medical Association after earning a J.D. from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and a B.A. in International Studies and Information Technology, cum laude, from DePaul University.
 

Bob Farrace, National Association of Secondary School Principals

Bob Farrace is Director of Public Affairs at the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), where he focuses on helping principals craft and tell their stories in their local communities and to local and national media. With the National Honor Society and National Association of Student Councils housed at NASSP, Farrace is an advocate for student voice and regularly raises the profile of student service and civic engagement.

Prior to leading NASSP public affairs efforts, Farrace revolutionized NASSP’s editorial program by streamlining content development and delivery, and engaging school leaders in discussions of the issues that most affect their professional lives. In 2000, he launched the association’s flagship Principal Leadership magazine, which has won numerous editorial and publishing awards.

Farrace is a former high school English teacher. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English and Spanish and a master’s in education, both from La Salle University in his native Philadelphia.

Back to top of page

Erin Gruwell is a teacher, an education activist, and the founder of the Freedom Writers Foundation. She created the Freedom Writer Methods, a progressive teaching philosophy and curricula designed to achieve excellence from all students.

When Erin taught high school English, she helped 150 of her students – many of whom were written off by the education system – to use the power of education to write a book, graduate from high school, and attend college. In her inspiring presentation, Gruwell tells the story of this extraordinary journey – from poverty and despair to hope and promise – with stops at Anne Frank’s House and Auschwitz and then on to Capitol Hill and Congress. Erin challenged her students to overcome the seemingly insurmountable problems of poverty, racism, and violence. How can we all become role models for tolerance, respect, and cooperation? Erin Gruwell teaches us all how we can become “Catalysts for Change.”

Please join us in hearing from Erin and participating in a Q+A session. Checkout the website: http://www.freedomwritersfoundation.org/.

Back to top of page

Equity and Excellence: The story of the Richmond Juvenile Detention Center
Rodney Robinson, a social studies teacher in Richmond, Virginia, is a 19-year teaching veteran. He became a teacher to honor his mother, who struggled to receive an education. His mother was denied an education as a child due to segregation and poverty in rural Virginia. In 2015, Robinson started teaching at the Virgie Binford Education Center, a school inside the Richmond Juvenile Detention Center, in an effort to better understand the school-to-prison pipeline.

Mr. Robinson uses the whole child approach to education to help students who are most vulnerable. His classroom is a collaborative partnership between himself and his students. and the classroom is anchored in providing a civic-centered education that promotes social-emotional growth. Robinson, uses the knowledge he has gained from his students, to develop alternative programs to prevent students from entering the school-to-prison pipeline.

Please join us in hearing from Rodney and participating in a Q+A session. Checkout his website: https://ccsso.org/teachers/rodney-robinson. #NTOY19

Back to top of page

Dr. Sheila Harrity is currently Superintendent-Director of Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. In 2013, Dr. Harrity, was principal of Worcester Technical High School, which received the National Blue Ribbon School Award. She was recognized as the National High School Principal of the Year in 2014.

Dr. Harrity will share her journey as an educational leader and discuss some of the challenges and obstacles she overcame along the way. She will highlight solutions that were instrumental in the success of her school and her professional pathway. She applied her successful principles and practices in reshaping yet another vocational high school into a model program that is being emulated across Massachusetts and the country.

Back to top of page

Frank T. Brogan serves as the Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on June 25, 2018, after being nominated by President Donald J. Trump on Dec. 11, 2017.

Brogan most recently served as chancellor of Pennsylvania’s public universities. He began his career as a fifth-grade teacher in Martin County, Florida, and later served as a dean of students, assistant principal, principal, and superintendent before being elected Florida’s commissioner of education in 1994. Brogan continued his advocacy for public education when he was elected to serve as lieutenant governor of Florida in 1998 and 2002. After five years in that role, he was named president of Florida Atlantic University, a position he held until 2009, when he was selected to serve as chancellor of Florida’s public universities.

A native of Ohio, Brogan was the first member of his family to attend college, earning a bachelor’s degree in education magna cum laude from the University of Cincinnati and a master’s degree in education from Florida Atlantic University. He and his wife, Courtney, have a 13-year-old son.

Back to top of page

In addition to presentations, networking, and small group discussions, awardees will attend a special awards luncheon. Following the luncheon, school representatives will go onstage, school by school, to be greeted by Program Director Aba Kumi and receive the National Blue Ribbon School flag and an engraved plaque as symbols of their success.

Back to top of page