One of my favorite education conferences of all time is the National Career Academy Coalition's Annual Staff Development Conference [1]. About 600-plus people attend, so it's large enough for you to meet many people involved in improving high schools -- educators, business leaders, foundation staffers, community members, counselors, and a number of high school students -- and small enough for you to be able to navigate through a consistently strong selection of presentations. This year, it's being held in San Francisco November 11-4, so it's a quick jaunt for me over the Golden Gate Bridge.
The NCAC conference is also one of the more integrated such events in terms of topics presented: Everything from technology and project-based learning to social-emotional learning to developing and maintaining business partnerships is covered -- and all is couched in the context of making high school rigorous and relevant for high school students.
What I especially like about this conference is the care the program committee takes in developing practical and relevant sessions. This year's program chair is Susan Tidyman, from the University of California at Berkeley's Career Academy Support Network [2], and she's put together a wonderful program I'm eager to sample.
Hope to see you there as we share innovative ideas and best practices for closing the gap between school and the real world [3].