(Name-mce) ListServ Minority Student Achievement Network June 25-26 Eugene OR

[Anselmo Villanueva]

Minority Student Achievement Network (MSAN)

MSAN 2007 ANNUAL CONFERENCE: "Opening Doors and Raising the Roof"

http://www.msanetwork.org/

-- Monday and Tuesday  June 25-26 2007

-- Hilton Hotel    Eugene, Oregon

Complete Program and Registration available soon!

This year's conference will be held in Eugene, Oregon. Join MSAN
members to continue the learning across four major strands as we
strive to Open the Doors and Raise the Roof.

Speakers and presentations: Keynote speakers will include Dr. Robert
Marzano, Dr. Beverly Tatum, Pedro Noguera, Renee Rodriguez, Carolyn
Ash and Jamie Almanzán. There will be performances by Brooke Haycock
and the students of Eugene School District 4J, and panel
presentations.

Concurrent Sessions: Three concurrent session periods will give
attendees ample time during which to explore the four key strands that
are critical to addressing the learning needs of all children and
closing the achievement gap: equity-access/honest conversations about
race; student-teacher relationships; literacy; and math.

Host Hotel: The host hotel for MSAN 2007 is the Eugene Hilton. The
Hilton has reserved a block of rooms at a very reasonable price. We
urge you to make your reservations as soon as possible. The Hilton
will hold rooms for this conference until May 31st.

Air Travel: United Airlines is offering a promotional fare for
conference travelers. Please enter 564XV into the promotional code
area online, or mention it to your travel agent when booking your
flight.

Registration: There is no registration fee for the two-day conference
for the first eight participants from your district. Up to four
addition people may register for the June 26-27 event at a district
investment of $200 per participant. Registration materials will be
available soon.

REGISTRATION DEADLINE:  June 15, 2007

The Minority Student Achievement Network is an unprecedented national
coalition of 25 multiracial, urban-suburban school districts across
the United States. The Network's mission is to discover, develop and
implement the means to ensure high academic achievement for students
of color, specifically African American and Latino students.

The Minority Student Achievement Network is an unprecedented national
coalition of multiracial, relatively affluent suburban school
districts that have come together to study the disparity in
achievement between white students and students of color through
intensive research. The Network was established to discover, develop,
and implement the means to ensure high academic achievement of
minority students.

In February 1999, superintendents from fifteen urban-suburban school
districts across the country agreed to form a network to improve the
academic achievement of students of color, specifically African
American and Latino students. At a subsequent meeting held in June
1999, in Evanston, Illinois, a team of educators from each district
met to discuss current district initiatives and goals and begin the
process of formally creating the Network. In July 1999, a Joyce
Foundation planning grant was awarded to the College Board to assist
the Network in developing a research agenda to examine the problems of
minority underachievement.

The school districts that comprise the Network all have strikingly
similar and disturbing disaggregated achievement data. Racial
disparities on an array of achievement outcomes demonstrate a wide gap
in performance between white students and students of color. Network
districts also have a history of high achievement, connections to
major research universities, and resources that generally exceed their
neighboring cities. They are school districts willing to acknowledge
explicitly the nature of the achievement gap and are willing to
discover and propose strategies to change school structure and
practice. Through the Network, the districts will collaborate to
conduct and publish research, analyze policies, and examine practices
that affect the academic performance of African American and Latino
students.